Redeemed Complete: A Military Stepbrother Romance

by Lucy Snow

  I didn’t have a car in the city, so when I got down here I took full advantage, and that included using all the features like…heat.

  I thought about the party I had just left. Maggie looked so happy, so ready for what was coming. I envied her support system she had, even with her husband so far away. She was such a strong person, that even without them, I knew she would be fine no matter what happened. Maggie had always been the stronger of the two of us, Able to take on whatever came with gusto and aplomb.

  Me, on the other hand, I was a little more prone to freaking out about things. I was usually able to get it together in time, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about things.

  I knew the trip back from Maggie’s place by heart, I’d driven it so many times. I remember doing it by bike a bunch of times, and even once I walked home after my car broke down and no one was home come pick me up.

  It was good that I didn’t have to navigate, because my head was totally elsewhere. Of course, that elsewhere had a name, and it was Harrison.

  Ugh.

  It was so weird to have shifted my perception of him so much in such a short amount of time. 24 hours ago things were all normal and nothing was out of place - Harrison and I stayed out of each other’s way. It was easy when he was deployed, off fighting somewhere, or on base on the other side of the country.

  No chance of running into each other then. Just the way we liked it.

  Except…not anymore. Now he was close by, and now he was rescuing me from too-aggressive guys in bar parking lots.

  That part, of course, I was grateful for.

  Harrison, though, was different now. His time overseas had definitely affected him, and I didn’t know how to deal with this new version of him.

  He wasn’t the reckless and destructive boy he’d been, setting figurative fires wherever he went. Visions of the late nights my father and his mother stayed up waiting for him to come home, wondering if they’d get a call from the police before he opened the door and went right up to bed.

  And that didn’t even count the times Harrison chose me as the subject of his cruel attention. Sometimes it was bad jokes, sometimes it was public humiliation.

  With the old Harrison, I never knew. I just tried to stay out of his way, keep my head down, and make it through till he graduated and moved away.

  The last two years of high school, after he was off in the army, were so much nicer. I didn’t have to look over my shoulder at home or at school; I was free to enjoy myself without sleeping with one eye open.

  I’d gotten used to it.

  But, coming back to Summitville, I’d planned on turning on wary mode again, just in case I couldn’t avoid Harrison and he tried something.

  I never would have expected what actually happened. This new Harrison was so different and so…much better than I could have ever expected.

  I just hoped it would last.

  How could it?

  Argh, I could feel something inside me holding me back. Something preventing me from just letting go and enjoying the new found experience of…well, of Harrison.

  What was it?

  I mean, I was certainly attracted to him. It was impossible for any straight woman not to be. With a body like that? Rawr. When he looked at me with those dark eyes of his I found it difficult to draw breath into my lungs.

  I’d get in better cardiovascular shape just by standing next to him. But as I was learning, the new Harrison and the new Laurel (hey, that’s me!) couldn’t just stand next to each other without sparks flying.

  So what was it standing in our way?

  Was it that we were brother and sister?

  I grimaced, fingers tightening on the steering wheel. I couldn’t start that again. STEPbrother and STEPsister. None of this would work if I couldn’t square that away in my head.

  We weren’t related. Not by blood.

  Yeah, it was a little weird, but it wasn’t illegal. And it wasn’t birth-defect gross.

  Children, though.

  I didn’t want to start thinking down this road, but as I drove home I couldn’t help it. I’d just come from a baby shower and my best friend was gonna give birth any day now.

  And my evil stepbrother had suddenly become the sexiest and most alluring man I’d ever met.

  How did this happen to me?!

  I was getting so far ahead of myself I couldn’t even turn back and still see reality. Harrison and I had just fooled around a little bit last night and already I was fantasizing about having his babies?

  Well, yeah, I kinda was.

  The old Harrison would have made a terrible father. Just the thought of it, made me scoff out loud to the empty car. If anyone else had been in there with me they’d have agreed, I just knew it.

  Come to think of it, I was frankly shocked Harrison didn’t already have a kid or two, given just how frequently he got around back then.

  If I hadn’t gone to school with all the girls Harrison slept with, and so would have noticed any pregnancy-related absences or other tell tale signs, I’d have no trouble believing there were a few Harrison Jr’s starting preschool this year.

  Waves of imaginary jealousy rolled over me, and I gritted my teeth at the mere thought of some other girl having Harrison’s baby. I was shocked at how possessive I become, in such a short amount of time.

  I made a right turn onto School Street, and soon I was passing by our high school. It was a Saturday afternoon, so not much was going on, especially with the weather. As I drove past the dark buildings, I remembered all the hours I have spent inside them. High school felt like such a long time ago, even though it was more recent than I’d like to admit.

  What struck me most, in that moment, was how important I and everyone around me had thought of our time in high school while it was going on. These petty things that occupied our days were automatically the most dramatic and exciting and earth shattering things in our universes. But even now, just a little bit removed, I could look back at them and laugh at how little I knew.

  I could laugh at how little those things would actually matter.

