The Live-In Temptation (Steele Brothers of Starlight Cove #2)

by Brighton Walsh

“Right. I can’t keep doing this with you—this back-and-forth, hot and cold. And Eli might not be who I want, but he’s the safe choice.” I stepped toward her, not stopping until she was sandwiched between me and the bathroom door, focused on the single part of her sentence that made my chest tighten. “Who do you want?” “You don’t have the right to ask me that.” She darted her gaze over my face, assessing me more intently than I was comfortable with. “And I don’t think you’re ready for the answer anyway.”

I was so tired of fighting this. So tired of pretending I didn’t want her with every goddamn breath. So fucking tired. “Fuck it,” I muttered before cupping her face and kissing her like I was going to lose her before I’d even had the chance to have her.

“So, yeah. I thought I was dreaming because that’s the only place I ever allowed myself to have you.” I scraped my teeth along her jaw, nipped her ear. “But not anymore. Isn’t that right, chaos? Now that I’ve tasted your sweet little pussy, sunk inside this tight cunt, there’s no stopping me now, is there? I fucking knew you’d have me addicted with one goddamn taste. And I was right.”

And that was when it hit me. Skin. No barrier. Just her, wrapped tight around me, and the mess I’d left behind. Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell was wrong with me? I didn’t fuck without a condom—ever. And the fact that I had a surprise four-year-old daughter even after that rule should’ve been enough to keep me on my goddamn toes about it. But that was what Chloe did to me—made me lose my fucking mind. My cock jerked at the realization that I’d been inside her bare. And it made me some kind of bastard that not only had I fucked her while she was out with another man, but I was going to smile at that asshole when she went back to their table, knowing her thighs were wet with our mixed come.

come rushing back. Be my dirty girl, and come on my cock in the bathroom while you’re on a date with another man. Show me exactly how much you love it when I fuck you.

look down on that. So instead, I took a breath and kept my distance. All while watching the man I wasn’t supposed to want act like the father he never thought he could be.

“Daddy! LoLee! Look!” Emma called, skipping over to us, a piece of construction paper flying along beside her. She held up the paper between us. She’d colored three stick figures, all holding hands. One was huge with brown hair and a beard, one was smaller with wild yellow hair clear down to her waist, and the smallest one held what looked like a stuffed unicorn. “It’s our fire family!” I didn’t speak. Couldn’t. Because what the hell was I supposed to say to that? I’d chosen to insert myself into this little family knowing damn well I wasn’t going to stay. Knowing damn well I never, ever stayed. And now I was supposed to tell her that? This little girl who’d already lost so much? Absolutely not.

“You better be sure about this, because as soon as you say yes, I’m going to eat this sweet little cunt until you forget your own name.”

“Fuck,” he groaned, the sound vibrating against me, sending pleasure straight to my core. “You taste so fucking good. You better hold on, chaos, because I’m about to make a mess.”

“Use me,” I whispered, eyes locked with his. “Take whatever you want. Whatever you need. Just let me give it to you.” Something dark and primal flickered in his gaze, and I wanted to revel in it. Wanted to bask in the feeling of lust pouring off him. Of worship. Of ownership. All directed at me. “Fuck,” he muttered, his voice thick as he skated his gaze over me, settling once again on my pussy. “My dirty little girl wants to be used, is that right?” Oh my fuck. Why did it sound so hot when he said it like that? If I had any uncertainty about whether this was something I really wanted, my tight nipples and the throbbing of my clit were proof enough that I didn’t just want it. I was hungry for it. I nodded, shakily, my lip caught between my teeth as I stared up at him. At this imposing man, so stoic. So reserved. But right now, he looked like a man on the edge of breaking.

“Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.” “Not even if you run. No more avoiding me, chaos. No more hiding. You hear me?” I nodded, sure I would’ve agreed to sell my soul to him at this point. I was so lost to the pleasure he was coaxing out of me, my body on the precipice, teetering on the edge of oblivion. “That’s it, baby.” He groaned low, glancing down between us. “Give me one more. Come

on my cock like the filthy girl we both know you are.” “Oh fuck,” I

“That I’m the boss, and you’re Chief Growly, and that if we work together, we can do hard things.”

I’m NOT calling my single dad boss Daddy while he’s fucking me. Quinn: But he IS fucking you…? Chloe: You are all menaces. MENACES. Luna: Maybe. But you’re the girl who called the Chief DADDY in front of his mom

do without the shoe orphanage?” “Don’t,” I said firmly. “Don’t do that. Don’t discount what you are. You’re not just important to Emma.” You’re important to me. I didn’t say the words. I didn’t know why, just that they sat frozen on the tip of my tongue, and I swallowed them down before I could admit something I couldn’t take back. Quiet settled around us then, and we sat like that through half another episode where Brantley and the woman he was on a date with were in a hot tub in the mountains, spilling all their childhood traumas. “This is dangerously close to intimacy, you know,” she murmured.

