Stepbrother: The Game He Plays Read online

  Fuck! Why did I send that to him? He didn’t seem to mind and replied immediately.

  ]Better. He’s finally mobile! But still in a lot of pain!

  :/

  Any plans tonight?

  Not really. Going out with friends. You?

  No plans. Any guys going with you?

  His question surprised me.

  Maybe a few …

  I hit send expecting an immediate response.

  Seconds go by. Nothing. Then minutes.

  No need to worry. Just friends.

  I expected him to text back explaining why he didn’t respond for so long. Maybe he had to take care of Joe, or a friend had stopped by their room and he was talking with them, or he had to take a piss. Anything. Instead he simply responded:

  Ok.

  I wondered if he was mad. I wondered if I should ask him.

  Is that ok?

  Are you asking my permission or just my thoughts about it?

  Permission? Is he fucking kidding me? He had to be joking.

  Um… ? Thoughts.

  I can’t help but smile. I don’t want him to be upset with me. More importantly, I want to talk with him.

  Well since u r not busy, we could chat instead … ?

  Back-to-back texts come through.

  Call me.

  I do and we begin a conversation that continues for hours into the night.

  Over the next three weeks, this became our routine. Texting. Talking on the phone. Skyping nightly for hours. I felt like Pavlov’s dog every time I heard the pinging of my phone. Tonight is no exception.

  Turn on your computer.

  I did and waited for the ring. As usual, I clicked immediately to answer it. As usual, there he was staring at me. Smiling. Shirtless. As usual, I was breathless. He was beautiful. Flawless.

  “I can’t wait to be inside you” was the first thing he said to me tonight. It was unexpected and instantly I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and the throbbing between my legs began. My thighs tightened imagining him between them. I didn’t know what to say to him. We’d flirted but it was always playful and innocent. He had never said anything like that before. That direct. That raw.

  I liked it. And I was glad Marissa was at her study group for the next few hours.

  “Take your shirt off.”

  My eyes widened. I hesitated while he continued to stare. And wait. Although we’d had plenty of conversations over the past few weeks, he’d never asked me about my past. And I haven’t asked him about his. I imagined he’d been with a few girls. Not many. Not like his brother. But I had never been with anyone. I wasn’t really inexperienced. I mean, I’d kissed several guys, made out with a lot, gone down on one, and had a few go down on me, but I had never gone the whole way.

  I wanted to tell him, but at the same time I didn’t. He was a few thousand miles away so why would I tell him tonight? We weren’t going to have sex … I wanted to. I really, really wanted to though. Maybe that’s what was making me so nervous.

  He didn’t mind the seconds passing. He waited quietly. Patiently. He wouldn’t ask me again. He knew he wouldn’t have to. With trembling hands I crossed my arms around my body and pulled my shirt over my head exposing the light-pink lace bra underneath.

  Thank God I wore this today was the only thought I had until I started trying to remember the panties I had on. I wanted them to be matching but honestly couldn’t remember. I hadn’t planned on this happening with him tonight.

  My eyes and thoughts were back to him.

  His face was unchanged staring at me through the laptop screen when he gave his next command.

  “Stand up and take off your jeans.”

  I smiled thinking how much fun this was going to be with him. So, I did as I was told, then sat back down in front of the screen.

  He leaned closer to the screen as if he couldn’t get close enough to me. I could see his chest moving up and down in a slow, rhythmic pace. His excitement should have given me courage, but the truth was I could pass out from my nervousness.

  “Stand up and walk to the wall behind you.”

  I did.

  “Take off your bra.”

  My heart started pounding. Too fast. I was sure it would explode at any moment. I followed every one of his next commands.

  “Turn around.”

  A playful smile spread across my face as I began to turn around.

  “Stop smiling.”

  I did.

  “Bend over and take off those pink panties. Slowly.”

