Step Wilde: A Stepbrother Romance (21 page)

"Oh, dear. Well, I certainly wouldn't kick you out of bed for eating crackers, I'll tell you that." She reached below the counter and pulled out a dog-eared glossy magazine. On the cover was Hailey, her hand adorned in the rock Wilder had purchased for her. Italian words were sprinkled around her face. “Richard hates that I read this rags, but it’s my only vice.” She looked at both of us, her face sinking into panic. “But please don’t worry, your secret stay and elopement is safe with me, I promise.”

Wilder cleared his throat. “So you don’t read the Internet, then?”

I realized what he was asking. This woman was about a week behind in celebrity gossip at any given moment if her only source were once-weekly tabloids.

I wondered vaguely when the next edition would show up here, and if she’d know who I was.

Oh, God
.

Wilder squeezed the side of my waist and shivers went down my body. I tried to stop them, but I knew that he felt them. He squeezed again.

"Well, just tell us the way to our room and I doubt we'll be bothering you much."

"We'll have dinner at seven, so get some rest, freshen up, and come back down here. Your room should be nice and ready for you. We even had someone come in earlier today to do the cleaning. I'm making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Authentic
italiano
," she said in the worst approximation of an Italian accent I had ever heard in my entire life. "Your room is upstairs, last door on the right. Pardon some of the construction mess, if you please." She pushed a brass skeleton key over to Wilder.

Wilder beamed at her. "We'll let you know if we need anything. But you know what they say. Don't come a-knockin'."

She shrieked again and winked at him. “You are a naughty, naughty boy."

Wilder had to steer me toward the switchback staircase. I pulled his arm off me and spun around, out of earshot of Gina.

"You planned this, didn't you? Or you at least knew. When Harrison called earlier. I
knew
you were lying about something.”

“Uh, knew
what
? Knew that my assistant had booked us into the English-run Italian version of the Bates fucking Motel?” The wall sconce behind him flickered and the bulb went out as if on cue. "I swear to fuck, Liv – the only thing I was hiding from you was that the press is already swarming the shoot location in Tuscany.”

"Lost, dearies?" Gina called to us from reception.

"Oh, no, just getting in a little kissing before we make it upstairs. I can hardly control this one," Wilder said grandly, turning to me with an eye roll. "Go. Upstairs," he hissed, "Before she makes us fuck each other in front of her.” He paused and then grinned. “Not that I’m opposed to public fucking.”

I turned my back on him and trod heavily up the tiny staircase, little waterfalls of dust and flaky wall plaster coming down under my heavy, irritated footsteps. I coughed as we made our way up to the dusty hallway. Half of the bedrooms didn't even have doors.

There was a single, narrow window built into the thick stone wall at the end of the hallway. A thin rectangle of light fell through onto the dusty, rickety floor. I squinted and was fairly certain I could see through the floor slats into one of the downstairs rooms. I felt my stomach turn over but I kept walking until we made it to the last door on the right.

I reached behind me to get the key. Wilder put his hand on top of mine, and I felt the warm metal of the key on my skin. He didn't pull away, instead looking me directly in the eyes.

"Just promise me, Liv," he said with a serious look on his face.

"What?" I asked him, all my irritation evaporating as he touched me.

"That if we find Richard's decaying, desiccated corpse embedded into the mattress, that we will leave and just spend the night sleeping in the vineyard.”

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. "This is absurd. I don't even know what my life is right now," I said through chuckles.

"Just sit back and enjoy the adventure, Liv," he said to me, taking his hand away and letting me unlock the door.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

WILDER

Thankfully, Old Man Richard, wherever he was, was not embedded into the duvet.

Actually, the room was really nice. It wasn't "penthouse at the Four Seasons" nice, but compared to the rest of the place, it was luxurious. I was pretty fucking certain another fifty pounds between the two of us and the hallway floors would have crumbled under our feet. But the flooring in here looked like it had been completely refinished.