Sunday dinners were always so fucking much—basically, the aftermath of a tornado—but from the very first one I’d brought Chloe to, she’d slid into the mayhem effortlessly. Just like now, as she slipped straight into the fold as if she’d always been here, guiding Emma toward Laurel before sidling up to Lincoln, a smirk on her face.

“You look like mine.”

“You look like every inch of you belongs here—right here. Just waiting for everything I want to give you.”

On a groan, I dropped my face into her neck and sank as deep as I could. I knew she meant this, here, now. That she needed me to make her come, make her fall apart and be stitched back together all at once. But in my mind, I let it mean something else. Something more. A life. Here. With me and Emma and this home that had just been a house until Chloe set foot in it.

“You think I will?” She stared up at me, unblinking, her eyes shiny and haunted. She wasn’t the only one. It felt like someone had reached into my chest, gripped my heart, and ripped it straight out of my body. Took my soul right along with it. But I’d walked right into this, hadn’t I? I’d known this was coming the whole time. “She thinks of you as home, you know. You’d better decide if she’s wrong.” “And what about you?” she asked, her voice thin. “Do you think of me as home?”

“If you don’t already know the answer to that, then I haven’t been doing my job.”

“I can’t fucking breathe when you’re not near me.”

“Fuck. You think you can come on my cock like you fucking own it and pretend this isn’t real?” He pressed his forehead against mine and sank deep, filling me to the brim as my release still echoed around him. “Lie better, baby.” I tried. I tried so fucking hard, but no matter what I did, my body told the truth with every aftershock that rocked through me, every fluttering pulse around his cock. “You think this is just fucking?” He drove into me again. Deep. Hard. Like he wanted to sink inside and never leave. “I don’t fucking believe you. Not when you come like your whole body’s begging me to stay. Not when every inch of this pussy feels like mine.”

“Say it again.” He slid his hand up my throat to cup my jaw, his thumb brushing against the corner of my mouth. Tender now, even while his hips pistoned against me, his cock a relentless force thrusting inside. “Say you’re mine. Or are you gonna try to lie to me one more time?” I arched beneath him, my body clenching tight around his shaft, so close to falling, and breathed the only words that mattered. The words I wished fiercely were true. “I’m yours.” He groaned, long and low as he brought his mouth to mine, our lips touching, breath shared between us. “That’s right. You’ve been mine since the second you stumbled out of that fucking shed. And you’ll be mine even when you leave, won’t you?”

I’d gone and done the one thing I swore I never would. I’d fallen in love. Me—the girl who never stayed. The girl no one ever asked to stay. And now, I wasn’t sure I’d survive what came next.

“I’m just gonna say one more thing, and then I’ll drop it.” Sutton set her glass on the table and leveled me with her no-bullshit stare. “Sometimes the thing you think will trap you ends up being exactly what you need to hold you steady. And I’m saying that as someone who also spent her entire life running. At least until I found a reason to stay.”

“What is it with you Steele boys and your deep-seated need for a dramatic come-to-Jesus moment before you pull your heads out of your asses?” I blinked at her. “Excuse me?” “She’s talking about me.” Atlas shrugged. “I had a little…issue.” Laurel snorted. “Your head was so far up your ass.” “It usually is with him,” I said. “But I still don’t know what this has to do with me.” Mom reached over and patted my arm. “Laurel’s referring to the time I had to talk some sense into your brother when he and Sutton were having some issues.” “And thank God for that because he would’ve lost the best things that ever happened to him otherwise.” Sutton raised a brow at Atlas. “Isn’t that right, big guy?” “Right, trouble.” My brother hooked an arm around her waist and tugged her into his side, bending low to press a kiss to her temple. “And all it took was a custom-built library filled with all her favorite books.”

“I’m saying I want to add to that list for the rest of my life, Chloe. I want to give you adventures every day—whether we do that in Starlight Cove or we continue your yearly trip to Sedona or we swing by the elephant sanctuary in Thailand. It means I want you to go on the greatest adventures of your life. But I want you to experience them with me and Emma.” I closed my eyes as he pressed his forehead against mine, his breath ghosting over my lips. “I’m in love with you, chaos.” He kissed me then. Slow and sweet. Full of intent and devotion and the love he just confessed. “And I’m asking you to stay.”

Because this—you and me and Emma? This is home.”

“Still feel like running?” he asked, his voice low, his breath warm against my ear. I shook my head—no hesitation. No uncertainty. “The words, chaos,” he said. “I need the words.” “No,” I breathed. “I’m done running.” “You can still run, baby.” He slid his hands beneath my—his—sweatshirt, pulling it up and off me before tossing it to the side. Then he stepped close, reaching around to cup my breasts as he brushed his lips against my ear. “You’re just done running without me.”