Stepbrother WHOA! (The Stepbrother Romance Series #5) (3 page)

“I didn’t know you guys really cared about it all
that much.” Jeremy shrugged, looking embarrassed.

“Yeah, well, don’t let anyone else hear about it.
Frat secret. But we care about each other, you know—and you’re pretty much one
of us, so we were all worried about the
sitch
. It’s
been a long time coming.” I smiled and gave him a playful shove to get away
from me. Jeremy laughed and grabbed his beer, heading back into the living
room, clearly still more than a little embarrassed at how much he had shared.

Of all of the things anyone had said to me that
night about Jaxon and me, it felt good to know that my closest friends in the
frat were actually happy about it. I probably should have known that it would
be only too obvious to everyone we both knew that Jaxon and I were into each
other; but the fact that everyone was so excited for us, that everyone was
actually happy to see us pairing off, was so great. We had taken such an
emotional beating for being together from our parents—it was just such a relief
to be around people who either didn’t care or who thought it was great. I
couldn’t have been happier in my entire life, no matter what else happened to
me.

Chapter
Four

I woke up the next morning feeling even better than
I had the night before, even though I would have never even thought that was
possible. Instead of going back to my dorm at the end of the night, I had ended
up in Jaxon’s bed. We’d both been tipsy—not drunk, just a little buzzed—and
we’d spent the whole day once we’d gotten out of bed teasing each other,
especially at the makeshift party that had gone on in the frat house. The game
had been great—it was another one that no one in the frat had any vested
interest in, just enough going on in it to make it worth watching. Jaxon had
copped feels, waylaid me on the way to the kitchen or to the bathroom or
anywhere else I had gone. By the time he had led me up to his bedroom, refusing
to even entertain the notion of me going back to my dorm, I had been more than
ready to go to bed with him again.

It was so different, to sleep with him with everyone
in the know; it was different in a good way. The first time we’d had sex, on
the couch in the living room, I’d been eager for it—I’d been so attracted to
him that when he made his move I hadn’t even thought about turning him down,
even if I had known I should. And the night before, having sex in his room with
the brothers away, I’d still been aware in the back of my mind that someone
might come in and find us out.

Being able to have sex with Jaxon more or less
openly, without having to hide it from anyone, was even better than the sex
we’d had before. I didn’t care whether I was loud; Jaxon played music over his stereo,
but if someone heard me moaning or crying out over it, it wasn’t going to ruin
my reputation—everyone already knew. And for once I wasn’t worried about what
would happen if everyone found out I was banging my step-brother. I hadn’t
realized how inhibited that knowledge had made me until I didn’t have to even
think about it anymore. I joked to Jaxon that I had to live up to the
reputation I had created for myself with my French comment and went down on
him, sucking and licking until he was on the edge of orgasm. He had picked me
up and thrown me onto the bed, working my pussy with his fingers until I
gushed. He’d draped my legs over his shoulders and thrust into me hard and fast
over and over again until we were both moaning, touching each other everywhere.

We woke up together and Jaxon murmured in my ear
that he was still horny from the night before; he draped my leg backwards over
his hip and thrust into me slowly from behind, rubbing my clit with his
fingertips. I buried my face against his pillow to muffle my noises more out of
consideration for the fact that not all of his brothers were awake, instead of
because I was terrified that they’d know. He felt so good inside of me, and
while we were moving together I thought over and over again that I could have
him almost any time I wanted; that I could just go up to his room or invite him
over to mine, that I wouldn’t have to sit around and pretend like I didn’t care
about him that way. I wanted to make up for all the time we’d lost in the
months we couldn’t be together out of fear.

I hurried over to my dorm, not even worried about
the walk of shame, running in just long enough to change my clothes while Jaxon
waited outside. We held hands while we walked to the dining hall for a quick
breakfast before our classes, and it felt so good to be open about how I felt
about him. I hadn’t even let myself think about how much I really did care, how
much I was in love with Jaxon. But now that the frat members all knew, Jaxon
and I had decided that there was no point in trying to hide it from anyone else
on campus, since the guys who had girlfriends would have already told them.
 
We grabbed our respective breakfasts—I made
myself a quick smoothie with protein powder and grabbed some granola, Jaxon put
together a breakfast sandwich and wrapped it up to eat in class, and I couldn’t
stop looking over at him, smiling to myself because neither of us had to
pretend anymore.

That morning we fell back into our old routine;
Jaxon walked me to class just like he had before things had started getting
weird, and I felt so comfortable and happy to just be openly involved with him.
He fell into step with me, and it was weird but wonderful to be able to hold
his hand, to not have to keep my distance. Even when we’d been pretending to be
just friendly—brotherly and sisterly to each other—we’d kept space between us,
and it occurred to me now that the whole time we’d been playing that game we’d
been only inches away from jumping each other. We went our separate ways at the
building where my morning class was and then Jaxon met up with me on my way to
the dining hall for lunch. We sat together in the dining hall without even
having to pretend like everything was just friendly between us; Jaxon put his
arm around me, and we talked with the other guys just like we always had.

The best part of it was that while I could pay
attention to Jaxon and enjoy his company, I didn’t find myself constantly
distracted. I wasn’t thinking about him every second of the day just because I
was trying specifically not to. I wasn’t wondering how he was holding up—I knew
he was enjoying himself just as much as I was. It was amazing how much the fact
that we didn’t have to hide our feelings towards each other changed everything.
I was amazed at how much energy I had been wasting, devoted to trying not to
think about him and how much I wanted him.

