STEPBROTHERS (3 Book Stepbrother Romance Collection) (42 page)

N
o one but
Thea or I would know. I could easily do it, I thought. Put a bullet into his head. After all, Travis deserved it, didn’t he?

He’d killed a man, set me up… attempted to rape Thea. God, I didn’t want to imagine what could’ve happened if I hadn’t made it here on time, if Jimmy hadn’t managed to call me, telling me he’d lost Travis in traffic when he’d seen him and Thea bolt from the gym. And getting processed out of the police station seemed to take longer than it had when I was arrested—what if I’d missed his call? I bit down hard upon my tongue, I didn’t want to think about it… Travis on top of her, but yet the images came. And the world, the room, turned red. A filter upon my vision that made it clear what I had to do.

I had to protect her.

The gun was so close, another step and I’d have it in my hand.

“Fuck, Vincent. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you should be apologising to!” I yelled. “You think saying sorry is going to make everything ok? You set me up! You almost killed Thea!”

“I wasn’t going to,” Travis stammered as he pressed himself against the wall, his gaze darting from me and then to the door, hoping for any means of escape. “I promise… He made me do it!”

“What?” I asked puzzled. “Who?”

I bent at the waist, making sure to keep my eyes on him. My fingers extended, searching for the cold metal of the gun.

Travis took his chance and bolted, getting halfway out the bedroom door. I rugby tackled him from behind, and we went sprawling. He was under me, trying to get away, but my fists were ready. I swung once and hit my target; blood burst from his nose.

Nothing would stop me now. The anger that had built up inside me had to go somewhere, and I feared it wouldn’t be over until Travis’s face was unrecognisable and he was still.

But then a warm hand lay gently upon my shoulder. A slight squeeze, and the red filter that had covered my world like a sheer curtain lifted. I turned to see what had caused me to halt in my tracks.

Thea smiled. “Stop. You’re not that man.”

I let my heavy hands, my weapons, fall to the wayside, discarded. With her eyes she communicated everything I needed to understand—that I didn’t have to do this, I had a choice. By coming back when I did I
had
protected her. To do anything more would be reckless.

“You’re not fucking worth it, Travis,” I spat at him as he managed to scurry away. He was at the top of the stairs when the sirens blared, and a stampede of official feet entered Thea’s flat.

He wasn’t going to get away with it. Not this time.

I threaded my fingers through her hand and held on tight as we watched Travis, his hands in handcuffs, being escorted out of our lives.

“
J
esus Christ
,” I muttered under my breath as I saw him enter the gym. I’d just got rid of one son of a bitch, now I had to deal with him, too? I moved toward him, blocking him from coming any farther. “You’re not wanted here. There’s
nothing
for you here!”

My father’s face twisted when he saw me coming, as if he hadn’t expected me to be there.

Edward stammered but tried to remain tall, though it was clear he was uneasy. “Where’s Travis?”

I shook my head and laughed, there was nothing else for it. It finally all started to make sense. I thought I’d had it right before, but fuck. Travis didn’t have the brain cells to pull off what he’d done… he’d been manipulated, why I didn’t know and didn’t care to know. But the source of all that had happened was standing right in front of me.

“You did this, didn’t you, you piece of shit?” I stepped towards him, inches from his face. “Not only did you take my sister away from me, but you thought you’d try to take away everything else away, too? My gym, my cousin, my fucking girlfriend?”

He was unable to back down. Never one to admit to wrongdoing, my father leaned in closer. “You don’t deserve any of this, boy. Why do you get to have everything when I have nothing?”

“What did I ever do to you, eh?”

“You fucking existed! I never wanted kids—both of you, fucking leeches…”

I almost took a swing at him, but the breathing techniques Thea had been teaching me kicked in. They were a whole lot better than me trying to count to ten.

“Keep telling yourself that. You were a shitty father, and you’re a shitty excuse for a human being. You have nothing because you fucked up your life. Don’t go blaming your children for your mistakes. You have no one else to blame but yourself, old man,” I said, my tone low.

And then I realised, after saying the words out loud, that they were true. For years I’d been blaming myself, carrying a burden that truly didn’t belong to me. He’d killed Alice, I hadn’t. I’d been a kid, a scared boy trying to grow into a man and trying to do so even though I was terrified of the man who did little to raise me. There had been too much pressure to keep him away from her… but finally, I said it. “It wasn’t my fault.”

“What?” he said surprised.

I lifted my head and looked him in the eyes. Once I’d worshipped him, he’d been my hero, but there was nothing left of that man. All that was left was a bitter individual who thought he was entitled to anything and everything in life.

