Dick: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (6 page)

I was going to UCLA… With
Jess.

Chapter
7

Jessica

“We made it!” Becky said
with an excited squeal. “We’re in college!”

I smiled, looking around at
all crowd of students as they moved past us. She was right, we’d finally made
it to the place we’d always dreamed of. Everything felt so new and different,
like I had just hit the reset button on my entire life. College wasn’t just a
place for me, it was a whole new beginning.

“What’s first?” Becky
asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet eagerly.

“Finding somewhere for our
stuff,” I said, hefting my duffle bag higher onto my shoulder, a rolling
suitcase sitting at my side. “I don’t want to go through orientation carrying
my entire life around.”

Luckily for both of us,
we’d managed to find a student housing complex that was right on campus. We made
the short trek to our new home away from home and got our room sorted out.
Becky and I had made certain that the two of us would be sharing a room—there
wasn’t any way I was bunking with a complete stranger.

Once we were settled, she
and I made our way toward the student union to get the rest of our lives sorted
out for the semester to come. We had books to buy, classes to schedule, and an
entire campus to learn how to navigate before we found ourselves completely and
utterly lost on our first day of class. Having to explain to my professors why
I was late was definitely not how I wanted to spend my first day of higher
learning.

“I thinking about pledging
to a sorority,” Becky said as we passed by a group of buxom blondes wearing bright
pink, cropped t-shirts with the Greek letters “___” emblazoned in white, blocky
font across their ample chests. I couldn’t help but grimace. Becky and I had
spent the majority of our time in high school being bullied and mocked by women
like that, who lorded their popularity and looks over the “lower” castes of the
social order. And that wasn’t even taking into account the sheer amounts of
hazing and prejudice that went on in the “Greek” system. I’d read enough to
know that I’d never be able to stand by while my “sisters” engaged in that kind
of activity.

“You really think that’s a
good idea?” I asked, trying not to sound totally disapproving. “I mean, it’d
look good after college, I guess, but is that really the kind of thing you want
to do while you’re here? They don’t seem like the kind of people that we
usually get along with.”

Becky frowned, stopping
short and forcing me to halt so I didn’t lose sight of her as more students
flooded around us.

“I don’t know yet, Jess,”
she said with an edge to her voice. “But I know that one of the things I wanted
to do while I was at college was come out of my shell a little. I figured
joining a sorority might help—”

“No. You’re right,” I said,
holding up my hands apologetically. “I’m being judgmental. You should go for
it.”

“Only problem is I don’t
know which one to pledge,” she said with a sigh as we passed yet another table
with a group of bubbly twenty-somethings in tight t-shirts. “There are so many
of them on campus, and I don’t know which one would be right for me.”

“How about you go look at
some of them? I was wanting to look at some of the extracurriculars they have
advertised here. How about we meet back at the dorm before dinner and we can
order some Chinese, or something?”

“You’re awesome, Jess,” she
said, pulling me into a tight, bone-crushing hug. “I’ll see you in a few
hours.”

“See you,” I said as she
finally let me go, the air finally returning to my lungs after she let go of
me. “Just don’t jump into anything right away. Take your time and think about
it before you make any decisions.

“Sure thing,
Mom
,” she said with a laugh as she went
off toward one of the tables for the sororities. I was sure that I was being
too critical. Becky knew the difference between right and wrong, and I knew she
would never give in to anything like the horror stories I’d heard about.
Nevertheless, I was more than a little worried for her. Hazing or not, women
were brutal, especially when they felt like they were set apart from everyone
else.

I heaved a sigh and continued
along the through the tents and tables that had been set up outside,
advertising the different activities available for the students on campus. I
had almost cleared the cluster of fraternities before I heard someone calling
out loudly.

“Hey!” they shouted, a
chorus of chuckles following close behind. I made an effort to ignore it,
hoping that they weren’t calling to me. I didn’t need this, not on my first
day.

“Hey! Come here!” I heard
again, this time closer. “We wanted to talk to you, babe!”

My stomach clenched and I
turned toward the man trailing behind me. He wasn’t a particularly fit man—in
fact he looked like your typical frat boy—slightly overweight, with a prickly
five o’clock shadow all over his neck and second chin. He was wearing a blue sweater
with “__Ω” written in bold yellow letters.

“Don’t you wanna talk to
us, baby?”

