Rock Hard: A Stepbrother Romance (Extreme Sports Alphas)

by B. B. Hamel

  Instead, he shrugged and walked back to his car. He got in and drove off. I watched him go, my heart pounding, until slowly I regained some composure.

  I put my socks back on, hitched my pack on tight, and started back toward home.

  It felt exactly like I knew it would.

  The pack was too heavy. There was nothing I could do about it, not without risking retaliation or worse, and so I had to suffer on. I crossed the river with no problem, but the sun was already beginning to dip toward the horizon and I was nowhere near my usual campsite.

  It was slow going. Going out with an overloaded pack was one of the biggest dangers a serious hiker faced. People never took into account the sort of toll carrying even an extra pound over an extended period takes on a body, let alone an unplanned twenty pounds. If I wasn’t careful and I pushed myself, that was the sort of weight that could lead to dehydration or heat stroke.

  I checked the sun and my compass. I was at least another few hours out from my campsite, and the light was already dying. Frustrated and annoyed, I decided to search out a decent spot to stop for the night.

  It took me twenty minutes before I found a small stream, and another ten before I found a flat, sandy stretch good enough and dry enough to set my tent up on. Soon, with only minimal fumbling around in the dark, I climbed into my shelter and bedded down for the night.

  My dreams were all about Becca. The only thing I could think about was tasting her lips again, seeing her perfect curves bent over in front of me as I drove my hard cock deep between her legs. I wanted to split her open and let her come rough and raw for hours. Instead, I was stuck in a tent in an unfamiliar spot, tossing and turning in the humid night air.

  But eventually, sleep happened, and I found myself waking up just before dawn and breaking down my campsite. My only food had been a tin of beans and some protein bars, and my stomach was rumbling as I set out.

  With how far behind schedule I was, and the extra weight dragging me down, I predicted that I would be getting back home closer to sunset.

  Which meant I had a lot of slow, painful miles to think.

  To think about Becca and what I wanted from her, and how I was going to get it.

  To think about the mob and all the shit I was in.

  To think about how all these changes meant something big was happening, something I definitely couldn’t be a part of.

  And to think about how I was going to get out, because getting out was my only option, even when it felt like getting out was impossible.

  Chapter Thirteen: Rebecca

  My feet were aching like crazy as I pushed open our front door.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  “Hey, sweetie,” Cora said.

  I walked into the kitchen and smiled at her. “How’s it going?”

  “Good. How was work?”

  “You know, the usual. Asshole truckers and terrible tippers.”

  “You’ll get used to it. I’m glad you found some work at least.”

  “Where’s Reid?”

  She frowned. “I’m not sure, honestly. We expected him back by now.”

  I checked the clock. It was half past six already, and he usually was back closer to noon on the Sundays he was running guide trips for fishermen.

  “Did he call?”

  “No, and we tried his cell with no luck.”

  “But he doesn’t usually have service out there, does he?”

  “No. I’m sure he’s fine. I’m just being a worrier.”

  I laughed. “He’s probably out climbing and forgot to check in. Don’t worry, Cora, he’ll be fine.”

  “By the way, me and your dad are going out for dinner tonight, which means you’re on your own.”

  “I think I can manage to feed myself.”

  “And feed Reid when he shows up.”

  I nodded. “Got it. Shower time.”

  “Enjoy. See you later tonight.”

  I turned and left the kitchen, a knot of worry rolling in my gut. It wasn’t like Reid to just disappear, and even though we were both acting like everything was totally fine, I could see the worry etched in every inch of Cora’s smile. We were both terrified that something bad had happened out in the deep woods, like it had so many times before to so many other people.

  As I stripped out of my work clothes, wrapped myself in a towel, and walked into the bathroom, every horrible thing imaginable kept running through my mind. Maybe they were attacked by bears, or fell down a ravine, or drowned in the river, or just got hopelessly lost, or bitten by a snake, or worse. The deep woods were beautiful and incredible but also full of thousands of different things that could potentially hurt you.

