Single Daddy (The Single Brothers Book 1)

by Stephanie Brother

  Chapter Three

  Hale let himself into his apartment late that evening. He’d only nursed a couple of beers while he’d played pool with his buddies, but his head was still pounding as though he’d drank a keg by himself. Stress. Self-denial. Had to be.

  What the fuck was he thinking when he’d invited Zoe to stay here? Had it been some kind of test of his will power? Congratulations, moron, you failed. If it had been some attempt to prove to his dad that he was worth allowing back into the family, that was probably going to fail too.

  With a small sigh, he saw she had contorted herself onto the loveseat rather than take a section of the king-size bed. Zoe snored softly, but her head was at an awkward angle. She looked damned uncomfortable, and he couldn’t just leave her there like that. What kind of brother would let his sister sleep that way?

  “Stepbrother,” he muttered aloud, acknowledging the critical difference. The key element that had fucked up everything and made such a mess of his life the past three years. Professionally, he had kicked ass and taken names, but that was because he’d had nothing else to focus on, aside from some friends and getting over his forbidden attraction.

  Bomber hissed at him when Hale gently pushed the cat off her lap and to the floor. Ignoring his old friend’s outrage from the displacement, he bent down to lift her. She was tall and willowy, but she somehow curved against him as though she were a petite little thing built just to fit in his arms.

  “Dangerous thoughts, Hale.” His whispered admonition made her stir in his arms, and she turned her face into his neck. He nearly dropped her when she exhaled against the sensitive spot that revved his engine like no other. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered as he carried her to the bed and laid her on one side.

  The faint scent of sex lingered in the air, and he briefly wondered if she had fucked some loser in his bed. His head throbbed with anger at the thought, before he dismissed it. A slow smile broke over his lips as he remembered leaving the bathroom earlier and being hit with the sweet perfume of what he could have sworn was her arousal.

  Had she been in the living room touching her pussy while he’d been in the shower stroking himself? He’d been unable to resist the urge for a quick jerk-off after enduring the pleasurable torture of being so close to her during dinner but forbidden to touch her. Had she been imagining him in the shower, or were her thoughts of some other guy? Had she been in a similar state of arousal from their closeness, or had she just been randomly turned on?

  The thought that she had been as aroused by him as he was her should have raised a dozen red flags. An alarm klaxon should be blaring in the back of his mind, reminding him why he had to put distance between himself and his tempting stepsister, but only the soft chuffing of satisfaction buzzed in his ears.

  “Fuck,” he whispered again, forcing himself to turn away from Zoe and go to the bathroom. He’d have a quick wank, get his filthy thoughts under control, and try to grab a few hours of sleep. With any luck, he’d be up and out of the bed before she ever woke up.

  He supposed the chivalrous thing to do was to sleep on the loveseat, but hell with that. It wasn’t just to avoid a painful crick in his neck or lower back pain all day. No, he was going to seize the only opportunity he’d probably ever get to sleep in the same bed with Zoe. He wasn’t going to touch her, but just being near her would be enough. It had to be, because anything else was out of the question.

  ***

  Zoe woke feeling warmer than she ever had. It was like being pressed against a furnace. A warm, fleshy furnace with sinewy muscle and a hard-on.

  Her eyes snapped open, and she turned her head to find the source of even breathing from her left. Her mouth dropped open as she saw Hale’s head on her pillow. Or was her head on his? They had rolled together into the center of the bed, limbs tangled. His skin pressed against hers wherever they weren’t separated by fabric.

  Glancing down, she swallowed a small gasp at the sight of the impressive bulge tenting the front of his plaid boxers. The cotton hid any skin from inspection, but she could see the general shape and outline, not to mention feel it poking against her hip. Hale was seriously blessed, based on her modest experience.

  When she looked upward again, heat flamed in her cheeks as her gaze locked with his silver-blue orbs. He gave her a lazy smile that oozed sex appeal, and she squirmed. “Morning, sweet Zoe.”

