Stepbrother OMG! (The Stepbrother Romance Series #2)

by Claire Adams

  “Ah, yeah—it’d be great to show her around,” Jaxon said; to my surprise he actually looked genuinely interested in the prospect. “Give us a chance to get to know each other better.” It was on the tip of my tongue to point out that he knew me really well—he’d seen me naked! But I remembered that our parents had no idea that we’d even met before we both came home for the holiday.

  “Yeah,” I said, keeping my fake smile firmly in place. “It’ll be good to get some time alone to get to know each other.”

  CHAPTER 4

  The minute our parents were out of the house, Jaxon turned to me and said, “So, where do you want to start the tour?” I sighed.

  “Do we really have to?” I asked him, looking around to make sure none of the household staff were in earshot. “It’s not like we actually need to get to know each other better.”

  “It’ll be fun,” Jaxon said, smiling slightly.

  “No, it won’t,” I told him, shaking my head. “What is wrong with you?” Jaxon shrugged.

  “It’s not a bad place, and we’re going to have to do it anyway. Might as well enjoy it as much as we both can.” I thought—I was shocked to realize—that it still looked as though Jaxon genuinely liked the idea of spending time alone with me, leading me through his house and showing off all of its rich person’s treasures. I wasn’t sure what to think about that. I had thought that Jaxon would be just as interested in spending as little time as possible with me as I was to avoid him. It didn’t make any sense; how could Jaxon not be feeling incredibly awkward and uncomfortable? Sure, he’d obviously had more time to deal with the situation as I had, but that would only make him feel worse, wouldn’t it?

  “This is so incredibly dumb,” I told Jaxon, looking around once more to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Someone could have been hidden, but I didn’t think they were.

  “It’s not that bad,” Jaxon insisted. “And hey—you won’t get lost going around this way.” I couldn’t think of any real way around it.

  “Let me get some real clothes on.” I turned away and hurried as quickly as I could back towards my room. I didn’t really want to go on the grand house tour. I didn’t want to spend any more time with Jaxon than I absolutely had to. Maybe, I thought, if I went away—I’d be able to get out of doing the stupid house tour at all. I went into the bedroom and opened up my suitcase. I took out some cold-weather clothes, a thick pair of socks.

  “We’ve got a basketball court out back,” Jaxon called through the door. I sighed. Clearly he wasn’t going to give up on the idea of taking me on the tour of the house. I considered the situation. At least, if I let him take me on the tour, there would be no need to lie about it later. The people working in the house would see it happening, and our cover would be safe. Of course, there was very little that Jaxon didn’t know about me already, but we could pretend, ask each other questions that we already knew the answers to. It could—in a way—actually be a little bit of fun.

  I got changed into my warmer clothes and finally walked out of the bedroom. “Okay,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Show me around. Let’s see what’s going on in this place.” Jaxon grinned slowly.

  “I think you’ll like what you see.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Just show me around this palace.”

  Jaxon started outside, taking me around to the basketball court and the tennis court his dad had had installed. The property was huge—there were dormant gardens even with the tennis and basketball courts. “Dad put the basketball court in when I got into it in high school,” Jaxon told me.

  “I didn’t know you played.” I’d never really seen Jaxon around the courts on campus. I tried to suppress my curiosity. I really didn’t want to know more about Jaxon than I did. But in spite of the fact that I wanted to completely distance myself from him, I couldn’t help the realization that I was still attracted to him. Jaxon was hot; I couldn’t really lie to myself about that. It was the first time he had talked to me in over a month—it was nice to get back to close to what it had been like before he’d cut me out and started ignoring me.

  The inside of the house was even more impressive than the outside. Jaxon took me into the kitchen, and in spite of the huge breakfast we’d both eaten, we both grabbed snacks. He took me through the living room I’d already seen, through the theater room with an enormous screen, a projector, and comfortable seats along with a popcorn machine and a few soda-makers. “So, how exactly did your dad get so rich?” I asked, curious but at the same time wanting to keep the conversation off of myself, and off of Jaxon. Jaxon shrugged.

