Hunger (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (6 page)

“You really are,” I agreed with a chuckle.

~*~*~

“Shopping with you is like a damn sport. I’m
exhausted
,” I said when we pulled up to my house a few hours later.

As if the mall hadn’t been hellish enough, Daniel had whined during the entire grocery trip, demanding that I rush through the store so we could get back to my house and start plotting phase two. It was stressful trying to gather all the things on Clara’s list while Daniel was constantly there nagging me to get a move on.

Thankfully, we were done. Now we just needed to unload everything into the house.

“I’ll take the clothes to your room then be back to help you with the groceries.”

“Alright,” I agreed as I began to load up my arms with bags, leaving myself a free hand to unlock the door with.

When I got to the door though, it turned out to be pointless. Luke threw the door open and stared at me with that same intensity he always had, his eyes freezing me in place for a long moment before they flickered away to the bags in my hands.

“Let me take those,” he said as he reached to take the grocery bags away from me. “I’ll get the rest, too, if you want to start putting things away. I’m not sure where everything goes.”

Daniel slipped past us with a hushed whisper of, “
How domestic
,” before slithering down the hallway unnoticed with the bags containing my new outfits.

I followed Luke into the kitchen and started putting things away as he went to retrieve the rest from Daniel’s trunk. Daniel reappeared and helped me restock the cabinets and cupboards and I crossed every item I got off the list and started a new one with the few items that I hadn’t been able to find at the store.

I noticed Luke standing near the bar, watching us with a furrowed brow.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“How do you know where everything goes?” he asked Daniel.

Daniel’s eyebrows raised, obviously surprised that Luke had spoken to him. “Oh, this has been like my second home for a while now. Ever since middle school.”

I chimed in with further explanation. “Dad wouldn’t let him stay the night at first, but Daniel would still come over all the time. Eventually, Dad finally realized that Daniel
really
wasn’t interested in me—or any girls—so he started allowing him to stay the night.”

“Slumber party! We should totally have one tonight,” he said excitedly, nudging my elbow with his own.

He was already setting the second phase into motion. A slumber party meant a guaranteed reason to stay for dinner. Daniel was definitely a sneaky one.

“Yeah, we really should.”

“I need to run home and grab a bag. Bill won’t mind, will he?”

I pretended to think about it even though we both knew the answer. “Nah, he’ll be fine with it. It’s not like we have school tomorrow.”

“True that!” he agreed, raising his hand up for a high five. I indulged him and we both laughed as he said, “Alright, I’ll be back in a jiff. You two behave yourselves.”

He said it as sternly as he possibly could then pointed between the two of us a few times for good measure. Once he was gone, Luke turned to me with wide, curious eyes.

“Slumber party?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

I was suddenly reminded of the fact that since he never had a sister growing up and really had no idea how to interact with women, perhaps he really had no way of knowing what a slumber party was.

“Yeah, you know. Staying up late, watching movies, playing games, talking about boys. All that good stuff.”

“Can I come?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You want to talk about boys?”

Surprisingly, an embarrassed blush crept onto his face. “No, I’ll skip that part. But can I hang out for the rest of it?”

Daniel will shoot me if I say no.
“I don’t see why not.”

Luke smiled widely and I wondered why he seemed so excited about this. Surely he’d spent a night with his friends before, and judging by his past addiction, I was damn near certain he’d spent the night with a number of women.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I frowned as I pulled it out.

‘Should I bring swim trunks?’

I typed back a quick reply.
‘Sure. Btw, Luke wants to join the slumber party.’

The man in question looked at me curiously when my phone chimed again and I stifled my laughter as I read the message.

‘OMG JACKPOT! This night will go down in history.’

“What are you smiling about?”

I turned to Luke and shook my head. “Nothing. Just Daniel being an idiot. Come on, I’ll show you where the rest of this stuff goes,” I offered as I gestured to the remaining groceries.

~*~*~

Twenty minutes later, everything was put away and Daniel came barging into the kitchen with a duffle bag.

“Good afternoon, my friends,” he greeted with an exaggerated bow. “Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

“Are you high?” I jokingly asked.

“Nope, just fishing for an invite to use your pool.”

I laughed at his bluntness and made a sweeping gesture to the back door. “Be my guest.”

“Don’t mind if I do. Let me just drop my bag off first. Will you two be joining me?”

“I will,” I said as I skipped behind him towards my room.

After all, this was part of the plan. Daniel had picked out a new swimsuit for me today that was actually a one piece, but it was somehow even sexier than a bikini. It was all ties around the back and barely there fabric on the front. When I tried it on in the store, I felt incredibly sexy.

Plus there was the fact that it was all black and red, a big difference from my own light pink bathing suit. Daniel claimed to get more of a punk rock vibe from Luke and thought this suit would really push his buttons.

I could only hope he was right. There was really only one way to find out.

“You coming?” I called out behind me, knowing Luke would hear me.

“I guess so,” he said quietly, even though I could hear the hesitation in his voice. His footsteps followed us down the hall and stopped in front of his own door where he went in to change into his trunks.

I wondered if today would play out the same way it did yesterday. Only today would be a hell of a lot more awkward if Daniel was around.

Ha, Daniel would get a kick out of seeing mini-Luke standing at attention.

When we were safely inside my bedroom, Daniel turned to grin at me. “This is going so perfectly. I wonder if we’ll even have to go to stage three.”

