Badass: A Stepbrother SEAL Romance (21 page)

“It’s okay, babe,” he said gently. “They’re saying that building collapsed not in the original tremor but in an aftershock two days later. That’s probably why the kid survived. He’s not even in too bad shape, although the firefighters are taking mother and child to the hospital now.”

“I’m so happy for them,” I blurted, still sobbing against his chest.

I felt Shane chuckle.

“I am!” I insisted. “It’s life. Life when there’s been so much death and destruction. Look. Even the rescue dogs are smiling their big, slobbery grins.”

Shane brushed tears off my cheeks. His touch was gentle, and I leaned into his hand. I wanted to say, “I love you, Shane,” but I couldn’t do that. I could never do that. So I pressed my face against his neck and cried some more.

My cell phone rang. Since it hadn’t made a sound for four whole days, I jumped when it chimed. It was in the back pocket of my pants, and I fumbled as I tried to find it. Shane reached his own hand down along my ass and pulled the phone out of my pocket. I grabbed it from him, squinting through my tears at the screen. Oh my God! My dad’s number was lit up there.

“Hello? Dad? Dad is that you?” I practically screamed into the phone.

When his own dear voice filled my ear, I started bawling again.

“Cassie? Are you okay? Cassie!”

“Dad!” I croaked. “Thank God!”

Shane took the phone from my trembling hand. “Mr. Bennings? This is Shane. Cassie’s fine. Where are you? The Coast Guard got a distress call. Is my mom all right? Are you both safe?”

I leaned my cheek against Shane’s chin so I could hear. “Yes, we are okay,” Dad said. “We just moored in the harbor. Molly is fine. She sprained her ankle when things got rough, but she’s all bandaged up and the swelling is going down. Is everything good with the two of you? We’ve been frantic with worry.”

“So have we,” I said, taking the phone back. “Shane has been worried about his mom and I’ve been so worried about you. About both of you.”

“I’m sorry about that, Cassie. We had some electronic problems during the storm. We had rough seas for a while. My sat phone and some other equipment got wet. GPS still worked, though, we were able to set a course to Cabo. How much damage is there? That felt like a huge earthquake.”

“Yeah, it’s bad. Your church? The one where the wedding was supposed to be? It’s a mess. We were just over there helping with the clean-up. I’m afraid you’ll have to hold the ceremony somewhere else.”

“Well, that’s a shame, but what about the people? Are there many dead and injured?”

“They just saved a little boy. A baby, Dad. They pulled a baby out of a collapsed building. He’s alive. He’s alive and Shane examined him and then they gave him to his mother and—“

I started to cry again. I hadn’t cried so much since Mom had died, and I wasn’t even sad. What the fuck was wrong with me?

“That’s great, sweetheart,” Dad said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, Dad, I’m just so happy to hear your voice.”

“Me, too, Cassie, me too. I’m going to give the phone to Molly. She wants to speak to her son.”

I handed the phone back to Shane. The look on his face when he heard his mother’s voice was pure relief and delight.

I cried all the way back to the hotel. I’m sure Shane thought I had lost all my marbles, but he was wonderfully patient and tender with me. Which only made me cry even more.

Chapter 47—Cassie

It was a strange evening.

Awesome to see my dad again when the four of us met for dinner. And I was also happy to see Shane’s mom, who was on crutches, but didn’t seem to be slowed down very much. In many ways, she was as tough as her son.

We hugged and kissed and made a big fuss over each other. Over dinner, Dad and Molly were full of stories about their adventures at sea. Shane and I were a good deal quieter.

“Your dad is such a skilled sailor that we were never in any danger,” Molly insisted. “I was the fool who dropped the sat phone in the water as we were trying to pull the sail down. I tried to dry the damn thing, but it was too late.”

“My bike rolled over and killed our sat phone, too,” said Shane.

“
Our
sat phone?” my father repeated, eyebrows raised. “So you and Cassie ended up traveling together, after all?”

Uh-oh. My heart sank to the floor. I’d told Dad I was driving here separately. That hadn’t been too well thought out, I realized now.

“Yeah, Cassie’s car was having some engine trouble so we took my Harley,” Shane said smoothly.

“You were out in an earthquake on a Harley?” my dad growled.

