Gripped: A Stepbrother Romance (Bonus Story: Stepbrother Forbidden) (7 page)

She pulled back and dug out her phone from her bag.

“Hey Dad—” she began, then her face creased in worry. “I’m at the hospital. Why?”

I watched as her face morphed from worry to confusion before settling on disbelief. She launched to her feet, covering her mouth as she shook her head.

“No…no, that’s not possible. I was just with her.” Tears welled in her eyes. I got to my feet as well, dread heavy and thick on my chest. “It’s not possible. I’m going back to see her right now.”

She hung up the phone and spun to face me, her face wet with tears.

“Reid.” Her lips quivered as though something within tried to prevent her from talking.

“What?” I gripped her shoulders. I swallowed and then swallowed again. Some kind of lump was lodged inside my throat. “What is it?”

I didn’t have to ask because I knew what she was going to say. I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted that when Mac opened her mouth, she’d have something entirely different to say.

She closed her eyes and shook her head but the tears wouldn’t stop falling.

“Vera…Vera’s gone.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Reid

Whenever I drove these days, I’d notice graveyards.

In the past, I’d drive by them and not give a shit because there was always that subconscious habit in humans to put anything related to death at the back of the brain. Nobody wanted to dwell on their mortality or that of their loved ones. But, yeah, I’d notice the graveyards ever since I heard my mother was dying. I’d glance at the gravestones and the general grassy area and quietly wonder if it would be the perfect fit for my mother.

Today, as I stood beneath a large shade tree and watched my mother being buried, I gazed across the expansive green and the gentle slopes dotted with trees and hoped I’d made the right choice.

My mother was gone. Dead. A few weeks later and I’d only just come to a marginal acceptance of that fact. For years it had just been the two of us. Along the way, Harry and Mackenzie came into our lives but it had always still felt like it was just us against the world. But then my feelings for Mac got in the way. It was too much for me to handle and I left. And even though I’d kept up communication with her, I’d abandoned her. Only returning when it was too late.

I was spiralling down to that dark, negative place of self-loathing and anger again. But a gentle touch on my arm brought me back to the present. Mac gazed up at me with a sad smile on her face.

“Your mother loved you,” she said quietly. “She was always proud of you, Reid. Don’t forget that.”

It was not the first time she’d said those things to me. She seemed to always know when the dark thoughts were hitting me the hardest. Harry and I were absolute wrecks whereas Mac was like the lone support stand, holding us up from totally falling down.

My mother’s death affected her too. It was obvious in the deep sadness in her eyes or the way her voice would waver and her body tremble when she talked about my mother. Harry and I had been useless, but Mac had been the one to get almost everything organized to give my mother a proper burial.

“Everyone’s heading back to the house. Are you coming or do you want to stay here for a while?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m gonna stay here a bit longer. I’ll meet you guys there soon.”

She opened her mouth as though she wanted to say more, but she closed it and shook her head, squeezing my hand gently.

“See you soon.”

As I watched her walk away, her curly hair and the skirt of her black dress waving in the soft breeze that blew by, I remembered some of my mother’s last words to me.

You should take better care of Mackenzie.

I would, mom. But right now, Mackenzie was taking better care of me.

By the time I got back to the house, night had fallen and everyone had left. I found Mac in the kitchen drinking a glass of water.

“Are you hungry? There’s stuff left over from the caterers.”

“Nah, I’m good.” I leaned against the counter, watching her. She looked exhausted. I wanted to hold her in my arms and let her rest her head against my chest. “You should get some rest.”

“Can’t yet,” she said as she set her glass in the sink. “I have to make sure Dad’s OK.” She gave me a tired smile as she went past me. “I have to tuck him in. Be right back.”

I remained in the kitchen until the quiet and the memories of my mother, alive and healthy puttering about this same room forced me back outside. I leaned against the porch railings and stared at the vivid night lights of downtown Seattle in the distance.

