Forbidden: Ultimate Stepbrother Collection

by Anna Hard

  “Look what you did, Tommy. You embarrassed Twiggy, and now she’s leaving. And insulting your buddy, Max, like that when he bought you twins for your birthday.”

  “Wait. What?” I pushed my feet down to stop my progress toward the boat. I turned around. Tommy, still drifting on his back, lifted his head from the water. Tommy Hawkson rarely looked embarrassed, but I was pretty sure I was seeing it now.

  “Max, why the hell do you have to bring that up right now?” Tommy asked.

  “Too late. It’s been brought up.” I swam closer. “Do tell about this interesting twin gift, Max. Sounds like an unusual gift.” I was teasing, of course, and deep down, I wasn’t completely sure I even wanted to hear. Or maybe deep down, it interested me. Nana was never prudish or conservative when she spoke, and she’d sprinkled Tommy’s wild sex life into the conversation more than once. Most of the time, I’d reacted like the teenage version of Dani, with an ‘ooh, spare me the details, Nana’. But the adult Dani wanted to hear.

  Tommy’s eyes flickered green with anger. “You were right, Twiggy. We must have fallen through a time portal because the nosy, snoopy sixteen-year-old Dani just joined us in the water.”

  “O.K. that’s just stupid. Nosy and snoopy are the same thing.” I looked over at Max. “And now that you have his swimsuit in a bunch, I’m even more curious.”

  Max opened his mouth to speak but then took a cautionary glance at Tommy. He flinched in fear and pushed back in the water a few feet. “Nah, I don’t want to get pounded out here in the Caribbean. Then there would be blood and sharks and a whole mess and someone ending up without a limb. Let’s just say, I bought Tommy a party of three for his birthday.” He blurted the words fast and swam like a real shark was chasing him back to the boat.

  I smiled over at Tommy. “And here I thought Nana was over exaggerating.”

  “I need to have a serious talk with my grandmother.” He swam closer. I pushed my hands through the water to move back. But he followed.

  There were only a few inches of blue Caribbean water between us.

  “It’s all right, Tommy. After the parade of girls you brought home when you were a teen, I’m not exactly shocked by the idea that the parade hasn’t ended.” I’d pushed one button too many. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t shut down my silly yammering yet. It seemed to have something to do with the nervous flutters that kept swarming me every time I got near Tommy.

  “Can’t stop a parade until the finale shows up.” There was a dark green glint in his eye as he spoke, but I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell he was talking about. “Speaking of Nana, seems awfully coincidental that she cancelled and gave me the two weeks and that she hired you as the medical staff member.” He was angry that I’d teased him. I could hear it in his voice.

  “I’m not following.”

  “Really?” Then, without warning, he reached over, and beneath the clear water, his fingertips trailed down the skin of my belly, stopping just before dragging down the top of my bikini bottoms. It was the lightest touch, but I drew in a shuddering breath. It was the most sensuous thing I’d had happen in a long time.

  He grinned, obviously sensing just how skilled he was and how much I’d felt that light caress. “Guess my years of practice and the never-ending parade of women have taught me a few tricks.”

  I swam back away from his touch. “Shit, still the same cocky asshole you always were, Tommy.”

  “Yep, sorry to disappoint you and Nana, but I’m not changing anytime soon.” With that, he swam toward the boat.

  “Wait,” I called to him. “What are you talking about?” I swam after him. Talking and swimming in a choppy ocean was not easy, but my dander was up. “You don’t actually think that I planned this with Nana?”

  He reached up to the ladder and pulled himself up a rung. I was treading water beneath him. I was so hot with anger, I half expected steam to be rising off the watery surface.

  He stopped his climb and looked down at me. “Just saying, Twiggy, it’s an awfully big coincidence that you and me ended up on this boat together.”

  I laughed harshly. “You haven’t changed a bit, you arrogant boob. What the hell makes you think I wanted to be stuck on this floating hotel with the likes of you?” A new laughing sound rolled up from my chest. Could have been the drop in body temperature from sitting in water or just the rage I was feeling at his suggestion, but the laugh sounded slightly hysterical.

