Trying to look wounded, but failing, he shrugged. “Perhaps a little.”
“I would apologize, but I’m not sorry. And I doubt there’s a thing I could say to deflate your pride, anyway. It’s steel-strong. Make that platinum-strong.”
He chuckled, the sound making me feel more at ease. Meandering around the room, he eyed a few details, the mantle, of course, the trim around the doors, the windows. “You are always a bright spot in my day.”
“Am I?” I asked, following him with my eyes and appreciating the view. I didn’t know what brought him here. I didn’t really care. I was just glad we had this moment alone. We probably wouldn’t have many more once I moved out. That was a good thing, but a bad thing too. I was going to miss him. His smell. The way he sniffled in the mornings as he scurried around, getting ready for work. The way he bounced when he put on his pants (I could hear him through the wall). “Considering the fact that you’ve made every effort to avoid me lately, I would have expected you to say the opposite.”
His expression turned serious.
So much for things being easy. Why did I have to go and mess it up? I was my own worst enemy.
“You know why that is, right?” he asked. “You understand why I’m staying away?”
Of course I did. But that didn’t ease the agony. In response to his question I merely shrugged. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to know if this truly was the right house. Before we close the deal.”
“We?” I echoed. Tension wound through me. “We, who? Didn’t my mother and Dirk buy this place for me?”
His eyes jerked from mine, and instantly I knew the truth. My mom and her husband didn’t have the money to buy a house for me, not even a fixer-upper like this one.
Kent did.
Was this a birthday gift? Or something else? A bribe to convince me to keep my mouth shut about us? Or… or a place where we could be together without our parents finding out?
A tiny spark of hope ignited.
What if it was? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Ohmygod! What was I saying? What was I thinking?
Mom had told me time and time again to never accept an expensive gift from a man who wasn’t my husband. This most definitely qualified as expensive. I shouldn’t accept it. Expensive gifts had strings attached. Always. That was also what she’d said.
So why had she been a part of this? Had she forgotten everything she’d taught me for the past twenty-two years?
I turned toward the door, ready to walk away. I needed to go somewhere and think, to figure out what to do. Somewhere far from this house. Because when I looked at it, I didn’t want to refuse it. I wanted to keep it.
Before I escaped, Kent had my wrist in his hand and had turned me around. “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving.” I yanked.
“You’re angry.”
“No.” I looked him in the eyes. I saw confusion. Of course he was confused. How could he understand? He was the one who had everything at his fingertips, not me. The world was his with the snap of his fingers. Not mine. He had so much. And I had so little. But I had my pride. And my independence. And I would definitely risk losing both if I let him buy me a house. “I’m not angry. I’m disappointed. Because I don’t think I can accept this gift.” I made a point to look at my wrist. “Now please, let go.”
“Why?” he asked, not releasing me. “It’s what your mother wanted for you.”
“But it isn’t from her. She didn’t pay for it.” I twisted my arm. Sometimes Kent could be so pushy and grabby. He had to know it annoyed me. “It’s from you, Kent. And it’s too expensive.”
“It was her choice. It was her idea. Isn’t that enough?”
“No.” This time I thumped on his chest with my free hand. Finally, he let go. “I don’t expect you to understand--”
“Try,” he demanded, searching my eyes.
“I didn’t earn this. If I accept a gift this big and expensive it will make me indebted to you. You and I both know I can’t pay you back. At least not with money.”
His face turned scarlet. Instantly. “I never said that,” he snapped. “If you think I’d—“
“You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to mean anything. It just is. Because that’s the way it is when rich men buy expensive things for poor girls. It’s hers, as long as she plays his game, by his rules,” I told him, repeating what Mom had told me over the years. “I promised myself I would never let that happen to me. I’d never owe a man. I’d never give a man the chance to hold something over my head. You and I… things are tense between us as it is. They’re complicated. What happens if you decide down the road to… I don’t know, to marry someone else? Then what happens with the house?”
“I was going to deed the property over to you immediately.”
“Then what is this all about? Why are you doing it?” I searched his eyes, trying to find the answer, the truth. Nobody gave away a house worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for nothing. He might be a nice guy (debatable) but surely this went way beyond what even the most philanthropic human being would do. Something had to be in it for him.
But what?
Nothing that I could think of. Other than he got me out of his house…
“If you wanted me gone, all you had to do was tell me,” I informed him. “You didn’t have to buy me a fucking house.” I headed toward the door for a second, and last, time.
That was it. It had to be about getting me out of his place. He’d wanted me gone, out of his life. I was probably interfering with his sex life too much.
God, it hurt, realizing how much he wanted me gone. It felt like someone was taking a rake to my insides, shredding them. As I stepped up to the door, I pulled the key from the lock and smacked the key ring against his chest. “I think this belongs to you.”
“I don’t want you to leave me.” He yanked on my shoulders, jerking me flush to him. His heat seared my body, blazing through my clothes. “If I had it my way you would stay in my house forever, and sleep in my bed every night. And I would make sweet love to you whenever I wanted, for as long as I wanted. And your belly would swell with our child. But none of that can fucking happen. I despise even the thought of you leaving. It makes me crazy.” He smashed his mouth on mine and kissed me until no words remained in my brain, until I’d forgotten where I was and what we’d been talking about.
