STEPBROTHERS (3 Book Stepbrother Romance Collection) (26 page)

A
quick knock
rattled my door near the end of the working day. “Come in.” I glanced up from my screen and saw Sara standing by the doorway, her hands linked together, agitated.

“What’s up?”

“Are you coming around later?”

“Sure, why wouldn’t I be? Unless you’ve changed your mind,” I said.

She bit her bottom lip, driving me crazy with the action.

“No, no, I haven’t changed my mind. I can make dinner as usual on a Tuesday. Just wanted to check you were coming and didn’t have some hot date.”

“What’s Sadie been whispering in your ear?” I asked. If she’d been telling tales to Sara, there’d be payback.

Sara looked puzzled and so goddamn innocent and yet so naughty, dressed in a tight pencil skirt and white blouse, that a sudden desire to bend her over my desk and get her filthy dirty came to mind. Horny as hell, I imagined her pert bottom across my lap. Having her here, working in the same building, let alone the same office, was doing nothing for my productivity.

“Nothing.” She gave a nervous laugh and stepped back. “See you tonight then.”

Bewildered, I watched as she retreated, my cock throbbing, and I overheard a few muffled words as she said goodnight to Sadie in the outer office. Sara was acting peculiar, but I gave myself a stern talking-to and went back to finishing off a few last-minute evaluations for one of the hotels I’d managed to turn around. The door opened and Sadie walked in without knocking, as was her custom.

“You ready to go?” she asked.

“To where?”

“You’ve got a date tonight, don’t you?” she said as she placed a bunch of manila folders onto my desk.

Distracted, I said, “Cancel it. I’ve got plans.”

“You’re going over at Sara’s, aren’t you?” she sang.

I glared at her. “How do you know? And so what if I am?”

My assistant laughed. “I know everything, you keep forgetting that, Harvey. And you know, now I come to think about it, I might as well stop organising all these blind dates for you. Seems you’re having plenty of fun with Sara,” she teased.

“Very funny, Sadie, but it’s not like that,” I responded.

“Oh it isn’t, is it?”

“No.”

“But you want it to be, don’t you? Before you answer, remember I can read your face with my eyes shut,” she said, grinning infuriatingly.

“I gotta go.” I quickly packed up my things.

“Mmm, it’s not like you to back away from my teasing.”

“Sadie, quit it. You’re not helping.”

“Fine, but…” she held up a finger as I scowled at her, “you’ll regret it if you don’t say anything. It’ll fester and drive you mad, and it’ll make
my
life miserable having to put up with your moody face.”

“Whatever, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye. You just be gentle with that one’s heart. She and I are buddies now; mess with her and you’ll regret it!” she said, smiling, as I left my office.

I laughed. Yeah, I definitely didn’t think through giving Sara a job here properly. Those two would no doubt gang up on me the first chance they’d get. I was outnumbered.

It took me over an hour to reach Sara’s place. I drove around a bit, thinking about my options before eventually pulling into her drive. Echoing in my head, Sadie’s words had really done a number on me. Could I actually tell Sara how I felt? And if I did, would she demand that I leave like the last time? I wasn’t too sure if I could handle being rejected a second time, even though I wasn’t certain if she remembered the first. She might’ve believed she was dreaming when I kissed her as I held her tight in bed. But when I told her I’d be there for her no matter what, I meant it… and whether she liked it or not, I’d fight for her till my dying breath.

The familiar scent of cooking filled the air and pop music blared from the radio as I entered the tidy little house. Humbug threaded through my feet as soon I shut the door. I placed the bottle of wine I’d picked up onto the kitchen table and lifted up the meowing kitten.

“Hey, buddy,” I said scratching behind his velvety ears.

Sara was fussing over dinner; I don’t think she even noticed me coming in. She was mumbling to herself, her mouth moving like she was having a full-blown conversation, and she kept opening and closing cabinets as if she was looking for something.

“Did you lose something?” I called out, trying to make myself heard above the music. I frowned and went to turn the radio off. Even a fool could sense that there was definitely something up with her.

“Sara?” I said again. With the music silenced, my voice was the only sound in the room.

She screamed and dropped a serving bowl onto the floor. Startled, Humbug jumped from my hold and went into hiding in the living room.

“Bloody hell! You scared me half to death,” she said, trying to catch her breath. Then her eyes welled up with tears as she saw the irreparably shattered bowl in a thousand pieces on the lino.
What the hell was going on with her?

“Sorry, you mustn’t have heard me come in.” Tears tumbled down her face, and I reached out a hand. “It’s just a bowl.”

“It’s not just a bowl!” she yelled.

“OK, what’s wrong?”

“T-there’s nothing w-wrong.” Her voice quivered, and so did her lips.

Shit.

