Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance (23 page)

Of course, she doesn’t know that the reason my heart is pumping a million miles an hour and my knees keep shaking is that I know that when I sit there in front of those cameras with
him
right next to me, I’m going to feel like the whole
world
can see through our sham. The whole freaking world is going to see Hunter and me smiling away up there, and the wild paranoia in me screams that they’re all going to
know
.

They’re going to
know
that I know what his lips feel like on mine.

They’re going to
know
that I can’t stop thinking about his cock.

They’re going to
know
that as terrified as I am about being up there in front of them, I’m also
still wet
from earlier.

It’s all crazy-think, and I know that, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. Emma gives me a final pat on the arm before she holds her finger to the com in her ear and mutters some words into her microphone, scurrying away with her clipboard.

“You know, they say T.V. adds ten pounds.”

I scowl as I turn to glare at Hunter while he comes up behind me in the backstage area of the press conference area. My mother is finishing up her initial statements about her education bill before we’re all going to join her on stage at the long conference table for part two.

Yeah, part two: the announcement. 

“You know,” he says, grinning at me before looking around the dark, curtained backstage area. “We gotta stop meeting in places like this.”

“I
agree
.”

“It gives me
way
too many ideas,” he growls into my ear, letting his hand trail over my ass. 

I swat him away as I move a step back from him. He’s
grinning
and making jokes about this, as if the whole thing is
funny.
As if what we’re doing isn’t
that much closer
to being exposed and consequently shattering both our families, if not the
nation
.

‘What we’re doing’? What the hell ARE we even doing?

I mean honestly, what is this thing between Hunter and I? Over-active hormones? Is it just that I’m cooped up in the White House and behind security so much that he’s just the only option for flirtation and male attention?

“You look nervous.”

I shoot him a look, “Are you
not
?”

“Nope.”

“Well good for you.”

He grins as he moves much closer to me than a bodyguard should. “I’ve got something
much
more interesting to think about to keep my mind occupied.”

I’m blushing as the door next to us opens suddenly, sending Hunter stepping back from me.

“It was
one
cigarette!” Dexter’s grinning as a stern-faced Emma marches him in by the arm.

“
One
cigarette, Mr. Ryan, will be a P.R.
nightmare
if someone were to snap a picture of it, especially with the President’s announcement about the engagement to your father in a few minutes here.” Emma furrows her brow at Dexter. “And
especially
given your age.”

Dexter smirks at her. “‘My
age
’? What are you, like a year older than me?”

“In actual years or maturity, because she’s got you beat by centuries on the second count,” Hunter says with a grin.

Dexter shoots him a look. “Whose side are you on?”

Emma’s suddenly putting her finger to her earpiece and then quickly pushing Dexter towards the stage. “Never mind that Mr. Ryan, we’re on in three minutes.”

I start to follow, but suddenly I gasp as I feel myself get pulled back into the folds of the backstage curtains. “Hunter—!” 

He spins me around, and suddenly I’m face to face and pressed
right
against him. The words I nearly spat at him, or the hand I was about to smack him with suddenly get lost somewhere else in my mind as I just
fall,
right into those piercing blue eyes.

“What are you doing?” I whisper, swallowing quickly and blinking as I get lost in the burning ice of his gaze.

“Just saying ‘break a leg’ up there,” he grins. “Oh, and I had a quick question.”

“We’re live in sixty seconds! Places on the stage!” I hear a voice call out.

“Hunter!”

“
One
question, doll.”

“
What!?
” 

And then I’m gasping as he yanks me right against him, grabs my hand, and places firmly on something
huge
in his pants. 

“I was just curious,” he growls into my ear. “If you’re as wet as I am hard.”

My heart leaps into my throat as I realize I’m holding his cock through his pants, and suddenly I jump as I feel his hand slide right up between my legs and beneath my skirt. His fingers stroke across the front of my panties, and I moan softly as redness blooms in my face.

Because I don’t even have to answer him. He knows from touching me
exactly
how wet I am.

“Madison! Hunter!”

And just like that, he’s pulling away from me, grabbing my hand, and yanking me onto the stage. I’m hoping to God that everyone just assumes I’m nervous when they see my red face. I pray that I don’t have to say a thing up there when my mother and Alec give the announcement, because I don’t think I could find words right then.

Because my head is still
lost
somewhere back there in that curtain, and my thoughts are still
entirely
centered on thing and one thing only.

