Stepbrother Trouble_A Taboo Stepbrother Romance Read online

  He laughed. “If you’re going out with my brother, I can assure you, you’re not going to see any awesome crap.” He looked cocky. His eyes had met Lucy’s and he was daring her with them to look away. She didn’t. She wasn’t going to back down.

  Lucy shrugged. “That’s some big talk from the guy who didn’t even think to offer.” She could tell that it was bothering him. She could tell that he’d wanted to show her around and that his brother had clearly stepped over some kind of invisible line that had been drawn.

  He shrugged and put on a look of disinterest. “I guess I only ask out girls who are fun.”

  It was Lucy’s turn to laugh. “Oh, right.” She nodded. “I forgot, because I’m boring.”

  Josh looked confused. He hadn’t been there through their earlier conversation and he had no idea what they were talking about. “Is everything alright between you two?”

  Lucy nodded. “Your brother thinks I’m boring because I came out to sit by the pool,” she explained, so that Josh’s confusion could come to an end.

  “Oh, right,” Josh said, looking slowly between them. “Well, I think you’re alright.” He smiled when his eyes fixed on Lucy.

  “Smooth,” Daniel cut in with a smirk. “That’s just what every girl wants to hear. You’re alright,” he mocked his brother.

  Lucy frowned. What was Daniel saying? Was he implying that Josh was trying to flirt with her? Was that why he was so ruffled over Josh’s invitation for her to see the town with him? “Well,” she cut through Daniel’s smirk with an icy stare, “it’s better than being called boring.”

  “I never actually called you boring, though, did I?” Daniel said, jumping on the first technicality he could come up with. “Anyway,” he shoved his hands down into his swimming shorts pockets, “if you find yourself dying of boredom with him, come let me know. I’ll show you the best time you could be having.”

  Lucy watched as he walked back to the house. She could feel Josh watching her, as she watched his brother, but she didn’t care. She’d heard the undercurrent in Daniel’s voice. He’d been offering her a lot more than a tour when he’d mentioned having a good time together.

  *******

  Chapter 4

  The day had been long. The day had been impossibly long. There weren’t enough hours in the day to explain how long the day had been going on for. Lucy could feel herself giving up on life. She could hear the creeping, whispering, nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her that Daniel had been right. She would never tell him that, of course. She would never allow herself to think it above a whisper, but he was.

  Josh had managed to turn what was supposed to be fun sightseeing into a nightmare. The day had started off well. The sun had been out; there had been a breeze in the air. Lucy had been hopeful. When Josh had started off the tour with a museum, Lucy had felt her hope take a hit, but it wasn’t until they’d finished their five-mile hike that she realized it wasn’t going to get any better.

  “So, what do you think?” Josh asked as she dragged her tired and aching body back to his car.

  Lucy looked at him. Her whole body was ready to collapse. She’d walked more that day than she ever had in her life. Why was he asking her to think? Didn’t he know that her brain had turned off somewhere up in the hills that they had been climbing? “I don’t know,” she told him hesitantly. He’d clearly put a lot of effort into their day and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but inside she was screaming for it to come to an end. “I’m pretty tired.”

  “Sure, I get that.” Josh nodded quickly. “But, just hear me out. We’ll go back into town, get something to eat. I can show you the nightlife. Then, we can go home. What do you think?” It clearly meant a lot to him. Lucy could tell from the way that he was looking at her.

  “Sure.” She nodded. “That sounds fine.” She climbed into the car and relaxed back into the leather interior. She closed her eyes and tried not to think back over the day. It had been terrible. It wasn’t just the poor choice of activities. It was Josh too. He was just so…dull. It was like he’d read an instruction manual on how to be a human and was living strictly by the rules it had laid out.

  “I think you’re really going to like where I’ve booked for dinner,” Josh said when he’d pulled out of the parking lot. Lucy didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to spend the rest of the time she had in the car in silence, so that she could recover. “Do you want me to put the radio on?” Josh asked when he sensed that Lucy needed some quiet time.