  I turned the shower water on and waited for it to get hot. I knew Reid was a big boy, completely capable of taking care of himself and the people he guided, but still. It was impossible not to worry.

  The water felt good against my skin as the grime from work rinsed from my body. I could practically feel the stress of the long day begin to melt from my body and my muscles as I stood there longer than I needed to thinking about Reid, remembering him.

  Remembering the feel of him between my legs. The way his hands moved like they could play me like a piano. The calluses on the ends of his fingers rubbing my soft, sensitive spots.

  I felt a thrill run through me and I could tell I was soaked through as I began to explore myself. Part of the excitement was the danger of it all. His strong hands had taken me, pressed me up against the tree like I was his to command and I couldn’t fight him. I wouldn’t have even if I had wanted to because I knew what was going to happen next. As I began to rub my clit, soft and quiet moans escaping my lips, I remembered the way he fucked me so confidently right there in the woods where anybody could have stumbled upon us.

  And what a scandal that would have been. Getting fucked in the woods by your stepbrother? It didn’t get any dirtier than that. Or maybe it did if your stepbrother was Reid and his hands knew exactly how to send wave after wave of pleasure through your body, his thick cock rolling in and out of your body.

  I leaned back against the cool tile wall and let the warm water stream over my breasts as I began to work my clit faster, soft moans of Reid’s name escaping my lips. I didn’t know if I wanted him because his cock felt so incredible or if there really was more there beneath the surface, but all the confused feelings swirled through my mind as I remembered the way he spanked my ass hard, growling into my ear like an animal. He ravaged me without a second thought, taking my body as his own and working me until I was sweating and panting and begging for more. And just as I pushed up against that edge, he softly tipped me over into the heaviest orgasm of my life.

  I could feel my body stiffen as I remembered coming, the words he’d said, and how loudly he had fucked me there in the woods. I began to come again, my mind locked on Reid and his perfect body, his ripped climber’s body, his hands and fingers stronger than anyone’s I’d ever met.

  Finished, I stayed against the tile wall panting softly, hoping Cora or my dad hadn’t accidentally heard me. I doubted it, but it was a possibility. What’s wrong with you? I thought to myself. Are you trying to get caught?

  As I began to soap off and wash my hair, part of me wanted to indulge in selfish thoughts about how unfair everything was. It was unfair that my dad married Reid’s mom right after that night at the party. It was unfair that, despite being stepbrother and stepsister, he still wanted me and loved to push my buttons mercilessly. And worst of all, it was unfair that I loved it and wanted him just as badly.

  But I couldn’t let myself think like that. The world was unfair in so many other ways, and if my worst problem was that I wanted my stepbrother, well, life could have been harder. I’d figure it out, learn to deal, whatever. I wasn’t going to be one of those whiney girls that kept obsessing about her relationship with some guy. It couldn’t happen, even if it felt too good. I didn’t even know what I wanted or what I could want, and besides, it was Reid. He was an asshole
and had probably slept with half the girls in town by now.

  Done with the shower, I shut off the water and began to dry off. I walked across the hall wrapped in a towel and got changed into comfortable clothes back in my room. I walked back out into the living room and noticed that dad and Cora had left.

  “Hello?” I called out, but there was no answer.

  With a frown, I went back upstairs and knocked on Reid’s bedroom door. No answer there, either. I cracked it open and peeked inside, but he wasn’t inside.

  I went back downstairs and checked the clock on the kitchen stove. It was seven thirty and the sun had dipped dangerously low in the sky. The clouds were red, refracted through the upper atmosphere, as the earth completed another full spin.

  I paced the kitchen for a minute, not sure what to do. I was worried that Reid hadn’t come home yet. It was extremely unusual that he’d be out in the woods after dark, and there was probably only a half hour of sunlight left at best. If he was guiding, something had to have gone wrong, otherwise he would never put his clients in any danger.

