PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Shapeshifter Romance: The Vampire's Stolen Bride (BBW Fantasy Alpha Male Romance Books) (New Adult Vampire Fun Mature Young Adult Billionaire Steamy Love and Romance Novella) (19 page)

Stepbrother, Boss, Lover

Chapter 1

Serena

Serena Foster almost stumbled on the steps as she walked up the stairs to her office building making her almost drop the three cups of coffee she was carrying in her hand.

“Damn these heels,”
she thought to herself.
“I should have just changed in the car like I originally wanted to.”

Serena was an African American secretary at Calabasas Wellness Center and even though the world didn’t really consider her position as an important one, she loved her job. If there was one thing she took seriously, it was her job. She had always told people that she liked considering herself as a real life Donna Paulsen because she made things happen. And that was probably why she was only highly paid secretary at her workplace.

“Looking good there Miss Foster,” Randy, the head of the building security said as Serena stood in front of the elevator. She looked at the dark suited man next to her and flashed him a smile.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Just then the elevator doors open and the two stepped in.

“So, one of those for me?” Randy asked and she smiled.

“I thought you were cutting back on caffeine,” she said and Randy shrugged.

“I was…I am,” he said. She turned to look at the reflective surface of the elevator doors. “Don’t judge me.”

“I never said I was.” She pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “This job is hard enough and the three cups of coffee I have on a daily basis are barely enough to get me through the day.” The elevator doors opened at The Calabasas Wellness Centre where she worked. “Hot chocolate,” she said as she handed him one of the Styrofoam cups. “You need to take better care of that heart if you still care about me, Randy.”

Randy held the elevator doors to keep them from closing.

“You know I do,” he called after her making her smile as she walked to her desk. She placed her own coffee on her desk before she walked to her boss Thomas Strauss’ office. She had just placed his coffee on his desk when she heard him walking in behind her.

“Good morning, Dr. Strauss,” she said with a smile.

“Oh I wish,” he said as he walked round the desk and sat down.

“Well hope the coffee will make you feel better,” Serena said. “Skinny latte. Fresh.” She almost turned to walk out of the office when the doctor took a long deep breath. She looked at him and shrugged in confusion.

“You are too good to me. It almost makes what I have to do next so difficult,” the doctor started and she raised an eyebrow over the other.

“What do you mean? What are you talking about?” she asked. He took another long deep breath.

“Why don’t you have a seat, Serena,” he said in a soft voice.

She sat down and sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk and looked at her slightly aged boss.

“Dr. Strauss? What’s going on?” she asked as she looked at him. “You are making me nervous.”

“Serena, in the two years you have worked here, I have grown very fond of you.” She watched as he straightened his shoulders. “And I hate that I have kept the outcome of the takeover this much.”

“Takeover?” she whispered under her breath. For the last few months, she knew that Dr. Strauss had been involved in some money situation. But she had no idea that there was any kind of takeover involved. The only time she heard of takeovers was on movies and thus far she knew one thing for sure, that word meant trouble.

“CWC is all about…has always been about getting the best medical services in the area and I almost ruined everything.” He reached for his coffee and took a long sip. “I was trying to turn into a concierge service which would not have stood out in Calabasas.”

“What?” she asked as she looked at him. “Why?” she couldn’t believe that the Dr. Strauss she knew would do something like that. For him, medicine was more about the call rather than the profits.

“I was out in Miami and I thought I could do that here.” He took another long sip of his coffee. “By the time I got back to setting everything in motion, the damage had already been done.”

“So what do you mean?” she asked.

“The partners had a vote and it was a choice between liquidating and costing everyone here their jobs or me stepping down,” Dr. Strauss said and Serena shook her head. She was still confused. “I still have a seat on the board but if I still want CWC to go on, I have to do this.”

“But why step down…like seriously…” Serena’s voice trailed off. She didn’t exactly have the right words to say what she had in minds.

“I believe in CWC and I personally did the screening process for my replacement so I know that the doctor taking over in my place is going to do great.” He took another sip of his coffee. “This place is definitely going to be better without me. And the only way I can guarantee what I spent years building doesn’t go down the drain, is if I just take a back seat and let someone else drive.”

