by Eden Connor
“Hey, girl. I’m Colt.” He tipped his head toward the silent one. “That’s Caine. Guess we’re all movin’ in together.” His lips twisted in amusement.
A heavy sigh dragged my attention to the dark-haired brother. His red T-shirt had been cropped in a ragged line just below the arms, but the front bore a large version of the racing logo his father wore. Or the top half of it, anyway. He lifted his shoulders and raked his palm up and down... was that four pairs of lovely bulges? “Parents. What’cha gon’ do?”
Either Mom had dragged a pair exotic dancers along as props for her joke, or—
“We used to beg Dad for a little sister.” When I jerked my gaze toward Colt to see if he was being sarcastic, he grinned and dragged a thumbnail down a jaw gleaming with golden scruff. “That’s been so long ago, I reckon he forgot the ‘little’ part.”
I dragged the edges of my sweater across my chest, hoping to hide the way my nipples beaded. And how small my breasts were.
Caine interlaced his fingers and stretched his arms, cracking his knuckles. His act dragged my attention to the dark happy trail and eight-pack—yes, that’s definitely an eight-pack. “They ready for us to get the boxes out of the trailer? We’re burning daylight.”
He gestured toward yet another matching pickup idling behind the cars parked in front of our building. A long black trailer hitched to the rear bumper blocked the neighbor’s vehicles.
Mom had lost her mind if she thought she could spring this bogus marriage shit on me and move us out of our place all in the same day. “And where do you think we’re going?”
“Concord.” He named a small city about an hour away from our home on the south side of Charlotte. “But not in the city limits. I’d say it’s....”—he tipped his head and frowned, like he was thinking, and that took effort—“’bout, fifteen minutes past the racetrack.”
I spun. “Mom? You can’t be serious! I don’t have time to deal with this right now. I’m going to be late for work!”
Dale cleared his throat. “As I was sayin, Shelby. I asked your mama last weekend, what in the hell are we waitin’ for? So, we went to the courthouse and got married today. Every man in my house works hard, so you and your mama won’t have to.” I searched his face, but saw no sign of deception. As if he read the doubt in my eyes, he added, “I’m serious about payin’ for that application, Shelby. This one and any other you need to send. It’ll be a real honor to have a college graduate in the family.”
Every man in my house? What does that mean?
“Can I speak to you in the kitchen?” I glared at my mother.
She fixed me with a pleading look, but I stalked out of the room. Halting in front of the refrigerator, I stared at the notice pinned to the front. Our lease was up and the new management company was raising the rent by a hundred dollars a month.
Surely, she hadn’t married this guy for a place to live and a new car? Yes, the extra money every month would be a struggle, but she was using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat.
She came around the corner and I stabbed the paper. “When I said you could get a roommate, I was kidding!” Our biggest disagreement had been where I was to attend college. She wanted me to go to UNC-Charlotte and live at home. I wanted to go to anywhere else. Wasn’t the best part of college living on campus?
She shook her head and grabbed my hand. “Shelby, I know you’re upset. I should’ve prepared you. I asked him if we could all get together for dinner. That’s when he popped the question. He’s my dream man. We both raised our kids with no help from anyone. We’d both given up on dating. And then we found each other, and after Dale said ‘why wait’, he had the ring in his pocket and... you’ll go off to college and—” She burst into tears.
The words she’d omitted hung in the air. You’ll go off to college... and I’ll be alone.
“Honey, moving into Dale’s house only affects you for a few months. Shelby, the old car died today. And Dale just took it right in stride. He told me to quit my job, and then we got married, and on the way back from the courthouse, he bought me that car.”
Something was off. Way off. Like, why hadn’t she asked me to be a witness at her wedding? Why marry this man before she introduced us?
“Mom, he’s....” Too good to be true. She had horrible taste in men. The more likely they were to break her heart, the more irresistible she found them.
