In the morning I was in the kitchen waiting for Ella; I had started cooking and was whisking eggs in a bowl. When she saw me, she smiled, raising her eyebrows.

“Sit down,” I said, gesturing at the counter. She pulled out a stool and sat down on it, watching me as I turned my back to her to put the eggs in the pan.

“How are you this morning?” I asked her. It was hard to keep myself from staring at her or going to her. I had wanted her so badly the night before that it ached to go to bed without her. It seemed like every few hours I woke up from dreams about her and had to stroke my cock to relieve some of the tension in my body. It felt nothing like how I knew her pussy would feel—warm and tight and wet. I had no doubt that it was perfect. Just thinking about how wet she must have been the night before drove me crazy.

“I’m fine,” she said, though she sounded tired. I poured her a cup of coffee and passed it over the counter, meeting her eye as I did. She looked much like she had the night before, flushed and flustered. I wonder what it was that was affecting her so much, if it was me or Eric or both of us. I had noticed the way she was dancing with him, the same way as she had with me, only more controlled. With me, she had let go almost completely, and it had been the sexiest thing I had ever experienced with a woman.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come out with me today,” I said. She shook her head.

“I have a lot of cleaning to do. I’ve missed the past two days—”

“You’re on vacation,” I said, looking over my shoulder at her.

“I really can’t, Julian.”

I turned around and leaned on the counter, looking her in the eye. “You are allowed to do anything you want to do. Nobody is allowed to stop you. Come with me today.”

She licked her bottom lip and I couldn’t help but stare at her mouth, wondering how she tasted. I regretted that I hadn’t gotten to kiss her last night at all after the way we’d been dancing with each other. I didn’t know how I’d managed to resist taking her mouth with mine considering the desire I felt for her all over my body.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked. There was a coy look on her face, anticipatory but shy, as if she were half-expecting me to tell her the truth about what was on my mind.

“We’re going to the stables,” I said.

“I don’t really—I’ve never ridden a horse.”

“That’s okay. We can help you.”

She shook her head, looking away from me. “They make me really nervous. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid but I—they just freak me out.”

“What if I let you ride with me?” I asked her. I saw a look cross over her face, one of interest as she considered it.

“Maybe I’ll see how I do on my own.”

“That’s fair,” I said, though I couldn’t help hoping that she would prefer not to ride alone. I could just imagine her nestled up in front of me while we rocked on the horse, my arms wrapping around her to hold the reins. Holding her so close would be torture yet it would give me a chance to touch her again, even if it wasn’t as intimate as it had been the night before when I’d pulled her completely against me, as close as I could get her with our clothes on.

“When are we going?” she asked me.

“After breakfast.”

I turned back to the stove and scraped the eggs out of the pan. I was arranging them on a plate when Eric came into the kitchen, pulling up a seat next to Ella at the counter. I sat down across from them and looked at Eric.

“We’re going to the stables today. Do you want to come?”

Eric met my eye for a moment, reading the hint I was trying to send to him.

“No,” he said. “I’m going to get some work done today. But I’m sure you two will have fun without me.”

That made Ella blush as she looked at me. I wondered what she expected of us being alone together, whether or not she thought that something would happen between us. I had no idea what to expect of our day together, whether she would be riding with me or not.

When we were finished with breakfast, Ella went upstairs to change into something that she could ride in. She came down in jeans and a t-shirt, looking just as sexy in casual clothes as she had in the dresses she’d tried on for us. I kept my eyes on her body as she moved past me and out the door, then we walked toward the stables side-by-side across the property.

“Have you ever been to these stables before?” I asked her. She shook her head.

“I never wanted to go. Your mom tried to get me to learn to ride before she stopped trying to make me into her princess. She gave up on that pretty quickly.”

“Why did she want you to learn to ride?”

“Oh, you know,” Ella said. “It’s what all of the upper-class young women are doing. Riding was very in at the time and she wanted to introduce me to her friends.”

“How did that work out?” I asked her. She snorted, then covered her mouth with her hand.

“It’s a long story,” she said.

“We have all day.”

She stared at me for a moment, as if deciding whether she could trust me or not.

