Forbidden: Ultimate Stepbrother Collection

by Anna Hard

  “And you are drunker than I’ve ever seen you. Everything all right?” I asked.

  She waved her arm to dismiss the question. Another movement that nearly tipped her over. “I’m fine. Luke and I broke up. Stupid bastard was sleeping with a coworker.”

  “That explains it.” Then, being drunk off her ass and obviously pissed at Luke, she reached forward and ran her hand up the front of my pants.

  “Whoa there, sweetie.” I took hold of her wrist. I took the beer from her other hand and dumped it in the sand. “Maybe you should give it a rest.”

  She sagged against me. “Is your cock still amazing?”

  I laughed. “Hope so. I’m not sure because I’m never on the receiving end of it.”

  It took her a second to decipher my response. She smiled and her head lolled back. I gripped her arm. She pointed at me with the free arm. “Would you excuse me? I have to go throw up.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.”

  She patted my chest. “You’re still gorgeous, Beckett. You and your amazing cock stay right here.” She half-stumbled away, grabbing Tracy’s hand as she headed toward the bathrooms. I headed toward Hailey, but two figures walking up from the sand caught my eye. I knew even in the dark that the girl was Jessa. The tall guy next to her came into focus. It was Nathan Holder, son of a wealthy realtor. Nathan had been high school class president and a bona fide asshole. We’d always hated each other growing up. He was a candy-assed, butt kisser, and I couldn’t stand him. He’d always taken pride in calling me a no-good thug. Our only real connection had been through Jake. Jake had been my best friend, but he’d also played football with Holder. Nathan and I had even come to blows during our freshmen year. He, of course, ended up looking way worse than me, so I got suspended for three days and he got off with a warning and an ice pack in the nurse’s office. He knew damn well who Jessa was.

  Jessa spotted me first. She smiled. Shit, that damn smile.

  Nathan looked less happy to see me. He gave me the traditional chin lift. I didn’t return it.

  “I guess you two don’t need any introductions,” Jessa said with a nervous laugh. “We were just walking along the sand. The water looks so black under the starlight.” She was rambling on sweetly, obviously sensing the cold, silent exchange between Nathan and me. “Have you been here long, Beck?” she asked cheerily.

  I shook my head. “Not long.”

  “Your stepsister is even more gorgeous than I remembered.” Nathan made a point of placing his hand on her back as if he’d fucking come to the bonfire with her. My fists curled, but I had to keep my cool. Throwing a fist outside of the octagon would get me in deep shit. But it sure would have been great to finish what we’d started in high school.

  I didn’t respond to his comment about Jessa. I knew I was standing there like a damn grizzly wanting to protect my own but knowing full well that she didn’t belong to me. She never had . . . only in my head.

  “Well, shit, Grady, good talking to you, I guess,” Nathan said with that obnoxious grin I hated. He used his hand to propel Jessa forward. “We’re going to grab another beer. You should grab one. Might take that uptight scowl off your face.”

  My jaw tightened, but I kept my cool. An asshole like Holder was not worth losing my middleweight status over. Jessa looked at me as they walked past. Our gazes locked for a long moment and then broke apart.

  On the ride over, I’d figured that coming here would be a mistake. But I’d wanted to be near Jessa. Stupid fuck that I was, I hadn’t even considered the possibility that Jessa would hook up with someone. Considering that most guys nearly dropped their tongues from their mouths whenever she walked past, I had really been an idiot. And having her hangout with Nathan was just the match to light the fuse.

  Hailey crossed the sand to me. “You look as if someone’s twisted your boxer-briefs in a knot, big brother. What’s going on?” She followed the direction of my gaze. “Oh, never mind. I see.”

  “It was a mistake to come. I know that now.”

  “She’s just talking to him. Beck, have you and Jessa ever really discussed the accident?”