“It wasn’t my fault. It was yours. You killed Alice, and all these years you had me convinced that it was all my doing. ‘
If only you’d been there’,
you both said.”

My father’s eyes went wide.

“But—”

“How could you do that to your own son? And then to fuck with Travis? Manipulate him to turn against me?”

His mouth parted, and the words were lost to him. He knew I spoke the truth, and he had to deal with his own demons now.

I shrugged. It didn’t matter anymore; a lightness had come over me and I felt I could breathe again, as if for all these years I’d been breathing with only one lung.

“Just go. I don’t want to see you ever again. You mean nothing to me and never will.”

Knowing I was resolute, that he wouldn’t get anything from me ever again, he backed up and walked straight into the sold mass that was Jimmy.

“Watch it!” Jimmy said, then picking up on the tension between us, he looked at me. “Everything OK?”

I nodded and watched my father hightail it out of the gym, tail between his legs, as quick as he could. “I am now.”

“Good.”

“Come on, I’ll get you the keys then show you about,” I said and escorted Jimmy to the office.

“How’s your girl doing?”

“She’s fine, a little rattled, but she’s a tough cookie.”

“You lucked out with that one,” he said and winked.

“Don’t I know it,” I said and handed the keys to the gym.”

“You know I am sorry about that night… I should’ve been there,” Jimmy said with a wince.

“You did everything right, man. It’s not on you what happened. Forget about it. I’m just grateful you called me and warned me.”

He nodded a thankful smile, yet it was me who was bloody thankful.

After a lot of thinking, Thea and I had decided that it would be best, for a little while anyway, to spend some time far away from this place. We needed time to ourselves. Without our parents or what had happened clouding our future. So I handed over the keys to the gym to the only guy who had come through for me—Jimmy—and effectively gave him the run of the place. He needed a steady wage, one that he could rely on, and I needed someone I could trust while we were away. It was the perfect arrangement for us all.

Before leaving I gave him the lay of land. There wasn’t much to it, the gym members looked after themselves really, then we said our goodbyes. I took a last look at the gym as I jumped into my truck. I knew I’d be back someday, but for now my future was with Thea, and I was willing to follow her anywhere around the world, following not only her dream but my own—a happy life with the woman I was madly in love with.

I drove quickly back to her. Being away from her even for a few hours made my skin itch, like a part of me was missing—a phantom limb constantly reminding me that I wasn’t whole.

Thea jumped into my arms when I reached the top of the stairs of her flat, almost knocking us over, but I braced myself against the wall and scooped her legs up around my waist.

“You were gone for forever,” she said, breathless, her lips leaving trails of kisses along my jawline.

“I missed you, too,” I said with a laugh and captured her lips. My tongued slipped inside her heavenly mouth, and I moaned. It’d been a miracle we’d gotten any packing done, ’cause all I wanted to do when I was around her was to make love to her all damn day.

I moved us to the bed and slowly peeled off her jeans, blouse, and bra, her bare curves revealing themselves to me as I stripped her. God, she was beautiful, and she was all mine—mine to undress, mine to do what they fuck I wanted with; she’d told me as much.

She watched as I ran my hands down the length of her legs, stroking her, parting them. I unlatched the buckle of my belt, popped the button on my jeans and slipped them off over my ever present hard-on.

“We’re going to be late,” she said, a teasing finger in her mouth, nibbling on it. I stroked my cock, relishing her reaction as she watched it grow larger, her eyes wide.

Between her thighs I climbed onto the bed, raised my arms above my head and yanked off my t-shirt.

She feigned resistance as I reached for her hard nipple, but the moan that tumbled out of her mouth gave her away. “We’re going to miss our flight,” she said with a wicked grin.

“There’ll be others. The only thing you need to worry about right now is how you’re going to hang on while I fuck you senseless.”

“Well, in that case, all aboard,” she said and looped her arms around my neck, my hands under her ass as I lifted her to hover just over the tip of my cock. Slowly I lowered her down, the entrance of her pussy, slick and welcoming, stretched wider as the head of my cock punched through.

Her mouth parted, lips glistening, and I snatched them up, taking her surprised breath as, in one swift movement, I filled up her up completely. She moaned into my mouth as my cock widened her tight little hole.

Kneading my hands into her ass, I slipped myself halfway out then drove my hips forward until I could go no further. She angled her body away, leaning back, ready for the next onslaught, my cock never tiring for her. Over and over again I made her moan, made her mine.

