Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (44 page)

I wasn’t just angry over the cheap shot. I
was also angry over everything that had gone on with Ashley. I was angry over
the way I felt and even though I wanted to find it in my usually calloused body
to think of her like I think of the other women I fuck, I couldn’t. That made
me even angrier. I hated to think that she had gotten the best of me and that
was what continued to propel my punches.

However, after a moment I stopped short. I
knew that I didn’t really want to hurt this man and it was because of that
thought that I was able to pull back. I moved off of him and stared down at the
man’s body.

He was bloodied and would probably hurt
for a good while, but I didn’t think I had broken anything except maybe his
nose. I figured I should be good.

I walked over to the front desk and told
them, “Hey, I don’t know what the fuck happened in the boxing room, but I heard
some dude moaning. I figured you would want to know.”

“What happened, sir?”

“How the hell should I know?” I demanded,
hoping that I had gotten the blood off of my face and hid my hands well enough
as to not give myself away. “He could have screwed up with the equipment or he
could be jerking off in there. I can’t really tell, but the point is, I am just
a concerned citizen trying to help before your ass is on the line any more than
it might already be.”

After I made my case, I made sure to walk
away. I certainly didn’t need any of this shit following me; especially not for
a pussy like whoever the hell that man was.

On the plus side though, I felt much
better. My anger had calmed and I was thinking much clearer.

Unfortunately for me, the problem had not
fixed itself. It had only become more glaringly apparent.

Chapter
33

Ashley

“We need to talk!” Tyler exclaimed as he
barged into my room about a week after I had woken up in his bed. It was kind
of strange, considering we had not spoken throughout the entirety of the week.

He had left me alone and I had left him
alone. I didn’t know what he did and I hadn’t cared. In fact, I had hoped he
had lost interest, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

To the best of my knowledge, no one else
was home and so, it would have been a good time to discuss the gigantic,
attractive and aggravatingly handsome elephant in the room; but I didn’t feel
as though I was ready. Still, a week later and I didn’t have any inclination to
have this conversation.

I was hurt deeply and I had no interest in
opening the wounds that I hoped had begun to heal. Even though I was pleased
with the advice that Stacy was able to provide, I still didn’t know if I would
be able to go through with that advice. Looking at him now, asking me to talk
to him severely challenged my thought process about the whole thing.

My face must have portrayed that thought
to him though, because after a pause, he demanded, “Right fucking now!”

Now I really didn’t want to talk to him. I
felt my face fall into a scowl before I answered, “Excuse me, Tyler. I am not
just some whore that you can boss around whenever you feel like it.”

He groaned and his eye seemed absolutely
furious. “I fucking know that, Ashley. That’s…Shit…I know! Can we just talk?”
At first, his words started out in a normal tone of conversation, but as he
spoke, his voice elevated until he was screaming at me.

I moved back, feeling as though something
wasn’t right. However, I didn’t want to just give into him. I had made the
decision that I was a young, capable woman who didn’t take anything from
anyone, especially my stepbrother…lover…
Ewww!
I thought, but knew that I didn’t mean it.

Therefore, despite the feeling that I had
which told me he actually needed to speak with me, I just glowered at him and
answered in a carefully stern tone, “No. I don’t want to talk to you right
now.”

Once again, I saw a spark of anger ignite
in his eyes, but when he spoke again, he seemed more desperate than angry. “Oh,
come on! I came in here to talk to you. I don’t want to trick you, or fucking
hurt you, I just want to talk. I think you owe me that, at least.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” I answered
coldly. After how he had spoken to me and the way he lived his life, I had
decided that I deserved better; and even though he couldn’t see that, I wasn’t
about to let him take over my whole life.

However, I couldn’t ignore that it was
hard. Even though I couldn’t stop myself from wanting him, no matter how much
of a dick he was to me, I knew that Stephanie was right. I didn’t need this
kind of negativity in my life. Within my family it made sense. I could deal
with him being in my family, because that was just one big ball of negativity.
It had been since the moment my mother told us she was sick. But my life: the
one that I chose to live, outside of this stupid house and my stupid family,
who knew the people in this stupid beach town better than they knew me: was not
riddled with the same demons. I had worked hard to make a life for myself that
extended past my grief and pain. I had tried my best to make everything work,
but when I felt everything slipping through my grasp, I knew what I had to hang
onto. Frankly, Tyler wasn’t one of those things.

Even though I didn’t say any of that, I
stared at him as the thoughts ran through my mind and somehow, I believed that
he got the message. He staggered back after a long moment looking into my eyes,
as though he was pushed, or I had truly voiced something hurtful.

For a moment he didn’t speak. I wasn’t
sure if he couldn’t find the right words to say or was fighting against his own
mind to not dig himself deeper into the grave of our dying relationship…or
whatever it was that you wanted to call it.

“You’re right,” he said suddenly, which
really surprised me. That was the last thing that I had expected from him. In
fact, if I was asked before this moment, I would have been almost positive that
he was incapable of saying such a degrading admission. But just as I was
beginning to think that I had heard him incorrectly, he said it again. “You’re
fucking right, Ashley. I don’t owe you shit.” He sighed and answered, “You
don’t owe me anything either, but I just thought that maybe we could move past
all of this crap and maybe come to some kind of arrangement.” He shrugged. “I
don’t want to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. I just want to talk to
you.”

