Mine - A Stepbrother Romance (11 page)

A waiter brought us dessert; a selection of gelatos, and Arizona tucked into a white chocolate and coconut flavored one with gusto.

“Sorry,” she said between mouthfuls. “I must look like such a pig.”

I chuckled and shook my head. It was refreshing to see a girl who would actually eat something. These days every second chick was on some gluten-free, vegan raw food diet and addicted to Pilates and Crossfit. Either that or they subsisted on coffee and cigarettes. I’d always hated that bone-thin look on women. Give me a nice curvy body any day, thanks.

“I forgot to ask,” she said. “What exactly were you doing in L.A. the other week? You were there for a while. Just more charity events, right?”

“Yeah, my mother had some charity stuff she was meant to do, but she was busy on some yoga retreat with Emile, her life partner or whatever the fuck he is.”

“Life coach, you mean?”

“Yeah.” I snorted. “He’s such a tosser. Anyway, she sent me in her place. I do it all the time, as you’ve probably noticed. I work for your Dad sometimes as well.”

“What do you actually want to do, though? Like, with your life in general.”

I shrugged. Wasn’t that the eternal question? People had been asking me what I wanted to do with my life since I was in my early teens. I was supposed to have it all figured out, but honestly, who knew what they wanted to spend the rest of their life doing when they were only fourteen? I doubted most people ever really figured it out, no matter what age they got to.

“I dunno. I like the charity stuff, and I wouldn’t mind working for one, but it’s just really shitty sometimes. So many of them don’t even do all that much, and something like ninety percent of the donations actually go towards paying for campaigns and staff salaries. So not much ends up going towards the people or causes that need it. I wish there were more that didn’t exist purely for profit like that.”

She shot me a look that suggested she’d just been handed a doctor’s report stating that I had the IQ of a gnat. “You know things like that do exist, right? They’re called nonprofit organizations.”

I snorted. “Okay, I know what a nonprofit is. I’m not that dumb. But they have their own problems. Low incentive for staff to keep working at them because of the smaller pay packages. That kinda stuff.”

“I still think it’s a worthy thing to pursue if that’s what you want to do. I mean, a person like you would be perfect to work at one or run one. You’ve already got your own money to live off, so it doesn’t matter if the job benefits aren’t great.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Like I was saying before, I like kids, and there’s a few nonprofit kids charities around here that do pretty good stuff. Roy actually donates to some of them.”

“Is there anything about my real Dad that isn’t awesome?” she asked, resting her chin on her hands.

“Yeah, well he somehow managed to father you, so that’s definitely a problem.”

She balled up a napkin and threw it at me. “Oh, shut up.”

“Seriously, though…he’s like any other person. Everyone has issues. He went through a lot when you disappeared and then later when your Mom died. I wasn’t around back then to see it all, obviously, but even up until he found you he was seeing a psych to deal with it all. I know because my mother was complaining about it to her friend once, saying that if that information got out to the public, then his stock price might plummet because shareholders don’t want to invest in a company run by a ‘crazy person’.”

“Jesus. Layla said that?”

She looked genuinely shocked all over again, and I grinned. “See? Told you she’s not the amazing person everyone makes her out to be. I wasn’t exaggerating before.”

“Wow. Talk about shattering the illusion. You know, she actually has made a few comments to me recently, but I figured I was overreacting.”

“Comments?” I asked.

“About my weight. Implying I’m chubby or something.”

I frowned. “Oh yeah, she has. Like at that media lunch thing. It’s pretty typical of her. In my senior year of high school, I was stressed about exams and stopped exercising as much. Gained about five pounds. She made me get a personal trainer and tried to put me on some bullshit diet.”

“Five pounds? You’re six foot two. An extra five pounds wouldn’t even show up on you!”

I smiled ruefully. “I know. That’s Layla for you.”

We chatted for a while longer, and before I knew it, five glasses of wine had disappeared down Arizona’s throat. Glancing at my watch, I realized we’d been at the restaurant for three hours already. Her eyes were beginning to look bleary, and I paid the check and then patted her hand across the table.

“Come on. I think we need to get you home before you pass out.”

She nodded and rubbed her eyes, and as she stood up she almost fell straight over.

“Oh crap,” she moaned. “I really did drink too much. It’s all going to my head now.”

“I did tell you to slow down,” I teased before linking my arm in hers and helping her out onto the sidewalk so she didn’t stumble over her own feet.

It had just started to rain outside, and I frowned. My car was all the way down the street in an uncovered spot.

“I don’t have an umbrella on me. You wait here, and I’ll run down to where I parked my car and bring it back around so you don’t have to get wet,” I said.

“What? No, it’s fine! You don’t like rain?” she replied, running out from under cover and twirling around with her hands in the air.