“The city is so pretty at night,” said Mac, coming to stand beside me. “I like to take Betsy and grab a few shots now and then.”

“You should see Japan during their Shogatsu festival. Stunning.”

“God, I’ve always been so jealous of you. You’re living my dream, except without the chasing after bad guys part.” She let out a soft sigh. “I want to travel the world and take lots of awesome pictures.”

It took everything I had not to blurt out that she should come with me to France. The more I thought about it, the better the idea sounded. But I held back. The probability of her saying no was high because of the tiring events of the day, and I didn’t have it in me to withstand her rejection. Besides, maybe it wasn’t that great of an idea. Being alone with her in a foreign country where nobody knew our history would be too tempting.

“I’m heading back to France the day after tomorrow,” I said instead.

She tore her gaze away from the city view and stared up at me with wide eyes.

“So soon?”

I shrugged. “Mom is gone, so I guess I have to get back to work.”

A look of disappointment came into her eyes, but it was so fleeting, I doubted it ever happened. She looked away from me, a serene expression on her face as she gazed on the city again.

Her sudden silence unnerved me. She shivered and rubbed her arms and I removed my blazer and draped it around her shoulders.

“Better?”

“Yes.” She smiled up at me, her eyes black and mysterious in the night’s gloom.

Then she hugged me. Her hands snaked around my sides, squeezing me in a tight embrace. She pressed her face against my shoulder, her breath warm even through my shirt when she breathed. The hug took me by surprise but I recovered and coiled my hands around her body, holding her against me too.

If I wasn’t supposed to have her, then why did she fit so perfectly in my arms? Why did it feel like holding her against me was exactly where we were meant to be? I clung to her tighter and pressed my face against her hair, inhaling the flowery scent of her shampoo. I never wanted this moment to end. I never wanted to let her go.

Yet she was pulling away and I had no choice but to relinquish my hold.

“I think it’s time I head to bed. I don’t know when I’ll see you again so have a safe flight.”

She raised up on her toes and gave me a quick, unsatisfactory peck on the cheek. What the fuck was that? That wouldn’t do at all.

“I think we can do better than that.”

I wrapped my hands around her body again and kissed her. Her response was immediate. Desperate. She pushed me along further than I’d intended to go and I went with her gladly. She held onto me.
Gripped
me. Kissed me like this was her last golden chance and she was taking as much as she could until she was no longer allowed to.

Every touch of her tongue to mine made my cock harder. I grabbed her backside possessively, pulling her tight so she could feel exactly what she did to me. She moaned into my mouth and the sexy sound drove me crazy with desire. I’d been inside her once and I wanted to do it all over again right here, right now.

When our kiss broke, I held her in my arms still and relished the feel of her quick breathing on my lips. My dick was painfully hard, straining against my pants, begging for her attention.

I love you
. Realizing how much I wanted to tell her that, how much I meant it scared me shitless. So I let her go and took a step back. She was my stepsister. This would never work. I had to forget and let go.

“Sleep well,” I said.

Her lips were pink and pouty from our kiss. It took the willpower of a saint to resist kissing her again. She clutched the front of the blazer together, her features sad yet accepting.

“You too.”

I hurried to my car before my cock made me change my mind. As I drove away, I kept her in my sights until I could no longer see her standing on the porch.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Mackenzie

5 months later

I stepped out of the shower and reached for my towel to dry my face. Today was Parent/Teacher day at the school and I’d been given a day off. Desiree had bugged me to go out shopping but I’d declined. Instead I’d spent most of the morning tending to Vera’s garden.

She’d been gone for nearly half a year and while the pain of losing her still lingered, it didn’t hurt as much. I suppose it was because she’d spent so long in the hospital, Dad and I had grown accustomed to living without her. Dad had recovered from losing her to an extent. But there were still moments when it was clear he missed her terribly.