  I put my hand against the wall to steady myself. I took a deep breath, held it and closed my eyes before I slowly bent forward and slid my panties down my legs. Before I stepped out of my lace thong, he told me to open my eyes before I looked at him again.

  My breath caught in my throat as I did what I was told.

  Every inch of my body was quivering when I stood back up. I didn’t know if I could face him. I felt so vulnerable. My heart raced. I started to close my eyes again, but he quietly warned me not to in a low, steady tone. This was what he wanted. My vulnerability.

  I liked this side of him. I wanted to smile again. I didn’t. He didn’t want me to smile. And I wanted him to be in control. I wanted him to have the power.

  I stood motionless. Watching him. His stare was intense. He scanned every inch of my body from top to bottom. His stare didn’t relax when he told me to touch myself.

  “Where?” I whispered.

  “Wherever you want me to touch you.”

  I bit my lower lip thinking about his command. I was in control now. Kinda. It didn’t matter. I wanted him to touch me everywhere. I leaned my shoulders against the wall and slowly moved my hand up my hip and across my bare stomach. In a teasing motion, I moved it back across just a bit lower than before. His eyebrow lifted slightly. I let out a quiet giggle. Under the intensity of his stare, I traced my hand up my torso in a diagonal toward my breast, stopping for a mere second to allow my nipple to be cupped between my index and middle fingers. His closed lips curled slightly at the corners. I continued slowly tracing my hand up to my neck, allowing my extended fingers to cover my neck while I slid my other hand down between my legs. He breathed in deeply and stood up in front of his laptop camera and took off his jeans. I stopped touching myself when I saw he wasn’t wearing underwear. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than him inside me. When he sat back down my chest was still and his was heaving.

  “Don’t stop.”

  Once again, I did what I was told. And for the next hour, I pleasured myself under the watchful gaze of his intense, instructing blue eyes.

  Chapter 8

  Keeping Secrets

  “You look totally lost.”

  I spun around to meet the green-eyed, freckle-faced girl standing behind me.

  Her complexion was flawless and everything about her had natural beauty down to the bright orange of her hair. She was stunning but in a way that wasn’t obvious when you first looked at her. Once you put it all together it was undeniable.

  She was gorgeous.

  When she reached past me for a paper towel, the smell of jasmine floated up my nose.

  “Oh, I’m Gray, by the way. I work in rentals.” The crisp white towel was dampening quickly between her thin fingers. She rolled her emerald eyes and sighed. “Not much to learn there and it totally sucks, touching sweat-soaked boots and equipment all day long. Love it.”

  A small laugh escaped through my nostrils.

  “I’m Karley.”

  “First day?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  She winked and threw her towel in the trash can. “Only completely. But no worries, we’ve all been there before.”

  When she smiled at me, I noticed the narrow gap between her two front teeth. It completed her stunningly unique features. I immediately liked her.

  “Are you on break?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, then follow me, lost one,” she teased reaching her hand out
to me. “I want you to meet some other permanently lost souls.”

  I had no idea where she was leading me but I trusted her and followed beside her quietly through the packed food court.

  At a far table in the corner, she introduced me to a group of workers that looked around my age. Only one of the guys acknowledged me verbally, but I didn’t hear if she said his name was Bryan … or Ryan. I had no time to ask as she continued her introductions. The two bright-eyed girls, Beth and Jessie, greeted me with big smiles in unison. I didn’t know which girl was Beth and which girl was Jessie, but it didn’t seem to matter to either of them.

  “Here, sit with us.”

  The two girls moved over together instead of separating from each other, and I sat down across from Gray. She pulled a piece of bright pink gum from her purse and stuck it in her mouth. “So, did you just move here or are you just working for the season?”

  “I’m on break from college, visiting my mom.” I took a piece of the strawberry-flavored gum she was holding out across the table to me. “She lives here with her husband. It’s kinda complicated.”

  Fuck! Why did I just say that?

