Read Slade: A Stepbrother Romance Online
Authors: Sienna Valentine
Slade: A Stepbrother Romance (14 page)
“I
miss you so much, Mom… more than you can possibly imagine. There isn’t be a day
that goes by that I don’t wish that you were here, comforting me and telling me
whether I was going down the right path, doing the right thing. But I have to
do it by myself now, and that thought is so terrifying.”
I
glanced over my shoulder again, smiling as I spotted Iris looking over at me. I
felt that familiar warmth growing in my chest as I turned back to my mother’s
grave.
“I
think you’d really like Iris, Mom,” I said, my voice soft. “She’s a lot like
you—tough, strong, pretty… and she’s so smart. I only wish that you could have
met her. I think you two would really have gotten along.”
“Talking
about me?” I heard Iris’ voice carry over the wind, the grass crunching beneath
her feet as she came closer. “Good things, I hope.”
“The
best,” I said, turning toward her with a smile. “I was just about to say
goodbye.”
Iris
slid her arm around my waist as I turned back to my mother’s grave. I hated the
thought of leaving, of having to wait until some other time to come and see
her. But I knew that my family was waiting for me, and I couldn’t keep them
waiting for long.
“Goodbye,
Mom,” I said to her gravestone, glinting in the dying light beneath the boughs
of that old oak tree. “I love you.”
Iris
SIX MONTHS LATER
“Come on, Kellan. This is a big deal.
I think a little celebration is in order, huh?”
Kellan sighed, rolling his eyes like
ninety full days of sobriety after rehab was no big deal. He ran a hand through
his freshly cut hair, still grumbling about how the stylist took off too much
length, and squinted at the banner I’d made for him and strung up across my
apartment door.
“This is silly,” he said. “I made it
a whole three months without fuckin’ up, and you want to throw me some kind of
party.” I shrugged and he narrowed his eyes at me, running his tongue over his
teeth. “Well, shit. Did you at least get me a piñata?”
“That can be arranged,” I told him,
hugging him around his shoulders. “What should we put in it, do you think?
Candy? Cupcakes? Tiny little strippers?”
Kellan snorted a gruff laugh. “How
‘bout some pills and clean needles? Can never have too many of those.” He saw
my sharp look and flashed me a sheepish grin. “I’m joking, sis. Really. C’mon,
you gotta let me have my gallows humor.” He turned to me and put his hands on
my arms. “Sometimes, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. And I really, really don’t
feel like crying today. So just go with it and put up with my shit for a couple
hours. Okay?”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.
“Fine. But keep the relapse jokes to a minimum. You scare me half to death with
those things.”
“Scout’s honor,” my brother said,
holding up his hand in a mock salute. “I’m doing the best I can, Iris. Takin’
it one day at a time. I don’t want to let you down again.”
“And you’re not going to,” I told
him, “because I was serious about what I said back at the hospital. You so much
as look wrong at a pill or a needle again, Kellan Walker, and I will—”
“End me,” Kellan finished on my
behalf. “I got it, trust me. Who needs to OD when you’ve got a family like
ours, huh?”
I shook my head, taking my little
brother in for a moment. God, he’d come such a long way in such a short time,
and sometimes, his progress kind of scared me. I kept waiting for the other
shoe to drop, for Kellan to go back on his word and disappear from our lives
again, only this time, maybe Slade and I wouldn’t find him in time to stop
something bad from happening to him. I read somewhere that addicts have the
highest chance of ODing
after
they’d gotten clean—their tolerance drops,
and they tend to forget that when they’re frantically trying to scratch that
evil little itch. But so far, so good with Kellan. He was really putting in the
effort, and I couldn’t have been more proud of him.
“Slade’s the only one here so far,” I
told him, opening the door. “Dad and Mom won’t be here for a little while, and
I invited a few of my friends. I hope you don’t mind.”
“That depends,” Kellan said, stepping
into my apartment and hanging his coat from the rack near the door, “are they
hot?”
“Too hot for you, little brother,” I
answered, closing the door behind us and leading Kellan into my kitchen. “But
hey, at least you’ll get some cake.”
I expected some lip, but Kellan just
made a beeline for the store-bought icing monstrosity set up on my kitchen
table. “Ooh, cake…”
“Hey, Kellan,” Slade said, stepping
out of the bedroom where he’d just finished cleaning up. God, did my
stepbrother look great when he got all gussied up for company. He was wearing a
maroon, long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up—I wasn’t sure what it was
about that look that got to me, but goddamn, it was hot. Like he was ready to
get down to business, get his hands dirty. I was definitely up for some of that
later, but right now, his hotness made it difficult to concentrate.
“What’s up, bro?” Kellan said,
sucking icing off his fingers as he pulled Slade in for a bro hug. “How’s
married life, huh?”