She tilted her head back to look at me, eyes swimming with pleasure, but still she kept them open. The silent connection between us made it even more intense; it was magical and meaningful as we watched each other come undone and experienced an explosion of love.

“Thea,” I breathed, nearing the point of no return. Her name was stamped all over my mind. “I don’t think you know what you’ve done to me…”

“I do,” she whispered, her soft body grinding against me. “’Cause you’ve done the same to me.”

“God, I love you.”

She kissed me then, the extra sensation of her hot lips on my skin an overload upon my senses. I thrust into her, unable to hold back any longer, and felt a wave or pure belonging as our bodies melted into one, imploding and exploding at the same time, combining forever.

M
y mother had always wanted
to travel. Admittedly she wanted to do a lot of things, and she drove my father crazy with her constant dreams of doing anything but what she was doing in that moment. It drove them apart, made him choose me over her; I saw that now. I needed stability and love as a teenager, not flights of fancy. And yet I’d resented him for banishing her, and resented her for leaving me behind. Little did we know she’d been hiding an illness from us both, and she died only a few short months later.

There had be a reason to why she’d wanted to see the world, to do what she pleased, and foolishly I thought by embracing her flawed philosophy of living in the moment and doing what
I
pleased, I was honouring her.

But I’d done anything but. I’d deluded myself, thinking the sexual being inside me needed to be spread out, given away to anyone that wanted it. Ultimately, the opposite was what I desired and truly craved. I suppose if I hadn’t gone down that path in the first place, following my mother’s words to do what I wanted, then I might never have met Vincent at all.

So perhaps there was some truth to it after all. I’d eventually got what I wanted, even if I did go the long way around to get it.

“You seem a thousand miles away,” Vincent said, his soft fingers skimming my bare thigh. My bathing suit covered the rest of me.

I rested my chin upon Vincent’s shoulder, and shielded my eyes from the glaring sun to look at him. “Just thinking,” I said with a smile.

“Of what?” he asked, intrigued.

“Of how everything in my life led me to you.”

“Funny how life works out, huh?” he said and licked his lips.

He always did that. I was getting to know his mannerisms more and more, and him licking his lips meant either one of two things: I was about to be devoured by kisses, or he was about to sneakily slip a finger beneath my knickers.

As we lay on our sunbed, riding the sea in the Caribbean, I waited to see which one he’d choose.

Instead he surprised me by unwrapping himself from our entwined position on the sunbed and got to his feet. He stretched, staring out to the vast blue beyond, trying to hard to hide a grin on his face.

I frowned. This was new. A third outcome?

Suddenly he turned, hands in his board-short pockets. “Pick a hand,” he said, eyes twinkling.

I bit my lip, trying to contain the smile. His energy was infectious, and though I didn’t know why, I wanted to laugh out loud.

“Why?”

“Just pick one.”

“What if I pick wrong?”

“You won’t,” he reassured me.

I gazed at his hidden hands, bulging in his pockets.

I pointed. “OK. The right one, please,” I said.

He grinned and came closer, fist still clasped shut, then kneeled by my side.

“Thea Beatrice Reagan, you know that’s a bit of a mouthful, right?” he said teasingly. I socked him on the arm. He was having me on, this whole act, him down on one knee, it wasn’t real. It was too soon, surely?

“Yeah it is a bit, what you going to do about it?”

“How about we change it?”

I narrowed my eyes, not ready to believe it just yet.

“How does Thea Beatrice Hudson sound?” he continued.

My mouth dropped open. It was happening!

“Say something!”

I neutralised my face, then shrugged, wrinkling my nose. “It still has the same number of syllables. I’m not sure…”

His face turned pale.

He was so gullible sometimes, and I reached out for his face and smiled. “It’s perfect.”

“You will then?” his face brightened as he opened his clenched fist to reveal a sparkling engagement ring. “Thea, will you marry me?”

I nodded, totally lost for words now. But finally, not even looking at the ring, I said, “YES!”

Vincent shot to his feet and yelled triumphantly, the whole deck of passengers staring our way as he bounced and danced with elation.

“Hey, what was in your other hand?” I asked, trying to get him to come down off cloud nine for just one moment to satisfy my curiosity.

“Oh, that?” he said, licked his lips, and stopped jumping.

Vincent dug into his left pocket and pulled out a clenched fist again, but this time when he opened it, his palm flat, there was nothing there. His blue eyes sparkled with desire, and his hand didn’t stop moving. It suddenly reached the side of my face, caressed my cheek then pulled me in towards his body, his lips following not far behind.

“All the kisses in the world, my love,” he answered in a whisper and kissed me again and again, forever more.