She grabbed a paper towel and dabbed her eyes. “I know what you’re thinking. He’s not that guy, Shelby. He’s not like—”
“The competition skateboarder who knocked you up and then couldn’t leave the state fast enough after you told him about me?” I dropped my voice to a harsh whisper. “Or Neil, the sky diving instructor? You’re telling me he’s not like the air marshal, or the SWAT dude? This one’s into stock car racing, huh? How does that not fit the profile? He’s got ‘bad boy’ written all over him, Mom.” Not to mention his two mini-me’s you think I’m supposed to live with.
After she used the C-word—commitment—and these guys moved on to greener pastures, she’d cry in my arms and swear off bad boys forever. “Forever” had been about three years this time. She’d been on the wagon for so long, I’d let my guard down.
Her nails bit into my arm. “This one married me, Shelby. I love him. He loves me. We’re moving in with them. And that’s all there is to it.”
“Them?” I narrowed my eyes.
“Dale’s sons live at home.”
“Those two Chippendale dancers on the front porch?” I hissed. “You want me to move in with them?”
Her troubled expression cleared. “Oh, Shelby, they’re the nicest young men.”
Could she be more clueless? Unless Dale’s house rivaled the Biltmore House in size, not looking at them in a most unsisterly way was going to require poking my eyes out.
“You girls all right?” Dale stepped into the kitchen. “Can the boys start hauling stuff to the trailer, Macy?” He moved closer and his expression became troubled. “Shelby, I know it’s a lot to put on you. Just give us a chance, sweetheart. It’ll be an adjustment for everybody, but Caine already cleared out his room so you can have a bigger closet.”
I blinked and whirled on Mom. “So they knew this was coming, but I didn’t?”
“Shelby, honey, you rush out of the house as soon as I bring the car home. We barely have time to say hello. Then you get home after midnight and I’m asleep. When was I supposed to tell you?” Her voice rose to a wail.
Dale slipped an arm around her shoulder. “Shh, shh, sweetheart. Don’t cry, Macy. We’re gonna do something about that. You don’t work, as of now, Shelby. So you can call up your boss and tell him you quit. Your mama turned in her resignation today. Y’all are gonna have all the time I can give you to spend together before you go off to school this fall. I know Macy wants that more’n anything. It’s my pleasure to make that happen.”
“You’re driving me back and forth to school,” I hissed, raising the first objection that came to mind. “I am not going to transfer.”
“I got something to say about that, too,” Dale interjected. “Your momma told me what happened last month. I gotta say, if you get suspended again for slappin’ some asshole who can’t keep his hands to himself, I’d go to jail for shootin’ the sonofabitch. West Mecklenburg’s a rough school and we all know it.”
He raked his hand through his hair. “The local high school’s just about in our back yard. No more’n eight hundred students. And what’s more, I know the parents of every damn kid there. Nobody’s gonna lay a hand on you without him or his daddy—or both—answerin’ to me. So, yes, you will transfer.” His eyes blazed and the set to his jaw dared me to contradict his edict. “I know you don’t participate in after school stuff, and not just because of your job. You don’t feel safe there, Shelby. Admit it.”
There were more than eight hundred in my senior class. Most days, I was terrified at school. I didn’t even use the restroom at school if I could help it, but I’d have bitten my
tongue off rather than admit that to this man.
“Listen, I’ve raised a couple of teenagers. Don’t dig in your heels just to do it, okay? And if you’ll work with me on this, on putting’ your mama’s mind at rest about you bein’ safe, I’ll see if I can’t help you talk her into lettin’ you go away to college come fall. Deal?” He stuck out his hand.
Had she persuaded Dale to bring Hot Thing One and Hot Thing Two along because she knew I’d hesitate to show my ass in front of two guys my own age? When I got her alone—
The weirdest part was that she’d always leaped small buildings to stop me from hanging out with guys who had chest hair and had to shave every day. “They’ll ask for too much, Shelby,”
And now, she was asking me to just walk off into the sunset with some ready-made family. Were those two clowns on the porch supposed to be the bait?
I could hardly wait for this to go wrong. How long could that take? Two months? Three at most?
I stared at their interlocked hands and bit back the objections sizzling on my tongue. “I can’t believe this is happening.” I shoved past them, stalked across the living room, and stuck my head out the front door. Neither half-naked stepbrother was visible. “Looks like I need boxes,” I yelled.
