Mafia Stepbrother Boxed Set (2 page)

Did Cole just say I was sexy? And was that a hint of red in his cheeks? He held up two bottles: tequila and triple sec. “How about a margarita?”

I smiled. “A margarita sounds perfect after the night I’ve had.”

Instead of just making two glasses, Cole made a whole pitcher filled to the brim. He brought it and two glasses over and sat them on the coffee table, taking a seat next to me on the plushest couch I’d ever sat on. He poured the drinks and handed one to me. “To memorable evenings,” he said, holding up his glass.

“To memorable reunions.” I clinked my glass to his and downed half in one gulp.

“Easy, Rugrat,” Cole chuckled. “There’s no rush.”

“You know,” I said. “I was never really thrilled with that little nickname.”

He grinned. “I know, but you used to get the cutest little smile when I would call you that.” The grin grew wider. “You still do.”

I quickly finished my drink and poured another glass, my hand shaking slightly as I sat the pitcher back down. “I don’t want to keep you up any later than I already have. I’ve already bugged you enough tonight and you probably have things to do tomorrow.”

Cole leaned back on the couch and put his feet on the intricately-carved coffee table that had to cost at least as much as three of my car payments. His boots probably cost as much as my car. “I’ve got all night. With the work I do, I sort of set my own hours.”

“Wow! Nice. Are they hiring?”

He grinned. “You wouldn’t like working for them.”

“What kind of work do you do?”

Cole looked away for a moment, sipping his drink. After a few seconds, he looked back. “I guess you could say I’m in charge of company expansion.”

“Sounds impressive.”

“It is.”

“Not bad for a little comic book nerd who couldn’t even stand a little tickling.” I jabbed him in the ribs with a finger, grinning. Comic books had been his deep, dark secret as a kid; a secret I had kept when I discovered his collection because it was the one thing that went against his too-cool-for-the-world attitude. It made him more normal in my eyes, more attainable. Not that anything could ever happen. It had been a nice fantasy, though.

He chuckled. “There’s nothing wrong with comic books.”

I downed the rest of my margarita, put the glass on the coffee table, and flashed a mischievous grin. “So you still collect them?”

“I plead the fifth.”

I traced his abs with a fingertip. “Still ticklish?”

“I plead –”

I was on him before he finished, straddling his lap, running my fingers across his stomach and sides. He bucked beneath me like a wild stallion. We had plenty of little tickle battles when we were little. I had always won. Maybe it was the alcohol, but I wanted to see if I was still the tickle champ.

“Dani,” he gasped between fits of laughter, “stop!” He slid his hands under my arms, his fingers grazing my armpits, and my laughter joined his. I clamped my arms tight to my sides, trapping his hands, but his fingers still danced across the sensitive flesh. I scraped my fingernails down his sides, always his weakest point before. He bucked and twisted beneath me, and I felt something hard pressing between my legs. I froze, the laughter dying in my throat.

As soon as my fingers stopped, Cole stopped laughing, too, gasping to catch his breath. He looked at me, that strange look in his eyes again, his cheeks flushed. He sat up as I crawled off him, retreating back to my spot on the couch.

“You okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I had just felt his cock, his incredibly thick cock, rubbing against me, but I was fine… except for the butterflies flying around in my stomach, except for the tingling between my thighs, except for the curious desire to feel it again. “I don’t know what came over me.” I ran my hand through my hair, trying to look anywhere but at him. “Guess the margaritas were stronger than I thought.”

“It’s fine,” Cole said. “It was fun.”

“Yeah,” I said, my mind flying in a thousand different directions. “Fun.” I looked at him, my body craving a different kind of fun, the kind of fun I never considered the last time we had one of our little tickle battles. He looked at me, his eyes burning as if lit from within. His hand slid across the couch, his fingers brushing softly over mine. I snatched my hand back, squeezing my thighs together, as his touch sent pleasurable chills through me. “I’m sorry,” I stammered. “But I’m really tired. Mind if I call it a night?”

He stood up, seeming suddenly nervous, unsure of himself. Even at fifteen, he had never seemed unsure of himself. “No,” he said. “Of course not. I’ll show you to your room.”