  “He’s been good with investments—I think that’s most of it, to tell the truth. I don’t really know what he was doing before, when I was a kid. He’s almost ready to retire.” Jaxon hesitated a moment. “I’m kind of glad he found your mom.” I stopped short.

  “This is just a tour,” I said firmly. I didn’t want to talk about our parents’ relationship, about what the implications of it were to the two of us. I didn’t even want to think about it.

  Jaxon fell quiet for a while, leading me through the different guest rooms, the entertainment lounge with the big screen TV and three or four different consoles attached to it. When he offered to show me his room, I told him I’d rather not. I didn’t want to see his space. I didn’t want to be alone with him in a place like that—where it would be too easy to start to act on my attraction towards him.

  He showed me everywhere else in the house; the sauna, the pool once more, the hot tub, the gym. I felt weird—hot and cold, tingly and anxious, jumpy. If Jaxon made a sudden movement I startled. I didn’t want to be alone with him but I didn’t want to leave and run away either. I knew that if we were too alone, something would happen, but I didn’t know what. I was torn between wanting to see what would happen and dreading it. I wanted Jaxon to touch me—but I didn’t want him to come near. I was jumbled up and confused. Every time he made a move to get closer to me, or tried to ask about me—more than just regular pleasantries, something that anyone could hear—I reminded him that it was a tour, and that it was nothing more than that. I couldn’t stand the idea of him thinking that there was anything more to it than a cover, an explanation to our parents for what we were doing while they were gone, a sign that we were “getting to know” one another without the need for an explanation as to why we wouldn’t want to.

  Finally the tour started to come to a close. “I think that’s everything,” Jaxon said, looking around. Our parents were still out on the slopes. “Want to go somewhere, maybe talk?” I shook my head.

  “No. I’m going to go to my room and watch some TV, maybe surf the internet. Thanks for the Wi-Fi password, by the way.” I backed away from Jaxon. My heart was pounding. I needed to be alone and think about what had happened. I took a deep breath. “We should…we shouldn’t talk anymore.” Jaxon frowned.

  “What do you mean?”

  I looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. I lowered my voice. “Let’s just go back to avoiding each other. Are you comfortable with this?” I gestured around the house. I didn’t even know exactly what it was I meant by ‘this.’

  “We’re going to have to talk about it sometime,” Jaxon said firmly, keeping his voice to a murmur. “Like it or not, we have to get it out of the way. We can’t pretend like nothing happened.” I shook my head.

  “You were happy to pretend that up until a day ago. We have nothing to talk about.” I darted around Jaxon and found my way down the hallway and to my bedroom. He didn’t follow me. I closed and locked the door behind me and sank down onto the comfortable bed.

  I didn’t know what to do. Jaxon had gone from being ice-cold, ignoring me, to apparently being interested in me once more. It was insane; of all the times to get interested in me, he waited until our parents introduced us as new siblings? It didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t think of how to feel about the situation. I couldn’t deny that Jaxon was hot. I couldn’t deny that it was nice for him to pay attention
to me once more. I couldn’t even deny the fact that if our parents weren’t married, I would be more than happy to sleep with him again.

  But we absolutely couldn’t do anything about it. I might want him, but I couldn’t have him. It would be completely and totally wrong. I would have to completely forget that we’d ever slept together. Thinking of Jaxon that way made me both turned on and nauseated. If anyone found out…

  But the important thing would be to make sure that our parents didn’t find out. I would have to spend time with Jaxon, but I decided as I sat in my room pretending to watch TV that I would only spend time with him when we had to—when his dad or my mom was around. I wouldn’t go after him in private; I wouldn’t let him corner me if I could help it. I didn’t want to talk about what we had done. I didn’t even want to think about it. I wanted to get through the holiday as best as I could, and then go back to school and pretend that I had never met Jaxon. If our parents’ marriage worked out, we’d have to deal with being siblings—but for the time being, I just wanted to get over my horror.