A dirty-blond head popped out of the back of the trailer. “Comin’ right up, little sister.”
Eying the hard body that sprang out of the trailer with an armload of cardboard, I sensed that safety was an illusion. Nothing about this situation seemed sane or safe.
Chapter Two
Dale and his sons worked like a well-oiled team. In under three hours, with me and Mom packing boxes and them doing the heavy lifting, we’d emptied the apartment. I staggered down the stairs, clutching my laptop bag and a lampshade. Colt took the stairs three at a time and made a grab for the bag.
I jerked it out of reach. “I can handle this one.”
“Don’t wanna hear it if Dad sees you liftin’ something.” He grinned. “Better treat her like a princess. Those were his words.” He held out his hand and waggled his fingers. “C’mon. Give it up, Shelby.”
He stood two steps below me, so we were eye to eye. His cologne was subtle, not the dime store stench I’d have guessed him to wear. Heat raced over my skin. For the first time, I almost understood my mother’s pathological attraction to pretty boys. Something flickered in his eyes and he didn’t quite stifle his smirk. Was he flirting?
“You do everything your daddy tells you to do?”
“When it suits me.” He wrapped his hand around my wrist, prying one finger at a time off the handle. The firm, gentle grip from such a calloused hand sent shivers down my spine. With a last look into my eyes, he turned and jogged down the stairs, leaping the final four steps and landing with bent knees. He sauntered out the door. Yeah, you think I’m looking at your ass, don’t you, hot stuff?
“Put that in the car, please.” I scanned the living room. The kitchen was empty, as were both bedrooms and the upstairs bath. Lights flicked out upstairs and Mom appeared on the landing. Pausing with her hand on the light switch, she leaned down to lift her purse off the floor.
“Well, I think that’s it. We can talk on the way, honey. You ride with me.”
Who did she think I’d ride with? Just the thought of being alone in a vehicle with either of my new stepbrothers made my heart do an out-of-control jig. I rushed down the stairs and stepped outside, just in time to see Caine hoist the trailer’s fold-down ramp door. I swallowed hard. Though it was fully dark by now, the rig’s taillights glowed, throwing his rippling muscles into high relief.
No matter what kind of doublewide trailer I feared Mom was dragging us to, the view was bound to be incredible. A quiet voice whispered in the back of my mind. Wait till the other shoe drops.
Dale leaned against the Volkswagen’s front fender. He couldn’t take his eyes off Mom as she locked the door and hurried down the sidewalk. I landed in the passenger seat of the new car with a tired sigh. They kissed so long, I rolled my eyes. He opened her door, leaning in to peck her on the cheek after she slid behind the wheel.
“Buckle up. Precious cargo.” He pushed her door lock down and slammed the door.
She jabbed the key into the ignition, but I spied her pleased smile. These two were like... like any newlyweds, I supposed. His grammar wasn’t perfect, but he had the chivalry thing down to a science. Before I found the end of my belt, Mom muttered, “What the heck?”
“What’s wrong?”
She wrenched the key. The only sound I heard was the idling truck behind us.
“Did you leave the headlights on?” A dead battery equaled a dead car. That was the extent of my mechanical knowledge.
“They turn off automatically.” A few parking spaces to Mom’s left, Caine and Colt were getting into the truck Dale had arrived in.
Colt yelled, “Problem, Macy?”
She pressed the button to lower the window. It didn’t respond. “Dammit,” she muttered, slinging her door open again. The dome light didn’t come on. I realized it hadn’t lit when I got in, either. I’d just been too cross-eyed with lust and anger to notice.
Caine jogged down the sidewalk. Mom explained the problem. “Pop the hood, Macy. Sounds like a loose wire. Colt, bring a flashlight.”
The three males huddled beneath the hood, urging Mom to try the switch a few times. “Fuck it,” Caine said, slamming the hood. “Can’t see shit in the dark.”
Colt elbowed his father. “Brand new car don’t crank? I’d make ‘em take it back and give her another one. I mean, we can fix it, but—why bother? It’s under warranty.”