How much I want him; how utterly and completely turned on I am sitting up there right next to him.

The stage manager counts down on his fingers, the lights go up, and my mother smiles at the camera.

It’s that exact moment that I feel Hunter’s hand drop to my knee under the table, sliding all the way up to the wet front of my panties.

My jaw
drops
before I quickly shut it, fighting everything I have not to turn and just stare like he’s insane. 

Because he
is
insane, and
this
is insane. There’s a floor-length drape over the table, including on our side which cover our laps. But it doesn’t matter that no one can see us; it doesn’t matter that no one
knows
that Hunter’s fingers are sliding under the soaking wet edge of my panties and brushing across my pussy.

It matters that I am now on
live fucking international television
with my stepbrother’s fingers sliding into my pussy. 

“Good evening, America,” my mother says easily, as if addressing a
nation
on television is the most effortless thing in the world. As if looking into a camera beaming her face to
hundreds
of millions of people is so
carefree.

Let me tell you, the perspective is slightly different from where I sit, with Hunter’s finger slowly driving me mad under the table.

I want to push him away, or slap him, or even just
tell him
to quit it before we both get absolutely humiliated on national television, but I can’t. I can’t
hit
him on T.V., I can’t
say
anything to him while my mother is addressing the country.

I have to sit there and
smile
— “not too toothy” — and just be part of the perfect little all American family, — the
first
family — on that stage. I have to just
smile
benignly at the camera, while Hunter’s fingers slowly drive me absolutely wild.

“Tonight, I wanted to take a moment to share something very special with you all.”

My hands grip the edge of the table in front of us, my knuckles white as I force myself to keep breathing and not to let my eyes flutter shut as the pleasure rolls through me.

“When you voted me into this office, we made
history.
It’s because of
you
, America, that I’m here today breaking down every boundary this office still holds, in the name of equality, and in the spirit of pushing this great country into the future.”

My breath catches in my throat and my heart threatens to pound right through my chest as Hunter lets his thumb circle around and around my clit. He’s just sitting there quietly, a small little smile on his face. Looking to all the world like the perfect little soldier; the charming young man stepping into his new role.

“You put your trust in me, America, and so today, I’d like to do the same with you as I announce one more historic breakthrough for this Presidency.”

And suddenly, the horrible realization hits me that he’s not going to stop. Suddenly, I realize this doesn’t end with him teasing me to a point and then stopping.

This ends with him making me come on
national fucking television
.

The shocking realization has me pushing a hand beneath the table, trying to pull his hand away, as incredible as he feels. He resists me though, and I clench my jaw tight as I
smile
into the camera while his thumb rolls
over
and
over
my clit.

“I’ve been keeping something under wraps that I’d love to share with you all tonight, because this is for everyone.”  She turns to Alec before looking back at the camera. “Major Alec Ryan, as you know, was one of biggest champions on the campaign path. He offered his help, his support, and his kindness when I needed it the most, and he has stepped graciously and without hesitation into his new role as my Secretary of State.”

She suddenly reaches over and entwines her fingers in Alec’s. “Tonight, I’d like to announce his move to fill a new role in my life.”

I’m so close
. It’s terrible, and awful, but I know the inevitable is going to happen no matter how hard I want to fight it. His fingers feel
too
damn good, stroking me in just the perfect place and rolling my clit over and over again until I think I might scream.

I’m going to come, and there’s no stopping it.

“Ladies and gentlemen—”

The room goes quiet.

Oh God, not now…don’t say it now.
Not when I’m about to come, on camera, in front of millions of people, with my stepbrother’s fingers deep inside of me.

Don’t say it, please don’t say it.

“I’m pleased to announce that Major Alec Ryan will now be taking a new position, as my husband.”

The room explodes into cheers and applause, and that’s the moment the bastard rolls his thumb over my clit
just
right, and I go crashing over the edge. The room goes nuts, and the cameras flash, and I’m
coming
on national — no,
international
— television. I’m holding onto the table for dear life, my mouth hangs open, and I fight not to squeeze my eyes shut as I come in front whole fucking word, at the hands of Hunter Ryan.

My brand new, arrogant, sexy, untouchable
stepbrother
.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Just like that, everything changes. Just like that, I go from being the unassuming guy with an earpiece in the background to the guy with the President’s hand around his shoulder while we pose for pictures; the guy with the spotlight
squarely
on him. One freaking press conference, and my entire life as I know it just
changes.