  By the time my mom and Bob got back in for a late lunch, I thought to myself that maybe—just maybe—I would be able to pull it off. I put on the best smile I could and pretended like my skin didn’t crawl with shame whenever I saw Jaxon looking at me.

  CHAPTER 5

  In spite of what I told Jaxon about us staying apart, going our separate ways and ignoring each other as much as we could, he seemed determined to put himself in my way. He never repeated his attempt to come to my room, but wherever I went, it seemed, there he was. I was torn between being intrigued and being frustrated, and being angry with him for persisting.

  I went to the gym to try and get in a workout; even if it was a holiday, I needed something to do, and building up my muscles seemed as good a way to occupy my time as anything. It was better than sitting in my room all day watching TV—and less suspicious. But when I went to the gym, Jaxon came in right behind me. I would have yelled at him, but I hesitated when I thought of the fact that someone might hear. And then he started to work out so normally that I thought it must have just been a coincidence. He didn’t make a move to corner me, but I couldn’t work out as well as I normally do; I was distracted, watching him from the corners of my eyes. He was doing exercises that would make him better on the board—balancing exercises, building up his legs. “You should work on your upper body too,” I said, calling across the personal gym, the words leaving me seemingly of their own will.

  “I work my upper body on different days,” Jaxon called back. I shrugged.

  “You don’t work it as hard as you do your lower body, but you need upper body for cross-coordination.” I shifted over to a rowing machine and put my earbuds in, proceeding to ignore him for the rest of the time I was working out.

  I decided to go for a swim to keep my muscles from tightening up, and by the time I made it to the pool from my bedroom, Jaxon was there too—already swimming slow, cool-down laps. I was frustrated, but there was nothing I could really do about it; it was more his house than mine. I dove in and did my own laps, freestyle, butterfly, moving from one end of the pool to the other mindlessly until I was exhausted. I climbed out and went into my room to clean up for dinner.

  I couldn’t expect Jaxon not to be there, and it was a little bit easier to deal with his presence with my mom and Bob at the table too—though it was harder at the same time, in a different way. I was constantly distracted by him, not quite able to pay attention to my mom’s and Bob’s stories as they talked about their day. I wanted to be happy for them, but I could feel the tension winding up inside of me with every moment that I had to spend with him. Something would happen, I knew it would. Why would Jaxon keep putting himself in my way if he didn’t want anything to happen?

  I went outside after dinner and wandered around the grounds, pretending to take a keen interest in the winter-dormant gardens. Jaxon showed up there, too, saying he wanted to take a quick after-dinner walk around the property, make sure nothing was getting damaged in the cold weather. I wanted to tell him off. Instead I made an excuse and got away from him. I was becoming more and more frustrated by the moment. Every time Jaxon showed up he wouldn’t make any overt move to make me talk, or to try and do anything to me or with me—he just happened to be wherever I was, whenever I was there, doing his own thing. Once or twice I considered asking him just what he thought he was doing—but I couldn’t make myself do it.

  Mom and Bob went to bed and I tried not to think about the fact that they were almost certainly having sex. The thought of my mom having sex with the father of a guy I’d hooked up with was kind of revolting. But it wasn’t her fault, I told myself over and over again. She had no idea. I went back to my room, where I knew Jaxon wouldn’t bother me. I hated having to hole up there, but it was the one place where I could count on my new step-brother to leave me alone—at least for now. I didn’t know how long it would be until he made another attempt to knock on my door, get me to talk to him. I didn’t even want to think about what we’d done, much less talk about it.

  It got closer to midnight and I was hungry, and bored. I could only entertain myself for so long, watching qualifiers for different extreme sports competitions; I wanted to be out on the slopes, practicing, perfecting my tricks. But it was too late—even I knew better than to hit the mountain in the middle of the night. I decided I’d go into the kitchen and make some popcorn, maybe come back and see if any of my friends from the frat were online, bored half to death at their own parents’ houses. I peered out through the bedroom door, looking up and down to make sure that no one was around, least of all Jaxon.

