My Stepbrother's Arrangement (A Stepbrother Romance) (20 page)

You know when you hear something, but you're really not sure that you actually heard what you thought you did, but at the same time, you know you did in fact hear right?

That had just happened to me.

They were leading Kaleb away in handcuffs. Everything was chaos.

Pure and total chaos.

But for me, everything was standing still.

Because Kaleb Leeman had just told me he loved me.

It was barely more than a whisper, so quiet I wasn't totally sure I'd heard.

But at the same time, I knew. I knew I'd heard right.

Nothing else mattered.

Medics were in Pollock's office loading him onto a stretcher. His secretary, who had been comforting me a minute earlier, was now talking to a couple of police officers.

Suddenly I screamed and lunged at the officers.

"Let him go! Let him go!" I shouted, trying to get at Kaleb. He looked so out of it. I wondered if he was injured.

"Ma'am, it's going to be ok. Why don't you come over here and I can take your statement," one of the policemen told me, leading me gently by the arm over to one of the couches.

Suddenly, Kaleb collapsed.

I jumped up to help him, but the policeman held me back.

"There are medics right here. He's going to be fine," he told me, and sure enough, one of the medics who had been accompanying the stretcher with Pollock on it down to the ground floor immediately got on his radio asking for another ambulance and made his way over to Kaleb.

Oh God, what had I done?

This was all my fault. Again.

Every time I tried to make something right, things just got worse.

"He saved me," I finally whispered. "He saved me."

"Ok, miss. Can I get your name, please?"

"Olivia Scott," I whispered, almost on autopilot, my eyes focused on my stepbrother, lying unconscious on the ground, a medic taking his vital signs.

"And what's your relation to this man?" he asked, motioning at Kaleb.

"He's my brother. Why is he under arrest?"

"Both he and Mr. Pollock are under arrest as they've both evidently committed an assault. Don't worry, if your brother is innocent he'll be released. It's just a precautionary measure."

The man's calm words began to make me feel better, and when he started asking me questions I told him everything that had happened.

Five minutes later another group of paramedics came in, loaded Kaleb up onto a stretcher as well.

"Where are they taking him?"

"Mercy Hospital."

"I want to go there. Right now."

The policeman, who had introduced himself as Officer Schiff, paused. I knew he wanted to ask me more questions. After all, it was quite the story.

"Alright. I'll drive you. Come on," he told me, and I followed him to his patrol car down in the lobby.

Everywhere I went people did that whole looking-at-someone-but-pretending-not-to thing. Like I had some kind of horrendous disease.

I supposed everything that had happened passed like wildfire through the building. It's hard for rumours not to fly when the head of accounting and the son of the company's head and founder are taken out by stretcher, one of them in handcuffs.

We made our way out to the front of the building. Officer Schiff's patrol car was parked on the side of the street, the lights still going. I got into the back of the car and he quickly slipped into the driver's seat and turned on the siren.

We were going to the hospital express.

"Thank you for the ride," I told him as he pulled out into traffic.

"No problem. I figured I'd get you there faster than any cabs could. But believe me, I'm sure your brother's fine. He probably just has a slight concussion from the fight. I've seen it a million times before."

"I hope so," I replied, my mind still fraught with worry.

"So what happened to the recording?" Officer Schiff finally asked.

I gasped, and dove at my purse. In all the pandemoneum I had completely forgotten about the fact that I had grabbed my phone off the floor as I'd run out of the office.

There it was, sitting in my purse, still recording.

I pressed stop. It was done. I had the recording, it was there on my phone.

"I have it here," I replied. "Oh thank God."

"So explain to me again what you're going to do with it?"

"I'm showing it to Kaleb's dad, so that he can see that Pollock admitted to embezzling money."

"I have to say, Miss Scott, that was an incredibly dangerous thing to do."

I bowed my head as he looked up at me through the rearview mirror.

"I know," I almost whispered. "I know that now. I shouldn't have done it. I was just trying to make up for the fact that I'd screwed things up completely."

"Well, we all make mistakes. With your report, I'm going to suggest to the officers when we get to the hospital that your brother be released. He won't be charged with anything."

"Thank you. Thank you so much. He saved me, I don't know what Pollock would have done if Kaleb hadn't come in."

"That's what big brothers are for," Officer Schiff replied, and I smiled.

Two minutes later we pulled into the emergency wing of Mercy Hospital.