  Maybe that was how every phase of our lives worked. In the moment, whatever we were doing was the toughest and most dramatic and exciting thing ever. But even just a few months or a couple years of hindsight, some distance between you and those events, showed them in an entirely new light.

  Maybe.

  I turned off School Street, almost home. As soon as the school was out of view, my thoughts returned to Harrison. A few myself flushing, the memory, all too recent, of what we had done last night. The way Harrison touched me in the moonlight, the way he’d felt pushing into me in my room, made me shiver even more than 12 hours later.

  How did he have such an effect on me?

  I meant, besides that sexy body of his. That I could daydream about for many, many hours without stopping, or maybe even pausing. Those tattoos, perfectly choreographed to dance across those bulging muscles, in the barely lit moonlight, made my mouth water. I had never seen a man’s body quite like that, and after seeing it, I didn’t need to see any others.

  Harrison was the perfect physical embodiment of a man. When I closed my eyes and fantasized about an unknown man seducing me, from now on he would look like Harrison.

  I shook away the cobwebs as I drove, cobwebs made of lusty thoughts. Now was not the time to be caught up in the out of control clutches of my raging hormones.

  Now was the time for sensible deliberation, and careful decision-making. Screw that, I just wanted him to fuck me again.

  All over. And not stop.

  Ever.

  But Harrison and I also had to figure something out - we needed to decide where this was going, if anywhere. I was definitely not the type of girl to have a fling of any kind, but I found my thoughts so overwhelmed with Harrison that process when it came to, I would probably say yes.

  And from all that I’d seen over the years, Harrison wasn’t exactly given the long-term attachments. Of course, given what
he said last night, maybe he’d turned over a new leaf.

  All I think I knew, as I pulled up beside our parents house, and turned off the car, was that I wanted to spend more time with Harrison for the first time in my life.

  I wanted to see what we could be together.

  And more than anything, that scared me.

  Chapter 12 - The Afternoon

  When I got home, the house looked empty. I went inside, and turned up the heat first thing, rubbing my hands together and trying to avoid touching all the cold surfaces until the heaters kicked in.

  No one was home but me. I couldn’t remember freedom like this.

  I went to the kitchen first, and busied myself making some tea. Anything to warm myself. While I was waiting for the key to steep, I looked around the kitchen, and noticed the hastily scrawled note on the table.

  Stepping closer, I picked it up, and read: “Laurel and Harrison! Decided to go on a last minute evening trip. Back tomorrow night. Please don’t burn down the house. Joking. Sort of. Mom and Dad”

  Real subtle joke there. I thought a joke about setting things on fire was too soon, but I guessed right now our parents knew Harrison better than I did.

  I guess it was just Harrison and me for a little more than 24 hours. What could we get up to?

  I couldn’t really figure that out by myself now could I. Where the hell was Harrison anyway?

  I drank my tea, and ate an oatmeal cookie, finally warming up. Whoever invented winters had a really sick sense of humor. It was weird having the house all to myself. I don’t think that had happened since high school. I wasn’t used to having silence all around, rather than the random sounds of three other people living there.

  My old self could get used to this. But I had grown more social than the last year, and had gotten used to having people around me.

  It was about 4:30 PM, and I had no plans for the rest of the day. Maggie was really the only friend that I kept in touch with from high school, and I had seen a lot of her since I’d gotten back. I was pretty sure she was busy with family stuff tonight anyway.

  I didn’t much feel like going out by myself, so I guessed that it was time to do some reading. I headed up to my room and got out the small stack of trashy romance novels I brought with me, and randomly chose one to read first.

  The one I’d chosen was about a reclusive but gorgeous alpha male billionaire, and is torrid love affair with the new curator at one of his many art galleries. I came downstairs and found a comfy chair in the living room, making sure I had snacks and water close by.

  Time to enjoy myself, free from the distractions of the rest of my family.

  Most notably free from Harrison.

  The book started out as expected, with the young curator absentmindedly knocking over the reclusive alpha male billionaire as he perused his new acquisitions on her first day at the gallery. I smiled to myself, knowing that these stories were the same every time, but loving them no matter what.

  The billionaire, obviously intrigued by his new employee, began to spend more and more time at the gallery, when he probably should be spending time managing his huge and varied financial empire. The curator, of course, was swept up in the romance and excitement of being around all those wealthy people.

  Must be nice.

  The book took a turn towards the sexy very quickly, with the billionaire and the curator finding themselves in increasingly tight and sexually charged situations, until he could keep his passion for her in check no longer, and they spent the next 60 pages pressed up against every surface they could find having vigorous and amazing sex.

  They made it sound almost easy. How come I didn’t know any billionaires who wanted me to work at their art galleries? After all this time in New York City, my list of sexy billionaires falling in love with me was suspiciously short.

  Who could I speak to about correcting this obvious error?

  “Laurel?” Came my shouted name from elsewhere in the house. ”Are you home?”

  Harrison.

  Shit.

  It was just the two of us at home now.

  Awkward!