  I padded out to the kitchen and started the popcorn. As if on cue, I heard a rustle behind me; turning around, I saw Jaxon. “Oh, come on!” I said, barely keeping my voice down. “Is there some kind of camera following me around?” Jaxon grinned, coming closer to me—but still giving me a little bit of space.

  “I know the house like the back of my hand. And hey—I’m kind of bored. It’s not hard to know where you’d go.” I crossed my arms, listening for the pop-pop-pop pop pop-pop-pop of the popcorn in the microwave.

  “Okay. So why are you stalking me?” I had been avoiding him—moving away whenever he happened to run into me. But I had to know what he was doing. I had to know what was on his mind, why he kept showing up wherever I went. It was like before we’d had sex together, which terrified me. I didn’t want to even consider the possibility of having sex with him again. It would be too weird. It would be absolutely insane—our parents would freak out, they’d probably disown us. Jaxon moved just a little bit closer to me.

  “I just wanted to talk to you,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I wanted to apologize.” Jaxon was only inches away from me. The popcorn popping began to slow down. I stopped the microwave and snatched the paper bag out of it.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. My heart was beating faster.

  “Mia, we have to talk. Can’t you at least give me a chance to talk to you about this?” Jaxon’s hand moved out, barely avoiding touching my body, moving to my hip. I danced out of his reach, gripping the popcorn in my hand as tightly as possible.

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” I said quickly, my mouth going dry. “Nothing at all.” I shook my head. “We don’t need to talk about anything.” I hurried out of the kitchen and across the den, down the hall and to my bedroom.

  I got online and looked for anyone I could talk to. I didn’t want to talk about Jaxon, or about the stupid situation. Just wanted to distract myself from everything going on. I managed to find one of the Phi Kappa brothers and talked to him about the game from the night before; I’d missed it but I’d caught the highlights. What are you up to? I thought about it. The guy I was talking to knew Jaxon. He was a sophomore; he wasn’t super close, but it was in the frat.

  Just boring family stuff, I wrote. I ate my popcorn and tried to forget about the fact that Jaxon was in the same house, that he
was only down the hall from me. I threw away the empty bag and turned off the TV, signing out of the chat and curling up in my bed. I would only be there a few days more. I would be able to stay away from Jaxon and we could maybe—possibly—go back to normal once we both went back to the college. As long as we could stay away from one another, it wouldn’t be difficult to pretend like we’d never had anything to do with each other. If I could just stay away from him.

  CHAPTER 6

  The next morning, I woke up early and decided that the only way to get my mind settled would be a session on the slopes. I couldn’t trust Jaxon to leave me alone in the pool. I couldn’t trust him to leave me alone if I went for a walk. The only way I could maybe avoid him would be to get out onto the mountain before anyone else was around. I needed time to myself, I needed space and air and the cold of the snow to think.

  I put on my warm clothes and pulled out my gear, checking to make sure that everything was as it should be. I smiled to myself. Time alone, out on the mountain, cutting up the slopes—nothing could possibly be better. My stomach was growling a little bit; I decided to go out to the kitchen and grab a quick breakfast, maybe some coffee and something I could take with me out onto the mountain for a snack later in the day. Hopefully I had gotten up early enough that no one else was around. I walked across the living room, still looking around. Jaxon was nowhere to be seen. That was a good sign. I would get into the kitchen, maybe find a thermos for coffee or hot chocolate, and grab something to eat before I went out.

  When I stepped into the kitchen, though, my plan began to dissolve. My mom was drinking a cup of coffee, leaning against the countertop, smiling to herself. “Oh hey, Mom,” I said, hoping I could get away with my plan. “Smells good.” Mom gave me a quick hug.