  “We haven’t seen each other in years and, boom, suddenly you’re on my family’s yacht playing doctor.”

  Tears stung my eyes. I was ashamed that I was crying, but I was beyond pissed. “I’m not playing. I have a fucking degree. But you’re right. You caught me. I’ve been pining for you this whole damn time, Tommy. That’s why I’m engaged to a rock star, and he’s fucking nuts about me.”

  “And are you fucking nuts about him?” he asked.

  I hesitated. I hated that I hesitated. “Yes, I love Axel.”

  “Groupies and all?”

  Tears mingled with the salt water on my face, and for the first time, he seemed to have noticed how badly his words had stung me. His face smoothed to a look of sympathy. “I’m sorry, Dani.”

  “Tommy!” a familiar whiny voice rained down from the deck. “I cut my finger on a wine glass. I need that nurse person to come up.”

  Tommy rolled his eyes.

  I grabbed the bottom of the ladder. “I just realized how perfect my word choice was. It is a parade, and there seems to be no shortage of clowns. Now move up the ladder so this nurse person can help her ridiculous patient.”

  Chapter 10

  Tommy

  I’d basically avoided everyone for the rest of the day. I had business to take care of, and it gave me a good excuse for some alone time. But I couldn’t focus on paperwork. I was having a major mind debate about Dani. I had no real idea why the hell I’d accused her of setting this up. Maybe I just wanted it to be true. Maybe I had just been hoping that she’d still been thinking about me all this time. Or maybe it had been a means of defense. My idiot friend had brought up the twins in front of her, and it bothered me. Not that it mattered, since my extremely helpful grandmother seemed to have been filling Dani in on the tawdry details of my life. I hated that Dani knew.

  It was late afternoon. We were anchored off Barbados for the day, and Robert had taken Max and the women to shore in the single motor power boat for some shopping. They hadn’t returned yet.

  I headed to the refrigerator for a beer. I leaned in to grab a cold one, and as I straightened Dani walked in. We both blinked at each other like animals caught in headlights.

  I was the first to find my tongue. “Dani, I didn’t mean it. I know you didn’t plan any of this, and I’m happy for you. I’m glad you found someone to spend your life with.”

  She nodded. It was rare for Dani not to speak. She walked past me to the refrigerator and reached in for a beer. And that was when it happened. I watched as she leaned into the fridge, still the long, sinewy beauty she’d always been and still that girl who I’d always thought had more life and spirit than any other person in the world. Still that girl, who, frankly, had always kept me up at night. She closed the refrigerator and walked past me.

  I lunged for her, grabbed her arm and spun her to face me. The beer can dropped to the floor and rolled away. “I’m a fucking liar. I’m not glad you found someone. I’m jealous as fucking hell of the asshole.” I pulled her to me, and my mouth came down hard over hers.

  Dani was stiff at first but then her body softened in my arms. She reached up and curled her hand around my neck to hold my mouth over hers. My tongue slid over her lips and across her tongue, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more. I slid my hands beneath her shirt and smoothed my palms over her skin. She mewled softly against my mouth.

  I lifted my mouth reluctantly
from hers. She stared up at me with glossy blue eyes, a pink blush now coloring her cheeks and lips.

  “Hell, Dani, I just realized I’ve been thinking about this kiss for seven years.”

  The brief interlude from the kiss seemed to have snapped her back to reality. She stiffened and pushed her hands against my chest. I released her.

  “No, no this can’t be. We can’t kiss.”

  “Uh, think that ship sailed already.”

  She shook her head. “Stop teasing, Tommy. Stop. I’m engaged and you’re—”

  “I’m what? Your stepbrother.”

  Her shoulders dropped in disappointment. “Shit, that hadn’t even crossed my mind. I must really be warped. No, I can’t. This is wrong. You are wrong. You break hearts and—” she waved her hand around as if people were standing in the room with us. “You know, the whole damn parade thing. I don’t want to be part of a parade. And Axel, he’s at home waiting—” She spun around and flew out of the room.

