Redeemed Complete: A Military Stepbrother Romance (20 page)

That shut him up. Harrison sputtered, and I took immense pleasure in seeing him at a loss for words for the second time in my life. It was such a rare occurrence, that I needed to savor every moment of it.

“Yeah,” he finally managed to get out after a few more seconds of trying. “And you did have sex with me last night too. That wasn’t according to plan, was it?”

He looked so adorable when he spoke so close to my face. I felt his breath caressed my cheek. “No, not according to plan at all. But…”

“Yes?” All humor had drained out of Harrison’s voice. Now he was focused.

“We should talk about last night, those kisses and what we did after.”

He leaned back against the bench, looking straight ahead. “Yeah, we need to talk about that.”

Neither of us took the initiative, preferring silence again. That was the story of our relationship, such as it were - silence was better than outright hostility.

I could see the gears turning in Harrison’s head. I knew what he was trying to figure out. He was choosing his words carefully, trying to figure out the right way to let me down easy.

Just looking at them, so close to me, our breaths intermingling, it was clear to see how deflated he was. The last few hours must have weighed heavily on him; no wonder he brought me up to this beautiful place only to tell me things couldn’t go any further.

I couldn’t stand that confusion, couldn’t stand in the lurch like that. I decided to head him off at the pass. “It was…”

Just then, he opened up. “We shouldn’t…”

“…A mistake.”

“…Have done that.”

There it was. We had talked over each other like we were so used to doing, mostly during arguments, but this time we had said the same thing.

Both our eyes widened as we took in and understood with the other had said.

Harrison spoke next, Surprise in his face and his words. “Is that what you really think?”

“…Yeah, that’s what I really think,” I whispered, as the tears began to flow, stinging my cold face with their warmth as they passed down. “That’s what you think?”

Harrison just looked at me. He opened his mouth, and I could see him forming words, but nothing came out. For the first time in his life, my step brother looked helpless as he watched me cry.

Finally he turned his head and looked forward, unable to meet my gaze. I close my eyes and leaned further against him, giving in to the waves of emotion that passed through me. Almost reflexively, Harrison tightened his grip on my shoulders, crushing me against his broad chest, still hard despite all the layers of fabric on top.

The snow around us fell faster, and we huddled together for warmth, Harrison resting his chin on my head. We must’ve looked like a poster for some tragic romance. Any wandering photographers passing by in that moment could have taken a prize-winning photo.

“I don’t regret it. I wanted to kiss you and…”

“I don’t regret it either.”

I looked sharply at Harrison, whipping my head around so fast I almost hit him, but he moved his own head out of the way at the last second. “Say that again,” I breathed, catching my breath on the inhale and holding it in, scared I misheard.

He looked me dead in the eyes, his gaze strong and fierce. “I don’t regret it either.”

“Then why did you bring me here to tell me it was over?”

Harrison roared, his laughter ringing out in the still cold of the early evening, scaring invisible birds out of their roosts and convincing them to take sudden flight.

I must have looked dumb and confused, cause I certainly felt like both. Harrison kept laughing till he saw my face, then quieted down, cutting off the sound and returning the forest to its natural state. “Is that why you thought I brought you here?”

“Well, yeah, you haven’t been around all morning, and you didn’t talk much on the way here, I figured you’d had second thoughts.”

“Of course I’ve had second thoughts, Laurel.” He smiled. “I’ve had second thoughts, third thoughts, thoughts I can’t even count. None of that has changed how I feel about you.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” I forced out, lamely, still reeling from what we were talking about.

“Is that all you can say?” Harrison’s eyes gleamed as he pulled me in closer, and I let him envelop me in his manly warmth.

“I’m still figuring things out, OK?”

He grew solemn. “I totally understand, Laurel, this is all new to me too. I just want you to know, I’m not going anywhere.”

I just stared back at him, still not understanding how quickly things had turned from bad to good to bad to good. I want to get off this roller coaster, but I wanted to take Harrison with me.

