Bad Boy - A Stepbrother Romance (14 page)

It felt damn good to hear my sister’s name on someone else’s lips again. After she and my Mom had died, my Dad and I had basically sealed off that part of our lives. It was easier to never speak about it, and after a while, it was like neither of them had ever existed. My volunteer work at the hospital—especially in the children’s wing—was my one real tie to my sister.

“Yeah,” I said, too tired to come up with something clever to make myself look like less of a pussy bitch. “I’m sorry, too.”

Rory pulled me into a hug. If our lives were actually a movie, I’d probably break down in tears, show her I wasn’t as manly as I looked on the outside. But I was Finn fucking Grayson, and I didn’t cry.

Not now, not ever.

I did let her hold me, though. It felt nice to be the one being comforted for once. We stayed like that for a while, until my breathing grew less labored and I felt like I could pull away from her without collapsing onto the goddamned floor.

“Thanks, Rory,” I said softly, finally risking a look at her.

She smiled, and seeing that was like looking at a ray of fucking sunshine after a storm. “It’s okay, Finn,” she said. “It’s all going to be okay.”

I believed her.

With her around, everything would always be okay.

Chapter Sixteen

Rory

My nerves had been running wild all afternoon, though I had no idea why. I’d made myself some toast as a snack to try and force myself to eat, but it had gone cold on the plate, so I finally tossed it and strolled over to my bed before lying down with a sigh.

Work was finished for the year, my friends were all with their families for the festive season, and I had nothing better to do other than occupy myself with my thoughts—thoughts that were mostly of Finn, if I was being honest.

I guess that wasn’t exactly a huge surprise, huh?

The story he’d told me earlier today had been so tragic and horrible, and I’d only had a few minutes to comfort him before he’d had to leave to get to his volunteer job on time. I’d wanted to spend more time with him, but at the same time, I hadn’t wanted to make him late, because the work he did at the hospital was important.

From everything he’d told me, Finn had clearly been devastated by the tragedy of his sister and mother’s deaths, but it was comforting to know that he’d channeled his grief into helping others. Other people might’ve taken a much darker path than he had in life, but instead, he’d thrown himself into helping sick kids, and his work with them was truly inspiring.

Yes.
That’s what he was to me. An inspiration. Now I knew why my mind was going wild…

I sprang up and grabbed my handbag before heading down to the parking garage and getting into my car, and twenty minutes later, I was at the hospital. Once I was inside, I rode the elevator to the fifth floor and wandered around looking for Finn. He had to be around here somewhere.

He was such a good person, and I wanted to be more like him, which was something I’d never, ever thought I’d say after the first few encounters I’d had with him. He hid his goodness behind a tough, tattooed exterior, but it was there nonetheless, and he somehow made time to entertain sick kids while balancing his crazy workload at the hotel and club. Meanwhile, I had a regular nine-to-five job like any other person, yet I’d never made time for things like that. I’d always considered volunteering and thought it would be a nice thing to do, but I’d never actually gotten around to doing it.

Finn had finally inspired me to get off my ass and be a better person.

“Rory?”

A familiar masculine voice snapped me out of my reverie a second later, and I whirled around to see Finn standing behind me in his Santa outfit. I smiled as he pulled his white beard down, and he raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I…um…I came to see you. I’ve been pacing around all afternoon doing nothing, and I realized I was just wasting my time,” I said. “I want to help you with this work of yours. I don’t want to be one of those people who say they’ll do something good one day but never actually do anything because they’re always so busy with their own crap. I want to be like you and actually get out there and do it!”

I knew I’d just been babbling, but once I’d started talking, it had been hard to stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth. Finn grinned at my excitement, and he stepped forward before grabbing my hand and squeezing it for a second.

“Rory…that’s really sweet of you, and I bet the kids here would love you to help out. But it’s not that simple. You have to apply and get a ‘working with children’ police clearance, which can take a few weeks.”

My shoulders slumped as he let go of my hand, and I came crashing back down to earth. Of course. I’d been so excited thinking I could help that it hadn’t even occurred to me that there would be some sort of application process to weed out the wrong sorts of people from applying as volunteers.

“Oh. Right,” I mumbled.

