Smash: A Stepbrother MMA Romance (Includes bonus novel Rock Hard!)

by Hamel, B. B.

  “Alexa,” Dad said, “this is Cindy.”

  “My new stepmom,” I said.

  Cindy laughed. “Just Cindy, please. It’s really good to meet you. I’ve heard lots of good things.”

  We shook hands and I instantly forgot about all the negative things I had read about her in the press. Maybe she was the Ice Queen, the dominating woman warrior, but I didn’t care. In my kitchen, she seemed like just a regular person.

  “I’m so happy you two could finally meet,” Dad said.

  “Me too,” she added, nodding.

  “Well, it’s about time I meet my dad’s new wife.”

  She laughed, a little embarrassed. “We are sorry about that, Alexa. We could have invited you.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m just giving Dad here a hard time.”

  He frowned. “We really are sorry, honey. It’s just, after Cindy’s company bought mine, things happened fast. And the press hasn’t exactly been kind to our relationship.”

  I caught a dark look cross Cindy’s face, but it quickly vanished. I knew what Dad was talking about, though. I’d read some rumors about the two of them, rumors that he was kept around only because he was Cindy’s new “boy toy” or something like that. Apparently, them getting married was a pretty huge deal and had the potential to screw the whole merger up.

  Fortunately, so far things had worked out. But I could tell that Dad was stressed, even from seeing him for just a few minutes. Not as stressed as he usually was, but still. There were lines around his eyes, and he looked like he hadn’t been sleeping enough.

  “We’ve gotten a lot of bad press,” Cindy added. “But it’s been worth it.”

  I smiled as she kissed my father.

  “Okay, enough of that,” I said, laughing.

  Dad beamed, his new bride on his arm.

  Things seemed like they were going to be okay. I had been so nervous for this meeting, so torn up about it, but Cindy seemed perfectly lovely.

  “You know,” she said, “my son should be here soon.” She checked her watch. “But he’s late, as usual.”

  “Honey, you were in Thailand, right?”

  “Dad, you know I was. You paid for the whole thing.”

  “Well, that’s where her son’s been for the last year. You two can bond over that.”

  I shrugged. “I was only in that resort. I barely saw the country.”

  Cindy waved her hand. “He’s been in the jungle or something equally crazy, so I doubt he knows much more than you do.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “What was he doing there?”

  “Training, I think. He’s a mixed martial arts fighter.”

  “Wow, that’s pretty amazing,” I said.

  “I suppose.”

  As if on cue, the sound of a loud motorcycle roaring down the street filtered in through the open windows.

  “Speak of the devil,” Cindy said. “I bet that’s him.”

  Just as the noise of the engine peaked, it suddenly cut off. I followed Cindy and Dad over to the front door. We stepped outside onto the front stoop.

  I’d never had a brother or a sister before. I had to admit, I was looking forward to meeting him. I hadn’t realized that Cindy had kids since nobody mentioned him in the press, but it wasn’t surprising. I knew Dad wasn’t her first marriage.

  I watched as a tall, muscular man stepped off a black-and-chrome bike. He reached up and pulled the dark helmet off.

  My eyes widened and I took a step back.

  That night almost a year ago came rushing back. The moonlight through his hair, the cocky grin as he walked down the beach with me.

  “Alexa,” Cindy was saying, “this is Cole, my son.”

  I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even move.

  It was him. It was my stranger, my husband.

  My stepbrother.

  I was horrified. I couldn’t move.

  “Alexa,” he said, grinning hugely and walking up the stoop toward me. “Good to meet you.”

  There was something playful in his eyes, something knowing. He definitely recognized me, there was no doubt about it, but he was pretending for our parents’ sake.

  “Uh, sure,” I said, shaking his hand. I hadn’t gotten myself together enough for more.

  Everything about him was so familiar. All those moments came rushing back to me. The ache of my body, our limbs stretched out together, the warm sand under my feet as he laughed and threw seashells into the waves.