The golden boards gleaming in the light from the window reminded me of Olivia's golden hair. I set down my suitcase and wandered over to the dresser. Olivia was in the bathroom washing her face.

"No blood running out of the tap?" I called to her.

"We're good in here," she replied.

I opened the rough-hewn drawers and saw with satisfaction that Harrison had followed my instructions. I had no idea how he had done it, but it was done. I shut the drawer as quietly as I could and sat on the queen-sized bed. I bent down to sniff the crisp white linen duvet. It smelled like flowers.

Good.
I was a tough motherfucker most of the time, but when it came down to it, all I wanted in this life were clean sheets when I went to a hotel. I guessed that whoever Harrison had paid to place clothes in the dressers had also freshened up the space a bit.

"Liv, you want to change?"

She walked out of the bathroom, dabbing her face with a bright white washcloth. She had pulled her hair back into a high ponytail.

"Change? I don't even have clothes, Wilder," she replied.

“You sure about that?” I asked her with a grin.

She looked confused. “Yes, I am completely sure about that. We brought absolutely
zero
suitcases.”

I shrugged and tilted my head toward the dresser. I loved surprising people.

She looked at me skeptically and opened the drawer. Her jaw dropped. "How? What? When?" she spluttered.

I laughed. ""Harrison and his many worldwide connections."

She reached into the drawer and pulled out a delicate white sundress, holding it up by the thin straps.

"It's my size," she said incredulously. Then recognition covered her face. "Lydia," she said simply.

"Probably," I replied, laying back on the bed and sighing, my legs dangling over the side. I rested the back of my head on my crossed arms and saw Olivia was looking at me.

"So you're sleeping on the floor, then?"

I read her face, trying to determine if she was messing with me. She wasn't. "Nothing less for her highness," I said.

Olivia went into the bathroom and shut the door most of the way, leaving it open a crack. I heard her pulling her shirt off of her head. "So Gina obviously thinks that I’m Hailey, right?

"Gina needs new reading glasses,” I yelled back.

Olivia ducked her head out of the bathroom. “I’m trying my best to not read any further into that comment that is necessary.”

I laughed. “If I enjoyed fucking Hailey, I wouldn’t be here with you, would I?”

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “That is actually true literally
and
metaphorically. Because if you
did
enjoy being with her, she’d probably still be in your movie. And we definitely wouldn’t be here right now.”

She smiled at me and ducked back into the bathroom, emerging a few moments later wearing the white sundress. Her skin seemed to glow underneath the white fabric.

I felt my dick getting hard and had to sit up. Her breasts were half-showing, the tops of them sticking out of the triangles of the dress. The hem skirted the middle of her thigh. I had a sudden image of her bending over the bed in it, me pounding myself into her.

"Fuck," I said out loud.

Olivia blushed slightly and raised her eyebrows. "So, Wilder. What do we do now?"

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

OLIVIA

If you had told me a month earlier that within four weeks’ time I would be walking in brand-new clothes through an Italian vineyard with the guy I'd been fantasizing about for seven years (who also happened to be the most desired movie star in the entire world) I would have told you to put down the hallucinogens and soap operas.

And yet, there I was, nearing twilight in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, my left elbow bumping into the muscular, tanned, tattooed arm of Roman Wilder. It felt like we were the last people left on earth as we wandered amongst the grapevines, Wilder telling me stories about his time in Hollywood.

"And I swear to you, out of nowhere, Josh just turns around to this photographer and gets in his face screaming 'PENIS!' Over and over and over again. Right in the middle of Rodeo Drive. You should have seen the look on the guy’s face."

I was doubled over laughing. "But Josh is used to the press, right? Since his wife -"

"Amy."

I nodded. "Yeah, Amy, is basically on every red carpet ever. Her dress at the Oscars last year was incredible.” I’d actually made a photo of her in that dress the wallpaper on my phone for week. It had been a goldenrod color with a train that was hand-beaded in the image of a dragon.