He paused and I couldn’t help but feel as
though he was telling me the truth. He did want to make things right, but I
also couldn’t ignore the fact that no longer mattered. Things were going
absolutely crazy for me and I just needed them to slow down. In order to do
that, I truly felt that I needed to back away from him. He had become the only
priority in my life this summer and I didn’t even really like him.

So I shook my head and answered, “No,
Tyler. I’m sorry, but I can’t talk to you.”

“But you said you wanted to fucking talk!”
he exclaimed, coming closer to me. He didn’t look the least bit threatening,
but I didn’t want to take the chance, so I pulled farther away from him.

When he saw this, he shot me a look of disappointment
and shock, as though my movement had really hurt his feelings; not that he had
any.

“I changed my mind. At first, I thought it
would be good to talk it out and see where we wanted to go from here, but after
thinking about it, I realized that I didn’t want to go anywhere from here.” As
I spoke, I heard my voice grow meaner, yet more assured. When I paused to
collect my thoughts, I glared at him as though I hated him. I could tell by the
look in his eyes that he once again understood how I was feeling without me
having to say a word. However, after a moment of silence, I did speak my mind,
“At least, I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”

Now, it was Tyler whose face turned angry
and hateful. He threw his hands up as he screamed, “Well, fuck you then!” and
pivoted around on his heels to stomp out of my room and slam the door.

I watched him leave and when he slammed
the door, I felt my lip slide in-between my teeth, just as I bit down lightly,
nervously. I flinched at the sound of the door and the rattle it caused to
quake throughout the house, but after he had left, I just sat there quietly,
holding in any emotion. Even though he was gone, I didn’t want to show any sign
of fear or nervousness. My heart was racing inside my chest and my emotions were
teetering on the edge of feeling awful for what I had said and how I had gone
about everything. But just in case he came back, I didn’t want to worry about
Tyler seeing me lose any of my resolve.

So for a long time, I just stayed there,
glowering in the direction of the door and hoping that he felt the anger of my
piercing gaze as a raging and relentless heat on the back of his neck.

I wanted him to feel what he had put me
through. I knew that he understood the passion that we had shared, but I also
wanted him to know the pain and the hurt that I had undergone all while trying
to make the best out of my situation. I didn’t want to worry about anything
anymore. I was done playing this game of cat and mouse, even though I still
knew, deep down, no matter how hard I tried to hide it, that I still had
feelings for him. But I wasn’t going to let that knowledge get the best of me.
I wasn’t about to allow him to take control over my life ever again.

Just as I did when I left for college and
reinvented myself, I was going to take control of my life once again. I
realized that just because I was in the house where my family, my real family
had once vacationed, in a town where everyone knew me, didn’t mean that I still
could not effectively reinvent myself.

Therefore, that night, early in the
evening, I grabbed my fake ID and headed out on the town.

Tonight, I decided, was going to be a very
good night.

Chapter
34

Tyler

I had laid fucking low for a little while
after the incident at the gym. Although I was sure if anything was going to
come from it, legally, then it would have by now, but I still couldn’t be too
sure. So I stayed away until I was absolutely sure that the coast was clear. I
certainly didn’t want to be charged with anything; not over a fight with that
piece of shit.

However, I did curse myself for having a
strike of conscious. I was pretty sure if anything, that would be what did me
in. It was a stupid move on my part, but then again, it would have been worse
if the man died.

Even though I hadn’t shown my face in the
gym for a little while, I had monitored the news and there wasn’t even a
passing story of a man being beaten to death in the local gym, so I figured I
was out of a murder charge. It would’ve been assault at the most and I figured
that if they were really looking for me, they would have found me.

After all, I hadn’t up and fucking
disappeared.

In a way, I was proud of myself. I hadn’t
killed him and with the mood I was in, that was saying a lot.

So, instead of the gym, I had worked out
all I could on the beach. It wasn’t the absolute best scenario, but for a
little while, it would have to do.

After a week though, I was in dire need of
weight training and other essentials to my craft that just couldn’t be
substituted by making up my own shit.

It went beyond a want. It was now a
necessity and so, I ran over to the gym early that morning.

I had been around a lot of gyms in my
life. It was where I felt relatively safe and so I was fairly certain that I
understood the social structure. Even for something as big as someone getting
the shit beat out of them, a week should be enough time where people were still
talking about it in passing, but weren’t actively insinuating.

I prepared myself for chatter and even
planned for it.

So when I arrived at the gym that day and
flawlessly made it through my reps without so much as a pause, I felt like I
could make it through anything that anyone had to say.

However, as I continued my workout,
spending ample time in the room with other avid gym enthusiasts, some of which
I had come to know by name, no one said anything about what had happened.

A few of them asked me where I was,
because they hadn’t seen me all week, but even when I went up to the front desk
to buy a bottle of water, speaking to the exact same man who I had informed of
my suspicions, he said nothing.

In my paranoid mind, I began to think that
perhaps this was all a trick.
Was someone
trying to fuck me up? Is this some kind of revenge?
The accusation seemed
laughable and probably would have been if I wasn’t so nervous.

However, I knew that if there were people
who were on to me, if I did anything suspicious, it would not help me at all.
So I did my best to remain calm.

When I was finished with my workout
though, I couldn’t help but make my way down to where the fight had occurred. I
went into the room and began to work out, but while I did so, I checked out the
area where I had left the man. Everything seemed perfectly fine. There wasn’t a
drop of blood, or a body, so I had no idea what was going on.