Stepbrother Revealed Read online

  “I know. What I mean is … you should stay. We’ll keep these days to ourselves and go from here. Does that work?”

  I nodded. It did for now. I’d delete my number from his cell phone before we left on our separate flights home to the same city. And we could avoid each other and forget. This wasn’t a drama either of us needed. But for now, it would be just fine.

  More than fine, I thought, falling against him, our bodies intertwined as one. Better than anything.

  EPILOGUE

  It was raining in New York. I looked out of the window of the library, watching it come down. Normally, the rain was the perfect weather for studying. I liked it best, anyway. And something about the city was beautiful and peaceful for a moment in time, the bustle stilled and muted.

  But today, I was thinking of a certain boy I hadn’t seen in three months. I’d deleted emails asking for my number and address, and I’d asked my mother not to reveal where I lived. She hadn’t asked any questions, but they must have been there in her mind, looming.

  I sighed and clicked my pen, watching the rain splash against the windows. I thought of the days I’d spent lying in the sand with Chase, sipping fresh juice and swimming when our skin got too hot. I’d become more familiar than I ever had been with someone else’s body, and I’d reveled in it.

  Sometimes I’d wonder why I’d pushed him away, always settling on my penchant for keeping my life quiet and clean. There wasn’t room in my life for a stepbrother-turned-lover … or a lover-turned-stepbrother. Whichever way, it caused unnecessary problems I didn’t want to deal with. Not just for me. For Chase too.

  A deeper part of me, though, missed him. That primal part that had responded to something like love on my little vacation away from the world. Sometimes, I’d see Chase everywhere. A golden-blond man walking down the street. A quick gesture on the subway. But it never turned out to be him.

  Just then, a shadow passed in front of me. My heart beat fast as I caught a familiar smell, one of sun and sand and skin I’d grown quickly familiar with. I looked up, and he smiled.

  “Your mom told me you studied here. She wouldn’t tell me where you lived, but she thought maybe it would be okay if I stalked you where you do your library science thing.” I blushed bright red.

  “I thought you’d forgotten about me,” I said.

  “Never,” said Chase. We drew several pissed off looks from several other library students. I lowered my voice.

  “What now?” I asked him. He put his hand on mine.

  “A date, a real one?” His eyes sparkled. I nodded, the shock of his touch overtaking me. Maybe there was room for some drama in my life after all.

  Anyway, it made things more interesting. I packed up my things. I could study tomorrow.

  EXCERPT FROM "STEP LOVER"

  Check out Step Lover, one of my newest releases. Link coming soon!

  New York was everything she’d heard it would be—crowded, hot, unfriendly, and expensive. Zoe loved it despite its flaws and settled into Hale’s small but luxurious studio apartment easily enough. Within two weeks, she felt like she’d been living there forever. Her internship at the museum had the same sense of familiarity, and she had a good feeling about getting a permanent position at the end of the unpaid internship.

  Bomber was a considerate roommate who only rarely spilled water on the floor or scattered cat food around the kitchen. He was content to curl up on her lap at night and let her rub his ears while he purred with quiet contentment.

  It was the closest thing she’d come to a date in years, and she didn’t know whether to be amused or annoyed that it was Hale’s cat who was filling the void for companionship, since the man himself had been the one to screw her up for dating others.

  Her sense of routine came to a screeching halt when she returned to the apartment almost three weeks after moving in. Tired from a long day of cataloguing Roman undergarments, which was more taxing than she had expected, she opened the door and stepped inside before it hit her that she hadn’t had to unlock it first.

  That was wrong, and she was immediately sure someone had broken into the apartment to…cook lasagna? Sniffing deeply, she was certain she smelled Grandma Nora’s pasta sauce, which was always paired with béchamel and homemade lasagna noodles. Monica had been married to Andy for three years before Nora had trusted her with the recipe.

  “Mom?” she called.

  The swinging door to the kitchen opened, revealing the startling and unlikely sight of Hale in suit trousers, an oxford shirt rolled to his elbows, and a serviceable black apron. Flour dotted the front and a smear lingered on his cheek.

  It was a devastatingly sexy sight, and she had to catch her breath and count to three before she did something crazy, like throw herself at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I live here,” he said with a neutral smile.

  Zoe nodded. “Yeah, of course.” Awkwardly, she shifted on the balls of her feet. “Um, I meant what are you doing home right now?”

  “Making lasagna.”

  Her eyes widened. “You know how to make Nora’s lasagna?”

  He nodded. “She showed me when I was just fourteen. We bonded over the process. That was the year my mom died, and she used cooking therapy to communicate with me when I was an uncommunicative teenage boy who didn’t know how to express my anger and grief.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know.” Hale was a whiz in the kitchen? It had never occurred to her, simply because he seemed too impressive and above mere mortals to engage in such domestic simplicity. Apparently not though.

  She drew her full lower lip between her teeth before releasing it. “Shouldn’t you be in England though?”

  “I’m home for a bit.”

  “Oh, okay.” Zoe cast a glance at the living room-cum-bedroom, where a large king-size bed dominated most of the space. She had slept on it almost every night since moving in, but only after investing in her own set of sheets. The idea of using the same sheets Hale slept on had been too intimate, and she’d spent the first night on the leather loveseat. Dreading a return to that torture device, she decided to worry about that later and focus on just getting through a civilized dinner with Hale first.

  Unless… “Are you expecting company? A woman? I can make myself scarce.”

  Hale grinned. “I did cook for a beautiful woman.”

  “Um, okay. Do I have a few minutes to change to something more casual, or is she coming right away?”

  Hale chuckled and walked closer. “It’s you, Zoe. I made dinner for you.”

  “Oh.” Swaying toward him, as though he’d drawn her with a mysterious magnetic pull, she barely managed to keep from reaching out to wipe the flour off his cheek. “That’s great. Thanks. Do I have time to change?”

  He nodded. “You have about ten minutes. Can I pour you a glass of wine to go with dinner?”

  “Sure.” Zoe hurried toward the bathroom, taking a moment to grab yoga pants and a modest tank top from the small closet in the hallway. Once safely enclosed in the bathroom, she leaned against the door, wishing for a lock, and took several deep breaths for calm.

  Trying to push aside her nervousness, she stripped off the linen skirt and button-down blouse. Out of habit, she removed her bra and had dropped it on the pile before reconsidering. Zoe stared at her breasts in the mirror, debating if she needed the bra to cover her small endowment, or if she could get by with the tank, as she typically did.

  Reminding herself she had worn very similar clothes in front of Hale many times in the past, she slipped on the yoga pants and tank. As she started to leave the bathroom, she also remembered the night she’d been in his arms, and her feelings had changed from innocent to sexual in moments.

  Quickly, she pulled off the tank and refastened the white bra before putting on the top. With a final glance in the mirror, deciding the bun she’d wound her dark hair into that morning was still intact enough for a casual dinner with her stepbrother, she opened the bathroom door and tried to walk normal
ly down the hall, toward the kitchen.

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  © 2015 Stephanie Brother

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.

  Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.

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  Other Books by Stephanie Brother:

  Stepbrother Beloved

  Stepbrother Holiday

  Billionaire Stepbrother Obsession

  Stepbrother Savior

  Stepbrother, My Love

  About the Author:

  Stephanie Brother writes scintillating stories with step-siblings as their main romantic focus. She's always been curious about the forbidden, and this is her way of exploring such complex relationships that threaten to keep her couples apart. As she writes her way to her dream job, Ms. Brother hopes that her readers will enjoy the full emotional and romantic experience as much as she's enjoyed writing them.

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