PLAYED - A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE (63 page)

I
stood on the sidewalk, frozen in
place as Madison Hearst cried into my chest, her delicate shoulders racked by
the sobs stealing from her throat. I wasn’t used to hanging out with a lot of
crying women, but I knew enough to know that these weren’t tears of pain or
sorrow. These were hot, angry tears, tears of rage and frustration held in so
long that the damn had burst, and now they had to come spilling out.

I
grimaced before gently placing my arms around her. I’d shed a few of those kind
of tears myself in my life, and it seemed like offering her the comfort I’d
always been denied was the right thing to do, no matter how awkward it might
look to the people surrounding us.

It
wasn’t just that Maddy was crying, though I was certain that was strange enough
on its own. What really made me feel like a spectacle was the fact that we were
brother and sister—or at least, we would be in just a few short weeks.

My
miserable fuck of a father was marrying Madison’s shrew of a mother. They may
have deserved each other, but I held onto the opinion that neither Maddy nor I
deserved either one of them. It rendered us stepsiblings, which I had assumed
would count for something, but up until this moment, I’d been one hundred
percent sure that Madison hated my guts.

Everything
she’d ever done had practically screamed it. She looked at me with nothing but
disdain, and each time I entered a room with her in it, the temperature dropped
at least two degrees. She only offered me curt, clipped responses whenever I
tried to strike up a conversation, and that was only if she chose to speak at
all. I wasn’t certain what I’d done to deserve her ire, but whatever it was,
I’d been under the impression that there was just no reversing it.

As
a result, I’d given up on having any kind of relationship with my soon-to-be
stepsister. And who could blame me? Yet here we were, locked in an embrace on
the sidewalk of a busy street—and in broad daylight, no less.

Something
had to be wrong. I knew she’d worked in some kind of office nearby, but was she
coming to see me? If she was, something had to be
seriously
wrong. It occurred to me that it could have something to
do with one—or both—of our parents.

My
breath caught in my throat, but before I could ask, she lifted her face again
and said, “I lost my job.”

I
looked down at her, noticing for the first time how very green her eyes were.
If she were any other woman I probably would have been looking straight down
the neckline of her blouse, but something about Maddy’s face had always struck
me as celestial, angelic. That wasn’t to say I didn’t appreciate her womanly
body, those supple curves that made me wish our parents had never met the very
first time I’d seen her... It only meant that those rare and beautiful eyes
were the most breathtaking pair I’d ever seen.

Which
was saying something, because I’d looked into the eyes of
a lot
of women.

I
didn’t tell her that. All I could think of to say that didn’t sound incredibly
stupid was, “I’m sorry.” And then, as soon as those words left my mouth, I
realized that they
did
sound
incredibly stupid. No wonder she hated me.

But
instead of fixing me with that frigid stare she’d inherited directly from her
mother, Maddy shook her head and said, “Don’t be. It’s my fault. It’s all my
fault…”

That
thousand-yard stare she was sporting made me uneasy. I didn’t know a lot about
her job, except that she’d worked as an administrative assistant for some
rental company, but I got the impression that Maddy definitely didn’t have a
lot of money. She’d never said as much, but her mother sure as hell had implied
it. It was almost as if that woman wanted her daughter to fail, like she got no
greater joy in life than watching Maddy flounder. It seemed a little wrong when
she was spending her days milking my father for every dollar he was worth.

I
shifted uncomfortably. Maddy suffered a hardship I’d never known. I came from
money, and lots of it. In fact, if it weren’t for being the sole heir to the
Harvey fortune, I wouldn’t have had to work a day in my life. But Dad insisted,
and when he made his mind up about something, there was no changing it—not even
if it made everyone else around him miserable.

Hell, especially
if it made everyone miserable.

“I
was just on my way to a meeting,” I said, and that was mostly true. Jane, my
personal assistant, had texted me to let me know she was running hot, as usual.
That woman was crazy in the worst ways. Maybe I was stupid for sticking my dick
in psycho, but I was a hedonist—and a glutton for punishment. Especially when
it came at the hands of a buxom redhead in a leather cat-suit… She knew it was
over, but that wasn’t stopping her from blowing my phone up with one filthy
picture after another today. Part of me wondered if I was meeting up with her
to affirm it was over, or to fuck her sideways…

Maybe
both.

Thing
was, though, my escapades with Jane were beginning to take their toll on me.
What started in unpredictable and unlawful ways had started to get dangerous.
Suddenly, she wanted more. Maybe it was all the pressure she was putting on me
to meet her parents and take her up to the Hamptons for a “romantic getaway.” It
was her way of trying to make us something official, but we weren’t, and no
matter how many times I tried to explain that to her, Jane just didn’t seem
interested in getting it.

That
was probably some kind of red flag. I probably should have cut things off with
her a long time ago. But if it was all going to end messy anyway, what was the
harm in drawing out the good parts a little longer than I should?

Maddy
was staring at me. The little flame of hope flickering in her eyes died,
snuffed out by my careless words. I scrambled to regroup, to find something to
say that didn’t sound like I was brushing her off.