“What are you doing?” I asked, watching her with a bemused expression.

She grinned at me. “Didn’t you ever dance in the rain when you were a kid? I used to love it. Everything smells so clean and fresh.”

She began to hum to music only she could hear in her drunken mind, and the rain poured down over her, soaking her hair and thin cardigan. Droplets ran down her face in rivulets, but it didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. A chill wind picked up in the night sky, and under the street lights I could see the faint outline of her nipples as they hardened under her blouse.

As she giggled, spun and twirled, I watched her with fascination. She looked so happy, so innocent, and I couldn’t help but grin as she continued to dance like she didn’t have a care in the world. This was good for her. She’d had a shitty day, and if she wanted to act like a crazy person and dance in the pouring rain, then all the more power to her. Seeing her without tears clouding her eyes like they had earlier made something deep inside me feel all warm and fuzzy despite the chill in the air.

“Come on!” she said, waving her hands at me. “It’s fun!”

Suddenly something hit me like a ton of bricks. The reason I hadn’t been able to think about fucking another chick in weeks. The reason I let her speak to me however she wanted without even getting all that mad. The reason I cared about whether she was happy or not.

I had it bad for Arizona. I was falling for my stepsister.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MASON

“Come on,” I said, stepping out into the rain and sweeping her up in my arms. She’d been having a lot of fun, but she was starting to look like she might pass out.

She nestled her head against my chest as I carried her down the street towards my car, and I inhaled deeply as the vanilla scent of her hair drifted upwards.

“Where are we going?” she murmured.

“Home,” I said. “You’ll catch a cold if you keep standing in the rain, as much fun as it looks like.”

“Colds are a virus. You can’t catch them from rain,” she replied, and I grinned.

“Drunk off your skull and yet you’re still a smartass.”

I reached the car, turning to the side so I could open the passenger door with the same hand I was using to hold up her ass. Her pencil skirt had ridden up in my arms, and I tried to ignore the fact that her smooth, bare skin was in direct contact with my palms. I deposited her into the car and made sure her seatbelt was done up, and her head lolled forward slightly.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon, and you can go straight to bed,” I said.

The rain cleared up after half an hour, and Arizona leaned back against the headrest and tilted her head to the side, staring out the window. We’d just arrived back in Newport, and soon we were passing the marina. It was lit up by lights from yachts and other small watercraft.

“D’you have a boat?” she asked, slightly slurring her words as she looked out over the water.

“Nah.”

She widened her eyes and poked me. “What? I thought all rich people had boats. At least that’s what I learned from 90210. Or was it Gossip Girl?”

“Well, I don’t,” I said, not really wanting to get into it. There was a reason I stayed the hell away from sailing and large bodies of water in general, but she didn’t need to hear my entire life history. It wasn’t like my life was some lame college-aged romance novel where she’d fall in love with me and miraculously cure all my issues.

“Well, you’re not good at being rich, then,” she said, sticking her tongue out at me. “Here I was thinking you were all preppy and stuck-up.”

I snorted. “Me, preppy? You serious?”

She folded her arms and stared at me. “Didn’t you go to that boarding school for a while? Exeter?”

“Andover.”

She stuck her tongue out again. “See? Prep.”

“I got expelled in my sophomore year,” I said.

“Oh, whatever,” she replied. “Still counts.”

We arrived back at the house, and I held onto her once again as we walked through the front door. Our house manager Jan was just leaving for the night.

“Hey, Jan,” I said. “Where’s Roy?”

“Late business meeting,” she said. “He told me to leave some food in the fridge for you two. I made saltimbocca.”

“We already ate, but thanks,” I said. “I’ll have some for lunch tomorrow. What about my mother?”

She shrugged. “I think she’s at a personal training session with that Emile character.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course she was. I was ninety-nine percent sure she was fucking him, but I had no hard evidence of it. Otherwise I’d go straight to Roy and tell him. Unfortunately, without proof there was no point. She’d deny it all, Roy would believe her, and I’d just be the bastard of a son who tried to destroy his own mother’s supposedly happy marriage.

“I think…I need to go to bed,” Arizona said from my side, clutching at my shirt.

“She drank a little too much at dinner,” I explained.

Jan raised her eyebrows and gave me a knowing smile. “Right. Well, have fun, kids. Don’t get into too much trouble.”

I escorted Arizona up the stairs, and she continued to cling to my shirt, each footstep uneasy.

“That was our housekeeper,” she announced a moment later.

“Er…yeah, I know,” I replied, my forehead creased with confusion. “I live here too, remember?”

She giggled into her palm. “I know. I just meant…like…I have a housekeeper!”

“You are literally the drunkest person I have ever seen,” I said. “No more wine for you, ever again.”

