Crush (10 page)

Her smile grew wider still. We were both tipsy, and I knew we were heading into dangerous territory, but I couldn’t stop myself. She didn’t seem to be able to stop herself either, because she leaned in as well.

“Biloxi,” she whispered as her lips drew ever closer to mine.

Screw it. I wanted her, and she wanted me, and no amount of worrying about what others might think could possibly change that in this moment. I leaned in even closer, and she closed her eyes. Her sweet breath made my pulse double, and our lips were only a fraction of an inch apart when her phone rang in her purse.

Shit.

CHAPTER TEN

MIA

Brad jumped back, the ringing phone pulling us out of our drunken, lusty haze. He and I had been about to kiss, but we both knew it was a terrible idea. Thank God for small miracles.

I fumbled in my clutch and pulled my phone out.

“Hello?”

“Mia, where are you?”

It was Tamara.

“Uh…I’m just upstairs,” I replied. She didn’t need to know exactly where I was.

“I’m calling a cab to come get us and take us back to my uncle’s house. He’ll drop us back here tomorrow so we can get the car. Are you ready to leave, or did you wanna stay a while longer?”

“I’m ready to leave now,” I said, springing to my feet. “I’ll be down in a sec.”

Brad rubbed his chin, staring at the ground. He looked about as guilty as I felt.

“That was Tamara. She’s calling a cab,” I mumbled. “Sorry.”

He didn’t meet my eyes. “Right. Cool. Get home safe.”

“Uh-huh.”

With that, I grabbed my shoes and took off like a bat out of hell, running all the way down the hall and then down the stairs. I met Tamara by the front door. Ben was with her, and Jeremy joined us a second later, a surly expression on his face.

“Where’d you disappear to?” he asked.

“Um. The bathroom.”

Tamara flashed me a meaningful look, and we rode in silence when the cab picked us up. I knew she had a lot of questions for me, but she didn’t want to ask them in front of Jeremy or Ben.

When we arrived at her uncle’s house, she retrieved a spare key from under a potted fern and let us in. We tiptoed inside, not wanting to disturb her relatives, and she whispered to Ben for a moment before turning to me and Jeremy.

“Okay, there’s two mattresses on the floor of the den, and there’s two spare rooms upstairs. Why don’t you and Ben take the rooms, and Mia and I can have the mattresses? We haven’t had nearly enough girly time lately,” she said to Jeremy.

He looked slightly annoyed, but he didn’t protest. He followed Ben upstairs, and Tamara led me into the den.

“Where were you?” she asked as I collapsed onto one of the mattresses. “I was looking for you everywhere.”

“Sorry. I should’ve texted you. I was in the bathroom upstairs,” I lied.

I felt awful for not telling her the truth, but I had no idea how she’d react. I’d felt apprehensive enough about the thought of telling her I’d hooked up with Brad in Biloxi before I knew he was my stepbrother, which was why I hadn’t ended up telling her…and this was worse. Way worse. I was fully aware of who he was now, and that still hadn’t been enough to stop me from leaning in for a kiss. I was bad. Bad, bad, bad.

“You were really in the bathroom that whole time?”

“I felt sick. I had too many beers.”

Her eyebrows knitted with concern. “Want me to see if my uncle has any of that electrolyte water in his fridge? That stuff is great if you’ve been vomiting.”

“It’s okay, I didn’t throw up. I just felt like I was going to.”

She was silent for a moment and then looked into my eyes. “Is there something going on, Mia? Jeremy said you ditched him.”

I chewed on my lower lip for a second. “Yeah, I did. Let’s just say being around him makes being a cloth at a bukkake party seem pleasant.”

She snorted with laughter, and I filled her in on what he’d said at the party. She rolled her eyes. “Wow. I guess I have terrible judgment in men…aside from Ben, of course. I promise I’ll never try to set you up with anyone ever again.”

“It’s not your fault. He seems like a nice guy upon first glance.”

She nodded. “Mm-hm. And what about Brad? Is he a nice guy?”

“Huh?”

“I saw you dancing with him,” she said, studying my face. “You guys seemed pretty close. I thought you said he was a douchebag.”

“Oh. Yeah, we’ve sort of grown on each other now that our parents have been married for a couple of months.”