I patted the couch. “I don’t want to be an inconvenience, Cole. The couch is fine.”

He held his hand out to me. “Maybe so but there’s no reason to let a perfectly good guest room go to waste.”

I nodded, letting him help me to my feet… again. Somewhere along the line, Cole had studied Chivalry 101.

He led me down the hall and opened a door. I blinked, sure the margarita was playing tricks on my eyes. The room was huge, at least by my standards. A flatscreen was mounted on the wall across from a king-size bed. My actual bed wasn’t king-sized and Cole had one for guests. “There are towels and soap in the bathroom, and I’m at the end of the hall if you need anything.” He hesitated for a second and then gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight.”

I watched him walk down the hall, admiring his ass again. A compliment and a kiss. My step-brother had changed in more ways than just getting taller and wider. And that bulge I had felt. Damn! I realized he had turned around and was looking at me. He had caught me checking him out. Double damn! I gave a weak smile, waved, and retreated into the bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

Chapter 3

After a nice, relaxing shower that finally allowed my nerves to unwind, I was snuggled into the huge bed with the covers pulled up to my chin. Cole had plenty of towels, and even a comfy-looking bathrobe hanging in the closet, but no nightgowns or anything else to sleep in. I could’ve probably bothered him for a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt but I figured I had embarrassed myself enough for one night, and his clothes would swallow me anyway. Panties would have to do.

I closed my eyes, trying to relax. I remembered Billy charging towards me, and then Cole slamming him against the wall. And then that damn tickle session had to intrude. I turned on my side. I hadn’t had sex in over four months, and I most definitely didn’t need to think about Cole’s masculine body bucking beneath me. I wasn’t going to think about those rock-hard abs… and I wasn’t going to think about that bulge in his pants. I wasn’t. Was. Not.

Eventually, I was able to doze off, mentally exhausted by the evening’s drama. The bed shifted and my eyes flew open as an arm wrapped around me. “Shhh,” Cole whispered in my ear. “It’s just me.” His hand cupped my breast, a finger tracing slow circles around my hardening nipple.

“Cole!” I gasped, reaching up and pulling his hand away. “What are you doing?”

He pulled his hand from mine and rested it on my stomach, sending chills through me as his fingers stroked my skin. “We both want this, Dani. Just relax.” His hand slid down my stomach as his lips found my neck. I couldn’t hold back the moan that escaped me. His fingers met the waistband of my panties, easily slipping beneath the material. I clamped my thighs tight together, but then his lips moved to my neck, kissing their way up behind my ear. “Oh god,” I moaned, relaxing my legs, allowing his fingers to travel lower.

I trembled as his fingertips grazed over the strip of hair above my mound, biting my lip as he ran his fingers down my slit. “Cole!” I whispered, my body betraying me, my hips arching against his hand.

“It’s okay,” Cole whispered, his breath hot against my neck. “Just let yourself go.” He once again began covering my neck and shoulder with kisses, his finger tracing a delicate line of fire up and down my slit. His teeth nipped my neck and I drew in a sharp breath as his finger brushed across my clit.

“Fuck,” I groaned, humping his hand. This was wrong but it felt so fucking right. I grabbed my breast, pinching and pulling on an erect nipple. “I want you,” I whispered, my voice heavy with lust.

Cole’s finger began rubbing my clit faster. I released my nipple, slid my hand down and covered his, applying more pressure. “Yes,” I gasped. “Yes-yes-yes.” The tension that had been building erupted. I thrust my hips forward, pressing against Cole’s hand, every muscle tight as I came.

My eyes flew open as I tried to catch my breath, my hand inside my soaked panties. I was alone. I sat up, looking around. It was a dream. I didn’t know if I should’ve been upset or relieved. I detected movement out of the corner of my eye and glanced towards the door. A shadow moved at the bottom of it, out in the hall. Was it Cole? Had he heard me?

I fell back on the bed. I didn’t even know if my cries of passion had only been in my dream or if I had really cried out. Even worse, a part of me hoped he had heard me, hoped he got excited listening to me play with myself as I dreamed about him. Of course, he wouldn’t know it was him I was dreaming of… or would he? I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep, tried to tell myself I didn’t want to dream about him again. It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 4

The next morning, Cole took me back to my car, and once again, I tried to ignore the throbbing between my thighs as the powerful engine vibrated between my legs while I held tight to Cole’s firm body. We drove into the parking lot, and then Cole unexpectedly turned around, getting ready to pull back out on the road. I patted him on the shoulder. “Hey! My car’s back there.”

