Dick: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (26 page)

Preston’s housekeeper had retired to her
one-bedroom suite on the grounds for the evening, so it was just the two of us
in his grand estate. Though he had done his best to calm me in the car, my
knees were still shaking and I could feel panic squeezing my chest. He
suggested I use his master bathroom to relax, and I couldn’t say no to that.

I leaned back in his whirlpool
tub, sighing softly as I piled my hair on the side. The water was nearly
scalding hot, perfect for releasing all the aches and pains that had built in
my strained muscles. I could feel myself slipping away already, the frustration
and confusion receding as I lay my head on the built-in neck support, letting myself
float weightless in the bath. A moment later I heard Preston enter and I opened
my eyes to see him extending a glass of champagne.

“Here,” he
said. “You look like you need it.”

I nodded and sighed as I took it
from him, bringing it to my lips. This was the good stuff, not the
fifteen-dollar bottles I’d picked up from the grocery store once or twice back
when I’d been in charge of ExecuSpace’s company parties. Those days seemed so
far away now. I’d been shrouded in opulence for so long that I could barely
remember what it was like to struggle. Had I become my mother?

I didn’t
realize I’d said that last part out loud.

Preston’s eyes darkened as he
looked down at me. “No, Maddy,” he said, sitting on the edge of the tub.
“You’re nothing like Vivian. Don’t you ever think that. Okay?”

I smiled at him thinly and took
another sip of my champagne. I wasn’t in the mood to argue. “What do we do
now?”

He rolled up his sleeves and
sighed, kicking his shoes across the bathroom floor. Then he reached into the
water and pulled my wet feet into his lap, soaking his slacks as he massaged
along my arches with exquisite care. I moaned and sank into the water, purring
like a kitten as my Preston worked my soles.

“I’m not giving into my father’s
demands,” he said, gently stretching and rubbing each of my toes. I nearly
swooned. “We’ll find a way out of this. It may have to be extreme, but if
you’re willing to go for it, then so am I.”

I opened my eyes. “What exactly
are you proposing?” I asked him.

“I’m not sure yet. But it may
involve withdrawing everything from my account and starting all over someplace
new. Would you be willing to do that with me, if it came down to it?”

I sat up a little, studying his
face. “Are things that serious between us?”

Preston shrugged. “They could be.
I don’t know. But that’s a last resort. In the meantime, I can simply say I’m
not interested in being a larger part of Harvey Enterprises until his plans for
the future include you, too. Maybe there’s still time for me to change things
from the inside—hold his feet to the fire over this. I am his only heir, and
the only one who knows enough about the family business to take it over once
he’s out of the picture. Without me, the board would cut this company to shreds
and dine on its carcass.”

“Do you think that’s enough
leverage?” I asked him. “And what about my mom?”

“That’s up to you,” he told me,
gliding his fingers up my ankles and calves. “What do you want to do about
that?”

I pursed my lips in thought. On
one hand, Preston’s father manipulating my mother for his own gains didn’t sit
well with me. She was a terrible person, sure enough, but did she deserve to be
used and lied to like that?

On the other hand, didn’t she
sort of have this coming? I couldn’t say that out loud, of course, but my
mother had been more awful than ever since she and Mr. Harvey had hooked up. It
might serve as some kind of sick vindication to tell her the truth: that she
was no more special to him than any other woman who would silently put up with
his shit.

“I’m not sure,” I said at last.
“If it were me, I know I’d want to know. But my mother isn’t me. In fact, she
isn’t most people. I’m not sure she’s even human.” I sucked in a sharp breath
as Preston fondled the very sensitive backs of my knees. “I can’t say with any
certainty that she wouldn’t blame me for this, somehow, or that she might turn
a blind eye and accuse me of lying to ruin her happily ever after. She might
just write me off as jealous and tell your father to make your life hell until
you got rid of me, or something.”

Preston smiled. “That’s not going
to happen,” he told me as he slowly crawled into the tub.

“Preston!” I shrieked, watching
his clothes stick to his body. His white button-down clung to his hard,
muscular chest, revealing the tone of his skin beneath, and I laughed as he
prowled toward me. “You’re getting soaked!”

