Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (41 page)

They were always welcome to enjoy the
thrills that I had to offer, but there wasn’t a bitch alive who I was supposed
to be comfortable spending the whole night with. I wasn’t a one-night stand
kind of guy, even with the women that I was interested in pursuing again. I was
more like a one hour after sex and your ass had better be out of my bed kind of
guy; and an hour was reserved for those who I didn’t want to piss off.

It
would have been so damn easy!
I told myself as the
possibilities flowed freely through my mind.
Her room is right down the fucking hall!
“What possessed me to…?” I
didn’t even need to finish the thought before I growled and tore the rest of
the covers off of my still naked form.

Even though I was disappointed in myself
for being such a pussy, just as I knew I would be, I couldn’t help but realize
that I felt good.

Regardless of how I had scored my
stepsister or the precautions that I took to ensure that there might be a next
time, I had still added that notch to my bedpost and I felt as though I was on
a roll.

I did wonder why I had slept so late, but
figured it was the strange idea that there was a woman in my bed that made me
break yet another of my rules.

Still, broken rule or not, the pride I
felt for myself far surpassed the disappointment for not being able to adhere
to the rules of successful fucking that I usually held myself to.

When I walked downstairs, I felt even
better than I did when I first woke up.
To
hell with the rules.
After all, you
break everyone else’s rules, why not a few of your own?

“Good morning, Tyler,” my mother said.

“Hi Mom…” I answered, waving as I passed
the two of them with breakfast plates still in front of them, but long
consumed. I guess they were just sitting there staring aimlessly into one
another’s eyes like losers. I didn’t understand what the attraction was.
Seriously, they were both bat shit crazy. How could they stand each other?

I thought about just leaving and I
probably should have, but before I could stop myself, I felt my body pivot back
around and my voice ask, “Have either of you seen Ashley?”

“This morning,” my mother answered, smiling
as though she was hopeful of something. I hadn’t the faintest clue as to what
though and chances were, I would probably prefer to keep it that way. “She
wasn’t feeling too good so she left to get some air.”

I nodded and moved to leave, but just as I
began to grasp the escape from the clutches of this house, into freedom, I
heard my stepfather’s voice behind me.

“Hey, Tyler, is everything okay with
Ashley?”

I stopped and momentarily wondered what
the hell was going on. I figured I was being paranoid, considering there was no
way they could have found out already. And even if they did, who gave a shit? I
certainly didn’t.

Still, at the question I felt my shoulders
tighten with nervousness and I thought about making a run for it. After all, it
wouldn’t be the first time that I had completely ignored that dweeb, but
considering the circumstances, I quickly decided that I should probably rethink
my first idea. So, once again, I pivoted around and purposefully made myself
look menacing, before I shrugged the comment off by saying, “Dude, how the hell
would I know? Mom just told me where she was. We didn’t have a damn therapy
session or anything last night.”

“She just seemed a little stressed this
morning and I thought she might have mentioned it to you?” Her father raised
his eyes to me in a serious manner. At first, I thought once again that he knew
something that he shouldn’t but I quickly deduced that he was just trying to
get me to think he knew something; that is if there was anything to know, which
there fucking wasn’t.

So I just went with my instincts and
answered, “Yeah, well, to be honest with you, I wasn’t even with Ashley last
night. I went out with friends of mine. That’s why I was looking for her.
Someone thought she knew her and I wanted to ask about it.”

Her father nodded and answered, “All
right, thanks,” Then, after a pause, he added, “She probably does know them.
Our family has been friendly with the people in this town for years…since she
was a little girl. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she knew them.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I certainly had
not needed the damn family history, but whatever. I didn’t know what else to
do, so I just answered, “It’s cool. I’ll head out to find her myself.” With
that I left, so that I wouldn’t have to be subjected to another dragging,
pointless conversation. I didn’t know why my family insisted to try to make
friends with me. It wasn’t worth it. I didn’t want to make friends. I wanted to
make a reputation.

Family had just become important to my
mother because it was convenient for her. However, after years of having
nothing but cruel things to say about the man who fathered me, not to mention
that I was the one who killed him, family seemed like an impossible, hurtful
prospect.

I refused to let anyone in. Even though I
had my moments when I thought that having a family and being a normal person
might be nice, there were far more moments when I was sure it wouldn’t be.
Having family or anyone close to you on a level of mutual care only set me up
for disaster.

Yet, even as I was thinking about this, I
still found myself making my way toward the beach in order to catch a glimpse
and possibly talk to my stepsister.

As soon as I walked up over the dunes I
saw her. It looked as though she had already muscled her way to the front row
of the beach, or she had staked her claim here just in time.

Dammit,
she’s beautiful
I
thought, before I shook the feeling out of my mind. What bothered me about this
whole situation was that although I found Ashley hot and sexy, like I found a
lot of women, I also found her beautiful in a way that I had never noticed a
woman before. I hated the thought, but the closer I grew to her, the more
prevalent that thought seemed to become. It sucked.

Still, for longer than I cared to admit, I
stood behind her, with her unaware that I was there, so that I could take in
her beauty and grace. I felt a connection to her and I absolutely hated it. I
didn’t want to have any kind of feeling toward her, besides the feeling of the
two of us lying naked together, fucking our brains out. That was the only
sensation that I wanted from this bitch and then when I was done, I wanted to
be able to walk away.

We were step-siblings, after all, and to
have any kind of feeling for one another just wouldn’t be right.