  I stopped myself. I didn’t want to tell them anymore. Especially about me being the boss’s daughter. Stepdaughter. I didn’t know how they would react. And I didn’t want them to treat me any differently. Bill was right. I needed to make friends here. And I needed to do it on my own.

  The guy who acknowledged me was the only one of the guys paying attention to our conversation. The other three were discussing some video game they all agreed was completely amazing.

  “Ugh, say no more,” Gray said holding her hand up. “My parents have some weird arrangement going on, too. It’s fucking confusing. I’m pretty sure they only agree on one thing: they hate each other.”

  The two other girls nodded in unison, both of them rolling their eyes. They must have heard about her parents’ problems a lot.

  “I’m Beth.”

  “And I’m Jessie. Where do you go to school?”

  “Santa Barbara.”

  “Lucky! My parents refused to let me go out of state if they were going to pay for college.” Gray sighed snarling her upper lip. “But that’s why I work here. I’m saving up to say “see ya mom, see ya dad” next year and get the hell out of here. I mean this place is cool, but so much weird shit happens here—including murder! I wanna go to New York. Maybe Chicago.”

  My thoughts immediately went back to the newspaper article.

  “Like people aren’t murdered in New York or Chicago, Gray!” one of the guys said condescendingly.

  “Fuck off, Paul! You know what I meant!”

  He chuckled with his friends at her expense. She was still glaring at him with her emerald eyes when one of the girls spoke up.

  “Any place other than here is what she meant,” Beth added. Jessie nodded in agreement.

  “I mean, don’t get me wrong,” Gray continued no longer paying attention to any of the guys still smirking, “this place is cool and all, but only during the winter when the guys come home from college to work or play.”

  “Or both,” Beth added. Jessie nodded again in agreement as Gray bit her upper lip and smiled.

  “There are so many hot guys here.” Gray laughed. “It can be a really fun time if you remind yourself not to get too attached!”

  All three girls laughed.

  “Don’t get attached at all,” Beth warned playfully. As expected, Jessie nodded. I found her behavior humorous.

  “You got here at the perfect time,” Gray said. “The college help should be arriving in a few days and then you’ll see what I mean.”

  She looked over at the guy who had said hello to me. Once again, he was the only guy paying attention to our conversation. “No offense, Ryan. You know I find you completely irresistible.”

  The sexy smirk spreading across his face revealed he wasn’t offended. Intrigued maybe, but not offended. His transparent, sea-glass green eyes stared into mine from across the table.

  His formal introduction to me came after Gray continued talking to her friends about the sexy, collegiate seasonal help arriving in a day or two.

  “I’m Ryan.”

  Although his friendly smile was invitation enough, I reached my hand out to meet his.

  “Hi.” His soft gentle shake held on a bit longer than it should have, but I didn’t mind. “I’m Karley.”

  The transparency of his eyes was captivating.

  “So, California?”

  “Yeah.” I had to tell myself to look away as the heat rose up from my neck exploding into my cheeks. His voice brought my eyes back to his light irises.

  “I graduated from USC.”

  “Yeah?” For some reason, his being from California too made me feel close to him. Knowing he’d already graduated, I understood the maturity in his face. He was older. Twenty-three, twenty-four. Maybe twenty-five. “So, what brought you here?”

  His eyebrow arched extending the curl of his smile farther up his face.

  “Well, definitely not the weather.” His laughter sang through the other conversations at our table.

  “Or the waves!” I laughed.

  “Or the waves,” he agreed still smiling. It was a contagious smile. Bright. Full. Lingering.

  I could picture him on a wave somewhere. His sun-bleached blond hair blowing in the wind, catching the next ride into the shore with board shorts and nothing else to cover his sun-kissed body. I could have stayed lost in the image of him surfing, but my stare jetted back to the giggling girls across the table when the name Osborne hit the air.

  I tried listening without being too obvious. I wanted to hear everything they had to say.

  “Justin is so much nicer than Joe.”

  “But Joe is hotter.”

  “Older. Sexier.”