“So are you,” he breathed against
one of my nipples cresting the surface of the water. Then he bent his head down
and took it between his teeth, gently laving it with his tongue as he nibbled
and sucked and made me sigh.

“Oh, hell,” I muttered. “We’re
getting ourselves into so much trouble…”

Preston didn’t seem to care about
that. He only grasped my opposite breast with his hand, crushing it between his
fingers as he drew his body up against mine and parted my legs with his hips.

“It’s worth it,” he assured me,
inspiring chills up and down my spine. I slipped my arms around him, running my
dripping fingers through his hair as he pressed his growing erection against my
slit under the water. “Bend over the side, Maddy, while I turn on these jets.”

I blushed but did as I was told.
After the day we’d had, I needed Preston inside of me. With just a gentle
touch, he’d brought me to this place again, a place where no one and nothing
mattered more than the man of my dreams claiming me. It didn’t matter that some
silly piece of paper might complicate our lives. Stepbrother or not, I was
going to do this.

He helped me up onto my knees and
turned me around, my back against his chest as I gripped the high edge of the
tub. I pressed my stomach against it, my heaving breasts hanging over the side
as Preston spread me with his knee, my pussy positioned right against the place
the jet would bubble up from.

I stuck out my ass and rubbed it
against his swelling crotch, moaning as he continued to tantalize my nipples
with his fingertips. Then he drew one hand away, reached over, and turned on
the control for the jets, and I threw my head back in utter bliss as the one I
was straddling pounded perfectly against my clit.

“Oh, God,” I
moaned, squirming as it pummeled me.

The silken fabric of Preston’s
slacks fell away as he pulled his cock free of them, pressing it against me
from behind. He parted my folds, sliding his tip against my slippery opening
while I writhed and shuddered on the jet teasing me into utter oblivion.

“You’re so perfect,” he
whispered, nuzzling my hair before digging in deep. I cried out as he filled
me, his thick shaft stretching my pussy wide as he grabbed onto my tits with
both hands and pushed all the way up to his hilt. “I need you, Maddy. No matter
what happens, say you’ll stay with me.”

I scrabbled for purchase on the
slick edge of the tub as my stepbrother began to thrust in and out of me. Every
movement of his hips splashed water onto the tile floor. I could feel waves of
it surging up over my back, wetting my hair and crashing over me like Preston
was the ocean itself, and I was being swept away by the tide.

I had never felt like this with
any man before. And I knew, deep down in my heart, that I never would.

I let myself believe that this
could work. I released the fear inside of me and took Preston in deep, finally
giving him unfettered access into my soul, my precious core.

“Yes,” I hissed, throwing my head
back against his shoulder as he grunted into my ear. “I’ll stay, Preston. I’ll
always stay. I promise.”

“Nothing will tear us apart,” he
groaned, laying feverish kisses upon my neck as he took me. Before I knew it my
orgasm was upon me and I screamed, bucking against him, the water now flowing
freely out of the tub as we both undulated in ecstasy. “I swear it, Maddy. I’ll
take care of you, always.”

And then my stepbrother was
spilling inside of me, filling me to the brim with his seed. I shuddered
beneath him, feeling as though we’d made a pact, a bond that couldn’t be broken
by anyone, not even our families.

Everything would work out. I was
sure of it. We’d run away together, if we had to. Preston had promised me as
much.

I turned and kissed his lips, no
longer thinking of him as the man who would become my stepbrother, but rather
the man who would make my deepest, wildest dreams come true.

Later, I would hate myself for
being so damn blind.

Despite
all the money I had, all the
privilege extended to me by mere virtue of my birthright, it was only now that
for the first time in my life, I felt truly powerful.

I had long viewed my status as a
billionaire as more of a curse than a blessing. Maybe in some other family it
would have been different, but in the Harvey family, I lived in a gilded cage.
People always thought that because of my money, I could do anything I wanted.
They were sorely mistaken. I could only do what my father would allow. Hell, my
mother had died alone as proof of that fact.

For years, I had cowered in his
shadow. But now I was defiant. Now I felt like a man. And it was all thanks to
Madison Hearst, my soon-to-be stepsister and the love of my life.

