by Amore, C. C.
***
I woke up from the rays of sunshine hitting my face. I changed my position between the sheets to find a colder spot, but something was missing even as I got into a more comfortable position. I reached out with my hand while my eyes were still closed, trying to find him next to me, but I couldn’t.
I opened my eyes but the brightness of the room made me shut them again. When the brightness didn’t hurt any more, I saw that he wasn’t in bed with me. The room was empty. I had no idea what I’d expected to happen when we woke up, but I certainly wasn’t ready for this.
My heart sank in my chest. The sudden depression from having done a mistake so big that it might cripple you for the rest of your life.
Chapter 6
I stood up from the bed while holding up the sheet to cover myself and walked to the bathroom. I looked exactly like I expected it would after what happened last night. Tears filled my eyes from sorrow, but somehow I saw my body go through the emotions of clothing myself. My mind still tried to process what all this meant and was on cruise control, just holding on to what had happened yesterday, no matter how surreal it seemed like.
I threw my stuff into my luggage and left the room. As I walked past Austin’s room, I saw a cleaning lady taking out his sheets.
“I guess you couldn’t fight me so you ran away,” I whispered and moved on.
No matter what the logical side of my brain tried to tell me, I still held on to the idea that he might be already waiting for me. Was he in the lobby? I walked faster in excitement.
The old lady greeted me from behind the desk. “I hope you enjoyed your stay, but all that ruckus last night… what was that all about?”
I hid my blushing behind my fist pretending I had a cough. “Probably my brother doing stuff he shouldn’t. You remember those tattoos?”
“Yes, I do remember those evil tattoos.”
“Well, I think that explains it…”
“Oh, dear. But we didn’t find anything broken in his room, so that’s weird.”
I looked around the desk, trying to steer the conversation away from what had happened last night. “But anyways. How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing. Your brother paid the rest of the bill this morning.”
“He did what?”
“Yes. He paid the whole bill about thirty minutes ago.”
My mouth was stuck open and I stared at her.
“Is there something you need, dear?”
“I-I guess not…”
I left the motel, not knowing what I should do next. The parking lot was empty and there was no sign of Austin anywhere. I shook my head and didn’t bother to raise it up from staring at the ground. Guess I was walking then, but where? We had passed a bus stop in the middle of the town, so that was my only option.
I had walked for a little while on the shoulder of the road, stopping to wipe the tears streaking down my chin every once in a while, when I heard honking from behind me. I didn’t turn around to see who it was because seeing that old pervert coming around for another try would have made my miserable day so bad I would have surely lost it.
“Where are you headed to, Sweet Pea?”
“What?” I looked over my shoulder and saw Austin in his car rolling next to me.
“Why did you have to disappear like that? You caused way more heart palpitations than I would’ve liked, you know.”
“I disappeared? You were nowhere to be found!” I said, tears already flowing down my cheeks from the roller coaster of emotions I’d had since the morning.
“Hey… I thought you’d sleep until afternoon at least. I thought you had a habit of lying in bed for days on end.”
“I used to….” I wiped the tears from my eyes and got into the car. “But where did you go?”
“I got us something to eat.” He threw a bag of fresh sandwiches on my lap. “We have a long way to drive today.”
I felt so stupid for assuming the worst about him.
“I-I…” I stuttered.
“You thought I’d run away, didn’t ya?”
“Yeah…”
He looked straight into me with his steely blue eyes. “I guess you learned something new about me today. And yesterday.” He winked and got the car moving again.
I blushed. “But…what does all this mean?”
Austin actually wore a shirt this time, but the shadows in his forearm as he changed his grip the steering wheel reminded me of his athletic frame. “I’m not sure, actually. It wasn’t something I expected to happen. I thought I was talking to a nice girl online. I wasn’t expecting it to be my stepsister and I didn’t expect you to have the most amazing hips.”
Hearing him say those words brought the tears back, but this time they were tears of joy. I wanted to hug him to death.
“It’s all right,”Austin said, “we’ll figure something out, right?”
I grabbed his forearm and massaged it because no words came out of my mouth. He placed his hand on top of mine and just smiled. The raw emotions that went through my mind at that moment were indescribable. We just sat in silence holding hands because neither of us wanted to ruin the moment by saying something wrong. It also happened to be the first time in our history we both wanted to speak to each other, but silence conveyed the emotions better.
***
We’d gotten few miles outside of town when we saw red and blue flashing lights on the rear view mirror.
“Oh, shit. This isn’t going to be pleasant, is it?” Austin said as he pulled over and took the key off the ignition.
