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“Lil.” Lo sits up, his arm on his bent knee. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll sit beside you and we can look at them together. I’ll cover your eyes if I see any penises. How’s that?” I smile. “What if there are boobs? Can I cover your eyes?” “Sure,”
Daisy has shown her loyalty to Team LiLo (that’s what they call us online now).
“LILY! LO!” Ryke yells from downstairs. “I’m coming up! You both better be clothed!” Shit. Fuck. Shit. “Hide,” I hiss to Daisy.
I shove a fry in my mouth and find the Nerf gun by the nightstand. Lo snaps his fingers at me. “Uh-uh.” He shakes his head in disapproval. I swallow my fry and then say, “He’s the enemy, Lo.”
His voice trails off when he catches sight of what Lo is eating. A Lucky’s bag guiltily sitting beside the innocent lamp. And then Ryke’s face darkens. “Calloway!” “Yes?” I ask. He rolls his eyes. “Not you.” His head whips around the room. “Daisy!” He flings open the closet door, searching for her between my shirts and Lo’s crew-necks.
“Daisy!” And then he rests a hand on the mattress, about to duck his head underneath the bed. “Wait!” I shriek. But it’s too late. He grabs her ankle and rolls her out onto the floor. She’s smiling wide, her blonde hair tangled and hanging half in her face. “Hey there,” she says, looking up at Ryke.
Ryke puts his foot in between her legs, stopping the skateboard from rolling. My sister inhales a little deeper than before. This looks utterly sexual. Right?
“I have this theory,” Daisy says, “that if you leave two people who are really, really attracted to each other, alone in a room, without anything to do, they’ll have sex. A lot, a lot of sex.” I blush, wondering if she’s talking about us or about her and Ryke.
He says, “If that theory is right, you must really find your boyfriend fucking ugly.” “Who says I haven’t had lots of sex with him?” His glare could kill. “He’s twenty-three, Dais. If you’re fucking him, he’s going to jail.” She raises her hand in defense and sits up on the skateboard. Ryke’s leg is closer to her crotch in result, but she actually grabs onto his ankle so he doesn’t move.
“Don’t jump down her throat, Ryke.” My eyes bug. “Notlikethat.” Lo groans behind me. “Appetite lost, Lil.” Yeah, I don’t want to think about Ryke’s you know what near Daisy’s mouth either.
“I just thought that if they got bored, then they’d probably want to have sex.” Lo coughs hoarsely, and I walk over to pat his back. He takes a large sip of his soda before he says, “Please, don’t talk about my sex life, Daisy.” She sighs and sets her forehead on Ryke’s leg in frustration. He still towers above her. “I was just trying to be helpful.” “You’re not fucking helping,”
“Hey,” I pipe in. “She is too helping. If I didn’t have my Nerf gun, I probably would have jumped Lo. Sex crisis averted.” Ryke steps away from Daisy and turns on me. “If you’re having problems controlling yourself, maybe you shouldn’t be locked in a room with your boyfriend.” He points at the toy gun on the bed. “But this is your fucking solution? Really?” “Looks more fun than doggy style,” Daisy chimes in with a lopsided smile. “No,” Ryke says one word to refute that. I’d have to agree with him. Nerf guns are not as fun as doggy style.
“I don’t know what kind of doggy style you’re doing, but it’s wrong.” He pats her head before exiting. Lo shouts back, “Inappropriate, bro!”
When she smiles, it’s bright and beautiful, and I wonder how I spent so many years avoiding a relationship with her. Daisy is one of the most soulful people to be around, and maybe if I opened up a little sooner, I’d have felt this joy from the start.
“Lil, it’s just for a little while,” Lo says, grabbing a box off the rack.
“Wearing them doesn’t feel as good.” I pause. “For either party involved.” And then I point my finger at Ryke. “Don’t deny it.” He raises his hands. “I wasn’t going to, but some things are worth sacrificing, Calloway.” Fine. “So how many boxes are you going to buy? Three? Five?” He needs like eleven. His one-night stands can almost compete with past-me.
“And don’t you have to buy tampons?” It would have been a rude comment if he wasn’t completely serious. “I don’t need them. I delay my period on birth control,” I say it all without blushing. Internally, I am patting myself on the back. “Let me guess,” he says, his eyes darkening. “So you can have more sex.”
My brain does a tailspin the minute I notice the line of magazines and tabloids stacked beside the counter. The headline stops my heart: Lily Calloway, Nymphomaniac and Reportedly Sleeping with Brothers. I’ve seen this many times before. But that’s the problem.