My bones turned to rubber, melted by the blood boiling in my veins. My body didn’t care that the man I was kissing was my stepbrother. It didn’t care that it looked bad for both of us, and our parents, if we had sex. Or god forbid, if I got pregnant.
All that mattered was the heavy need throbbing between my legs, the ache blooming like a beautifully dark and rare flower. My body craved this man. Every inch.
I clawed at his clothes, desperate to feel his warm, velvety skin gliding against mine just one more time, to smell his decadent scent, to taste the salty product of his need seeping from his erection. Only one more time. If that was all I could have, then it would be enough.
It would.
I prayed.
I swallowed the deep growl he uttered, quivering as it vibrated through my body. His need amplified mine. It was as if we were in tune to each other, as if our bodies worked as one, always striving to return two pieces to the whole to which they belonged.
I felt his desire escalating. His kiss deepened. His tongue stroked mine, stabbing and claiming and dominating. His hands gripped my hips, forcing me backward until I was trapped between a wall and his rigid frame. His thigh wedged between mine, and I whimpered, thankful for the pressure against my center.
As he ravaged my mouth, I slid my hands down his torso until I found the fly of his pants. It was hard concentrating on what I was doing while being kissed to oblivion, but somehow I managed to unfasten his pants and pull his throbbing erection free.
His groan filled both our mouths as I curled my fingers around his velvety length and sque
ezed. Breaking the kiss, I slowly sank to my knees, my gaze locked on his thick girth and the droplet of wetness shimmering on its tip. My mouth watered as I parted my lips, pulling the slick head into my mouth.
Delicious. I swirled my tongue around and around.
Kent curled his fingers into my hair, holding my head in place. His hips eased forward, forcing his rod deeper into my mouth, and I opened to him, welcoming the invasion and trusting he wouldn’t push too deep. My muscles relaxed and he slipped deeper, into my throat. “Oh God,” he muttered. “Must stop this. Now.”
Stop? The thought was horrifying. Devastating. I couldn’t let it happen. Clasping him at the root with my hands, I took him deeper yet, his skin gliding over my flattened tongue, inching down my throat.
Using my hair, he pulled my head away and back. He slid from my mouth. “Look at me,” he commanded, and I obeyed, my hungry gaze taking its time moving up from the thick, throbbing appendage that I’d just swallowed to his face.
His gaze was sharp, his jaw clamped so tight the muscle twitched. “We can’t do this. We can’t. It isn’t that I don’t want you. I do. I want you. Oh god, do I want you. But there are a million reasons why this can’t go on.”
I knew he was right. But I didn’t want to stop. It wasn’t fair that my mother could be so fucking happy with a man she clearly adored, but I had to pretend Kent meant nothing to me.
It simply wasn’t fair.
A tear slipped from my eye and dribbled down my cheek.
“Oh, hell!” Kent yanked up his zipper and sat on the floor, pulling me onto his lap. He thumbed my chin, turning my face to his. He opened his mouth to say something but before a word came out, a female’s voice echoed outside.
“Shayne?”
My mother.
Shit! My mother!
I jumped to my feet, face burning with guilt, eyes still full of tears. I felt them go wide as I watched Kent stand.
“There you are!” Mom said as she stepped through the open front door. “What do you think? Isn’t it –” Her words cut off abruptly when she saw Kent. “Oh. Kent. You’re…here…?”
“I’m meeting with the lawyer in a couple of hours to close on the property. I just wanted to check in with Shayne before I signed the paperwork. I wanted to make sure this was the property she wanted.”
“I told you it was. It is, right, Shayne?” Mom asked, giving Kent the side-eye as she stepped up to me and slid her arm through mine.
“Y-yes. It’s perfect,” I stuttered as I tried to clear my foggy head.
“I told Dirk I was going to take you shopping for some things for the house. What do you think? Would you like a mother-daughter shopping excursion?”
“That sounds great,” I said, hoping it sounded enthusiastic, not distracted. Mom was giving Kent a narrow-eyed stare, and I couldn’t help noticing it. What did she know? How much had she seen or heard?
“Very good. I’ll leave you ladies to the shopping.” Kent placed the key ring on the mantle then glanced at me before heading out. I watched his retreating back, thinking that if Mom had come in just a few minutes later, she would have caught us in a very awkward position.
Mom sighed, turning toward me. “This is my fault. I’ve been so distracted.” She fiddled with my hair, which I hated but tolerated because it was something she did because she loved me. “If I had paid more attention to you, I would have seen what was going on.”
Oh God. “I don’t know what you mean, Mom.”
“You and that man,” she said, scowling and pacing, arms flipping dramatically. Here it came. This wasn’t going to be pretty. “I see what’s happening between you two. It’s all over your faces. Never mind that he’s family now, but he’s also trouble, Shayne. Big trouble. I never should have let you stay in his house. His father warned me about him, but I wanted you close to me.”
She was on the right track but I felt compelled to deny it anyway. “Mom, you’re wrong. There’s nothing—“
She stopped pacing and pointed her finger at the door. “That man has money to burn and isn’t afraid to spend it, but that doesn’t make him a good man.”