“Don’t you do anything to make things worse. You could end up in jail,” I said.
I watched him squeezing the steering wheel in one hand and his jaw muscles flexing when the officer got out of the patrol car. In his other hand, Austin jiggled the car keys while looking back and forth between the mirror and the ignition.
“Don’t you dare do something that stupid,” I said, knowing exactly what he had in mind. “Give me the keys, now!” He thought about whether he’d comply for a few seconds before sighing and handing me the keys. “Thank you.”
The same officer I’d met the previous day had walked next to the driver’s seat and tapped on the window. Austin cranked the window down.
“License and registration please,” the officer said.
Austin got the registration from the glove compartment and the license from his back pocket and handed them over. My fingers fidgeted with the sandwich bag as I watched the officer take a look at the paper work. I was too afraid to say something wrong and decided to stay quiet.
“What seems to be the problem, officer?” Austin said.
He looked at the papers and saw me sitting on the passenger side and lowered himself to get a better look at me. “Well. We meet again.” The officer looked at Austin. “Are you this woman’s brother?”
I saw Austin’s grip on the steering wheel tighten and his knuckles turning white. “No, sir.”
“Mhhm,” the officer mumbled. He pointed at me, “Why aren’t you with your brother?”
“You see, Mama sent my brother to fetch some hogs from grandpa’s. He left early morning and Austin here came to pick me up.”
The officer stared at me and Austin without speaking. “Sir, could you raise your shirt enough so I can see your shoulder?”
I watched Austin’s legs press against the pedals and his lips curl inside as he went through his options in his mind. He thought for a while and then looked at me, which seemed to seal his decision. “Sure thing.” He lifted up the shirt on his left shoulder enough for the officer to see it all. But there was no tattoo there.
“Mhhm. And what if I were to check your other shoulder?”
Austin turned to face the officer. “You might find something, perhaps not.”
“I see,” the officer offered the paperwork back to Austin, “let’s make a deal, son. You two don’t ever come back and we call it even, ok?”
Austin’s grip tightened again on the steering whee
l. “You are telling me that I’m banned from entering this town ever again? You are saying I can’t come and go the way I damn well please?”
“Yes, son. That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
I grabbed Austin’s arm and squeezed it. He seemed to be biting his teeth together, hard. He shook his head until my arm on his made him stop and he realized what was happening.
“I’m sure we can make that work, officer,” Austin said and grabbed the paperwork from him.
“Have a nice day,” the officer said, walked back to his car and drove away.
I sighed. “You were pretty close to doing the talking with your fists, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, way too close. Until I remembered our little talk before we fell asleep.” He took my head between his palms and smacked a kiss directly onto my rose red lips.
I could only stay still while the sparkles flew from our lips touching. Every nerve ending on my lips fired fireworks in a constant barrage until he broke the kiss.
“I wouldn’t have been able to restrain myself if it wasn’t for you,” he said.
My heart pounded on my chest like that was the first time he had touched me. “I’m pretty sure we can think of something to keep you in line,” I said mischievously…
“You bet your sweet ass we will, and I guess I won’t be needing this anymore,” he said and threw out of the shirt from the car window as we sped off, leaving the dust of the small town behind us.
————————————————
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Saved be the Stepbrother
I heard him walk away from me and I found myself turning around so that I could watch him. I saw him undressing himself one piece of cloth at a time. He took off his sweater, pulling it over his head. His t-shirt had caught up in the sweater and got pulled all the way to his arm pits. Seeing a glimpse of his chiseled back, all the muscles and aesthetic curves made me want him even more.
As I hadn’t seen him without a shirt before since he had grown up, I couldn’t stop staring at him: he was no longer the boy I had grown up with. He was a man with a real man’s body.
I turned my whole body around so that my back was against the fire to take in the view of him with his blond hair undressing in front of my eyes. I had had my fantasies about what he would look like naked, but even in my wildest dreams I hadn’t thought of this.
Saved by the Stepbrother
First Time under the Stars
Pressured into playing His Game
Surrendering to the Candidate
Ravaged by a Former Mentor
The Scheme for Pleasure
C.C. Amore’s Author page on Amazon
C.C. Amore’s Author page on Newotica
Saved by the Stepbrother
C.C. Amore
This story is a reimagination of a story I have previously published (First Time under the Stars). Please take that into consideration before making the decision to purchase this title.
Copyright © 2015 C.C. Amore
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the author.
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Every character in this book is over 18-years-old. This story contains adult themes and is meant for adults only. None of the characters are blood-related.
