Score - A Stepbrother Romance (9 page)

“Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I had no idea. I knew he’d passed away, but…”

My voice trailed off, and she shook her head slowly. “I don’t talk about it much. Neither does Mom. It was pretty hard to deal with.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. Look, I know we haven’t exactly been the best of friends since we met, but if you ever wanna talk about it, feel free to come find me.”

“Thanks,” she said, her lips curving into a small smile. Even the tiniest of smiles from her was enough to make my heart race and my cock throb.

I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. “Time to feed Goldie again. Where’s that dropper?”

Lina picked up the kitten and held her as I fed her the medicine, and this time Goldie happily swallowed and started to purr.

“I think she’s already starting to feel better,” I remarked.

“I’m glad. We still have to give her the medicine another few times, though, just to make sure she gets the full course of antibiotics into her system.”

“Yeah.”

As she placed the meds and eyedropper onto my bedside table, Lina saw the framed photo I kept there. It was of me, my father and my mother in happier times, when I was a kid. The photo had been taken at Disneyland, and I pursed my lips as I remembered how far away my Mom was these days.

“Is that your Mom?”

I nodded. “Yep.”

“Where is she now? If you don’t mind my asking,” Lina said.

“Paris. She lives with some artist she met on a cruise.”

“Oh, wow. Is that why your parents split?”

I shook my head. “Nope. Dad cheated on her with his receptionist. He bought Mom a ticket to the cruise as a ‘sorry’ present, but she met another guy and realized she didn’t want to deal with being married to my father anymore.”

Lina’s eyes widened. “Oh. I had no idea. So your Dad…do you think…”

Her question trailed off, but I knew what she was wondering.

“It’s okay,” I said. “He’d never do it again. I know it was a total asshole move, and he’s a dick in a lot of other ways when he wants to be, but I also know he regrets it. A lot. Their marriage was never great to begin with, to be honest, but still…anyway, don’t worry, he loves your Mom. I can tell. You don’t need to worry about him cheating ever again.”

She nodded. “Okay. Good.”

Goldie got up and stretched before strolling up to one of my pillows and settling down on it. Lina smiled and moved up to her. “Aw, someone’s a little sleepy head.”

I grinned and watched as she stroked the kitten. “So how about we finally watch that movie?”

“All right. But no Rambo!”

“Fine, fine.” I feigned an exasperated sigh and searched through my movie collection before finding an old one that I thought we’d both like. It had plenty of drama and action, but it also had Brad Pitt starring in it, so I doubted Lina would complain all that much.

I didn’t even need to worry about whether she liked it or not. She was obviously exhausted from the long night of worrying about the kitten, because within ten minutes, she’d nodded off with Goldie wrapped around the top of her head.

Powerful emotions shook me as I watched her chest rise and fall with each soft breath she took, and I quietly pulled the blanket over her and stood up, still watching her.

Fuck, I wanted her.

I could think of nothing else, and no one else. I craved her, needed her, and each minute that passed by in which I didn’t have her, I could feel my frustration growing and morphing into a ravenous beast that demanded her with every movement, every breath. I wanted nothing more than to claim her as my own.

If only it were that easy.

I sighed and grabbed a spare blanket from my cupboard before curling up on the sofa I had near the window. As fucking amazing as it would be to sleep next to Lina in my bed, I knew it was the wrong thing to do. She’d only just started to trust me and open up to me, and I could tell she was really starting to see me as a real friend. Maybe even as a brother, as much as I hated that idea.

I couldn’t ruin all that by hopping into bed next to her. Knowing my luck, I’d accidentally roll over and start cuddling her in my sleep, and she’d wake up in the morning to feel my hard cock poking her in the back.

And that’d be the end of
that
friendship.

Besides, I needed to stay awake and give Goldie her medicine for the next two hours. I gently lifted her from the pillow above Lina’s head and cradled her in my arms. She purred contentedly as I gave her the next dose of medicine, and then we sat together on the sofa, watching the movie together. Every so often, Lina stirred and moaned softly in her sleep, and every time that happened, Goldie meowed softly and nudged me.

“I know,” I said, giving her a chin scratch. “I know you want to sleep with her, but you’ve gotta stay here with me so I can give you your meds. My lap’s not so bad, is it?”