“Yeah, it was a wild ride. But we made it, safe and sound.” I decided not to mention the nearly dying of thirst, the trek over the ridge toward the sea, the attempted rape, or the two dead guys.

“Where did you sleep?” Dad shot a withering look in Shane’s direction. Molly reached over and patted him on the arm, as if to say, “Calm down, dear.”

Shane glowered right back at my father. “We camped out.”

“We each had our own tent,” I said quickly. I was glad, for once, that this was the truth.

They both looked from me to Shane and back again. Dammit! Was I blushing? Of course I was. I could feel the heat in my neck and face. It was one of the worst things about having red hair—I blush far too easily.

My father’s eyes had narrowed and he looked as if he needed to pop a blood pressure pill. I abruptly remembered how hostile I’d been to Shane before the trip. I probably wasn’t acting hostile now. Was it obvious that I had gone from “I can’t stand this guy” to “oh my God, I’m so in love”? Was I behaving like some sort of infatuated idiot?

I didn’t think I was, but I realized I probably couldn’t trust my own perceptions on this. I was never going to win an Academy Award for my acting.

I cast a panicky glance at Shane. His expression betrayed nothing.

“Once the earthquake hit, we had bigger things to worry about than the sleeping arrangements,” he said. “We were out in the desert very close to the epicenter. We had to find water and shelter. Fortunately, we came upon an old man’s camp. We helped him and he returned the favor.”

“He was injured,” I put in, eager to distract Dad and Molly from any suspicions they might have about Shane and me. “Shane treated him. His corpsman skills proved super useful, especially when the earthquake hit and he picked up two nasty lacerations. Which reminds me,” I added, turning to Shane and trying to sound cool and distant, “you should see a doctor about those cuts now that we’re back in civilization. Just to make sure they’re healing properly.”

Shane scowled at me as his mother started fussing over him, asking where he was hurt and how badly. This gave me a few moments to collect myself.

“Sounds like you two had even more of an adventure than we did,” said Molly, after Shane had reassured her. She smiled at me. “I’m so glad you had my son to take care of you and vice versa, from the sound of things. Just as I was lucky enough to have your dad taking care of me.” She gave me a mischievous look that I suspected meant, “not that either of us really needs a man, but hey, they like to hear it.”

“Yes,” said my father. He still looked suspicious. “I’m grateful Cassie had her stepbrother the SEAL with her during this disaster. There are times when it’s good to have a family member to rely on.” Dad’s eyes drilled me the same way they used to when I was a teenager who’d been up to some sort of mischief. “When you were little, you used to say you wished you had a brother. Now you do.”

Oh God. Did he know what I’d done? Slept with my stepbrother? The shame. I wanted to slide under the table and die.

Shane didn’t say anything. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He was probably wishing he were a hundred miles away. A thousand.

“I’m so happy we all made it here safely,” Molly said. “I don’t know what we are going to do about the wedding, though, given the sad condition of that lovely little church. Maybe the priest can marry us outside, or even on the beach? What do you think, Henry?”

“I think we should get married in some other church. Or in a damn registry office. They have those here, right?”

“The priest is an old friend,” Molly reminded him. “I’ll have a chat with him tomorrow. I suggest we follow Cassie and Shane’s excellent example and go over there to help him and his parishioners clean up. We can arrange something then, and in the meantime, I’d like to do some good here, if we can.”

“Okay,” Dad said, giving her a warm smile. “I like that idea.”

I liked Molly more and more. She would be good for my father. She was an upbeat, sensible woman. And I could see that he loved her. The way he looked at her—I wished Shane would look at me that way.

Just once.

But Shane was looking at his plate and shoveling food into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten for weeks.

My heart ached. I hoped we wouldn’t have to stay too long in Cabo, waiting for our parents to figure out where and when to get married. Shane and I couldn’t be together now, even if we still wanted to—which I of course did.

Last night, upon arriving at the hotel, we had crashed in the same bed. But now that our parents were here we had to take our previously-reserved rooms. Which were on separate floors.

Chapter 48—Shane

I waited until the sunset to make my move. Our parents were surely asleep by now, especially since my mom’s ankle was sprained.

Cassie on the other hand was in the room under me. Maybe she was naked, lying in her bed pleasuring herself thinking about me.

