Hitched: A Stepbrother Honeymoon Romance (6 page)

“Nina keeps telling me I should get them…but I keep telling her that I don’t want to end up like that.”

“Good call. Hers are real, though, right?”

I nod, and Anna shakes her head.

“So how was your weekend?”

What? A question about my personal life? Usually Anna just thanks me for the coffee and goes back to what she’s doing.

It’s too bad I can’t tell her anything about my weekend.

“Uh…pretty good. Kind of boring.”

Anna’s cold, brown eyes lock onto mine and her lips curl into a smirk. “Kind of boring, huh? I don’t think so. I know about you and Travis.”

My stomach drops through the floor. I keep my composure, but I have no idea how. My hands start to shake, and I can feel the coffee slosh back and forth, rising dangerously close to the edge of the cup.

“Oh, yeah, I should have mentioned that. I did hang out with Travis.”

“You didn’t just hang out with him.” A drop of coffee escapes the mug, running down my side of the cup. I wipe it off with my thumb, as Anna swivels her monitor back towards me, revealing a picture of Travis and I walking into the casino.

“You were
gambling
with him.”

Yeah. Just gambling. Let’s go with that.

“Oh, uh…yeah. A little bit. Is that the sort of thing you want to know about, though? It seemed like it was too boring to tell you about.”

“Well, did he spend a lot of money? Did he hook up with anybody? Even boring news about Travis blows up our front page.”

“I mean, we were dragged to this cocktail party we didn’t want to go to, so we got drunk and played blackjack.”

Anna gives me a look that says “not helpful.” She looks down at her coffee, and I hand it off to her. Then, her eyes are glued to her computer screen, and she looks like she’s waiting for me to leave.

But I don’t leave. This might be the only alone time I have with Anna all week, and if I wanted to make a change so bad that I got married to Travis for it, I need to stand up for myself.

“You know, now that I think about it, something interesting
did
happen this weekend?”

“Oh, yeah?” Anna doesn’t take her eyes off the computer screen.

“Yeah. Travis asked if I wanted to come with him to Royal Shores this weekend.”

Coffee shoots across Anna’s desk as she turns to face me. “He did?”

“Yeah, he’s going to Hawaii to do some…promotional stuff…and that’s where he’s staying. I could go and keep an eye out for celebrity gossip.”

I kind of thought Anna would be happy at this news, but instead, she just looks really suspicious. “What kind of promotional stuff?”

“Well…I think he’s doing an event there. I don’t remember the name, though.”

Anna looks at me for a couple seconds, then turns to her computer, fingers dancing across the keys.

“Is he doing the Coconut Classic?” she asks.

Yeah, let’s go with that. “Yeah, that’s what it is, I remember now. The Coconut Classic.”

“Why would he do this? I’ve never heard of this in my life. But you’re telling me you can go with him and get into Royal Shores without a background check?”

“Uh…yeah. That’s what Travis said.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you tell me the second you heard?”

She’s got a point. I told her I had a boring weekend, and we both know that getting into Royal Shores is anything but boring. I’m about to play dumb and claim I didn’t know how huge that was, but I get a better idea instead.

“I was shopping it to other magazines as an exclusive, published story. The inside view from Royal Shores.”

Anna looks furious, so I cut her off before she can say anything. “But I decided not to sell directly to them because none of them would guarantee publication. They were scared of getting sued. But since you’re not…why don’t we make a deal? I give you dirt for the website, and in return, you guarantee my article gets published somewhere.”

Anna still looks a little angry, but she’s cooling off fast. I’m pretty sure this is how she does business.

“Alright,” she says, “But I’m only going to do that if the dirt is good. Story of the year good. And I think I know just the thing.”

After a few seconds of searching, Anna turns her monitor around again. “Guess who’s in Hawaii?”

On the screen, there’s a picture of two skinny legs sitting on a towel, facing a beautiful beach. I don’t recognize the legs, so I squint at the username next to them.

“Jason Hayward?”

“Bingo,” Anna says, “And look at the logo on the corner of the towel. He’s staying at Royal Shores.”

Yeah, I’d say there’s story of the year potential there. Jason Hayward is a boy band superstar with a swooshy haircut and a million fans that obsess over every little thing he does. Tori’s pretty much in love with him, but he’s not really my type…

“We both know why people like Jason go to Royal Shores…to hide from the paparazzi while they do something no one wants them to see. If you can find out what that is, or get me another story that’s at least this good, I’ll get your article published. Otherwise…it’s not happening.”

“Deal. And don’t worry, I’ll find something good. It’s Royal Shores.”

“I know. That’s the only reason I’m even offering.” Anna motions to her coffee-covered desk. “By the way, on your way out, could you send another intern to clean this up?”

Chapter 9: Travis

“Would you like anything to drink?”

I look up at the flight attendant. “Got any whiskey?”

She smiles and pours some whiskey into my glass.

“And for you, ma’am?”

Laney looks away from the window for probably the first time since we hit the ocean. “Uh…I’ll have a water.”

I never thought water could look expensive until I see the fancy fucking glass bottle that the flight attendant pulls out to pour Laney some water. But this is first class on a luxury airline. Probably the nicest way to fly to Hawaii there is, courtesy of Royal Shores. And that means even the water’s going to be luxurious.

Laney looks down at her glass. “Thanks.” And now she’s back at the window. I wonder what’s so interesting out there.

Maybe this is her way of showing me she’s still mad at me for getting her off work. All week she’s been telling me how reckless that was, and how she’s not going to be able to enjoy herself at the hotel because it’ll be too dangerous there.