  My husband was back.

  I was so damn close. I was so damn close to getting away from him.

  “I look forward to getting to know you better, stepsister,” he whispered.

  I could only stare at him, wide-eyed in terror.

  Chapter Two: Cole

  It was humid as hell the first night I saw her. I was sweating in my button-down shirt and shorts as I made my way down to the beach, bored of the drunk tourists.

  Thailand wasn’t a vacation for me, even though I was staying at a resort. It was my last hurrah before the next year, a final week to blow off steam before I went into hardcore training mode.

  My two main goals were pussy and alcohol, not necessarily in that order. I knew I was going to have to abstain from everything when the real work began, but I was going to indulge as much as I could all week first.

  It wouldn’t be easy for me to go a whole year without pussy, but it was the sort of sacrifice I knew I needed to make to take my career to the next level.

  As I made my way toward the water, there she was. More specifically, I watched as she tripped and landed face-first in the sand.

  My initial instinct was to laugh. Yeah, I admit it, I was an asshole. But you’d want to laugh, too, if you saw someone trip on a seemingly perfectly flat beach.

  Instead, I walked over to her and made sure she was okay.

  Sometimes, I wished I hadn’t done that. In the next few weeks, in the dead of night when I was being eaten alive by fucking bugs and I couldn’t get her body out of my mind, I’d almost regret it.

  But I’m not the type to have regrets, not really. I wanted to fight hard and fuck harder. That’s all I cared about in life.

  Except there she was, this sexy as fuck girl slowly getting to her feet.

  I knew I needed her. I knew I needed to posses her, fuck her, make her come on my big cock until she couldn’t think of anything other than my dick and my body against hers. I was completely sucked into her, and I knew I’d do whatever to have her.

  And at first, it was exactly like that. Her pussy was like fire for my mouth as I tongued her little clit in the middle of the afternoon, making her back arch. It was incredible, my fingers exploring every inch of her, and yet still she held back. I wanted more, always more, but she wasn’t ready to let me have it all.

  I couldn’t get that last night out of my head. We’d just finished this stupid fake marriage ceremony, for some dumb reason. It was funny and lame, but for some reason I felt like it almost meant something. Later, back in my room, I slipped her panties down her smooth, tanned skin and pressed my mouth up against her pussy.

  “Who are you?” she gasped as I began to tongue her clit.

  “Just someone who loves to taste you,” I said in between mouthfuls of her sweet cunt.

  “Shit,” she gasped, grabbing my hair. “Seriously. Where did you learn all this?”

  “You pick things up when you live as hard as I do.”

  I slipped a finger deep inside her and watched her eyes close in ecstasy.

  “I fight for a living, babe. I put my body on the line for fun. I’ve figured out what I like and how to get it.”

  “But why me?” she gasped as I began to kiss her neck, pistoning my fingers deep inside her the way I knew she loved.

  It was a good question. Why her? I could have been fucking a new girl every night. It wasn’t like it was hard, especially in fucking paradise.

  But for some insane reason, the second I got a taste of her, I needed more. I couldn’t stop myself
from getting her off again and again and again. I loved the way sweat rolled down her chest as I worked her body hard and rough, my mouth and fingers all over her, not caring how loud she was.

  “Because that’s what I want, and I get what I want,” I whispered to her, pressing my tongue harder against her spot.

  Weeks later, in the dead of night, I’d remember the gasp she made as I nibbled her slightly and slipped another finger deep inside her.

  Alexa. I’d remember that name when things got rough. It was torture sometimes, remembering that sweet pussy, knowing I’d never see it again. I knew that I just needed to get back to civilization to forget about her, move on to some new stranger.

  But despite that, I kept thinking, wondering, where my fake wife was. And if I’d ever get to taste that pussy again.

  Still, I was in Thailand for a reason. After the vacation was over, I took a bus out into the countryside, out into the fucking jungle, to meet with one of the greatest Muay Thai fighters in the whole country.