I asked a nurse for directions and quickly found myself being led down the hall. Kaleb was in a private room, lying in bed, just staring up at the ceiling. Even in the hospital bed, he looked strong. I wanted to jump on top of him and kiss him, right then and there. But I wasn't sure I should. After all, he'd still said... those things that he said. It was silent, except for the regular beep of his heart rate on a monitor off to the side.

"Oh my God, Kaleb, are you ok?" I asked, rushing over to him.

He turned to me and smiled.

"Hey, Kitten. I'm fine."

"You're not fine, you're in the hospital."

"Then why ask if you already knew the answer. Besides, this is just a precaution, they tell me."

"A precaution for what?"

"In case there's any bleeding in my brain. They're going to send me in for a cat scan later to make sure. But don't worry, the nurse told me it's just to be really sure. How's Pollock?"

"Don't know, don't care. I hope he's dead. Thanks for coming in. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't have perfect timing. What were you doing there, anyway?"

Kaleb shrugged.

"I don't even know. I was just pissed off. I think I just wanted him to admit to what he'd done."

"Well, great minds think alike, I guess."

I took my phone out of my bag and played the recording.

"Kitten, you are a fucking genius," Kaleb told me when the recording played, and a blush crawled up my cheeks. He still had that effect on me, despite everything.

"Listen. I said some... things, yesterday. Things I shouldn't have said." Kaleb paused. My mind was blank. I had no idea what he was about to say next. Was he apologising to me? That was what it sounded like.

"I'm sorry." There it was. It was an apology. "I know you might not forgive me. And that's fine. I wouldn't blame you at all. But if you want to... pretend it never happened... well, I'd be really happy with that."

Kaleb Leeman had just apologized to me? I'd never heard him apologize to anyone before, for any reason. This was totally uncharted territory.

"You have to answer one thing for me first," I replied.

"Sure."

"When you told me you loved me, as they were taking you away... did you mean it?"

I didn't have time to overthink what Kaleb might answer. His response was immediate.

"Of course I meant it."

Happiness washed over me. Seriously. Kaleb Leeman loved me.

"I love you too," I whispered before leaning over and kissing him softly. It was the best kiss I'd ever had in my life.

"I didn't want to tell you, because of, well, our arrangement and all. I didn't want to ruin things," he told me.

"Same with me. Plus, I mean, you're my stepbrother. We're not really supposed to..."

"Fuck 'supposed to'," Kaleb finished for me. There are a lot of things in life we're not supposed to do, but that are way more fun if we do."

"Agreed," I replied with a smile.

"Really? Little miss perfect is willing to break a rule?" Kaleb teased.

"Maybe, just maybe you've been rubbing off on me a little bit," I replied.

"Well then, I can think of another rule I'd like to break right now," Kaleb told me, and while I had a pretty good idea of what he meant, I played coy.

"And what rule would that be?"

"Go and close the door," he ordered, and I did as he asked.

Already I could feel my body reacting to the thought of him against me, butterflies started in my stomach and a familiar tug in my nether regions warned me that my panties were about to be soaking wet.

"Seriously? Here? Now?" I asked, nervous about this. After all, this wasn't some empty coffee shop. This was a hospital! People would be walking past constantly. A nurse could come in at any second and decide Kaleb needed his blood taken, or an IV put in, or something.

"Here. Now," Kaleb told me.

"But what if someone comes in?"

"Then we'll have to be quick. And the sooner we get started, the sooner we'll be finished."

Taking the hint I went over to the door, looked down the hallway to make sure no one was coming immediately, and closed it.

"Good. Now come over here and take care of me," Kaleb ordered. I went over to the bed and moved the covers off him. He was in one of those hospital gowns, and he definitely had a tent pitched.

I moved the gown up, exposing his hard cock, sticking straight up, erect and already rearing to go.

Before I got a chance, Kaleb moved his hands to my legs. Finding the hem of my skirt, he pulled it up over my hips, then found the edge of my panties and slid them down to the ground.

My entire lower body was exposed to him, and I climbed up onto the bed and straddled him.

"God, I'm never going to stop fucking you," he growled into my ear as I slowly lowered myself onto Kaleb's cock. I was so glad we were doing this again.

My body opened as I relaxed to let him enter me. It felt so right, being filled by him, being filled so totally, so completely.

Leaning over the front of him, I put my hands on Kaleb's shoulders and began to bounce up and down on top of him.

His hands found my hips and he helped me move over him, before one hand made its way down towards my nether regions and found my clit.