Sinfully Pleasurable

chapter 2

"What is it you would like to propose to me, Zain?" I asked, trying my best to keep the weariness I was feeling out of my voice. He must've caught it anyways, because he shot me an irritated look and I shrugged. He was my older brother, I had every right to be weary of him sometimes.

"As you know, Charli left early to go to New York to plan," he said starting off slowly. Whenever he drew out his words like that when about to ask me something, I knew it wasn't going to be good. I narrowed my eyes, daring him to continue. "There's a lot of planning left to do, and the wedding is in October, which is crazy, right?" He paused, as if expecting me to agree. I lifted my glass, swirling the glass around and fixating him with an impatient glance. "And we had been talking about how great you had done with the party. And I can't be in New York most of the time, I have a lot of business work. And basically, what I'm asking of you is to please come to New York for the summer and help Charli out some."

I had taken a sip of my water as I had waited for him to spit out whatever it was that he had wanted; I promptly spat it out onto my lap at his words. I stared at him, my eyes widening from disbelief. I had informed all of my siblings the night before that I had been discussing a vacation with Corey, and it was completely unfair of him to ask me of this when it was my first time off in what felt like forever.

"What?" I snapped, gently setting down my glass though I felt like throwing it at the wall or maybe even Zain's head in the moment. "Zain, I can't. Sweet Corey may kill me if I agree to this, I might die of a heart attack at 22 if I agree to this, and who knows how much time I'll have to vacation if I do this instead of going away with the boys! I can't!"

"Sang," Zain used his brotherly voice on me and I lunged for him. Knox caught me around the waist, pushing me back into my seat, glancing between Zain and I nervously. It was a good thing he was there between us or else Zain would have been flat on his ass getting pummeled. My siblings and I had gotten closer, but it didn't mean we hadn't stopped roughhousing and beating the shit out of each other. "Just listen to me, okay?"

"No," I huffed, crossing my arms and pouting like a child having a temper tantrum. I knew that I was being slightly unfair, but so was he. I had been overworking myself for so long, and now that I finally had a break, he wanted me to work more?

"Only 25% of the time you're in New York would be spent helping Charli," he continued calmly, apparently unphased by my frustration. "The rest would be you and the boys spending time together. New York has a lot for you to do, and I know for a fact that you love it there. I know you don't want to let Corey down and I know that you definitely deserve some time off. Which is why Charli and I will pay for your hotel rooms and everything else, and the only thing you'll have to do in exchange is help with some wedding things, speak with some officials for me for the business, and spend time with your boys. Come on, think about, Sang."

My arms dropped to my sides and I softened, actually considering his words. New York did hold a special place in my heart. That was where I had kissed Axel for the first time, as well as fully realized how much I loved them. It wouldn't be so awful to spend some time planning the wedding, then the rest of it with my boys in a city we all loved. Of course it wasn't the beach like Corey and I had originally talked about, but it was still a vacation that held a good amount of promise. My eyes darted over to my dad, silently questioning him on his thoughts; he was one of the people who firmly believed that I deserved a break and I valued his opinion.

His mouth tightened into a firm line and he looked over at Zain, who was starting to look increasingly nervous. "You promise that Sang won't be working her little tail bone off again?" He asked, serious and fatherly. "We've already had one scare with her. I don't need her ending up in the hospital again, and if there's even a possibility of that happening to her in New York, then I don't want her going."