“She brought me to a party. I was eighteen and she wanted me to meet a man. There were three other women there besides me. It was horrible.”

“What did you do?” I asked her. It angered me to think that my stepmother would ever put her in such a demeaning position. Since I’d gotten back and spent time with Ella, I had regretted every moment we’d spent away from her. We had left her here to be abused by someone we knew didn’t take care of her, and for that I knew I would always be ashamed of myself.

“I got caught smoking a joint out the back.”

I laughed. “Did you?” “Yeah. It was a huge scandal. Suddenly I was this dirty drug addict.” She laughed. “She never brought me to another party and I never heard from any of the men, thank god.”

We had gotten to the stables then and were approaching the horses when Ella froze. Her eyes were wide and there was fear on her face.

“I can’t,” she said, turning around to walk away. I took her arm, turning her back toward me.

“It’ll be okay,” I told her in a gentle voice. “I’ll be with you. We’ll start by just going inside the stables, okay? You don’t even have to touch them.”

She stared at me for a moment as she considered it, then nodded. I took her hand without asking and was grateful when she didn’t pull it away. I held onto her as I led her to the stables, pushing through the door to see that our trainer was inside with one of the horses.

“Hi, Sam,” I said, pulling Ella gently toward me when she hesitated in the doorway. “You mind if we have a minute in here?”

“I was about to leave anyway,” Sam said, wiping his hands on his pants. “You go ahead. Lock up when you’re done.”

“Will do,” I said, and Sam walked past us and left us alone together. Ella was standing in the center of the room, as far from any stable as she could get. Most of the horses were outside right now, but there were three of them in the building. I went to Ella and put my hand on her waist, guiding her over to the stall with the youngest of our horses, one I knew to be particularly gentle. Ella lingered in my arms when we stopped at the stall and she wasn’t looking at the horse but at me. I looked down at her, and there was a soft smile on her lips. I tilted my face toward hers, about to kiss her, when she jumped back away from me and gasped. The horse had leaned in toward me and nuzzled me on the shoulder. I lifted my hand to stroke her mane, grinning at Ella.

“This is Doxie,” I said. “She just likes a bit of affection. She always wants to be petted.”

“Okay,” Ella said, staying a few feet back from the stall. She was staring at the horse with fear in her eyes, one that came from something that was deeper than a simple anxiety.

“Come over here, Ella,” I said gently, gesturing her over with my hand. “You can just pet her mane. I promise she won’t hurt you.”

“I don’t think so,” Ella said. “Thanks. I think I’ll go back to the house.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “You wouldn’t let yourself run away from this. Come over here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She chewed her lip, staring at me for a moment with uncertainty on her face. She knew I was right. There was no way she was going to allow herself to back down and show weakness in front of me, not after what our relationship had been like when we were kids. She stepped toward me slowly, slipping into my arms so that her back was to my chest, my arm wrapped around her as I stroked the horse. I found myself breathing her in as she lifted her hand tentatively to pet Doxie’s mane. Her hand lingered just a few inches above the horse, as if she were unable to push herself to go any further. I put my hand over hers, pressing it to Doxie’s mane. She leaned back against me, pressing against my body as I used her hand to stroke the horse’s neck.

“See?” I said softly. “This isn’t bad. She’s not going to hurt you, Ella.”

Ella’s face was intent on the horse, even as I put my hand on her hip, tracing the outside seam of her jeans with my finger. She broke away from me then, moving from Doxie’s stall to the one two stalls down, where my personal favorite horse, Knight, was standing. She stood a couple of feet away from him with a look of curious trepidation on her face. He was much larger than Doxie—massive and solid compared to her sleek frame. His body was all black aside from his back leg, which was swirled with white from his hoof up.

“Who is this?” she asked, not looking at me. She was focused on the horse, and I didn’t get close to her as I had last time.

“This is Knight,” I said. “He’s mine.”

“He’s beautiful. He’s huge.”

“He is, but he’s gentle. Go closer.”

She took a step forward, then another until she was close to the stall. She froze when Knight came forward to sniff at her, then stuck his neck out for her to stroke him. She hesitated but then started to pet his long black mane, actually smiling when he nuzzled her shoulder.

“Which one are we going to ride?” she asked.