  All of them were giving their opinions.

  “And weirder.”

  “He’s not weird!” Gray sounded offended.

  “No, he’s a little weird,” Beth disagreed.

  “Beth, he is not! He’s just quiet!” Gray protested.

  “No, he’s weird!” Jessie chimed in, “especially after that girl he dated died. You’ve just had this obsessive crush on him for two years so you overlook his weirdness!”

  I wanted to know more about the girl Jessie was talking about—who was she? How did she die? Was she the girl in the picture on his nightstand? A part of me wanted to defend him and agree with Gray but a bigger part of me agreed with her friends. Joe was weird. Really weird. And an asshole. But if I said any of those things they would wonder how I knew him and I would be forced to tell them about being Bill’s daughter. Stepdaughter. I wasn’t ready for that yet.

  I looked back at Ryan and forced a weak smile hoping he didn’t notice how interested I was in the conversation across the table.

  “They have this same conversation every break,” he noted before taking another drink.

  His comment to me caught Jessie’s attention.

  “Ryan, any of us would choose you over any of those guys! But you refuse to give any of us a chance!” Her high-pitched tone was borderline annoying.

  “You stay out of the drama here, remember?” Beth moaned. She made the word sound as if it belonged to him and was not the same one she would use to describe it. He nodded in agreement as he held his glass up to offer cheers to her before taking a drink. She turned toward Jessie and in unison, they rolled their eyes.

  “He’s too old for it!” Gray continued using her fingers to make quotation marks in the air. Her emerald stare was locked on his. His pupils dilated staring back at her. He turned to me and smiled.

  “Most of it,” he admitted with a playful wink. “But not all of it.”

  The burning returned in my face and I turned away again as my smile spread wider. His eyes were still locked on me as I pretended to listen to the girls’ conversation. His interest in me was impossible to ignore. He seemed relaxed knowing my cheeks were burning under
his stare, and I was now deliberately making myself avoid his clear eyes.

  Unable to resist any longer, I turned back toward him.

  “So, what kind of drama do you participate in?” I asked flirtatiously.

  He stood up and bent forward, leaning his head extremely close to mine, “The kind you don’t talk about to anyone.”

  As I watched him walk away, one of the other guys spoke up interrupting my curious thoughts on him.

  “Look here’s the deal,” he said leaning toward me. “All of these girls think the one Osborne brother’s a jerk because he doesn’t flirt with any of them. The truth is he’s just not interested in them. And honestly, neither is the other one but he’s too much of a pussy and doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so he only pretends to take an interest in whatever crap you girls say to him!”

  All of the guy’s friends laughed.

  “Oh, shut up!” Gray laughed. “He’s interested in what we have to say.”

  “Sure he is.” Another guy laughed. “Keep telling yourself that!”

  “Don’t pay attention to them,” she said looking back at me. “They’re jealous. And when you meet them, you’ll know why.”

  I wanted to tell them I already understood. And agreed with them.

  “We’re not so bad either,” the first guy said.

  “You’re all right.” Jessie laughed. “But you’re not an Osborne!”

  “I’ll be anyone you want me to be, Jessie!” the guy teased as he looked over at his friends.

  “Oh, shut up, Paul!” She laughed throwing an ice cube from her drink at him. He picked up the ice cube and slowly put it into his mouth, licking the wetness from his fingers as he stared at her.

  “It’s so good when it’s wet,” he whispered back to her.

  “Oh, my God! You’re totally disgusting!”

  She turned her attention back on me. “Oh, we forgot to mention, Justin and Joe are the owner’s sons! They are gorgeous, available, and totally rich!”

  All of the girls exaggerated their enthusiasm with light screams again.

  “I totally want one!” one of the girls said folding her hands in a prayer position and looking up at the ceiling. “Please, God!”

  “Damn, if they’re as rich as their dad, I want one, too!” Paul teased standing up from the table. When they all walked away, they were still laughing.