Only one way to find out. Now I could’ve just taken the normal path, use the stairs. Knock on Cassie’s door, risk waking our parents in the adjacent room. Henry was probably a light sleeper, his ears listening for a noise to confirm his suspicions that I was fucking his daughter.

Can’t blame the guy—I’d do the same thing if I had a daughter as hot as Cassie.

But I wasn’t just fucking her, I was obsessed with her, even though we had no future together. But she wasn’t my stepsister yet. I was gonna fuck her senseless until my mom said “I do.”

I tied a bed sheet to the steel balcony and slid down it. Once on Cassie’s balcony I simply opened the sliding glass door. Gaining entry to her room was so easy it was almost laughable.

She wasn’t in her bed. I crept up to the bathroom, and found my girl naked, bubbles covering her nipples, water beads glistening on her neck. With her long red hair draped against the back of the tub, she almost looked like a goddess. My own personal mermaid.

She didn’t notice me at first, but once she caught a glimpse of me in the mirror her face went white. I covered her mouth with my hand before she could let out a scream.

Chapter 49—Cassie

When I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, I freaked. In an instant I realized it was Shane, but my heart was gunning enough to rattle my entire chest. I guess the attack by those two vicious bikers was going to haunt me for a while.

“What are you doing in here? The door was locked.”

He looked gorgeous—all six-foot-two of his sculpted hard-ass body—but I couldn’t let him get to me. Not again. The road trip had come to an end and we were both going to have to accept it, and not just for our parents’ sake. I couldn't go on like this anymore, hiding what I really felt for him. It was too damn hard.

I could see from his body language and the look in his eyes what he had in mind. Another mind-bending fuck. He was primed and ready for it and it didn’t take anything more than seeing him, hearing his voice, remembering how it felt to be together to make me wet. Well, wetter. I could invite him into the tub—we’d done it in the shower, but never in the bathtub, and this one even had Jacuzzi jets.

“Shane, we can’t. Our parents are right next door, and they are already suspicious. We agreed—it was only for the road trip. And our road trip is over.”

“So it’s forbidden now, huh?”

“It was forbidden as soon as we found out about them.”

“Yeah? We met first. How come it’s not forbidden for them?”

I didn’t have a good answer for that.

“Anyway,” he said, caressing me gently, “I like forbidden. It’s hot.”

The weirdest feeling ripped through me—I wanted to do it even more. Now that Dad and Molly were here, safe and sound and so obviously together, the thing between Shane and me seemed even more forbidden. And he was right: it was hot.

Goddammit. I was in love with Shane, but I wanted to bone my stepbrother. Was I some kind of deviant?

“We’ll be quiet,” he said, starting to pull off his clothes. “You’ll have to keep your mouth shut and not scream as loudly as you usually do.” He ripped his shirt off, balled it up, and shook it threateningly at me. “Or I’ll have to gag you.”

Oh God. I was such a loser. I’d fallen for him, but he, badass that he was, was into me just for the hot sex. That had been all I’d wanted at the start, too, but I at some point I had let my defenses down.

All it had taken was a little crack, and in he had slipped. Into the fortress of my heart.

I stood up with a jerk, feeling the water spill down my body. I stepped out of the tub and grabbed a towel from the rack. “No.” I tossed my wet hair out of my eyes, took another towel for my head, and stormed out of the bathroom. I think I scratched myself with the towels, so hard did I rub my wet skin, but I couldn’t do anything to appease the ache inside.

He followed me as I started toward the bed. I was about to sit down on it when I thought twice and circled it instead, putting the queen-sized bed between us. Shane was naked now, too, and his cock—his lovely thick delicious cock—was jutting.

“Shane, please.”

“I love it when you say please.” He stroked his own cock, rather absently. “Please fuck me, Shane. Please go down on me, Shane. Please let me come, Shane.”

Each word of his caused a throb deep inside me. I squeezed my eyes closed for a moment. This was just too difficult!

“Please let me go, Shane,” I whispered. “I can’t do this anymore.”

His face screwed up as he stared at me. I could feel him probing. They probably taught him shit like that in the military—how to tell if your adversary is telling the truth or lying. How to read their body language. I was dead sure that mine was revealing every tiny bit of how much I was yearning to be with him. What he didn’t know was that I yearned for it to be something more than just another casual fuck.