  “What do you mean?” I was holding a conversation with Hailey, but my eyes hadn’t left Jessa. Dickface was walking her toward the steps on the lifeguard tower. She glanced back over her shoulder at me once and then faced forward again. She knew damn well I was watching her. Mostly because I was always watching her.

  “I wasn’t there. I know it was a terrible, nightmarish day, but I get the feeling that Jessa doesn’t really know what happened.”

  I looked at my sister. “She survived. I think that’s all she needs to know. Why would we want to dredge up all that shit, Hailey?”

  She put up her hands in surrender. “Just a suggestion. Maybe you should head home. You look angry, and things never go well when you’re angry. You know it makes me uptight.”

  “You do realize that you’ve chosen a profession that is going to be filled with angry people.”

  “I do, but I want to help people. You could at least support me in my decision,” her voice wavered.

  I put my arms around her. “I do, sis. You know I’m proud of you, even if you do call me butthead all the time.”

  She released a sound that was a half-sob and half-laugh. I lowered my arms.

  “Well, I’m going to head back to the fire,” she said. “It’s cold out here on the sand.”

  My attention coasted back to the lifeguard tower again. Nathan had taken hold of Jessa’s arm, but from her posture, it seemed she hadn’t wanted him to touch her. She pulled her hand away. White dust from the sand kicked up as she hurried back to the fire pit. Nathan ran after her. My feet left their spot long before my brain had told them to move.

  Everyone’s attention seemed to follow me as I stomped toward them. Jessa had tears in her eyes by the time I reached her. I pushed her behind me and stood toe to toe with Holder.

  “Get out of my way, Grady,” Nathan scowled.

  “I have no problem with that. Just leave Jessa alone.”

  He lifted his chin at me. “What the fuck are you going to do to stop me?”

  The people who had been huddled around the fire were now circled around us.

  “I’m not going to hit you, Holder. Just walk away from Jessa, and this is over.”

  He glared long and hard at me. “Yeah, we all know how fucking possessive you are about your pretty, little stepsister. Poor Jake found that out the hard way when you let him drown.”

  “You’re full of shit, Nathan,” Hailey snapped.

  I took a step toward him. It was taking every ounce of my control not to turn the asshole into sawdust.

  “Holder, you need to back off,” Trevor said from somewhere in the circle of faces. Icy tension swirled around us, but I swallowed back my rage.

  Hailey touched my arm. “You know you can’t hit someone outside of the octagon, Beck.”

  “Yep, and this asshole knows it, otherwise he wouldn’t still be standing here. You’re not worth it, Holder. I hit you, and just like last time, in the ninth grade when I wiped the hallway with your ugly face, you’ll end up crying in the nurse’s office and I’ll take all the heat for it.”

  His nostrils twitched with anger. “Not my fault you were a fucking hoodlum.”

  “That’s right, I’m a fucking hoodlum and you’re a candy ass.”

  Low laughter rolled around the circle. In the heat of my anger, I hadn’t noticed that Jessa ran off. I stepped closer to Nathan, keeping my fists securely at my sides. “You ever want to do this the real way, Holder, you step into a ring with me and we’ll go at it. I’ll be wiping your face on the mat like butter on hot toast in seconds, but it will be worth it.”

  Bodies parted as I pushed through the circle and raced after Jessa.

  C
hapter 11

  Jessa

  I took off with no real destination in mind. I just needed to get away. I rounded the brick building that housed the snack bar and heard loud footsteps on the cement behind me. I didn’t need to look back to know who had followed. I knew when Beck was near without even seeing or hearing him. His hand grabbed my arm. I spun angrily around to face him.

  There was that intense mix of emotion on his face that I knew too well. It seemed to be an expression of anger, hurt and confusion that he always saved just for me.

  “Well, that was embarrassing,” I finally spurted out words. “I could have handled myself.”

  He pulled his hand off mine and raked back his hair. “I’m sure of that, but—”

  “But, what?”

  He shook his head as if he had no real explanation or because the real truth was too twisted to say out loud.

  “You’ve got to stop treating me like some little sister you have to protect.” I turned and walked away.