“I see. Well, that’s good. You sure you don’t want some water? Maybe some tea?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

She smiled with relief. “Thank God. I’m totally beat. I totally can’t be bothered getting up and going to the kitchen.”

I grinned back at her as she lay back on her mattress. “I’ll turn out the light.”

Within ten minutes, she was snoring away on the other side of the room, but I was still wide awake. Physically, I was tired and a little drunk, but I’d never felt more mentally alert. I kept replaying the scene of what had happened in Brad’s room over and over in my mind, torturing myself with the images.

His lips had been so close to mine…and I’d never wanted anything so badly. I’d needed him to kiss me like he had in that pool in Biloxi more than anything else in the world.

I knew he’d done the right thing by pulling away as soon as my ringing phone jolted us back to reality. It had to be the right thing, considering we were stepsiblings, but my aching core certainly didn’t feel as if it were right. As I thought about it, I slid a hand down under the blanket, moving towards the area between my legs. My dress had ridden up when I lay down, and my fingers stroked over the soft lace of my panties.

I shouldn’t have been doing this, for more than one reason. Firstly, my friend was only a few feet away. Touching myself while I was in the same room as her felt wrong, even if she was asleep. Secondly, I shouldn’t have been touching myself to the thought of my stepbrother…but was that going to stop me?

Oh no. It most certainly wasn’t.

Brad had sparked a hunger in me tonight which couldn’t be satiated with anything less than an orgasm or two. Fiery need swept through my body as I slid my hand inside my panties, and I grazed my clit with the tip of my index finger, biting back a moan as my body quickly responded to the sensation. Bringing my free hand down between my splayed legs, I slid one finger up to my entrance as I continued to trace delicate little circles on my clit with my other hand. I was unbelievably wet, and I dipped my finger inside, feeling the slick warmth of my core reflexively tighten around the digit.

I closed my eyes, imagining that it was Brad between my legs, licking, sucking and fingering me, and I swore I could almost feel his warm breath on my skin as I pictured him working away between my legs. My fingers moved faster and faster, harder and harder. The pleasure was already overwhelming me, and I bit my lip again to stop myself from whimpering and sighing as I rode the waves of pleasure straight over the edge into a soaring climax.

In that moment, all I could see was Brad’s face, flashing me one of those trademark smirks of his. My toes curled, and every inch of me shuddered like crazy as the warm waves of bliss descended over me, crashing out from my core and wracking me with an intense feeling of delight mixed with guilt.

As I pulled my hands away a moment later, the pleasure began to fade, and the guilt intensified until it was the only thing I felt.

I couldn’t believe I’d let temptation and lust get the better of me…again. It was grossly inappropriate, and I was completely and utterly mortified at my behavior. I needed to tell myself one thing over and over until it finally sunk in.

This is wrong.

But if that were true, then why the hell did it feel so damn right?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

BRAD

Rays of sunlight peeked through my curtains, and I rolled over in my bed and groaned. My head was fucking killing me. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull. I couldn’t tell if it was from a hangover or from lack of sleep, but either way, I felt like shit.

I couldn’t trust myself with Mia any longer. I’d already known that, but I’d ignored it and hoped my feelings for her would go away…and of course, they hadn’t. They’d only grown stronger. She was like a fucking magnet. I was definitely never drinking around her again, that was for sure.

Thank fuck her phone had started to ring and we’d both snapped out of our haze before we kissed last night, otherwise we’d have had a serious problem. It didn’t matter if we were both attracted to each other, and it didn’t matter if we liked each other. Hooking up was the wrong thing to do, given our family ties.

When I was younger, I hadn’t given a shit about doing the right thing. I hadn’t cared what my teachers, peers or Mom thought, but things had changed. I was different now, and I couldn’t let myself be controlled by my impulses. Last night had been a mistake.

Despite that, I wanted nothing more than to see her again. I wanted it all. I wanted to feel her close to me, I wanted those hot lips on mine, and I wanted her glorious tits pressed up against my chest. And that was only the beginning. I’d barely slept a wink after she left last night, because my mind had been so conflicted over the whole situation.

I had no fucking idea what I was going to do.

My duvet still smelled like her perfume, and I groaned again and stuck my head under my pillow as someone knocked on my door.

