Bend (A Stepbrother Romance) (15 page)

“All you’ve got to do is inspire me,” I said, “And then I write the song.”

“Inspire you how?” she asked.

“Letting me look at you,” I said. “Beauty is inspirational.” I grimaced as soon as I’d said it, and she laughed out loud.

“That is a line if I’ve ever heard one, Keir Sonder,” she said, “Put that one in the song.” Then, in a display of that confidence that I’d been missing, she yanked her shirt up over her head and let it flutter down onto the floor.

I nearly choked.

“What?” she asked. “Just because it was a line didn’t mean there was no truth to it, right? Is this inspiring you?” She stood with her shoulders back and chest thrust forward. Her heavy breast rose with her breath, threatening to burst from her pink bra.

“It’s inspiring my cock,” I said, setting my guitar down across the coffee table.

“What would inspire the rest of the song?”

I grabbed her and yanked her against me, crushing our hips together as I squeezed her ass. Fuck, I didn’t want to play anymore. “Tasting you would inspire the words,” I said into her ear as I pulled down her skirt’s zipper. “Hearing your screams would inspire the tune.”

She shivered. I undressed her quickly, not even managing to get my shirt off in my desperation to lay out her naked body and ravish her. I sent her panties flying over my shoulder as I pressed her down onto the couch.

“You, too,” she said, tugging at my collar.

“Not yet.” I dropped to my knees and buried my head between her legs, throwing her thighs over my shoulders in the process. Cadence let out a surprised squeal when I dragged my tongue roughly through her folds. “That’s it, baby,” I murmured. “Sing for me.”

I slid one finger inside of her as I licked her up and down. She was so hot and so wet and so fucking perfect. I let her writhe against my finger and my face for just a moment, savoring her low moans, before locking her down with my other arm.

I sucked her sweet little clit between my lips and I hummed her song. “Oh, my God,” she groaned, trying to lift her ass from the couch. Shit, she was going to come fast. I could hardly wait—as soon as she did, I planned on ripping my pants apart to get out of them and sinking myself so deep that I’d never find my way out.

Her thighs tensed when her phone rang from where she’d left it on the side table. “Ignore it,” I growled before returning to the task at hand. I was so drunk on the taste of her that I couldn’t even think about stopping.

She chanted my name as I brought her higher and higher. When I added a second finger and thrust hard, she threw back her head with a sultry moan, grasped her tits, and clenched all around me.

I kept going as she came, licking more gently and bringing her back down slow. The feeling of her contracting around my fingers had my cock in a near-frenzy of need.
Fuck. Need a condom. Where’s my wallet?

I’d made the mistake of not having it on hand. She checked her phone when I went to retrieve it from the table near the front door.

When she cursed and stood up, I knew I was in for a lonely and frustrated night. “What is it?” I demanded, more harshly than I’d intended.

“It’s my coworker,” she said, going pale. She passed me the phone to read the text.

Just a friendly heads-up to make up for this afternoon—do not let anyone see you leaving his hotel. Some people may or may not know where he’s staying. [Wed 11:23]

It’s happening again
. Only this time, Kelly wasn’t involved. At least, I couldn’t imagine how she would be—the poor girl checked herself back into rehab after her story leaked.

I was about to tell Cadence how much I didn’t care about whether or not anyone knew she was with me—but then I remembered what she’d said earlier about my father not being pleased. And I remembered how embarrassed she’d been when the story broke. And how awful I was to her, after.

“We’ll sneak out separately,” I said. “I’ll get us a room somewhere else.”

She was gathering up her clothes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “This should be a wake-up call.” She was getting frazzled. “I don’t want my face in the papers again. I don’t want my boss using me like bait again.”

“Fuck them. Forget about them,” I said, but she wasn’t listening.

“This was such a mistake.” She was working herself up into a panic as she tried to pull her clothes back on. “We can’t do this again. We can’t meet like this again, we just can’t!” Her face disappeared inside her shirt as she pulled it over her head, but I knew it was getting red.

“People don’t care as much about this as you think they do,” I said. “They’ll be bored with us before we get sick of each other.”

She paused in the middle of pulling on her shoes. “That’s the other thing.”

I smirked. “Sick of me already?”

“No.” She wrung her hands as she cast her eyes about the room. Spotting her purse, she ran to it and scooped it up. “Keir, I… I’m not sick of you at all. Actually, I…”

“You what?”

“I’m afraid I’m starting to like you too much.”

I tensed. She looked at me for only a moment longer, waiting for a reaction, but I gave none. I felt frozen.

She nodded, then turned on her heel and left.

Dammit!
What was wrong with me? I should have said what was running through my head.
I’m right there with you, babe
. Instead, I wimped out. I’d never considered that either of us might want more than sex out of this connection of ours, but there it was. She did.

And I did, too. Dirty, noncommittal rock star that I was, I felt exactly the same. I liked her too much. I’d liked her as soon as I’d met her and I hadn’t stopped for a damn minute, no matter how much I’d tried to convince myself that she was a threat. I saw that now that it was probably too late.

Too late? We never really had a chance
. It was a good thing she’d run before I sank even deeper. Otherwise I might have never gotten out.

Though I had a very sure feeling that this wasn’t the end of us. We were, after all, kinda-sorta family, now. Weird as it was.

See you at home
.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Cadence

I tried to talk over Zach when we met with Wendi at work after returning home the next weekend. I’d taken the car service again in the hopes of beating him there, but he spotted me getting out of the elevator on our floor and raced me to her office.

We tried to press ourselves through her doorway at the same time, getting stuck and elbowing each other. Wendi watched with an amused glint in her eye. “Let me know when you two are done with this little Three Stooges performance and we’ll get started.”