  I walked out on deck to clear my head. I had no idea what had just happened. It seemed that all these years, I’d been fucking every girl I met, avoiding anything serious, because the one girl I’d only ever wanted was out of reach. It was entirely possible that I was blaming Nana for trying to throw us together only because I wanted it to be so. I wanted Nana’s permission to have something I’d always wanted. Something I now craved more than any lucrative real estate deal, any fast car or high-dollar hooker. I wanted Dani, all of her, heart . . . and soul . . . and quirky, dry wit. With all the girls I’d been with, I’d never met anyone like her. She could make me laugh and question my own character flaws, of which I seemed to have many. And now I’d laid myself bare to her. For some stupid reason, which was probably due to my character flaw of being self-centered, I’d convinced myself that Dani had felt the same way. Stupid, stupid me.

  Chapter 11

  Dani

  My crappy, cheap cell phone was, of course, useless out on the water, and I knew Axel would never take the time to email me. We’d had no contact since I left. Up until now, I sadly hadn’t felt much like calling him. But Tommy’s kiss had my head and heart in a hurricane of turmoil. My thoughts were darting all over the damn place, and I wanted them to stop. A quick conversation with Axel and the chaos in my mind would end. I’d be reminded that I loved the man who had given me the ring.

  The ship to shore phone was in the pilot house. Since we were still anchored and waiting for the party to get back from shore, the captain was polite enough to step out and take his dinner early so I could make my call in private.

  Axel’s cell phone rang twice, and I was sure it would go to voicemail. But he picked up. “Hey, baby!” There was a clamor of voices and laughter in the background, and I could barely hear him.

  “Hey, Axel, I had a second, so I thought I’d call and see how you were doing.”

  “Yeah, good, baby. I’m good,” he had to yell over the noise. “What’s up?”

  “I just missed you and—” A girl’s voice came through the phone. “Come on, Axel, let’s dance”.

  “Who was that? And where are you?”

  “The guys and I are at a club, hanging out. You know, unwinding before our studio session tomorrow. Listen, baby, it’s just too loud in here. Why don’t you call me another time.”

  “Yeah, fine. See you soon,” I said quietly and hung up. I stood there in the pilot house for a long time staring out at the bright blue sea as it stretched on forever. Axel had always wanted this stardom, and he was embracing it with his whole heart, a heart that suddenly had no more room for me, his fiancé.

  My mood was dark as I plodded back toward the infirmary. It had been a good six hours since Crystal, my perpetual patient, had last injured herself, and it seemed she was overdue. I was certain she’d return from shopping with a paper cut or fatigue. I’d just sit and wait for their return.

  But as I reached the door to the infirmary, I stopped. The entire scene in the galley kitchen dashed around my head for the hundredth time. At first, I’d shrugged off the kiss as a bizarre moment in time. I’d, after all, been the only pair of female lips onboard the Sea Queen at the time. And from the snippets of information Nana had been feeding me, it was fairly evident, even to someone without a psych degree, that Tommy had a strong affinity, possibly even an addiction, to sex. As I fled from the kitchen, I’d convinced myself that his declaration of being jealous of Axel had just been pure bull. Why the hell would he care at all what was happening in my life? And yet, my feet turned, and I headed down the narrow corridor that would take me to the master suite. Damn him for stirring up things that didn’t need stirring. I was already mixing shit in my life up on my own, without his help.

  I knocked sharply on the dark mahogany door. Footsteps came across the bedroom floor, and the door swung open. He had no shirt, and his shorts were slung low on his slim hips. I hadn’t noticed the tattoo design that started right next to concave muscle near his hip. It disappeared beneath the loose waistband of his shorts. As much money as he was worth, he had this dangerous quality about him that made him look as if he was more suited to a dark, sketchy biker bar at the end of some rough town. That might just have been the thing I’d always found so damn attractive about him.