  It was the opportunity of a lifetime. Skad was legendary in the fighting community, and he took only three students every year for an intensive training course. Every one of his students had gone on to do special things, and so I knew that I could catapult my career into stardom if I could get his training.

  I was lucky. He must have watched the tape I sent him, because I was invited out only a few weeks after I sent it. I wasn’t sure what he saw in me, but I figured I was about to find out.

  And it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The word “intensive” didn’t do it justice. We lived, breathed, ate, fucked, and shit fighting. Learning Skad’s techniques, training under his tutelage, was the air we breathed and the food we ate. There were no cellphones, no Internet, no television, nothing.

  There was only violence and hard work.

  And I fucking thrived on it.

  I was a hard man before I met Skad. I grew up in the octagon, training from a young age. I used to get in street fights just to test my skills. I was undefeated and had a reputation for violent aggression, a reputation I loved and built lovingly for myself.

  But I was nothing compared to the man Skad made me. Before I was all untapped potential. I had so much more inside me but couldn’t get to it. Skad refined my edges, made me faster and more dangerous. Skad changed me from a talented fighter to a deadly killer.

  All it cost me was a single year of my life.

  I thought I was ready to come back to civilization. Compared to the deep silence of the jungle, though, the airport was like a chaotic mess of sights and sounds and noises.

  There were people everywhere. I hadn’t seen more than a handful of people my entire time out in the jungle, and suddenly I was shoved into a crowd of total strangers.

  But it was my time, and I knew it. As soon as Skad said I was ready, I got back on that bus and got my ass to civilization.

  There was only so much time I could spend in the jungle before I completely lost my fucking mind.

  Still, the crowds of cow-eyed people annoyed the shit out of me as I made my way across the terminal and toward baggage claim. I was meeting my mother, or at least my mother’s driver, out front. I was running a little late already, which was of course going to be blamed on me and not on the airline.

  My mother was a hard ass. We got along if you considered not talking often as getting along. When we did talk, it was mainly about her work since she basically ignored my fighting career.

  Fine by me. I didn’t need or particularly want my mother’s approval.

  Once I found the driver, I gave him directions to my storage unit just outside the city. He gave me a look like it was the last thing he wanted to do, but I slipped him a twenty and hopped into the back.

  Apparently, that was enough. We were on the road, heading toward my destination.

  The plan was simple. I had a bunch of shit kept at the storage unit, the most important of which was my motorcycle. I’d drop my bag off there and take the bike over to my mother’s new husband’s place, pay my respects, and then be done with that.

  The sooner I got it over with, the sooner I could find a cheap room and get back in the fighting game.

  We made it to the unit with no problem, and I had the driver drop me off. He clearly had instructions to drag me to Cindy himself, but I wasn’t some kid he could just order around. I gave him a nod and walked into the storage facility, leaving him stuck outside.

  The unit was right where I left it. I unlocked the door and found everything exactly as I wanted it to be.

  I smiled to myself and took a deep breath. It was finally feeling like home.

  I didn’t have much time to waste, though. I got changed and looked over my bike, satisfied that it was in pretty good condition despite having sat around for the better part of a year.

  I hopped on and kicked it started, moving slowly out toward the exit. The bike made a deep hum as I rode it through traffic. I was running a little late, but that couldn’t be helped. I passed a few slow cars in the right lane and wove my way over to the left, dodging in and out, loving the feeling of the speed and the power between my legs. The only things better were fighting and fucking.

  Finally, I pulled up outside an expensive-looking brownstone, the sort of thing only millionaires could afford in San Francisco. That made sense, since I couldn’t imagine Cindy marrying anyone with less than a few million in the bank. She wasn’t a gold digger, not at all. She had her own money. Rather, she was attracted to power, and money brought power, at least according to people like her.

  I knew better than that. Real power came from training your body, pushing it to its limits. Real power was mastering yourself and your opponents.