“Don’t call me that,” I
said, my fists coiled tight. “I don’t want to talk to you. Leave me alone.”

“Whoa!” he said, holding up
his hands in mock surrender. “You don’t need to be a bitch about it, babe! We
just wanted to know if you wanted to come to a party tonight. Alpha Epsilon Omega’s
got a sick celebration goin’ on!”

“Go fuck yourself,” I said,
turning to walk away. I didn’t want to be there anymore. I wanted to head
straight back to the dorm and wait for Becky to get back. Inside of my head,
alarms started to sound like the claxons in a science-fiction movie.

“Can you fuckin’ believe
this chick?” the frat boy laughed, turning to his fellows. “Yo! Mikey! Come
check this stuck-up bitch out!”

I frowned as I saw someone
step out of the crowd in front of me, blocking my escape. At first I couldn’t
make his face out, the mid-day sun shining right into my eyes. It wasn’t until
the “Mikey” took another step closer that I realized who was standing in front
of me.

“Well, well,” came the
familiar, smooth voice of my ex-boyfriend, Michael, “look who’s here.”

“You know this bitch,
Mike?” asked the chubby frat boy.

“Biblically,” he said with
a chuckle. “You’ve never met a bigger slut in your life, boys. She’s a complete
whore.”

“That’s a lie,” I tried to
argue back, but Michael cut me off.

“Nobody said you could
talk, slut. And you most certainly
are
a slut. I’ve had this bitch every way you can imagine.”

“Yeah! Tell us more, Mikey!”
came shouts from his fellow pledges.

“Get out of my way,” I
whispered, my voice trembling. I swallowed hard as my heart pounded like a
drum.

“You’re not going anywhere.
You’re coming to our little party, and we’re going to loosen up that tight
little—”

I ran before he could even
finish, dashing passed him and into the crowd of students. I don’t remember
exactly how long I ran, but before I even realized it, I was completely alone
underneath a pavilion, isolated from the rest of the students.

I took a moment to catch my
breath, my eyes closed as I leaned myself against the thick cement columns that
held the pavilion aloft. For that fleeting moment, I felt that maybe I was safe
from whatever Michael’s new fraternity pals had in store, that they wouldn’t
bother pursuing me past the crowd of people if it meant having to put effort
into it… but then I remembered that no distance was too great for a man like
Michael, a man who liked making people suffer.

“Thought you could run, did
you?” came that confident voice from only a few yards away.

I turned, my heart kicking
back into overdrive once again as I spotted Michael and his friends closing in
on me fast. I turned to either side, hoping to see a quick way to escape as the
men began to circle around me. Each of them had a smirk on their lips, a wolfish
grin that made my skin crawl and gave a horrifying thought to just what they
might be planning for me.

“Stay away from me,
Michael,” I commanded, my voice faltering as he strolled confidently closer,
his friends spreading out to try to block any escape routes. “I mean it!”

“Or you’ll do what,
Jessica?” he asked, his bloodless lips turning up into a wicked smile. “Scream?
Run for help? Call for Mommy?”

The others laughed, and it
frightened me how quickly Michael had found people who complimented his sick
and twisted mind—minions for his supervillain-level ego.

“Save your blubbering for
your pillow tonight,” he spat, as he drew almost close enough to touch.
“Nowhere to run now, little Jessie. Maybe I should take what I want from you…
You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

He reached out, his fingers
quickly embedding in the fabric of my blouse. I pulled away as he tried to yank
me closer. I felt my top resist for a moment before it gave way, tearing
loudly. If I hadn’t realized how real the danger was before, I knew now, a cold
rush of adrenaline coursing through me at breakneck speeds, my heart thumping
faster than I’d ever felt in my life. I could feel something stirring inside me…
The same feelings that made me ashamed and angry with myself… The feelings that
made me run away from Michael in the first place. My body was betraying me the
way it always did.

“Hey!
What the—”

Just beyond my view I heard
the sound of a scuffle, and then someone falling against one of the pavilion’s
benches with a loud
bang
.

Michael and I both turned
our heads at the commotion, just in time for him to catch someone’s fist right
against his jaw. Before I could react, Michael had released his hold on my shirt,
sending me reeling until I came right down onto my backside, wincing in pain. I
managed to look up just in time to see Michael stumbling back, his hand
covering the right side of his face.

