Redeemed Book 1: A Military Stepbrother Romance

by Snow, Lucy

  The snow around us fell faster, and we huddled together for warmth, Harrison resting his chin on my head. We must’ve looked like a poster for some tragic romance. Any wandering photographers passing by in that moment could have taken a prize-winning photo.

  “I don’t regret it. I wanted to kiss you and…”

  “I don’t regret it either.”

  I looked sharply at Harrison, whipping my head around so fast I almost hit him, but he moved his own head out of the way at the last second. “Say that again,” I breathed, catching my breath on the inhale and holding it in, scared I misheard.

  He looked me dead in the eyes, his gaze strong and fierce. “I don’t regret it either.”

  “Then why did you bring me here to tell me it was over?”

  Harrison roared, his laughter ringing out in the still cold of the early evening, scaring invisible birds out of their roosts and convincing them to take sudden flight.

  I must have looked dumb and confused, cause I certainly felt like both. Harrison kept laughing till he saw my face, then quieted down, cutting off the sound and returning the forest to its natural state. “Is that why you thought I brought you here?”

  “Well, yeah, you haven’t been around all morning, and you didn’t talk much on the way here, I figured you’d had second thoughts.”

  “Of course I’ve had second thoughts, Laurel.” He smiled. “I’ve had second thoughts, third thoughts, thoughts I can’t even count. None of that has changed how I feel about you.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear,” I forced out, lamely, still reeling from what we were talking about.

  “Is that all you can say?” Harrison’s eyes gleamed as he pulled me in closer, and I let him envelop me in his manly warmth.

  “I’m still figuring things out, OK?”

  He grew solemn. “I totally understand, Laurel, this is all new to me too. I just want you to know, I’m not going anywhere.”

  I just stared back at him, still not understanding how quickly things had turned from bad to good to bad to good. I want to get off this roller coaster, but I wanted to take Harrison with me.

  “Please just be straight with me, Harrison. I just want to make sure we’re okay.”

  “What we did last night, Laurel, was a mistake. And here’s why. You had just gone through something dramatic, and I took advantage of you.”

  “Stop right there, Harrison. Yeah, I went through something bad just for, but I kissed you remember?”

  “Of course I remember. I haven’t thought about anything else since that moment. But that doesn’t change the fact that I shouldn’t have let it happen. You were in no position to do that and mean it.”

  “I’m not a little girl, Harrison. I can make my own decisions.” He had treated me like a fragile flower since we met. That may have flown back in high school, but now he needed an update.

  “Trust me, Laurel, I know. You’ve done very well for yourself, no sarcasm.” I looked into his eyes to make sure he meant that, but he stared back at me with no guile, no misdirection. I felt relief well up inside me, it felt so good to know Harrison saw how much I had matured.

  “I know I hadn’t dealt with what had happened before, but I really wanted to be with you. I didn’t know it before that moment.”

  Harrison grinned. “Not before that moment, eh? You sure about that?”

  I gave him a look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “How quickly you forget the bathroom scene! It was just a few hours earlier!”

  I punched him in the shoulder, as hard as I could given how close we were. “Asshole! You are the worst.”

  Harrison nodded up and down. “I am the worst. Luckily, you seem to like it.”

  “I don’t like it that much. Get over yourself!” But we both knew, I was smiling at the time.

  Harrison backed up, raising a hand, as if to ward me off. “I’m over myself, I’m over myself. Let’s be serious again for a moment.”

  “You always know how to bring the mood down.” As if to keep him from speaking again, I snuggled in closer, covering myself with his warmth. “Fine, let’s be serious.”

  “Letting you kiss me was a mistake. And what we did afterward too. I should’ve found a better time for that to happen. A time when we could make that decision together, with no distractions.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “But now that it happened,” Harrison whispered, moving his face right in front of mine, “I can’t wait to do it again.”

  And then he kissed me. It was a long kiss, and retarded and weaved our lips against each other, as if each of us was trying to steal something from the other, but didn’t care if we were caught in the process.

  I closed my eyes, and felt the teasing of our tongues back and forth, pushing into my mouth, pressing into his. We kissed like that, our entire bodies getting into it, dancing as we sat on the bench, covered in our heavy coats and other winter clothing.

  I felt Harrison’s hands on me over my coat. He moved them down to my waist and slipped one underneath, causing me to gas, breaking our kiss, with the cold of his hand against my skin. Harrison murmured something that I couldn’t understand, but kept moving his hand upward, as it quickly warmed up.

  I felt him close his hand over my breasts above my bra, And I moaned long and loud, momentarily nervous getting so turned on in public, but remembering there was probably no one around us for a good half a mile in every direction.

  Harrison teased my nipple through the soft fabric of my bra while we started kissing again. I felt my nipples pressing against my bra, loving the feeling, but aching for him to touch them with nothing in the way.

  Taking his cue, I snaked my hands under his jacket and clothing, pressing into his back and pulling him him closer to me.

  This time it was Harrison who broke the kiss, his head moving backwards, his eyes closed, as he breathed in deeply. Only when he exhaled from his long breath didn’t open his eyes again to look at me.

  “You are so incredibly sexy, Laurel.”

  All I could say was, “I want you too. Again. Over and over again.”

  Words were getting in the way of more kissing, so we dispensed with them immediately, and pressed our heads Against each other, both grateful to glue ourselves together again like. Our tongues were the warmest parts of our bodies, and we used them to keep each other warm.

  It was tough to move around with all that fabric in the way, but I didn’t care. Harrison was kissing me, and 24 hours ago that would only have appeared in my darkest and most closely guarded fantasies, but now it was happening in real life.

  There would be consequences, I was sure of that. But right now, on that bench, in Harrison’s arms, while we kissed and touched and stole affection from each other, nothing else mattered.

  I thought I could stay away from my blindingly hot arrogant ex-soldier stepbrother. I was wrong.

  We can’t keep our hands off each other no matter how hard we try.

  But just when we’re starting to get closer, the law may get in our way…

  Has my stepbrother really changed like he said? Can I trust him?

  Can I trust myself around him?

  I hate that I want him so much, I hate that I need him like this. But I can’t stay away…

  NOTE: This is Book 2 of Redeemed. It is 50,000 words and contains the HEA, no cliffhanger, for Laurel and Harrison.

  Want to read Redeemed Book 2 as soon as it’s out? Click the link below to preorder!

  http://amzn.to/1MZrY3N

  Hi! I’m Lucy Snow, and I wrote the book you just read. I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you read the rest of my books!

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