Free Unfiltered & Undressed (The Unfiltered Series) by Payge Galvin, Meg Chance

off before heading home.
    I snaked my hand out to her waist and captured her, hauling her between my knees, until she was buried between my thighs. “Only if it makes a difference to you,” I growled. My mouth claimed her cherry red lips, which were almost as sweet, and almost as willing, and almost as supple as Lauren’s had been.
    I reached down, not caring that there was no question we were making a scene now, and my hands stroked the length of her legs, squeezing just beneath her too short skirt where her lace panties made an appearance. I told myself I didn’t care that she wasn’t Lauren. In fact, I preferred her this way—the exact opposite of Lauren.
    This girl would make things better. Easier.
    “Let’s get out of here,” I whispered roughly against her ear when I finally stopped kissing her long enough to pay my tab.
    She didn’t argue, and she still didn’t tell me her name. Not even after I stumbled out of the motel room, leaving her half-dressed and hollering at me because I couldn’t go through with it.
    ‡
    I slammed my car door, and stormed inside, feeling like the dick that I was. There was no point being quiet. If the sun was up, so was Tess.
    Tess glanced up at me from her place at the table. “You look like shit,” she stated flatly. If it wasn’t for the slight flex of her jaw, I probably wouldn’t even know she was pissed at all. Sometimes I wished she’d just come out and yell at me, at least then I’d know what was going on inside that head of hers.
    “You shouldn’t swear,” I told her, trying to make it sound like I cared what she said.
    This time the jaw flex was more than slight. “I’m sixteen, and you’re not my dad.” It looked like she was planning to say more, but then she stopped herself and sighed. “Whatever. Breakfast is on the stove.”
    Guilt stabbed at me, and my head hurt like a motherfucker, so I turned away so she couldn’t see me wince. “Thanks,” I mumbled, grabbing a paper plate—the only kind we used—and filling it with scrambled eggs and pancakes—pretty much the only thing Tess ever made. I doused both the pancakes and the eggs in syrup.
    I hated this. I hated that I was still thinking about Lauren, even while I was here with Tess.
    I should never have agreed to the private swim lessons, cash or not. I had made the right decision to walk away. Lauren was a distraction, and I had way too much shit on my plate right now.
    It was strange being back here after so much time had passed. I’d felt like a stranger that first day, when I’d walked through the door and realized I barely knew my little sister.
    And I doubted I was the only one of us who felt that way.
    Five years was a long time to be away. A lifetime to an eleven-year-old you never saw and almost never spoke to.
    Tess had changed so much in that time. Sixteen now, and nearly grown, and too damn pretty for her own good—nothing at all like the gawky preteen I’d barely paid attention to. I couldn’t remember even saying goodbye to her when I’d left.
    She was right. I wasn’t her dad and she didn’t need me acting like one.
    By the time I’d finally gotten word our mom had died— nearly two weeks after the fact because I’d been holed up in some shithole motel feeling sorry for myself over a washed-up career, and trying to drink myself into oblivion—guardianship had already been granted to our uncle.
    It had taken me another two days to sober up all the way, and another two on the Greyhound bus to make it back here. But when I did, and realized our uncle was the same piece of shit he’d always been, trying to figure out a way to sell our mom’s jewelry on eBay, I booted him out. I swore right there and then—to myself and to Tess—I’d figure out a way to make things right.
    Tess wrinkled her nose at my food. “That’s disgusting. I don’t know how you eat it like that.”
    I glanced at her syrup-free eggs and grinned, forgetting all about Brown Eyes and the way