“But in the meantime,” Finn said, a twinkle in his eye. “There is one thing you can do to help, if you really want to.”

“Yeah?”

“The staff here have a toy drive every year for the kids. Quite a few of them are from underprivileged homes, and their parents are already slammed with the medical bills anyway, so there’s not much money left to buy Christmas gifts in those families. Anyway, they weren’t able to raise much this year in donations, so I donated some money to Frankel’s department store in return for them giving us a whole bunch of brand new toys.”

“Okay,” I said. “So what can I do? Do you want me to buy toys too?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly. I was meant to go and pick that load of toys up today, but I’m not sure I’ll be done in time before the store closes. You could go and pick them up for me, and then you could wrap them so it’s all done in time. Everyone else is too busy at the moment, and Christmas is only a week away.”

He saw my surprised face and hurriedly continued. “Look, I know it’s not much, but it’s still something. Once you’ve actually applied and been accepted as a volunteer, there’ll be way more that you can do with me around here.”

I smiled up at him. “No, it’s fine. You’re right. Even if it’s the least I can do, it’s better than nothing.”

He grinned back at me. “Yeah, exactly. Anyway, hold on a sec…”

He reached into one of his large red pockets and handed me a bank card and a slip of paper. “Here’s the name and number of the woman I spoke to at the department store. Just mention the Mercy Hospital toy drive, say that I sent you, and it should be fine. Oh, and you can use my bank card to buy a whole heap of ribbons and wrapping paper to wrap them.”

I nodded, grateful for the opportunity to help. It was small, but it was a start. “Okay. I’ll go do that now. I’ll wrap the presents at home, and I’ll bring them to your room when you’re back.”

Finn grabbed my hand again, and this time he stroked my palm with his thumb, sending a shivering sensation down my spine.

“Thanks, Rory,” he said softly. “For all your help. It means a lot to me.”

I knew he wasn’t talking about the toy drive anymore. He was talking about what had happened earlier today when I’d stroked him and held him while he told me his family story, and I looked down at my feet, embarrassed as the shivering sensation from his stroking thumb slowly evolved into a warm wetness blooming between my thighs. I always seemed to get turned on by Finn at the most inappropriate of times; my body constantly betraying my true feelings for him, and I slipped my hand out of his and nodded.

“It’s okay,” I murmured. “Anyway, I better get to that store. See you soon.”

He nodded and said goodbye, and I quickly turned away, wishing I’d been able to tell him everything that I’d left unsaid so far; how much I still wanted him, how much I longed for him when he wasn’t around, how I couldn’t even think of any other man.

If I’d stayed around him any longer, I wouldn’t have been able to help myself…

***

“Here’s the last of them.”

I put an armful of wrapped gifts for the kids at the hospital down on the table in Finn’s hotel suite. He’d just returned from his volunteer shift, and he was wrapped in a towel, clearly about to shower. I tried my best to keep my gaze from floating down his abdomen, and he grinned. “Wow. You’ve been busy.”

“Yeah. The store was really generous; there were over a hundred gifts to wrap,” I said. “I’ve been at it for ages. My arms are about to fall off.”

He glanced at his watch. “Four hours by my count. Seriously, thanks. This is really helpful.”

“Well, you literally saved me from a burning building the other day,” I said, arching an eyebrow. “It’s the least I could do, you know…help Santa out a bit.”

He chuckled. “Hey, come on, you’re the one who ran into a burning building to try and rescue someone else in the first place.”

“Yeah, and I promptly fell on my ass like an idiot. By the way, how’s the insurance investigation thingy going? Was it really a hair straightener that started the fire?”

Finn gave me an odd look. “Yeah. How did you know that?”

“Elijah told me.”

“Oh, right. I guess he would’ve seen the fire department’s report when they finished it.”

I shook my head. “No, he told me on the night of the fire, just after it started.”

“The fire department only finished their report the day after the fire, though. He couldn’t have known on the night.”

I frowned and racked my brains for some sort of explanation. “Oh, I must be misremembering,” I said. “I spoke to Elijah about something else yesterday, and he probably actually mentioned it then.”

“Ah. That makes sense. Anyway, speaking of the fire, I forgot to ask…how’s your arm? It still looks pretty banged up.”

