Score - A Stepbrother Romance (5 page)

Jesus, what had I done wrong now? Okay, I’d been teasing her, but surely she knew I wasn’t serious. I hadn’t actually expected her to pick up the damn towel.

Oh well. If she hated me, it was her own damn problem. No skin off my nose. We might be living here together now, but we didn’t need to get along.

Nope, I didn’t care. Not one bit.

Bullshit
, a tiny voice in the back of my mind told me.
You care.

“Oh, shut up,” I said out loud.

L
iving
in the same house as Chase wasn’t easy, at least for me. Lily was thrilled about the new place, having lots of room to run around and play as well as a huge garden and a pool. Even Mom seemed different; more peaceful and calm.

I was the only one who felt out of place. I missed our old home, despite the fact it was musty and hot in the summer, and cold and damp in the wintertime.

However, even I had to admit I loved the luxury of having my own room after sharing a bedroom with my little sister for the past three years. I loved having some privacy. Playing with dolls was fun, but after having a Polly the Physician knockoff take your temperature for the seventeenth time, you got pretty tired of it.

The fact that Chase’s room was right next to mine didn’t help things much, though. Such a big house and yet we were stuck sharing a wall. It made me worry about every little noise I made, and I’d lie awake at night, thinking about him, waiting to hear the steady breathing that meant he’d fallen asleep.

After our little encounter in the hallway the other day, I had steered clear of Chase. If I didn’t, it would be even harder to resist the temptation…

The memory of his towel dropping in the hall was still fresh in my mind, his cock embedded in my memory. Fuck, he was big, and he’d already been hard and throbbing. It’d been impossible to take my eyes off of him that day, and now he’d invaded my thoughts and set up a permanent camp.

Any given morning, I’d be sitting at the kitchen table with the rest of the family and start blushing fiercely as I felt Chase’s eyes on me, stripping me naked. God, it was getting harder and harder to be in the same room as him, so I just kept to myself instead, making sure we didn’t cross paths.

But there was something else, too. Something that had made me stop in my tracks in the hallway that day, even when my mind was in the gutter already. I was so hot for him, ready to give it all up for a single touch of his skilled fingers…

And then he’d said something that rubbed me the wrong way. I had no idea what it was that had bothered me, exactly—I’d been racking my brain for days, but always came up empty. For the time being, I’d decided to let it go. It was making me feel weirdly uncomfortable, anyway.

A week or so after that run-in, Peter’s team had organized a media lunch to introduce us to the public as his new family. I was already nervous about it. I didn’t like attention on myself, but I knew I had to play the good little stepdaughter, if only for the cameras.

The day beforehand, I’d turned in my notice at the coffee shop. I’d only worked there for a few weeks, and I hadn’t wanted to quit right after they’d hired me, but college was starting in a week. I knew I’d have to focus on my studies, and they didn’t have any part-time waitressing positions to keep me on. Also, Peter had been polite but persistent, and he’d told me that it wouldn’t look good for his stepdaughter to be waiting tables anyway, even part-time. Fortunately, he hadn’t pressured me too much—I’d made the decision to quit on my own. As much as I’d wanted to help Mom out, I knew it was for the best of the family if I did what Peter suggested.

“Lina, wear this,” Mom said the morning of our first media appearance. We were all in her bedroom, getting ready for the lunch. I’d done her makeup in pretty pastels and light neutrals, and she looked beautiful. I’d told her as much.

She passed me a hanger with a floral dress and I gave her a look. I wasn’t really a dress kind of girl—I preferred jeans and a tee, but even I knew that wouldn’t be appropriate for the luncheon.

With a grumble, I took the dress out of her hands, and she gave me a cardigan as well.

“Mom,” I groaned. “I’ll look like some preppy spoiled princess. Can I skip the cardigan for now?”

“Fine.” She smiled at me. “And you don’t have to wear the pearls.”

She put away a white pearl necklace as I rolled my eyes. Freaking pearls, like I was Jackie O or something.

I disappeared into the bathroom to get changed while Mom fussed with Lily’s thick curls. She looked like a doll in her poufy dress, complete with shiny new ballet flats. Even I had to admit she looked adorable. If Peter was the one who’d chosen our outfits, he’d definitely done a good job.

