Beautiful Brute: A Stepbrother College Romance (Court University Book 3)

by Eden O'Neill

  Unlike this bitch.

  She obviously relished in it, their fancy-ass house and that big fucking diamond on her finger. Stepmom grinned. “Oh my goodness, Rick. He looks nothing like those old pictures you’ve shown us. Wow, I never would have recognized you. You’ve obviously grown up and so handsome.”

  Rick shook my shoulders. “Of course, he is. He’s my son, isn’t he?”

  Another pulse in my stomach that I had any biological connection at all to this man. I checked myself again. “Genetics are something, huh?”

  “I mean, I’d say that. You two look so much alike. It’s uncanny really. Wow.”

  My jaw worked, but Maggie smiled, finally letting go of me. Noticing her daughter was mysteriously absent from the conversation, she waved at Cleo. “Darling, why didn’t you call us? I’m sure your father would have wanted to know Jaxen got here early.”

  I fought the cringe. Obviously, I knew stepsis and Rick were close. He had been in her life for a long time.

  He was her dad.

  I heard her even call him that, listening for a while before I made my appearance. It just made what I planned to do to this girl that much easier.

  Cleo slid under her mother’s arm, but I wouldn’t look at her, letting my dad talk and go on and on about how good it was to see me. It was a friendly enough exchange, but all the while, I felt the younger whore’s eyes on me. She obviously had questions for me.

  This was going to be fun.

  “Well, now. How about breakfast then?” Maggie suggested. “We’ll all go out and—”

  “Actually, if you have the stuff, I can get something together,” I said, stealing the attention. I smiled. “I don’t mind. Used to cook a lot at home.”

  I’d learned from the best, no thanks to my dad. He hadn’t been there to show me anything. Let alone how to cook. Even still, he flashed a wide smile in my direction after what I’d said. He shook my shoulder. “Bet you’ve learned a lot from your mom, haven’t you?”

  I noticed he left out Mama in that sentence, both my mothers celebrity chefs. Perhaps, it bothered him that after him my mom had moved on from asshole to something better. I forced my grin. “Right. Learned a lot from both of them.”

  Rick kept his own smile, rubbing my shoulders. He asked if I needed help after that, help getting things together or if I needed anything. Like the good son I was, I told him I didn’t need a thing. And actually urged him and my stepmom to relax. I heard they’d just got home.

  They should rest their feet.

  I swear to God, I should have gotten an Academy Award for that shit. Because not only had they left with grins of delight, they left me with my stepsister. Told her she should stay and get to know me.

  Yeah, she should.

  She needed to know all about me. The room clear, though, I gave her my back, rooting around the kitchen for the eggs. I was well aware her attention was on nothing but me the whole time.

  She just didn’t say anything.

  She didn’t dare and not for a long time. Eventually, she eased her little self over to my side of the bar, and once there, she played with her T-shirt.

  I dragged my gaze up the length of her, how scared and intimated she appeared to be. Again, she didn’t fool anyone. I knew how this girl was.

  I knew what she took.

  I knew what she thought was hers, and that alone let me know all about her. Her lips parted. “Jaxen…”

  “Jax,” I said, eyeing her down to her Pony shorts. Such a waste. This girl’s tits were gorgeous, but she dressed like she rolled out of kid’s donation bin. Even last night her dress had basically been down to her ankles, part of that whole “innocence” thing she obviously tried to pull off. Again, I gave her my back, cracking some eggs before whipping them up. She came toward me again, her soft breaths pants behind me.

  “But…” she started, and I slowed, whisking slowly. She blew out a breath. “You told me your name was Brett.”

  I did tell her that, told her a lot of things. But that was just the beginning of all this for her.

  I grinned.

  “My name is Brett,” I said, nearly laughing. “My middle name that is.”

  It’d been really so easy. It was like she’d gone to that club to get laid and maybe she had. I wouldn’t put it past her.

  I mean, she was her mother’s daughter.

  She started to say something else, but I walked up on her.