“Please just be straight with me, Harrison. I just want to make sure we’re okay.”

“What we did last night, Laurel, was a mistake. And here’s why. You had just gone through something dramatic, and I took advantage of you.”

“Stop right there, Harrison. Yeah, I went through something bad just for, but I kissed you remember?”

“Of course I remember. I haven’t thought about anything else since that moment. But that doesn’t change the fact that I shouldn’t have let it happen. You were in no position to do that and mean it.”

“I’m not a little girl, Harrison. I can make my own decisions.” He had treated me like a fragile flower since we met. That may have flown back in high school, but now he needed an update.

“Trust me, Laurel, I know. You’ve done very well for yourself, no sarcasm.” I looked into his eyes to make sure he meant that, but he stared back at me with no guile, no misdirection. I felt relief well up inside me, it felt so good to know Harrison saw how much I had matured.

“I know I hadn’t dealt with what had happened before, but I really wanted to be with you. I didn’t know it before that moment.”

Harrison grinned. “Not before that moment, eh? You sure about that?”

I gave him a look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“How quickly you forget the bathroom scene! It was just a few hours earlier!”

I punched him in the shoulder, as hard as I could given how close we were. “Asshole! You are the worst.”

Harrison nodded up and down. “I am the worst. Luckily, you seem to like it.”

“I don’t like it that much. Get over yourself!” But we both knew, I was smiling at the time.

Harrison backed up, raising a hand, as if to ward me off. “I’m over myself, I’m over myself. Let’s be serious again for a moment.”

“You always know how to bring the mood down.” As if to keep him from speaking again, I snuggled in closer, covering myself with his warmth. “Fine, let’s be serious.”

“Letting you kiss me was a mistake. And what we did afterward too. I should’ve found a better time for that to happen. A time when we could make that decision together, with no distractions.”

I didn’t respond.

“But now that it happened,” Harrison whispered, moving his face right in front of mine, “I can’t wait to do it again.”

And then he kissed me. It was a long kiss, and retarded and weaved our lips against each other, as if each of us was trying to steal something from the other, but didn’t care if we were caught in the process.

I closed my eyes, and felt the teasing of our tongues back and forth, pushing into my mouth, pressing into his. We kissed like that, our entire bodies getting into it, dancing as we sat on the bench, covered in our heavy coats and other winter clothing.

I felt Harrison’s hands on me over my coat. He moved them down to my waist and slipped one underneath, causing me to gas, breaking our kiss, with the cold of his hand against my skin. Harrison murmured something that I couldn’t understand, but kept moving his hand upward, as it quickly warmed up.

I felt him close his hand over my breasts above my bra, And I moaned long and loud, momentarily nervous getting so turned on in public, but remembering there was probably no one around us for a good half a mile in every direction.

Harrison teased my nipple through the soft fabric of my bra while we started kissing again. I felt my nipples pressing against my bra, loving the feeling, but aching for him to touch them with nothing in the way.

Taking his cue, I snaked my hands under his jacket and clothing, pressing into his back and pulling him him closer to me.

This time it was Harrison who broke the kiss, his head moving backwards, his eyes closed, as he breathed in deeply. Only when he exhaled from his long breath didn’t open his eyes again to look at me.

“You are so incredibly sexy, Laurel.”

All I could say was, “I want you too. Again. Over and over again.”

Words were getting in the way of more kissing, so we dispensed with them immediately, and pressed our heads Against each other, both grateful to glue ourselves together again like. Our tongues were the warmest parts of our bodies, and we used them to keep each other warm.

It was tough to move around with all that fabric in the way, but I didn’t care. Harrison was kissing me, and 24 hours ago that would only have appeared in my darkest and most closely guarded fantasies, but now it was happening in real life.

There would be consequences, I was sure of that. But right now, on that bench, in Harrison’s arms, while we kissed and touched and stole affection from each other, nothing else mattered.