She broke away from my grip and sprinted up the hallway, and I dashed after her. Stopping next to an old painting by some long-dead French guy, she turned back around and looked at me, her legs wobbling.

“See? Look at all this stuff! It’s like I live in a palace now!”

I chuckled. It was kinda cute how after all this time she was still so enthralled by the trappings and comforts of having money and living in a big house. Everything seemed to amaze her. It was like she was a baby seeing the world for the first time. In a way, I guess she was seeing the world for the first time; the elite world, that is. Most people never got the chance.

She did another twirl in the hallway and almost tripped over, and I held my hands out to steady her.

“I think I might need to be carried again,” she said.

“I figured.”

I picked her up and pushed her door open with my foot, once again trying to ignore the fact that my hand was cupping her ass. Unfortunately, my dick was all too aware, stiffening and straining against the zipper to my pants as I lifted her onto the bed.

“Wait,” she said weakly. “I can’t sleep in my damp clothes. Where are my pajamas?”

She propped herself up on her elbows and blearily looked around, and I held my hands up. “It’s okay, stay there. I’ll find something.”

I stepped into her walk-in closet and switched on the light, quickly rummaging through her clothes. I couldn’t find a nightie or any other kind of sleepwear, but I did find a pale blue silk kimono robe. Good enough.

“Hey, will this do?” I asked, stepping out with the robe.

Holy shit. Arizona was naked.

She’d pulled off all her clothes and tossed them to the side of the bed, and now she was standing up on the floor to the side of it. I opened my mouth a couple of times to say something but nothing came out, and I stared at her like a mentally-challenged goldfish for a full minute. I’d seen plenty of naked chicks before, but none of them had affected me like this.

Christ, she was perfect. Her tits were round and especially perky for their size, but not so much that they looked like the fake bolted-on silicone things that so many chicks had these days. Her nipped-in waist curved out to perfect hips that I desperately wanted to grab, and I resisted the urge to stride over, throw her on the bed and spank her curvy ass for being such a tease.

My cock practically felt like it was about to explode right then and there, and I averted my eyes, trying to look anywhere but at her. “What are you doing, Arizona?” I asked.

Fuck, it was so hard to keep my eyes off her. I slowly approached her, holding the robe out in front of me so that her body was hidden behind it, and she murmured breathlessly.

“I know you want to kiss me again…just like you did at that party,” she said. “So why don’t you?”

She wasn’t wrong, but it would be wrong for me to do it. I wanted nothing more than to touch her, feel her, taste her…but I couldn’t bring myself to even entertain the idea of actually doing it while she was this wasted. She was a virgin, and while she wasn’t acting like it at the moment, I knew there had to be a reason behind why she’d held onto her virginity for so long. It was obviously something she considered special, so I wrapped the robe around her and gently rebuffed her.

She pouted. “What’s wrong?” she said. She was still slurring her words, and it sounded more like ‘whatsshh wrong?’

“It’s not going to happen,” I said. “You’re drunk. You need to go to sleep.”

I gently pushed her back towards the bed, and she grumbled and climbed under the sheets, staring up at me. Her expression was pure disappointment, like I’d just rejected her because I wasn’t attracted to her, which wasn’t the case. Hell no.

“I know you’re mad at me now, but trust me, you’d be even madder with yourself tomorrow if I did anything to you tonight,” I said.

She reached out, trying to grope at my crotch in the hopes that it’d change my mind, and I captured her hand in mine and then sat down. “Sleep it off, Arizona.”

“Fine,” she replied, yawning and curling up in a ball. Even with her eyes closed, she still looked pissed. Oh well. The price we pay for doing the right thing…

“Hey, I forgot to ask,” I said, squeezing her hand. “You were meant to tell me what I did to rub you the wrong way when we first met.”

She opened her eyes again and half sat up. “How about you rub me the right way and I’ll tell you?”

I chuckled and shook my head. Even while absolutely wasted, she was still capable of coming up with witty one-liners.

“We’ll talk tomorrow instead,” I said.

“No, it’s okay,” she replied with a sigh, lying back down and closing her eyes. “I’ll tell you. Remember how we met at the benefit for the hotel I was working at?”

“Yeah?” I said, quickly checking my watch. It was only 8:30. Talk about a wild night…or not.

She didn’t answer, and I turned back to face her. “Arizona?”

But she was already dead to the world, her perfect chest slowly rising and falling as she breathed in and out. One arm was splayed out by her side, and her lips were slightly parted. Even though she was snoring a little bit, she still looked and sounded like a sleeping angel, and I sat and watched her for a moment before gently moving a loose strand of hair off her face and tucking it behind her ear. Then I pulled the blankets up over the sheets, making sure she was nicely tucked in before leaning down and lightly touching my lips to her forehead.

“Night, Arizona.”