  I stepped into the room and snapped the door shut behind me. “You’ve never liked me. You used to tell me I was just an annoying, skinny little splinter, like the kind that gets caught under your thumbnail. Your exact words. Well, almost exact. Not completely sure because it’s been seven fucking years.” I continued on my rant and gave him a little shove for good measure. Unfortunately, it was like pushing on a brick wall. “Don’t tell me you’d been waiting for that kiss, because you’ve had seven fucking years to come find me and kiss me.” I stared at him. He seemed to be waiting to see if I was finished. Which I was.

  “I called you an annoying, little splinter because it was my way of masking my real feelings. I’d been growing up in a stately mansion that was just one step above a fucking mausoleum, dull, cold and hard, like its facade. Then you walked through that front door with your loud sandals that slapped the marble floors with a spunk that I fucking loved. It was like music, hearing those sandals, and your laugh, and those stupid ass jokes you liked to tell. You were the best thing to walk into my life, but at the same time, you were considered a sibling. I was a teenager with a hard-on that never subsided, and suddenly, I had a new stepsister who would wear these tiny little midriff tops and who would innocently lean against me during a scary movie with absolutely no clue of the effect she was having on me.”

  I blinked up at him, my heart breaking with each word. When he stopped, we stood in silence, a heated silence. “You liked my sandals?” I asked in a wavering voice.

  “Still think about those funny, noisy sandals every damn day.” He pulled me into his arms and kissed me in a way that truly made me believe that he’d been thinking about it for years. His mouth was still on mine when he lifted me up into his arms and turned toward the bed. He stopped and gazed at me through black lashes. “Is this all right, Dani? Because if I start, I’m not going to be able to stop. There’s no fucking way I’ll be able to stop.”

  I pressed my hand against his face and kissed his mouth. “I don’t want you to stop, Tommy.”

  Chapter 12

  Dani

  It was all a little surreal. I hovered between being slightly terrified and completely thrilled. Tommy gazed down at me as he lowered me onto his bed. Everything about him was familiar, and yet, in this capacity, a man about to take me naked and willing in his arms, he was a complete stranger, a stranger that had awakened a longing I’d never felt before.

  I felt awkward and clumsy like the skinny, lanky teen I’d been seven years ago, a time that seemed so long in the past now. We’d both changed and grown up, and yet, in many ways, we were still the same.

  M
y lips were tender from his urgent flurry of kisses. I rested my head back on the pillow. He ran his thumb over my swollen bottom lip. “I guess after waiting seven years for a kiss, I got a little carried away.” He began unbuttoning my blouse. As his long lashes dropped down to follow his gaze as it drifted over my body, he stirred up so many emotions. I thought about him as a handsome, charismatic teenager, falling asleep on the couch with his motocross magazine on his chest.

  “Do you still ride?” The question, of course, was in sharp contrast to the current situation, but a case of nerves had come over me.

  A quiet laugh hummed from his throat. “I try to get out to the track occasionally, but work just always gets in my way.” He’d opened every button, but he hadn’t parted the two panels. My question and obvious case of nerves gave him some pause.

  “Dani, I want this. I want you.” His next laugh had a touch of nervousness too, which put me more at ease. I didn’t need the super-confident Tommy right now. I needed the humble, down to earth guy, who would occasionally show his emotions to me. “It could just be, you know, some fun on a vacation. You’re in a relationship, and I’m not looking for anything more than—”

  “A fuck?”

  He smiled faintly.

  “Still the same, Tommy.”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  My mind shifted back to the shitty phone call with Axel. He was quite obviously having fun without me. I’d been questioning so much about our relationship. It felt as if he and his guys were having the times of their lives. At the same time, for me, the good times were slipping away.

  It was Tommy, and it came with no strings. Two of my closest friends had gone the whole ‘no strings’ route and both had bragged that they were having the best sex of their lives. Everything about Tommy had me feeling as if I was alive again. Just having him gaze down at my fully clothed body made warm moisture pool between my legs.