Let's Do This: A Forbidden Taboo Stepbrother Billionaire Romance (Sexy as hell Book 3)

by Nicky Harmony

  “I’m sorry,” he said finally. It was pitiful. What was sorry going to do? What did he possibly hope to achieve from saying it?

  “You’re sorry?” Amy laughed in disbelief. “Well, I’m sorry too.”

  “Sorry for what?” John could feel himself frowning in confusion.

  “That you had to come back here.” She turned and walked out before he had a chance to react to what she’d just said.

  *********

  Chapter 7

  Amy

  Her dad was due home any minute. She’d been dreading his return for weeks, because she knew what it meant. It meant that it would finally be time to tell him about her plans. She had to tell him about the interview. She had to tell him that she wasn’t going to work for him, even though he’d paid for the entirety of her education. She couldn’t put it off any longer.

  “Have you got your bags packed?” Amy asked John as she entered the kitchen to wait for her parents’ imminent arrival.

  He frowned at her. “I’m not even sure I’m going tonight.” He shrugged.

  “Where’s Stacy?”

  “I sent her out for the evening. I thought it was best with Dad coming back.”

  “So, you know he’s going to go mental when he finds out that she’s here?” Amy smirked.

  “Sure, but he’s also going to be pissed when he hears that you’ve been taking job interviews,” John shot back at her quickly. If she wanted to be a total dick to him, then he wasn’t going to sit around playing Mr. Nice Guy with her. “You know you’re his little lawyer in training.”

  He was right and Amy knew that. The fact that John had brought his girlfriend home was going to be nothing compared to when he found out about her job interviews. Silence had dropped between them, broken only when her cell phone started to ring. “I’ve got to take this,” she told John, who was looking at her curiously.

  She walked out of the room and out of earshot of John before she lifted it to her ear. “Hello, Amy speaking.”

  “Amy, hello,” Liam said cheerfully. “I’ve managed to wrangle the privilege of calling you myself. It’s good news. The position is yours, if you want it?”

  “Oh, wow.” Amy could feel a proud smile spreading over her lips. “I can’t believe it; of course I want the position.”

  “That’s good to hear, Amy,” Liam told her quickly. “We can have you start on Monday, so I was thinking I’d take you out to dinner on Saturday, so I can talk you through the job?”

  “You want to take me out to dinner?” Amy asked.

  Liam chuckled. “Purely for business purposes.”

  “Um, sure, I guess I’m free on Saturday.”

  “Okay, that’s great. I’ll send you through the details when I have them.”

  “Okay, thanks for calling.”

  “It’s my pleasure. I look forward to working with you, Amy,” he told her and then hung up.

  Amy took the walk back to the kitchen slowly. She couldn’t believe that she’d gotten the job. She could feel her head spinning, as it tried to come to terms with the information. She’d gotten the job. She’d gotten her dream job and there was nothing but her dad standing in the way of her starting that following Monday. It didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel possible, but the call log on her phone confirmed what her memory was trying to tell her. The call had happened. She’d gotten the job.

  “You look happy,” John told her when she walked back into the kitchen.

  She took her seat at the breakfast bar and nodded slowly. “I guess that’s because I am.”

  “Who called you?” John pressed her. “Was it your boyfriend or something?”

  “You think I have a boyfriend?” Amy asked with an amused expression settling over her happiness.

  He shrugged. “Well, I don’t know.”

  “No,” she shook her head, “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Well, what else could make you smile like that?”

  “You know,” she told him slowly, “there was a point in our lives when you would have known.”

  Silence fell between them. Amy glanced over at John when she was sure that he was looking away. He looked deep in thought. The sound of the front door opening was the next thing to break the silence between them. “Is that Dad?” John turned to her with a worried expression that pulled his eyebrows together over his nose.

  “Yeah,” Amy told him when the sound of two sets of footsteps filled the hall. It didn’t take long for the footsteps to reach them. The kitchen door opened and Amy watched as her overly plump father and stick-figure mom walked into the kitchen. They were both a deep shade of orange. The kind of orange that was normally only associated with fake tans, but that they had managed to achieve by abusing the sun.

  “Oh, my,” her mom said when she saw John sitting behind her daughter. “Haven’t you grown since the last time you were here?”

  “Why are you here, son?” his dad cut off her mom. His relaxed, holiday temperament had vanished. In its place was a deadly focus, which Amy was glad wasn’t pointed at her.

  “I need to talk to you,” John said quietly.

  “Well, you know how to use a phone, don’t you?” his dad asked coldly.

  Amy could feel herself getting confused over her stepfather’s reaction. Why was he being so cold towards his son? What had John done to deserve that?

  “It’s not that kind of conversation,” John told him, standing from the stool next to Amy’s. “Can we go somewhere private?”

  His dad looked like he was considering it, but then he shook his head. “No, not right now, let’s have something to eat and then we’ll talk.”

  “Oh, that sounds good,” Amy’s mom said approvingly from behind her husband. “I’ll call the chef down and tell him to make something nice for dinner tonight.”