I grinned, glad that she had decided she wanted to ride together. It was going to be hard to be so close to her without touching her, but it would be worth the torment just to feel her body against mine again.

“We’ll take Knight. It’ll be a smoother ride.”

“I don’t think I could handle it rough,” she said, then looked at me and blushed a deep red. I hadn’t even considered her statement in a sexual way until I saw her face and realized what she had said. A wave of affection for her washed over me, desire mixed with a fondness for how sweet she was, how easily flustered.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I told her. She looked away from me and I started to saddle Knight, leading him out of the stall and the stables. I climbed onto his back and pushed myself backward in the saddle as far as I could go, making room for her body in front of me. I helped lift her into the saddle then and she settled between my legs, her back pressed to my chest. I wrapped my arms around her waist, taking the reins in my hands and letting Knight know to move forward at a slow pace, one that would keep her comfortable and keep the ride from getting too rough for her.

“How’s this?” I asked her from behind her. “Comfortable?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice slightly breathless. She was leaning back against me, pressed to me tight, and my face was buried in her hair as we made our way to one of the walking trails at the edge of the property. The scent of her filled my nostrils, making me feel almost dazed as her ass was squirming backward against my cock. I wasn’t even sure that she noticed what she was doing, but I could feel distinctly the subtle way she moved up against me, sending me a message with her body that I could read loud and clear.

“How are you feeling, Ella?” I asked her.

“I’m fine,” she said, keeping her words short to mask the fact that they were hard for her to get out. I lowered my face then, lifting her hair to press a kiss to the back of her neck. She went stiff for a moment until I did it again, and then her body melted against me as I nuzzled along the side of her neck. My hands were still on the reins but I wanted badly to drop them, to put my hands on her body. I knew that Knight would just keep following the path but holding the reins was an excuse to keep my hands off of her and avoid going too far for her comfort. I did find myself kissing her neck though, brushing my lips over it without even thinking. I wanted to taste her so bad, her skin, her mouth and her pussy.

Ella gave a soft sigh when I opened my mouth, pressing a hot kiss against her neck while I tasted her skin with my tongue. I did it again further up when she didn’t protest, my need for her fueled by the soft whimpering sounds that were coming from her lips every time I put my mouth to her skin. I had to let go of the reins then, allowing Knight to follow the path. I put my hands on her knees, resting them there, giving her a chance to refuse my touch if she wanted. When she didn’t, I stroked the inside of her thighs with my fingers, moving upward slowly, giving her the chance to respond how she wanted to if things went too far for her. I knew that she was shy and sweet, that she wasn’t used to being touched this way. She allowed me to bring my hands all the way up her thighs, teasing her with the tips of my fingers in a way that made her body squirm around on the saddle.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she breathed, even as I brought one of my hands between her legs to trace up and down the seam that stretched across her pussy with the tip of my finger.

“Who says?” I asked her. Holding back for any reason was the last thing on my mind, especially when I could feel that her pussy was damp even through her jeans. I took a deep breath, trying to maintain my calm as I stroked her lower lips up and down with my fingers. I was holding her up in the saddle, managing to maintain my balance simply out of experience at having been riding my entire life.

“Everybody,” she said, her voice coming out in a whimper.

I let go of her then, took the reins and led the horse off the path.

“What are you doing?” she asked as we moved through the trees.

“There’s a clearing up here,” I said to her, and she said nothing as we made our way there. I stopped Knight and climbed down, helping Ella down and onto her feet so that we were standing facing each other. She looked shy and almost embarrassed, a little nervous and apprehensive but clearly beyond aroused. I took her face in my hands and pulled her face against mine, taking her mouth in a kiss that she responded to without hesitating. Her kiss was tentative and shy, and she sighed as she allowed me to coax her tongue with my own, tasting her sweet mouth as I wrapped my arms around her.

“Julian, you’re my brother, I can’t—”

“I’m not your brother,” I said firmly. “I never acted like a brother. I was never there for you.”

“You weren’t,” she agreed, taking a step back from me. “Which is why I’m not just going to give you what you want.”

I laughed. “What I want? Is it just me then?”

She looked away from me, scanning the trees around us for an excuse to avoid my eye.