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Excerpt
I heard him walk away from me and I found myself turning around so that I could watch him. I saw him undressing himself one piece of cloth at a time. He took off his sweater, pulling it over his head. His t-shirt had caught up in the sweater and got pulled all the way to his arm pits. Seeing a glimpse of his chiseled back, all the muscles and aesthetic curves made me want him even more.
As I hadn’t seen him without a shirt before since he had grown up, I couldn’t stop staring at him: he was no longer the boy I had grown up with. He was a man with a real man’s body.
I turned my whole body around so that my back was against the fire to take in the view of him with his blond hair undressing in front of my eyes. I had had my fantasies about what he would look like naked, but even in my wildest dreams I hadn’t thought of this.
Chapter 1
I stared at him from across the room as he sat on top of the couch, talking to his friends. The charisma around him was unmistakable: the people around him listened to his every word, taking in the details of his latest exploit around the world.
His long wavy blond hair flowed in front of his face before he tucked it back to behind his ears, exposing his clean shaved jaw and that pearly white smile. I was mesmerized by his presence the same way people listening him to were, but I was the only one staring at him from the other side of the house.
I just wanted to look at him. It had been so long since I had last seen him. Too long, in fact.
He moved his hands as he spoke, undoubtedly discussing the details of the best waves he found or the biggest boulders he had climbed on his latest trip. I found myself smiling while I looked at his expressive body language and his athletic frame. The more I kept staring into the forbidden, the more my eyes were fixated on the movement of his lips and thinking what they might feel like…
“Do you think he’s dating someone?” Someone spoke out from behind me.
“W-what?”
Hannah stood right next to me. Tall like a model, she made me look minuscule right next to her. She had always been the popular one, the classical girl next the door everyone wanted. She got all the physical attributes men wanted. Over time she had changed from my best friend to a person who knew her value and wasn’t afraid using her looks to get what she wanted.
“Andrew. Do you think he’s dating?”
“Umm,” I uttered out, “I-I don’t know. I haven’t had the chance to talk to him yet. I’m just now seeing him for the first--"
“Of course you don’t know. But that doesn’t matter. Make sure everyone else knows he’s mine,” Hannah said, pointing a finger at me, “no one else. Got it?”
“S-sure.”
I watched her walk to the small group gathered around Andrew. It didn’t take long for her high-pitched voice to be the only voice I heard. Soon after, she turned around, pointed at me before she burst out laughing.
She had done what she always did, and that shouldn’t have surprised me. However, seeing Andrew join in on the laughing struck me like a dagger to my heart. The gut-wrenching disappointment of seeing him laugh with her broke my being like nothing I had ever experienced before.
I knew she had a habit of making fun of me, but why did he have to join in on it?
Hannah stopped pointing at me, but they kept laughing. The hole my mind built beneath my legs had never felt so deep. I wanted to jump in it and never be found again. I was so afraid to move my legs, I was afraid I would fall, even when jumping to an imaginary hole.
But what good would that do? Why had I entertained the idea that something would happen? It was a childish dream, nothing else and I should have known better. Given the bulk of my previous experiences with, why did I thi
nk this would have somehow gone any different?
That’s right Jessica, there wasn’t any reason other than your stupid fantasies.
I wanted to burst out crying right then and there. But I managed to gather myself enough to at least get them away from my sight. I walked to the kitchen, and while I no longer saw them, Hannah’s laughter was still unmistakable.
I bet she was doing everything in her power to get she wanted: curling her hair between her fingers, biting her lip and stealing glances at his strong chest muscles wherever she could. Andrew would eventually get caught in her trap, I knew it. That was her style, after all.
I was the uglier friend next to her stunning beauty, like the previous times. I was still puzzled why I had thought this would have gone differently. Perhaps I thought him being abroad for so long would have changed the boy I grew up with. But that didn’t seem to have happened, at least if one were to make any assumptions about him laughing at me with Hannah.
Did I think it would have gone differently because Andrew was my stepbrother? But why would that make a difference? If anything, that should have been the final lock on anything ever happening between us.
And now I couldn’t get away from what was unfolding in front of me: I was stuck until Hannah wanted leave. In hindsight, going to the party together seemed like the worst idea ever. Now I was paying for the consequences.
You had been blinded by you thought was going to happen, weren’t you? Perhaps next time you’ll know not to have such silly dreams.
Well, at least I could go to the study and read my books until she was ready to leave. Yeah, that sounded like an awesome idea.
While my heart was still in my stomach from what had just happened, I took my dishes from the table and walked to the kitchen.
“Nice welcome party, isn’t it?”
That deep voice sent shivers down my legs. It could only belong to one person.