Fight: A Stepbrother Romance Novella (10 page)

“Well, that’s unexpected. You two are related, right?”

“Stepsiblings, so no,” said Paxton, looking unconcerned.

Lila smiled suddenly. “I’m just teasing. I could tell she was madly in love with you from the moment she came to my office.”

I blushed, hating to be spoken about like I wasn’t there and also sensitive to the fact she had realized how I felt about Paxton when I didn’t even have a clue what kind of relationship they had now or had in the past. “We aren’t doing anything wrong,” I muttered.

“Nope.” Lila shrugged, looking unconcerned. A second later, her expression turned serious. “Your stepfather is into a lot of bad shit, Paxton. He’s hiding money, stealing from investors, producing shoddy and dangerous products, and plundering the retirement accounts of his employees. Basically, he’s the poster child for douche bag corporate greed.”

I winced, hating hearing my suspicions confirmed. Not because I cared about what happened to my father, but because of what he’d done to others, and how many people he’d been hurting. It would soon come to light, and I couldn’t help thinking of all the devastation facing people in the coming days.

“Great.” Paxton was clearly focused on bringing down my father and not on what he’d done to others, which I understood. “How do we use that to bring him down?”

Lila grinned. “I know someone who can help.”

“Of course you do,” said Paxton with affection.

I could feel the jealousy creeping up again, but I forced it back. I’d have to find out where Lila fit into his life, but I was glad to have her help.

After she left, I turned to Paxton. “Is she your lover?”

His eyes widened. “Lila? Hell, no.”

I nodded, accepting it, but also needing to know about the past. “Was she before?”

Paxton grinned, clearly amused at the idea. “Nope. When I first met her, I thought she wanted that, but she just saw my potential to be a fighter. A few months into our arrangement, I was starting to feel I owed her, since I hadn’t won any matches yet, and she was supporting me financially. I made a play, and she let me down gently.”

I frowned, trying to hide my reaction. “I see.”

“Do you?” He touched my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “I didn’t want to sleep with her. I thought I owed her something, and it was all I had to offer. She knew that, and she didn’t want to sleep with me either. She’s a friend and a business colleague, but nothing else.”

“Okay.” In that case, I was definitely glad to have the woman in our corner.

“There’s never been someone I loved before you. I love you and only you, Mia.”

My eyes burned with tears, but I absolutely refused to cry again. I didn’t want him to think I was a big ol’ crybaby about everything. “I love you too, Paxton.”

“Thank god for that, because I can’t let you go now.” He said it in a warning fashion.

I didn’t know if he was warning me not to try to leave him, or if he was still trying to warn me away, because he thought it was the right thing to do. Either way, I snuggled closer, having no plans to go anywhere. “You’ll never get rid of me.”

“I like that idea just fine, baby.”

  Paxton

The story broke within twenty-four hours. I tuned in with dark glee as I watched S.E.C. agents escorting a handcuffed Dirk Gaithway from his mansion. He’d been in the process of fleeing, according to the reporters, but he’d surrendered without a fight. I was of two minds on that outcome. On the one hand, I wanted him to suffer a long life in prison. Still, I would have been perfectly content to see him shot on a live news feed—though I doubt I’d have gotten to see that part.

Mia and I celebrated with a fancy dinner out before returning to my apartment to make love. It wasn’t as sweet this time, but even when we got rougher with each other, there was underlying tenderness in each act. I couldn’t imagine ever getting bored with her body. Or her heart. Or her mind.

She was my everything.

Fuck, it felt good.

***

Six months later, I won my first championship. I had the official title, and it came with a boatload of money, endorsements, and media attention. Reporters dug into my past and learned my girlfriend was also my stepsister, but most people didn’t seem to care, to my surprise.

Maybe it was because I was a UFC fighter and could kick ass, or maybe because most reporters emphasized how we’d been estranged as adults for a long time. I think I had Lila to thank for the surprising tact of the journalists, though she refused to take any credit for influencing any of her contacts.

After learning about Mia, it was inevitable my link to Dirk Gaithway, awaiting trial for the biggest corporate scandal since Enron, would come to light. I’d been undergoing regular therapy, and with Mia at my side, I made a brief announcement about being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse the day after the first article linking us appeared.

It created a stir, and it made people loath Dirk already more than they already had. The scrutiny made me uncomfortable, but it was also liberating to stop hiding my secret. That bastard certainly didn’t deserve to be protected or shielded for what he’d done, and I’d come to realize I didn’t have to carry the shame around with me. I wasn’t ready to talk about it with anyone and everyone—and I walked out on a couple of interviews before journalists got that message and stopped asking for details—but it felt good to share my past.

With my past firmly where it belonged, I could focus on my future. It began in earnest a week after I admitted what Dirk had done to me. I proposed to Mia in a quiet, romantic restaurant, and she said yes. Of course she did. Yeah, I’m a conceited jerk, but I knew she’d say yes. She couldn’t live without me—but that goes both ways. I couldn’t live without her either.

Three months after our engagement, we got married in Bermuda and spent a month holed up in a private villa. Lost in our own world, we were among the last to hear that Dirk had been sentenced to eighteen years in prison and ordered to repay all the money he’d stolen. He’d never have those kinds of funds, but I liked the idea that he’d be haunted for the rest of his life, if he survived prison.