She pressed her little nose into mine, and I smiled. “See? Not so bad.”

Truthfully, I wanted to get into that bed and cuddle Lina as much as Goldie did, but I’d already established that there was no way I could do that.

Fuck. She was officially making me lose my grip…and I was letting it happen.

“
I
’m just saying
, there’s never a good time to wear sequin Uggs,” Landon sighed, shaking his head. “Seriously, Michaela, I don’t think I can forgive you for buying them.”

“They were totally a good buy!” my other best friend argued, her eyes blazing fire. She stuck a leg out, her silver Uggs catching the light and nearly blinding us all. Landon pretended to barf in his salad and dramatically rolled his eyes.

“Landon, you wear glasses even though you don’t have a prescription,” I gently reminded him, which resulted in a triumphant look by Michaela and an evil glare thrown in my direction by Landon.

“Michaela hates those. Let’s agree you each have one horrific style choice per month, okay?” I was trying to make them see reason, because when it came to their fashion choices, my friends were fiercely opinionated.

“She’ll need one per day, more like,” Landon snorted and I shook my hands in the air to get them to stop. As soon as Michaela laughed it off, I knew we were out of the woods.

We were sitting at our favorite brunch place, Brunch O’Clock. It was a regular hangout for them, but I’d only recently started coming along, since I could now afford luxuries like eating out. Even though I still felt like I was accepting Peter’s charity by occasionally using the credit card he’d given me, I loved hanging out with my friends…and I loved the café’s eggs Benedict, so that was good as well.

My friends started chatting to me about my classes, and we quickly fell back into our rhythm…until Landon had to burst the freaking bubble again.

“So, how is stepbrother dearest?” he asked me, waggling his eyebrows. I sighed, knowing this moment had been coming sooner or later.

I’d filled them in about Chase before, but they still didn’t know about his secret… or mine, for that matter. As far as they were concerned, he was just my stupidly hot stepbrother, who was totally off-limits, totally preppy and totally boring.

But I knew the time had come to tell them the whole truth. I hated keeping secrets, and it had been weighing on me for a while. I wasn’t going to screw things up for Chase by telling everyone, but I figured if I told my friends, it’d make me feel a little better, just having told someone at least. I knew they’d never tell anyone else.

“Do you remember that night we went to that…” I looked around us, making sure no one was eavesdropping. “Fight in the abandoned warehouse?”

Michaela and Landon nodded gravely, both of them leaning in, already expecting this to be good.

“And you chickened out with the hot fighter dude,” Landon nodded vigorously.

“Yes,” I growled. “Thanks for the reminder, Landon. Anyway, as you know, my Mom told me about the engagement two days after that and we went to dinner with Peter and Chase. And, erm, turns out that Chase… he’s the fighter I almost slept with.”

I had to admit, I was expecting more than the blank stares they were facing me with in response to what I’d just said.

“
Well
?” I asked impatiently. “Can I have some kind of dramatic, over-the-top reaction here, please?”

“Well…” Michaela and Landon exchanged guilty looks, and I instantly knew something was up with them. “We kinda already knew, Lina. We figured it out when we saw that article about you guys in the paper after that media lunch thing you had. But don’t worry, we haven’t told anyone.”

So I guess the shocked reaction would be coming from me now…

I stared at them with my eyes wide open, then hissed a response in their direction. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“We were going to,” Landon said. “But you hadn’t given us the chance yet. So, anyway…how’s living with an underground fighting champion slash handsome preppy boy treating you?”

My grim expression spoke volumes and he shook his head.

“That bad, huh?” Michaela said sympathetically, patting my hand. “I imagine it must be hard after the whole thing in the hotel room.”

It was hard…but not for the reasons they likely imagined. It was horrible because every time I looked at Chase, I thought of his hands undressing me and his mouth claiming mine in a passionate kiss, just like they had on that first night. And the worst part was, I longed for it to happen again, even when we were sitting at the lunch table with Lily, chatting about her day at kindergarten.

I was totally whipped, but I couldn’t say it out loud—that would just mean it was actually real. Better to live in denial than to accept what was actually going on.

I looked at Michaela and Landon with a worried expression, and I knew they were on the same page. We’d known each other since we were babies, and there was no way I could’ve hidden anything from them. They’d always been able to read me like an open book.

