Stepbrother Demanding (His Wicked Plan, Book 1) (3 page)

Any one feature of his would have been enough to leave me breathless, but nope, not Dylan. With Dylan, it was his entire package that nearly knocked the wind out of me.

He had matured, a
lot
, since I’d last seen him in real life. Where could a girl like me begin to describe?  For starters, it was the way his clear, sky blue eyes called out to me and pulled me towards him, like I could just fall into them and everything would be more than okay. Or maybe it was his chiseled jaw. Or his broad chin? It could’ve even been his blemish-free skin that made it impossible for me not to stare.

Damn.

As much as I hated to admit this, he was perfect in every way, the kind of man that even made other men stare in awe, although they’d never want to admit to it either.

“You look all cured,” he said.

“I am. Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure, Scarlett.”

I shivered when he said my name in that way, like I wasn’t just his step. Like I was an actual woman, just like the women he used to sneak into his room after Walter and mom passed out. Then he’d do things to them that caused the walls in my room to shake, things that made me wet despite how shameful I felt at the time.

“And thank you again for doing what you did for me earlier. Whatever you did…”

“It was nothing,” he interrupted, somehow as if to stop me from having to conjure up yet another image of that man’s hand on my throat as he choked the life out of me like I was just some cheap disposable whore. “You’re lucky I was there.”

I lowered my head. Thanking him was one thing, admitting that he was right in every other way was another thing completely.

The back of his hand grazed the side of my cheek, causing the entire side of my face to flush bright red. “You’re not embarrassed about what happened in that VIP room, are you?”

I looked directly at my stepbrother and pretended to be annoyed. “No! Why would I be? It was an accident, that’s all.”

“Was it?” he asked, his voice suddenly huskier.

I trembled as I pulled the comforter up and over my chest. The strangest thing was, what I really craved was for him to rip the stupid blanket off my body and tear apart what little clothes I had on. “Yes, obviously. Right?”

Dylan shook his head and looked away as he talked. “At first, you walked into that room and I couldn’t see much.”

I sat up straighter as he spoke, homing in on every word that rolled off the tip of his tongue.

He went on, “Then you got closer, and…”

“And what?” I whispered.

He looked directly at me and stared into my eyes. “And then I heard your voice, but by then it was too late.”

My heart began to race. I wanted to rewind and play back the tape of everything he just said. I noticed moisture start to build down below, in a very particular place where I shouldn’t be feeling anything all, at least not because of my own stepbrother. But I had to press on as I said in a rather meek voice, “Too late for what?”

He flashed a wicked grin as he slid the comforter off my thighs. I clenched my thighs together as he glanced quickly at the tiny pink bikini bottom that covered my lower half. Then he looked back up at me, and his eyes were all business. “Too late to turn back.”

END OF BOOK ONE

Look for Book Two, coming soon!