Hitched: A Stepbrother Honeymoon Romance (20 page)

And when I’ve gone so far out that the party’s just a speck of light behind me? That’s when the tears start to fall. I can’t believe that somehow, in the back of my mind, I thought it wouldn’t end this way. I thought we wouldn’t have to go home.

But I guess every honeymoon has to end sometime.

Chapter 23: Laney

Hot, angry tears run down my cheeks as I walk further and further away from the party. It’s been half an hour since I left the party, and I don’t feel like stopping anytime soon. Images of Travis play in my head as I go, from our awkward, sexually charged early days, to the blissful, even more sexually charged days we spent honeymooning around the hotel. In my mind’s eye, I see his massive naked body and hear his stupid jokes, and I can practically feel the way his eyes devour me and the way he holds me at night. And the thought of that all going away, maybe forever?

I guess that’s why I’m still walking.

Up ahead of me, a huge red firecracker streaks up into the sky, arcs over my head, and explodes into a hundred shimmering embers. It’s beautiful, but it’s also another reminder of what I’m going to be leaving behind: lying in bed with Travis, watching these fireworks from the window of the suite.

I walk for a few more minutes under the firework-lit sky, and then I start to slow down. The rum is starting to soak into my blood, and I’m starting to realize just how far away I am from civilization at this point. So after a couple more angry steps, I stop, let out a deep breath, and look up at the fireworks in the sky.

“Shit, Laney, I thought you were going to walk all the way to the guy’s house.”

I spin around in the sand and practically slam right into Travis, who’s watching the fireworks right behind me. “Travis! What are you doing?”

“Watching fireworks with my sexy-ass stepsister, what are you doing?”

I run past Travis, squinting into the darkness behind us and expecting to see an army of paparazzi coming for us. But if they’re out there, I can’t see them. “You have to get back to the party before people realize you’re gone!”

Travis has that lost in thought look on his face again. I grab his arm and try to snap him out of it. “Seriously, go! I’m pretty sure Anna knows something’s going on. If they find us together out here, then— ”

Travis looks at me. “Then what?”

A firework explodes directly over us, bathing Travis in warm red light. It reminds me of the dream I had on the first night of the honeymoon. The one where we were alone on the beach at night…the one where I gave myself to him completely.

“Then…it’s all over. We’ll be on the front of every tabloid in the country. Nina will kill you for making her look bad. You’ll probably lose all your sponsors, your endorsements, your fans…everything.”

Travis shrugs. “That’s it?”

“What do you mean, that’s it? If we get caught, it’s going to be the worst thing ever.”

The thought gets to me so much that I almost want to turn around and start walking again. But before I can, Travis pulls me into his arms and holds me tight, and it feels so good that for a second, I don’t even care who might be watching.

“The worst thing ever? That was walking around that fucking party pretending like we didn’t even know each other. That was having to pretend to be interested in every single girl the tabloids paid to flirt with me while I watched you deal with my mom’s bullshit. And that was watching you leave, with tears in your fucking eyes, because you thought it was over.”

Travis takes a step back and unzips his bike jacket, pulling it off his shoulders and throwing it down onto the sand.

“That’s what I think about my fucking sponsors. I’d rather lose every last sponsorship I have than see that look on your face again.”

Without his jacket, Travis is shirtless, the ink on his body blazing in the dark. And for a second, I don’t know what to do. All my inhibitions scream in my head for me to run away as fast as I possibly can. But I don’t. I stay there, watching him in the dark.

“I’m done looking at you from across the room. I’m done catching you looking at me and not doing anything about it because our parents are fucking married. I’m done pretending this isn’t real, like we’re just drunk, or crazy, or getting carried away with being fake married whenever something happens between us. And most of all, I’m done pretending that all of this is going to magically go away when we get on that plane and fly back to LA. And if that means I have to lose everything I have, then I guess I’ll just have to lose it all, because I’ve wanted you ever since I saw you sitting at that little kitchen table in Pasadena, and I don’t think I’m ever going to fucking stop.”

Three fireworks go off at once, blanketing the sky with streaks of red and lighting up the whole beach. Suddenly, it feels like we’re standing on the edge of the world, where no cameras could ever find us. The voices in my head telling me to run fall silent, and I look into Travis’ eyes, where I can see that every word he just said is the absolute truth.

All of a sudden, I’m in his arms, totally at his mercy. And from by the way he’s holding me, I can tell that he really has wanted me ever since the day we met. It seems so obvious now, as I rest my face against his chest and think back to the days when we lived in the same house. And the more I think about it, the more it brings a deep, dark secret to the surface, something that I’ve even been denying to myself: I’ve wanted him, too. I’ve wanted him this whole time.

My eyes are starting to fill with tears again, but this time they’re tears of relief, relief that we’re not hiding any more, that I don’t have to deny my feelings, don’t have to call them something else.

Not out here, on the edge of the world. Out here, I can hold Travis as tightly as I want.

Chapter 24: Travis

There are seven other bikers in the locker room with me. They’re getting changed, taking showers, and warming up. I’ve been in locker rooms like this hundreds of times, and normally, I’’ve got a pretty simple routine. Get dressed, get clean, and get out on the fucking track, you know?

But this time, it’s a little different. I take my time getting dressed, waiting for everyone else to leave, one by one. Then, when I’ve got the room to myself, I sit on the bench and take a long, deep breath.

Those other guys might not know it yet, but they don’t have a chance in hell. Not after what happened last night. Seeing the look on Laney’s face when she finally, finally realized how I really feel about her…

I might never lose a race again.

Last night, as we sat down and watched the fireworks, Laney mentioned that it reminded her of a dream she had when we first got to the hotel. Apparently, while she was calling me a pervert, she was rolling around in that king-size bed, dreaming of me laying her naked body down on the sand and licking her until she screamed.

And then, after making her little dream come true, we slept out there on the beach, woke up at the crack of dawn, and walked all the way back to the hotel. It was pretty much the perfect fucking morning, and I play it back in my mind as I sit on the bench.

Just the two of us. Exactly the way it should be.

Outside the door to the locker room, I can hear the other bikers rev up their engines and ride out into the entrance tunnel. I open my locker, pull out my helmet, and tuck it underneath my arm. They’re probably going to send someone in to come get me soon, but I want to stay back just a little bit longer.

After all, this is going to be a big race. Much bigger than anyone out there realizes right now.

I lean against the lockers with my eyes closed, getting ready to head out into the tunnel and smoke my competition. A couple seconds later, I hear the locker room door, and I assume it’s Paul, coming back to make sure I’m alright.

But it isn’t Paul. It’s Anna, Laney’s boss. She’s standing between me and the bench, arms crossed, looking at me with this weird, self-satisfied look on her face.

I think she’s expecting me to be surprised, but honestly, I’m really only surprised this didn’t happen sooner. I guess she wanted to wait until the last minute.

I smirk at her, zipping up my jacket and putting on my gloves. “You’re going to miss the show.”

Anna raises an eyebrow. “You’re fucked.”

“Last time I checked, I’m tied for first place. All I have to do is finish in front of the Brazilian guy and I’m going to win the whole thing.”

Instantly, her evil smile turns into a glare, and when I try and walk past her into the tunnel, she grabs my arm.

“I don’t think you
understand
, loverboy. Unless you want your little stepsister to get some very embarrassing news on national television, you’re going to stay right here and hear me out.”

I look at Anna. “Say what you want to say.”

Anna pulls out her phone and holds it in front of me. On the screen, there’s a blurry night vision picture of me cuddling with Laney on the beach. “Not so cocky now, are we? Did you really think I wasn’t going to have somebody on a boat going up and down the beach?”

She scrolls through a couple more pictures, all of them pretty much the same thing.

“And that’s not all. When I saw these pictures, I had a little hunch and checked out the Nevada state marriage records from the weekend you two were in Vegas...and I think you know what I found.”

Anna pulls her phone away and grins like an evil cat. “So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to hold onto these pictures, and you’re going to do what I tell you to do for the foreseeable future. You’re going to hook up with who I want to hook up with, you’re going to party where I want you to party, and you’re going to say what I want you to say in interviews. Nothing I make you do is going to be
this
bad for your reputation, but let’s just say you’ll be giving me exclusives for a long, long time.”

I almost have to laugh at the look on Anna’s face. She’s so fucking sure that I’m going to do what she wants. That I’m so concerned about my public image that I’ll do whatever she says to protect it. That I should live in fear of what other people are going to think about me and Laney.

But I’m not scared of her. Shit, I feel sorry for her. She’s famous too, and since she makes her living exposing everyone else’s secrets, she can never, ever have one. It’d fucking ruin her, and she knows that better than anyone.

So I don’t get mad that she’s trying to blackmail me. I just pull out of her grip and walk right past her, shaking my head.

“You
can’t
be serious,” she says, “You’re actually going to let me break this story? Are you insane?”

With on hand on the door handle, I turn back and look at Anna. “I’m not going to let you break the story. I broke it myself twenty minutes ago.”

A vein twitches in Anna’s neck. “No,” she whispers, looking down and furiously tapping at her phone, “No no no no no…”

And as much as I’d like to stick around and watch Anna freak out, I’ve got a race to get to, so I put on my helmet and walk through the door, letting her figure out what I did on her own.

See, this morning, while I was sitting in our suite, listening to Laney sing in the shower and getting ready head out to the stadium, I typed up a little message to my fans. A message where I tell my own story of the past few weeks, completely and honestly. I didn’t know for a fact that anyone saw us last night, but I wanted to make sure that if the story got out, it was going to get out through us.

And that’s why I know I’m going to win this race…because ever since I hit that fucking send button, I’ve been feeling completely unstoppable.

I steer my bike up into the entrance tunnel, looking out at the packed stadium in front of me. As I wait for the race to start, I scan the crowd, looking for any sign of Laney. I spot Nina first, sitting near the back of the stadium. She’s alone, though; there’s no sign of Laney or Laney’s dad sitting anywhere near her.

Loud electric guitar blares through the speakers, and Paul comes out of the tunnel on the other side, waving to the crowd as he heads our way. I didn’t fucking mean to give him the biggest event of his life, but looking at his face now, I’m pretty glad I did.

He walks over to the tunnel, where the eight of us are all lined up, ready to hit the gas, and stands next to me. “Ready?” he asks.

I nod, he raises his hand up in the air, and the crowd gets up on their feet. I take one more look around the stadium, and that’s when I see Laney. Right in the front row, looking at me with a smile on her face.

I’m ready, all right. I’m ready for whatever comes next.

When Paul’s hand comes down, I slam my foot on the gas, letting the roar of the engine fill my ears as I barrel around the first turn of the track. The race is eight laps around the track that circles the trick area from yesterday. There are rough patches, hills, and dips in the path, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.

I take an early lead and cut into the inside of the track, taking the first hill so well that the crowd screams louder than my engine. It’s not an easy track, but for me, it feels like I’m moving across it in slow motion.

For the first three laps, I feel like nothing can stop me. I hit the hills perfectly every time, stick to the inside of the track, and take the quickest possible path through the rough spots. Every time I pass Laney, I look her way, and when I see her adorable face smiling down at me, it’s like somebody pours rocket fuel into my engine. I don’t think she’s seen the post, yet, though.