I released a breath and made it out ahead of Zach. “We spoke to the groupies as requested,” I said quickly, pulling my crumpled notes out of my purse.

I knew it was futile. I read off some of their quotes while Zach just silently passed Wendi his phone. She raised her eyebrows at whatever she saw.

“Yeah, we’re gonna go with this,” she said, cutting me off and waving the device. “Thanks, though. You’ll bring me something better next time. Real dirt, Miss Ryan!”

Would I? My shoulders slumped as I tried to leave ahead of Zach, but Wendi cleared her throat and called me back. Great, now what?

“So,” she said once Zach was out of earshot, “did you screw him?”

I grimaced. “Zach? He isn’t into girls.”

“No!” she laughed. “Your stepbrother.”

Don’t blush, don’t blush
. “No. Ew.”

“That’s a shame,” she said. I was a little shocked that she’d bought the lie, but very grateful. “Well?”

“Huh?”

“That’s it, kid. I’ve got nothing else for you if you don’t have more for me. Back to work.”

“Oh! Sorry.” I jumped into action, speeding out of her office as if fire burned at my heels.

I yawned at my desk through the rest of the day. I hadn’t gotten much sleep after that disastrous night with Keir. He’d sounded so strained, so raw—probably because I’d left him blue-balled. And then he’d frozen solid when I confessed that I had feelings for him.
That’s for the best
. I wasn’t looking to get into anything emotional with anyone anytime soon. Maybe not ever.

Not after the horrible way things had ended with my last boyfriend. I didn’t have the strength to risk that again.

═ ♪ ♫ ♪ ═

Wendi’s demand for “More dirt!” was still ringing in my head when I visited Mom and Glenn that weekend. I really didn’t want to go but Mom had insisted over the phone.

“Glenn wants to see you,” she said. “It’s important.”

Oh, God, it’s about the headlines, isn’t it
. The story broke just as Keir had predicted it would—
FAMILY REUNION: SONDER STEPSISTER SCANDAL CONTINUES

It was so over-the-top ridiculous I could almost laugh. The picture of us that Zach took was just below the headline—a shitty cell phone pic,
because heaven forbid we care about quality
. I was looking flustered, Keir was holding my arms with his brows furrowed. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on, but neither of us looked happy.
That doesn’t matter. The headline matters
.

I sighed and steeled myself for a lecture from my mother and her new husband when I arrived at their home.

“You’re here!” Mom squealed when I found them in the backyard. She gave me a big, crushing hug, smashing her fake boobs between us.
When did she get those, anyway?
The hug was for Glenn’s benefit. She’d never been all that affectionate before.

“Good to see you, Cadence,” he said, shaking my hand. A staff member stood at a huge grill, turning steaks and dutifully ignoring the conversation.

“Sorry about the headlines again, guys,” I said, taking a seat on the edge of a lounge chair.

Glenn smiled a patient smile over a glass of lemonade. A second staff member delivered one to me, too, but I was too distracted to pay much attention and enjoy such fancy living.

I waited for the lecture but instead he said, “We’ve set up a room for you in the house.”

My jaw nearly dropped. “You did?”

“In case you need to get away from the roommates and that neighborhood you’re in,” Mom said, as if she knew anything about any of it. I spared her only half a glance.

“That’s very nice of you, but—”

“No buts!” he said, waving a hand through the air. “It’s final. You’re family, now. You can stay whenever you like. But Cadence?”

Here it comes
. “Yes?”

“The sex headlines have to stop.”

I ducked my head. “I know. I’m really sorry.”

“The first time was an accident. But now I’ve got people—important people, from the artists to the investors—asking me what the hell is wrong with my son.” He shook his head. “This rock star business is bad enough. But now people have an excuse to make allusions to incest—”

“What?!” I shrieked, nearly dropping my glass. “That ridiculous!”

“I know, I agree,” he said, holding his hands up. “But we’re in a brutal business, you and I. Believe me, I get criticized all the time just for the number of marriages I’ve been in.”

“And now with me, breaking his record…” Mom said, smiling as if it was some funny joke. I couldn’t even look at her.

“Victoria?” Glenn said, watching my face. “Mind grabbing Cadence one of your sweaters? She looks a little chilly.”

It was a blatant lie, but Mom was still in please-the-new-husband mode, so she scampered off with a wave and a giggle.

He waited until she was indoors to speak. “You and your mother don’t get along,” he said.

“I guess we’re a little awkward,” I said. “We were out of contact for a long time before last weekend.”

He settled on the seat across from mine. “Can I ask why?”

“I’d rather not say, if she hasn’t told you herself,” I said, shaking my head. I really didn’t want to talk about it. It was in the past, now—two and a half years in the past. Picking at that old wound would only hinder it’s slow healing.

“Fair enough,” he said. “It just makes me sad to see rifts in families.”

“Like Keir and his mother?” I ventured.

“Mmm.” A darkness settled over his face. “That’s a very different story.”

“Were you guys married for very long?”

He shook his head. “We were never married, thank God. No clue what that woman is up to, or even where she is. She wanted nothing to do with us in the end.”

“It’s sad,” I said. “I think it bothers Keir more than he realizes himself.” Glenn nodded. “What was her name?”

“Elizabeth,” he said with a faraway look, “Elizabeth Holt.” And then he frowned. “If you’re thinking about running to your paper with this, you aren’t going to find her. I’ve tried. I hired private detectives, all that.”

“I’m not,” I said, my eyes going wide. “I swear it. It’s a little too heavy for the tabloids, anyway.”

He nodded, seeming satisfied with my answer. “That’s true.”