Hunger (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (18 page)

“I wanted to thank you for respecting my wishes tonight.”

“You’re welcome?”

“I also wanted to tell you that I’ve had a few weeks to think about... everything, and I’ve... accepted it. Begrudgingly, I have to add. I don’t really have a choice.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned at him. “Okay? Thank you, I think. But why are you telling me this?”

He swallowed hard. “I miss you, muffin. And soon you’ll be in Connecticut and I’ll see you even less. We...
I
... would like it if you and Luke would come over for dinner once a week.”

“Really?” I asked, then a sour thought dampened my surprise. “I suppose the same rules apply? You want us to come over and act like siblings instead of lovers?”

He winced at my use of the word ‘
lovers
’, but shook his head.

“No. I understand that’s not a practical thing to ask. You can... hold hands or whatnot. Just... please keep it PG for me. But I love you and I want to see you more often before you run off to college, even if that means getting the package deal.”

I was blown away by everything he had said and I couldn’t find it in me to verbally respond. There were tears gathering in my eyes and my throat felt like it was closing with emotion, so I simply reached forward threw my arms around his neck.

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, muffin.”

We embraced for the longest time and it felt like my entire universe had clicked into place. Everything was right with the world.

“Have fun on your honeymoon,” I said after we finally broke apart and I hastily wiped away my tears.

“Thanks,” he said gruffly, hiding his own emotions far better than I was managing to. “Come on, I’m sure Clara wants a hug before we go.”

I followed him back to the party where it was clearly winding down as everyone prepared to wave off the married couple. I was wearing a huge smile as we approached his new wife and Luke hesitantly smiled back. I walked to his side but kept a respectable amount of distance between us, and my dad wrapped an arm around Clara and hugged over to his side.

Clara looked up questioningly to my dad and he shook his head, silently communicating with her before turning to us. He stared at Luke for a long moment before he rolled his eyes and said, “Go ahead.”

Luke’s eyebrows drew together with confusion, but I understood what he meant. I reached for Luke’s hand and intertwined our fingers together then smiled up at Luke’s surprised face.

Clara sniffled and my dad rolled his eyes. “Alright, Clara. Say bye to the kids so we can take off.”

We all wished them a good, safe trip and my dad even patted Luke on the shoulder before they went outside and everyone waved them off. Once the car was out of sight, Daniel turned towards us asked, “Ready to roll?”

I nodded and said, “Take us home, please.”

We followed him back to the car, Luke keeping our hands tightly together and me pressed closely to his side.

For the first time ever, my life felt completely perfect.

I was holing hands with Luke—love of my life, possible future husband, maybe the eventual father of my children, and now my stepbrother.

Conventional? Hell no.

But I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

~*~*~

Three months later...

Connecticut was
boring.

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t a fair assessment to make about the entire state only a month into living there, but college was certainly dull as fuck. I let out a harsh breath as I stepped onto the bus I took from campus to the apartment complex where Luke and I lived.

At least I had something to look forward to when I went home today. Luke had managed to snag two part time jobs since we’d arrived—one as a bouncer at a nightclub and one acting as an ‘as needed’ temp on a construction site—and today was one of his rare days off from both.

I settled into my seat for the twenty minute ride, wondering what he had done with his day off.

Luke wasn’t an ‘idle hands’ kind of person, as I learned when we had stayed together in the motel. He constantly wanted to be doing something—fucking and working were his favorite two things to do. There wasn’t anything left to do at the apartment now that we were fully unpacked, so I could just imagine him wandering around the empty place like a caged lion while I was in class.

The thought made me chuckle and I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and powered it on curious to see if he had sent me any bored texts throughout the day. I typically left my phone on during class, but this morning I had been caught reading a text from Daniel during a lecture and was reamed for it.

Needless to say, I had turned the phone off and left it like that for the rest of my classes, too worried about a repeat performance to take my chances.

There wasn’t anything from Luke, but I had two more from Daniel. The first was asking why I never responded to the message I got caught reading, the second one was telling me to call him when I got out of school. I figured whatever it was could wait until after I grabbed something to eat and talked to Luke for a little while.

When the bus arrived at my stop, I was out of my seat and waiting near the door before it had stopped moving. I was the first to fly out of the open doors and I briskly made my way towards our building. The bag of books was killing my shoulders, but I didn’t slow down until I reached the door of our apartment and went to dig out my keys.