Yet, there was still a sensation that
arose inside of me that made me think that we might be able to amount to
something more. There was always the idea that we would be able to do whatever
we wanted without any consequence one of these days. After all, my stupid
mother would probably take her father for everything that he was worth one day
and then we would no longer be one big happy fucking family. Then, we would be
able to do what we wanted, without connection.

She
might hate me then too.
I thought, angry at how much I gave
a shit.

Shaking away the thoughts that I didn’t
want to have, I forced myself to get back in my game, just before I ran up
behind her, ready to lay on the player’s charm; no strings attached and no
mercy. That’s what I was supposed to be all about and there was no time like
the present to get back to my ultimate goals.

Chapter
29

Ashley

The beach was starting to help. The new
day was already sunny and warm, while the waves crashed easily and almost
methodically. I listened to them for a long time and tried to clear my mind.

The sand that was finding its way around
and through my toes as my feet sifted into it was beginning to warm up and the
sounds of the ocean were beginning to be drowned out by families arriving for a
day of fun.

I didn’t mind though. I was used to the
crowds and the people. This was how you lived your life if you had a beach
house that backed up to the beach. There was no true privacy and even though
there were moments when you felt like you had the whole world to yourself, the
majority of the time you were never really alone.

Still, I felt far more at ease here than I
did inside the house. At least I could think and wasn’t expected to be social.

However, my feeling of freedom was fairly
short lived when just a little while after the tourists arrived, I felt someone
come up behind me and sit next to me.

“Good morning, Sunshine.” I heard the
familiar voice before I saw who it was and already, I was rolling my eyes.

“Please, go away,” I answered, narrowing
my eyes at Tyler before I turned my attention back toward the ocean.

“Oh, come on! What the fuck?” He exclaimed
and then lowered his voice as he reached his lips in closer to my ear before he
added, “What happened to the attitude you had last night. You couldn’t get
enough of me then.”

Disgusted and embarrassed, more because he
insisted on spelling it out then of what I had actually done the night before,
I glowered at him. “I don’t want to talk about it!”

“Well,” he said as he leaned his muscular
arms back behind him and stretched out, so that I could see the virile man that
sat next to me in all of his sexy, alluring glory, “I wasn’t going to mention
it, but since you seem so bothered I didn’t think it was right to ignore your
distress.” He beamed at me, ignoring the fact that I continued to scowl at him.

Tyler was only wearing a bathing suit,
which seemed wrong to me, even though we were on the beach in the middle of
summer.

Yet, his body called to me and I felt as
though the small amount of clothing that he was wearing was only tempting me to
do what I was sure by now that we should never do again; regardless of how much
I wanted him.

I tried my best not to look at him, but
even the small glances that I couldn’t help taking made me feel hot and
nervous.

Shaking the thoughts of pouncing on him
right this very moment out of my mind, I looked away from him and thought about
what he had said. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Tyler. I am not
bothered by what happened last night. It was…” I made it a point that he saw me
roll my eyes, “Whatever. It was all right.”

“That is total bullshit and you know it,”
he answered instantly. At least my comment was enough to wipe that stupid grin
off of his face.

I shrugged, trying my best to seem
convincing. “I know that you had a great time, but that doesn’t mean that I
did. Frankly, I don’t think that we should do it again…ever.”

He laughed at this which caught me
off-guard. I felt his lips close to my ear again while he replied, “Cut the
shit, or I will stand up and confess my love to you in a way that is so loud
and so unbelievably sweet that we will have a crowd surrounding us; all of them
wishing that they were us.”

I felt my eyes grow wide and I gasped. My
heart, which had just calmed down began to beat quickly with fear. However, I
knew that I couldn’t give into him, or he might just do it out of spite. So I
mustered up enough courage to answer, “You even try to do that and I will
scream so loud that you will be arrested before any of that sweetness that you
claim to have inside of you is even able to see the light of day.”

Tyler reared back and squinted his eyes.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, woman? I was going to do something nice.”

“No, it wasn’t nice. The intention was
cruel and mildly psychotic. At least my threat had sensibility behind it.”

“Mine was just more inventive,” he
answered, raising his eyebrows before he added, “No, but seriously. I want to
know what’s up with you. Why is it such a big deal? The parental unit doesn’t
even have a clue. They’re just happy were staying out of their hair so that
they can be unending fuck buddies.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah, but what
happens when we do get caught?”

“Are you kidding? My mother and your
father are too far into the honeymoon stage to notice that anyone is having sex
besides them.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I answered. “And
besides, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Not here.”

“But we should talk about it?” He asked,
once again raising his eyebrows as though he expected to gain some kind of
assurance from the assurance that we needed to talk.

“Sure,” I answered. “I guess it couldn’t
hurt anything.”

He nodded. “Good! So, you were full of
shit?”

At this, I couldn’t help but laugh. I had
finally caught him in a moment when I could tease him for once. I cocked my
head to the side and narrowed my eyes before I answered, “Oh, wow…Do I sense a
touch of insecurity under all those muscles?” I giggled and squeezed his arm
affectionately, but I could tell immediately that Tyler was not the least bit
amused.

Now it was Tyler who was glaring at me. He
swiftly tugged his arm out from my grasp and answered, “Fuck no. I know what I
have. I don’t need anyone to assure me of my capabilities.” Then, he smiled and
answered in a softer, yet sarcastic tone, “Although, I can understand that
having a real man for the first time can be overwhelming on many levels.” He
shrugged and added, “Coming to grips with the fact that you will never be able
to get a screw that good from anyone ever again, unless of course, you decide
to cozy up to me again, can be a hard thing to get past.” He bowed his head as
though he was paying some kind of respect before he added, “I will give you all
the time you need.”