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While she'd lived in his e, he'd been able to check up on her regularly He'd been able to keep his eye on her, even if itby to visit his mother way ht there, where he could study her eyes and try to pinpoint even the slightest change her eone He could watch her, even if he couldn't touch her He'd found that not touching her, while pure agony, was so that he could live with, if only barely After that one horrendous hteenth birthday, he'd endured not touching her as he'd waited for her to grow up, waited for her to beco of time

He'd struggled with his conscience the entire time She was an orphan who lived in the family home for God's sake; he should absolutely leave her alone His family had embraced her as if she were one of their own, and why the hell couldn't he feel the same?

But that wasn't the way he felt about her, it never had been She wasn't one of them

She wasn't his sister She wasn't even his stepsister She didn't carry their last name and there wasn't an ounce of shared blood between theet those facts, he couldn't He'd been intrigued by her since the h he didn't understand exactly why Certainly she'd been pretty, even as a teenager, even if it had been a quiet beauty that she herself didn't seenize

But it was her strong character, her fortitude that held his attention, at least at first She'd been just a girl, and really, his emotions hadn't turned into infatuation for months, hteenth birthday was right around the corner, his curious and syhts toward her had transfor to hold her in his ar to hold her underneath him and stroke her body

She beca he fervently wanted that he couldn't have It had made him feel like a sick fuck, but he'd never been able to shake his need for her And the fact was, letting Courtney go to Florida had been the hardest thing he'd ever done It was only supposed to have been for two years, but with graduate school, it had turned into four

But now she was back, and she was all grown up She wouldn't be as vulnerable anymore

And he was daain

He leaned against the wall of the elevator as it rose to the top of the building and tried to contain the turh his bloodstream, but it was impossible

Courtney was back She was his

And in a few moments, she'd know that truth

Courtney began stacking her shoes in the built-in shelving unit at the back of the closet Asproductive, like preparing for her job interviews, she couldn't keep her ument he'd had with Dao had been bad, it still didn't co her four years away

When Courtney had left St Louis, her initial plan was to only be gone the two years it would take to finish her bachelor's degree Justine hadher drive part of the way Her god her settle into her off-ca back to Missouri

The first fewinto classes and fae university was actually secondary; getting caught up with her girlfriends was theIt was exactly what Courtney had needed erief had finally begun to recede

Although she was having fun at school and adjusting well, Courtney was surprised that she missed St Louis so much It confused her How could she be homesick when she was finally home? But she didn't feel like she was horown close over the years, the older wo a second mother to her as well as a friend, and so they talked on the phone often Justine had always been involved in Courtney's life, and her god of her time in Florida, at least, Courtney always told the other wo to tell, and sometimes there wasn't