Sexmex 24 10 11 Nicole Zurich Step-siblings Mee... Page

“Or pretend.”

She finally lifted her gaze. His eyes, the color of a winter sky, were fixed on her with an intensity that made her stomach drop. “Maybe I’m just appreciating the quiet.”

His use of her nickname, the one only he used, undid something in her chest. “This is a bad idea,” she breathed. SexMex 24 10 11 Nicole Zurich Step-Siblings Mee...

Heat flooded her cheeks. Last night, he’d worn a simple gray henley, the sleeves pushed up to his forearms. When he’d reached across the table for the wine, she’d watched the muscle in his arm shift and had felt a jolt so visceral she’d nearly dropped her fork. He’d caught her. He always caught her.

At first, it had been stiff and polite. Nicole, an artist, saw Zurich as a jock—all lacrosse and easy, cocky smiles. Zurich saw Nicole as a moody, unattainable ice queen. But over the months, the stiffness had melted into a sharp, wired tension. They’d become experts at not-touching: handing the salt shaker without brushing fingers, sitting on opposite ends of the couch with a pillow barrier that felt more symbolic than effective. “Or pretend

When they finally broke apart, breathless, he rested his forehead against hers again. “Well,” he murmured, a shaky laugh escaping him. “That was definitely a worse idea than I imagined.”

The rain was a constant, gray sheet against the windows of the lake house, trapping them inside a world that felt suddenly, dangerously small. Nicole had claimed the window seat in the living room, a heavy book open on her lap that she hadn’t turned a page of in twenty minutes. Across the room, Zurich was methodically cleaning his vintage camera lenses, the soft click and twist of metal the only sound besides the rain. “This is a bad idea,” she breathed

“Zurich,” she said, his name a plea and a warning all at once.

She looked past him, at the rain, at the empty house, at the closed door of the room where they’d first been told to “try and get along.” Then she looked back at him, at the boy who had become her secret gravity.