“We just have to stall long enough to figure out what we’re going to do,” Stefan said, jumping to his feet and holding his hands out to me. “Give me your car keys.” He nodded toward my dorm bedroom. “And go get dressed for the weather. We’re going to take a little ride.”
I peered at him. “What for?”
His next words filled with me dread. “Rite-Aid. I’m taking you to get a pregnancy test.”
Chapter 9
Stefan
I couldn’t believe it. I had possibly impregnated my step sister. The likelihood was extremely difficult to wrap my mind around and I was hoping that it wasn’t true. I mean, how does one process something like that?
Several blocks from the university, I slowly brought Bella’s white Honda Civic to a halt at a red light on a small cross street, the sound of rain softly pattering against the hood of the car.
“How could I have been so stupid?” Bella asked from the passenger seat. She had come out of her dorm dressed in jeans and an NSU hoodie to shield herself from the rain. But even dressed down like a plain Jane, she was beautiful to me. The sound of a country music tune, ironically about a surprise pregnancy, played quietly in the background. “Had I not gone along with such a stupid tradition, this would never have happened.”
Her soft voice sounded afraid, and my immediate urge was to reach across the space between us and comfort her, but every time I thought about doing it, my thoughts went back to how soft and intoxicating her skin had felt on the night of the Sacrifice, and I feared I would lose control.
I wanted her. God, I fucking wanted her. But Bella seemed to be in a fragile state, and I didn’t want her to think I was trying to take advantage of her, given the circumstances.
I impatiently tapped my fingers against the steering wheel and peered into the rearview mirror, trying to push my lust-filled thoughts from my mind. There were several cars behind me, but traffic didn’t seem that bad. “Don’t beat yourself up over this, Bella. I’m just as much to blame for this as you are. You know, it takes two to tango.”
After all, I had been just as willing to fuck an unknown slut as Bella was to fuck some unknown, moronic frat jock, so who was I to judge? Actually, I felt a little bit ashamed and like a hypocrite for trying to come down on Bella about it back at her dorm. I hadn’t been able to help myself, though. The thought of Bella wanting to fuck someone else made me see red. I just wasn’t sure how I could explain it without coming off sounding like a jackass.
Bella shook her head, her face twisted with worry. “The school is going to have our heads for this. The Dean warned me today about it.”
I turned to look at her. Her cheeks were wet with a mixture of rain and tears, and her eyes had bags under them. Still, she had never looked so beautiful to me, and if we weren’t so wrapped up in a colossal shit storm, I would have pulled over onto the side of the road and fucked her right then and there.
“He’s blowing smoke. The school can’t do shit to us,” I assured her, resisting the urge to wipe the tears away from her cheeks. The light was about to turn green and I needed to keep my eyes on the road. “The last I checked, having sex with someone who has no blood relation to you is not illegal. So what if our parents are married?”
Bella gave me a look. “Come on now, Stefan. You know what we did is considered forbidden.”
And that’s why I liked it even more, I thought.
“So?”
Bella gaped at me like I was insane. “So? Look at the rumors that are spreading around campus. I mean, I have to practically skip half of my classes because I don’t want to become the brunt of stupid jokes.”
The light turned green and I floored the gas. “Look, Bella, who cares what those idiots say? People are always going to talk, no matter what. It was an accident, plain and simple. The only people who even knew you were my stepsister were my frat brothers.” I clenched my teeth, bulging my jaw. “And I wish I could beat the fuck out of the one who told everyone.”
After I had slugged Craig for daring to ask me about how tight Bella was, he went and told several other members. From there, it spread like wildfire, and there was no taking the story back.
At first, everyone had been talking shit about what Bella and I had done, but that quickly changed when the school launched an investigation into the activities of both the Alpha fraternity and the Kappa sorority, specifically about ‘lewd competitions with sexual prizes.’ Both chapters were facing being disbanded.
Everything had changed then, and everyone suddenly had my back. Ironically, the investigation had caused it to be in the best interest for both institutions to deny what happened the night of the Sacrifice and to protect the reputations of Bella and myself.