“Is this for you?” the attendant asks, eyeing the condoms and then the two guys. And me. Holy shit. Out of all bad ideas, this is a horrible one. “No,” I cut in, wedging myself beside Lo. “We don’t want those anymore. And we’d like to buy all of these.” I start piling all the tabloids up on the counter. “Not this again,” Ryke groans. “Lily—” Lo starts. “You don’t understand,” I snap. “You were eighty-eight percent, Lo. This shouldn’t be happening.” “So you don’t want the condoms?” the attendant asks, confused. “Yes, we want them,” Ryke says. “No, we don’t,” I refute. “Just the magazines.” I
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“What if I told you that you don’t have to get married?” Now he has our attention. Lily’s eyes snap open fully, and my back straightens like a board. “What?” we both say in unison. “You don’t have to get married,” Connor repeats. “Not in one month. Not in six months or seven. You choose the time, the date, the place, everything on your terms, no one else’s.” “This is a dream,” Lily says under her breath.
He takes a deep breath. “I want to marry Rose on that day, if you’ll let me.”
“Yes,” I say. “Marry Rose.” I let out a short, stunned laugh and shake my head. I can’t believe this is real. “If you survive your wedding day, that is.” Rose not in control…how is that going to blow over? “She’s going to be pissed that she only has one month to fix everything.” Lily calms a little and wipes her eyes with the blanket. “She’s so particular,” she says. “That’s why I’m not going to tell Rose. It’ll be a surprise to her.” He adds, “And I know her well enough to plan a wedding that she’ll love.”
“And darling,” he says to me, his grin lifting his lips, “you’ll be a great best man.”
We’re starting to feel in control of our own lives. It comes with sentiments so strong that the only response is to laugh, cry, and finally, fall into a peaceful, quiet sleep.
Rose isn’t the type who fantasized and planned every detail of her wedding when she was a little girl. On the contrary, Rose never thought she’d tie the knot. But she also has OCD, and having someone else control the biggest day of her life might upset her. That is, if Connor doesn’t nail the details to perfection.
I don’t want to go back to the way things were. I want Daisy to be with us, but at the same time, she’s only seventeen.
ryke will save her
#CoballowayPornTape What? My brows crinkle, and the first tweet near the top is from a credible news station. @GBANews: Connor Cobalt & Rose Calloway have sold their porn tapes to a very large distributor. Clips already streaming online.
Sex Tape of Rose Calloway and Connor Cobalt Sold to Porn Site for $25 Million. “Fucking hell,” Ryke mutters. “This can’t be right,” I say aloud what’s been floating in my head. No, no, no. I never had videos of my sex life broadcasted to the entire world. This goes beyond what happened to me. This is—this is life-altering, earth-shattering bad. I’m so sorry, Rose.
“Bet you feel like a bigger bitch right now,” Loren adds. “Shut up, Lo,” I snap. This is not the time to attack my sister. “Rose…” She has frozen to the middle of the floor.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Our lives. She was supposed to have the perfect wedding with the perfect guy with the perfect happily ever after. Being taken advantage of in pursuit to strengthen her career—it’s not fair. It’s not right.
She pops up with a bottle of whiskey. I forgot that Brett hid his booze with the dishwasher soaps. She spins her heels and collects a wine glass from another cupboard, pouring the whiskey to the brim. It’s like watching a fissure run through a person made of stone. I don’t like it. “Rose, not to lecture you at this really sensitive time in your life,” Lo says, “but that’s not how you drink whiskey. And as an expert in liquor, it offends me.” She glowers, one so fierce that my breath dies in my chest. “You’re not an expert in liquor. You’re an alcoholic.” She sets the whiskey bottle on the
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“Look honey,” Rose says. “We have a sex tape together.” She’s lost it. Officially.
Deep down, I just think: finally it’s not us, finally the world has shit on someone else.
Goodbye, Scott Van Wright.
My frown deepens, waiting for Greg to add, I need to have a serious talk with you, Connor. He just watched Connor screw his daughter on national television, albeit censored. And not only that—they’re into bondage and kinky shit that I’d think would have Greg tapping into his paternal side, ready for an hour-long conversation. It never comes though.