I gave her the next day off and
invited my father to meet me at my office, where I would break the news to him
that I wasn’t his good little soldier boy anymore. It had taken most my life
for me to see him for what he really was, but now that I had, there was no
turning back. This was do or die. Either my father would back off and let me
run the company as I saw fit, or he’d threaten to ruin me and stalk out under
the impression that I still gave a fuck. If the former happened, Maddy and I
would have to keep our relationship secret, but that wasn’t impossible to do.
If my father chose the latter, I’d take everything out of my bank account, dump
my vested shares, and she and I would run away together. It really was that
simple.

There wasn’t much for us here,
anyway. Billions of dollars could give us a fresh start somewhere new. Hell,
maybe we could go into business together, a joint venture where she kept me
honest and I kept her realistic. Part of me was secretly hoping that was the
way things would turn out. There was nothing I wanted more than to throw my
father’s misery right back in his face just before I vanished into thin air.

I made myself a cup of coffee
while I waited, imagining my gorgeous, half-naked stepsister lounging on my bed
and getting a well-deserved break from all this insanity. Whatever happened
next, I was rushing right back home to her. I couldn’t stand to be away from
her for more than a few hours at a time. Waiting here without her was torture.

Thankfully, I heard the front
doors open and close not long after.
Oh,
thank God.
He was finally here.

I made a point not to bring him a
mug of coffee as I strode out, smiling as I envisioned the pure rage on his
face once he heard my decision. But that smile soon turned to a slack jaw and a
frown as I saw who was standing in my foyer instead.

“Jane? What
the hell?”

She grinned, tossing her long,
auburn hair as she sauntered toward me in her leopard-print kitten heels.
“Don’t you ever get tired of greeting me like that?” she asked me, clutching a
manila folder in her hand. “A girl could get the idea that you’re not very fond
of her.”

“I’m
not,
” I growled. I didn’t want to leave any room for her to get the
impression that I was somehow pleased she was here. “I was expecting my father.
Why are you here?”

“Because the senior Mr. Harvey
doesn’t need to get his hands dirty,” she said, stopping mere inches from me.
She was wearing a very expensive brand of perfume, but on her, it was putrid.
“He knows how to delegate. Shall we do this in your office, Preston, or would
you rather get into it right here?”

I hated the way she looked at me
then. There was a hunger in her eyes, one that made my stomach turn. I snatched
the folder out of her hand, knowing damn well that whatever she wanted was
detailed in there.

“What the hell is this?” I asked
her, flipping it open. “Is he trying to buy me out?”

I choked as I saw the reality of
the situation. My eyes widened and a hot ember of rage took flame in my chest.
This wasn’t a buyout offer at all.

I looked at Jane, trying not to
shake as I asked her, “Where the
fuck
did you get this?”

“Oh, Preston,” she purred,
walking around behind me. “It wasn’t that hard.” She stopped and slid her hands
around my waist from behind, trailing her blood red nails down my stomach as
she whispered, “Next time you’re fucking your stepsister, maybe don’t leave the
balcony doors open.
Anyone
could just
look in and see.”

“And take pictures,” I snapped,
whirling on her so fast I almost knocked her down. This was how my father had
known about me and Maddy. Jane the hell-bitch had delivered the photographic
evidence right into his sleazy hands.

She regained her balance and
smirked. “Don’t shoot the messenger, Preston. I just do what I’m told.”

“Oh, yes. I’m sure my father
twisted your arm about this,” I sneered, tossing the folder and its contents
into her face. “What does he think this is going to accomplish, huh? Does he
think that I’ll come crawling back now, begging him not to ruin my future at
Harvey Enterprises with these obscene photos? She’s not my stepsister yet,
Jane. Nobody going to give a shit if my father—”

“—waits to release them until he
and Madison’s mother are legally married?” Jane asked, batting her eyelashes in
mock innocence at me. “If he cuts off all your money and then sends these
photos to ever single potential employee Madison will ever interview with in
her entire life? You
really
think no
one will give a shit that Madison Hearst was fucking her stepbrother?”

I shook my head in disgust and
disbelief. “He can’t possibly be serious.”