Because
honestly, I would rather have spent the day with my distraught stepsister than
deal with the crazy shit that my crazy secretary was doing in my office. It was
weird to admit it, even to myself, but it was true.

“Okay,
let’s start over.” I took the Bluetooth earpiece out of my ear and thrust it
into my pocket so the steady stream of notifications I was getting from Jane
couldn’t interrupt me. “You’re clearly having a bad day, and there’s a café I
like about a block from here. Let me buy you lunch.”

She
opened her pretty mouth, and for a moment, I was sure she was going to deny me.
But then she nodded, lifting her fingers to her face to brush away the tears
still brimming in her eyes.

“I
am
hungry,” she admitted softly.

I
smiled. Realizing we’d been holding one another in the middle of the sidewalk
for several minutes now, I released her and swept her up beside me, pressing my
hand into the small of her back. Maybe that wasn’t an appropriate brotherly
reaction, but it was instinct and I was new to this whole stepbrother thing.
Besides, I’d touched my share of pretty girls that way.

One
thing was different with Maddy, though. When I touched her, I felt something
stir inside of me, something like tectonic plates moving and shifting under the
surface. And below that, there was something flowing and hot, something that
made me notice suddenly the smell of her hair, the smoothness of her skin, the way
her ass just barely brushed the side of my hand as we walked, the fabric of her
stylish pencil skirt clinging to both those ripe, gorgeous swells above her
shapely calves and thighs.

Those
heels, too—my God. If they didn’t scream “fuck me,” I wasn’t sure what did.

But
those were just thoughts. Silly thoughts. The kind of thoughts that came to a
man at inappropriate times. Like when he was hanging out with the one girl in
the entire world that was completely off limits. Totally normal.

Right?

Either
way, I needed to get rid of them. This was probably my only shot at actually
getting my stepsister to like me, and I wasn’t about to let my traditional male
stupidity fuck it up.

It
didn’t take long to reach the place, and I was already starting to relax as I
led Maddy in through the front door. Without saying a word, the hostess had
noted our arrival and ushered us in to my regular booth.

“I
thought you said this place was a café?”

I
looked around. I’d been to this place dozens of times, but somehow it seemed as
if I’d never really looked at it before now. The walls were paneled in dark
cherry wood with accents of crimson damask paper that looked like it had been
imported from Europe. I’d have bet that if I’d touched it, it would’ve felt
just like silk. The gold highlighting the pattern was probably genuine too, and
looking at them now, I had no doubt that the amber crystals adorning the
chandeliers were Swarovski-made, or similar.

I
shrugged, handing one of the menus our server had provided over to Maddy. “It
is. Just a ritzy one.”

She
looked around at the tables surrounding us and fingered the neckline of her
blouse. “I feel like I’m underdressed…”

“You’ll
be fine,” I assured her. “You look fine. I mean, beautiful. You look…” I ground
my teeth, trying to regain my composure. “You’ll fit right in.” Then I opened
the menu and buried my nose in it, inwardly kicking myself for how utterly
stupid everything I’d said today had thus far been.

“What
should I order?” Maddy said, and I realized she probably had no idea what half
the things on the menus were. I set mine down and began to unbutton my blazer
to drape it over the back of my chair.

“If
you like lighter fare, anything with chicken is a good bet.” I finally freed
myself of the constraining jacket and sighed in relief. Finally I could feel my
biceps again. “If you’re more in a dinner mood, there’s always the beef
bourguignon.”

“I
think I had the TV dinner version of that once,” she laughed, her eyes flitting
over the myriad of items listed for her. “Um… I’ll go with that, I think. Yeah,
that sounds good.”

I
smiled. It felt good to see her without tears in her eyes. “And some wine?”

“You
pick,” she said, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.” She
slid her menu over to me and I took it, stacking it on top of mine.

“You
can start by telling me what happened with your job,” I offered. Even though it
was mid-day outside the mood lighting inside cast shadows over Maddy’s face,
shadows that seemed even darker when I mentioned the dreaded j-word. “I mean,
if you want to, of course.”

“I
do,” she said. “I’m just so embarrassed…” She took a sip of her ice water. When
she pulled the glass away, I marveled at the tiny beads that had formed on
them.

She
licked them away, and I watched the progress of her tongue, hoping she mistook
the intensity of my stare for interest in her story.

“It
wasn’t a good job,” she said, meeting my gaze. “But it was all I had. It paid
the bills and the rent… and frankly, not much else.” She laughed again. This
time, it sounded bitter. “That was enough for me, though. At least until I
found something better.”

I
nodded, parroting what I’d heard others say. “It’s hard out there right now.” I
had no real idea about any of that, of course, and Maddy called me on it.

“Yeah.
Not all of us can have an in with the CEO of one of the world’s most profitable
companies.” But then she swallowed her anger, even though it lit up her face in
a very sexy way. “Well, anyway, I’d been putting up with a lot of shit over
there. More so recently, though the past few years hadn’t exactly been a walk
in the park, either.” She looked at me. “Do you know that the first day I was
there, the receptionist who was supposed to train me left for lunch and never
came back? I had four hours’ worth of training before they threw me to the
wolves.” She shook her head in amazement. “It’s a wonder I survived my first
six months, let alone four years…”