I wrapped the towel around me and moved to brush my teeth. Mid-spit, I heard the doorbell rang.

Ugh
. Who could it be disturbing my peaceful day off? Dad wasn’t set to be home for many hours yet. And he wouldn’t ring the door bell either since it was his house. Probably a door-to-door salesman or someone from a religious organization.

Wait. Or it could be the delivery guy bringing me that battery grip for Betsy. That delivery company was unreliable as hell. If I didn’t hurry down there right this second, the driver would slap a ‘pick up delivery at location’ slip and hustle off to somewhere else. It was a wonder he’d even bothered to get out of his truck in the first place.

Clad in my fluffy pink towel, my hair in unflattering wet clumps, I scampered downstairs to the front door. I flung it open, expecting the surly stare of a delivery man. Instead I found Reid.

“Hey, Mac.”

The sight of him was like a punch to the gut, robbing me of air. Dressed in a sweater and dark jeans, he looked the same like if he’d never left.

“What are you doing here?” fired out of my mouth before I could stop it.

He smiled and pushed his hands into his pants pockets. The glare from outside cast his face in a shadow and gave his features a mysterious tint.

“Hm. I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

Happy? I wasn’t sure that was the exact emotion I felt. My heart raced like a whipped horse, careening forward. If there was a word for excited, terrified, ecstatic and confused all rolled into one, then I was it.

I held onto the doorknob tighter. “That still doesn’t answer my question.”

“I came back for something.”

My heart did a little leap then fell back to the ground, still racing.

“What did you come back for?”

“My blazer.”

Silence.

I stared at him, my confusion rapidly morphing into irrational anger.

“Your blazer?” I parroted, incapable of hiding the irritation in my voice. “You came all the way back from god-knows-where for your
blazer
?”

“Yes. It’s important. I wore it to my mother’s funeral.”

His persistent smile was fuel to the fiery anger burning hot in my chest. I told myself to calm down, that he was probably lying, but my brain didn’t want to proceed with logical thinking. No, Reid wasn’t lying because if he were, that would mean he’d returned for something else. That would mean he returned for me.

And that wasn’t possible. He was not the kind of guy to make a big jump like that. Months ago, it was clear he had feelings for me but instead of sticking around to see if things could work, he’d ran away like he was prone to do. Now he was back five months later and I had every belief he’d exorcised whatever feelings he’d had for me to make things easier on himself.

I spun away from the door and marched through the hall, up the stairs. I heard him taking off his shoes before he closed the front door and followed at a much more leisurely pace. Shoving my bedroom door open, I headed straight for my closet where I’d hung up his blazer.

Shamefully, I’d went to bed for many nights holding it in my hands, inhaling his scent on it. For the past five months I’d felt like I’d suffered two losses: losing my stepmother and losing Reid. It was ridiculous, but having that blazer—a physical reminder of both Reid and Vera since he’d worn it to her funeral—had helped me get over the double loss.

But Reid was back. Risen from the dead, unearthing all the feelings I’d struggled to bury in the first place.

I grabbed the hanger supporting the blazer and shoved it toward Reid.

“Here.”

He watched me but he wouldn’t take it.

I scowled and shook the hanger. “Well? Take it.”

He stepped closer, forcing my hand back.

“I don’t want it.”

“You’re joking, right?” I rolled my eyes. “Quit being so fickle and make up your mind about what you want.”

He took the hanger from my hands and flung the blazer into a nearby armchair. Then he moved closer still, standing so close, I couldn't ignore his presence and the heat of his body. His divine smell, woodsy with that same soft hit of lavender, teased me and I inhaled deeply to get as much of him as I could.

“I already did. It took me a while, but I did.”

My breathing came deeper and faster. The rise of my breasts undid the quick towel tuck and I grew aware that that was the only thing covering me. I held the edge of my towel against my body. I didn’t miss the way Reid’s hungry gaze dipped to my chest for a moment before rising to my face again.