I tugged the dress on, and surprisingly, it fit all right. A look in the mirror showed me looking like a totally different girl—every strand of hair in place, my curves hidden by the dress. I added the cardigan against my earlier judgment and came out of hiding.

“Mommy, look at Lina,” Lily gasped. “She looks like a girl.”

“I’ve been one all along!” I said in a dramatic voice, making my little sister giggle. I smiled as I hugged her tightly to my chest.

Mom came closer, beaming with pride as she looked at us. She held out her hand, and I was about to take it in mine when I saw what she was holding.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I said, my voice tinged with desperation. She gave me a pleading look, and I sighed and took the headband from her hand, sliding it into my hair. I probably looked like a doll as well now. Oh, the things we did for family.

“Shall we go?” Mom was sparkling with happiness, so I didn’t object. I took her hand and my sister’s, and we left the room, prepared for the vultures to descend upon us.

W
hen Chase saw
my get-up, he nearly doubled over with laughter. I shot him a nasty look but he was still grinning as we met up in front of the house.

“Hello, Preppy Penny,” he said with a grin.

“You’ve been spending far too much time with Lily,” I said, but I couldn’t quite keep the smile off my face, either.

“Preppy Penny is the shit in kindergarten right now, I’ll have you know,” Chase informed me while his father shot him a warning look.

“Watch your language, Chase. And you all look lovely, ladies.”

He hugged my Mom, and I had to admit that it was kind of nice to see them together like this. They really looked like they were in love. Maybe my earlier assumptions about Peter had been incorrect.

“Shall we?”

Peter motioned towards the limo awaiting us, and we all piled into it. It was spacious, and in a matter of minutes, Lily was happily exploring the inside of the car. Mom had to pry a bottle of champagne out of her hands once she got into the mini fridge, and it made me giggle.

“At least wait for the actual wedding before you start trying to down a bottle of bubbly,” I teased, and Mom clicked her tongue at me.

Throughout the ride, I could feel Chase’s eyes burning into my skin, but I refused to look at him. I was already nervous about the media lunch, and I didn’t need another distraction in the shape of a ripped, sexy as hell stepbrother.

In a matter of minutes, we arrived at the hotel where the event was taking place, and I felt my heart drop to the bottom of my stomach. I didn’t do ‘center of attention’ very well. I hated being in the spotlight, and I could already tell it was going to be a nightmare to pose and answer questions for the journalists.

My hands shook as I got out of the car. Someone else’s steady hand met mine, helping me out of the vehicle, and I raised my eyes to meet Chase’s. He gave me an innocent smile, and I was too nervous to reject him, so I let him help me. He had to practically lift me down to the ground, and my hand lingered in his for a second too long, making my heart flutter.

As soon as we stepped inside the conference room, the cameras started flashing. I felt sick to my stomach, the lights and questions making me shake in my ballet flats. I tried to smile, be polite, answer like I’d been told to, but my heart was thumping like crazy, making it impossible to focus on what the journalists were saying.

No one was eating the food, I noticed after a little while
. So much for a luncheon
. Perhaps I could get a snack and a drink and have a little break from the press.

I walked over to the drinks table and poured myself a glass of grape juice. My hands were so shaky I could barely hold the glass. I had no idea why I was so nervous—everyone else was handling it so well.

My eyes found Mom and Lily, both of them laughing with the journalists. Lily presented one of them with a drawing she’d made, and everyone oohed and aahed over how adorable it was. It was of the six of us, a cute picture of her new family drawn in blue, red and purple crayon. I liked how Chase was the central point of it, the biggest figure with a heart around his face. It made me smile.

“Miss Diaz, how do you feel about your new stepbrother? Well, almost-stepbrother. I understand the wedding is in a few months.”

A journalist assaulted me from behind, taking me totally by surprise. The question made sweat bead on my back, and I turned around to answer, my hands still shaking.

As my luck would have it, I bumped right into his recorder as he rudely tried to push it right up in my face. My glass tipped and in a hot second, I was soaked in dark purple juice. I looked down with horror to see it seeping through my dress.

“Shi—oh no.” I stopped myself from cursing just in time, discarding of the glass to assess the damage on my dress. The floral pattern was on a white background, the dark stain blooming next to the pink peonies. I was an absolute mess.

“I have to get this cleaned off,” I mumbled, feeling more nervous than ever. “I’ll be back in a second, I’m so sorry.”

“Can’t you answer the question first?”