“It was ten years ago, Ella,” I said softly.

“No,” she said, an angry look on her face. “It was every day since then. Every day that you both spent away and left me here with her when you knew how she was. You were the only people who could have stopped it.”

I took a deep breath. She was standing in front of me with her hands on her hips, looking at me with a heat in her eyes that was different from the one that had been there before.

“I’m sorry, Ella,” I said. “We’re both sorry.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of it. It’s also ten years too late.”

“What would you like me to do to make it up to you?” I asked her. “What can I possibly do?”

She opened her mouth to speak but paused, looking at my face. “I don’t know.”

“Eric and I were just kids. We were stupid. If I had known you were—”

“What, that I would grow up pretty? You would have been nicer to me if you’d thought you’d want to fuck me somewhere down the line?”

I was caught off guard by the harshness of her answer.

“No, that’s not it,” I said. “That’s not what I want, I—”

“It’s not what you want?” she asked me, incredulity on her face. “Then what are we doing out here? Isn’t that what you brought me out here for?”

“No,” I said. “Not originally—”

“Only after you started touching me,” she said. “But that wasn’t your plan all along.”

“Ella, no, it wasn’t,” I told her, running my hand through my hair.

“Then why are we here?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just wanted to be close to you. I know we fucked up before we left. And after. But I’m not going to leave you alone until you forgive me.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” she said softly, looking into my eyes. I lowered my lips to kiss her again, soft but insistent.

“I’m going to convince you to forgive me somehow,” I said to her. I was desperate to do so. I wanted to start over with Ella, to have a fresh new beginning to what I knew could be a powerful relationship with each other.

“You’re my stepbrother,” she said. I kissed her again.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said against her lips, sucking the bottom one between both of mine. She sighed and kissed me back.

“I think we should get back to the house.”

I looked at her, then nodded. There was no way I was going to force her into doing anything she didn’t want to do. It hurt me to have to give her up, to be unable to touch her, but I helped her get back on the horse and climbed on after her, careful to keep my body from molding too intimately with hers. We rode back to the stables in silence, and she starting walking back by herself to the house as I unsaddled Knight and put him away in his stall. She wasn’t anywhere to be found by the time I got back to the house, nor did I find her in the kitchen at dinner. I cooked by myself, getting the food ready and bringing it out to my mother and Eric.

“What are you doing?” my mother asked. “Where’s Ella?”

“She’s not feeling well,” I told her.

“She didn’t tell me that.”

“She doesn’t owe you an explanation,” I said, meeting her eye and holding it. I had never been able to do so before. When we were kids, I was scared of her. I had cowered from her gaze, which was always cold to me and filled with judgment.

“If she lives under my roof, she does.”

“She’s not a servant,” I said hotly, nearly slamming the plates down on the table. Eric stood up and put his hand on my shoulder.

“He’s just saying that she should have a little more freedom, Mom,” Eric said. I glared at him. That wasn’t what I was saying at all. I opened my mouth to correct him, to say that she should have every freedom in the world, but he shot me a look to keep my mouth shut. I knew that meant that he had something planned, but I didn’t like having to hold myself back.

“She hasn’t done anything to earn any freedom in days. Between the two of you, she hasn’t been home to work at all.”

I opened my mouth to snarl something at her but Eric put his hand up to silence me. I knew that I had to trust him—Eric had always been the sensible one, the one who kept his cool and was able to communicate even under pressure. Throughout our lives, he had gotten us out of plenty of situations that my attitude had gotten us into. I had to believe that he had a plan here, one that would take care of Ella in a way that we had neglected to do before.

I sat through dinner without saying a word, Lola shooting me nasty looks over the table between conversations with Eric, who tried to include both of us in his questioning but got only stony silence from me. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth to speak, nothing but rage would spill out in front of Lola, and I knew that if Eric had some plan to deal with her that I would only ruin it by opening my mouth.

I left and went upstairs as soon as dinner was over, carrying a tray of food with me to Ella’s room. I tapped lightly on the door and when she opened it, she looked surprised to see that my hands were full of food.

“You didn’t come down for dinner,” I said.

“I wasn’t hungry.”

I handed her the tray. “For when you need it.”