  ********

  Chapter 8

  John

  The tension in the room was thick. It made the air in the room feel heavy. The expanding windows that reached almost to the ceiling were doing nothing to help. Sure, there was enough natural light in the room to make the place feel breezy and large enough for the four of them, but there wasn’t enough to combat the situation that was taking place.

  The silence seemed sharp. Nobody around the table was even breathing heavily. The occasional sound of a glass being lifted and then placed back on the table was the only refuge that could be found. He glanced over at his dad. He’d aged in the years that they’d spent apart. His raven black hair was peppered with grays. The serious look on his face was eased with the wrinkles that lined his skin.

  “So,” his dad finally broke the silence when the soup dishes had been taken away. “I got a phone call yesterday.”

  John looked over to Amy and then back to his dad. It wasn’t clear to him who his father was directing the remark at. He could tell from Amy’s worried expression, though, that she thought it was something to do with her. “Dad,” he found himself being the next to speak, “I really need to discuss some matters with you.”

  “I’m sure you do.” His dad barely even looked at him. The intensity of his focus was alienating Amy at the table. It was clear the phone call had been about her. “But, I need to talk about the phone call I got. Amy, do you have any idea who called me?”

  John glanced over at her. She was shaking her head softly. She didn’t look up from the empty place setting in front of her.

  “Well, it was about the job you applied for at Green Corp.”

  “You applied for a job at Green Corp?” John couldn’t help but be impressed. He knew that she’d been applying for other jobs, but this was something else. Green Corp had tried to sue his father on multiple occasions. There wasn’t a law firm that he hated more.

  “Actually, I got the job,” Amy spoke up for herself. “They called me earlier and told me that I start on Monday.”

  “You will do no such thing,” John’s father raged. “I didn’t pay for you to achieve the results that you did in law school so that you coul
d take those skills and use them against me.”

  “This isn’t about using what you gave me against you,” Amy told him firmly. “I want to back causes that I believe in. You can’t fight fire without the passion to do so.”

  “Is that what you were smiling about?” John asked when the break in the conversation allowed for it. He could still see the way she’d smiled when she’d walked back into the kitchen. It had lit up her whole face. It had taken him back to every time they had laughed together and it had taken him forward to what those lips would feel like on his. It had been mystical, and impossible, and undeniable. She needed to smile like that. She needed to be doing anything and everything she could in her life so that her smile could live on through the years.

  “Yeah,” she nodded with a quick glance over to him. “Big surprise, I was happy I got the job.”

  “You’re not taking the job,” John’s father cut in. “I don’t care whether they have offered it to you or not. You’re not taking it. You will be working for me. If you want to start on Monday, that’s fine, I’ll get that arranged for you.”

  “No,” Amy told him firmly. “I’m sorry. I know that you wanted me to work for you. I know that’s why you paid for my education. But I’m not going to do it. I can’t do it. I can’t stand in court and defend someone who is destroying the earth for their own gain.”

  “For their own gain?” His dad laughed. “It was that gain that got you your education, girl.”

  “I know that.” Amy stood up quickly from the table. “But two wrongs don’t make a right. My education might have come from a bad place, but I have a real chance to do good in the world and at least even out the scoreboard.”

  “This isn’t happening,” his father said firmly.

  John looked between them. He wasn’t quite sure what to do. Amy was still standing with her back hunched and her hands on the table. She looked like she was shaking. He could tell from the unnatural flow of her hair. Watching her from across the table was torture. He wanted to go over to her and calm her down. He wanted to tell her that she was doing the right thing, but he knew that would blow every chance he had with his dad.

  “You don’t get to decide what I do with my life.” Amy moved away from the table. “I’m sorry that you’re so upset. I never wanted to upset you or to cause any tension in the family,” she said, openly and honestly. “But, I’m going to take the job that I think is right for me and there isn’t anything that you can do about that.”

  “There isn’t anything I can do?” John watched his father’s eyes narrow dangerously. “You’re going to be working for me, young lady. If you do decide to do what you think is right,” he said with a tone full of mockery, “then you can say goodbye to this family and all of the privileges that come with it. “

  “Wait,” John cut in. “Dad, don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh?”

  “My decision is final. If she takes the job, then she’s on her own.”

  “Fine.” Amy opened the door to the dining room and walked out.

  “You know,” John’s father sighed, “I really thought that I’d picked the right kid. Maybe I got it wrong.”

  John stood up from the table and walked over to the door. “You know what, Dad, if you think you got it wrong because you picked between us, then you’re never going to get it right,” he told him, and then he followed Amy out.

  *********

  Chapter 9

  Amy

  Amy sat up from her pillow when the sound of knocking filled her room. She walked over to the door slowly. She wasn’t sure who to expect. “John?” she asked, when she’d opened the door enough to see through the crack she was creating.

  “I thought I’d come to see how you are.”

  “I’m fine,” she lied quickly without opening the door any further.

  “You know, somehow, I don’t quite believe that.” He reached out and pushed the door open. “Do you mind if I come in?” he asked, but he was already halfway into the room.

