Stepbrother: Impossible Love (9 page)

It wasn’t exactly a surprise, but when I showed up to my next Art History class, Oliver wasn’t there. I had told Annie and Tina everything that had happened in the cafeteria the next day at lunch. They got the truth, I figured neither one of them would betray me and go to the cops. But, I also made them promise they’d never tell anyone.s

“Good to know it was true, that guy was bad news,” Tina quipped, shaking her head.

“Yeah, jeez. That’s scary,” Annie replied. We were both visibly relieved when the next class had started and Oliver hadn’t shown up. Of course now that I’d lied to the police about where I’d been I couldn’t tell them about Oliver’s attack, but a part of me was still worried that Jack was going to get in trouble over it.

That Saturday, when I woke up, I found a text on my phone.

“Meet me at the stables at 11. Jack.”

I looked at the clock on the top of the phone. It was 9:45, so I had a little over an hour to get ready. Plenty of time.
How on earth did Jack get my phone number?
I wondered. God, the guy had secrets.

Showering, wondering why Jack wanted to see me at the stables, I got ready pretty quickly and went downstairs to get a quick bite to eat for breakfast, then headed out.

I wasn’t sure what to wear, since I didn’t know what Jack wanted, so I settled on some sneakers, jeans and a warm sweater. After all, it was still late January, although it was also apparently one of the mildest Januaries on record, a balmy forty degrees that morning.

The ground of the Alcott estate were so large I’d never actually seen the stables. I wanted to learn to horseback ride, of course, but so far I’d been so busy with school and getting used to life in England that I hadn’t found the time.

It was a ten minute walk before I even saw the stables in the distance, and I started to realize just how rich the Alcott family must be.

When I finally got there, I saw Jack waiting for me, leaning on the outside of the barn, playing with his phone. He looked up and saw me.

“Hey Julianne,” he told me, and gave me a small smile.

“Hey,” I replied. “Why’d you ask me over here?”

“You wanted to learn how to ride horses, right?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Well, today you’re going to learn.” There was that grin again. God he was good looking. I could feel my naughty parts reacting just at the look of him, and it seemed there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Opening the barn door, I was greeted by the stench of horses and their neighing. Like a pro who had done this a million times, Jack went over to one of the stables, opened it up, and brought out two horses which he held by the saddles. One was a big brown horse with a diamond shaped white spot on his forehead, the other was smaller, pure white, except for some little black spots that went up and down her legs, giving her the most adorable look ever.

“This is Perdita,” he told me, motioning to the smaller horse. I smiled at the reference to 101 Dalmatians. It suited her.

She stomped her feet and nuzzled with me with her nose as Jack handed me her reins. I’m not going to lie, I had virtually no experience with horses, and had no idea what to do. I pat her softly, whispering to her that I was going to be her friend.

“Do you know how to get on?” Jack asked, and I had to shake my head, embarrassed.

I saw that familiar smirk pop up on his face, but it quickly vanished, as if he forced himself not to make some sort of snide comment.

“It’s pretty easy. You go over to her left hand side, put your left foot in the stirrup, grab the top of the saddle, then use your leg muscles and your arms to pull yourself up so you can get over to the other side.”

Then with a quick motion he demonstrated on his big brown horse. He made it look so easy, so effortless.

“OK, I think I can do that,” I muttered, and the focused. I went over to Perdita’s side, put my left foot in the stirrup, counted to three, then tried to jump up as high as I could, grabbing the saddle and throwing my right foot over the other side of the horse.

I sort of got there. I managed to get my body on top of the saddle, but instead of being parallel with Perdita’s body I was lying across the saddle, one foot in the stirrup, the other leg in the air in a failed attempt to get it over and into the other stirrup.

Unfortunately, this precarious position wasn’t the most balanced, and as soon as I tried to move I felt like I was going to fall off completely. I knew falling off a horse was normal, but I didn’t want to do it when I was still just trying to get on the horse.

“A little help please?” I squealed, and I heard Jack laughing as he saw the position I got myself in. Moving his horse over to me, with a quick movement he moved my right leg over, which automatically slipped my body into the right position.

“Some people can’t do that elegantly,” he joked, and I laughed.

“Be nice, it’s my first time on a horse.”

“I am being nice, if I was mean I would have taken a photo,” he replied.

Perdita was the nicest horse ever. As soon as I got onto her she was still as could be, letting me get comfortable on her. I pat her mane while Jack led me towards a path leading further away from the house.

“Now, just tap her gently with your feet and she’ll start moving. She’ll probably follow Brownie anyway, but this way you can get used to directing her.”

I did as he said, gently tapping her with the side of my feet, and sure enough, Perdita began to take slow steps, following in the same direction as Brownie, Jack’s horse.

“If you want her to change direction, pull the rein firmly, but not too hard, in the direction you want her to go. Pull back if you want her to stop.

“Will she listen to me?”

“Yes, definitely. She’s been raised with people her whole life. You’re not going to have a problem.”

Jack was definitely right. We reached a fork in the path pretty quickly and as he led Brownie to the left, I pulled firmly on Perdita’s reins and she followed him.

“Good girl, thank you,” I whispered to her as she walked along, stroking her mane once more. This was fun!

“Enjoying yourself?” Jack asked, as if he could read my mind.

“Definitely!” I replied.

“Good. You’ll have to get actual riding gear if you want to do this regularly, otherwise all your clothes are going to start smelling like horses. Do you want to keep going?”

“I definitely do.”

“Do you want to learn how to trot?”

“I’m really not sure what that is, but yes.”

Another smile from Jack.

“A trot is sort of like a jog. Not as fast as a canter, but faster than a walk.”