  “Yeah, that sounds good.”

  They drove with nothing but the sound from the radio for a while. Lucy could feel herself drifting in and out of sleep as they curved along the quiet roads that led back into town. It wasn’t until she felt Josh’s hand resting gently on her shoulder that she realized they’d pulled up outside the restaurant.

  “I guess you weren’t lying about being tired.” Josh smiled when she opened her eyes.

  “No, I guess not,” she said sleepily. She looked over Josh’s shoulder at the small restaurant in front of them. It looked out of place. It looked like it should have been on some little back alley in Paris, hidden away from the tourists. The small, oval windows showed a cozy-looking, candle-lit restaurant inside. “Is it open?” Lucy asked when she realized that there wasn’t anybody sitting at the tables.

  Josh nodded. “Kind of.”

  “What do you mean, kind of?” she asked.

  Josh didn’t say anything at first. Lucy watched as he got out of the car and walked around so that he could open her door. “Well, it’s open for us.” He offered out his hand, so that he could help her out of the car.

  “I don’t understand,” Lucy said in confusion.

  “Well, who wants to be seated next to a crying baby, right?” Josh made an attempt to joke. Lucy didn’t laugh, and he cleared his throat nervously. “I just thought, since it’s your first time here and everything, that I’d make it special.”

  “So, you booked out the entire restaurant?”

  Josh shrugged. “It’s really not that big a deal.”

  “If you say so.” Lucy shook her head in disbelief. She was used to guys with money—they were the only kind of guys that went to her college—but she wasn’t used to them being thoughtful with it. Most of the guys that she’d dated had taken her to parties; they hadn’t booked out restaurants to eat with her.

  Lucy backtracked on her thoughts. It wasn’t a date. She needed to stop comparing it to a date, because it wasn’t. Josh was her stepbrother. Sure, they weren’t really related and sure, he was hot, but that didn’t change anything.

  “Thanks.” Lucy smiled when Josh held open the door so that she could go into the quiet restaurant. The atmosphere changed completely from the moment she stepped through the door. The heat from outside was gone. The bright night sky was hidden. The walls danced with shadows cast from flickering flames and soft music played in the background.

  “Do you like it?” Josh asked her when they’d been seated at a table close to the window.

  Lucy nodded. “It’s good.” What she meant to say was that it was beautiful. She’d never been taken somewhere so nice, but she knew that was lame.

  “I’m glad you like it.” He passed the wine menu to her. “Do you want to pick something to drink?”

  “Sure.” Lucy took the menu from him. “Josh?” She hesitated when his eyes came rushing up to meet hers. “In case I get drunk and forget to tell you later, thanks for today.”

  ********

  Chapter 5

  Lucy rolled over on her bed. She could feel her sheets getting tangled between her legs, but she made no attempt to sort them. Her whole body ached. The wine she’d had with dinner the night before had tasted so good going down, but it had begun to seek its revenge on her. The inside of her mouth was dry. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than a glass of water, but she knew that even the walk to her bathroom was going to be too much.

  Someone knocked on
her door. The sound of the hand making contact with the wood made Lucy flinch, and she tried to escape from it under her pillow. The sudden movement she made to move the pillow sent a wave of nausea over her body and she groaned when the knocks returned. “Who is it?” she called out with her face against the cold mattress. “What do you want?”

  The door to her room opened, but she didn’t bother to move. “Dude,” Daniel said as he walked into Lucy’s room. His eyes were on Lucy. She was sprawled on her bed with the sheets in between her perfect, tanned legs. She was only wearing a tight pair of boxers and a bra. Her blonde hair was poking out of the pillow that her head was under. “You’re showing me everything right now.”

  Lucy knew she should move, but she was still struggling to find the motivation. “What are you doing in here?” she groaned at Daniel. “Leave me alone.” She batted her hand in the air behind her blindly. “It’s like the middle of the night or something.” Speaking was only making her brain ache more.

