Pure Lust Vol. 2 by M. S. Parker, Cassie Wild

place…?”
    When I had no response, he smiled. “He’s not a bad guy, Gabs. Don't get me wrong. I love my brother. But he’s spent so much time being groomed, and then grooming himself for Bouvier, he never saw the world outside what Mom created for us. Flynn and me?” He shrugged and his voice softened. “Sometimes I think Mom wished she’d had another little Edward instead of me.”
    “That’s not true,” I contradicted him automatically.
    “Yeah, it is,” he said it with no malice and no bitterness. “She loves me, I know that, but I’m a queer in a rich, fairly conservative family, Gabs. It's PC to say that you're all for equal rights, but it something else to have someone like me as part of the family. But, Mom didn’t throw me out when I told her and she hasn’t tried to change me. She's even been fairly decent to the few guys I'd brought home for the family to meet. For her, that’s fairly impressive. But I know I’m a disappointment.”
    Uncertain of what else to do, I went to him and hugged him. I wasn't even close to petite, but Cody made me feel tiny, even when I was the one offering him comfort. “I’m sorry.”
    He squeezed me back. “You can’t pick family. Blood anyway. Sometimes, though, we get lucky with the ones we can choose.” Then he kissed my temple. “I’ll tell ya what, Gabs. If I could've been the one choosing, I don’t think I could have picked any better than you.”
    ***
    This so-called family event that Edward had invited me to wasn’t just some backyard barbecue. Granted, I hadn’t expected it to be, but I’d thought maybe it was a small family gathering.
    Cody let me know just how wrong I was and I was even more grateful I'd thought to ask him to help me.
    It was an annual event and there were usually anywhere from four to five hundred in attendance. Just hearing the numbers made my head swim. And, of course, because the Bouvier family was one of the biggest names in the fashion industry, their family was held to the highest of standards. Since Cody had been to more than one of these before, I put myself in his capable hands. His capable hands led me, via the subway system, to Saks.
    I was just dressed in what I had come to accept was ‘my’ style: country girl meets city chic and while I thought I looked pretty damn good, I doubted it was up to Bloomingdales—or Bouvier—standards. Since I couldn’t change that, I decided not to worry about it. I’d fake it. Fake it until I make it.
    I’d been doing a lot of that since I’d come to New York and so far, it hadn’t failed me yet. With Edward's— no, I corrected myself—my credit card inside the one good purse I had, a second-hand Coach purse I’d found on eBay, I let Cody draw me inside the magical and intimidating sphere that was Saks.
    The beautiful people were everywhere. People in elegant fashions, designer labels, the kind Kendra was starting to get called in to model. The kind I couldn’t even hope to afford. I was certain people would look at me and see me for what I was. A backwoods Tennessee nobody who didn't belong.
    Cody must have sensed something was off because he hooked his arm through mine and started pointing funny things out, but he didn't say a word about it.
    “That's one of the fashion lines my mother helped launch. Hideous, isn't it? Flatters nobody and makes everybody look like that one weird girl from The Breakfast Club .”
    “I liked the weird girl,” I told him, trying to let go of the tension building in my neck.
    “So did I. Convinced myself I had a crush on her for a while. Then I accepted the fact that the only guy on there that interested me remotely was Judd Nelson.” Cody grinned down at me. “The age difference though? A bit of a problem. And he’s not that hot now.” He switched easily from one topic to another. “See over there? Today’s hottest fashion, recycled straight from the seventies. Of course, the designer was bragging all over about how he had this