“Not as banged up as your face,” I said with a cheeky grin, trying to make light of the situation. Truth be told, my arm still hurt quite a bit, but I’d been lucky as hell that Finn had rescued me the way he had, so I didn’t want to bitch and moan about a stupid bruised arm and seem ungrateful at all.

He rolled his eyes at my awful joke, and we laughed together for a brief moment before I made to leave. “Well, I better get out of your way. I guess you need to shower after being in a sweaty Santa suit half the day.”

“Wanna join me?” Finn replied with a mischievous grin.

I smiled. “And you think my jokes are bad.”

“Maybe I wasn’t joking.”

His grin suddenly faded, and his left arm shot out, circling around my waist. Tingles shot up and down my spine at his touch, and I opened my mouth, fumbling my words as I spoke.

“Finn, why…what are you…”

“I can’t fucking do this anymore,” he said.

“Do what?”

He leaned closer, his arm tightening around my middle. He was so close, lips only inches from mine, and my legs trembled at his touch as his fingers slowly stroked a line across my back.

“This,” he growled. The timbre of his voice made my legs quake. “Us. We keep hanging out, laughing, helping each other with shit…but then one of us always leaves. I can’t do it anymore. I’m not letting you get away this time, Rory.”

I squirmed in his grip, knowing exactly where this was going. God, I wanted him, and I had for so long, but we couldn’t
actually
do this….could we?

Finn’s eyes were still fixed on mine, his gaze smoldering and intense, and I wanted to melt into the floor. It was just like the first time I’d seen him, when he’d stared at me from across the room and set my heart aflutter all those weeks ago.

“Finn, you know why I have to go. Our parents…”

“Fuck them,” he said. “So what if they’re married? I’m fucking sick of worrying about everyone else’s opinion. You know I want you. I know you want me. So screw what everyone else thinks. I should’ve said this weeks ago.”

He leaned another inch closer, and I swallowed hard. “Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you don’t want me, and I promise I’ll stop this right now,” he continued, his voice a low, gravelly murmur.

“I…”

My voice trailed off as I realized I had no valid argument against him. He wasn’t wrong. Technically, we were related in a familial sense, but we weren’t
really
related in a sense that made our desires truly forbidden. There was nothing wrong with us having feelings for each other, and I was damned sick of bottling them up and pretending they weren’t real. Besides, we were adults. It would’ve been one thing if we were kids, but we weren’t, and we had every right to do whatever we wanted.

Fuck it. I was beyond the point of worrying what everyone else thought. It was time for me to drop the good girl act once and for all. I wanted—no, I needed—to be bad…

Possessive need filled Finn’s gaze as he saw the change in my expression, and he leaned his face down to mine, hot breath caressing my ear and sending shivers down my spine. His other arm moved around to the small of my back, and I let out a gasp as his lips came down on my neck.

He kept going, teasing me with his words as his lips grazed the shell of my ear. “Tell me to stop. Tell me you don’t want this,” he murmured.

He knew I wouldn’t tell him that I didn’t want this, because I did. Oh god, I wanted this.

More than anything.

“No,” I gasped out. “Don’t stop.”

And then his lips were on mine, crushing them in a hot, passion-filled kiss, and I moaned into the embrace as his tongue snaked between my lips, dancing and twisting with my own. A thrill of pleasure ran through me as he undid my dress and let it drop to the carpet, and I felt his hands trail down to my ass before cupping my cheeks and picking me up. I’d always thought I was heavy for my petite height, but he picked me up so easily it was as if I weighed nothing at all.

Finn kept kissing me as he moved me over to the other side of the room, and the fogginess in my mind refused to dissipate as the entire world seemed to spin around me. He set me down on the end of the bed and then rose back up to his full height, and I watched with bated breath as he smirked and pulled the towel away from his waist.

Jesus effing Christ. No wonder he was smirking…

His cock was huge—even bigger than I’d expected—and hard as steel, and I practically drooled at the sight of it as he remained standing only inches from me. Loud heartbeats hammered in my chest as he slowly stepped forward, and then he was on me, pushing me to the bed and licking a slow trail down my collarbone, chest, and belly.