“Well, but for how long?” she asked.

“As long as it guarantees the car doesn’t get wrecked on the way there,” Dr. Strauss said.

Serena shrugged. She understood that he had his momentary lapse but she still didn’t understand why he had to step down. That meant that he was one cup of coffee from packing up his office and leaving. That was not what something she looked forward to seeing. Even though everything else on that day was not making much sense, she knew one thing for sure. She was not going to like having a new boss. This was the first boss she had got along with in a long time and she was not looking forward to seeing what her new boss was like.

“But why did you wait this long to tell me?” she asked.

“Well, it was…I was trying to find a way to make myself stay but nothing was working.”

She pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and sighed.

“So, who is this new doctor I will be getting coffee for?” she asked as she looked at her boss.

“Well, I didn’t know him personally until a few weeks ago but he is the best cardiothoracic surgeon I have ever known, apart from me that is.” Serena smiled at his failed attempt at subtlety as he rummaged through the files on his desk. “If I could only find his file…. oh perfect. Here he is. Jake Alexander, just moved out here from Seattle.”

At the mention of his name, Serena felt her blood freeze. The name was all too familiar to her. She knew that it could not be a coincidence that she also knew a leading cardiothoracic surgeon from Seattle also named Jake Alexander.

“Please God…don’t let it be true,”
she thought to herself as she opened the file in her hands. “Oh dear Lord,” she muttered to herself.

“Did you say something?” Dr. Strauss asked and Serena nodded.

“I know him,” she said.

“The new doctor? Really?” the doctor asked. “Small world.”

“Well, yeah. You have no idea how small,” she said as she looked at the file.

The world was so small that she was looking at her own brother…well, stepbrother.

Chapter 2

Nine Years Ago…

As she sat in her room with her headphones on, Serena could not help but ignore what was going on next door with her mother and stepfather. For the last year, life in that household had been almost impossible. There wasn’t a day when the two didn’t argue and quite honestly, it was all getting old. She looked at her computer screen and sighed. There was no way she was going to concentrate under these conditions.

“Maybe a trip to the library is what I really need,”
she thought to herself as she got up from the bed. She had her accounts finals and she had to study. And after what happened with her stepbrother last time, she was safer in her room. She hated awkward situations and seeing Jake around the house had lately become her definition of awkward even though she had loved every second of her ‘awkward’ moment with him. She was packing up her bag when she suddenly heard something break and shatter. She ran out of her room practically burst in through the doors of her mother’s bedroom. She looked at her mother who looked as startled as she was.

“What the fuck is going on here?” she demanded as she looked at her mother Lena and stepfather Reed.

“Language young lady!” Lena said pointing at Serena who was looking at the shattered glass on the floor in between them.

“Broken glass, mum? What happened?” Serena asked again as her gaze shifted between Reed and her mother.

“This has nothing to do with you, Serena,” Reed said. By the way he was behaving, Serena could almost swear that he was drunk which was no surprise. “And don’t you have to study or something?” he asked. She nodded.

“Well, I was trying to but the whole damn place is like a battlefield. I can’t concentrate,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Then go to the fucking library,” Reed pointed out and Lena shot him a dirty look. “What? She said it first.”

“If you must know, I was about to before things began breaking around here,” Serena said as she looked at her mother and then at Reed. There was no sign that her stepfather had done anything to her mother but at this rate she was scared that it wouldn’t be long before it happened.

“Everything is fine,” Lena said as she sat at the edge of the bed. “Just go study honey.”

Serena looked at Reed and raised an eyebrow over the other.

“Remember I told you once, you touch her and I will kill you,” she said in a threatening voice.

“One of these days, little girl. You will get what will come to you,” Reed said as he began walking towards her.

“Don’t you touch my daughter you son of a bitch!” Lena yelled.

“And I will be right there next to her, supporting you if and when she does kill you,” a voice behind Serena said. She knew that voice. She turned around and looked at Jake. “And then I’ll bring you back to life and kill you again,”

“I can’t ever have any peace in this house,” Reed muttered before he walked out of the room leaving the three of them. Jake noticed the broken glass and slowly walked into the room.