  His strong hand grabbed my arm, and he pushed me none too gently up against the cold brick wall. I stared up at him, but not in fear. I knew Beck would never hurt me. We managed enough of that without even speaking or touching each other. I looked pointedly at the heavy grip he had on my arms. With just a little pressure, his steel fingers could break my bones.

  He released me, but before I could duck out past him he slammed both his hands flat against the wall on either side of me, effectively trapping me between his hard body and the bricks. He’d shown a superhuman amount of restraint on the sand. As badly as it seemed he’d wanted to, he hadn’t thrown his fist at Nathan. But that same restraint seemed to be tenfold now. I could sense that he badly wanted to grab me to him. But he didn’t.

  My breaths came in short spurts, and his seemed to have lodged down deep in his lungs. He gazed down at me with those unearthly pale eyes. My lips parted involuntarily as if waiting for something, a kiss maybe, or more likely the words I needed to give him a proper tongue lashing.

  “Is that what you think this is about?” His voice sounded deep and gritted with frustration. “You think I’m protecting you like a damn sister. Hell, Ducky, you know me better than that. You know I’ve never thought of you as a sister.”

  Tears stung my eyes. I blinked to clear them. The last thing I needed was to cry in front of him. “I know I’m nothing to you. Why don’t you just let me get on with the night?”

  “So, you’re going to go back there to flirt with Holder?” It was a question, but it had plenty of anger behind it.

  I lifted my chin. I knew I was pissing him off, and after not being able to release any tension on Nathan, I was probably messing with dynamite. But I couldn’t stop myself. As usual, Beck had my defenses in top form. “Don’t know. Maybe I’ll pick someone else this round,” I said.

  He flinched at my words, but he didn’t drop his arms or move back. It seemed he was trying to decide if he should kiss me or throw me over his knee. Shockingly, I wouldn’t have stopped him from doing either. But he didn’t choose the kiss or the spanking. He went for the stinging words. His green eyes darkened. “Still the same little cock teaser you were when you were sixteen.”

  My hand flew up, and I slapped him hard. I ducked under his arm and ran for the highway. The four lane stretch of asphalt only went north and south. Grady’s Cove was north. It would eventually take me home.

  “Jessa!” Beck yelled.

  I kept running. Once away from the lights of the boardwalk and pier, the highway was steeped in darkness. Along one long stretch of the road there was a large piece of land that had been designated a wildlife sanctuary. Low meandering streams and glowing white beds of sand coasted serenely along, in stark contrast to the noisy cars and trucks whizzing by at top speed. The wildlife was, no doubt, tucked safely in the shrubs and marshy grasses for the night. The only sounds other than those on the highway and the distant voices from the pier and bonfire were the bullfrogs and crickets.

  I shoved my hands into the pockets of my sweatshirt and forged ahead. Trying to stay as far to the side as possible. A bike lane was the only thing between me and the traffic. It was alarming how fast sixty-five miles per hour was when you were walking alongside the highway. Every time a car passed, my body tensed with fear. Eighteen wheeler trucks made me gasp and close my eyes, the wind created by them nearly pitching me off the road.

  Slowly, my walk home was turning into a twenty minute stretch of terror. What a stupid decision. But I never seemed to make good ones when Beck was around. It was like every sensible cell in my body went haywire around him. I could still feel the sting of the slap on my palm. Once again, he’d resorted to hurtful words, almost as if he too lost all his common sense in my presence. The atmosphere always seemed to destabilize when we got close to each other, as if we were polar opposites in a magnetic storm.

  An extra loud truck whirred past. The asshole driver blew his horn, I guess as an unnecessary warning for me not to jump into the road. The sound was explosive as the massive truck blew a sharp cold wind against me. I startled and fell to my knees, hard. Pain shot through both knees, and I could feel the rough asphalt against one of them. I pushed to my feet with tears in my eyes. I’d ripped through my jeans on one knee and tiny beads of blood rose up to the surface of my skin.

