Stepbrother's Unbridled Passion Boxed Set (3 page)

He took a drink of his water and met her gaze. "Well, there’s no after-party mess to clean up. And you've grown up." He smiled uneasily. "We both have."

"Yeah. Why haven't you come home this past year anyhow? Your mom has been rather upset over it."

He lowered his eyes, avoiding eye contact. "Just busy. You know, work and stuff. I’m the new kid on the block, so to speak, so I have to work my ass off trying to prove myself."

"She misses you." Chloe paused, not sure if she should say the rest, then decided what the hell. "I've missed you." She ran a hand through her long, dark curls and focused on her food.

He didn’t comment, instead he scooped up a forkful of scrambled egg and stuffed it into his mouth.

The remainder of their breakfast was used for idle chitchat, mostly about her upcoming classes and his work. She'd told him that she missed him and he hadn't responded, as far as she was concerned that told her all she needed to know. She'd misread him, plain and simple – a result of her wishful thinking.

"I'm sorry, Chirps. It wasn't my intention to upset any of you," Ryker said as he stood and rinsed off his plate.

Laughing, she followed his lead, passing her empty plate to him, and looked up to meet his gaze. "Oh come on, let's not start with the Chirps, it was an embarrassing name back when we were kids and it's embarrassing now."

"It's not my fault that when you laugh really hard you sound like a bird chirping."

"I do not." Chloe bit hard on her lower lip, forcing herself not to laugh and prove him right.

"Oh?" He raised a brow at her and took a step toward her, determination and mischief in his gaze.

She took a step back, keeping a solid two-foot distance between them. "Stop. Don't."

Ryker lunged and gripped her sides, just below her breasts, proceeding with the dreaded tickle torture.

"Noooo!" Chloe squirmed and wiggled, attempting to free herself from his tormenting hands, fighting her urge to laugh. But it was no use, he was relentless and within seconds had her squealing and laughing, with the occasional chirping sound as she attempted to bat his hands away.

After a minute he released her, leaving her gasping for breath.

Reaching behind her, he gave her ass a quick slap – it smarted, making her yelp. She glowered up at him, annoyed with the slap but mostly over the fact that he'd just proven his point.

"Point proven,
Chirps
."

Chloe groaned inwardly. Just like old times – but not.

Chapter 2

Ryker

“Yes, Mother. Of course I am.” Ryker groaned inwardly and rolled his eyes at Chloe as they continued their walk through Boston’s public gardens. The gardens were beautiful and the fragrance surrounding them intoxicating, especially this time of year when all of the flowers were in full bloom.

Chloe giggled.

Yeah, yuck it up
, he mouthed to her. She stuck her tongue out at him in return.

“Are you making her feel at home?” his mother asked from the other end of the cell phone.

“I’m treating her fine. She’s settled in and I’m taking her for a walk through the gardens as we speak,” he replied to his mother. Chloe chuckled again. “In fact, why don’t you ask her for yourself?”

Chloe’s dark eyes went wide and she shook her head, her dark curls whipping into her face.
No, no, no. Don’t make me
, she mouthed to him, backing away from him and waving her hands in front of her.

He watched as she spun and took off into one of the plots. She and his mother got along wonderfully, but like him, she knew once she was on the phone with his mother it would be a long conversation. “Oh, I just lost her Mom, she disappeared into one of the plots. Look, I gotta let you go and hunt her up before she gets herself into trouble.”

He sighed in relief as his mother allowed him to end the half-hour-long phone call and he tucked the phone away into the back pocket of his jeans. He followed into the plot that Chloe had disappeared into. At the center of the plot was a large fountain featuring two swans facing away from each other with water spouting out from their bills. The walls of the plot were covered in greenery, little white flowers sporadically peeping out amid the sea of green. The little 20 x 20 plot seemed to be so out of place in the center of Boston, so much so that you could almost forget you were in the center of a large, bustling city while in it.

Ryker caught up with Chloe at the back, perched on the edge of a concrete bench, her eyes watching the water as it cascaded down the sides of the sculpture. The sun’s rays turned the droplets of water into what appeared to be wet sparkling diamonds. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

His cock twitched in his pants as he allowed his eyes the luxury of taking in every inch of her body and the way the sundress she was wearing hugged her curves to perfection. He eventually nodded. “It is.” The gardens were unusually quiet tonight, maybe it was the after-supper lull, hard to say, but at that moment the urge to gather her into his arms and kiss her was unusually strong.