“What happened here?” he asked as he looked at the floor.

“Nothing.” Lena said as she began standing. “A vase broke. That’s all.” Serena suddenly caught her breath in her neck when her mother lost her footing on the broken glass.

“Mum, watch out…” she started but it was too late. Her mother suddenly shrieked as she stepped on the glass, which was almost as good as stepping on a wet floor.

“Damn it!” Lena exclaimed as she slipped and fell on the glass.

“Oh my God,” Serena said in a low voice as she clasped a hand over her mouth. She watched in horror as her mother struggled to get up.

“Don’t move, Lena,” Jake said in a soft but commanding voice. He walked up to where she was and helped her up before he carefully placed her gently on the bed. “Let me have a look at you,” he said as he sat at the edge of the bed. He looked at her already bleeding thigh and sighed. “I won’t know what is going on until these pants come off and I know this is going to be strange for you but I am talking from a medical point of view.”

“Just do what you have to, Jake,” Lena said. “It’s not like I have to take them off or anything.”

“No. I’ll just need to cut off the one side,” he said and Lena’s eyes grew wide.

“But I love these slacks,” she said.

“It’s not like you can wear these sweatpants again, mom. They are ruined,” Serena pointed out.

“Get me the first aid kit, Serena,” Jake said. Serena looked at them, her legs momentarily paralyzed. She just couldn’t move, maybe the sight of all that blood was getting her all confused. “Serena,” Jake called out again, snapping his fingers to get her attention. She looked at him and nodded before she ran to the bathroom. Suddenly, nothing else mattered to her anymore except her mother. The library, her finals…everything had all taken a back seat. All she could think of at that moment was how much she wanted to kick Reed’s face in. She wanted to hurt him so much that all he could do was squeal. He had been the reason of so many of her sleepless nights and her mother’s pain. And even though he had never really laid a hand on Lena yet, Serena could almost guess that was what he was going to do next since he was always shouting at her and blaming her for almost everything. She grabbed the first aid box and rushed back to the bedroom where her mother seemed a little worse than she seemed a couple of minutes earlier.

“Any history of anemia?” Jake was asking the now drowsy looking Lena.

“I get light headed every so often but I have never really had it checked out,” Lena said in a soft voice.

“Does it get more intense during your period?” Jake asked again and Serena felt her cheeks get red. She was actually blushing on her mother’s behalf.

“A little…yeah.” Jake was now looking into Lena’s eyes.

“Well, you need to get a full blood work done,” he said before he took he kit from Serena. “It could be a little more serious than you make it out to be. I mean,” he began cutting the sweatpants off. “You are already light headed and you haven’t even lost too much blood.”

“How bad is it?” Serena asked as she looked at them.

“Not very bad I’ll need some tweezers to get the few shards embedded in her thigh,” Jake said as he looked up. Serena nodded and practically ran out of her mother’s room. She got her tweezers from her makeup bag and then rushed back to find Jake had already finished cleaning up the wound. She tiptoed to the side of the bed to avoid getting glass stuck on the underside of her flip-flops.

“What can I do?” she asked, as she looked at the two feeling helpless.

“Get Lena some aspirin. I’ve got this,” Jake said looking up, smiling.

*****

After giving the aspirin to her mother, Serena had walked out of the room and headed straight to the kitchen. She looked up when Jake walked in.

“Are you alright?” he asked in a soft voice.

“I’m fine. My mum?” she asked.

“She is sleeping off the whole thing. She was a little shaken up but she took one of her pills.” He sat down next to her. “I know that those pills will definitely have her out for a while.”

“Thanks for …everything,” she said.

“You don’t have to thank me.” He looked at her for a long minute before she spoke again.

“Your father is getting out of control, Jake,” she said and he nodded.

“I know,” he nodded.

“What if he had thrown the vase at mum or something?” she asked again. “I can’t go on doing this…covering for him when the neighbors call the cops.”

“I think he is using again,” Jake admitted as he sat down next to her.

“Using
again
?” Serena shook her head. “I didn’t know your father was an alcoholic.”

Jake shook his head.

“Not alcohol. Drugs,” he said and she raised an eyebrow at him. “He used to crack some years back and honestly, I almost didn’t make it to college because of his habit.”