Before I could find them, the deadbolt twisted and the door flew open. A squeak of surprise came out of me as Luke reached forward and dragged me inside, taking the bag off my shoulder and dropping carelessly to the floor while I relocked the door.

I turned to him and opened my mouth, but all that came out was another shriek as he lifted me onto his shoulder caveman style and carried me down the hall towards our bedroom.

“Oh my—Luke!” I cried out, hitting his back lightly with my fists. “Let me down!”

“Alright,” he said as he pushed the bedroom door open with his foot and carefully stepped in, making sure not to bash me on the doorframe.

He took the remaining steps to the bed and dropped me on it, his hands already moving to tug down his shorts while I was still bouncing. I sat up and laughed as he crawled up the bed towards me completely naked, his cock already erect and ready for attention.

“
Jesus
, you’re in quite a mood,” I stated as he started undoing my jeans and pulling them down my hips. “What’d you do all day?”

“Think about you and jerk off,” he replied, not once pausing in his mission to rid me of my clothing.

“I highly doubt you spent the entire day doing that.”

“I went out for a couple hours.”

“To do what?” I asked, the words a little muffled as he pulled me up and removed my shirt.

“Shopping.”

Shopping for Luke usually meant something sex-related, so I couldn’t hold back my intrigued hum. “What’d you get? Something for me?”

“Of course it’s for you,” he said as he popped off my bra then reached for my hair and carefully removed the rubber band that was holding my hair into a ponytail. “I never buy shit for myself.”

I snorted. “I don’t know about that. I think lube for anal sex is more for you than it is for me.”

Luke gave me a lopsided grin. “Okay, you got me there. But it’s not a sex thing.”

That
really
captured my attention. I couldn’t recall a time yet that he had bought me a present that wasn’t somehow related to sex—not that I was complaining about it. Luke was running his hands through my freely flowing hair and positioning himself between my legs when I stopped him with a hand to his chest.

“Wait, wait. What is it?”

“Later,” he whispered before capturing my lips and cutting off my weak protests.

The kiss was full of fire and passion like always, but there was something else in there that wasn’t always present. It wasn’t love—that was always there—but something I couldn’t quite place my finger on. It was odd and the kiss felt slightly disjointed because of it.

I pulled away and frowned at him. “What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong,” he said, straining his neck to kiss me again.

I turned my head away and pressed his chest hard, pushing him back. “No, seriously. Something’s wrong. Spill it.”

Luke sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I swear to you nothing’s wrong. I’m just a little nervous.”

“About sex?” I asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow. “Because this is
not
our first rodeo.”

“No, smartass. About the gift.”

I sat up and grinned. “You should give it to me now, then you won’t be nervous about it.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Luke said nervously, his eyes darting around the room.

Whatever it was, he was definitely more freaked out over it than he had been back when we went to confront our parents. Uncertainty was an odd look on him, one I had never seen before.

I quickly discovered that I didn’t like it.

“Luke, please. It’s...
weird
seeing you like this. Just give me the present.”

“Fine,” he said with a sigh as he got off the bed, his cock still straining for attention. “I’ll be right back.”

He jogged out of the room and I bit back a laugh at the sight of his huge cock bouncing through the air. When he returned, he was holding a plastic bag in one hand and his cock in the other.

“You know, I’m sure running with boobs hurts like hell, but it probably doesn’t compare to running with a boner.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Probably not. Especially not with a dick as big as yours.”

That seemed to lift his spirits a little and he grinned as he seductively took ahold of himself and lightly stroked. “You mean this dick?”

“Mm-hmm,” I hummed as he got closer and closer to me.

“Say you love it,” he whispered, leaning down to drop the bag on the floor as he crawled back up the bed.

“I love your huge cock, Luke,” I whispered back, writhing around on the bed like I was a bitch in heat. “I love feeling it stretching me open, I love how it feels when I come on you. I want it in me
so
bad.”

Luke licked his lips and moved further up the bed, spreading my legs and getting right between them. Before he could align himself with my entrance, I abruptly sat up and pushed him back.

“But not until I get my gift.”

He let out a tortured groan. “Jenna, you can’t say shit like that then expect me to focus on anything else.
Fuck
.”

“Please?” I begged, giving him my best puppy dog eyes.

He clenched his jaw and shook his head miserably. “Fine. But I... I wanted to wait.”

I didn’t understand what he meant and it wasn’t any clearer when he got off the bed and reached for the bag. He held it for a long moment like he was considering something, then reached over and handed it to me with a whispered, “Here.”

I frowned and grabbed the bag, sitting it in my lap and looking for the opening into the plastic. Once I found it, I reached in and felt my eyes immediately go wide as saucers when my fingers touched what was undoubtedly a small, velvet box.

“Is this—”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god.”

“I know.”

“Luke?”

“Yeah?”

I didn’t need expensive. I didn’t need a speech. All I needed were the words. Those four words and I was his.

I pulled the box from the bag and stared at it hard for a moment before handing it to him.

“Ask me.”

He gulped and tugged me against his body, his other hand tightly clutching the box, and he dragged me down to the foot of the bed and helped me stand before lowering to one knee.

“I haven’t had time to think of anything to say. I—”

“I don’t care about that. Just ask me.”

His eyes were terrified as he stared up at me, watching my reaction as he flipped open the box and quietly asked, “Will you marry me?”

I threw my arms around him, sending us both crashing to the floor with me on top. He grunted from the force as I pressed my face into his neck and whispered, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, love you, oh my god, yes.”

Once he heard an affirmative response, he clutched me to him like a lifeline and our lips met moments later, sealing the perfect moment with the most meaningful kiss of our relationship thus far. Overcome by the desire to make the moment even more perfect, I reached between us and gripped his cock, aligning it with my entrance and sinking down on it with a groan of pleasure.

“Holy
fuck
,” Luke gasped. “You—Hold up.”

He stretched to reach for the box and I held up my left hand so he could slide the gorgeous diamond ring onto my finger.

“When I have more money, I’ll get you a better one. Something bigger or—”

“Don’t. Please, don’t,” I whispered as I inspected the sparkling diamond on my finger. “This one is perfect.”

He smiled and sat up, propping himself on his elbows, and I slowly raised my hips and began to ride him. His head tilted back, hanging lifelessly in the air as he moaned and I trailed my fingertips down the column of his neck.

“
You’re
perfect,” I whispered.

He lifted his head and opened his eyes, looking at me curiously as he breathlessly asked, “Me? No.
You
are perfect. I love you so fucking much.”

We had made love plenty of times before, but it had never felt so emotionally charged as this time did. I took my time moving up and down and he allowed me to go whatever speed I wanted, not in a rush to finish this moment.

After a while of lazily riding him, I couldn’t take it anymore and I sadly whimpered, “Luke, my knees are killing me.”

“Lay on the bed.”

I moved off, whimpering slightly at the loss of his length inside me, then stood on wobbly legs to get to the bed. He was right behind me, crawling up to crouch between my knees before pushing back inside with a fluid roll of his hips.

One thing Luke wasn’t aware of was the fact that he wasn’t the only one with a surprise. I had been holding on to mine for the past three weeks, wanting to wait for the drugs to work their way into my system before mentioning it and now I was glad I had waited.

Because now felt like the perfect moment to tell him.

“Luke, I have a surprise for you, too.”

“What’s that, baby?” he breathlessly asked, keeping his hips slowly rolling.

“I went to the doctor on campus. I’m on the pill.”

He stopped moving and stared down at me with a disbelieving smile. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I wanted to take them for a few weeks so they’d get in my system so I didn’t—”

He cut off my words by kissing me, slipping his tongue into my mouth and mimicking the movement of his hips as he began to make love to me again. As the tension in our lower bodies started to rise as he increased his speed, he pulled back.

“Does that mean I can—”

“Yes.
Please
,” I gasped breathlessly.

“
Christ
,” he whispered as he let out a harsh breath. He sat up on his knees and thrust wildly into me, rubbing my clit in furious circles. Suddenly, neither of us cared about prolonging the romantic moment. Now we both craved crossing over the finish line.

“Remember what I told you all those months ago? I’m not letting go until the moment you do.”

“Harder,” I demanded, already feeling myself at the edge. “My clit, press harder.”

Luke pressed his finger down harder, the pressure making my body spasm wildly as my climax approached. I moaned and let my head fall back against the pillows.

“I can feel it, baby. I can feel that you’re close. Come for me,” he whispered pleadingly. “Come with me.”

I let out a helpless whimper as my body tensed up, responding to his command. My eyes slammed shut, unable to hold them open as the ecstasy slammed into me. Luke fell forward onto one arm, his other hand still trapped between our bodies attempting to flick against my clit.