“Oh, he is,” Jane assured me,
grinning from ear to ear. “In fact, he’s willing to throw you completely under
the bus, if that’s what it takes. He’ll leak the photos to some tabloid
somewhere and watch you go down in flames, if he has to. He might even come out
the better for it, denouncing his only son’s perversions and rooting him out
from the company.” She stepped on one of the pictures and slid it toward me
with the toe of her high heel. “Check your bank accounts, Preston. I’m sure
you’ll find that you really are between a rock and a hard place.”

I pulled my phone out of my
pocket and quickly logged in to my personal accounts. Just as Jane said, every
single one of them had been frozen. Two of them I couldn’t even log into at
all, and the third had a red banner across the screen that said “pending the
results of an investigation.”

“I have cash,” I told her. It
wasn’t much, but it was still enough to get me and Maddy the fuck out of here.
“Hundreds of thousands. I don’t need billions to start a new life without my
father and you.”

“You mean the money you keep in
the safe at home?” she asked me, and I felt my insides coil with dread. “Carla
was sweet enough to fetch that for us. But don’t be too mad at her, Preston
baby. She was very loyal—right up until the point where your father threatened
her with deportation. Little Enrique would be so torn up if his mommy had to go
back to Venezuela without him.”

I wanted to wring this bitch’s
neck. I wanted to watch the life drain out of her eyes as I pressed and pressed
until her throat collapsed. I wanted her to suffer through every moment leading
to her death. And then I wanted to do the same to my bastard father.

“Think about Madison,” Jane said,
snapping me out of my murderous rage. “Maybe you don’t care what people think.
Maybe you’ll find a way to get by with that business degree of yours. But let’s
face it—Madison will be fucked. She’ll never get a job anywhere ever again. And
who knows? Maybe some day she’ll have a mysterious accident just like your
mother did—”

“I swear to God, Jane,” I
whispered, just barely holding back the fury inside of me. “Keep talking about
Madison and my mother. Say one more word about either of them, and I’ll make
sure
you
have an accident somewhere
down the line. Maybe not now, maybe not even in a year, but it’ll happen. And
it’ll be messy. It’ll hurt. You’ll suffer in ways you can’t even comprehend.
Say something smart, Jane—I dare you. But if you know me at all, I’m betting
you keep your fat, whore mouth shut.”

Jane’s lips parted, and I waited
for her to say something stupid, anything at all that would give me a reason to
carry out the sentence she so richly deserved. But then she shrugged,
shouldering her Prada bag as she told me, “Just think it over, Preston. You can
ruin both your lives, or you can both come away from this relatively unscathed.
Maybe it’s a shit choice, as far as choices go, but at least he’s giving you
one.”

“Go,” I said. It was the only
word I could manage that wasn’t an expletive.

“You’re right,” she said. “I
should. Mr. Harvey will be wanting an update.” She looked me up and down before
adding, “We could have had it all, Preston. And maybe, if you play your cards
right, we still can. I’ve always liked the thought of having a baby, you know?
Stranger things have happened. Feel free to stare at my ass on my way out.
Maybe you’ll be seeing a little more of it soon?”

I watched her walk away, fiddling
with her cell phone as she stepped back through the doors to my office and out
into the sunshine that seemed at odds with the anguish I was feeling now.

I spent the next ten minutes
ripping everything apart. Everything I owned, everything I had built—I didn’t
want it. All I wanted was
her.
And
she was the one thing I could never have.

When my knuckles were raw and
bloodied I sank to the floor in front of the stairway, my chest heaving as I
fought for air between snarls and gasps. Everything was crumbling down around
me, and the person I needed the most was the one whose heart I was going to
have to break in just a matter of minutes.

Someone texted me. My hands shook
as I reached across the floor and retrieved my phone from where it had struck
the wall when I’d thrown it. Beyond the cracked screen, I read the last little
message from Jane.

Carla went ahead and set up a few
cameras on her way out. If you tell that sweet little stepsister of yours
anything we talked about, your father will do all that he promised and more!
J

She was the most evil fucking
bitch in the entire world. And I was the bastard who was going to do her
bidding. What choice did I have? My father was going to ruin my life, and Jane
had threatened to do something far darker than that. How did she know about my
mother’s accident? What the hell was she trying to imply?

****