Step Scandal - Part 2
Read Step Scandal - Part 2 Online
Authors: Rossi St. James
STEP
SCANDAL
Part 2
ROSSI ST JAMES
COPYRIGHT 2015 ROSSI ST JAMES
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher or author. If you are reading this book and you have not purchased it or received an advanced copy directly from the author, this book has been pirated.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or, if an actual place, are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
DEDICATION
This one’s for my readers! Love you ALL! ;)
xoxo,
Rossi
OTHER BOOKS BY ROSSI ST JAMES
CRAVED (By the Alpha Billionaire #1
CLAIMED (By the Alpha Billionaire #2)
CHERISHED (By the Alpha Billionaire #3)
Step Scandal – Part 1
Sign Up Below!
DESCRIPTION
At the ripe, young age of just twenty-four, Harper Bliss is officially an aging pop star. Her label has just dropped her and she can’t book an acting gig to save her life. On top of it all, her mother and stepfather, who happen to be Hollywood royalty, are going through a bitter divorce battle and have little time to help her revive her career.
Harper needs a scandal. A salacious, jaw-dropping, attention-grabbing scandal that will reignite her career faster than you can say publicity stunt.
So that’s when she calls in a favor from her estranged stepbrother, Xavier Fox. Though they never really got along growing up, Xavier agrees to help. Guarded and temperamental, he has his reasons.
The plan? A fake relationship. Three months. Kissing on camera only. No tongue. No sex. All for show. What could possibly go wrong?
But when Xavier has a confession to make, about that hot summer night six years ago, everything changes.
AUTHOR'S NOTE - Part 2 of 3 in a new mini serial. Contains a cliffhanger and adult content. Approximately 40+ pages.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ONE – HARPER
TWO - XAVIER
THREE - HARPER
FOUR - XAVIER
SAMPLE – BIKER STEPBROTHER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ONE
Harper
It was working. Elijah’s grand, master plan was in full effect. And I hadn’t spoken to Xavier in a week. Not since he took me home the morning after we went to the club. I’d traced my lips a thousand times that week, as if the impression of his mouth on mine had been burned into them.
The kisses weren’t supposed to be real, yet he slipped me some tongue. He wasn’t supposed to care about me, yet he pulled me away from Hayden McDaniel the way a firefighter might rescue a baby from a burning building. He wasn’t supposed to give two shits about me, but for some reason, he did.
I slipped the slinky black dress up my hips and tugged it over my breasts, zipping up the back before smoothing out any creases. My hair and makeup team had just left, and my blonde hair was teased high with huge waves that bounced with each step. My cat eye and red lip finished the rest of the look.
“You look like you just stepped out of a James Bond movie,” Elijah mused. “But I like it.”
“Thanks.” I stared into my reflection once more. The nervous excitement coursing through my veins had nothing to do with the event I was about to attend and everything to do with seeing Xavier for the first time in a week.
The doorbell rang and Elijah flitted up and out of my room, returning a minute later and throwing himself onto my bed. “Limo’s here. And so is your
date
. And I use that term loosely…”
Smacking my lips together to evenly distribute the red lipstick one last time, I turned to leave, only to be faced with a tall, dark, and ridiculously handsome Xavier standing in my bedroom doorway. It was the first time I’d ever seen him in a tuxedo before, and his black hair was freshly cut and styled.
“I feel like I should have a fuckin’ corsage or some shit.” He slipped a hand in his pocket.
“You look good.” At least he didn’t have a giant stick lodged up his ass that day. We might actually have a good time together.
“Nah,” he said, stepping toward me. He slipped his fingers through a blonde wave that hung over my shoulder. “You look better.”
We hopped into the back of the limo a few minutes later and headed to Beverly Hills, to some movie premier my publicist, Jenny Johanson, had arranged for us to attend. We needed red carpet photos and all the additional publicity we could get. Jenny wasn’t initially thrilled about what I’d done without consulting her, but she was willing to work with it. Besides, the damage had already been done, and in Hollywood, there was no such thing as bad publicity.
***
“Harper! Harper!” they called my name as we stood on the red carpet, his arm slinked around my hips. We tilted our heads just perfectly to the side and angled our bodies. We were pros at this, especially me. It was like riding a bicycle. Just like old times. My body buzzed with contentment with each flash of a camera bulb that blinded me.
“Hurry on, hurry on,” my publicist said, ushering us to the next set of photographers.
“Harper! Is it true you’re dating your stepbrother?” one photographer yelled.
Xavier and I turned toward each other and laughed, our noses practically eskimo-kissing in the process.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I scoffed with a smile. “We’re not like that at all. We’re just very…
close
.”
“But what does that mean? There are pictures of you two kissing!” the photographer yelled back.
Xavier raised a finger to his temple and scratched as his brows met in the middle. “Those photos were doctored.”
“But we have eye witnesses!” another cameraman yelled. “People saw you two kissing and grinding in the club!”
Media outlets, celebrity bloggers, and gossip magazines had been dying to get a quote from us all week. My publicist suggested we remained tight-lipped if we wanted to generate even more buzz, so that’s what we did. Deny, ignore, and innocently provoke. That was our strategy.