“We’re not married, Kellan,” I told
him with an exasperated sigh. “We’re just living together. God, I forgot how
annoying you are.”
“So you’re… what, his live-in
girlfriend?” Kellan asked, eyebrows raised. “Damn, sis. No wonder you’re
cranky.”
Slade chuckled. He was way more
amused by Kellan’s shit than I was. Seeing the look on my face, he put his arm
around me and drew me in close. “Your sister and I are taking things slow,” he
said, then winked at me. “For now.”
A blush crept into my cheeks. I both
loved and hated when he talked like that. It flustered me like nothing else.
It was so good to have everything
back to… well, back to whatever passed for
normal
around here. Our
family was back together. Kellan was safe. And even my non-conventional
relationship with Slade had stopped being a topic of conversation months ago.
My mom had accepted it more easily than Dad had. He still thought it was weird.
But he’d stopped making faces whenever we kissed or held hands, and that was
pretty good progress, all things considered.
And Slade, for his part, was fitting
in just fine. True to his word, he’d moved back home as soon as he could and
took a position with the metro hospital. Not only was he instrumental to
Kellan’s recovery, partly overseeing his therapy and making arrangements for a
stellar outpatient program, but he was also patenting a device he hoped would
become commonplace for drug addicts around the world. It was an epi pen-like
delivery system containing naloxone, the drug Slade had used to save Kellan’s
life. Since it was so fast-acting, it could be revolutionary in preventing
drug-related deaths. The most rigorous of the medical trials it would have to
pass to make it to market were coming up soon, but Slade didn’t even seem
worried. I guessed that was an advantage of being a cocky bastard—you never bet
against yourself.
Which meant the only sleepless nights
Slade had around here were the ones he spent with me, making up for lost time.
Even after six months, the sex with him was
hot.
He never ran out of
ways to amaze me. I had the sneaking suspicion that he had some kind of manual
stashed away somewhere.
“So, you set any long-term goals for
yourself, Kellan?” I asked my younger brother. “I mean, since you’re so curious
about what Slade and I are doing, I’m sure there’s something you want to
share.”
“One day at a time, sis,” he said
again, going back for seconds on the icing he’d stolen. “One day at a time.”
Come to think of it, that wasn’t a
bad motto. It was a great way to look at life—like each day was an
accomplishment in and of itself. Like the happiness you had right now was way
more important than the past, or even the future. You had to cherish things
while they were still around. You couldn’t take them for granted. Having
suffered so much loss throughout my life, I was very well aware of what
forgetting all that could do.
I looked up at Slade again and saw
that mischievous spark in his eyes, the one I’d first seen seven years ago when
he’d decided to set his sights on me. Even after all this time, it hadn’t
faded. He was still into me, still in love, still looking for ways to one-up
me. God, I hoped he never stopped.
“Yeah,” I said, slipping my arms
around him and watching as Kellan sat on our couch, safe and sound. “One day at
a time.”
The End.
Bestselling
author Sienna Valentine grew up in Canada and still lives there, spending her
time reading and writing. Steamy romance has always been her favorite genre,
and finds now that the only thing more satisfying than dreaming up her
fantasies in the first place, is writing them down and being able to share them
with others.
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can find Sienna on facebook here:
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I
would to thank all of my wonderful readers who have given me a chance to live
my dream of writing for a living. I hope that each book I write is better than
the last so that I never disappoint you.
I
would also like to thank my ARC and Beta readers that were very helpful in
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Motorcycle Romance
Untitled Sanctum Follow
-
up (coming Sept/Oct)
With Aubrey St.
Clair
Silver
and Chrome (coming in October)
Excerpt From Sanctum
SANCTUM
~
PROLOGUE ~
Maggie
moaned and giggled in the dark as she
felt Jase
’
s tongue sliding between her legs. She
leaned her head back and closed her eyes, fingers tangling in his hair, feeling
the motion of his head moving around her center. The coolness of the sheets and
the low summer breeze from the open window coun
tered
the heat of his body against hers. She could only stand a few minutes of his
sweet torture before she grasped at his shoulders, trying to pull him on top of
her.
Jase
moaned a few times as he lingered, his tongue flicking over her clit one last
time before he obliged her silent orders. He traced a trail with his mouth up
over her stomach and breasts. When she kissed him, she felt her own wetness on
the 5
o
’clock sc
ruff
on his chin. Jase slid his hips between her legs, his aching hardness pressing
onto her sensitive lips. She gasped in his mouth and he laughed a low, sexy
laugh that made her stomach shiver.
Jase
seemed to tease her a few more moments, sliding his c
ock
against her without entering, until she whimpered and squirmed beneath him. He
dropped a hard, passionate kiss on her lips when he finally relented and pushed
inside of her. She inhaled the moan he let out when he felt her warmth around
his cock. He b
egan to thrust into her desperately,
pulling her body for leverage to get as deeply inside of her as he could.