“OK, let’s do it.”

“The important thing here is to relax, and get into the rhythm. If you tense up, you’re going to get bounced around. You want to let your body move in rhythm with the horse. When we walk, give her a slightly harder kick, and she’ll start trotting after us.”

Jack started off by doing it with his horse, and I watched as they sped off into the distance.
That
was a trot? It already seemed way too fast. Perdita seemed anxious to follow, and as soon as I hit her side again she did, and I immediately clutched at her mane, feeling like I was going to fall off.

Every single time her legs hit the ground it felt like I was being shot into the air. I remembered what Jack said and tried to relax, and tried to move my body with the horse. Slowly, but surely, I started to feel a little bit more comfortable. Then it started being fun! The air was whipping through my hair, like a quick breeze. I leaned forward and enjoyed the sensation of Perdita running underneath me, which we did until finally coming to a stop when we reached the end of the property and were along the side of the road.

“Do you want to go into town?” Jack asked.

“Sure,” I replied. To be honest, I would have done anything to keep this day going. After all, Jack was being nice to me! What was this all about?

When we got closer to the actual town Jack helped me off the hose (I waited for two cars to pass so that no one would see me, but I got off without any sort of spectacular embarrassment) and tied the reins up to a post on a nearby fence. It was interesting how we were so close to the city, and yet still far enough away that attaching your horse to a fence while you went in to get lunch was a totally normal thing.

Making our way down the sleepy streets of the quaint English town, Jack and I eventually found ourselves in a little café, one of those sleepy places with a dozen tables that feels like it’s been there for decades.

“So, why are you being so nice to me?” I asked when we sat down. I wanted answers.

“I figured I owed you after you covered for me with the cops. You were right. I could have gotten in a lot more trouble than just with the law for a little while. Oliver’s dad is fuming apparently that the cops haven’t arrested me. Luckily, they know what Oliver’s reputation is, so I don’t think they especially care about arresting someone.”

“Who is Oliver’s dad anyway? He kept telling me that I didn’t want to mess with someone like him. So many people here have a pedigree longer than most dog show winners, I can’t keep track of who is baron of what and who’s the duke of where.”

“Oliver’s dad is in the House of Lords. One of the inherited seats. I can’t remember which one. Apparently Oliver thinks this makes all women available to him, whether or not they say yes.”

“A friend of mine had heard rumours of the sort. She told me when I turned him down.”

“Yeah, they’re probably all true. Give him long enough and he’ll be a rapist, if he isn’t already.”

“So how do you know all this?”

“I make it my business to know things. When you get in as much trouble as I do, it comes in handy to have dirt on people.”

“So why come and save me, anyway?”

Jack shrugged. “Is it enough to believe I’m a decent human being?”

“No. Because you’re not. And don’t act offended, you make damn sure everyone knows you’re not.”

I got a sly smile out of Jack for that remark.

“You can keep trying to figure me out. It won’t work.”

We stared at each other, neither one of us wanting to be the one to break eye contact. It was a battle of the wills, a battle I certainly didn’t know the meaning to, but something kept me in it. An unspoken connection passed between us. I could feel my blood beginning to heat up as things intensified. I really, really wish I knew why he still had this effect on me.

Suddenly, the moment was broken by the waitress who had come over from the other side of the counter.

“Are you ready to order yet?” she asked. Like a candle that had just been extinguished, the spark passing between us disappeared, nothing more than a wisp of smoke that vanished in an instant.

“Surprise me,” Jack told her, handing her the menu. I scanned it quickly.

“I’ll have the house chilli, with a baked potato on the side,” I told her, handing her the menu. “And a diet coke.”

“Will do, won’t be long.”

“So how’s your mom doing?” Jack asked, changing the subject.

“She’s fine. She’s revelling in the attention now. She’s always been a hypochondriac – but don’t ever tell her I told you that. When she was in the hospital she was pretty panicked, apparently. I guess she wasn’t used to something
actually
being wrong with her. But now she’s milking it for all its worth, I overheard her telling the cook all about diabetic specific recipes the other day.”

“I guess that’s good, in a way.”

“Yeah, it is good. It means she’s back to normal. Are you going to come to the wedding?”

Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s going to bring back some… memories.”

I could tell from the way his eyes clouded over that I’d touched a nerve. I remembered his mother had passed away, and I suddenly felt bad for bringing it up.

“So what is it that you do in that secret life of yours?” I asked, completely changing the subject.

“Like I’d tell you, sis,” he replied, as the waitress came by with our food. Jack ended up with a BLT and fries, and my baked potato was the size of a small baby.

“Wow, I did not know potatoes came in this size,” I muttered as I stared at the giant pile of carbs sitting in front of me.

“They must be from Yorkshire,” Jack told me with a laugh. “Up north the potatoes are the size of watermelons.”

“No kidding,” I added, cutting a quarter of the potato and putting it in my chilli.

We ate our food in silence, then when we were finished Jack paid the check and we left. Our horses were still on the posts, and this time I managed to get up onto Perdita without needing Jack’s help.

We trotted back to the stables, and half an hour later Jack was putting the horses away.

“Thanks for today, Jack,” I told him. “But I’m still not sure about why you’re being so nice to me.”

“This is why,” Jack told me, coming out of the stables and pulling me towards him. He was so strong, my hips were thrust against his like I weighed nothing.

Gasping, my hands instinctively went to his chest, and I inhaled sharply as I looked up at Jack. I could see the desire in his eyes, sense it in his face. He wanted me, and I couldn’t pretend anymore. I wanted him. Needed him. No matter how much of an asshole he could be, there was no denying the physical attraction there.