“Wait, what? You know about us?” I said, my eyes widening with horror as I cut him off.
His smile grew wider. “Oh, please. You two think you’re so good at hiding it, but you’re not. I’ve known for ages,” he said. “One of the only things that’s helped me get through these last couple of weeks is laughing to myself while you two sneak around, thinking no one knows.”
“Well, I’m glad you find us so amusing,” I said. “But you don’t mind?”
“No. You aren’t related, and I can’t think of anyone else I’d want my brother to be with. You’re awesome.”
My cheeks turned slightly hot with embarrassment. “Thanks. Do you think anyone else knows?”
“No. I’m just more observant than others. Dad was always too busy with his campaign stuff to notice anything, and your Mom was the same with all her stuff. I didn’t tell anyone, though, because I figured other people might get upset.”
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “Thank god. We didn’t want anyone to find out yet.”
“Find out what?”
We both turned to see Cade entering the room. He was wearing a white T-shirt and black exercise shorts despite the freezing temperature outside, and sweat was beading on his hairline.
“Been working out?” I asked, my mouth practically watering at the sight of him.
“Yeah. I’ve got a game on Friday. Anyway, what were you two talking about when I came in?”
“I was just telling Charlotte how I know about you two,” Evan said.
Cade’s eyebrows shot up. “Shit. Evan, I can explain—”
Evan snickered. “You don’t need to explain. I think it’s a good thing.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. And I really don’t think anyone else will even care, guys. I mean, you could both strip naked and streak around outside, and the media still wouldn’t care about that anywhere near as much as they care about the whole story with Dad. It’s basically the scandal of the century.”
“That’s true,” I admitted. “Maybe it’s finally time to officially come clean. Although…”
“What?”
I took a few steps closer to Cade, and Evan returned his attention to the telescope. “I feel kinda bad about Nicki. We’ve only just started being friends with her again, and she did have a crush on you for ages. I feel like we’d be rubbing it in her face if we announced that we’re together now, especially after all the help she gave us with the online video streaming.”
Cade grinned. “Yeah. If only she’d just started dating Blake….oh, wait…”
I arched an eyebrow. “Are you saying she and Blake are together now?”
He nodded. “Yep. They’ve started dating; he just texted me about it,” he said. “And I spoke to Nicki about the whole thing last week, by the way. She definitely only sees me as a friend now.”
“So the only person we really need to worry about upsetting is my Mom.”
“Yeah, but you know what?” Cade replied.
“What?”
“Us being together would piss my Dad off so much, especially seeing as there’s nothing he can say or do about it from prison. And after what he did, I have a feeling your Mom wouldn’t exactly be unhappy about us pissing him off.”
“Ah, so that’s the real reason you’re with me. Just to annoy your father,” I said, giving him a teasing prod.
“Of course. It’s not like I like you as a person or anything…hey! You know I’m kidding!” he said, laughing as I started to pinch him.
“You deserved that for teasing me,” I said, giggling alongside him.
He winked. “I’m always gonna tease you, babe.”
“Get used to being pinched and prodded then.”
Evan gave us an exasperated glance. “Gosh, can you two get a room or something? You’re acting like hormonal kids, and I’m trying to look at the stars!”
Cade and I both laughed at being told off by him, and we linked arms and headed out of the room. “Ready to tell your Mom?” he asked, giving me a side-eyed glance.
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
And I was.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cade
Two years later
“How am I still so bad at this?”
I glanced over at Charlotte as she picked herself up from the freezing ground and dusted snow off her ski gear, and I chuckled. “I don’t know. I guess you’re the brainy one in this relationship, and I’m the more physical one.”
She sidled up next to me and pinched my butt. “I can be physical too, if you know what I mean.”
“I do know. You’re a Charlotte in the streets and a harlot in the sheets.”
“Cade!” she said, feigning horror before giggling. “I would’ve never thought that one day I’d actually be amused by hearing that stupid ‘Charlotte the Harlot’ thing again.”
“Well, you have to admit, the nickname was invented by a very handsome man who you’re very lucky to be skiing with right now.”
She shook her head and laughed, and we began the trudge over to our cabin at the Silverton Falls ski resort. It was the same one we’d been to the first time I’d ever taken Charlotte skiing, and while she’d associated some bad memories with the place for a while after that, it was all in the past now. Nicki had proven herself to be truly sorry for her actions on that trip, and she and Charlotte were actually very close friends now. In fact, she and Blake—who was now her boyfriend—were actually here on this vacation with us. Blake’s father still owned the resort, so we got a pretty sweet discount on our cabin.
We’d come up here to celebrate the end of final year exams. We all officially had Bachelor degrees now, and now was a good time for Charlotte and I to spend some quality time together before our lives got even more hectic and serious. Charlotte had passed her degree with honors, and she was starting med school next year back in our home city of Philly at the Perelman School of Medicine, which was one of the best, and I’d been drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fifth round of the most recent NFL Draft. I was just the fourth string quarterback for now, but I knew if I worked hard enough, I’d be the starter within a few years.