Yep, they totally knew I had it bad for him.

I half expected them to say something, but as our eyes met, I found compassion and worry in their looks. They didn’t say a word; instead, they realized I wasn’t willing to say anything about Chase out loud and tucked back into their food.

I was thankful for that.

The conversation veered off in another direction as we chatted about life at college and how different it was to high school. A few moments later, Michaela and Landon were busy cooing at some photos of Goldie I’d taken on my phone when someone butted into our conversation with a syrupy-sweet voice I knew all too well.

“If it isn’t lovely little Lina! I was just sitting over there behind you guys…I thought I recognized that voice!”

I looked up into piercing blue eyes. Of course. It was Jessie Bond, the mean girl from the party. I sighed inwardly, my heart already picking up its pace. I’d mentally prepared myself for seeing her again, and it was probably good that she’d strolled up to me right now while I was with my best friends. At least they’d stand up for me if I couldn’t do it myself.

“In the flesh,” I replied, fighting an eye roll.

She pulled up a chair at our table and sat her butt down while the three of us stared at her in shock. I was pretty sure Landon and Michaela recognized her from when I’d told them about her behavior at the party, upon which they’d subsequently Facebook stalked her, and they gave me some seriously weird looks. I just shrugged in return.

Jessie grinned at me, and I prepared for the onslaught…but I was more shocked by what followed than I would’ve been if she’d actually insulted me.

“So, Lina,” she purred. “I’m totally sorry if you got upset the other day at Brett’s party. You know I was kidding, right? All in good fun.”

I stared at her incredulously. She couldn’t be serious. She’d been so awful to me that night that I’d ended up storming out of the party and into the rain outside, with Chase on my heels, and she was trying to say that it had all been ‘good fun’? Then again, what she’d said wasn’t a real apology, anyway. It wasn’t ‘
sorry I was horrible to you
,’ it was just ‘
sorry you got upse
t,’ as if she couldn’t stand to take any responsibility for her own actions.

“Erm, right,” I replied with a small nod, waiting for her next words. Sure enough, there was something else on Jessie’s agenda, and she didn’t waste any time telling me about it.

“By the way,” she said. “When you see Chase, tell him to fix his phone. I keep texting him but he never responds. Obviously it's broken."

She flashed me a smile and reached for a piece of bread in the basket the waiter had just deposited on our table.

Then I did the unthinkable. I smacked her hand away from the food.

She gave me such a horrified look that I nearly burst out laughing on the spot, but instead, I did something even more unlikely…I stood up for myself.

“Tell you what, Jessie,” I said. “You leave right now, and I won’t tell Chase what a fool you’ve just made of yourself at this table. Here’s a hint: his phone is fine.”

She stared at me like I’d just mortally insulted her, which I probably had, but I was past the point of caring about hurting her feelings. She’d hurt mine, and she didn’t seem too bothered by that fact.

“Now, please leave,” I continued, mimicking her syrupy voice from earlier. “Try not to hurt yourself when you go. It must be difficult walking around with such a big head.”

Jessie kept staring at me, but she looked defeated.

“Um, hello?” Michaela interrupted our staring contest. “Leave, now.”

Jessie huffed and puffed as she finally got up and stalked off, tottering in her too-high heels as she made her way down the street.

As soon as she’d turned the corner, Landon burst out laughing.

“The mean girl, I presume?” Michaela guessed out loud, and I nodded with a small smile.

“The very one.”

“Go, Lina!” Landon whooped like some cheerleader at a soccer game. “Bout time you grew a pair, girl.”

They hugged me and I found myself laughing right along with them. Truth be told, I didn’t think I’d have said anything…not a month earlier, at least. But hanging out with my dear stepbrother was rubbing off on me, and slowly, I was starting to build up my confidence.

The days of girls like Jessie walking all over me were behind me. I guess Chase wasn’t such a bad influence, after all…

H
ours later
, I went to bed, my head swimming with thoughts as I lay back on the pillow. Chase was nowhere to be seen – probably out with some friends. I’d played with Lily until her bedtime and then gone to bed with Goldie in my arms.