I steered her away from the broken crockery and sat her down, adamant that she look at me. “Cut the bullshit, Sara. Tell me what’s up.” My words were harsh, like a slap to the face, but they did the trick of making her stop crying. The last thing I wanted was for her to be upset.

“I’m pregnant.”

“
What?
” I blurted. A mixture of shock and amazement settled upon me. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” She nibbled her bottom lip and just like that, the stirring in my pants increased to a whole new level of awkwardness. The idea of her pregnant, swollen and ripe, made my head spin. “I took a test. It’s positive.”

“Eric’s?” I said quietly.

She nodded, and we said no more on that matter.

“How far along are you?”

“I dunno, must be three or four months.”

Wow.
I ran my palms down my face and tried to wrap my head around her words. She must be going through hell, trying to decide what to do, I thought. Eric’s baby…
Jesus.
I looked back up and took in her face; a tear had fallen down her cheek. She was upset, and rightly so. A baby was supposed to be a happy occasion, but in light of what she’d told me, I felt my own blood start to boil. I’d had to keep myself in check when she’d listed all the abusive things he’d done to her over the years, and so help me, if he hadn’t already been six foot under, I’d have soon put him there.

Before I knew it, I was reaching out for her and pulling her into my arms.

“Shh,” I soothed, “it’s OK.”

“I-I don’t know how I’m going to cope, Harvey. On my own, with a baby to raise… How will anyone want a fat, single mother who’s also a widow? I’m like a lost cause, the trifecta of misery.”

I tightened my grip around her and squeezed. Somewhere deep in my mind I knew that this was the moment. It was now or never.

“You’re not a lost cause, and you’re not fat.” I took a breath and looked into her soft green eyes, so damn beautiful I could stare into them the whole fucking day.

“I want you,” I whispered.

Using my thumbs I wiped her tears away, stroking the soft apples of her cheeks. Her eyes had gone wide: confusion, understanding, then lust.

Fuck, I wanted her.

I didn’t know what it was exactly about this woman that pulled me in so deeply and made me do the craziest things in the world. Maybe it was everything about her, and I’d just been too stupid and preoccupied with trying to find the perfect woman when she was right here in my arms. I leaned forward. Our faces were a mere breath from each other, and the feel of her body against mine drove me completely insane.

I closed the distance between our lips, and I claimed her mouth, gently at first. A kiss that soon turned hungry and hot.

T
he moment our lips met
, sparks ignited between us. I couldn’t believe it was happening—Harvey was actually kissing me, and I didn’t have the strength or the will to say no. I wanted him will all my heart. Attraction, like a great big magnet, called out to me and made my arms lift up and curl around his thick neck, my fingers brushing against the soft wisps of hair at his nape.

My eyes closed, heavy from the feeling of bliss that made them roll, as his tongue did a magical swirl, filling my mouth and making the core between my legs pulse in a wild frenzy. I didn’t know what I was thinking, letting him kiss me like that, my stepbrother, but I didn’t make him stop, either. I lost touch with my thoughts; they were obliterated as my senses detonated. His hand ran the length of my torso, caressing its way up, then groping past my boob. I gasped and threw my head back, moaning, knowing I’d never been this turned on in my whole, entire life. His hand was at the back of my head, his fingers weaving through my hair. He tilted my head back to look up at him; his tongue darted out, licked the seams of my mouth, coaxing me to open up again, and I let him in.

In the back of my mind I tried to quash the voice that told me we shouldn’t be doing this. That his hands should not be where they were, on my hips clawing at my top, and his tongue should definitely not be inside my mouth, almost making me come with its masterful strokes.

Harvey wound his arms around my waist and pulled me even closer, hauling me to a standing position and almost off my feet, onto my tiptoes.

Tightening my hold on him, I pressed my body against him harder, feeling his need in his pants grow. I moaned again as he bent me backwards slightly; my spine arched as his tongue travelled deeper inside my mouth, as if he wanted to taste and explore every last part of me.

I denied him nothing. His hands crept up and tangled themselves in my locks again, tugging my head gently as he trailed hot kisses down my neck. Just as his lips made contact with my cleavage, my chest was rapidly moving up and down. I was totally lost in the way he was exploring my body. He reared back from me, his arms spread wide, no longer touching me.

His chest heaved with heavy panting, and a shadow crossed over his blue eyes, darkening the features on his face.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered and went to touch his swollen lips with my fingers.

A muffled curse slipped free from his lips; his breath was on my fingertips, his hand catching my wrist before I made contact.

“I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry.” Without another word, he released my wrist, turned on his heel and left. The back door slammed, shaking the house, and I stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard, trying to figure out what went wrong.