  Resolved, I jogged upstairs and threw on some hiking gear. I tied my hair back in a tight, wet bun, and went back downstairs. I grabbed my boots and pushed open the back door, sitting down on a chair to tie my boots onto my feet.

  My heart was pounding in my chest. Something had happened to Reid. Something really bad had happened to him, otherwise he would have called or shown up or something. Cora had been right earlier, and now I was actually scared. What if it had something to do with the weird stuff Lindsey kept mentioning? Also, Reid definitely was into some dangerous activities, like climbing. What if he had gone climbing without telling anyone and had gotten hurt?

  Terror and worry was beginning to overwhelm me. I should have called the police, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. In fact, I was so far in my own head that I didn’t even notice the figure approaching me until he was practically standing in front of me.

  “Where are you going, college girl?”

  I looked up with a start. “Reid!”

  He grinned down at me. “The one and only.”

  He was drenched in sweat and was breathing heavy, but he seemed perfectly okay. He was wearing his usual hiking clothes and had his pack strapped to his back, which meant he probably really had been out in the woods somewhere.

  “Where have you been?”

  “Out guiding.”

  “You stayed out this late?”

  He shrugged off his pack and sat down across from me. “Yeah. The guys wanted to.”

  He began to strip off his boots.

  “Your clients wanted to stay out this late? That’s pretty dangerous.”

  “I needed the money,” he said, distracted.

  “Right, but still. Why would you put up with such a risk?”

  “Lots of money.” He pulled off one boot and began on the other.

  “Why would they want to stay out this late, though? I mean, what’s there to do?”

  “Hunt,” he grunted as he pulled off the other. He leaned back and rubbed his foot, his eyes closed.

  “Who were these guys?”

  His eyes snapped open. “What’s with the questions?”

  “You worried me and your mom, that’s all.”

  “I told her that I was out guiding.”

  “But you’re never this late.”

  For a second, I thought I saw anger flash across his face. Instead, he stood up and sighed, clearly too exhausted to try and fight back. Without saying anything, he walked around me and went inside the house.

  I quickly pulled off my boots, not ready to let him get away with it that easily. I found him sitting at the kitchen table eating cold leftover pasta and drinking a beer.

  “Seriously Reid, why are you so late? Why didn’t you call?”

  “No service,” he said with a mouth full of food. “Sit down, will you?” He kicked out a chair and nodded to it as he took another big bite.

  I sighed and sat down. “I’m just trying to figure this out.”

  “I get it.”

  “You can tell me, you know.”

  He looked at me for a second. “I love how you look with your hair like that.”

  I laughed. “Soaking wet and in a bun?”

  “Exactly. Soaking wet. Just the way I want you.”

  “Not the time.”

  “It’s always the time. With a body like that, you should be getting fucked constantly.”

  “Reid, not here.”

  “Okay, I can fuck you somewhere else, then.”

  “That’s not what I mean.”

  He took a deep swig of his beer and grinned at me. He looked so cocky and sure of himself, although the tiredness was pushing in around his eyes. “It’s what I mean, though.”

  “Look, I just want to know where you went so I can make your mom feel better.”

  “Cora is fine. This isn’t the first time I’ve been late.”

  I was quiet at that, letting the implications sink in. “So Cora knows about where you’ve been?”

  “Not exactly. But I’m willing to bet she has a guess.”

  “Is this about what Lindsey said?” He didn’t respond, just kept eating his food. “You can’t just ignore me, Reid. Other people say things about you, too. It’s really obvious something is going on.”

  Suddenly, he stopped eating, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. When he opened them, his gaze was dangerous, like he was trying to size me up while looking deep into my heart. It was the most excited and afraid I’d ever felt, all wrapped up in one moment. I could see something in him, something wild and dangerous. I hadn’t seen it before, but Reid was harboring something, carrying something difficult and heavy and dark around with him.