  And how those double-Ds shook.

  They trembled right beneath her tee, and I was glad.

  She was about to know exactly where we stood.

  Putting the bowl of eggs down, I crowded her, her soft heat under my tongue. She smelled like cherries and whore.

  Probably, since she hadn’t showered.

  I’d sweated all over this girl last night, my cum probably still inside her. We’d manage to break a condom last night, but I hadn’t worried too much since she had said she’d been on the pill. She’d even looked excited that it’d happened.

  Little slut.

  I brushed her chin with my knuckles, her breath hiking. The chrome ring on my fourth finger touched her chin, and she quivered. Right down to those double-Ds under her T-shirt. I smirked. “Probably should go take a shower before breakfast, sis,” I stated, tapping her chin. “After all, my cum’s still inside you.”

  Shock rattled her stiff, her face flushed. Her lips shook apart, but before she could open her mouth, I pressed a finger to her lips.

  “Better hurry now,” I said. “Don’t want to be late for family breakfast.”

  Another touch of her jaw, my ring brushing it before pulling away. This ring on my finger meant something where I came from, and all bowed down to it.

  She would too.

  Cleo’s eyes coated in tears I refused to look at. I had no time for it. Quickly, she left my sight, and I did nothing but smile as I whisked up the eggs. I was going to make this girl burn.

  And I’d laugh all the way there.

  Chapter Three

  Cleo

  I blew chunks into the toilet. Literal chunks until there was nothing left but stomach acid.

  I quivered by the end.

  I ached.

  My knees hit cold tiles, my fingers uncurling from the toilet seat. The shower was on and the room filled with choking steam, but I didn’t turn it off.

  It concealed my sobs.

  And I did sob, violently. I shook like a torrential storm, in a horror film of my own. It’d been a horror film he’d created.

  He’d been so cruel to me.

  There’d been almost… hatred in Jax’s eyes when he spoke to me, and I didn’t understand.

  I didn’t understand.

  I’d never in my entire life been treated in such a way. I was no saint, but not ever had someone just been completely mean to me when I’d done nothing to them. Jaxen had targeted me. He’d gone for me, clearly.

  He’d taken my virginity.

  The sobs grew and grew, the steam from the shower clogging the room. I’d turned it on to drown out the tears but hadn’t even made it in there.

  Flushing the toilet with shaking limbs, I forced myself to stand, to commence with my day. Before I came up here, I told Mom and Dad I wanted to take a quick shower, needing to do so before breakfast.

  “Probably should go take a shower before breakfast… my cum’s still inside you.”

  I stumbled inside the running water, clothes still on. I hit the shower tiles, then fell to my knees. My hair and clothing soaked, I retched again over the drain.

  I didn’t stop until I heaved a shuddered breath.

  Eventually, I got myself together enough to strip off my clothes and scrub up, being extra careful. I was still so sore, but I had to scrub. Jax’s voice was in my head.

  God.

  My stomach rolled the entire time, but I managed not to throw up again. I tried to make it as quick as I could, knowing Mom, Dad, and Jaxen were waiting for me. I didn’t know what he’d do if I took too long.
Tell them?

  Do worse?

  I didn’t know what any of this was, nor why he tried to hurt me. I just knew he had, and I was shaking when I finally did turn off the shower. Moving quick, I grabbed a towel, wrapping it around myself. I stepped out and immediately went for my toiletry bag.

  I wiped the mirror before opening it up, then brushed my teeth. I gurgled in the shower, but still, my mouth tasted awful.

  A heavy breath and I stared at dead eyes in the mirror. They’d been eyes filled with life and excitement just last night. Jaxen had managed to steal that away.

  But… why?

  How could someone who didn’t even know me be so cruel to me? He’d had to have known who I was last night, right? I mean, I told him my name.

  He had to know.

  I just summed up that he had to have been crazy, a complete lunatic. It was the only explanation. Normal people didn’t just do things like that to people they didn’t know, and I’d never met the guy before last night.