I couldn’t focus on anything. Not the romance novel I was reading, not the fall TV shows I’d been eagerly awaiting all year, and not my mounting load of college assignments. Instead, I tossed and turned in my huge new bed until finally falling asleep at around one in the morning.

As it turned out, it wouldn’t be a peaceful night.

It felt like only moments after I’d fallen asleep that my phone started ringing like crazy. I fumbled on my nightstand while Goldie dashed off to the other end of the room, complaining loudly about the annoying noise.

“I know what you mean,” I groaned at her, finally locating my phone on the floor and pressing answer.

“What the hell do you want?” I asked the person on the other end of the line, too busy to even check the caller ID. “It’s the middle of the night!”

“I’m so sorry, Lina!” Landon’s exasperated voice greeted me and I shot up in bed, my eyebrows already knitting together in worry. Landon never called me like this, and I knew right away something had to be wrong. “He asked us not to call you…but I had to.”

“Calm down,” I begged him. “What’s going on, Landon? Where are you? Is everyone all right?” My heart was already next to bursting out of my chest, my hands shaking as I tried to hold the cellphone close to my ear.

“It’s Chase,” Landon admitted dejectedly. My heart sank to my stomach.

“Don’t kill us, Lina…Michaela and I went to one of his fights tonight. I know that’s horrible, we’re terrible people…we just wanted to gawk some more. Don’t hate us, please.”

My mouth set in a line, but I didn’t question him about it. I needed to know if Chase was okay first. “What happened?” I asked.

“Well, he won the fight in the end,” Landon said. “We spoke to him before it started, and he remembered us from when we came here together the last time, so he let us watch from the front row.”

“And then?” I was getting impatient.

“Then…the other dude beat him up pretty bad before he got taken down. Chase is bleeding from his head, but he claims he’s okay, and his little entourage have fucked off to God knows where. He won’t let us call an ambulance, because he thinks he’s totally fine. He said he just needs to get home, but he can’t really drive with a bleeding head injury. Even he admits that. So we said we’d drive him home, but I wanted to call you first and let you know what’s happening.”

I heard grumbling in the background and Michaela talking in a soothing voice, so I figured Chase was well enough to speak, at least. It still hurt badly though; the worry for him cutting into my body like a knife.

“Just pick me up at home,” I told Landon. “We’ll convince him to go to the hospital. Isn’t there a doctor there, for fuck’s sake?”

I hardly ever cursed, and the words felt weird coming off my lips. I could tell Landon sensed my unease as he rushed to explain it all.

“There is, but he’s helping the other guy. He’s in even worse shape. Chase’s coach usually helps him out too, but he’s sick today,” he said. “He says he shouldn’t have even been fighting tonight.”

“Just pick me up,” I said again. “I’ll wait on Central Avenue. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. We’ll get him to a hospital as soon as possible…and Landon?”

“Yeah?” his voice was tired, and I could tell he was freaking out, too.

“Just take care of Chase, please.” My voice almost broke, and I knew from Landon’s response that he was doing his best, whether or not Chase thought he needed it.

We ended the call and I rushed to pull on some sweatpants and a top. I laced up a pair of boots and shushed Goldie as I sneaked out, her wide eyes following me out of the room.

I ran all the way to Central Avenue, even though it was just a few blocks away. As soon as I turned the corner, I could see Landon’s car waiting for me, the engine still going, and once again, I ran as fast as I could.

I slammed the door behind me as I got in the back seat and faced the person next to me.

Chase was practically unrecognizable. He had a huge cut on his forehead, right near his hairline, and the thing was hemorrhaging blood, coloring his face in scarlet tones. He looked like an extra from Night of the Living Dead.

He gave me an apologetic grin, and I thought I’d slap him on the spot.

“Where do I go?” Landon asked from the front seat, driving off of the sidewalk and pausing at a stop sign.

“The hospital,” I said without hesitation, glaring at Chase. At least he was alive, and he didn’t look that badly hurt…though I could only see his face, and he was clutching his chest in a weird way. “And step on the gas.”

“No fucking way,” Chase shook his head angrily, glaring at me in the backseat. “The media will catch on in a heartbeat, and you guys are making way too big of a deal about this. No one can know about this, guys…just drive us home, Landon, and I’ll stick some antiseptic and Band Aids on this.”