Maggie grasped at him, digging nails into his back with every powerful meeting
of his hips on hers.
It
was only a few minutes before they were
both crying
out in sweet release. Maggie bit into Jase
’
s shoulder, holding him close as she
came. She felt him shudder against her, and deep inside her.
Maggie
collapsed against the sheets, and Jase, on top of her. The sounds of their
heavy breathing fill
ed the bedroom.
Jase
lifted his head up to look at her and planted a kiss on her lips.
“
That
’
s five—
record broken.
”
“
Record broken
hard
,”
said Maggie with a chuckle.
“
Good show, Campbell.
”
“
And to you, ma
’
am,”
said Jase. He playfully bit around her sto
mach where he knew she was ticklish, and Maggie collapsed
into giggles until she finally got him to stop.
Rolling
off to lie next to her on the bed, Jase played with her curly hair as she lay
on the pillow.
“
I feel like it
’
s been too long since we got to
do this - at least this many times in a row.
”
“
Yeah, well, who
’
s to blame for that, mister?
”
said Maggie with a quirk of her eyebrow.
“
I know, I know,
”
said Jase.
“
Things have been busy with the club, I
know. Henry
’
s finally giving me better jobs than j
ust bartending.
”
“Ugh,”
said Maggie immediately. She twisted
around dramatically.
“Don’t
even want to hear his name.
”
Jase
laughed and tweaked her nose.
“
Maggie, we
’
re fucking in the man
’
s house.
”
“
Yeah, well, not for long,
”
she said.
“Oh?”
said Jase. He laid his head down on the
pillow next to her and gave her a hopeful grin.
“
Finally going to move in with me?
”
Maggie
grinned back at him and scooted a little closer. She had practiced broaching
this conversation for hours in the mirror before her father had finally left
the house, allowing Jase time to come over.
“Maybe… “
“
Seriously?
”
said Jase. He perched on hi
s elbow and looked at her.
“
When you put a goddamn ring on it,
”
she said with a laugh. Jase mussed up
her hair. It was the response she always gave him when he asked about moving
in. She waited just a beat before she tacked on the new part.
“
And if we
’
re
moving into
some place that
’
s not in LeBeau.
”
When
he didn’t answer right away, she looked up at his eyes. Some part of her knew
he might be resistant, but truth be told, the bigger part of her heart which
held his love had no fear until she saw that wor
ried
sternness in his jade-colored eyes.
Jase
took a deep breath.
“You
’
re still on about this?
”
“
About moving away? Yeah, I
’
m still
‘
on about it
’
,”
said Maggie.
“
Did you think I wasn’t serious when I brought it up before?
”
Jase
sighed and rolled over onto his back. Maggie felt her heart start to ache when
he threw his legs off the side of the bed and checked his phone.
“
Jase, don’t
ignore me,
”
she said.
Jase
turned half around.
“I
’
m sorry. I
’
m not trying to ignore you. I
’ve
just heard this before. Every time you and Henry have a fight, you talk about
getting out of here.
”
His
words stung. He made her sound so reactionary and emotional.
“
That
’
s not what this is.
”
“
Then what is it? Why do you want to get
away from here so
bad, Maggie? I don’t get it.
”
“Yes you do, you
just don’t agree with it.”
“You
’
re right, I don’t. Henry has only ever
made my life better, and you
’
re asking me to feel exactly the opposite about him
—
and break my commitment to the club by
leaving,
”
said
Jase. He
stood up and put on his boxers.
Maggie
sat up.
“I
’
m not asking you to feel differently
about Henry. How could I? I just
… don’t
you get it, Jase, that the Henry you know and the Henry I
know are not the same man? He gives you the world, and every
opportunity, but he can’t push me away from all of it fast
enough. He acts like I didn’t grow up in that fucking clubhouse right alongside
you.
”
“You
’
re his daughter, of course he
’
s going to treat you differently from
some stray kid he picked up.
”
Maggie could hear the tone in his voice had gone to a
bitter place.
“
But he
’
s never let you want for anything. Hell,
he
’
d probably let you live here until you
’
re a senior citizen.
”
“
That
’
s not the same thing as love,
”
said Maggie, shifting up onto her kne
es.
“
Giving me an easy place to live only makes sure I owe him
obedience to his rules. He doesn’t care what I want
—
only what he wants. And he wants me to
be with some normal person with an office job, a boring husband, and a weekend
hobby.
”
Jase
stood at
the end of the bed, clearly frustrated, but
unable to find the words for it. He put his hands on his thin waist and shook
his head. Maggie crawled up to him and leaned against his chest. He put one arm
around her back with a light touch.