She stared at me for a long moment, chewing on her lip. I thought of the way her mouth tasted and wanted to experience it all over again, but I told her goodnight instead and went back to my room.

It was a couple of hours later that I heard the door open. I sat up, squinting in the dark to see who it was. I was surprised to see Ella, wearing a nightgown that was sexy in how sensible it was, almost down to the knee, simple and white. She came to me, standing next to the bed for a moment as I looked up at her face. I didn’t say anything, but stared up at her in the darkness.

“Ella,” I said after a moment. She moved then, reaching down to pull her nightgown up over her head. She was naked in the darkness, her pale skin illuminated by the moonlight coming in through the window. She looked like an angel, ethereal and beautiful, especially when she gave me a shy smile as I looked over her body. She was slim, the curve of her hips narrow but elegant in the way that it dipped and flared from her waist. Her breasts were small and perfect, her nipples already hard.

“Do you want me, Julian?”

“Yes,” I said, sitting up in bed and holding my arms out, reaching for her. She shied away from me, taking a step back from the bed.

“Did you want me earlier today, while we were riding?”

“Yes.”

“Even though I’m your sister?”

“You’re not my sister, Ella,” I said. “We’re not—”

She cut me off by putting her finger to my lips, then lowered her mouth to take mine in a kiss. She was leaning over the bed, but every time I reached to pull her body on top of mine she moved away from me, only kissing me with her hungry mouth. She pulled back and looked into my eyes, her finger stroking my lips. The way she was touching me almost seemed like a dream, though her tongue on mine was very real and very sensual.

“God, Ella,” I said in a low growl when I was unable to hold myself back any longer. I put my hands on her hips and pulled her on top of me so that there was nothing separating our bodies. I had been sleeping naked, and my cock was hard and positioned below her pussy, her lower lips parted around me as she slid back and forth along my length. She was teasing herself, rubbing her clit against the head of my cock as she grinded against me. She was so wet, soaking my entire length, and I moved my hips to slide against her so that the tip of my cock was hitting her bud repeatedly, making her moan.

“Julian,” she breathed against my lips, her voice a soft, breathy moan. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Anything,” I said, rubbing against her, completely caught up in my lust.

“Can you be rough with me?”

My cock throbbed just hearing her request, which affected me so strongly that I gave a soft groan as she rocked back and forth on me. She was chewing her lip, her hair hanging in a curtain around my face as she hovered above me with a pleading look in her eyes.

“I thought you couldn’t handle it,” I teased her. She kissed me, taking my hands and putting them on her breasts, which I cupped in my palms as I teased her nipples with my fingers.

“I can handle anything you give me.”

I nodded as she kissed me again, pinching her nipples while she lifted her hips off of mine. I felt her hips hovering above me, her pussy dripping on my cock before she took it in her hand and aimed it inside of her. She lowered herself onto me slowly, her tight, sweet pussy taking me in all the way. I was surprised that I could even fit in her, but the feeling of her stretching around me, of filling her completely, was almost breathtaking.

“Perfect,” I breathed as her hips started to move on top of me, her eyes closed as she tossed her head back and allowed her body to move naturally against mine. I had never seen anything half as sexy as watching her give herself to me. I saw on her face the moment she realized that it had been worth it, the moment I hit the back of her pussy and started grinding my hips upward to meet her downward movements. I looked down to watch as her pussy moved up and down on my cock, watching it disappear inside of her and come out soaking wet. My hands were still on her breasts and each time I tugged on her nipples she let out a low moan that I knew could probably be heard throughout this part of the house. I didn’t care, didn’t even think to muffle her cries as I fucked her from below while she moved her hips in time with mine.

“Julian,” she said, bouncing up and down on me. I could tell that her movements were beyond her own control, that her hips had found their own rhythm so that my cock would hit the spot that felt best inside of her. Each time I pushed up into her, she cried out, her nails digging into my chest as she braced herself, her hips riding against me.

“What is it, angel?” I asked her. “Tell me.”

“I’ve never—I don’t want to come.”

“What?” I asked her. She opened her eyes and looked into mine.

“I don’t want to come for you,” she said, biting her lip. “I feel like that’s—I feel like that’s too much. That’s too far.”

