9. Ezekiel

My heart's thumping wildly in my chest. Sweat beads on my forehead and I begin to feel lightheaded.

It's her.

She's fucking here.

What is she doing here?

Please, please don't tell me this is Selena, my new stepsister. If she is a cousin, I can handle that, it's not unheard of for cousins to date. But Dad's never going to approve of me lusting after my new sister.

Shit! No, she's not my sister. I'm not even going to think like that. We're not related. Not by blood, anyway. And she's not even a step until they say I do.

It's not like I was aware of her identity when we shared a night of the most incredible sex I've ever had.

What the hell? She's all I've been able to think about since waking up to an empty bed that morning. The woman of my dreams, and no name. I can't even remember if she told me one or not.

Both my brothers gasp beside me.

Nuh uh, not going to happen. They need to back off. She's all mine. I saw her first. I just need to talk to her to figure out what we're doing—how to break it to our parents that we've been together.

"Fuck me, it's her!" I hear Jay mumble under his breath and jerk my head in his direction. He's not paying attention to me; his eyes are locked on her. When I look at Eli, I see the same thing.

What the fuck?

A sick feeling washes over me, and I begin to wonder if she's their mystery woman as well. No, it's impossible. There's no way in hell we've fallen for the same woman.

She doesn't even look my way, instead, she keeps her eyes focused on the pastor and grips her bouquet tightly. Is she freaking out about this as badly as I am?

I can see my brothers fidgeting from where they are on either side of me, and I can't understand why.

As soon as this is over, I need to corner her at the reception. We need to talk and decide what we're going to do. All I know is I want her, stepsister or not. Dad'll just have to understand. I met her before I knew who she was.

Selena takes her spot across from us and the music changes to the wedding march. The small number of family and friends they wanted to be present for their nuptials stand and turn to watch the bride come down the aisle.

Julia's alright. A little dramatic and over the top, but she seemed nice when we met.

I take a moment to look at Dad. His face is lit up with happiness as he watches Julia make her way toward him. I haven't seen him this happy since Mom was alive.

Why do I feel that if I tell him how I feel about Selena, it'll crush him? It was just one night. Do I really have as intense feelings as I think I do, or is it just the chase that has me feeling all these emotions? I've never had a woman sneak out on me before.

Julia makes it to us, handing her bouquet to Selena, and Dad takes her hands in his.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're gathered here today to join these two people in holy matrimony," the pastor begins and everyone sits.

I keep my eyes on the back of Dad's head, focusing on the thinning patch of hair at his crown. If I look past him to Selena, I know I'll come undone. I can't rush toward her like I want and wrap her in my arms, kissing her deeply. I don't want to ruin Dad's wedding.

I tune the pastor"s words out as I run through all the possibilities of how this is going to end. Only one of them is the ending I want. The one with me and Selena together, and Dad not upset about it.

"Zeke," my brother whispers as he shakes my shoulder.

"What?" I mumble back.

"The ring!" His words zap me back to reality.

Aww, shit! I totally spaced out.

"Sorry, Dad. Here you go." I pull the ring from my pocket and hand it to him.

I feel like an idiot. It's Dad's wedding and I space out in front of everyone, thinking about the woman standing across from me.

Dad and Julia exchange their vows, rings, and then kiss.

It's official.

Selena is now my stepsister, and I fucked her. Worse, I want to do it again. It's all I can think about—me and her together. Not for just a fleeting moment or to get my dick wet, but forever.

How in the world could I be so drawn to someone I only met over the course of one night? A woman whose name I didn't know until she walked down the aisle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Abel Carter," the pastor announces as my father and his new wife turn to face the guests of their wedding.

He glances over at my brothers and me, and his face is full of happiness. There's no way I can dampen it with news of being with his new stepdaughter. After everything he endured with my mother's failing health and untimely death, I can't bring shame upon this marriage.

Dad and Julia walk down the aisle, arms interlocked. Movement catches my attention and Selena's moving, falling in step behind them.

I step along with her, taking her arm in mine, just as the wedding planner said we should. I can feel her body stiffen under my touch as her breath hitches.

I catch tiny glimpses of her out of the corner of my eye, both of my brothers' hot breath on my neck from where they walk behind us.

As soon as we get to the end of the aisle, she pulls free from my hold and rushes away to her mother, where the photographer is waiting to take pictures of the happy family and bridal party.

My brothers each take hold of one of my arms and pull me to the side, keeping us slightly out of sight of Dad.

"I can't believe it's her?" Eli says from beside me, low enough that only we can hear.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I whip around to face them.

"That's my woman from the plane. Veronica. No, she's Selena, and crap, she's our new sister?"

"No, that's my woman from the hallway," Jay announces through gritted teeth.