“Wrap it up, wrap it up,” Jenny said, ushering us inside the building.
Xavier slid his hand down my arm until he found my hand, where he quickly interlaced his fingers into mine and gave it a squeeze. We found our assigned seating and enjoyed the movie. On any other planet, we were just having a nice night out. But that night, it felt like a real date. It looked like a real date. For all intents and purposes it was a real date.
Our secret, our dirty little secret, had a kind of genuineness I couldn’t ignore.
“Harper, didn’t expect to see you here.” I turned around in my seat to see Hayden McDaniel. Up until lately, I hadn’t seen him in years, and now all of a sudden it was twice in one week.
“Hayden.” I pursed my lips, and I could see Xavier fidgeting out of the corner of my eyes. He hated Hayden.
“Mind if I steal you away for a second?” Hayden asked, eying a very agitated Xavier.
I turned to Xavier. “It’ll just be a second.”
“Yeah, actually I do mind. She’s here with me tonight,” Xavier leered. He squeezed my hand tighter. “Get lost, man.”
Hayden threw me a look, and it took everything I had not to laugh at the complete absurdity of the situation.
“I just want to apologize.” Hayden said, clearing his throat and looking around the room as if he were embarrassed to admit he owed me an apology.
My eyes pleaded with Xavier to let me go, but he stood firm in his stance and gave me a tight head shake ‘no’.
“You guys are fucked up. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, but it’s some fucked up shit,” Hayden scoffed before stomping off. I watched from my seat as Hayden took off in his $1,500 suit and immediately found a pretty girl to saddle up to as his face morphed into that of a handsome actor. He could turn his charm off and on like a faucet.
“You’re better off.” Xavier released my hand. “You’ll thank me someday.”
“I don’t know why you care.” I crossed my arms, keeping an eye on Hayden from afar. I’d never tell Xavier, but I really wanted to know what Hayden had to say and if he were genuinely sorry for what he’d done to hurt me. I’d needed that closure for years. I needed to hear him apologize. And now I never would.
“It doesn’t matter why I care,” he said. “Just know that I fucking care.”
I stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to use the ladies’ room,” I lied. Waiting until he turned back around, I left and made a bee line for Hayden, whispering in his ear to follow me to the restroom area.
We found a private hallway just past the restrooms. It was dark and dimly lit, but we could be alone. We could talk in peace.
“What did you want to say?” I asked, peering up at him through dark lashes. I bit my lip and stifled a smile as he looked at me the way he did once upon a time – back when we were young, dumb, and in love. I’d give anything to feel those butterflies one more time, just not with him.
“I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry,” Hayden said, slicking a hand over the side of his head. “And that I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.”
His words were magic. They had healing properties, of that I was certain. It was almost as if his apology melted a layer of the ice that had formed around my heart over the last two years.
“Thanks,” I said. I had no intention of getting back with him, but it was good to hear those words. “I’ve been waiting a long time to hear you say you were sorry. You really did a number on me.”
He stepped in closer to me, pressing his hand against the wall behind me. Our lips were just inches apart. This was going entirely in the wrong direction. All I wanted was my damn apology. This wasn’t an invitation to get back together.
“What the fuck is going on with you and your stepbrother,” Hayden asked. “I’m seeing these articles and pictures all over.”
I laughed. “It’s nothing. I swear. You know how the tabloids are. It’s all lies.”
His eyes flashed with an amused curiosity. “But you guys were kissing, right? That night at the club? That was real.”
“None of it’s real,” I said, crossing my hand across my heart. I opened my mouth to explain what was going on, only before that could happen, Hayden was ripped away from me by a higher power.
“God damn, man! What the fuck!” Hayden practically screeched. Standing behind him was a seething, snarling Xavier. His shoulders tense and tight and his nostrils flaring, he stepped in and stood between us.
“Xavier,” I said, shooting him a look that begged him to cool it. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“So you two are together?” Hayden snickered. “I fucking knew it.”
“What we are is none of your business,” Xavier rushed up to Hayden, towering over him. Hayden was one of those actors who were on the short side but looked taller on camera thanks to lifts and other special effects. I almost felt sorry for him, the way he was trying to subdue his shaking and shivering. Xavier was an unfair match for him. It was like a mouse going up against a lion.
I spotted Xavier’s hand knotting up into a ball and inching back slowly, as if he were three seconds from clocking Hayden. I lunged forward and grabbed his elbow, stopping it before he had a chance to go flying toward the work of art that was Hayden McDaniel’s face.
“This is ridiculous,” I scolded them. “Both of you. I don’t belong to either of you, and if I want to have a word with either of you, it’s my choice. I’m not a child. You can’t control what I do or what I feel or who I want to talk to.”
My hand gripped my pearl encrusted clutch as I headed toward valet and waited for my driver to come get me.
“Harper.” I turned around to see Xavier had run after me.
“Go away,” I mumbled, though I was certain he couldn’t hear me above the ruckus of other celebrities waiting for their rides. It was social hour at the pick up lane.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
I stood on my toes, peering over the throngs of finely dressed men and woman and spotting our limo. I practically ran to it, paying no mind to the dark haired man chasing after me.