“Just me,” Rose suddenly announces. “What…the fuck?” Ryke says, stunned. I groan and lean back against the couch, my hands on my head. “Why did we trust you?” I snap. I should have realized that she’d be too conceited to actually hire a real lawyer. “I’ve taken multiple law classes at Princeton,” she refutes. “I understood every line of that contract.” Sure. That’s why you now have a sex tape released to the public, Rose.
“I thought you took my lawyer to the meeting,” Connor says, already off the phone with Greg. “And I thought he read the contracts.” “I thought I told you I left him behind,” Rose retorts. Connor frowns, shaking his head. “You must have mentioned that to someone else, darling.” He snatches her whiskey-filled wine glass and drinks the rest in one swallow.
“Greg gives me a two hour speech about sobriety after our scandal, and he doesn’t even acknowledge yours.” “To be fair,” Connor says, “you lied to Greg and Samantha about being addicts. That news is a bit more jarring than a sex tape…”
Connor stops right in front of Scott and holds out his hand to shake the producer’s. “Congratulations,” Connor says. “You outsmarted me. Not many people ever do. And I admit…I never saw this coming.” His voice is humorless, emotionless—frighteningly dead. Scott glances between Connor’s hand and his face. Then he clutches Connor’s palm. What a fucking weird way to end— And then Connor punches Scott in the jaw with his free fist. His body hits the wall hard. My lips rise. “Thank you,” Ryke says with an exhale, near me. We’ve all been waiting for that to happen.
“…I’d love to see your face when you realize what you’ve signed.” Something bursts in my chest, and I open my mouth to scream at him. But Ryke covers my lips with his hand, blocking all noise and future regrets from escaping. “You’re seeing it now,” Connor tells him calmly.
“It said that we couldn’t air anything from the bedrooms on television. We never did. The contract said nothing about filming. And any of the footage from the bedrooms and the bathroom can be used for movies and web content. Just not network TV.”
Scott adds, “Lily was almost always in her room.” He pauses. “We weren’t able to install any cameras to catch anything.” I shut my eyes, both of our shoulders dropping with the release of this immeasurable weight.
“It’s illegal to film minors in pornographic situations,” Connor says. Both Lily and I break apart at that. Connor is talking about Daisy. Did she…did she really screw someone in her bedroom? A series of emotions pulls my face in a grimace. The most lasting one is shock. Daisy blanches, and she actually meets my eyes, over everyone else. Maybe too mortified to look at Ryke. I nod at her like it’s okay. She shakes her head like it’s not. Lily crawls over my lap to sit beside her sister again, and she wraps her thin arms around Daisy’s neck. “We didn’t,” Scott replies. “All that footage was
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“Lily and Lo in the bathroom with the slurping audio?” Connor asks. “Edited,” Scott says. “We did it in advance and uploaded it on the camera for you to find.” At least everyone will believe us now. “The alcohol in Lo’s closet?” “Planted. Savannah and Ben put it there when Lily was taking a nap. They were supposed to install a camera too, but they ran out of time.” How many bullets did we actually dodge this time around?
I can only hope that’s the last cancer in our lives, but my dad would tell me that I’m being a little fucking fool. For believing in that impossibility. When you have money like we do, there will always be people ready to bury you for a payout. It’s how the world turns.
“I just want everyone to know,” I whisper again, “that I predicted this would happen the moment I saw them together.”
“I’m going to get another drink. You two want anything?” “Bourbon, no ice,” Lo quips dryly. “Hilarious,” Ryke says with zero humor. He nods to me. “What about you?”
“Do you think they’ll be okay?” I ask Lo as we watch Connor spin Rose with poise and masculinity. They haven’t confronted the serious repercussions of having a sex tape floating on the internet. Once they start Googling themselves and the hatred and criticism pours through—they’ll feel the real sting. It’s not fun. “Yeah,” Lo says. “They’re Connor and Rose.”
I press up against Lo’s hard, lean body. The spot between my legs pulses, and my arm latches around his waist. If I shift just a little close I can feel his bulge— “Lily,” he says softly, staring down at me. He fixes a piece of my flyaway hair. “If you rub up against me anymore, I’m going to get hard.” Ohmygod. I let out a shallow breath. “That’s the point…” Or is it not the point? We’re not allowed to have sex at my sister’s wedding, are we? That’s old, bad Lily. This is Lily 2.0. Scratch that—this is Lily 3.0. Brand spanking new.
I realize we’re aimed for a hallway or a bathroom. He glances back at me once, his lips rising in a gorgeous, devious smile. We’re going to have sex! Yes. Yes. Yes. My body thrums with victory and applause.