“We’ll get you a new one.”

I whacked him on the back of his head. “Unlike you, I don’t have money to throw around.” I climbed – clumsily – off the motorcycle and turned to walk to my car. I froze as soon as I saw it.

“Dani,” Cole said. “Don’t worry about the money. I’ll get you a new car.”

It looked like a monster truck had driven across my car… and then backed up over it. There wasn’t any part that wasn’t bent out of shape. The top was caved in as if King Kong had decided to use the car as a chair. All the glass was broken. As I got closer, I saw that even the sideview mirrors were busted, and it looked like something had taken a shit in the driver’s seat.

I flinched as Cole’s fingers wrapped around my upper arms. I hadn’t heard him come up behind me. He pulled me back against his chest and kissed the top of my head. “It’ll be okay.”

I pulled away and turned around, tears beginning to run down my cheeks. I stared at my stepbrother, a man I might have possibly just put in danger because of the whackjob I had stupidly dated. “It’s not okay, Cole.” I motioned towards the piece of mangled crap that used to be my car. “There’s nothing okay about that. How did I end up with an asshole like that? Because I
am
stupid.” I sunk to my knees. “And he wasn’t an asshole at first. He was a nice guy, and then he got laid off.” I tried to catch my breath through my sobs, no longer trying to hold the tears back. “And then he got hooked-up with some bad people. He started drinking more and got meaner, and…” I shrugged, out of words, unable to give voice to the fear and the anger that I had lived with every single day. “Now he’s just mean, and his new friends are worse.” I looked up at Cole. “If he has a chance, he’ll hurt you. Bad.”

“Did he hit you?”

I looked up at Cole, surprised at his tone. His green eyes flashed like emerald daggers, sending a chill down my spine. And his voice; it was low, deep, filled with a promise of violence. I almost lied, but those eyes demanded the truth. “Once,” I said, softly. “That’s why I left.”

He nodded, holding his hand out. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

I laughed, wincing at the despair in the sound. “He knows where I live, Cole. If my car looks like this, imagine what my apartment will probably look like.”

A muscle in his cheek twitched. “Then you’ll stay with me.”

I climbed to my feet, ignoring his outstretched hand. I was getting real damn tired of Cole having to constantly help me up. “I don’t need your charity,” I said through gritted teeth.

He tilted his head, looking at me. “Then don’t think of it as charity. Consider it payment.”

“Payment? For what?”

“For going with me to a party.”

I blinked, pretty sure I must have missed something… or Cole was being dickishly lame with covering up the charity angle. “I stay with you in that mini-mansion you call home and all I have to do in return is go to a party with you?”

“Yep. It’ll be boring. There will be lots of people… that I don’t want to talk to… and you can run interference against all the women who invariably throw themselves at me.” He flashed that wicked grin. I was starting to think he knew I couldn’t resist it.

I laughed. “Might want to dial down that ego a little bit. You’ll hurt your neck with that swelled head.”

The grin turned into a full smile. “So do we have a deal?”

I hesitated. “Cole, I wasn’t kidding. I know it goes against the man-code or something to back down but Billy can get really mean. You can take him in a fair fight but he might try something.”

“Don’t worry about Billy. He won’t mess with me… and if he does…” Cole shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”

I wasn’t as confident about that as Cole was but I nodded. “Then I guess you have a dinner date.”

Chapter 5

Turns out I had been right. We had gone by my apartment, only to find it completely trashed. Holes were knocked into walls, doors were ripped off hinges, and it looked like Billy had tried to burn the place down by dumping a pile of clothes in the middle of the bedroom and setting in on fire. Fortunately, the fire died before it could spread. Most of my clothes, however, were toast; the charred kind.

Cole had returned us to his house in record time, making me worry for my life as he zipped in and out of traffic. Once we got back, he surprised me even further. Not only did he have a really nice motorcycle, but he also had a limo, and a driver to go with it.