  I limped along. The bridge was in sight. The bridge looked like a great curved dragon arched over the harbor. Once across it, the street would become quieter and traffic would be slowed for neighborhood driving.

  A thick wall of fog was beginning to settle over the harbor, a stretch of water that looked exceptionally deep and uninviting at night. There was an extremely narrow walking path on each side of the bridge. I’d walked it more than once with Hailey. But that was in the day, in cheery sunlight. And I was certain I’d never walked across it in the twisted and fragile emotional state that had gripped me tonight. The warm blood trickling down my leg didn’t help matters either.

  I heard a loud motor stuttering behind me but paid it no attention. I’d already had every style of loud engine zoom past me tonight. This one just happened to be going slower. Then it struck me, it wasn’t just going slower. The headlight was lighting the way for me as I stepped onto the bridge. It was following me.

  I looked back. Beck was rolling along on his motorcycle. With his thick, tattooed arms holding the handlebars and the dark brooding expression on his face, if I hadn’t known him, I would have taken off at a run.

  He pulled up next to me. “What are you doing, Ducky?” he asked over the rumble of his bike.

  “I think it’s obvious I’m walking home.” I picked up my pace, which was of course pointless because he could outpace me on his bike without even turning the throttle.

  “Hailey was worried. Why don’t you text her to let her know you’re all right.”

  “I will once I get home.” I kept walking, and, annoyingly, he kept pace with me.

  I heard his phone ring. He pulled the bike over and answered it. “Yeah, I found her. I’ll see that she gets home.”

  I kept walking. A massive truck raced by, coming so close I could smell the driver’s cigar. He blew his horn. I screamed and fell against the bridge railing. Even though I couldn’t have fallen through, seeing the water far below rush past gave me the sensation of falling from a great height. My head spun. Before I could fall face first, Beck grabbed me.

  “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you.”

  At first I relaxed against him. Then my body tensed and I pounded his hard chest with my fists. “Why does it always have to be like this between us?” I cried just before breaking into shoulder wracking sobs. I melted against him.

  Even with cars and trucks hurtling past at top speed just a few feet away, I felt safer there in his arms than I had at any other time in my life. There was something oddly familiar about his protective embrace,
as if I’d felt this exact same way some time before.

  I was shaking as he walked me to the bike. “Climb on, Ducky, and I’ll take you home.”

  Chapter 12

  Beck

  We didn’t head straight inside. I wasn’t ready to go to bed and neither was Jessa. We walked onto the veranda without saying a word to each other. I sat down on a lounge. She went to sit on the other chaise, but I reached over and pulled her into my lap. She didn’t fight me. Instead, she relaxed against me.

  “Why is it like this between us, Beck?”

  “I don’t know, Jess. Lots of mixed up feelings that got mixed up even more by all the shit that’s happened.”

  She took my hand and kissed the knuckles, then she slid it under her shirt and rested my palm against her naked skin. I sucked in a deep breath trying to summon self-control. She rested her head against my shoulder. The lavender smell of her shampoo, her silky skin under my rough fingers and the feel of her petite body in my arms was too much.

  I ran my fingers up to her bra and tugged the lace down to expose her nipple. She didn’t pull away. The opposite in fact. She pushed her breast toward my hand in a plea for me to touch her. I didn’t need an invite.

  Her nipple hardened as I teased it between my thumb and forefinger. She moaned softly, never lifting her head from my shoulder. She relaxed even more in my arms. I slid my hand down and hesitated for only a second before unbuttoning her jeans. She didn’t protest or flinch. She wanted my touch as much as I wanted to touch her.

  I slid my hand down her pants, below the lacy panties to her pussy. Her legs dropped open, inviting me to explore. As my fingers reached the slick folds of her sex, a deep, involuntary groan rolled up from my chest. She mewled sweetly and pushed her body closer to my mine, all the while spreading her thighs wider in a silent plea to be finger fucked.