“Get the
fuck
away from her,” said my rescuer in
a voice I’d heard whispering a thousand times in my fantasies.

“Richard?” I asked, turning
my head to see my stepbrother more clearly. Sure enough, he stood in front of
me, blocking Michael from taking even one step closer, his fists up and ready
to take another swing.

“What the fuck are you
doing here?” Michael hissed, his face screwed up in anger.

“Keeping creeps like you
from touching things that don’t belong to you,” he growled.

“We’re just having a little
fun. Jessica likes it a little rough. Why don’t you tell your big brother here
how wet you are right now, Jess? I bet he’d love to hear all about it,” Michael
said, rubbing his swollen cheek.

I couldn’t look either of
them in the eye. I couldn’t let my stepbrother know the truth.

“I swear to God, if I see
you lay so much as a hand on her again, you’ll be rolling across the graduation
stage with a pair of broken legs.”

“Big talk,” Michael
sneered, though from his expression he didn’t look to be in the mood to test
that threat.

“We can take him!” one of
Michael’s friends said, but Michael put up a hand to silence him.

“No,” he snarled, “we’re
leaving. There’s plenty of ass on this campus—this one’s not worth the
trouble.”

“You sure, Mike?” asked the
overweight frat boy at his side.

“I said no,” Michael said,
glaring at Richard. “We’re done…
for now
.”

Without another word,
Michael turned and walked away, casting a venomous glare back over his shoulder
at the two of us as his toadies fell in line behind him. It was around that
time that I’d begun to wonder when I’d fallen into some bizarre dream world
where my stepbrother wasn’t at some college across the country, and had even
arrived in the nick of time to save me from danger.

“Are you okay?” Richard
asked once Michael and his goons were safely out of sight. He knelt down next
to me as I took an account of myself to make sure I hadn’t hurt anything worse
than I’d realized.

“What’re you doing here, Richard?”
I asked quietly, taking his offered hand as he helped to pull me up from the
floor. “You don’t even go here.”

“Right now I’m saving you
from that little sniveling shitlord. And for your information, I
do
go here. I’ve been up here for the
last few days, in fact.”

“I thought that you’d told Dad
you had a better offer.”

“You’re looking at it,” he
replied, shrugging. “UCLA offered me a starting position on the team. Beats the
hell out of bench warming on the east coast. Now let’s get you out of here and
you can tell me all about what
that
was about.”

I frowned, but took his
hand as we made our way out toward the one of the parking garages. I had the
feeling that things were going to start getting much stranger after all of
this. If only I’d known then how right I was.

Chapter
8

Richard

“What’re we doing here?” Jessica asked
as we stepped into the crowded off-campus restaurant. She’d wrapped herself up
tight in her arms, doing her best to cover up the rips in her clothes in the
hopes that no one would notice. But despite her best efforts, the tears
brimming in her eyes were a dead giveaway.

“We’re here to calm you
down,” I said, leaning close to her so that she could hear me over the chatter
of the various tables. “You’re a wreck.”

“Welcome to Bobby’s!” said
a bubbly young waitress, her top unbuttoned just enough to give a great look at
her plentiful cleavage. “I’m Sasha. Are there just the two of you?”

“Yeah,” I said, keeping my
eyes from staring too blatantly at the girl’s large breasts. “Just the two of
us. Is it possible to get a corner booth?”

“Sure is!” she said,
flashing a set of white sparkling teeth. “Just come on and follow me, and then
we can get you two some drinks.”

The waitress led us into
the back portion of the dining room where only a few other parties had been
seated, which was more than ideal. I wanted privacy to get to the bottom of
what was happening between Michael and Jess, and being hidden back away from
the crowds was exactly what I needed to get her to open up.

Jessica and I slid into the
plastic-upholstered benches that surrounded the table, which was thankfully
hidden away from most prying eyes. The restaurant was bustling, but not
terribly crowded, which kept the staff busy enough to give me and my stepsister
time to talk.

“So, what happened back
there?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said,
fighting back a sob as she wiped at her eyes. “These guys were calling after
me, calling me names, telling me to come talk to them. I wanted to just ignore
them, but they were all over me… then they called Michael over.
I didn’t even know he was going to
school here,” she said, putting her face in her hands. “I mean, God! If I’d
known, then I’d—”

“You couldn’t have known,
Jess,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “And anyway, it’s not your job
to be looking over your shoulder for a jackass like Michael. Especially not
while I’m here.”