"Between her and me, yeah, he's mostly used to it. But just the day-in, day-out grind of being followed by the press - you saw that guy at the pharmacy. They don't really have any boundaries that they don't gleefully cross. It gets pretty bad."

I reached out and picked a grape off the vine, popping it into my mouth and enjoying the burst of water as I bit into it. It was slightly sour but also tasted like earth and sun. A question that I’d been pondering for years popped out of my mouth before I could change my mind.

"What was the deal the night that you ran out naked in front of the Chateau Marmont?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

Wilder stopped walking and looked at me. "So you're familiar, then?" He seemed pleased about this.

“Isn’t everybody familiar with the incident that spawned
Wilde child
?” I asked.

Wilder laughed. “I was more wondering how intimate you were with the story. Did you hear about it or did you see the evidence for yourself?”

I shrugged my shoulders, picking off another grape. My casual act was failing miserably. "I might have seen a few photos on magazine covers at the grocery store."

Wilder took a step closer, still grinning. "Did you see the unedited images?"

I felt blush rising up to the tops of my ears. I looked at him, challengingly. "Answer my question first and then I'll answer yours."

He beamed. "Alright, your highness. That night I was drunk. Really, really drunk. And I was with Josh and Amy and..." He trailed off and looked behind my shoulder.

"Hailey. You were also with Hailey."

Wilder smiled again. "So you
did
do more than just look at the cover."

I shrugged. "Still your turn."

He started walking again, and I followed him. My dress was blowing slightly in the wind, and the Tuscan sunshine was kissing my shoulders.

"Yeah. Hailey was there. We were playing truth or dare. And I will always, always choose dare. You need to know that about me. It's highly important information."

I chuckled. "Like I couldn't have guessed that."

"So it's my turn and Hailey is giving the instructions. And she dared me to go down the elevator, completely naked, and walk into the lobby and pretend like I was wearing clothes. Like, act like it was no big deal or anything. So I did. I stripped off my clothes, took the elevator downstairs, and walked up to people and had conversations with them."

"Seriously?"

Wilder nodded. "Seriously. I asked one guy for a newspaper. Even though it was almost midnight. I think he was some billionaire developer or something. Anyway, after a few minutes, security came to escort me quietly back upstairs. But I wasn't really feeling like doing
that
, so instead, I took off at a run and fled through the front doors."

"Why?"

Wilder flung his hand out like he was trying to get out a light burst of frustration, rubbing it along the grapevine leaves. "I was really, really drunk. Like when I say that I was having conversations with people, odds are better than good that I was probably just uttering gibberish to them. So I run outside, and I forgot, you know-“

"That you were staying at the most celeb-centric hotel on planet earth?" I finished for him.

He nodded darkly. "Yep. And then the flashbulbs went off and I just decided to pose. Why the hell not? Most of the paparazzi are scum, but a lot of them are just trying to feed their families. It was my way of giving back, you could say."

We stopped at the edge of the vineyard. The sun was sinking behind the hills, and the entire world looked like it was on fire.

Wilder turned and looked at me. "Your turn now. How much of the photo did you see?"

I bit my lip, my cheeks feeling like they were on fire. "All of them. Unedited.”

Wilder looked beyond pleased as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at me. "Oh,
really
." He tilted his head and looked so sexy in that moment I was certain that I was incapable of restraining myself.

"Really-really," I replied, staring at him challengingly.

"Thoughts?"

I paused and shrugged, realizing that this was the perfect opportunity for me to take him down a few notches.

"The camera must add a few inches. It definitely didn’t seem that big in real life.” I kept my expression light and neutral on purpose.

The look of shock on his face was worth the joke. I walked away from him just to see what he would do.

I heard his footsteps pounding behind me. "Are you serious?" he asked.

"I guess you'll never know for sure," I replied coyly. "But for now I'm enjoying your massive discomfort at having someone not grovel for your attention. We're going to be late for dinner, Wilder. We should probably get moving."
 

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR