Gripped: A Stepbrother Romance (Bonus Story: Stepbrother Forbidden) (5 page)

Downstairs, the front door slammed. I heard the sound of a woman’s shoe heel on the hardwood flooring below. Shit. She was home a lot sooner than I’d hoped.

“Dad?” Mac called. “Da-ad!”

I packed faster, grabbing my stuff from various places and dumping them into the suitcase. I had a few shaving items in the bathroom but I wasn’t going to risk getting them. I wanted to be on my way out the door by the time she climbed those stairs.

My cellular phone beeped with a message. I ignored it. Probably Jeremy asking more asinine questions he should already know the answers to. Then again, I wouldn’t want him to do something fucking stupid and get himself hurt.

I reached for my phone and fired off a response. He replied with yet another question which I had to answer too. By the time I set the phone down, I looked up and found Mac watching me from the doorway.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Silence.

Her entire body radiated hesitation and she seemed upset. Beyond that assessment, all I could think about was how gorgeous she looked. She was dressed in a blue work shirt over a black, slim-fitting skirt but her pumps made her smooth legs look longer. She wore her curly hair down, too, just the way I liked it.

I tightened my hands at my sides into fists, willing myself not to try to touch her. The fight was harder because after enjoying her body beneath my hands once, everything in me demanded to do it all over again.

“Have you seen Dad?”

“No.” I forced my gaze away from her pretty face to some vague spot past her shoulder. “Probably still downtown in a meeting.”

“Oh.” Her shoulders fell. “OK. Thanks.”

She turned away, about to leave, but no. Ever the idiot, I couldn’t let her go.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” She shook her head. Then her forehead wrinkled in a frown. “No, it’s not nothing. Tom wants me to sign a prenup.”

I bristled. Tom? She wanted to talk about fucking
Tom
?

I shrugged. “I don’t see the big deal. It happens all the—”

“It is a big deal!” She folded her arms beneath her breasts, her eyes darkening with anger. “He dragged me away from work today to not only demand I sign a prenup, but an agreement that when we’re married, I have to quit my job. Oh and there’s more.” She laughed, the sound humourless. “In the agreement, I’m to have no less than one and no more than three of his kids. He’ll pay me a stipend for each kid I pop out too. And if I can’t give him any kids, we’ll adopt but I won’t get paid a cent.”

“Now ain’t that love,” I said.

“No, it’s ridiculous!” she huffed. “He had an actual document with all his stipulations typed up ready for me to sign. He wanted me to stay beneath a certain weight during the marriage. He told me I had to throw away my closest friend because she’s too ‘plebeian.’”

I scoffed. “He doesn’t like Desiree? Who doesn’t like Desiree? She’s nice.” I approached her, breathing in her flowery scent. I wanted to press my face against her neck . Hold her and smell her for hours. “He’s an ass, Mac. A true dickwad among all the dickwads that ever existed.”

“He really is.”

I smiled, surprised she agreed. “Still gonna marry him?”

She watched me intently. “No. I ended things with him.”

Her answer excited me more than it should. Hearing her complaining about Tom and agreeing with me that he was an asshole had encouraged some kind of hope in me. A hope I shouldn’t have had in the first place. Even though she’d said she was done with the guy, that still didn’t change anything between us. She was still off-limits and the sooner I got that through my head, the better.

“Well, congratulations,” I said as I turned back to my suitcase. I spread out the mountain of clothing so it lay flat in a haphazard mess. “I’m glad I didn’t have to ruin my hands punching this one in the face too.”

“You still can.” She chuckled. “Wait, why are you packing?”

“I’m going to a hotel.” I zipped up the suitcase, lifting it to sit on its wheels.

She advanced into the room, her features a mixture of anger and disbelief.

“You’re leaving? Reid, Dad invited you to stay here. How do you think he’d feel if you left just like that?”

“How do you think he’d feel if he found out what we did?”

A long and heavy silence followed that statement. My words and the memories they inspired hung there between us, taking up too much space, overwhelming us. This complicated mess was way too much for either of us to handle. At least too much for me to handle.

“It’s just so typical of you.” She spoke softly, her voice laced with disappointment. It set me on edge, fuelling my own anger too. “As soon as things don’t go the way you want it to, you bail. You always bail.” Her face pink, she moved closer, her brown eyes glittering with the anger that refused to relent. “You never stick around. Not to talk or work things out. You run. You run like a fucking coward.”

The air felt alive somehow. My skin was too hot despite the light sweater I had on. My heart beat faster than normal. A coward? She thought I was a coward? For years I’d fought against what I felt for her until all I could do was disappear. How the fuck did you ‘talk’ or ‘work’ out a situation where you had fallen in love with your stepsister?

“And what about you, Mac?” I stepped toward her, crowding her space. When she backed up, I followed. “Wanna know what you do when the going gets tough? You ignore it. You stick your damn head in the sand and act like if you pretend it isn’t happening it’ll go away.”

She pressed against the dresser and stared up at me with wide eyes. Her lips parted, she breathed fast and deep like if I was blocking her oxygen. I intended to do just that. I was going to kiss her so hard, she’d hit me to let her go. No amount of rationalization was going to stop me either. I was a coward? Far from it. She was about to learn that much.

“Newsflash, Mac, either you run, you fight, or you give in.”

She licked her lips. “Reid, I—”

“And you know what?” I fisted my hand in her hair, pulling her head back so every bit of her attention was focused on me. Her features were conflicted, growing desire warring with deepening anger. My cock was as hard as stone and I decided that maybe kissing her was not the only thing I needed to do to her today.

I bent my head so she could feel my lips move against her jaw as I spoke.

“I’m fed up of running, I’m fed up fighting, so I think I might as well give in.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Mackenzie

Reid didn’t give me a chance to respond. Instead he twisted my face to his and kissed me. I brought my hand up to his chest intending to angrily push him away but my hand lingered. His tongue pushed past my lips into my mouth and I closed my eyes on a soft and shameful moan.

I wasn’t sure I could call Reid’s mouth over mine a kiss. That word was way too soft for what he did to me now. He dominated me, his tongue curling around and subduing mine. I fisted my hands in the soft material of his sweater, just as his hand was tightened around my hair. I wanted to push him away and pull him even closer at the same time.

He tasted and smelled good. A dull taste of mint on his tongue and a woodsy scent with a lighter lavender smell on his skin. Tall and broad, his flesh hard and hot beneath my hands, Reid was everything I’d ever wanted for years but couldn’t have.

He continued to kiss me as he relinquished my hair and roved his hands over my body. His touch was not gentle either. He palmed my breasts over my shirt and squeezed them, forcing a whimper from me.

“I am not a coward,” he growled against my lips.

“That’s what all cowards say,” I spat.

“You’re all mouth now but I wonder how much you’ll be able to say when I’m fucking you on this dresser.”

Holy shit. His words, his voice made my skin sizzle, my heart slam in my chest, my pussy squeeze with need. Somewhere deep in the back of my mind, alarm bells rang that this was going too far too fast.
This is wrong. You shouldn’t be doing this. He’s your stepbrother.

But like Reid, I’d fought too much. I had no more willpower to resist something I wanted even if it was wrong. So when Reid pulled apart my shirt, sending the buttons flying everywhere, I did not feel horrified being bared to him. Instead, I grew damper between my thighs.

“God, you’re so fucking gorgeous,” he said, his voice raspy, the heat of his hand almost branding me as he caressed my stomach. His gaze held mine, the hunger and admiration in his deep blue eyes sped up my heart rate. The inside of my stomach felt like it contained a thousand fluttery beings. “I want to taste every inch of you.”

Reid yanked my bra down so the cups pushed my breasts up in eager anticipation of his touch. My face grew hot. It was the most exposed I’d ever been in front of him. Trips to the beach when we were younger while I wore my tankinis did not count. I wanted to cover myself, but I didn’t have to when his mouth would suffice. He bent me back slightly so he could get better access. His hot breath ghosting over my right nipple made me shiver.

“Oh my god,” I moaned when his wet, warm mouth covered my breast. I sifted my fingers through his thick hair, grasping onto the strands when he sucked my flesh into his mouth. I panted and squirmed between him and the dresser as his tongue lapped and flicked one nipple while his fingers pinched and rubbed the other.

I wanted his cock. Needed it. Badly. Each caress of his tongue over my flesh sent a sweet thrill straight to my pussy. My panties were soaked and all I wanted to do was take them off so Reid could have uninterrupted access to do to me whatever he pleased.

He abandoned my breasts to kiss me again. It was still just as hard, still just as punishing. His way of teaching me a lesson for calling him a coward.

He broke our kiss, backing away. He was like some terrible force ripping through me, turning me upside down, round and round, leaving me breathless and confused.

“Turn around,” he ordered. I opened my mouth to question him but he shook his head. A sharp sideways jerk of his head that made me snap my mouth shut again. “Turn around.”

I turned, facing the dresser and the beige wall behind it.

“Reid—”

“Bend over.”

The dresser was only as high as my hips, but I bent over, planting my forearms on the bare wooden surface.

“Spread your legs a little wider.”

My heart rate was climbing again. I hated how much more aroused I became by his bossy tone. I spread my legs as wide as my pencil skirt would allow. But that seemed not to be enough for Reid because he grabbed the hem of my skirt and shoved it up, exposing my ass.

I reared up in surprise, but his hand was like steel against my back pushing me back down onto the dresser again. He kept one hand on my back while the other found its home between my legs, pressing up hard against my wet panties and wetter pussy. A gasp escaped me from the abruptness of his touch.

“Fuck, you’re pretty wet for me, sweetheart.” His voice was low and husky. I closed my eyes, relishing the sound. He came closer, pushing his front against my leg so I could feel his hard length through his jeans while he rubbed me through my panties. “And I’m pretty hard for you too.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” I said on a strangled moan. He found my clit, circling it slowly over the cotton material of my underwear. My legs shook with the need to close together and trap his hand there forever.

“So hasty.” He pushed my panties aside, sliding one digit along my wet slit. He pushed a finger inside me, then another one. Only the tips. Rubbing just a bit inside my channel excruciatingly slow. Making my body shake harder with desperation. I closed my eyes and threw my head back on a long whimper. Oh my
god
. Why didn’t he just fuck me already?

“Doers do. Cowards make excuses,” I panted out.

“Is that right?” He pushed his fingers deeper, all the way, then he leaned over me to grab hold of my hair in his fist, pumping his fingers inside me. I cried out, shocked by how amazing his big fingers felt moving in me. “I’m going to show you how much I can do to you, Mackenzie. I hope you’re ready.”

“I’m not a coward.”

He let go of my hair and pulled his fingers from me. My pussy squeezed around the emptiness he’d left, yearning for him again. I heard a zip, then paper crinkling. My heart pounded so loud, I could hear it in my ears. Could he hear it too?

Then his hands were on my skin again, hot and demanding. His fingers squeezing my hips, he stood behind me, his cock settled in the groove between my butt cheeks, the flesh hard and hot even through my panties.

He guided himself between my legs, rubbing up against me through my underwear. I squirmed, wishing it was skin to skin contact.

I looked over my shoulder at him. “Aren’t you going to take off my panties?”

“No.” He tugged my panties to the side again and pushed the head of his cock up against my slick entrance. “The next time you wear these, I want you to remember what I did to you while you wore them.”

With a soft grunt, he thrust into me, filling me, stoppering me with his cock. My body rocked forward and I dug my nails into the dresser’s surface as some strange, choke-gasp sound released from my throat. I remained still. I needed a moment to not only accept the fact that Reid was inside me, but that he was so damn
huge
.

“Fuck,” he groaned, sliding out of me then thrusting back in. One of his hands left my hip to course along my back and sides, caressing me as he picked up the pace. “Holy fuck, you feel amazing.”

“Oh god…” Reid pounded into me harder. Never had I been happier wearing heels. With my ass raised, every stroke of his cock rubbed against my sweet spot. “Oh god…yes…”

He was like hard steel stretching me over and over again with each thrust. I clung to the dresser as he drove into me harder, the slap of his legs against the back of my thighs mixing with our moans. His hand reached up to squeeze and fondle my breast while the other curved around my front, delving between my legs to diddle my sensitive nub. My heart slammed in my chest almost as hard as he slammed into me, grinding his hips every so often so I felt every sweet motion of his cock buried inside me.