“Care to give me a hint as to what stage three entails?” I asked as I started to fish through the bags for the new swimsuit.

“Nope. But I will say that it’s the last step. It’ll engage the most primitive of a man’s emotions.”

“I don’t think I like the sound of that,” I said with a frown, turning to look at him as he peeled off his shirt.

“It’s nothing insidious, trust me.”

“I don’t have much of a choice, now do I?”

“Absolutely not.”

I rolled my eyes and threw my shirt at him, smiling when I heard his outraged cry of, “Hey!”

“Don’t look!” I warned as I stripped the rest of my clothes and pulled the swimsuit on.

I had seen Daniel naked a couple of times before, but I never let him see me in return. Even though Daniel was my best friend, the idea of getting naked in front of a man was still a little uncomfortable for me. He understood and totally respected my boundaries, which made me love him even more.

“Okay, I’m good. I just need you to tie me up.”

“I never expected to hear those words coming from a woman.”

“Shut up, Daniel.”

I felt him walk to my back and take hold of the strings around my neck and twist them into a bow before repeating the action withe the back strap. Once he was finished, he gave me a light tap on the ass and commanded, “Spin!”

I spun around and struck a pose, rolling my eyes when he let out a low whistle of appreciation.

“You don’t have to do that, you know. I know I’m not your type.”

“Hey, I can appreciate a woman’s beauty whether I want to sleep with her or not. And I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you’re a certifiable hottie. I can just picture you and Luke getting freaky. It’s one sexy-ass mental picture.”

“You’re so weird. But thanks?”

“You’re welcome. Now let’s go see how his dick reacts to this. I’ll be watching very closely.”

I rolled my eyes and slapped him on the arm before we walked out to the pool. Luke was nowhere in sight, and as the two of us slipped into the sun-warmed water, I had a moment of panic as wondered if he overheard Daniel and me talking in my bedroom. Neither of us had spoken very loud, but if his ear had been pressed to the wall...

“There he is!” Daniel called out from his spot on the floating lounge chair he was sitting on. “Come on in, the water’s fine!”

I sighed with relief as I saw Luke making his way out of the house, but was disappointed when I realized he wasn’t shirtless. Nor was he wearing his swim trunks. I glanced over at Daniel and saw his frown; he had obviously noticed as well. This was not quite going like we thought it would.

“Change of plans?”

Luke scratched the back of his neck, his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses. “Yeah. I’ll hang out, I’m just not really in the mood to swim.”

Relief flooded through me that he wasn’t blowing us off, he just wasn’t coming in the water. I slowly swam towards Daniel, but continued watching Luke from the corner of my eye as he plopped down in one of the chairs and opened up the magazine he’d brought outside.

Daniel shot me a look and I saw one of his eyebrows slightly raise over the top of his sunglasses. The corner of his mouth quirked up just a hair and I desperately wished I knew what he was thinking.

“I’m thirsty,” Daniel said miserably. “Oh, this
heat.
Jenna, my love. Be a good host and get us something to drink?”

I caught on and nodded, slowly making my way to the shallow end and stepping out of the pool. The moment I was out of the water, I felt it. The heat that warmed my skin wasn’t just from the sun.

Luke was staring at me.
Hard
.

Just like Daniel told me to do, I ran my hands lazily over my body as I did a big, cat-like stretch. Then I turned around and strutted towards the house, pausing for a second beside Luke’s chair to ask, “Are you thirsty?”

I couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark glasses, but I could just imagine how dark his pupils must have been. His face was filled with tension, his jaw ticking when he swallowed.

“Yeah,” he breathed out, his voice thick with what I could only guess was desire.

His tone made me feel light-headed. “Lemonade?”

“Beer.”

I nodded, not even stopping to wonder if we even had any beer in the house. My dad bought it pretty regularly, but I wouldn’t know if there was any left or not. Either way, I needed to get the hell away from him before I completely embarrassed us both.

After digging out a bottle of beer and pouring the two glasses of lemonade, I stopped to lean on the counter and mentally brace myself. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it through the night’s activities alive. At least not without throwing myself at Luke and demanding him to take me.

God, I had never felt such a physical attraction to anyone before. My body craved him, the ache going beyond anything I even thought was possible. I was aware that it was purely lust; I hadn’t known him long enough to develop anything beyond that. But part of me wondered if something more would develop if he ever gave in to his desire.

Somehow, I thought it might. It was a completely illogical thought, but one I couldn’t ignore. There was something there. Something in his eyes when he looked at me. Something in his already protective nature and his slightly possessive attitude.

I wanted to know what could become of us. I
needed
to know.

So I took a deep breath and balanced the drinks in my arms, carefully stepping outside and returning to my fate at the hands of Daniel, the master manipulator. I had nothing but faith in his abilities and his plan.

I just wished I could have settled the butterflies floating around wildly in my stomach that came from the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen next.

“Your beer,” I said when I got to Luke, noting that he took the bottle from me without even looking up at me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and made my way to Daniel, who floated to the edge of the pool to accept the drink. He gulped half of it down greedily as I slipped into the water next to him.

The look he gave me was I all needed to know that phase three was obviously still a go. While Luke had reacted to this part, it wasn’t a strong enough reaction not to go through with the rest of Daniel’s plan.

Then again, we still had an entire night to make it through.

~*~*~