  Yeah, he just must be crazy.

  All well and good until I realized he was my stepbrother and I did have to be around him. Heck, we even were taking a road trip tomorrow. I was supposed to drive us both back to campus. Me to start my senior year and him to start his own.

  Immense fear racked my shoulders at what that trip may contain, but before I could ralph again, I padded for my birth control pills. I usually took them first thing in the morning. Obviously, I hadn’t been having sex, but I had such bad periods I’d been taking them since high school.

  I pulled the pack out, then filled up my rinse cup on the sink. After, I fingered the pack but dropped the whole thing at the sight of extra pills.

  Oh my God.

  I counted one, then two missed, something I never did, but my routine had been off being home and not at school.

  “…my cum’s still inside you.”

  Holding my mouth, I ran, then dry heaved over the toilet, remembering how Jaxen and I had broken a condom last night. I hadn’t thought much about it at the time because I’d believed I had been on birth control. It’d even felt good with him inside me, the unrestricted heat of him. I’d actually felt molten inside after I realized.

  Only to find out he was my stepbrother.

  I let a crazy person come inside me, someone related to the man I called father. There was obviously no blood relation, but still.

  But still…

  Immediately, I took the pill for today, then sprinted from the bathroom, rushing to my bedroom. I threw on the first thing I could find, a sundress and sandals before towel drying my hair as well as I could. I grabbed my purse, phone, then rushed down the stairs.

  The laughter stopped me at the base.

  Three voices, my adoptive father, my mom… and Jax. They seemed to be having the time of their life without me somewhere in the house, but I couldn’t let them see me.

  I needed to go to the drugstore.

  With careful steps, I toed out of the house, then ran for my bicycle. My long-handled Schwinn rested against the tree in our front yard so I took that, knowing if I opened the garage door and got my car, the house would hear. The drugstore was also only a couple blocks away, and I preferred riding instead of driving whenever I could anyway, better for the environment.

  I didn’t turn back, peddling as hard as I could. I tried not to think about the fact I could definitely have my stepbrother’s baby for being stupid. Because if I thought about it, even an iota of the thought, I may be sick to my stomach again. He’d screwed me definitely knowing who I was, did that when I hadn’t even done anything wrong to him. Imagine what he’d do if I actually did something to cross him.

  Something like get pregnant.

  Chapter Four

  Cleo

  I made up some excuse once at the drugstore, texting Mom that I ran out of tampons and had to go out and get reinforcements. Part of the lie was true, the part about reinforcements. Mom sent me a quick text back, and even though she’d been bummed about me waltzing out, she understood.

  Mom: Want us to wait for you? Jaxen made omelets!

  I couldn’t eat anything now, let alone anything made by my crazier-than-hell stepbrother. I told her no, but to enjoy herself. Meanwhile, I was mustering up the courage to ask the pharmacist for the morning after pill. This had to be some kind of nightmare, needing such a thing after only having sex once.

  I am in my own nightmare.

  A horror film filled with green eyes that looked like marble glass and a stepbrother crafted from the same gods who made hot Chrises. My stepbrother Jaxen was gorgeous. Crazy as fuck, but gorgeous. That couldn’t be denied, and if he hadn’t been my stepbrother and, I don’t know, been a decent human being to me and we’d been in a committed relationship, I could do worse than him to procreate with. That obviously wasn’t the scenario I was given so, forcing courage, I walked up to the drugstore counter. I lived in a pretty moderately sized town, but we mostly only had mom and pop stores on this end. Drugstores included.

  I held my breath, hoping I didn’t know someone behind the counter. It’d been known to happen. Especially since my dad was a politician. I didn’t recognize the old man coming over though and smiling, I mumbled what I needed.

  “I’m sorry. You’re going to have to say that again, young lady,” he said, cuffing his ear. “These old ears have been known to go on the fritz.”

  I thought I’d literally die, but managed to grit out, “The morning after pill, please.”