The journalist was right in my face, pressing the recorder so close that it was nearly touching me again. It was incredibly awkward and uncomfortable, and he hadn’t even apologized about the grape juice debacle.

“I’m sorry…”

“Hey now, why is all the attention on Lina? I’d like to answer some questions, too. Show some love for good old Chase Stryker, why don’t you?”

Chase had strolled up next to us, blocking the journalist’s access to me. The guy looked annoyed, but Chase just winked at me, motioning for me to go with a brief nod. I gave him a grateful smile as he started talking to the annoying journalist, and I headed straight for the bathrooms.

Once in there, I saw that the stain had seeped all the way through my dress, and I had to strip down the top part and scrub the sticky juice off my skin with a paper towel. I was just in my bra now, so I hoped to God no one would come in and see me.

I’d finally managed to clean myself up when the door to the bathroom opened. I turned around and stared at the intruder like a deer in the headlights, the top of my dress still around my waist.

“It’s just me,” Chase said quietly, looking around to make sure we were alone. Once he saw me in my bra, half stripped down, he grinned from ear to ear. “Oh. I see you’ve already gotten things started in here...”

“You wish. Stop staring, you perv,” I hissed at him, trying to get my dress back up and struggling with the zipper.

“No worries,” Chase replied. “Nothing I haven’t seen before…and nothing I won’t see again.”

I rolled my eyes and ignored his jibe as he came over to me and helped me zip the dress back up. It was kind of nice of him, I thought distractedly, still busily checking out the damage on my dress. To be fair, he was probably just making an excuse to touch me like the sleazy animal he was, so he wasn’t going to win any awards for being nice just yet.

“Put your cardigan on top,” Chase suggested, following my gaze in the mirror. I glanced up, and my heart skipped a beat as my eyes met his. “It should cover up the stains.”

I flashed him a grateful look, taking the cardigan from my purse. I’d opted not to wear it in the end, since it was an unseasonably warm day today, but now it was coming in more than handy. I put it on and buttoned it up, and thankfully it hid the huge stain from the juice quite well. I might’ve looked like Preppy Penny, but at least I wasn’t a mess.

My eyes focused on Chase’s reflection in the mirror again. He was looking right at me, standing only inches away. My skin felt scorching hot all of a sudden, and my breathing quickened, growing more erratic by the second.

He took a step closer, never taking his eyes off mine in the mirror. His hand came to rest on the small of my back and I gasped out loud, unable to hold my breath. I was shaking; one touch of his fingers enough to send my head spinning.

Chase raised his free hand to my neck, pushing away the fabric of my cardigan until soft flesh was exposed to his lips. He was still looking at me as he lowered his mouth against my neck, almost touching my skin with his mouth, and his breath was fire against my skin, scorching me as he exhaled.

“Don’t,” I begged him, even though my mind was screaming for me to let him kiss me. “We can’t be doing this...”

His lips met my skin and I almost toppled over. He bit my neck so gently I could barely feel it, but the butterflies in my stomach were proof enough.

“Why not?” he groaned. “You taste so damn good.”

I turned around, my fingers winding in his thick hair. We were on fire, with Chase pulling me tightly against his body and my breath hot and heavy against his face.

I wanted to kiss him so freaking badly. Right now, I didn’t care about his Dad, or his fights, or the fact that he was totally off-limits. I just wanted to feel those full lips against mine, even if it was for the last time ever.

I stood up on my tiptoes, almost reaching his mouth, and my whole body trembled.

Chase grinned at me and murmured as my lips drew ever closer to his. “Mmm…good girl...”

It all came crashing down at my feet as soon as those words escaped his mouth. I moved away, the moment broken, and I gave him a hard look, angry and upset that he’d made me do something I shouldn’t even want.

“Leave,” I said. “Now.”

“What?” Chase gave me an incredulous look and then raised his hands in the air. “Are you kidding me? What’s your problem?”

What the hell
was
my problem? I didn’t even know why, but I was apprehensive all of a sudden, angry as hell and needing to get as far away from him as possible.
What was it he said
? It was definitely something about what the words he’d just spoken…

I thought hard, trying to come up with the fleeting answer, and then it hit me.
Good girl
. He'd called me a good girl in the hallway the other day and just then as well, and both times, it had triggered something deep down; a horrible fear, a strange sensation. I didn't like it. It sounded...wrong.