While Philly and Pittsburgh were in the same state, they were still a fair distance apart—a five hour drive—which meant Charlotte and I weren’t going to be seeing each other every day.
Maybe not even every week.
But we knew we’d be fine. We loved each other, and even if we were five hundred hours apart, we’d still make the effort to keep up with each other and stay true. I trusted Charlotte more than anyone, and putting my trust in people wasn’t exactly easy after some of the life experiences I’d had—my asshole parents, for starters. I might’ve once been a bit of a sleazy douchebag who had no intentions of settling down, but that had all changed the night I met Charlotte. She’d made me realize that I didn’t have to hide behind some bullshit arrogant mask of macho bravado; I could just be myself and people would still care for me. Especially her. As far as I was concerned, no other women even existed, at least not in a romantic or sexual sense. Charlotte was the one, and I knew she felt the same way about me.
I was so proud of her for getting into such a good med school after the difficult time we’d had over the last couple of years with all the media attention. Surviving one of the biggest political scandals in history wasn’t exactly easy, but we’d weathered it together—along with Evan and Emilia. We might not have been a conventional family, but how many families were conventional these days anyway? We loved and supported each other, and that was all that mattered in the end.
Evan had also been right about the relationship between Charlotte and I. Emilia was totally fine with it, and no one in the media (or in our friends group) had even cared all that much about the supposed ‘forbidden’ or ‘weird’ nature of our relationship when it came out that we were together. They’d made a minor fuss about how ‘cute’ it was, and that was it. Aside from that, they were still focused o
n my father, who was currently serving out a lengthy sentence in a federal prison, along with Greg Sanders and various other people who’d been part of the shooting scandal.
As the case had progressed, more and more details had come out, and we now had a full picture of what had occurred. The scheme had been dreamed up by Greg and my father, and they’d used various contacts to enact it. Felix Adamson was known to Greg through an old friend, and Greg had approached him with a substantial financial offer, knowing that Felix’s girlfriend at the time was pregnant. Felix was already on the run from several arrest warrants—as we already knew—so he’d been the perfect candidate for the ‘task’. Greg had basically said, ‘you’re already going to prison as soon as they catch you anyway, so why not make some cash to support your girlfriend before you go away?
Felix accepted the offer, obviously, and Greg and my father had coached him on how to act, who to shoot, and where. Dad had wanted attention to boost his profile, but didn’t want anyone to die, which was why he’d insisted on the grazing arm-shot only. I guess it didn’t fucking occur to him that there was a chance—no matter how small—that Felix might’ve missed and actually killed Evan. I thanked god every day he didn’t miss, although I would’ve preferred my little brother had been left alone entirely, obviously.
Apparently Evan had been the target because he was younger and more vulnerable, which made my father more sympathetic to the general public and media—after all, the image of him carrying Evan’s small, bleeding body out of the ceremony that day had gone viral immediately, and it had really hammered in what a hero and ‘great father’ our Dad was.
Ha. Great father…sure.
His campaign team had also used various contacts and extortion methods to ensure several prominent psychologists went on the record stating that Felix was in the throes of psychosis during the attack, even though he wasn’t, and the security company who worked the wedding received a healthy sum to make sure Felix got into the ceremony that day. All in all, over twenty people had been involved in the scandal to varying degrees, and they were paying the price now by rotting in prison.
It was also quite safe to say my father would never become President.
Overall, I tried not to think about it too much anymore. It had been a horrible time back then, and now I wanted to concentrate on moving forward with my life. I knew Emilia felt the same, because now that Charlotte and I had finished college and were moving back to Pennsylvania, she was doing the same; moving back there with her new partner, a nice, quietly-spoken man she’d met last year. Evan was going with them, of course, and he’d be finishing his high school education in Philly. He still had every intention of being an aeronautical engineer one day, and we were all supportive of that. None of us ever wanted to be anything like my father, so none of us would ever demand that Evan—or anyone else—put their passions and ambitions aside to do something which some might consider a ‘safer’ option. Whatever his dreams were, we wanted him to follow them.
And speaking of dreams…Charlotte looked like one right now, even in her drenched ski outfit. I couldn’t wait to get her out of it.
“So are we still meeting up with Nicki and Blake for drinks at the restaurant?” she asked as we entered our cabin. She slipped her gloves off and looked at me expectantly.
“Yep,” I said. “But there’s something we need to do first.”
“What’s that?”
I gestured around the main room before giving her a light slap on the ass. “Think about it….this is where it all started. Us. We need to relive that memory some more, don’t you think? If you know what I’m saying….”
“Technically, we first hooked up in the Fairview Ridge Hotel,” she said with a smile, watching me with a lusty gaze as I removed my pants, jacket and shirt.
“Well, if you’re going to get all technical, then technically we actually first met at the age of seven or something, and I’m not going to get naked on a school playground just for the sake of having you where it all began,” I replied, standing before her in only my boxers now.
She laughed, and I grinned at the melodic sound. Making Charlotte happy was the best way to make myself happy, and it always would be. Before she could formulate a proper response to what I’d just said, I swept her off her feet and into my arms, drawing a gasp from her lips.