Now I kind of felt the urge to defend him. Sure, he didn’t care where he put his dick. I could see that. But he wasn’t all bad. And my issues with him were pretty much my fault. I was the one who’d kissed him first. I was the one who’d begged him to have sex. Me. Not him. “He let me stay in his home rent free. He lets you and his dad live on his property. He bought me a house. And what else has he done? Did he pay off my school loans, Mom? Did he pay for my SUV? It was him, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Mom admitted. “Yes he did all those things for you. He even offered to buy you a house.” Mom turned and pushed a layer of dust off the fireplace mantle before picking up the key ring and fiddling with it with nervous fingers. “But that’s partly because his wife demanded you be removed when she found out you were staying with him. Immediately.”
Wife?
Had I heard that right? She’d had her back turned to me. Surely I’d misunderstood.
Wife?
Couldn’t be.
Wife?
Kent was…married?
How could that be? He’d had all kinds of women in his house during my visits. Sexy women, wearing skirts that barely covered their asses. Bikinis that left nothing to the imagination.
That wasn’t the behavior of a married man!
Mom had to be wrong about this. Had to be!
“Mom, he’s not married,” I denied.
Mom whirled around. “Oh yes he is. I’m absolutely certain. I’ve met her. A lovely woman. And I feel very sorry for what that jerk has put her through. Haven’t I told you? All men…except one…are jerks. Utterly useless.”
I threw my hands into the air. “Why are you telling me this now? Why?”
She cupped my face and stared earnestly into my eyes. “Because it matters. I didn’t think it would, but I see now I was wrong. Don’t let his money and charming personality fool you. That man is a cheater, and worse.”
“Then I shouldn’t accept this house, should I?”
“That’s up to you, sweetheart. I thought it would help you get on your feet. For that reason, and that reason alone, I thought it would be okay. Dirk assured me his son would not use it to manipulate you.”
My insides twisted into knots.
Could it be true? Could Kent be married? I saw nothing to suggest he was. No wedding photos. No ring. No women’s belongings. No ring. Where was this wife living? Clearly it wasn’t in the house in which I’d been staying.
No ring.
I had a feeling there was more to this story than my mom knew. And yet I also had a sick feeling that it was at least partly true. Kent’s actions and words suggested he’d been warring with himself whenever we were together.
I needed to know the truth, all of it. Even if it hurt.
Eight hours later Mom and I were both exhausted. We’d met with an interior designer to go over renovation plans for the house and then toured several designer warehouses, checking out furnishings, kitchen cabinets, and flooring. Not another word was mentioned about Kent, other than to say that he would be paying for the renovations. If he was married, I’d make sure he didn’t pay a dime. Either I would pay for the repairs myself, or he would keep the house in his name until I could afford to buy it from him at a fair market price.
Or maybe there wouldn’t be any renovations at all. Maybe I would take the keys to his place, drop them off, and leave.
At least if I did that I would still have my pride.
If I wanted to buy a house, I would buy a house. On my own.
I didn’t mention these plans, but Mom and I battled anyway. Assuming I would be keeping the house, and letting Kent pay for the renovations, Mom insisted I gut the house completely and install all new high-end everything, from floors to ceiling. If I kept it (a big if) I would want to restore the house, keeping as much of the original structure and charm as possible. Not only did I feel
that was the best way to go because it reserved the integrity of the house but also for financial reasons. Restoring would cost less than gutting and rebuilding.
But our disagreements, discussed in the warehouse, the designer’s studio, and even over lunch and dinner, never got ugly. She saw things her way; I saw things mine. We respected each other enough to voice our opinions without being unkind or disrespectful.
All in all, with the exception of finding out Kent might be married, it was a good day. Only because I’d finally had some one-on-one time with Mom. After dinner, she dropped me off at the house. I found the signed paperwork sitting on the scarred kitchen counter.
It was official. The house had been purchased. And with one signature, it would belong to me. Kent had already signed the documents transferring the deed. All I had to do was sign on the line below, in the presence of a notary, and register the paperwork with the court.
Of course, I wouldn’t be doing that. Not yet.
Not until I had some answers.
Chapter 3
Kent Payne was a hard man to find. I hadn’t realized that until now.
It took me several days to catch him at home. Several long, frustrating days. That whole time, I drove around with all of my belongings packed into the back of my SUV.
When I finally did get him at home, I slapped the unsigned deed transfer paperwork on his dining room table.
He looked down. He looked at me. “What’s wrong, Shayne?”
“I just need one question answered before I can sign this. Only one. But I need you to tell me the truth.”
One perfect brow lifted. “Certainly.”
“Are you married, Kent?”
His eyes closed. His jaw clenched.
I had my answer.
Leaving the unsigned document on the table, I jerked around.
That was it. The house was his. I couldn’t stay there, not one night.
I couldn’t stay in his stupid mansion either. He was a cheater. He was a womanizer. He was a complete tool. I had to stay away from him. Far, far away.
Stepbrother Romance 2 - Consumed: A New Adult Alpha Billionaire Romance Page 2