In the back of my mind, I did think that
eventually—at some point—we would have to confront the issue of the fact that
our parents were married to each other. Mom and Bob were not in favor of Jaxon
and I being anything more than step-siblings, and we wouldn’t be able to keep
the situation from them for forever. But I told myself that we would cross that
bridge when we came to it. For the time being I was just so happy to be with Jaxon
and to not have to try and avoid him and everyone else I knew, that I was more
than happy to put aside our parents. After all, we wouldn’t have to see them
again until at least Spring Break—that was plenty of time to figure everything
out between us and how we were going to handle it.

Jaxon and I had an afternoon class together: one I
had dreaded from the moment I discovered he was in it with me. Now, instead of
going to the opposite end of the room from him and struggling to pay attention
to the lecturer, I could sit next to him, take my notes, and enjoy the fact
that he was close instead of letting that same fact torture me. When we were
both done with classes for the day, we hung out with each other in the student
union and then headed back to the frat house to compete in the weekly Xbox
tournament with the other guys before we grabbed dinner together from the
dining hall.

It was almost too good to be true, and I had to stop
myself from freaking out a few times out of the instinctive fear that it would
all go wrong at any moment. But everyone on campus knew that we were together—really
together, not just hooked up one night—and everyone who actually cared about us
was happy that it had happened. Nobody came up to tell us we were freaks;
nobody told us we were disgusting. Everybody said it was about time and that we
looked cute together.

We found out that it wasn’t just the guys in the
frat who’d started a betting pool about us getting together; over dinner, one
of the guys from the snowboarding team came up and confirmed with us that we
were actually boyfriend and girlfriend—going back to the table with his friends
to crow the success of his betting strategy. There were apparently lots of
people making money off of the fact that Jaxon and I had finally just given in
and decided to be in a relationship together—and it made me laugh to think that
we’d been spending most of the year trying to absolutely avoid each other,
fighting to not have anything to do with each other, because of the fact that
our parents were together. Obviously, everyone on campus who knew us knew that
we were as good of a match as anyone could find—and the fact that no one seemed
to have a problem with it just made me that much happier when I went up to
Jaxon’s room at the end of the night. It felt good to be able to kiss him, to
touch him, to hold his hand or hug him without feeling like I was dirty or
gross or shameful. It felt good to be able to be affectionate with him and
still be “one of the guys” among the frat members and the other campus
athletes. Nobody was treating me like some stupid sorority girl chasing after
the hot frat guy; everyone just accepted that we’d ended up together because
that was the right thing to do.

Chapter
Five

“Hey, we should hit the slopes again before the team
meets—get in a little private session.” Jaxon kissed me lightly on the lips,
reaching out and giving one of my braids a playful tug. I grinned.

“The mountain’s pretty far to go if you want to hit
up after class but before practice,” I pointed out. “We could go to the
practice place early, get some time in there.” Jaxon was walking me to my
morning class, the day after we “came out” as a couple.

“Sounds good.
Wanna
take
your car or mine?” I rolled my eyes.

“Yours of course. Meet you for lunch?” Jaxon nodded.
I grinned and leaned in, and Jaxon kissed me briefly on the lips before we
parted ways at the Fleischman building where my class was.

We grabbed something to go as soon as lunch rolled
around and brought it to the car with us. I’d gotten a couple of sandwiches and
a bag of chips, along with a to-go cup of the dining hall’s passion fruit-guava
punch. With the rest of my practice gear in the back of Jaxon’s car, I had a
big bottle of water—enough to get me through our private practice session; I’d
refill before everyone got there. We put on some old 90s rock and drove out to
the practice space.

Since Jaxon was one of the people higher up in the
team—not just because he was the best boarder but because he was an
upperclassman—he had a key to get us in. We were both excited, joking and
talking as we parked in the lot and brought our gear the front entrance. “Just
don’t break your ankle when it’s only me here,” Jaxon told me with a smirk.

“Oh trust me, I do not even trust you to get me to a
hospital; I’ll save all serious injuries for when trainers are actually here.”
Jaxon gave me a playful shove and I grabbed at his arm, pulling him with me as
I tumbled against a wall. He kissed me and then broke off a moment later.

“We’re here to practice, space-case,” he told me
with a little grin. I put on a mock-stern face and we went into the practice
building.

They were revamping it a little bit; it had started
during the break when most of the people who practiced there were on winter
break, especially since there was real snow and there were real mountains to
practice on. But for the purposes of getting a guaranteed good session, the
practice slopes were great—there was no need to check the weather and make sure
the conditions would be good, since it was indoors. It wasn’t as cold as it was
outside, so I didn’t have to wear heavy clothes under my gear.

Jaxon took the first run and I watched him, like
always completely and totally impressed with his skill. He tried a new
trick—something I had never seen him do—and I was thrilled at the fact that we
were close enough that he felt comfortable really and truly practicing around
me; not just going through the routines he had already mastered, but trying new
things that he wasn’t sure he could pull off. I knew that he practiced on his
own a lot—so did I. Any of us who were really serious about competing found
ways to practice on our own and brush up a particular trick before we did it in
front of anyone.

I went down the slope after he’d finished and
started to use the techniques and tweaks that Jaxon suggested, pulling my knees
up at the point he had told me to, going into grabs the way he’d advised. I had
gotten better on the slope itself the day he’d taken me for my first private
lesson, but this was miles ahead of that even—I could feel the difference in my
control, in the smoothness of my landings as I came out of aerials and grabs. I
started showing off as Jaxon and I took turns going through the track, trying
new things—things I wasn’t even sure I could properly land. The cushions and
foam blocks in the gullies of the ramps made it easier to take the risk; if I
fell I probably wouldn’t break anything important.