  “I guess not.” Amy rolled her eyes. “What is it that you want, anyway? You can’t honestly expect me to believe that you’ve come up here to check on me.”

  “That’s really why I’m here.” John sat down in the chair next to her computer desk. “My dad was a total jerk to you. You can’t be feeling great.”

  Amy shrugged. She had always known that his father wasn’t going to take her choice well. “I guess it was no worse than I expected.”

  “It shouldn’t be like that, though.” John sighed. “Ever wonder what it would have been like to have normal parents?”

  “I guess,” Amy admitted. “It must have been harder for you in that sense, though; I mean, you never got to see them.”

  “I didn’t want to see them,” John said quickly. Amy could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t lying.

  “But, why?” she had to ask. She couldn’t understand what had happened between him and his father to make things so awkward. Sure, he’d gone away to boarding school, but Amy had always thought that was just where John’s father had always planned to send him.

  “Because, my father made a choice eight years ago that proved to me that he has no idea what being a father really means.”

  “What choice?” Amy pushed him. “Sending you to boarding school? You know people go to boarding school. It isn’t the worst crime a parent could commit.”

  John laughed and shook his head. “There’s more to it than that.”

  “There’s more to what?” Amy asked him. She couldn’t understand what he was talking about. The sound of his cell phone stopped their conversation.

  “I’ve got to take this,” John said with an apologetic look. Amy nodded and he lifted the phone to his ear. “Stacy,” he started. “No, I don’t think I’m going to the party. I can’t leave yet. I haven’t even talked to my dad.” Amy watched as he took the phone away from his ear. She could hear Stacy’s voice still going through the speaker. He waited until the line went quiet and brought the phone back to his ear. “Look, I know you’re upset, but I think you should go to this party on your own.”

  He hung up the phone. “What were we talking about?” he asked as he turned back to Amy. He looked stressed after the call.

  “What is it that you’re here to talk to Dad about?”

  “Why?”

  “Well, you’ve just had a pretty big blow up with your girlfriend, so it must be important?”

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” John corrected her.

  “What?” Amy asked before she could stop herself. She knew that wasn’t the point that she should be focusing on. She knew that hearing him say that shouldn’t have sent a happy wave over her. She couldn’t help either, though.

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” John said again with a smile pulling on his lips. “Is that news that you wanted?” he asked, making Amy realize that she was smiling too.

  “No,” she told him quickly. It was too quick, and she watched as John’s smile turned into a cocky smirk. “Shut up.”

  John laughed. “I didn’t say anything.” Amy could feel her cheeks burning, so she tried to change the subject before she had to deal with any more humiliation. “What is it that you’re here to talk to Dad about?” she asked him again.

  “Well, I’ve got a business idea that I’m hoping he will invest in.”

  “You know he’s not going to do that.”

  “Well, I don’t know.” John shrugged. “I think he kind of owes me one.”

  “Why?”

  “Like I said, he made a bad choice eight years ago. Helping me now could be a way of starting to heal the damage he did.”

  Amy was starting to get frustrated with him. Why was he talking to her in riddles? Why wasn’t he just telling her the whole story? Did he want her to ask? Did he think that he was some great, mystical story teller? “What did he do to you that was so bad?” She sighed, because she knew she was walking straight into his setup.

  “It wasn’t what he did; it wa
s why he did it.”

  “Look, if you’re not going to explain, then you might as well leave,” Amy told him frankly. She’d had a hard night. Her stepfather’s reaction to her new job had been a hard one to deal with. She was tired, she was done with the day, and John was only prolonging it.

  “Why do you think he sent me away?” John stood up from the desk. He looked crazed almost, as he walked over to Amy. “Why do you think he sent me to that boarding school?”

  “I don’t know.” Amy shrugged, taking a worried step away from him. “I guess I just always thought it was a family tradition or something.”

  “A family tradition?” John laughed. “No, it wasn’t that.”

  “Then, what?”

  “He sent me away because he saw how close we were getting. He saw the way that I distracted you from your studies. He saw the way that I was holding you back from your true potential, so he sent me away. He sent me away from my home, my family, and most importantly, you, because he wanted his lawyer.”

  *********

  Chapter 10

  John

  Amy looked as though she didn’t believe him. He could feel his heart beating hard against the cage of his ribs. She had to believe him. It was the truth. She couldn’t deny the truth, even if she wanted to. “He thought that I was going to ruin your chances,” John pushed her further towards the light. “He knew that I was in love with you, and the only way that I’d leave you alone was if I wasn’t around.”

  “You were in love with me?” Amy shook her head. “No, I don’t believe you.”

  “How can you possibly doubt that?” John asked her. Did she not remember the time they had shared together? Did she not remember the way a turn of her eyes could bring a smile to his lips?

  “You went away,” Amy told him quietly. “You were here and then you weren’t. You never even got in touch. I thought maybe a letter or a call, but no. In eight years, I never heard from you. How can you say that you loved me? Who does that to a person they love?” She walked over to the door and opened it. “I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve by telling me this,” she said in a dull tone, which told John she wasn’t feeling anything at the moment, “but I think you should go.”