But I don’t buy that for one second. Not after I caught her looking at pictures of Hawaiian beaches on her laptop. Not after she packed that big-ass suitcase full of swimsuits, cocktail dresses, and suntan lotion. Five minutes after we get our shit unpacked, she’s going to forget all about how “dangerous” this is and start having fun.

Or at least, she’d better. Because if she pulls this glued to the window act for too much longer, I’m going to have to make it my personal mission to put a smile on that cute little face.

God, that face. Every time I see this girl, she looks better and better. Long, wavy black hair, olive colored skin that’s fucking begging to be touched, and the curviest body I’ve ever seen. I must have really pissed off the man upstairs to get a girl like this as my stepsister. I still fucking remember the day Nina took me over to her old house. No warning. Just, hey, just so you know, this ridiculously fucking cute girl is going to be living with us, and she’s going to constantly be checking you out when she thinks you’re not looking, but she’s totally off-limits. Don’t even think about trying to fuck her.

I mean, you’d think I’d be pretty desensitized to girls at this point, and you’d mostly be right. If you’ve seen one groupie, you’ve seen them all. But Laney’s the exact opposite of the types of girls that usually go after me. And that might be why it’s so hard to just get over her, even though she was right when she said we shouldn’t do anything that night Monica came over. The night I started unbuttoning her shirt, the backs of my fingers brushing against those amazing tits…

Fuck. Not again. Nothing gets my cock harder than thinking about that night; the night “off-limits” almost became “no limits……”

To try and take my mind off the insanely turned-on look on Laney’s face as I unbuttoned her shirt that night in the kitchen, I down my whiskey and try and pay attention to the action movie playing on the screen in front of me. A helicopter explodes, and a secret agent jumps out just in time and starts skiing down a mountain. Whatever.

But when I look over at Laney again, I can see her reflection in the window. And she’s looking right at me. When I turn my head, she looks away and starts drinking her water like nothing happened, but when I turn back to watch the movie, I can’t focus on it. All I can think about is those beautiful brown eyes, and how they always seem to land on me when they think I’m not looking.

I was just trying to help Laney, and maybe get her to loosen up a little bit. But if she keeps looking at me like that, then this trip is about to get really fucking interesting.

Chapter 10: Laney

“Mr. and Mrs. Carter?”

It takes every ounce of restraint I have not to flinch when somebody calls our name as we leave the airport. It’s a friendly-looking Hawaiian girl, probably a few years older than me, wearing a blue and gold sundress. Royal Shores colors. I was hoping the big sunglasses I put on as we left the plane would be enough to hide my face until we were safely locked up in the hotel, so it’s concerning that we were recognized immediately.

Travis’ huge hand squeezes my side. “That’s us. Are you from Royal Shores?”

The Hawaiian girl nods. “My name’s Kayla, and I’m going to be your personal guide to Royal Shores. It’s my job to make your honeymoon as amazing as it can possibly be.”

Travis and I share a look. I wasn’t planning on a hotel employee being
assigned
to us. God, look how friendly and professional she is. She’ll probably be able to tell that we’re not really married in the next five minutes, especially if she recognizes Travis. Not good.

Travis smirks. “Personal guide, huh? What does that mean?”

Kayla laughs, even though I’m sure she gets this question literally every day. “Well, Royal Shores is a big place. There’s so much to do there that it can be intimidating without a little guidance. That’s why Royal Shores assigns a guide to every couple, whose job it is to get to know them, figure out what they want out of their honeymoon, and point them in the right directions.”

Travis laughs. “Alright, but, uh…what if we’d rather stay in than go out? I don’t think Laney here’s going to let me get out of bed all week.”

Travis’s hand reaches down and grabs my ass, and a gasp escapes my lips. Holy crap, I’m going to kill him as soon as we’re alone. Of course, it works. Kayla laughs and gives us a knowing look.

“Oh, of course! You can have as much alone time as you want! We even have special suites for couples who want their honeymoon to be a little more…intimate. If you want, I can go ahead and set you two up in one of the Couples Deluxe suites.”

Travis makes that stupid smirky face that he makes when he’s trying not to crack up laughing. Luckily, Kayla seems oblivious. Or maybe she’s just professional. Either way, as much as I want to dump Travis’ pervy ass back on the plane and ship him back to California, making it seem like we’re super horny newlyweds is probably the best way to get Kayla here to leave us alone.

“So…these Couples Deluxe suites…they’re extra private?”

Travis grins. “She’s a screamer.”

I smack Travis on the arm, and he grabs my wrist, pulling me into his body. God, he’s being so handsy with me, and I can’t tell if he’s acting for Kayla or……

“So, uh…as you can see, we’re going to need all the fucking privacy you got.”

Kayla laughs. “Okay, that’s fine. It makes my job easier, after all.”

Kayla gestures to a shiny black van parked on the airport curb. “Well, if you’ve got all your bags, I can take you to Royal Shores whenever you want. Ready to go?”

“I can’t wait,” I say, pulling myself out of Travis’ embrace as gently as possible without attracting attention. God, he’s got me totally flustered. My face is bright pink and I’m breathing hard. What did he call me the night we got married? His blushing bride?

Kayla beams. “Great!”

She walks over to the black van on the curb and pops the trunk. “I can already tell that you two are going to
love
Royal Shores.”

***

I have to pull Travis into our room. He’s standing in the hallway, telling Kayla all about our wedding. How we were so in love that we just couldn’t wait any longer, so I dragged him into the nearest casino and begged him to marry me on the spot.

I tug on his arm. “Come on,
honey
, let’s let Kayla get back to her job.”

Travis raises his eyebrows at me. “Looks like somebody’s ready to get started. Alright, I guess I’ll finish the story later. In the meantime, you’re probably going to want to leave us alone for…I don’t know, the next six hours or so.”