“Cheers,” I mumbled before tipping the champagne flute back and emptying the entire contents of it into my mouth. After the last ten minutes, I needed more than a drink…I needed a full-body sedative. Unfortunately, alcohol was all I could have right now.
I decided it had been immature of me to stab Finn with my fingernails and hiss insults at him. I should’ve just ignored his hand on my leg or moved away, but I’d let him get a rise out of me instead. As I sneaked a glance at him again, he smirked at me before winking, and I realized that had been his intention all along—he’d wanted to get a reaction out of me. It was just like what my Grandma had always said about my bully in elementary school. She just wants a reaction, and you’re giving it to her. Ignore her and she’ll start to ignore you.
Maybe that wasn’t the best advice, but it had worked for me, so from now on, I was going to ignore everything Finn said and did in order to try and get a rise out of me.
“Playing hard to get?” he whispered when I completely snubbed him for the next half an hour.
“Playing hard to want?” I replied before mentally slapping myself. Dammit. So much for ignoring him. I’d vowed not to react to him anymore, and look how long that had lasted…
Okay, okay. This time it was for real. No more reactions. He could sleaze onto me all he wanted, and I wouldn’t respond at all. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
Not now, not ever again.
Chapter Four
Rory
Today was D-day. Otherwise known as move-in day.
Any misgivings about sharing a building with Finn had been forgotten the second I stepped into my new bedroom; an executive suite on the tenth floor of the hotel. A man named Elijah, who was apparently the hotel’s general manager, had shown me into the room while James led Mom and Grandma to their new rooms, and I gasped as I took it all in.
“Wow!”
A huge bed with a quilted velveteen headboard stood on one side, made up with soft white sheets and a matching white quilt cover with gold brocade around the edges. A matching bureau, vanity and bedside tables made up the rest of the furniture on that side of the room, and I could also see a half-open door which led into a walk-in closet.
I glanced over to the left to see what appeared to be a kitchenette, lounge and dining area on the other side, and further down from that, there was an entrance to a spacious bathroom. I checked it all out before turning around and looking back at Elijah.
“This is all mine for as long as I live here?” I asked. It was like having my very own house, minus a laundry room.
He nodded. “Yes. Not as big as the penthouse suites, but still a decent size.”
“You don’t say,” I said, marveling as I checked out the incredible view from the window. It was more than decent. “Who has the penthouse? Just guests?”
“No,” Elijah said. “There’s two penthouse suites. We keep one available for high profile guests, and for the last two years, Finn has been living in the other one. James used to prefer living on a lower floor. Less time in the elevator.”
“Used to?”
“Well, now that he’s married your mother, he’s made Finn move out of the penthouse suite, and he’s moving up there with her. It’s much bigger and therefore more ‘homey’, which I’m sure Anna…er, your mother appreciates.”
“Oh,” I said with a gleeful smile, wishing I could have seen Finn’s face when he was forced out of his penthouse. “So where is Finn now?”
“This floor with you. Right next door, in fact.”
My gleeful smile immediately faded. Dammit. Out of every freaking room in the entire hotel, he had to be next to me? If this was some attempt by our parents at getting us to bond, it wasn’t going to work.
“Um…is that set in stone?” I asked. “I’d rather be next to my Grandma.”
“Your grandmother is on a lower floor. Second floor, to be more precise,” he said. “She told me she doesn’t like elevators, and at her age, we’d hardly expect her to be running up huge flights of stairs just to get to her room.”
“Oh. Fair enough. And I can’t move down to her floor?”
Elijah shook his head. “Sorry, hers was the only available room down there at the moment. Of course, once some of the second floor guests have checked out, we can have a look at possibly moving you down there.”
I sighed. “No, it’s okay. Too much effort. I’ll stay here. Grandma’s only a short elevator ride away, anyway.”
“Exactly. Now, do you need help unpacking? I can send up a maid.”
I smiled and shook my head. “No, thanks. I’m okay.”