“Why
are
you here?” she asked, frowning as she lifted her head up out of
her hands. “Is this really where you want to be? Seriously?”

“Of course it is,” I
replied. “But we’re not talking about me right now. How about you tell me what
the deal is between you and Michael.”

Jessica froze for a moment,
tensing as though I was about to hit her right then and there. I frowned,
turning to face her in the booth. Had their relationship really done so much damage
that even the thought of it put her on edge? Maybe more had happened between
them than I had imagined. If not sex, then something more sinister.

“It’s not something that I
normally talk about, not even with Becky,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself
more tightly. She was definitely afraid, scared of the very thought of her time
with Michael and what him being here now might mean to her. I frowned, reaching
over and gently touching her hand, trying to assure her that everything was
going to be okay.

“You can tell me,” I said,
trying my best to sound comforting. “I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

Jess sighed, wiping yet
more tears from her eyes, though not once moving her hand away from mine. I
could tell it was hard for her to even consider talking about something so
personal, especially with me. Somehow I needed her to understand that I wasn’t
there to be the jackass I’d been to her, and that for once in our lives, I was going
to be the supportive person I was meant to be.

“I don’t know, Richard,”
she said, swallowing hard as the waitress came back, setting our drinks back
down on the table and quickly rushing to see to another table.

“Trust me,” I replied,
trying to calm the mood with a smile.

“I’m not sure if I can tell
anyone about what happened,” she whispered.

“But if you don’t tell me,
then there’s no way that I can help you, Jessica.”

Once again, my stepsister
fell into silence, swallowing her sobs. I hated to see her like this,
especially the effect Michael had over her.

“Everything was good when
it started,” she finally began, a faint smile on her face as though recalling a
happier time. “He was so sweet and charming. He’d give me presents and take me
to so many places. He was smart and witty. I felt like I could talk to him
about all of the things that I’d thought would scare boys away… Like… Things I
enjoy…”

She was freezing up. I
reached over and touched her hand, catching her eyes. “It’s ok, you can talk to
me.”

 
“It was nice, at first. We started with
some things I was curious about… We weren’t having sex. It was just… You know…”

She squeaked the last word
out beneath her breath, unwilling to catch my eye.

“I don’t understand,” I
said, staring at her.

“It’s just... I like to
give up control sometimes. It feels right.”

“But he went too far?” I
asked.

“He started to change,” she
said. “He wanted more. It was little things, at first. He’d start to criticize
the way I was dressing and how I did my hair… it made me feel like I wasn’t
good enough. I changed myself whenever he told me he didn’t like something. I
wanted to please him. That’s when he started getting… worse,” she said,
swallowing again, her gaze flitting around, as though to ensure Michael wasn’t
nearby. “He hurt me. Not badly at first, just a slap across the face when I
told him no… but then he started leaving marks. I’d ask him and beg him to
stop, to tell him that I just wanted things to go back to the way that they
were… He thought it was just part of the game.”

“If that asshole took
advantage of you…” I began, but Jessica cut me off.

“It wasn’t like that… God…
Why am I so fucked up?”

“Don’t blame yourself for
this. There’s nothing wrong with you. I’m so sorry, Jessica,” I said, my heart
aching as I watched her tears begin to well up once again. I’d never known that
their relationship had been so awful—sure, I knew they fought, but I figured
that it had been the typical high school drama that you always heard about.
Jessica had hid her pain away for all the time she’d spent with Michael—or
maybe I just wasn’t looking hard enough.

“After a while, Michael
started wanting more stuff from me… like my virginity,” Jess said, wringing out
her hands nervously. “I told him no, and he’d hit me worse than he ever had
before in our entire time together. That was the last time we broke up, and
ever since, he’s been acting like I don’t exist. Until today.”

“None of this is your
fault,” I told her, taking her hand once more, “and what Michael did to you was
beyond terrible. You should never have been treated that way, not by anyone. He
hurt you, and he had no right to do that. You deserve to be treated better than
that.”

“Do I?” she asked, shame
descending over her pretty face. “I don’t think that’s true most days,
especially because… I mean, I can’t really talk about it.”

“You can talk about
anything with me. I won’t judge you, Jessica. I promise,” I said, squeezing her
slender fingers in mine. It made me feel horrible that I’d never made myself
open to Jessica to confide in me, to tell me when something so awful as being
abused by your own boyfriend. Her face softened slightly and she gave a faint,
almost imperceptible, nod.