  Daniel laughed and sat down at the bottom of the bed. Lucy felt the sheets shift from her legs, and for a moment she wondered what Daniel was doing. She felt the sheets being thrown over her body, though, so she didn’t bother to move. “There you go,” Daniel said when most of her body was covered up. “So, I’m guessing you had a lot to drink last night?”

  What was he trying to do? Win a state-the-obvious competition? “I guess so,” she replied grumpily. Josh had been dull all the way through the meal. She had needed the booze to keep her going. It had helped a lot; it had made Josh almost funny.

  “You know, it’s almost midday,” Daniel told her.

  “So?” she snapped at him. “Have you just come in here to torture me?”

  Daniel laughed again. “No.” Lucy could feel the bed shake slightly from the movement of his head. “I’m throwing a party tonight. I thought you’d like to come and see what real fun looks like.”

  Lucy managed to push herself up so that she could turn around. The daylight streaming in through the window burned her eyes as she tried to focus on Daniel. “What kind of party?”

  “A yacht party.” He shrugged. “My dad just bought a new one, so I thought I’d christen it.”

  “And it’s tonight?” Lucy asked. Her body was aching, but she was sure that she could recover before the evening.

  “Yeah—you’re not feeling too rough for it, are you?”

  Lucy glared at him. “I’ll be fine.” She sat up and the sheets fell back off of her. She thought about pulling them back up, but he’d already seen what she had to show. There wasn’t much point in trying to hide it. She felt Daniel’s eyes go down to her chest.

  “Cool.” He stood up without taking his eyes away from her. “It should be a good night.” He walked over to the door and Lucy thought he was going to leave. He didn’t, though. He stopped at the door and turned back to her. “Can I ask you something?”

  “What’s up?” Lucy asked. She got out of bed and walked over to the mirror hanging from her wardrobe. She looked rough. Her hair was a mess and her normally bright skin looked dull and dry.

  “Why did you agree to go out with my brother?”

  “He asked me.” Lucy shrugged without sensing the importance behind his question.

  “Right.” Daniel didn’t look satisfied. “But, he bores you. I can see it when you’re talking to each other. So, why did you bother? Did you go with him because you knew it would get to me?”

  Lucy laughed at his arrogance. “You really do think highly of yourself.”

  “You’re not telling me I’m wrong.” His eyes met hers. Lucy could feel her throat getting tight as his eyes dipped past her own and into her. What was he looking for? What did he want to know?

  “You’re wrong,” Lucy said quickly and blandly. He was wrong, she told herself. She was spending time with Josh because he would keep her out of trouble. She needed that. She needed to stay out of trouble, because when her secret came out, and it did have to come out at some point, she needed her mom and stepfather to believe that she’d changed.

  “If I’m wrong, tell me why you’re hanging out with him,” Daniel pushed.

  Lucy stared at him through the mirror. Her head was hurting too much. She was getting annoyed at Daniel for making her stressed. “Your brother is a good guy.” She shrugged.

  “That’s not what you want, though.” Daniel’s eyes lingered on her ass as they took in her delicate curves.

  “You don’t know what I want.” She turned to him so that the mirror wasn’t carrying her glare back to him. “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “I know enough.”

  “Is that so?” Lucy challenged him.

  “Lucy,” Daniel sighed. “You can pretend to be whatever you want, but we both know what you really are.”

  “And what am I?”

  “You’re just like me. You live because you know at some point you’re going to die. You take chances. You look for the awesome stuff in life because you know how easy it is to miss. I don’t know why you’re pretending you’re not that girl. I don’t know why you’re pretending to be boring and serious, but it doesn’t suit you.”

  “If all of that is true…” Lucy took a breath. Daniel’s words had knocked the air out of her and she was struggling to get it back. “Then why are you inviting me to your party?”

  He shrugged. He looked agitated. Lucy could see his leg jiggling, so that he didn’t have to remain still in the spot that he was standing. “I guess I’m just hoping you come as yourself and not this girl you keep pretending to be.”

  Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but he was already walking out the door, so she closed it again. He wasn’t being fair. He didn’t know. He didn’t know what had happened. He didn’t know what she did.