  Pit in my stomach rose immediately, and I felt my face and body flushing all over. Just the sound of his voice was enough to set me on edge, I couldn’t even see him yet, but I was already warming up.

  Keep it under control, Laurel. Don’t let him know just how much he turns you on. Nothing good could come of that, with any man, especially a man like Harrison. He would do things with that knowledge that would leave me sobbing in a heap if I didn’t take care of myself.

  I should probably answer him. It was impolite of me to stay silent when he was calling out my name. What should I say? How should I act around him?

  Ugh, I couldn’t figure any of this out in the moment, and I had no idea what to do.

  “Hey! There you are! How come you didn’t answer me?”

  I looked up, my eyes bugging out, shocked at how quickly Harrison appeared in front of me. “Hey! Uh, sorry, I was lost in my own thing.”

  Harrison stood with his hands on his waist. He wore a skintight navy blue athletic shirt that showed off all his muscles; colorful wisps of his tattoos poked out from beneath the sleeves and neck hole. His powerful legs, rippled with strength, emerged from his tight shorts.

  I nearly gasped my way out of my chair, breathing in so hard.

  It should be illegal to look so sexy.

  I had no idea what to say, or even what words were in that moment. “You, uh…look good.” I was just babbling at this point.

  How could Harrison have this effect on me? How come I couldn’t speak around him?

  He looked down at himself. “Really? I’m covered in sweat, and I look good?” He frowned.

  “Uh…yeah?” I didn’t know where this was going, but I set aside my book, and took another long look at him.

  Finally, Harrison grinned. “You’re so weird. I will never understand girls.” He run one hand over his head across his cropped black hair, while the other one slipped into his pocket and took out his keys, setting them in the pottery dish on the side table next to him.

  I couldn’t keep my laughter in at that. “You? Of any man on Earth, I suspect you understand women.”

  His hands went back to his waist; he cocked his head to the side. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “…Never mind!” I could tell my face had invented new shades of red to turn.

  He shook his head, that grin coming back. “How was the party?”

  I exhaled. Whew, looks like I made it through without completely embarrassing myself. “It was good, Maggie loved it.”

  “That’s great to hear, I’m glad she’s doing well.”

  “Yeah.” I lurched up, shakily at first, feeling weird being the only one sitting. I tried to busy myself moving things around, picking up and setting my book down on the end table, moving my cup of tea. Anything not to stare at Harrison’s chiseled body with those clothes hugging him so tightly.

  It didn’t work.

  “Was it just the two of you?”

  “Oh, uh, no, it wasn’t, of course. There were a few other girls there, girls from high school.”

  “Oh,” was all Harrison said as he turned his head away from me and focused on something new and exciting on the wall or table nearby, I couldn’t tell which.

  “What’re your plans today?”

  He turned back to me, evidently losing interest in whatever he was looking at before. “Today? Today’s past half over, Laurel.” That grin could start fires. I knew from experience.

  Every girl in high school knew from experience.

  I gave him a look that tried to ignore how much I loved to see him smile at me like that. It was cocky and ever so slightly condescending. I hated that I liked it, but that didn’t change anything. “Well, yeah, I know that. I meant, the rest of the day. Geez.”

  He looked down at his sweaty body, the skintight gear soaking. “Well, I have the exercise part taken care of. I saw they’
ll be out till tomorrow.”

  “Yeah…” I trailed off, not sure what he was implying, if anything. I wondered if he thought I’d be out of the house, at Maggie’s party, till later. Maybe he wanted to have the house all to himself?

  Was he going to, uh, take care of himself, after whatever exercise he’d done? Or…was he bringing a girl back here? I could feel myself cloud over as I considered it. I mean, after all we’d done last night, which to be fair, wasn’t very much…Harrison would bring a girl here?

  The nerve.

  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d gone almost the whole time I was here wondering if people could change, could become better than they were before. Maybe that was totally nuts and people didn’t change.

  We just became a little closer to what we really were all along. That was starting to make more sense by the minute.

  “Well?” Those strong hands, back on those strong hips. It was weird, feeling this welling up of anger and resentment toward Harrison while trying to avoid focusing entirely too much on his ripped muscles.

  Wasn’t there some study that said that women were more attracted to men after the men had worked out, and were covered in sweat?

  Because right now I felt like I was in the lab that produced that study. Holy hell, I could barely think of anything else, and forming words felt like something my body was no longer familiar with.

  How did my stepbrother have this effect on me? Why did I let him do this to me?

  Play it cool, Laurel. As cool as can be. Cool as…cucumbers.

  Shit. I was a goner.

  No hope here.

  “I, uh, don’t have any plans yet. Maggie’s got family stuff.” I left that hanging. Harrison knew full well that I didn’t really have any other friends in Summitville besides Maggie. I’d spent years here but never really made any others. Up until now that had never seemed weird.

  I didn’t really feel like going out alone and sitting at a bar, and honestly there wasn’t much else to do here besides that. So, I guessed my schedule was wide open tonight, and if Maggie was busy with work and school and getting ready to, you know, be an adult and a mom and stuff, my schedule was gonna be wide open till I left town.