  “What…how…why am I in bed with you?” Her voice was somewhere between a timid squeak and a shrill shriek.

  “You looked so uncomfortable on the loveseat.” He lifted a shoulder. “The bed is huge, so why not share?”

  “This is why not.” She gestured to their bodies, still pressed together. Realizing they were touching, she scooted backward to separate them. “It’s wrong to sleep with your brother.”

  “Stepbrother.” He reached out to push a strand of hair out of her eyes. “We aren’t really related, Zoe.”

  “No, but our families…I mean…it’s complicated.” She trailed off, closing her eyes as his fingers stroked down her cheek. When he brushed his thumb over her mouth, she opened them again to stare at him. “I need to get going, or I’ll be late.”

  “It’s Saturday.”

  “Oh.”

  “There’s no reason you can’t just spend a lazy day in bed, right?” His words were innocent, though his expression was anything but. “We could put on a movie and just veg out.” His fingers drifted down her neck as he spoke.

  She tried to focus on his words and block out the sensual stroke of his fingers. “I…” Clearing her throat, she tried again. “I can’t. Things to do.”

  “Like what?” He traced the scooped neckline of her tank, but his fingers didn’t dip beneath it.

  “Groceries. We’re running low on rutabagas.” She winced, having seized the first word that came to mind.

  His lips twitched. “I guess we are, since I’ve never bought them. You really like rutabagas, huh?” His index finger sneaked just under the satin ribbing of her tank.

  “I love them.” Her voice was a breathy whisper.

  “I’m more of a fruit man. Apples…” His hand slipped lower, his fingers gliding over her breasts above the fabric. “Bananas.” As his palm rested lightly over her taut nipple, he gave her a wicked grin that was hot enough to make her panties disappear in a puff of smoke. “Melons.”

  Her throat was dry, but she somehow managed to summon enough saliva to respond. “How crude of you, Hale. I thought you’d be much smoother than that.”

  “I’ll be smooth later.” He scooted closer, his mouth getting nearer to hers. Wiggling his hand made his palm rub against her nipple, and his eyes told her he knew exactly what he was doing to her.

  As his lips almost brushed hers, she moved her head back. “We can’t, Hale.”

  “Why not?” His breath blew across her lips.

  “I really have to go.”

  Before she could roll out of bed, he put his arm around her waist, holding her against him. “Don’t you wonder what it would have been like?”

  “What what was like?” Her stomach quivered under his arm, and it took every bit of concentration to focus on his words and not his proximity.

  “That night, three years ago.” He took a handful of her hair, rubbing the silken strands between his fingers. “The night you came home crying because some idiot insulted your gorgeous body, and I hugged you.”

  “It was for comfort.”

  “It started that way.” His fingers traced lazy patterns on her hip. “But you looked up at me, your lips trembling, and the pain in your eyes so real that I wanted to crush that idiot boy.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t remember.”

  “Liar,” he whispered. “You were finally in my arms, and I was about to kiss you. Don’t you wonder how it would have felt?”

  The memory swept through her of her disastrous blind date with a friend’s boyfriend’s cousin. The guy had been clearly uninterested and was rude enough to say bluntly in front
of her that her chest was too flat, and her curves too nonexistent, for him to have any interest.

  She’d come home crying to find Hale in the kitchen preparing a sandwich. Her stepbrother had hugged her, whispering sweet words to her as he coaxed the story from her. She still remembered the intensity in his eyes when he had spoken to her. “You’re beautiful, and don’t let any fuckwad make you think differently.”

  He had cupped her face in his hands, and their heads had moved closer together. Only a sound from the other room had made them jump apart before their lips met. Confused and guilty at the way she had suddenly noticed her stepbrother was a man, not just her relative by marriage, she had pulled away from him and run up to her room.

  Remembering that, she did a similar motion, rolling away from him and dropping to the floor on all fours. Zoe got to her feet and glared down at him where he sprawled on the bed, looking bewildered.