I
t could never work
, I told myself. And not just because he walked out on me, leaving me standing there like a fool, but I had a new life growing inside me to consider. I couldn’t in my right mind get involved with my stepbrother. Even though technically, after my mother’s passing we were no longer related by law. It was a technicality and nothing else. I pulled Humbug to me and lay stroking him on the bed, taking comfort in his body as he purred at my touch, while I patiently waited for sleep to come. But after a kiss like that, I was more awake than ever. I hadn’t been able to concentrate after Harvey had left. Unable to eat, I’d paced the house, dialling and redialling his number over and over again. He never answered. Something had spooked him.

I dreaded and yet at the same time longed for the morning, when I’d be able to see him again at work. But if he wasn’t answering my calls now, how on earth would he react to seeing me face-to-face in the office?

I spent the whole night stressing about whether I should actually go into work that day or just avoid it all together. And when morning arrived, the longing and urgency I’d felt the night before was overshadowed with worry. But I forced myself to go in and face Harvey. I was determined not to remain the coward Eric had made me into. I had to fight for what I wanted… and I think I wanted Harvey
and
the baby.
I knew I did.

I stepped onto the fifth floor and pushed past the throngs of people squeezing off the lift and heading to their stations. I dumped my belongings at my desk and sneaked a glance at Harvey’s office to see if he was already there. It was empty, and I was filled with disappointment.

The glass doors flew open, and behind me Harvey’s long strides sounded; beside him Sadie’s lighter footfalls shuffled along the carpet. He went straight into his office without a glance and shut the door. Sadie nodded to me and sat at her desk.

Dread settled in my belly, but there was also something else, a familiar sensation of excitement and longing that always made itself known at the mere of sight of Harvey.
But he hadn’t even said hello to me.

“What’s up with your face?” Sadie asked as she openly stared at me. “Did you do the test?” she whispered, leaning over.

I nipped at the inside flesh of my cheek and turned the other way.

“Oh come on, tell me. What’s the verdict?”

I sighed; she would get it out me sooner or later, I thought.

With a weak smile I swivelled my chair in her direction and nodded. “It’s real. I’m pregnant.”

I could tell by the glint in her eye she wanted to spring up and give me a hug and to celebrate, but she stayed rooted to her chair. “And how do we feel about it?”

“Still processing it all,” I replied.

“What does Harvey think? You did tell him, didn’t you?”

I scowled at the mention of his name. Before I could answer, his door opened and he breached our little conversation.

From across the room I glared at him, standing there, so fucking smug, as if nothing had happened, and yet I wanted to throw myself into his arms and kiss him. Out the corner of my eye I could see Sadie’s head moving from side to side, as if she were at a Wimbledon final. It seemed like we were frozen, looking at each other, and I didn’t dare to breathe. He returned my look, but there was sadness, vulnerability in his eyes. I’d always been amazed at how he could tell just by looking at me the mood I was in, or how I was feeling. But the world had shifted, and as I gazed at him, a whole room between us, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that something was wrong, that he was hiding something. He’d pushed me away last night for a reason. I didn’t know what that reason was, but it was there. He’d been holding it back this whole time—perhaps it’d been there forever—but I’d been too blinded by my own worries to see it. To see that he too was in pain, a shadow of a clinging demon, ever present, on his shoulder. And there upon him, clear as day, was a crack in his armour. He’d hid it so well.

A whole minute elapsed before I looked away, turning my face from his intense stare.

“Harvey? Did you need something?” Sadie asked cautiously.

He shook his head and started to walk through our little alcove towards the glass door. I turned my chair away from him. He held the door ajar, but before slipping through, he cleared his throat and said, “Sara, I have some news to tell you, but I have to run. I have a meeting across town, but I’ll tell you as soon as I get back, so don’t go anywhere. OK?”

I nodded, my voice a whisper as I said, “Sure.” Then he was gone again.

“Ooookay… What’s up with you two?” Sadie said.

“Nothing.”

She snorted. Obviously, I wasn’t very convincing.

“Fine,” I said. I threw up my hands and let everything out. Without any restraint, I let the words spill out in a rush, my anger and frustration increasing the more I spoke. “You want to know what happened? I’ll tell you! He came over, scared me half to death, then I told him about the baby and he bloody kissed me!”

She gasped, her mouth widening into a smile. “Did you sleep with him?”

“No! We didn’t get that bloody far, ‘cause he fucking left!”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t fucking know!”

“Bastard! But he did kiss you? What kind of kiss… Was it just a peck? Or…” she said as she wrinkled her nose.

I shook my head in amazement as I recalled how my whole body had heated up as his mouth had made contact with mine. “No, it was hot and heavy; my god Sadie, I thought I was going to die.”

Her eyes bulged. “I don’t get it, then why would he leave?”

I swallowed past the dryness of my throat. “Fuck knows. I thought I had him all figured out. Maybe he was scared ‘cause of the whole stepsister thing? Or he regretted it? I mean, come on, look at me. Why would a guy like him want
me?
It was probably a mistake. He probably didn’t mean to do it, and I obviously made it worse when I kissed him back… and he came to his senses.”