He handed me an envelope. “This contains your keycard. If you lose it and need another, come and see me at the front desk. And in the right bedside table over there, you’ll find a list of numbers for room service, maid service, dry-cleaning and so on. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Sure. Thanks.”
With that, he left, and I ignored my suitcases and sprinted over to the bed before jumping on it and bouncing like a child out of sheer excitement. At first, I’d been worried about leaving my childhood home, but living in a prestigious hotel was going to be awesome. Not only that, this bed was so damned big and soft. Much better than the crappy old single bed I’d had in Hunter’s Point.
After unpacking a few things, I decided to take a stroll around the hotel and familiarize myself with it a bit more. Grabbing my keycard, I left the room and walked down the hall before pausing outside what I now knew was Finn’s new bedroom suite.
I could hear strange muffled sounds coming from inside. Out of sheer curiosity, I frowned and pressed my ear up against the door only to realize that the sounds weren’t strange at all…they were familiar guttural grunts along with feminine moans.
Oh God. Finn was screwing a girl in there. I didn’t know why, but my heart sank a little at the thought of him with someone else, and instead of running away, I stayed and listened, seemingly frozen to the spot.
I guess I was a glutton for punishment.
After a moment, I realized he wasn’t actually having sex with anyone. He was just watching porn. The man I’d heard grunting had spoken, and he sounded totally different to Finn. On top of that, the moaning woman was whimpering and moaning ‘oh, yeah baby…fuck my pussy harder!’ in an extremely fake way, and I rolled my eyes. No one sounded like that in real life; it was definitely porn.
For some reason, my heart soared a little with the knowledge that Finn was alone in there.
A second later, it occurred to me what a dirty creep I was, hanging around outside my stepbrother’s room and listening to him watching porn as he most likely pleasured himself. Leave, perv! My brain commanded me to walk away, but I remained firmly rooted to the spot with the side of my head pressed against the door, my body throbbing with desire as I imagined Finn’s big hands coiling around my body instead of coiling around his cock.
I couldn’t stand the guy, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still think he was the damn hottest guy I’d seen in…well, forever.
Suddenly, I remembered something my grandmother had said to me years ago. Stay away from the bad boys. Too bad I didn’t seem to be able to listen to that advice in recent days, considering I was standing outside the door of the baddest bastard I’d ever met, listening to him jerk off.
Without warning, Finn’s door gave way, and I tumbled sideways and onto the floor, right into his room. Crap. As I landed on the plush carpet, I winced and looked up, and my face flamed a fiery red as Finn smirked down at me. He was shirtless, and his boxer shorts barely contained a raging erection.
“I thought I heard someone creeping around out there. Having fun, little pervert?”
“I…uhh…I just…” My mouth dried up at the sight of his hard-on, and I fumbled for words, unable to think of a decent excuse as to why I’d had my ear pressed to his door.
“You just thought you’d listen in? You know, porn is free on the internet. You don’t need to steal mine. Be
sides, there’s not exactly all that much privacy for you to flick the bean out there in the hall.”
“I wasn’t ‘flicking the bean’,” I hissed, getting up off the floor. “Don’t be disgusting. I was just…I was just checking to see if you were in.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Really? Why?”
“Um...”
Dammit. I really hadn’t thought that excuse through.
“To see if you could fix my shower. It’s being weird,” I finally said. Lame. That was such an obvious lie.
His lips twitched, and I could tell he didn’t believe me. “Sure,” he said with a wink. “I’ll take a look at your shower. I could even…clean your pipes.”
I rolled my eyes. “This is real life, not a porno. I don’t need my pipes cleaned, thank you very much.”
“Hey, you’re the porn-obsessed weirdo who hangs around people’s doors trying to listen in while they beat the meat, not me.”
“Gross. I told you, I just wanted you to fix my shower.”
“Sure, sis.”