  “I wonder about a lot of things, Hale. Maybe about the kiss that didn’t happen, but I’m more curious about why you just left? You were gone the next day, and you never called or wrote to me. You didn’t even say goodbye.” Her voice broke on the last word as the pain from his departure returned as fresh as it had been the morning after the almost-kiss, when she had woken to find him gone.

  His eyes widened, and he suddenly sat up in bed. As he swung his legs over the side, she gave in to the urge to flee, turning to run toward the door. Even in her bare feet, she would rather get out of the apartment than face down her stepbrother.

  A second later, he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Zoe hit the wall, though his hand was behind her head to protect her. Hale trapped her there with his body, his hands on either side of her head. “Let me go.”

  “Not until you listen.” He breathed raggedly, clearly angry. “I left because I didn’t have a choice. My dad saw us almost kiss.”

  She swayed slightly. “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh. He blamed me, of course, because he’d seen how I’d been watching you for months.” His expression softened when she gasped slightly. “I’d wanted you for a long time, Zoe, and he knew it. He told me to get the hell out and not come back until I was over the sick obsession I had for my sister.”

  “I’m not your sister,” she whispered.

  “No kidding, but Dad doesn’t see it that way.” He sighed, his head sloping forward until their foreheads touched. “He arranged for me to work with one of his colleagues in London. If I didn’t leave that night, he was going to disown me. I would have been homeless, broke, and without anything to offer you.”

  She licked her lips. “You could have called or written.”

  His mouth tightened. “The first time I asked to speak to you, he told me I couldn’t and made it clear that would be the end of our deal if I persisted. He didn’t forbid me to write to you, so I sent casual letters that hinted at nothing.”

  She frowned. “I never got them.”

  Hale shook his head. “He probably intercepted them. Maybe he didn’t even bother to read them to find out they were harmless and bland. I guess he was afraid any interaction would encourage my feelings to last or grow deeper.” His silvery eyes took on a bluer cast. “I always wondered why you didn’t write back. I thought I must have terrified you with that almost-kiss.”

  “It scared me, and it freaked me out, but I would have answered your letters.” She licked her lips again. “I was so angry and hurt that you just left without a goodbye, so I tried to forget the whole thing. It never worked though.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged. “I couldn’t forget you long enough. Every guy I went out with never measured up to you. Other than a couple of drunken hookups in college, I couldn’t get give the guys a fair chance.” Slowly, she put her hand on his chest, mesmerized by the rapid beat of his heart under her palm. “It took one moment in your arms for me to realize how I felt, and I’m still trying to get over it three years later.”

  He cupped her cheek in one hand, the other still beside her head. “Me too. I thought I was over this, or could at least control it. I came home hoping to reconcile with Dad and be part of a real family again.”

  “You shouldn’t have suggested I use your apartment.”

  He shook his head. “No, but I thought I’d be in Europe most of the summer. The deal concluded early, and my boss sent me back here to set up his US office.”

  “Oh.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Does that mean you’ll be moving back in?” Zoe rolled her eyes at the question. Of course he was returning to his apartment.

  He nodded.

  She drew her lip between her teeth, and he smoothed it out of her mouth with his thumb. Shivers raced through her at the light touch. “I’ll find somewhere else.”

  “Stay with me.” He lowered his head, bringing his lips closer.

  She stared at him helplessly. “Your dad hasn’t changed his mind about us, has he?”

  Hale snorted. “I seriously doubt it, baby.”

  “You want your family back. You deserve that. I can’t cost you—”

  He pressed his thumb to her lips gently, but with enough pressure to silence her. “I was delusional. I never recovered from you, Zoe, and I never will. If I have to choose between you and having my dad’s approval, I will take you every time.” Hale stroked her lower lip tenderly. “If you don’t want me, or you don’t want to risk alienating your mom and sister, then walk away. But don’t leave to save me from my dad’s wrath.”

