Stepbrother Trouble_A Taboo Stepbrother Romance Read online

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  Chapter 7

  The air was colder by the ocean. Lucy had chosen a floaty summer dress that clung to her waist and danced with the breeze. Her hair was tied back in two loose braids that both fell over the same shoulder. She could hear the music from the yacht the moment Josh pulled up in the small parking lot. It filled the night around them as they got out of the car. “Well, that’s noise pollution right there,” Josh said with a wrinkled nose. “No doubt our father will get complaints about this.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes. She couldn’t help it. She turned her head slightly, so that he wouldn’t be able to see her do it. “It’s a party.” She turned back to him with a smile. “There’s going to be music.”

  The yacht was impressive. It wasn’t until Lucy had climbed on board, though, that she realized just how impressive it was. The main deck had a stage big enough to fit an entire band at the front. Expensive-looking lighting hung overhead, and hundreds of people were standing where the dance floor would later be. The music that Lucy had heard from the car was being played live. A heavily tattooed woman and three guys were standing on the stage, doing their thing as people talked over them.

  “The drinks will be on the floor below,” Josh explained when Lucy turned to him. “There’s a bar down there, so it would make sense.”

  Lucy followed Josh’s lead to the stairs and down them. When Josh had said there was a bar, Lucy had imagined a small, self-serve kind of deal, but she’d been wrong. It was like a night club. The bar was at least eight feet long and it was stocked with every kind of liquor that Lucy could think of. The lights were low, keeping the room dim, but large, sliding paneled windows filled the bottom half of the room and looked out onto another large decking area and the stars expanding away from it.

  “This place is crazy,” Lucy told Josh as they walked over to the bar. A silver service barman walked over to her and waited patiently for her order. “Is this a free bar?” she asked him after she’d taken the time to inspect his perfect hair.

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “Okay.” Lucy grinned. “I’m going to need some champagne.”

  “That’s not a problem.”

  “Wait,” Lucy called, before the waiter had a chance to fetch her a glass. “You might as well just bring me the bottle and a straw. I don’t want to be coming down here every two minutes.” She smiled at him sweetly when he gave her an outraged look.

  “I’m not sure that I’m meant to do that,” he told her sternly. “I think, perhaps, you should leave enough behind the bar for other guests too?”

  Lucy stared the bartender down. “Do you know who I am?” she asked, although she knew perfectly well that he did not. “I’m the step-daughter of the person who owns this boat. The wage you’re earning tonight is coming directly out of my family’s pocket, so if I want a bottle instead of a glass,” she paused, so that he would have a chance to soak in what she’d already said, “then, you better get me a bottle.”

  “I’m sorry,” the bartender said quickly. The look of disapproval melted away from his face. “I’ll go and get one for you now.”

  “I see you’re already causing trouble,” Daniel said from behind her. She turned on the spot and found him standing next to Josh. She’d forgotten that Josh was there. The adrenaline spike she’d had from talking the barman down had rushed her brain and disabled it.

  “I see you clearly don’t know how to hire staff.”

  “Here you go,” the barman broke through their conversation. Lucy heard the bottle being put down on the bar and then Daniel laughing.

  “You’re just skipping the glass completely, then?” he asked when he watched the barman placing a straw beside it.

  Lucy shrugged. “I’m saving on the washing up.”

  “I’m glad that you’re having fun.” Daniel smiled at her, then turned to his brother with a curious stare. “I’m surprised to see you here, though; I thought you said, after the last time, you’d never come to one of my parties again?”

  “What happened last time?” Lucy asked before she could stop herself.

  Daniel turned to her with a guilty grin. “It wasn’t that big of a deal. It was perfectly safe.”

  “It wasn’t safe,” Josh cut in.

  “How wasn’t it safe?” Daniel demanded to know. “It’s not like the whole place could have caught on fire. We were surrounded by water. It was the perfect place to try it.”

  Josh rolled his eyes. “You’re an idiot.”

  “And you’re my twin.” Daniel grinned, as though that meant the insult had been sent right back to Josh.

  “What did you do?” Lucy broke through their bickering. “What did you set on fire?”

  “I didn’t set anything on fire,” Daniel said, feigning shock and horror.

  “Yes, you did,” Josh said firmly.

  “No, the slide just melted a bit.”

  “The slide?” Lucy asked as she tried to piece together the bits of information they were giving her. None of it made sense, though, with the addition of their bickering.

  Daniel laughed. The look of confusion on Lucy’s face had him smiling as he opened his mouth to explain. “I rented out a water park last year. I threw this party there and there were fireworks. I figured if I shoved a few down my shorts, I’d go down the slides faster. You know,” his grin got bigger, “rocket power?”

  “You did not.” Lucy had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

  “Well, there was water everywhere, so it wasn’t like I was going to start a fire.” He shrugged.

  “Did it work?”

  Lucy noticed a glimmer of surprise in Daniel’s eyes. “It worked until they started to get hot and melt the slide I was on.”