  “Are you sure you can handle it?” he said softly.

  “If you’re in trouble, I can help.”

  He shook his head sadly. “You can’t help me.”

  “Tell me what’s going on.”

  He picked up his beer and finished it off in three big swallows. When he was done, he placed it back down in front of him gently and then locked his gaze on to mine. Butterflies filled my stomach.

  “When my mom got sick,” he started slowly, “your dad wasn’t making much money. I’m not saying that to blame him or to belittle him. He provides the best he can and he’s a decent enough guy, even if he hates me. But back then, when she was first diagnosed, money was really, really tight.” He paused and looked down at his food and then back up. “Do you know how much cancer drugs cost? Hospital stays?”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”

  “One afternoon, a few weeks after she started her treatments, I found a bill. And let me tell you, it was for a lot of fucking money. Worst of all, though, I could tell that it was just one of many that we’d be getting in the future. Each new bill meant years of debt, years of hard work and toil and maybe even worse than that.”

  “What about insurance?” I asked.

  “Insurance helped, but it couldn’t cover everything we needed over the years. Try as hard as he did, your dad just couldn’t cover it all, either. Nobody could, not really.”

  I remembered this time. I was coming home as often as possible, and I kept begging Cora to let me drop out of school to be with her, but she kept refusing. “Cora said you started winning more climbing competitions at this point?”

  “That was the story, yeah.”

  “What do you mean, ‘the story’?”

  “Even in the largest regional competition, first prize was only a few thousand dollars at most. It just wasn’t enough. In that first year, I entered and won pretty much every competition within driving distance, but that money was still just a drop in the bucket.”

  “What happened, Reid?” I asked softly.

  “I did what I had to do for my family. If I hadn’t gotten involved with Thom, we’d probably be living in a trailer somewhere. Cora would probably already be back at work and your dad would be dead from pulling double shifts ev
ery day.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I talked to Thom. He had contacts in the mob, some French Canadian group of guys. They’ve been running prescription drugs across the Canadian border for years, mostly painkillers and stuff like that. But their smuggler had gotten caught and they needed someone who knew the woods to take his place.”

  I felt a stab of horror. “What did you do?”

  “I got a job, Becca. I started out slow, doing just a few runs, but the money was too fucking good. I hike out into Canada, meet some guy in a campground, and hike back over the border the next day. I meet up with Thom and his boys, make the exchange, and get paid. It’s so fucking easy and scary and I’m good at it, as much as I hate it.”

  “That’s what Lindsey keeps talking about?”

  “Your pill-head friend should keep her mouth shut, but yeah. I’ve been smuggling drugs from Canada for the mob. Every single penny I’ve made has gone to paying for Cora’s medical bills, and if it weren’t for this job we’d be out on the streets.”

  When he finished talking, he took another deep breath and then stood up. He walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed another beer, cracking it open. I stared at him, shocked into silence, not even slightly sure what I felt about what he was telling me.

  Reid, involved with the mob and smuggling drugs? That was so far removed from the guy I thought I knew, the danger-loving but still inherently good person that I had spent so much time with.

  “How long?” I asked.

  “A while. Years.”

  “Does your mom know? Does my dad?”

  “Like I said, they probably have their suspicions.”

  “Are you still doing it?”

  He didn’t respond, just took a deep drink of his beer.

  “Are you still doing it?” I repeated, desperately hoping he would say no, no, of course not, he only did it for Cora and was putting that all behind him.

  “Yes,” he said, his face impassive.

  I felt like I could barely breathe. I felt like the walls were turning dark and like I was about to fall out of my chair. I stood up, feeling a little unsteady. For some reason I had to get out of there, couldn’t look at his perfect, beautiful face, his criminal face. He was part of the problem in our town. He was the source of all the pills that were ruining lives. He was the reason Lindsey was a pill head, or whatever he wanted to call her. Reid, the guy that gave me the best orgasm of my life, was a drug smuggler.