  As I cut the bike’s engine and climbed off, three people emerged out onto the stoop. Instantly I recognized my mother and her stern expression. She was clearly pissed off that I was late and had ditched the car. My new stepfather looked pretty typical, like your classic old and white business CEO, not too fit but not flabby either. He had a warm smile on his face.

  And finally, my gaze fell on her.

  I had a brief moment of full-on shock as my eyes ran up and down her body.

  It was her, my paradise bride. Alexa, the girl I hadn’t stopped dreaming about ever since I went to train in the jungle.

  How was that fucking possible?

  Everyone was looking at me, and so I had to get my shit together pretty fast. I took a deep breath and pulled off my helmet, ignoring the girl for the time being.

  But she clearly recognized me, because she looked like she had seen a ghost as soon as my face was visible to her.

  She remembered me, then. Not a surprise considering how hard I had made her body come over and over, but still. It had been a long time, and I did look different. I was harder, darker, and stronger than the last time I had seen her.

  When I shook her hand, I knew she was on the verge of passing out. Cindy quickly ushered everyone inside to have lunch, and as we moved toward the kitchen, Alex hung back.

  I stared at her body, at the familiar curves, but most of all at her angry expression.

  The girl was fucking pissed, and I had no clue why.

  Sure, I fucked her and left, but that wasn’t my fault. I didn’t tell her about the training because what was the point? It was a vacation fling, and we both knew it. It was an absolutely batshit crazy coincidence that our parents had gotten married, but that sort of shit happened all the time. It wasn’t like I knew anything about it.

  Except she looked like she was about to have a fucking heart attack.

  “You know,” she said loudly, “I’ve always wanted to see a motorcycle up close.”

  The group stopped walking. “Honey, can’t that wait?” her dad said.

  “Why don’t you two get everything ready while Cole here shows me his bike?”

  I grinned at her. What a fucking flimsy excuse. “Sure thing. It’d be my pleasure,” I said, overly formal.

  My mother scowled.
“Okay,” she said. “Make it quick.”

  I followed Alex back out the front door. As soon as it shut, she whirled on me like a demon, spitting rage and fire from her eyes.

  “Where the fuck have you been?”

  I stared at her, completely taken aback by her fury. I’d had plenty of chicks get pissed when I didn’t call them back the next day, but this was something different.

  “Good to see you too, princess,” I said.

  “Don’t give me that shit, you asshole.”

  I laughed. Her anger was comical in its intensity. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t call. You know how things are.”

  “No, you idiot, you jerk, you, you—”

  “Asshole?” I finished.

  “Yes, asshole!”

  I laughed, shaking my head at her. “I know being with me is an experience, but you seem a little too angry.”

  “It’s not that, you idiot! Don’t you know?”

  I cocked my head at her, confused. “Know what? I’ve been in the damn jungle for the last year.”

  She took a deep breath. “The jungle?”

  “Training. I’m a fighter, remember? I haven’t had Internet, email, phone calls, or pussy since I last saw you.”

  She looked at me silently for a second, still clearly fuming but getting herself slowly under control. “So you don’t know?” she asked.

  “Did you have my baby or something?”

  She rolled her eyes. “God, no. Thankfully.”

  “Please. You’d be honored to have my kids.”

  “Listen to me,” she said seriously. “Remember that wedding ceremony?”

  “Sure,” I said, getting nearer to her. She reacted the way I remembered, like being close to me was a fucking drug. And honestly, it felt the same damn way to me. All the memories were rushing back all over again, but there she was, right in front of me, still as fucking sexy as I remembered. “But I’m more interested in what happened after.”

  “No, listen. That ceremony was real.”

  I laughed. Was she actually crazy or something? “No, it wasn’t. It was some stupid tourist thing.”

  “Normally, yeah. But when I got home and tried to register to vote, I found out that I was legally married to some asshole I barely knew.”