Stepbrother Dearest (19 page)

and the way it was parted accentuated his eyes.

Those fucking glasses.

“It felt so good to take a shower,” he said.

“I know what you mean.”

Mine felt particularly good.

“Do you need to dry your hair?”

“Yeah. Just give me a minute.”

I went to the bathroom and ran the blow dryer through it as swiftly as I could and then put it into a

quick updo.

When I reentered the room, Elec had turned on ESPN and was lying flat on the bed with his hands

resting behind his head. His shirt had ridden up, teasing me with a glimpse of one of the shamrock tattoos

on his abs. It became clear to me that pleasuring myself in the shower had done nothing to resolve my

“issues.” The sooner we could get out of this room, the better.

“I’m ready.”

He hopped up and turned the television off. I followed him out as the door clicked behind us.

“You clean up nice,” he said as we entered the elevator. “I like your hair up like that.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. It’s how you were wearing it the night when I first met you.”

“I’m surprised you remembered that.”

A feeling of nostalgia came over me when I thought about waiting for him at the window that first

night. I had no idea what kind of adventure I was in for with Elec.

“You were so innocent at first. You were just trying to be sweet to me, and I was such a prick.”

“You were. But I grew to like that about you.”

“When I wasn’t making you cry?”

“I had my moments of taking you too seriously, but overall, your jabs were fun. I don’t look back on

any of it negatively.”

“You
were
a little bit of a masochist. That sort of screwed up my evil plan pretty early on.”

“Well, you weren’t exactly as mean as you wanted me to believe you were.”

“And it turned out you weren’t that innocent.”

Our sexual tension-filled trip down memory lane came to an end as soon as we arrived at the line into

Roxy’s. We entered the confines of the dark nightclub, and Elec disappeared into the flashing strobe lights

to fetch us some drinks.

The bass of the music vibrated through me as I rocked back and forth trying to get into the mood while

I waited.

When he returned with his beer and my drink, I couldn’t take the first sip fast enough. My throat felt

frozen from the crushed ice of the daiquiri. We stood on the second level, looking down at the swarms of

people on the dance floor as we sipped our drinks. Alcohol was going to be my best friend tonight. I didn’t

want to get totally sloshed but hoped that it would help me forget about tomorrow.

A good buzz was starting to develop just as I felt Elec’s firm grip on my wrist.

“Come on.” His fingertips grazed the small of my back as he led me down the stairs.

I should have expected that he might drag me on to the dance floor. What I absolutely couldn’t have

predicted was how phenomenal of a dancer he was.

The eyes of several of the women in the club followed his every move as I discovered for the first time

that my stepbrother could dance his ass off.

Who knew?

Although, should it really have surprised me that someone who could fuck like Elec could also move

his body just as well in other ways?

I felt for those women. We all had one thing in common. We all wanted a piece of him, and none of us

would be getting any.

Seriously. His movements were like those of a stripper, but this was even more of a tease because you

knew he wouldn’t be taking his clothes off.

It was truly like an erotic show: the way he moved his hips, the way his ass swayed to the music, the

way his tongue glided slowly along his lip ring as he got lost in the rhythm.

Imagine you’re watching
Magic Mike
, and the DVD gets stuck on repeat right before the first strip scene starts. That was watching Elec dance.

I moved my body to the music alongside him, but he never put his hands on me while we were dancing

together.

At one point, his hot breath tickled my ear as he leaned into me. “I’m gonna find a bathroom. Stay here

where I can locate you.”

After Elec left me alone, a man wearing a pink collared shirt started to dance with me. He began to

speak loudly through the music as he asked me questions to which I gave him one-word answers.

A few minutes later, I felt an arm wrap around my waist from behind. The addicting smell of Elec’s skin

identified him right away, so I didn’t resist when he pulled me back. After I turned around to face him, his eyes peered into mine with a warning look. He couldn’t say anything about my dancing with the man

because that would have been inappropriate given his own situation. He had no right to stop me from

dancing with someone. Yet, he knew he could get away with it because of the tunnel vision effect he had on

me.

A flashback of Elec’s texts to me the night of my date with Corey all those years ago came to mind.

“You don’t even like him.”

“How would you know that?”

“Because you like me.”

Once Elec got me far enough away from the guy, he let go of me. We were back to dancing to the fast-

paced music and after another round of drinks, it became even easier to get lost in the mood. In the span of an hour, we never stopped dancing. Even though we weren’t touching, Elec’s eyes were fixed on mine a lot.

The room was starting to sway a little, and that was an indicator that perhaps it was time to stop imbibing.

Suddenly, the music changed to the first slow song of the night. An alarm went off in my mind. This

couldn’t happen. I nudged my head for him to follow me off the dance floor. I started to walk off and felt

his hand on mine. I stopped and turned to him.

Still holding my hand, he mouthed, “Dance with me.”

Even though I knew this was going to be the moment that completely undid me, I nodded my head and

reluctantly let him pull me into him. He let out a deep breath the moment I landed in the warmth of his

arms.

Closing my eyes, I rested my head on his chest and conceded to the pain that had been building inside

me since the moment I first saw him with Chelsea. With each pounding beat of his heart, another of my old

wounds would burst open, destroying all of the self-protective mechanisms I’d tried to implement over

these past couple of days.

If I hadn’t moved from my position, I might have been able to get through the song. But I was a glutton

for punishment and needed to know if the look on his face matched the intensity of his heartbeat.

My cheek slowly slid away from his chest. As I lifted my head upwards to look at him, he lowered his

head slowly at almost exactly the same time as if he’d been waiting for me to look at him.

