Chapter Five

Cormac

It hadn’t been too long since I watched the girl leave, but I hadn’t been able to get her out of my mind.

I’d found my way to Pierce’s spare room, which was as good as mine, and I stripped off my remaining clothes and stepped into the shower. I really needed it.

This weekend had been one long alcohol-fueled ride of women and more booze and driving my car too fast. I hadn’t had time for showers or a proper meal; I was surprised I’d even managed to eat anything.

Now, as I stood with my forehead against the bathroom tiles of the shower, I tried to gather myself so that I could function for the rest of the day.

The water was cool, and I allowed it to soak into my skin. Minutes before that, I’d found a razor in Pierce’s bathroom, which I’d used to give myself a close shave. In the shower, I’d managed to somehow gather enough energy to lather up some shampoo and shower gel and rub it all over myself.

I felt relatively clean now, but not yet quite alive. At least I wasn’t going to stink, and I’d be able to put on some of Pierce’s fresh clothes.

I sighed as I regretted every bad decision I’d made over the weekend, even though I was sure that by the time next Friday arrived, I’d be making those decisions all over again. For now, I derived some comfort by telling myself that I wasn’t ever going to drink like this again.

That girl—she was still stuck in my head. With her golden bangs falling over those large green eyes. The tug I’d felt in my soul somewhere when she finally gave me a smile. Her long slender arms, her endless pale legs, those red luscious lips. She was perfect. Even in my drunken morning haze, I’d registered that she was the perfect-looking girl.

I stopped breathing for a second. With the shower hosing me down, the water getting into my wide-open eyes, I tried to reevaluate the thought that had just popped into my head.

The girl, that beautiful perfect girl who had rung Pierce’s bell incessantly—why couldn’t I remember seeing her before? Was it because I hadn’t seen her in Brunswick at all? Was it because she wasn’t one of the chicks Pierce had sweet-talked at the bars?

I ran a hand through my hair, and my joints began to ache. I wanted to push the thought out of my head. I didn’t want it to be true. I didn’t want to admit that there was a possibility—there was a huge possibility—that the girl I was fantasizing about, the girl I’d sent away and lied to, was Pierce’s sister.

“Fuck!” I growled and jumped out of the shower. I had to lean back in to turn the showerhead off, and I rushed to find a fresh towel to dry myself off with.

It was coming back to me now. Pierce and me in my Porsche a few days ago, when he had offhandedly mentioned that his sister was coming for a visit. Pierce cradling his whisky in a glass on Friday night—just about when my fourth tequila shot was beginning to kick in—telling me that his sister was supposed to arrive on Monday, so he needed to stay sober enough to receive her.

“Fuck!” I grumbled again as I patted myself dry, wrapped the towel around my waist, and strode into Pierce’s bedroom. I rummaged in his closet to find a shirt and a pair of pants. We were about the same size, which I knew already given how many clothes we’d shared in college.

I found an old gray T-shirt of his and a pair of jeans, which I slipped on and then ran a hand through my damp dark hair.

I hadn’t really done a good job of drying myself. As I rushed to the living room in search of my wallet and phone, I was still dripping water everywhere.

My phone was dead. I cursed again and slipped it into my pocket nonetheless.

I had two options now: either go into office and find Pierce and tell him what happened, or go out looking for his sister myself. The latter seemed more reasonable, given that if I walked into the office in this state, Rhett would give me an earful. Also, I didn’t want to have to tell Pierce that his baby sister was out walking the streets of Brunswick somewhere, because I had turned her away at the door.

I wanted to find her first, bring her back here, and then break the news to Pierce.

I was running out the door when the thought struck me again. The girl was Pierce’s baby sister. His precious little younger sibling, who I knew he loved and cherished and still viewed as a teenager in need of protection.

And it was the same girl who I had spent the entire morning fantasizing about. Whose clothes I had been dreaming of ripping off. I’d imagined parting her legs and fucking her right here, in Pierce’s house!

I clenched my jaws as I banged the front door shut and locked it with Pierce’s spare keys. My Porsche was parked outside, and I got in with my brain still whizzing.

Now that I knew who she was, I couldn’t stop thinking about her even more. It was like a trick that my mind was playing on me. The more I tried to push her out of my thoughts, the more I wanted her.

If only I’d known from the start that she was my best friend’s little sister, then maybe I would have been able to control myself.