The past couple of days had been agony for him. She seemed to have flourished from when he remembered her; her whole demeanor now seemed to scream sex and sensuality. Not over the top, but enough to make him want her. He knew he had to find a way to deal with his feelings, he just didn’t have any clue how.

To make it worse, if he didn’t know better, it seemed like she was attempting to goad him. She was walking around the apartment with just a towel on in the mornings. Or she’d wear an oversized t-shirt without bottoms. On one instance she’d bent in front of him and he’d gotten a full view of her black lace panties covering her tight, round, perfect ass. If her plan was to drive him to insanity it was working wonders.

Giving him a smile, she patted the empty spot beside her. “Can I ask you a question?”

Ryker frowned as he took a seat beside her. “If you’re asking permission to ask a question, I’m suspecting it’s a question I’m not going to want to answer.”

“Maybe,” she shrugged. “Maybe not. But I’m kinda curious about something.”

“All right.”

She chewed at her lower lip, drawing his eyes to her lips, lightly glossed with cherry lip balm. “Why haven’t you ever had a relationship?”

He cocked a brow up at her. “Huh?”

“I mean, like, all the girls. Why all the girls? It’s like a parade of women you’ve been with. Don’t you want something more meaningful?”

“God, Chirps.” He thrust a hand into his hair, not sure how to answer that. “You want the truth?”

She laughed. “No, I want you to lie to me.” She gave his arm a playful swat. “Of course I want the truth.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on,” she said, nudging his knee with her own. “Spill it.”

“I really don’t…”

“Everyone has a strategy in life for everything they do, whether they know it or not.”

He cocked a brow up at her. “That so?”

“It is.”

“Are you being the overachiever, as usual, and been digging into the psychology text books early?” A cocky grin spread across his lips. “Am I some sort of test project for you?”

Laughing she shook her head, and then brushed a lock of dark hair from her eyes. “No, smartass. If you must know, it’s something Dr. Phil says. It’s not a direct quote or anything, I can’t remember the exact way he says it, but that’s the jest of it.”

A roar of laughter erupted from him. “Dr. Phil, huh?”

“Yup. But we’re getting off track. Why do you go through women like you do?”

His smile faded. When the guys joked with him about it, it was all fun and games, but being called out on his doggish behaviour by Chloe was somewhat embarrassing. “I guess that –” He raked his hand through his hair again, not sure how to answer. “I just haven’t been with someone who has kept me interested beyond, ya know.” And it was the truth; he didn’t intentionally play the date and ditch game, it just happened.

“Did it ever occur to you that perhaps you’re dating the wrong sorts of women?”

“What do you mean?”

She rolled her eyes, and then began twirling a lock of hair around her index finger, puffing her chest out. “Ah, well, like, um. Ya know. Like. Girls with no brains, but big tits.”

“Hey, that’s not fair!”

Chloe gave him a dubious stare.

“They don’t all have big tits. I’m happy with any size, thank you very much.”

Laughing, she gave his shoulder a shove. “You’re such a dick.”

“You said you wanted honesty. I’m being honest.”

Once her laughter stopped, her expression grew serious again. “Honestly, though. Why the women? Take that piece of work you had at your place when I arrived for instance.”

“I’m not as bad as I used to be.” When she continued to look skeptical, he added, “Honestly, Chloe.” He sure as hell wasn’t about to tell her the real reason he’d had Sylvia there, to try and get
her
off of his mind. Maybe having her move in with him was a bad idea, but what choice did he have? Chloe was one of the hardest working, dedicated people he’d ever met, he couldn’t not do whatever he could to make her life easier.

Her expression grew serious and she drew her bottom lip between her teeth again. “Then why not consider someone who could hold your interest? Your dick doesn’t always have to do the picking, you know. Maybe consider someone who can be a friend as well.”

Damn, the way she was looking up at him, her dark eyes seemed to be hinting at something. If he didn’t know better he’d have guessed that she wanted him to kiss her. And dammit he was tempted. His cock was becoming extremely bothersome, if it could it would be doing somersaults in his pants, but it couldn’t so it settled for an uncomfortable ache instead. 

She swiped her tongue along her lower lip and he was seconds away from saying “fuck it” and claiming her for himself, be damned the consequences, but just as he was about to go for it an elderly couple entered the plot and just like that the moment was over. He pulled back and sighed.

~*~ TT ~*~

Chloe

Chloe was going crazy at home alone the next day. She'd spent the morning exploring Boston and the Cambridge campus to distract herself and get acquainted with the campus before classes started, but now that she was back at the apartment, waiting for Ryker to come home, she was going insane. Her mind kept going back to thoughts of him at the gardens. She’d been so sure he was going to kiss her, so sure and then the elderly couple showed up. The “what ifs” were killing her.