He followed me back down the hall, and I let him into my room and sat on the end of my bed as he fiddled around in my bathroom. “Shower’s fine!” he called out a few minutes later. “Nothing wrong with any of it.”
“Oh, I guess it fixed itself. Or maybe I’m just not used to these fancy luxury bathrooms,” I replied, blushing even harder. “Thanks anyway.”
He walked out and looked at me, running a hand through his hair. “Look, Rory, about the other night at Clancy’s, when we first met. I know I lied to you about—“
I arched an eyebrow and cut him off. “Wow, so you actually admit it. You did lie to me. I didn’t think a guy like you would actually say it to my face.”
“Yes, I lied, but…”
I stopped him short again, not wanting to hear his excuses. “Don’t worry about it, Finn. Really. We’re related now—kind of, anyway—so let’s just forget we ever met that night. It’ll only make things more awkward if we keep bringing it up, and we don’t want to wreck things for our parents.”
His face fell a little, but he didn’t argue. “Yeah, sure. If that’s what you want,” he said, his voice stiffening slightly.
“It is what I want,” I said before pressing my lips into a firm line. Just because we were forgetting about that night didn’t mean I had to be nice to him and act like his best friend. Right now, I honestly just wanted to forget he existed at all.
“Right. Well, I’ll get out of your hair,” he said. His mood had visibly darkened, but I didn’t care. Why would I? Had he had any regard for my feelings when he’d lied and led me on for ages when we first met, acting like he was single and pretending to be my date?
Nope.
I halfheartedly waved at him as he left the room, and then I smiled and lay down on the bed. I was actually kinda proud of myself for refusing to listen to whatever bullcrap excuse he had for his shitty behavior. It had taken a surprising amount of willpower, because even though I didn’t like him, part of me still wished there was another explanation for what had happened the other night. Luckily, the logical part of me was bigger, so my willpower had won out in the end. I’d known that if I let him convince me he was actually a sweet guy despite all those tattoos, bulging muscles and unruly hair, I’d become yet another one of those stupid girls who fell for his bad boy charms and subsequently for his lies. Like Candice, from what I’d seen.
I actually felt sorry for her, even though she’d called me a fat skank. I knew she’d just been acting out at me after seeing her boyfriend cheating on her.
Despite all the negative stuff I was thinking about, the area between my legs was still throbbing like mad from my earlier expedition, and I was more turned on than I’d ever been in my entire life. I unbuttoned my jeans and slid a hand down into my panties, and right at that second, there was a knock at the door.
Of course.
“Um…yes?” I called out.
“Rory, it’s me. I took the elevator…it actually wasn’t that bad. Usually they’re so cramped. Anyway, would you like to get an afternoon snack with me and your Mom?”
I sighed and yanked my hand out of my panties, my mood quickly deflating. Nothing like a visit from Grandma to kill the libido, right?
Considering who I’d been thinking about just now, that was probably a good thing…
Chapter Five
Finn
I wasn’t too happy with what had just happened in Rory’s room, but as I recalled the events which had led up to me being in there, a smug grin spread across my face, and I walked back down the hall and into my own room before closing the door. On my TV, a woman’s face was twisted with ecstasy, as I’d paused my porno just before busting Rory outside in the hallway.
Hilarious.
As soon as I’d opened the door, she’d come flying in and toppled over onto the floor, and I’d seen her gaze floating down my body, across my chest, abs, and finally my cock, which had sprung to attention the second she laid eyes on me. The porn hadn’t even made me hard yet; it was all her.
Fuck, I loved teasing her. She’d been blushing in seconds when I’d accused her of stealing my porn and masturbating in the hallway, and it had only made me harder.
Of course her shower was fine. She’d only used it as an excuse when I caught her sneaking around, and I laughed out loud, remembering the exact way her embarrassed face had looked when I’d busted her.
Knowing she was only a door away turned me on even more, and I flopped back on my couch, unpausing the TV. Because I couldn’t resist, I even turned the volume up, knowing Rory was probably listening from her room. I could picture her now, sliding her fingers into her soaked panties and slipping inside her slit...