  “Our father had to pay for the whole place to be refitted,” Josh’s disapproving voice interrupted their conversation. “It cost him a fortune to put right. I can’t believe he’s letting you use the yacht; I wouldn’t trust you with anything of mine.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing I don’t want anything you have, then,” Daniel dug at his brother. Was his comment directed at her? she wondered as she watched the brothers argue. Was Daniel saying that he didn’t want her? Why would he say that? She’d never said that she wanted him.

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  Chapter 8

  The top deck of the boat was almost impossible to navigate. It had taken Lucy less than a minute to lose Josh in the crowd. It had been on purpose—she’d made a mistake by bringing him, and she knew that. Josh was a good guy, but he wasn’t the kind of guy that you could have fun around. The sound of girls screaming caught her attention and she pushed her way through the crowd to see what she was missing.

  “See you down there,” a girl in a white bikini screamed at the watching crowd as she climbed up onto the railings of the boat. Lucy watched as the girl dove into the ocean below and disappeared out of sight.

  “Are you going to jump?” Daniel’s voice filled her ear. She jumped. She hadn’t realized that he was anywhere near her.

  “I don’t know.” She let the straw from the bottle in her hand drop from her lips. “I probably shouldn’t.”

  “Why?” Daniel asked her teasingly. “You’re not scared, are you?”

  “Do I strike you as the kind of girl who scares easy?”

  “I don’t know.” Lucy looked down at his hand, which had settled on her hip. They were standing close. The crowd around them was pushing them ever closer as they spoke. “Like you told me, I don’t know who you are. Maybe you’re going to have to prove yourself.”

  Lucy looked back to the railing. There was a guy climbing up onto it. He wasn’t dressed for the water below. He was wearing jeans. Lucy thought about the feeling that would be in his stomach, as he stood on the edge. She wanted that feeling. Even though the world was starting to blur around the edges, she wanted the feeling. “I don’t need to prove myself to you.” She could feel a smile pulling on her lips as she looked back at Daniel and found his eyes waiting for
hers.

  “You’re right.” He nodded. “You don’t need to prove anything to me, but what about for yourself?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’re the one who’s trying to be someone you’re not. So, what are you going to do? Are you going to carry on being her, or are you going to jump?”

  Lucy knew that she shouldn’t. She knew that she’d drunk too much. She knew that the waters below would be cold and that her dress wouldn’t survive the carnage of the ocean. She also knew, though, that she was going to do it. How could she not? Daniel was challenging her. He was challenging her to be herself. How could she not rise up to that challenged? What real damage could it do?

  She pushed her way to the front of the crowd before Daniel had a chance to say anything else. She could feel the crowd turn its attention to her as she stepped forward into the small open space they’d allowed for climbers.

  It didn’t take her long to climb up the small railing that ran around the side of the boat. The ocean was dark and uninviting when she looked over to see what she would be dealing with. She looked back at the crowd and found Daniel right at the front. His eyes were fixed on her. “I’ll see you at the bottom, bitches,” she said, grinning as she took a step backwards.

  The sensation of having no solid ground under her feet was like no other. She’d pushed her feet back, knowing fully that it would happen, but her heart still sank in surprise. The wind started to pick up her braids as she fell. It took longer than she thought it would to reach the bottom. The yacht was surprisingly tall, and when she hit the water, it took the wind right out of her.

  That was just the start, though. The water quickly started to pull at her body, so that her hand sank below the waves that were breaking the surface. It happened too quickly for Lucy. She didn’t have a chance to hold her breath and salt water rushed into her nose, burning her throat and forcing the desperate need to cough on top of everything else that she was dealing with.

  The force of the hit had left her body numb, but she forced her arms away from her sides, so she could pull herself back up to the surface. She was going to drown. In her over confidence, she’d misjudged the jump. She should have dived in. She shouldn’t have taken it straight with her feet first like she had. The pain from the impact didn’t subside, but she managed to pull herself back up to the surface of the water.

  The wet sand under Lucy’s legs felt good because it meant that she was on solid ground. She sat down on the cold sand and looked out at the ocean she’d just pulled herself out of. Her lungs were on fire. The salt water and air deprivation had stoked their embers and enraged them. “Need a towel?” Lucy turned and found Daniel walking towards her with a towel in his outstretched arm.

  “You didn’t jump too?” She arched her eyebrows in surprise. “After all of that big talk?”

  “Well,” he shrugged, “I thought you’d want the towel to be dry.”

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  Chapter 9

  Lucy could hear the party happening on the boat. She’d been dying to get there earlier that night. It had been the only place that she had wanted to be, but things had changed. She glanced over at Daniel, who was sitting next to her on the sand. He was looking out over the ocean. He looked peaceful. Lucy was used to his face conveying every expression it felt, but she couldn’t read anything from it. It was like his mind had calmed to the white noise of the ocean.

  “What are you thinking about?” Lucy broke their silence, because it was frustrating for her to not know.

  “What do you want me to be thinking about?” Lucy’s cheeks burned at Daniel’s teasing. “No,” he said quickly. “I’m only joking. I was thinking about life, I guess.”