“Sara,” she warned gently.

But I kept on rambling, “Why would he do it, anyway? Kiss me like that, ruin our relationship, and now I don’t know if I can work for him, see him every day—”

She cut me off with a hand. Her voice was stern and had that no-nonsense tone to it. “Sara, stop being so stupid.”

“Wha—”

“Are you blind or something? Don’t you see the way he looks at you? Well, of course you don’t, because you’re too blinded by your own crazy feelings for him! Jeez, I despair with you two, honestly. And my god, woman! The way he cares for you and comes running when you need him most? You must be blind!”

“I…”

Sadie huffed in annoyance and continued to explain everything as if I were a child. “What I’m trying to say is that Harvey loves you, Sara. You can’t fake that kind of stuff! And he’ll be lost without you if you suddenly just disappear from his life.”

“No, that’s not possible,” I whispered, feeling my knees tremble. I was grateful that I’d already sat down. “Loves me? Maybe like a sister…”

“No, you idiot!” Sadie said, infuriated. “He loves you,
loves
you, Sara. Even a fool can make out the outline of his undying love for you from a mile away.”

“But… It could never work, Sadie.”

She rose to her feet and planted her hands upon the sides of her waist but then started wagging a pointed finger at me. “OK, then. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. For as long as I’ve known him, he’s been obsessed with finding the right woman, a flawless beauty who ticked all his boxes. He used to go on countless dates, Sara. He was a bit of a man-whore, let’s be honest. But he had this drive to find her, and I should know, I was the one arranging all the bloody dates. Trawling through dating sites and hooking him up with ex-uni friends… But guess what?”

“What?”

“He stopped looking, started standing them up. You wouldn’t believe the backlash I got from those women. And do you know
why
he stopped? Why he’s no longer letting women drape themselves all over him?”

I shook my head, not sure if I was ready to hear the answer.

“Because of you, you nonce! Four months ago everything changed.”

Sadie took a calming breath, but she wasn’t done yet. She was going to beat me over the head with it until I accepted that Harvey was in love with me. Even thinking it didn’t seem real…

“It’s because he’s been busy with you, and don’t take that the wrong way. He’s at his happiest when you’re around. He would come into the office and tell me all these things about you, and how wonderful you were and are. Sara, I don’t think he’s cared for anyone like that before, ever. You’ve changed his life by letting him into yours.”

I blinked at her. “I think I love him, too.”

“Well, of course you do!” I think she was ready to bash her skull against her desk at that point.

Yet it still didn’t feel real. It wouldn’t until I saw him again and heard him say it, if he ever would. Me, who had all these imperfections and who didn’t seem to fit into his world… it was unthinkable that he could he fall for me. He was my opposite, with his gorgeous features, drop-dead body…
he is my opposite, I realised with a flash
. He believed in me when no one else did, when everyone left me to my own destruction.

“You look pale. I didn’t mean to shout. Would you like a glass of water?” Sadie asked, yanking me out of my thoughts. When I gave a nod, she moved away and retrieved the water from the dispenser in the corner.

“Here.” She handed me the cup.

“Thanks,” I replied and cautiously sipped at the water, hoping the nausea of the previous days would stay clear for once.

Sadie’s phone rang and she picked it up. “Sure, I’ll be there in a minute.” She placed the handset back onto its receiver. “I gotta go help David. But you should think about what you’re going to do next. You have to do what’s right for you and your baby, Sara. But my advice, follow your heart and ignore your head.”

She winked at me, and I watched her leave. I twirled around in my seat and started up the laptop, watching it boot up as tried to figure out what to do about Harvey. After entering the password and clicking a few keys, I was ready to start work on the Excel sheet I’d opened. It was so hard to concentrate when all I wanted to do was go find Harvey. I wanted to tell him exactly what I was feeling and to demand to know what his problem was. Why had he walked out on me last night? I decided to wait till he returned; he’d be back soon enough.

An hour passed by, dragging me kicking and screaming through the minutes, and my butt went numb. Over time I began to realise that my heart had picked up speed and was now hammering in my chest. My breathing was laboured, as if I’d run up a flight of stairs. I grew agitated; my fingers shook and sweat dribbled down my spine. Just as I thought I was having a panic attack, I pushed away from my desk and paced around the office. The last time I’d felt this uneasy was after my nightmare about Eric… and something bad had happened.

My phone rang, vibrating its way across the desk. My hand pressed down on my beating heart as I walked over to grab it. I answered the incoming call and put it to my ear.

“Hello?” I said, believing the caller would be able to hear the thud of my heart.

“Mrs Sara Chambers?” said a female voice.

“Yes?”

“My name is Doris Everett, and I’m a nurse down at Ashton Hospital. We have you down as the emergency contact of a Harvey Guyer.”