“The truth is that I
actually liked some of the things he did to me,” she said, her voice soft. “I
liked the way he’d order me to do things, making me obey his commands. He made
me so horny that sometimes, I almost regretted not letting him have sex with
me… but I wanted it to
mean
something. I know that makes me sound like some kind of freak, but I can’t
really help it.”

“I don’t think you’re a
freak, Jess,” I said, squeezing her hand again reassuringly. I knew my sister must
have some urges, but I never imagined dominance play would be one of them. It
made sense, I supposed, the rigid control she had over every aspect of her life
needed to be let loose somehow. “Those kinds of things are completely normal. There
are whole clubs dedicated to that kind of stuff. You like being dominated, so
what? That doesn’t make you a freak. We all need to give up control, sometimes.
As long as you’re being safe and have someone who understands how to stay in
the lines…”

“It isn’t just the control,”
she whispered, cutting me off. She glanced up as a waiter passed by our booth.
“It was… some of the hitting turned me on, too.”

I felt like I didn’t really
know my stepsister at all. The more she talked, the less I was sure of when it
came to what I’d come to know over the last couple of years. I’d figured her
for a bit of a freak under that librarian blouse and horn-rimmed glasses. But
this?

“You really enjoyed how he
hurt you?” I asked.

“Not usually,” Jessica
answered, shrinking a bit, as though I might ridicule her for her desires. “But
there were times where he’d hurt me in certain ways to get me to do things that
felt so good. It was freeing…”

I sat quietly for a moment,
weighing everything that she’s just told me and thinking about how best to go
forward. I’d come here to be close to her, but now she tells me that she
actually
enjoyed
the way he hurt her.
I knew there was nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a little pain with sex,
but to hear it from her lips felt like my world had done a complete
one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn.

Michael
didn’t respect her
,
I thought, glancing at her in the momentary silence that had fallen between
her.
And if I don’t do something, then
she’ll just go back to him, or find someone else who treats her the same way.

“You don’t have to be with
men like Michael if you want to be dominated,” I said after another member of
the staff walked by. “Submission isn’t subjugation. You have every right to be
respected and cared for while you’re fulfilling your fantasies.”

Jessica turned her gaze
away from me, her eyes downcast toward the table as another wave of tears
spilled down her cheek in tiny rivers. I could see the shame radiating from
her, the fact that she was even talking to
me
about this making everything that much worse.

“I know that I haven’t been
the best brother to you,” I said, moving a little closer to her along the bench
seats. “In fact, I don’t blame you for all the shit you’ve probably thought
about me. I was a massive dick from the moment we met… I didn’t want to have a
sister, but in some ways I think it’s better that we see one another as
something different.”

“What do you mean?” Jess
asked, looking up at me quizzically, her soft lips creased into a frown.

“I don’t want anyone
treating you the way Michael treated you,” I explained, choosing my words very
carefully. “Just because you liked some of what he did doesn’t mean he’s the
kind of guy you should be with.”

“Well what kind of men do
you expect me to date?” she asked, her tone incredulous. “I can’t imagine there
are too many gentlemen who would bend me over their knees. Michael told me that
no one else would ever want me. Maybe he was right. I’m fucked up...”

The image was more than
enough to rouse my since sleeping cock, which I did my best to keep under
control. It was hard not to imagine what Jess’ bare thighs would feel like over
my lap, my hand slapping against that plump little ass of hers. I cleared my
throat uncomfortably and shook my head.

“You’d be surprised by how
many men would jump at the thought of doing those kinds of things to
you—without treating you like a piece of garbage.” I sighed again, rubbing my
hand over my face in frustration. I couldn’t see a way of protecting her from
men like Michael—not without taking an active role in making sure she knew what
it felt like to be treated right even while someone was bending her over and
ordering her around like a slave.

I would have to do it
myself.

“Take off your panties, Jessica,”
I said, my voice low enough that only she could hear.

“
What?!
” she hissed, glancing toward a waiter as he passed by. “Are
you crazy?”

“You need to learn to take
charge of yourself—of your own sexuality,” I said in a whisper “This is the
first step. I want you to take them off and shove them into your purse.”

“I… Can’t…”

“I wasn’t
asking
.”