“You never mentioned anything,” Serena whispered.

“Well, when he became sober I thought he was pretty open about it to everyone and considering he met Lena at work, the same place where his sponsor got him into…I thought you guys knew,” Jake explained. He reached for her hand and she looked into his blue green eyes. “You know I would do anything to be here with you as often as I can but…” she nodded, cutting him short.

“I know med school is important to you,” she said.

“It is.” She smiled.

“Thanks for the effort. Don’t you ever think that I don’t notice it,” she said.

“Oh I do,” Jake said as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “But I don’t just come to keep my dad in check. I also come for you,” he added as he looked right into her brown eyes. Her cheeks flushed again and she gently pulled her hand away. Ever since that first night they shared a kiss, things between them had been heating up and every time they had a chance, they would do it again. They both knew that it was wrong at the back of their minds but they kept telling themselves that since there was no blood kinship ties, everything was okay. They were not doing anything taboo.

Serena stood up and walked to the fridge for no particular reason.

“I’m sorry. I made you uncomfortable,” Jake said as she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.

“It’s fine.”

She opened the bottle and took a long sip of her water as he walked up to where she was. She took another sip and he stood in front of her.

“No, it’s not fine,” he said in a whisper. “I shouldn’t be encouraging this even though I can’t really help it.”

“We are both wrong, Jake,” she said as she replaced the bottle top. “And I really hate that I feel like I need you so much,” she added in a whisper.

He put his hands on either side of her waist and looked down at her.

“I don’t think there is any problem with you needing me.” He took another step closer to her and he was suddenly so close, too close she could feel his warm breath on her own skin. “Because I need you too.”

“Jake,” she said as she tried pushing him away but he was gently pulling her towards him. He slowly brought his head down and kissed her softly. She had never really been kissed by anyone else. Hell, no other boy had ever paid her this much attention. She had always been the chubby girl around school that most people preferred making fun of. And now Jake, her older much more attractive stepbrother was looking at her like she was the only girl in the world. She never got it. He was in med school for Pete’s sake and she knew for a fact that there were hot college girls hot for him all over campus.

“Now tell me,” Jake said when he pulled away. “How can something that feels so right be so wrong?”

She wanted to answer him but she just didn’t have the right words. All she could think of was just how right he was. She had thought of the same thing over and over again so many times before. He pulled herself away from him and began walking out of the kitchen. She was not very sure where she was going but all she cared about was that she could not be in the same room with him at that moment.

“I’ve left a note with the name of an iron supplement for Lena,” Jake said when she got to the door. She stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. “Do me a favor and make sure she gets it, okay?”

Serena nodded and walked out of the kitchen feeling her cheeks flushing. She hated how weak she was around him. It was almost like she had no will power at all when she was around Jake. Like he had some kind of spell over her. In her head, she had been walking as fast as her legs to carry her but when Jake caught up with her after just a few seconds, she realized that she had not been as fast as she had initially hoped for. She gasped silently when she felt his hand around her wrist. She turned around to look into his eyes and sighed into his mouth when he lowered his head to kiss her once more. She wanted to pull away, more than anything she wanted to pull away but somehow it seemed impossible. By the time he pulled away from her, she was weak in her knees.

“Jake, I told you,” she started as she looked at him. “This can’t happen. It’s unfair to both of us.”

“I asked you this again. What could be so wrong about this?” he pulled her to himself and she gasped. She was now panting. She
did
have strong feelings for him. She
did
want to be his and only his. And as she stood there in front of him, all those nights they had spent together kissing and holding came flooding back. She never felt like she was making any mistake when she was in his arms and maybe that was because there was nothing wrong as far as what she felt for him was concerned.

“Nothing,” she said in a whisper as she held his cheek. “Absolutely nothing.”

“You have no idea how long I have waited to hear you say that,” Jake whispered before he kissed her again as he slowly backed her up against the wall. He pulled away and looked down at her for a long minute before he took her hand in his and began leading her down the hall. She knew where he was taking her and she didn’t hold back. There was no reason to. He looked at her when they got to the door leading to his room and smiled before he opened the door and walked in with her following close behind.