The desire in eyes was blatant. I breathed in to catch each heavy breath that escaped his lips. If I

couldn’t kiss him, I wanted to at least taste every breath.

Then, he touched his forehead to mine.

It was a simple and seemingly innocent gesture, but couple that moment with the climactic part of the

song, and that was it for me.

To save myself from falling further into this, I intentionally replayed his words to Chelsea in my head.

“I love you, too.”

This. Was. My. Breaking. Point.

I ripped myself away from him and ran off of the dance floor.

I could hear him calling after me. “Greta, wait!”

Tears were pouring down my face as I weaved through the heat of the club, bumping into sweaty drunk

people as I tried to find the exit. Someone’s drink spilled on me in the process. I didn’t care. I just needed to get out of there.

He’d lost me through the crowd.

Having escaped the darkness of the club, the lights of the casino lobby were a welcome contrast.

I ran to the elevators and pressed the up button, hoping to get to my room as fast as possible. The doors

started to close right before I saw a tattooed arm slide inside, prompting them to open.

His breathing was erratic. The doors closed.

“What the fuck, Greta? Why did you run from me like that?”

“I just need to go back to my room.”

“Not like this.”

He pressed the stop button, causing the elevator to come to a jolting halt.

“What are you doing?”

“This isn’t how I wanted our night to end. I crossed a line. I know that. I got lost in the moment with

you, and I’m so fucking sorry. But it wasn’t going to go any further because I won’t cheat on Chelsea. I

couldn’t do that to her.”

“I’m not as strong as you are, then. You can’t dance with me like that, look at me like that, touch me like

that if we can’t do anything about it. And for the record, I wouldn’t
want
you to cheat on her!”

“What
do
you want?”

“I don’t want you to say one thing and act in a way that contradicts it. We don’t have much time left

together. I want you to talk to me. That night at the wake…you wrapped your hand around my neck. It felt

like for a moment you were back in that place where we left off. That’s sort of how I feel around you all of the time. Then, later that night, Chelsea told me what happened after you got home.”

He squinted. “Exactly what did she tell you?”

“Were you thinking about me? Is that why you couldn’t perform that night?”

Understandably, he looked shocked that I knew. I still didn’t understand why Chelsea shared that with

me.

Because she trusted me, and she shouldn’t have.

I regretted saying anything, but it was too late.

He stayed silent, glaring at me, but he looked like he wanted to say something.

“I want you to tell me the truth,” I said.

The look on his face turned angry, like he’d lost some battle of self-control within himself. “You want

the truth? I was fucking my girlfriend and could see nothing but you. That’s the truth.” He took a few steps toward me, and I stepped backwards as he continued, “I got into the shower that night, and the only way I

could finish the job was to imagine coming all over your beautiful neck.
That’s
the truth.”

I leaned against the elevator wall as he locked his arms on each side of me and continued, “You want

more? I was going to ask her to marry me tonight at her sister’s wedding. I was supposed to be engaged

right at this very moment, but instead, I’m in an elevator fighting the urge to back you up against this wall and fuck you so hard that I’ll have to carry you back to your room.”

My heart was beating out of control, and it was unclear which part of what he’d just said shocked me

more.

He dropped his arms and lowered his voice. “Everything I thought I knew has been turned upside down

in the past forty-eight hours. I’m questioning everything, and I don’t fucking know what to do. That’s. The.

Truth.”

He released the stop button, and the elevator continued rising up to our floor—the 22nd floor.

He was going to ask her to marry him.

It was still sinking in. What a rude awakening as to exactly how far out of my league I’d been all of this

time.

The elevator doors slid open, and as we walked down the hall, I simply said, “I don’t want to talk

anymore. I need to be alone.”

He didn’t protest as I retreated to my room without saying anything further. It saddened me that our

night had been cut short, but it finally became crystal clear that any more time spent with him would be

dangerous. He was leaving on a plane tomorrow, and there simply wasn’t enough time to resolve all of

these feelings.

Since I hadn’t bought any pajamas, I wrapped myself in a sheet and lay down. Devastated from the

proposal bombshell he’d dropped and still painfully aroused by what he’d said to me after, I knew that

sleep was not in my future tonight.

A half-hour passed. It felt like déjà vu as the red digital numbers of the alarm clock taunted me.

My text alert sounded at 2 A.M.

If I knock on your door tonight, don’t let me in.

He was trying to do the right thing, and I respected the hell out of him for it. As powerful as temptation

could be, I meant it when I told him I would never want him to cheat on her. At the same time, if I hadn’t

gone to my room, I’m not sure that we could have avoided something happening. Tonight proved that

whatever connection existed in the past between us was very much still alive and powerful. That was why it

was best that we spent the rest of the night apart.

I was tossing and turning, still conflicted about leaving him alone. Even though what happened in the

elevator had tainted the rest of the night, I needed to remind myself how this day started; he was still

mourning his father. He really shouldn’t have been by himself tonight. Not to mention, we were wasting

precious time because once he returned to California, I’d probably never see or hear from him again.

He was going to marry her.

Rustling in my sheets, I couldn’t take the insomnia anymore. The fact that the room was freezing didn’t

help. I got up to shut off the air conditioner and grabbed my phone before returning to the bed.

Are you awake?

Elec: I was just about to order this amazing juicer. If I order right now, they’ll even throw in a bonus

mini chopper all for just 19.99.

Greta: Can we talk? On the phone?

Not even three seconds went by before my phone rang.

“Hi.”

He whispered, “Hi.”

“I’m sorry,” we both said in unison.

“Jinx,” he said.

“You go first,” I said.