She looked over at the digital clock on the stove; Ryker was due home in an hour. She needed to take the edge off before he arrived. Rushing into her bedroom, she knelt at the side of the bed and pulled the suitcase out from under it. Unzipping it, she reached into the inside pocket and retrieved her rabbit. She was thankful she had the foresight to bring her pink vibrator with her.

"Don't leave home without it," she murmured to the empty room as she shimmied out of her yoga pants and panties and hopped onto the bed. Lying on her back, she turned on the rabbit. It buzzed softly, the penis section rotating while the bunny ears vibrated. Spreading her legs, she inserted the toy and adjusted it until the vibrating bunny ears pinched her clit.

Right away, a low moan came from her as she closed her eyes and let the sensations rush over her. She envisioned Ryker, his body powerful and naked, lying next to her. She squirmed against the vibrating toy, her arousal rising quickly.

She imagined the toy wasn't a toy at all, but his hands. His fingers stroking her inner wall as his thumb rubbed her clit. His mouth would be exploring every inch of her body, his lips and tongue teasing her neck and moving down to her collarbone.

She moved and bucked against the toy, applying slightly more pressure to her clit. She moaned a little louder, imagining the feel of his hard body against hers.

"Ummm. Oh, Ryker!"

She arched her back as she came closer to the brink. She increased the intensity of the rabbit, imagining it was his fingers stroking her harder, faster. She whimpered, her heartbeat racing.

Close, so close.

She bucked harder and moved her hips faster, pulling the toy in and out of her at a frantic pace, very faint wet slapping noises sounding as her juices coated the toy and began to seep from her. Her body was in knots, coiling up, preparing for release.

"Oh God, fuck me. Ohhhhh." A final wave of pleasure rushed through her as her pussy clenched around the toy seconds before her glorious release, coating the toy with her juices.

She was basking in the final wave of orgasm when she heard the key in the lock of the apartment door.

Her eyes flew open and she turned her head to check out the little black alarm clock on her night table. "Shit!" He was home early, and her bedroom door, which faced the front door, was open.

Pulling the rabbit from her pussy, she scrambled to her feet and rushed to her bedroom door, closing it just as Ryker was opening the front door. Leaning up against the bedroom door, she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd cut it close – too close.

Would it have been so bad?
a voice in the back of her head asked. She didn't know, but if it went bad then she'd never have been able to look him in the eye again. And who knew, he may not have even been alone.
No
, she decided, it would have been
very
bad had he caught her.

She laughed as she remembered the rabbit still buzzing in her hand.

"Chloe, you home?"

"Yeah. Just getting dressed. Be right out." Turning off the toy, she opened a package of antibacterial hand wipes and wiped her cream from the toy before storing it back into her suitcase and tucking the suitcase under her bed.

Grabbing her yoga pants she pulled them on not bothering with her panties, instead kicking them under the bed, too anxious to see Ryker to bother putting them on. Besides, they were still damp with the evidence of her arousal.

Looking in the dresser mirror she grimaced. Her face was flushed and her hair looked like she'd just gotten royally fucked. Quickly she raked her hands through her loose curls, trying to straighten and pat them down.

Taking a deep breath in, she slowly released it and opened her bedroom door.

"Took you long enough." Ryker looked at her from his seat in the center of the sofa, still in his uniform, a beer in one hand and the remote in the other. "What do you want for supper?" He found the channel he was surfing for, a sports channel giving the highlights of the weekend games, and dropped the remote onto the coffee table in front of him.

Chloe shrugged. "Anything. I'll make supper. What do you want?" She started to make her way into the kitchen and only made it halfway there before she heard Ryker on her heels.

"No, no. I can prepare supper." He rushed past her and made it to the kitchen before she did.

Leaning against the kitchen archway, Chloe crossed her arms over her chest, eyes narrowing. "You don't want to eat my cooking, do you?"

Opening the fridge, Ryker bent over gathering some ingredients, giving her a view of his hard ass in his uniform. Despite just having masturbated, she found the throbbing between her legs beginning. Cops turned her on regardless of who they were, but being that it was Ryker... It was like putting a raw steak in front of a hungry lion. It had been a while since she’d been with anyone, not like she was one to sleep around anyhow, but she’d been refraining from men simply because she knew she was going to be moving and didn’t want to deal with the heartbreak of leaving someone she’d grown close to.