I was surprised by how little I cared about his fate. He was firmly in my past. The nightmares that had plagued me over the years were gone, and I slept deeply each night with Mia in my arms. I worried about how she took the news of his sentencing, because she was still his daughter, and she’d seemed upset. When I asked her about it, she said succinctly, “I’d hoped he’d get a longer sentence.”

God, I loved her.

******

Knox, ex-soldier and sheriff’s deputy, is a man used to being in control. When it comes to his stepsister, he wants to own every inch of her, but he’s tried to do the right thing and not pursue the need to possess her. Forget his good intentions, because Claire’s wicked teasing is driving him to the breaking point. Soon, she’ll know exactly what it means to belong to a man like him.

Knox barely bit back a moan when Claire sashayed into the kitchen for breakfast that morning. He kept his eyes glued to his bowl of oatmeal, though it was nowhere near as interesting as the long expanse of leg revealed by her short T-shirt and skimpy cotton panties. “Goddammit, Claire, put on some fucking clothes.“

She gave him a look full of innocent sweetness. “It’s so hot, and you’re the only one here. Why should I bother? It’s not like your dad and my mom are home. They’re off somewhere in Europe, probably not dying from the heat like we are here near Savannah.“

He growled low in his throat, clenching his fists together. It took everything he had not to lift his petite little stepsister off her feet, slam her on the table, tear the clothes from her body, and sink his cock deep inside her until she was screaming his name. Fuck, she was trying to kill him. A glance at his watch revealed he was going to be late for his shift if he didn’t leave soon, and it was a relief to have a reason to rush out, especially with her walking around so brazenly in that skimpy outfit.

His chair scraped the floor when he shoved back harder than necessary to get to his feet. As he slammed on his deputy’s hat, he glared at her. “Next time you’re in front of me, wear some damn clothes, or you’ll be sorry.“

She licked her lips, her eyes not betraying any fear, and it was clear his warning had done no good. “I am wearing clothes, dear stepbrother. Would you like to see me without them?“

With another growl that passed for words, Knox turned and stormed from the kitchen, slamming the front door behind him as he made his way to the police cruiser. She was trying to kill him, or drive him out of his mind. Didn’t she understand she was the reason he had fled to the military seven years ago? Could seemingly innocent Claire grasp how the dark urge he’d had to possess her, to claim and control her, had terrified him?

At twenty years old, he hadn’t known how to deal with the dominant side of himself, especially when the object of his obsession was his sixteen-year-old stepsister. From the time their parents got married the year before, she had been all he could think about. It had gotten to the point he’d wanted to beat every man who looked at her to a bloody pulp, and he’d been on the verge of telling her exactly how he felt.

Worse than that, he’d wanted to storm into her bedroom to show her how he felt. Night after night, he’d lain in his bed in the room next to hers, his hand stroking his cock while he fantasized about tying her up and eating her pussy until she screamed his name.

He’d known something had to change. The fantasies were becoming obsession, and he’d started planning how to make it happen. She had been too young and off-limits. That was clear, so he had chosen the only out available to a man without a college degree. The Marines had been glad to have him, and they had served him as well.

In the military, Knox had learned to hone his need for control, and he had harnessed his darker urges, or so he’d thought. He’d even managed to have a few “normal“ relationships with women, though he’d be lying if he didn’t admit most of them had turned to Claire in the dark. Tall or short, curvy or skinny, black or white, it hadn’t mattered. In the dark, they all became blonde-haired, petite temptresses with curves that welcomed a man’s hands and hips meant for holding during a lusty fuck.

It had been his intention to retire from the Marines after twenty years, hoping by then she would have had time to get married, pop out a couple of kids, and his obsession would have died. Unfortunately, an IED in Afghanistan had changed his plans, derailing his goals.

With nowhere else to go, he had come home to recover and rebuild his life. It hadn’t been so bad the first few months, when his dad and Miranda were there to act as a buffer. The pain of his injury had also kept him focused and on track, keeping him from doing anything he might regret to or with his sweet stepsister.

Unfortunately, their parents had gone on a summer-long cruise just a couple of weeks ago, and the pain from his injuries wasn’t nearly as bad as it had once been with physical therapy and an occasional pain pill to help. In fact, he had healed well enough to work as a sheriff’s deputy, and while he was supposed to be enforcing the law, he couldn’t help thinking about all the bad, bad things he wanted to do Claire.

The worst part of all, she seemed to want him to do them. Oh, he wasn’t crazy enough to think she would want him to tie her up, pull her hair, or do any other dark things his body urged. She clearly shared an attraction with him though. It had been hard enough to resist her when he was certain she was oblivious to him in that way. Now that he knew she saw him as a desirable man, it was much harder not to claim her.

He just had to be strong. He reminded himself of that as he stopped at the police station and went to work for the day. No matter how much he wanted Claire, she was still his stepsister and still off-limits.

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Novelettes:

Soldier Stepbrother

Claimed By Her Billionaire Stepbrother

Twister and Shout With My Step

Novellas:

Fade Back

Escape

Novels:

Fierced

Anthologies:

Stepbrother Rogues

Stepbrother Alphas

Addicted, Obsessed & Rocked

About the Author

Stephanie Brother writes scintillating stories with step-siblings as their main romantic focus. She’s always been curious about the forbidden, and this is her way of exploring such complex relationships that threaten to keep her couples apart. As she writes her way to her dream job, Ms. Brother hopes that her readers will enjoy the full emotional and romantic experience as much as she’s enjoyed writing them.

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