  “Oh, Hale, of course I want you.” She arched her neck to offer her mouth, managing to get in one last sentence before his lips touched hers. “I’ve been waiting three years for you.”

  “Feels like forever to me.” His lips were firm, but soft, as they molded to hers.

  She pressed against him, hands grasping his bare shoulders as he wrapped his arms around her. His tongue slipped between her parted lips, and she stroked it eagerly. Her head spun, and her breath was trapped in her lungs, but she didn’t care. It was an intoxicating sensation, and she kissed him with all the longing she’d suppressed for three years.

  Hale deepened the kiss, devouring her mouth like a starving man at a buffet. He gripped a handful of her hair to hold her head taut, allowing her no chance to escape. It was as though he couldn’t quite grasp that she had no desire to get away.

  To establish her willing enthusiasm, Zoe moved one hand from his shoulder down his body in a leisurely fashion. His breath hissed into her mouth when she raked his nipple, but she kept going. When her finger slipped into his briefs, he arched his hips forward and issued a sound that was probably a strangled attempt at her name.

  She broke the kiss to trail her lips down his chin, to the column of his throat. His hand remained in her hair, but he wasn’t restricting her movements. Zoe flicked her tongue across his skin, reveling in his groan of pleasure. Her hand dipped lower into his boxers, and she grasped the velvet length in her hand, stroking gently.

  “God, Zoe.” He pumped his hips while tossing back his head as her mouth moved lower. When she twirled her tongue around his nipple, he tightened his hold on her hair, dragging her closer.

  With a small giggle, she resisted his attempts and kept with her southern destination. His abdominal muscles twitched under tongue, and she giggled again. Stripping down his briefs to mid-thigh, she supported herself with her hands on his hips and sank to her knees.

  He stroked her hair, looking down at her tenderly. “You don’t have to.”

  She nodded. “I know, but I want to.” Gripping him firmly at the root, she guided his shaft between her lips, stretching to accommodate his girth. Zoe closed her eyes, savoring his sweet, salty fluid and the husky moans coming from her stepbrother. No, her lover. She had to stop thinking about him in any familial capacity.

  Having his cock in her mouth helped with that, and as she sucked and licked, Hale transformed in her mind from stepbrother to lover. In her heart, she’d been awaiting this transformation for years, so it was not a major shift.
She’d already made it in incremental degrees, and it took only one more nudge to change her perspective.

  “Stop, please.” With a groan that sounded like he was being tortured, Hale knelt to grip her biceps, easing her to her feet and leading her back to the bed.

  She lay down willingly, completely sure she was where she wanted to be. Hale was right. If it came to a choice between him and her family, she would take her lover every time.

  He laid down beside her, his mouth even with her stomach. Her tummy fluttered when he kissed a line around her belly button, pausing for a moment to tongue the hoop piercing. “Sexy.”

  She grinned. “Thanks.”

  He blew against her lower stomach as he drifted downward. “Any other surprises down here, baby? Pierced clit or something?”

  She laughed. “No way. I’m not that brave.”

  His tongue slid over her slit, barely brushing her insides. He lifted his mouth slightly. “You’re perfectly sweet without any special surprises.”

  She would have responded, but his enthusiastic tongue worshipping stole the ability. Zoe twitched and arched under him as he probed her folds. His tongue was a firm taskmaster, demanding her pleasure with each masterful stroke or flick. He parted her lips to slide a finger inside her as he sucked on her clitoris.

  She arched against him, calling out Hale’s name as he slipped a second finger into her dripping heat while his mouth continued working its magic. He sucked on the firm bud as he stroked her g-spot, making her explode into an orgasm that rocked through her and singed her nerve endings.

  Zoe thought she might be screaming, but wasn’t sure. The only thing she could be confident about was the ecstasy rippling through her, the generous gift from her new lover. Her other disappointing attempts with different men had never yielded even a minor orgasm, and her own hand couldn’t compare. As she came, her world fractured and kaleidoscoped, reforming into a new reality with Hale firmly at the center of it.