When Dale muttered his agreement, Colt slammed the hood. To my surprise, the blond came to my door. Opening it, he cocked his arm on the top edge and grinned, hand extended. “Your carriage awaits, princess. But you gotta straddle the gear shift.”
“I can ride in the truck with Mom and Dale,” I protested.
“C’mon.” He grabbed my hand. A jolt of electricity staggered up my arm. “Give the newlyweds a break.”
I waited for Mom to protest, but Dale was murmuring in her ear. She paid me no attention.
Reluctantly, I followed Colt to the truck. Behind us, I heard Dale’s chuckle. A sharp slap made me turn to see his hand gripping her butt. “You know the rule, Macy. Need a ride? That’s gonna cost you. Gas or ass, babe?”
I shuddered when she giggled like a thirteen-year-old. Had he used that line to pick her up? I swung my legs out of the car. Ignoring the outstretched hand, I edged around my new stepbrother. Bet that bare chest isn’t a fashion statement. I hope all his shirts are dirty. Mom despised doing laundry.
Colt and his mile-long legs beat me to the truck, yanking the truck door open with a grin and a pair of raised brows. I climbed into the tall vehicle, very aware of the way his appraising gaze raked my buttocks.
The seating configuration made me pause, bent in an uncomfortable position. Bucket seats bracketed a wide console. Cup holders fronted the console, eating up the space where my feet might go. While I tried to figure out where they meant me to sit, Caine peered down the front of my shirt. When I huffed, he lifted dark, unrepentant eyes to mine and flipped the console up. I eased into the narrow spot. Clutching my laptop case to my chest, I stared out the windshield and blinked back tears. Their shoulders took up most of the room, pushing mine forward. Not touching them was impossible.
“Seat belt.” Caine paused with his hand on the keys.
I slid my left hand underneath me, uncaring that I elbowed him in the ribs when I wrestled the buckle from under me. Meanwhile, on my right, Colt slid his hand under my thigh, presumably seeking the other end of the belt.
“I can do it,” I snapped, slinging my bag into his lap. The soft bag had reinforced corners. One corner caught Colt in the groin, to my extreme satisfaction. He let out a loud ‘oof!’ and jerked forward.
He turned toward me. When he smiled, hot and slow, my brain screamed, Predator! “You wanna play with my nuts, Red?
Just ask.”
“Keep your hands to yourself and we won’t have a problem,” I snapped.
“Oh, girl, I can tell you right now, if that’s how it is, we already have a problem.” He slammed his door. Caine closed his with a snicker. The cab went dark. Trapped with two male animals put me on red alert. This is nuts.
“What happened to all the little sister talk?” I jerked my chin up. “Treat her like a princess, remember?”
“Well, now, look around. Do you see Dad?” My heart hammered like crazy when Colt slid a huge hand around my knee and gave the joint a squeeze. I tried to form the words to tell him to stop, but in the back of my mind, I knew he wouldn’t listen. The man had a wild current about him that was hard to define, but my senses read it easily. His touch both tickled and annoyed, but I stifled the reflex to jerk, mainly because I sensed he wanted to make me jerk.
“Besides, when he told us about you, he didn’t say you’d be hot.” He traced the inner seam of my jeans, moving boldly up my thigh. “And who says I won’t treat you like a princess?”
My nipples hardened. I honestly turned wet from the casual, yet possessive touch. The sensation had never happened to me before. I was being practically molested without my consent—in front of an audience—and my body was in favor of the idea. I knew what I felt was arousal, but I’d never felt anything so strong and I had no idea how to handle the sensation. But a dawning horror invaded my mind. I had to live with these two. As brothers.
Under my mother’s watchful eye. I didn’t know if that last part was a good thing, or a bad one. Just as fast, I thought, Whatever. It’d serve her right. How can she do this to me?
“So unfucking fair.” I blinked when Colt voiced my next thought. His hand continued its upward path until his thumb rested at the junction of my thigh. His fingers were tantalizingly close to my sex, but he didn’t take that last inch. My heartbeat moved to a spot between my thighs. The beat was so strong, I wondered if he could hear it—or feel it. “Caine’ll tell you. What’s my one weakness, brother?”