"She's the woman that ditched me in bed. Christ, instead of each of us finding the woman of our dreams, we found the same exact one." I sigh.

"And she's off limits." Jay sticks his hands in his pockets as he rocks back and forth on his feet.

"We all slept with her!" I say out loud, not even realizing.

"Yeah, we did. It doesn't happen again. She's our sister now," Zeke states half-assed. "We all need to agree, at least until we figure shit out."

I can see the longing in their eyes, and how happy they were last night when they talked about their secret woman. If only we'd known how badly our world would come crashing down.

"But—" Jay starts, but I don't let him finish.

"There's no buts. Did you not see how happy Dad was? He hasn't smiled like that since Mom and it's because of Julia. What do you think's going to happen when we tell him we all fucked his new wife's daughter?"

I hate saying the words, but it's the truth. For once, we need to think about Dad's happiness and not our own.

"She's just a woman we all fucked. A slut who opened her legs for three men, two of them on the same day. All of them, random strangers. Why would we even want anyone to know we stooped so low?" I pause as I gaze between my brothers. "It's how we need to think about it. Any feelings for her we need to push down and forget. Now we need to talk to her and make sure she doesn't let it slip about our encounters."

Eli finally looks up at me. "So we lie and tell that bullshit story when we all know we want her. "

"That's exactly what we do." Then softer I add, "For now anyway."

"Then let's get over there and take these pictures, then talk with Selena," I announce, as I turn and walk away, heading straight for Dad. I can't help but notice the glare Selena's giving me. No, us.

"There you are, boys. Where were you hiding? Selena went looking for you but couldn't find you. Come on over. We need to take pictures, then get to the reception."

"Sorry Dad, we were just talking. But you're right, let"s get these pictures done. You have guests waiting and a honeymoon to get to," I say cheerfully, trying my hardest not to make eye contact with Selena. I know if I do, I'll throw everything me and my brothers just agreed on right out the fucking door.

For the next thirty minutes, we take picture after picture until finally, Julia is happy with all the poses. I'm exhausted, and I need a drink. Several of them, in fact, and we need to get Selena alone and have the dreaded conversation.

My heart's already aching over having to let her go before even getting a chance to know her. I bet my mother's laughing in heaven right now. She always said the love bug would hit me one day and boy did it. She was a firm believer in instant love; she had it with Dad. Me and my brothers were always the skeptics. We were wrong.

"Hey, she's walking away, it"s our chance," Eli leans in and whispers.

We hurry away, chasing after her. She's moving fast for someone in heels, straight for the bar.

"Selena!" I shout, but she keeps going, not stopping or even slowing her steps. "Selena!" I yell again, but nothing. In fact, I think she gets faster.

"What the fuck?" Jay barks as he picks up his pace and begins to jog after her, catching her right as she passes the bar and heads for the elevator.

Perfect. We get her inside there and hit the stop button. We can talk in private and she can't run.

"Let me fucking go," she curses at Jay as he grabs hold of her arm, halting her movement.

"No, we need to talk," he tells her.

"We have nothing to talk about," she snaps back as Eli and I step up.

"Fucking twins," she mutters under her breath.

"Selena, I'm Zeke. This is my twin Jay and my other brother, Eli. I know we've all met and, well, yeah. Anyway, this is our formal introduction and we need to talk about what's happened and how we plan to handle it with the parents. You know, since we're step-siblings now." I take a deep breath.

"Don't worry, our dirty little secret is safe with me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to my room for a minute and make a phone call. I'd appreciate it if you let go of my arm." Her eyes are fixed on us, devoid of emotion except intense anger.

She pulls away from Jay, stumbling slightly as she pushes the button for the elevator.

"Selena, it's not like that," Eli speaks up, just as the elevator doors open and she steps inside.

"Isn't it?" She reaches out, pushing a button as we stare at her, eyes wide in surprise. Guess we weren't anything to her. "I am, after all, just a slut who opened her legs for three men." And the doors slide shut with her last word, cutting each of us to the quick.

She heard. But she must not have heard the whole conversation or else she'd know that's not how we feel.

We've fucked up, but maybe it's better this way. She hates us and there's no chance of us getting together. How would we have chosen, anyway? There's three of us and one of her.

"We'll give her some time to cool off, then approach her again to address what she heard. We don't want her talking to her mother, talking shit about us to cause issues with Dad." I tell them, only that never happens. She doesn't return to the party and when we check on her the next day, we find out she's checked out.

We have her number, but I doubt she'll take our call. There's no way for us to track her down. At least not for the next month, since Dad and Julia will be on their honeymoon and have opted to go phone free the entire time. When they return, we can get her address and show up at her door, she can't turn us away then.