  “Life?” Lucy questioned him. “That’s a bit of a broad term.”

  “I guess it is,” Daniel agreed, but didn’t explain any further.

  “You two go to college here, right?” Lucy asked. She’d never really put much thought into Josh’s and Daniel’s lives before. She’d always been too wrapped up in her own.

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “Is the college good?”

  “I’d hope so, with the money my father pays them.”

  “So, you’re sorted then.” Lucy shrugged, because to her it was that simple.

  “So, I’m sorted?” Daniel looked at her in bewilderment. “What does that sort?”

  Lucy rolled her eyes. “You go to college, you get a job, you settle down, and then you die. You’re at a good college, so you’ll get a good job, and then everything else will fall into place.”

  “Do you really see things like that?”

  “I see things how they are.” Lucy met his eyes.

  “Okay, but what about if I don’t want a good job? What if I want to be an artist or a charity worker or something?”

  “Then that’s what you should do.”

  “But the job isn’t good.”

  “But, it’s what you want to do.”

  “I wish I saw things as simply as you do.” Daniel sighed and lay back on his elbows.

  Lucy frowned at him. “What could possibly be bothering you that much?” she asked, because she had to know. She was getting agitated with him. She wasn’t meaning to, but she was. She couldn’t help it. Daniel didn’t know what real problems were. He had no idea what it was like to wake up every morning with a deep regret that would never go away.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Daniel shook his head.

  “It obviously does matter, though, doesn’t it?”

  He sighed. “If I tell you this, then you have to promise that you aren’t going to tell anyone.”

  “What do you want, like a scout’s honor or something?” she asked sarcastically. Her sarcasm was met with a glare that made her back down. “Alright, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  “It’s my ex,” Daniel said quickly. It was like he’d been waiting to talk about it. The words just rolled off his tongue in an eager breath. Lucy stared at him in stunned silence. Why was she suddenly feeling jealous? “We broke up a couple of weeks ago because she cheated on me.”

  “Oh, that sucks,” Lucy managed to say. She was suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable. She wanted the conversation to change. She wanted the silence they had been sitting in to come back. When they had been sitting in silence, she had been free to believe that he was thinking about her. She couldn’t do that when he was directly telling her otherwise.

  “I was in love with her,” he continued to explain. The mention of love sent a weird twinge panging in Lucy’s heart. “It really bummed me out.”

  “How did you find out that she cheated?” Lucy asked, because she wanted him to remember that he hated her. She wanted him to remember that his ex was no good and that he shouldn’t be with her.

  “The guy told me. He didn’t know she was with me until the day after. I went to stay at her place on campus for the night. The last thing I expected when I lifted up the toilet seat was a fucking note from some guy. It was there, though. He apologized, said that he thought I should know.”

  “That’s next-level,” Lucy said, shaking her head. It wasn’t the time to point it out, but the guy’s method in getting the message to Daniel had been genius. “That must have been crap.”

  “Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “I left the message taped to the seat. Told her that I knew about her cheating and figured she’d find the note herself at some point.”

  “That’s totally brutal.” Lucy shook her head. “I bet you hate her?” she asked him, half hopefully. She felt guilty about the hope. It was selfish and unthoughtful, but she felt it all the same.

  “You know,” Daniel gave her an ashamed look, “you would think that, wouldn’t you? But, no,” he hesitated, “if I’m being truthful, I don’t hate her.”

  “Why?” Lucy asked starkly. “After everything she put you through? Why wouldn’t you hate her? She sounds like a total bitch.” Lucy tried to ignore Daniel’s noticeable flinch over her insult.

  H
e sighed. “Because…I guess that’s just not how love works.”

  Lucy wanted to scream in his face. He wasn’t in love with that girl. He couldn’t be, not after everything that she had done to him. Why was he being so stupid? Why was he letting himself be hurt like that? Why couldn’t he see that he had Lucy sitting right in front of him? She cut off her thoughts at that. This wasn’t about her. This wasn’t about what she wanted or who she wanted to want her. This was about Daniel.

  “I’m sorry that she hurt you,” Lucy said, settling her hand on his thigh. He looked down at her sudden contact but didn’t try to shake it away. “Some girls just can’t appreciate a good thing when they have it.”

  “Is that so?” Daniel smiled softly at her.

  “Sure.” Lucy nodded. “There are tons of girls like that.”

  “And what kind of girl are you?” he asked, leaning into Lucy’s smile.

  “I’m the kind that you don’t forget,” she whispered against his lips, before she kissed him.

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  Chapter 10

  Lucy woke up feeling worse than she had the day before. The champagne she had drunk the night before was making her brain push up against the sides of her skull with a force that could only be described as torturous. Why had she done this to herself? The sheets had found their way back between her legs. Her back felt cold. She’d left her window open and a breeze was breaking into the room in a way that the sun wasn’t. Where was Daniel when she needed him? He’d been the one to pull the covers up for her, when she’d been unable to the day before.