  He raised a finger, saying, “Just one moment,” before he walked away and left my face dying in heat. My phone buzzed while I waited, and I picked it up, seeing a text from Kit. Turned out I had a few, and I wasn’t surprised since I hadn’t gotten back to her last night after leaving the club with Jaxen.

  Kit: So tell me you got laid. Because that is the only reason and I mean ONLY reason you’re excused for not texting me after leaving the club to get your mack on!

  I cringed. Kit herself had been preoccupied most of the night. In fact, she’d had several guys all over her and when I texted her I was leaving with a guy myself she’d been floored. Jaxen and I left so quick in fact Kit hadn’t even gotten to meet him. Jaxen and I just connected so we left.

  How had I gotten myself into this?

  I knew. Because I was trying to be adventurous, get myself out of my comfort zone.

  Me: We slept together, yes.

  Kit: OMG! Virgin no more! Ah! I told you this year was going to be great! You’re walking with no fear in life now, lady! You got this!

  Her excitement I could actually feel, Kit one of those who always walked before she could run. She was adventurous and did live life without fear. I’d always admired her for that since I consistently lived in my tight little box.

  My fingers hovered over the text message, needing to tell her the truth. Fact of the matter was, I had more fear than ever.

  I was pretty much worse than when I started.

  “Okay, one morning after pill. Will that be all… Cleo?”

  My gaze shot up, the old man no longer behind the counter, but a set of smoky brown eyes and a dashing grin.

  And he held my morning after pill in his hands.

  The Greek god literally lifted a finger, a slow dread as I took in his swept-back hair and chiseled jawline. I knew him too, and he clearly knew me.

  We’d gone to high school together.

  “Cleo Erikson-Fairchild,” the guy said, freaking Lawson Richards. This guy had been everything in school.

  And I mean, everything.

  Captain of the football team…

  Check.

  Hotter than hell…

  Check. Check.

  Official ruiner of my entire existence?

  Ultra check.

  The sickness brewed to epic proportions, this guy holding my, erm, um, reinforcements. Bagging them, he looked at me with a soft smile, and I probably would have died right there had I thought it wouldn’t raise a commotion. The last thing I needed was an
ambulance whisking through here and announcing to the entire block that a girl passed out in the drugstore trying to buy the morning after pill in front of her childhood crush. Lawson had been a senior when I’d been a sophomore, and honestly, he shouldn’t even know who the hell I was.

  But he did, that grin widening at me. He placed hands on the counter. “That is you. How the hell are you? How was your summer?”

  I had to admit it’d been better. Tugging on my purse, I shrugged. “It was fun, I guess.” Though not as exciting as his from what I’d heard. He’d graduated at this point, but I knew he’d gone overseas as well. Our parents were friends, my mom and his pretty active in our school when we’d both been going, and since she kept up with Lawson’s mom, I knew he’d not only gone backpacking through Europe after he graduated from college but also stopped for a beat to build schools somewhere in the Southern hemisphere. This guy was a legend with his volunteer work and definitely shouldn’t be at this drugstore holding my morning after pill.

  Good freaking gravy.

  With a nervous chuckle, I asked how his summer was, but he passed it off, another smile at me.

  “Good, good,” he’d said, still holding my pill. “But I’m sure yours was real fun. You went to Haiti, right?”

  My brow twitched up, a chuckle on his end.

  “Mom,” he said. “She keeps up with yours. Heard all about your work down there. Super cool.”

  Really? My face flushing, I attempted to pass it off. I rubbed my arm. “It was exciting. Fulfilling.”

  “No doubt. How long were you down there?”

  “Just the beginning of summer. Feels like a lifetime ago.” I honestly hadn’t wanted to leave. I really loved helping people and coming back home to Netflix all summer on the couch hadn’t been nearly as eventful. I put a hand out. “But what I did was nothing like you. I heard you were building schools. Backpacking?”

  A neck rub before he cuffed his arms, like huge arms. The guy was nearly as big as my stepbrother.

  Quit thinking about him…