  ********

  Chapter 6

  Lucy wanted to go to the party. She’d been good for three days. She’d stayed by the pool, she’d gone to look at boring museums, and she’d hiked until her legs had rubbed themselves raw. It was time for her to have some fun. It was time for her to do something that she wanted to do. She knew, though, that she needed an anchor. She needed someone she could rely on to stop her from doing anything stupid. She wanted to have fun, she was dying to have fun, but she knew that too much fun could be the final strike that would send her world crashing down.

  That’s why she was standing outside of Josh’s door. That’s why she’d lifted her hand to the door and dropped it at least ten times. She knew she needed him. She knew that Josh would make the perfect anchor for her. It was just that the thought of inviting him sent dread-filled shivers down her spine. She brought her hand up again and forced herself to knock.

  “What’s up?” Josh asked when he’d opened his door.

  “Um.” Lucy looked over his shoulder at the perfect room behind him. It was odd. There wasn’t a single thing out of place. There wasn’t a single dirty sock on the floor. It looked like a showroom. It looked like it had never had a human walk through it. “Daniel is throwing a party tonight…”

  Josh cut her off. “Yeah, I’ve heard.” He didn’t look impressed. In fact, he looked like he disapproved.

  “Right, well, I was thinking you might want to go with me?”

  “You’re going?” He looked at her in surprise.

  “I was thinking about it, yeah.”

  “You know, Daniel’s parties aren’t like normal parties,” Josh said with concern. “It’s not just a few friends getting together and having a drink.” He was trying to talk her out of going. Lucy knew that, but he was doing the opposite. Everything that he said was only making her want to go more. “I’ll go with you if you really want to,” he gave her a reluctant look, “but I really don’t want to.”

  “I think I should probably go,” Lucy reasoned with him. “I mean, I don’t want to insult Daniel. He did invite me. It would be rude not to go.”

  “Trust me.” Josh looked relieved. “If that’s the only reason you’re going, then don’t. He won’t eve
n notice that you’re not there. There’s going to be hundreds of people all throwing themselves at him for his attention. You’ll be just another fish in the ocean.”

  Lucy frowned. That wasn’t the impression that Daniel had given her earlier. He’d seemed like he really wanted her to go. She shrugged. “I’m going to go,” she said firmly, so Josh knew that it would be pointless trying to talk her out of it. “I’d like it if you came with me, but it’s cool if you don’t want to. I get that it’s probably not your scene.”

  Josh sighed. “I’ll go with you,” he said as though he was about to perform some great feat. “What time does it start?”

  “I don’t know. When it gets dark, probably?” Lucy shrugged. She hadn’t thought to ask about when the party was starting. She’d been to a hundred parties and she’d never asked about the starting time. She’d just shown up when she’d wanted to.

  “Okay, I’ll come and get you later then.”

  “Cool.” Lucy smiled brightly. “It should be a good night.”

  Josh shook his head in disappointment. “Well, it’ll be an experience.”

  *

  The door to Lucy’s room closed behind her. The party that night had filled her with a fresh enthusiasm for life. She bounced over to her wardrobe and looked through her clothes. They were all outdated. There was nothing but the clothes she’d deemed not good enough to take with her to college. She sighed and considered going shopping. What? Was that really what she was thinking about?

  Images of her last night at college flashed through her mind. She could feel her throat burning like there was salt in the air. Her lungs were getting tight. The memories were flashing back with such potency that she could feel everything happening around her. How could she block it out? How could she be pretending that it hadn’t happened? How could she go on with her life, when others hadn’t been so lucky?

  A hot stream of tears started to flow from her eyes. She wasn’t crying. Her chest wasn’t sobbing. She was holding that back. It was just her eyes. They were showing the pain that was crushing her on the inside and she couldn’t stop them. The only thing she could do was wait for the storm to pass, so the stream could dry up and she could move on. It was her burden. It was her secret and when it finally came out, it wouldn’t change the fact that she would have to live with it for the rest of her life.