I watched the dirty movie on the screen in front of me with my eyes glazed. I wasn’t even seeing what was happening on the TV, too focused on picturing Rory instead.
I vaguely considered calling Hannah, a girl I slept with occasionally, but I decided against it. She was always game for a booty call, but today the thought of her pert ass, which usually made me hard as hell, made my cock go flaccid. I stroked myself relentlessly, trying to focus on the story—or rather, lack thereof—on the TV, but it was all for nothing.
Rory’s face kept popping into my mind—her cute smile, sparkling eyes, even the way she sometimes snorted when she laughed, which I’d discovered on our first faux-date. And in my mind, my eyes drank in her features. The rounded, sexy curve of her feminine hips…that perfect round ass…those wonderful tits begging to be released from the top of the black and white dress she’d worn on the two occasions I’d been out with her now.
Sitting there with our families that second night, I’d found it challenging to not stare at her boobs in front of our family members. I felt like she’d worn the dress to taunt me with her cleavage, but how could that be possible? As far as I knew, neither of us had had any clue we were about to become related, so it wasn’t like she could’ve planned to wear it for my benefit. Besides, the look of pure shock on her face when she’d seen me walk in proved that she hadn’t known; same as me. I’d just managed to hide my surprise better than she had.
It felt dirty, rubbing my cock and thinking about Rory, who was now effectively my stepsister, and I wasn’t a guy who was opposed to the filthiest, dirtiest sex you could imagine. Unfortunately, I knew our families expected us to act like brother and sister now.
And it was killing me.
So much for my Dad’s advice to go and track down the dream girl from my date. I’d already found her, but the situation was more of a nightmare than a dream. If there was one person in the world whom I didn’t want to upset, it was my father…and fucking his new wife’s daughter might just upset him a little bit.
Or a lot.
With a groan, I let go of my cock, which was still begging for release, and I turned off the TV and shook my head to get all the forbidden thoughts of sweet Rory out of my mind. Out of sight, out of mind, right? I’d just have to make sure to st
ay out of Rory’s path, and I’d soon get over my obsession.
If she’d given me even the smallest indication of wanting me earlier, I didn’t think I could’ve held back. It was tempting enough having her around, seeing her lips part when she said my name and her body trembling when I was close to her, but she didn’t want me for obvious reasons, and even though I was a prick, I was definitely not the kind of guy to force myself on a girl.
I’d wanted to explain the whole Candice situation to her back in her room, but she’d made it clear that she didn’t care and just wanted to forget about that whole night at Clancy’s, seeing as we were officially stepsiblings now. I wasn’t really okay with that, but I wasn’t going to go against her wishes, and to be fair, she had a pretty good point. We were related now, even though I couldn’t stand that fact, so I guess we needed to act like it and forget about that first night.
Fuck, I wished she’d given me a chance to explain, though. Even just five seconds would have been better than nothing. I guess it didn’t matter, though, because even if I explained the Candice thing to Rory, there was still the matter of me lying and pretending to be her blind date in the first place, and she didn’t strike me as the type of girl who was okay with dishonesty in any shape or form.
My phone started ringing a moment later, knocking me out of my reverie. Thankful for the distraction, I answered with a curt hello.
“Finn? We have a bit of a situation with the Christmas decorations.”
Elijah’s voice on the other end of the line was nervous, and before giving me time to reply, he launched into story-time about what was happening in the hotel lobby.
I listened calmly, even though it was supposedly a day off for me. It wasn’t uncommon for Elijah to call me with some sort of situation when he couldn’t get hold of Dad, and sometimes it felt like I bore the brunt of his job as well.
With Christmas only six weeks away, we needed to hurry up with decorating the hotel and getting into the Christmas spirit, which I was sure would’ve gone just fine if we hadn’t left Elijah in charge.
Bad Boy - A Stepbrother Romance Page 5