Chapter 14 - The Return

We must have kissed like that for a good 10 minutes. By the time I opened my eyes again, it had gotten dark. And somehow colder. I was practically sitting in Harrison’s lap, with his arms wrapped around me, One hand still under my clothes, kept warm by how close he was to my skin. Likewise, both my hands traced the contours of the muscles in his back under his jacket and shirt.

Harrison broke the kiss first. He sat back, still playing with my boobs, and looking very satisfied with himself. “Well, what we do now?”

 
I put on as serious a look as I possibly could. “The only thing we can do, Harrison. Forget this ever happened, and never do it again.”

Harrison tweaked my nipple under all my clothing, causing me to squeal and ride around in mock pain. “Yes, I can tell your body wants us to never make the same mistake ever again.”

I replied by sticking my fingers into his back, enjoying watching him exhale and close his eyes and sigh with pleasure. “You’re right, you’re exactly right. We should never do this again.”

Harrison focused on me, like for a second he was trying to figure out if I was serious, then decided I wasn’t, thankfully. “How about we go home, and pick this up where it’s a little warmer?”

I smiled at him, dropping all pretense of being serious. “Deal.”

We broke our touch, and cleaned up the bench of all of our food and drink as fast as humanly possible, And made our way back to the car. Of course, along the way, we paused to kiss every couple minutes.

This time Harrison holding my hand as we walked along the single file path, felt so different, despite being the same thing as before. Before, it had felt like being led to an execution of sorts. Like he was taking me somewhere to give me bad news, somewhere where I wouldn’t or couldn’t make a scene, somewhere he could avoid embarrassment.

But now, despite being sold dark and so cold, I felt warm and bright and hopeful and optimistic all at the same time.

The car was waiting for us. Harrison dumped our garbage in the backseat, all in one bag, and we got in. We drove home quickly, with the heat blasting as heavy as it could. Harrison drove resting his right hand on my leg.

It was as if now that we had touched, neither of us wanted to let go for longer than we had to. That’s how it should be.

By the time we arrived in front of the house, and Harrison parked the car, my fingers and toes had just begun to thaw.

I gathered the plastic bag and we made our way back into the house, acting normal we were back in public. Of course, no one was home to find us, but we still had neighbors and people who knew us driving by, and we didn’t want anyone to see what was happening.

The path we had started down wasn’t wrong, not really, but I doubted anyone else would see it that way.

Before entering the house, I dropped the trash bag in the trash bin outside, freeing my hands up to give Harrison a quick squeeze on the shoulder. He looked at me as he unlocked the door, and stepped inside, holding it open for me after him.

A rush of warm air hit me. We turned the heat off before we left, but the house was still far warmer than outside.

I closed the door behind me, leaning up against it in the low light of the single lamp we had left on. Before I knew what was happening next, Harrison’s lips were on mine, pressing me back into the heavy front door. The only thing I wanted to do, the only thing I could do, was let him in, let him kiss me like I belonged to him.

I felt his hands move up, and I expected him to go again for my boobs, but instead I heard the sound of a zipper unzipping, And felt my jacket loosen around me, as Harrison’s hands worked.

When my jacket was unzipped I pushed forward, freeing my back from the door, still kissing Harrison, and shrugged the jacket off my shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. Then I went to work on Harrison’s jacket in the same manner.

When we were both down to our indoor clothes, he pressed me back up against the door. I lifted up my right leg, and he grasped it in his left arm. I wrapped my leg around him pulling him into me, feeling his hardness press into me. I knew I was panting, I knew I wanted it, I knew right then that if he wanted to take me in the foyer of our house I would let him.

And I would love it. I needed my stepbrother inside me. I needed him to fuck me. Right. Now.

Harrison pressed his body against me, his weight pushing me down. I gasped as we slid to the floor very slowly, Harrison weaving his arms around my back and head to shield them from the hard surface of the door.

We ended up on the floor, our lips still locked together, pushing each other back and forth as our tongues did romantic battle between our mouths. I couldn’t help but moan as Harrison’s hands moved to my front and one press itself against my belly while the other cupped each of my breasts in turn.