“Take me to the bedroom, just like you did that first night,” she said breathlessly, throwing her arms around my neck and holding on tight.
“With pleasure.”
I strode into the master bedroom and threw her down on the bed before pouncing on her, and she gasped and moaned softly as I embraced her. I didn’t kiss her; not yet. My mouth only glided against her body, leaving a delicious trail of desire and need, and down her cheek as my lips caressed her skin before moving across her jaw bone and then descending to her neck. I closed my eyes as I went, savoring her taste as I eventually worked my way back up to her mouth.
Charlotte’s tongue flicked under my top lip as I finally kissed her, sending shivers down my arms. She snaked her arms around my neck and pressed into me, and my hands rubbed down her sides and then moved under her to grab her ass. She molded into me like a piece of clay. Where I caressed, she melted. Where I pulled, she followed.
My mouth scorched her skin from her rib cage to her hip bones, and I kept kissing her while unzipping her pants and tugging them down. Charlotte gasped at the touch of my mouth right above her panties, and my tongue skimmed over her soft skin as I yanked the underwear down as well. I could feel the heat coming off her, and my cock was rock hard, aching almost unbearably to be inside her.
But not yet. She was still half-dressed, and I wanted to tease her first, just like she loved.
I moved back up and cupped her head before lowering my mouth to hers again. My kiss was hard and fast, stealing her breath, and she reached around and gripped my ass, reaching under my boxers. The touch of her fingertips on my skin fired through my body, mixing with a lust I could never deny when it came to her. I kept kissing her, cupping her face to take her tongue deeper into my mouth.
As her hands ran up and down my back, I tore her jacket and shirt away, leaving her in only her bra, and then I pressed my face between her heaving breasts. She moaned for me, and every swipe of her hands across my back and ass brought even more desire flooding through me. My cock throbbed harder and harder the closer I got, and I took great pleasure in teasing Charlotte, dragging my teeth along her stiff nipples and bringing them to life against my tongue.
She gasped and reached down, touching my cock under my boxers and wrapping her short fingers around my shaft. A breathy exhale escaped my lips as I felt her warmth on me, and she pushed on my chest with her free hand, silently asking me to move back. I knew exactly what she wanted to do right now. Was I going to say no to that?
Hell no.
I sat up on my knees, waiting with eager anticipation, counting the seconds until her hot, willing mouth was on my cock. She sat up as well, giving me a sultry smile before pulling my boxers all the way down, and my manhood fell free, standing on end between us with a glistening tip. I reached for her, my fingers raking through her hair as she leaned her head down, and I groaned as the tip of my cock finally slid between her velvety lips.
She licked the tip clean, only to entice more pre-cum out of me, and I groaned again, my whole body going stiff as heady need coursed through me. I watched her move, relishing every second as she worked me in and out of her lips, sucking so hard that her cheeks caved against my thick shaft. Sweat was breaking on my brow, and my jaw hung open as she worked me, clamping her lips around me and sucking even harder.
Christ, she was amazing at this.
I flexed my jaw and closed my eyes, deep pleasure radiating up my spine, and moments later, I couldn’t take any more. I didn’t want to cum just yet; I wanted to cum in her tight pussy, not her mouth. I patted her on the head and slowly pulled out, and then I grabbed her shoulders and pressed her back down to the sheets, one kn
ee forcing her legs apart.
My fingers slid down her belly, inching closer and closer to her slit, and I saw Charlotte bite her tongue, trembling with each touch as she reached for the bedspread and curled her fingers into fists, latching on to keep her body steady. My hot breath teased over her thighs as I moved further down, and I groaned as my eyes finally raked over her perfect pink folds.
My tongue parted my lips above her swollen bud. “Do it…”
Her voice almost caught in her throat. “Do what?”
“Beg for it.”
I saw her grit her teeth, overwhelmed with lust. “No…stop teasing me!”
I grinned and slid a fingertip along her slick folds. “Charlotte…”
She bit her lip, fighting against her back as it attempted to arch off the bed. “Please, Cade…I want you so bad,” she finally gasped out.
“How bad?”
“I already had you in my mouth, and now I want you everywhere else. Your cock, your mouth, your hands…all of you, in all of me. Now!”
I grinned. “Good girl.”
I leaned back down, sliding my tongue up and down her little nub, and she moaned and threw her head back as I licked over and around it in delicate little circles. Just as she was getting into it, I moved without hesitation, forcing her legs up onto my shoulders and pressing my cock against her aching pussy. I took it in my hand and rubbed the tip against her clit, and I could practically feel shock waves firing through Charlotte’s body with each quick rub. I reached down with my other hand, sliding a finger inside her sopping entrance, and sparks seemed to ignite all over her as I touched her. She writhed beneath me, her muscles swallowing me up and begging for more.
Every purposeful flick of my cock against her clit brought her closer to letting go. I pushed down, sliding slowly between her wet folds, and I set another finger against her dripping entrance.
Tease - A Stepbrother Sports Romance Page 19