I had no idea what she was talking about and was completely bewildered by her request. My hips hadn’t paused as we were talking—I felt like I was unable to do so. She had stopped moving and I found that my hands went to her hips to move them myself. She responded by obeying my rhythm, looking down at my face with wide, innocent eyes.

“You don’t want to come?”

She shook her head and I could see her blushing even in the dark of the room. She moaned then, even as she told me no, and I knew that I had found a spot inside of her that was sure to make her come. I couldn’t help but grind against it, even though I knew it would bring her higher and higher.

“Julian,” she protested, and I stopped my hips completely, struggling to hold still below her. Despite herself, she continued to move on top of me, riding my cock in smooth strokes of her little pussy.

“What do you want me to do, Ella?” I asked her.

“Just hold still,” she breathed. “I’ll stop when I, before I—”

“Okay,” I said, my hands clenching into fists at my sides, grabbing hold of the sheets as I struggled to keep from fucking her from below. She was pleasuring herself on top of me, her hands on either side of my shoulders as she worked her hips. Her moans were coming out steadily, driving me wild, prompting me to reach forward to begin rubbing her swollen, sensitive clit. She cried out but she didn’t tell me to stop, only breathed heavily and continued to ride me. “Stop,” she said in a strained voice. “Stop touching me.”

I pulled my hand back. I thought she would stop herself but she didn’t, instead lowering herself so that her chest was pressed to mine. She kissed me hotly, grinding against my cock.

“Don’t come, angel,” I said when I noticed that she had gone quiet, the ability to make any noise completely gone from her.

“I can’t stop,” she moaned as her hips sped up. She bit her lip, her face hovering over mine.

“Do you need me to take control?” I asked, barely getting the words out. She nodded without speaking and I flipped our bodies over so that I was on top of her. I had no idea how I was going to hold myself back when all I wanted to do was watch her face as she came. I’d have to hold myself back, stop whenever I thought she was too close to coming.

I started to grind in and out of her, taking her legs and wrapping them around my hips to hold her close. She had her eyes closed and there was a look of pure bliss on her face as I rode against her. I reached down to rub her clit, barely stroking it with my finger. Even though I had touched her lightly I heard her take a sharp breath. I was fucking her slowly, trying not to push her too far. But I could tell she wanted more and more, even as my hips sped up and I pushed as deep as I could, burying myself inside of her with increasing force. I felt her pussy clench around me, heard her breathing growing more ragged. I pulled out of her before she could come and she groaned.

“More,” she begged, opening her eyes and meeting mine. I pushed into her again without hesitating, completely incapable of holding myself back. I remembered what she had said about wanting it rough but I didn’t know if her body could take it. Still, the way she’d said it, just thinking about that pleading tone in her voice made my hips start pounding roughly into hers. I felt like I was out of control. She was squirming beneath me, pleasure etched on every feature. I had to stop more than once after several strokes to let her body calm down.

“I think we need to stop, Ella,” I said to her during a pause. She shook her head.

“No, no, no,” she pleaded. “It feels so good. I can—I can hold it. I swear. Please don’t stop, Julian.”

I gave a low growl and did what she asked, continued to fuck her while she fought with everything in her power not to come around my cock. Feeling her squirm around me, being held at the very edge, was making it harder and harder to keep from coming myself. But I needed the sex to last as long as she could take it, needed to be inside of her for as long as I could. Her body was shaking, and when I reached down to rub her clit she moaned and started bucking underneath me.

“Stop,” she whimpered, but her hands were on my ass and were holding me inside of her.

“Angel,” I breathed, slowing my hips down. “We’d better stop now, okay?”

She gave a low sigh, letting go of me as I pulled out of her. I wanted nothing more than to keep teasing her body over and over but I didn’t think I could handle it anymore and I knew she couldn’t. She lay in my bed for a moment, her body trembling, her poor pussy wet and needy. She needed to come and yet she was going to hold herself back, all because she thought that receiving pleasure from me would be going too far, as if the sex hadn’t counted if she didn’t get off from it. It was silly, but I wasn’t going to press her on it.

She stared at me for a moment, then slipped out from underneath me. She found her nightgown and put it on, then disappeared from my room without a word.