“Brad? You up?” Carter said.

“Nope!” I called out, my voice muffled by the pillow.

“There’s someone here to see you.”

Shit. Maybe it was Mia. Suddenly I was completely alert, and I sat up.

“Gimme a sec.”

I got out of bed, slid on a pair of pants and trudged over to the door. Carter grinned at me as I opened it.

“Man, you look like hell.”

“Thanks. How are you not hungover?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. Good genes? Anyway, there’s someone at the door for you.”

“Is it Mia?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Mia? Who’s Mia?”

Oh, right. I hadn’t told him about her.

“She’s my ste…er, the girl I was dancing with last night.”

“Oh, her. She was fine as hell. But no, it’s not her. It’s some guy,” he said.

I wrinkled my forehead in confusion. What guy would be coming to see me at nine o’clock on a Sunday morning? Maybe it was that Jeremy guy, coming to fight me for ‘stealing’ his date last night. Ha.

“All right,” I said with a yawn, heading out to the hallway.

“By the way, I know you’ve got work tonight, so I’ll get some of the guys to help clean up,” Carter said, patting me on the shoulder. “You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Thanks, man.”

For a rich kid, he could actually be pretty down-to-earth and understanding sometimes.

I walked downstairs and headed to the front door, and I got the shock of a lifetime when I opened it and saw who was standing there. It was a man who appeared to be in his mid-forties. He had sandy brown hair, and he was about an inch shorter than me with a wiry frame and chiseled features. His bright blue eyes were exactly the same as mine, and I wrinkled my nose with disgust as I stared at him. He was a stranger, but I’d known who he was the second I laid eyes on him.

He cleared his throat. “Hello, son.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

BRAD

It was Tobin Jacobsen, the fuckwit who’d run out on my Mom when she was pregnant with me.

My biological father.

“What the hell do you want?” I asked.

“Mind if I come in for a moment?” he asked, evading my question.

I crossed my arms and squared my shoulders, blocking the doorway. “What are you doing here?” I repeated.

“Bradley, I’m your father,” he said. “My name is Tobin Jac-“

“I know who the hell you are,” I said, waving my hand and cutting him off. “Now answer my fucking question.”

He held his hands up. “I know you’ve probably heard all kinds of things about me from your mother, and a lot of them are probably true. But I swear, I had no idea you existed until two months ago. I’ve been debating whether to come here and see you or not, and well…here I am.”

I uncrossed my arms and narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean you didn’t know I existed? You’re full of shit.”

“Can I just come inside and talk to you for a while?” he asked.

I didn’t want the bastard anywhere near me, but at the same time I was curious about what he had to say. “Fine. You’ve got ten minutes, and then I want you gone.”

I led him into the main lounge room, which was still littered with trash from last night’s party. Clearing some empty cans from the couch, I gestured to it.

“You can sit there.”

He glanced around and chuckled as he took a seat. “Party last night, I assume?”

“Yep,” I replied in an icy voice.

“I remember being your age,” he said with a knowing nod. “Fun times.”

“Oh, so you remember abandoning my Mom, then?” I said. “You were about my age when you did that.”

He sighed. “Let me start at the beginning, son.”

“Stop fucking calling me son.”

“All right. Sorry. I know what your mother has told you. She must have told you that I left her while she was in the early stages of her pregnancy. At least that’s what I presume.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s not true. Well…it’s partially true. I did leave her. We’d been having problems for a long time. I took the coward’s way out. I packed up and left one day while she was out, and I never saw her again. But I had absolutely no idea she was pregnant. If I’d known, I would’ve stayed. Granted, Karen and I probably wouldn’t have stayed in a relationship, given all our issues, but I would have supported her with the pregnancy, and I would have been there for you all those years. That’s the truth, Bradley. I promise.”

I crossed my arms again and leaned back. “You seriously expect me to believe that?”

“It’s the truth,” he replied. “No other way to explain it. Like I said, I know I was a coward for just leaving her like that. I’ve regretted it ever since. But I had no idea there was a baby involved.”

“So how’d you find out about me?”

“Well, I’m a consultant for a real estate company,” he said. “I have to travel around quite a lot. I’ve been living and working up in Illinois for the last twenty or so years – that’s where I went when I left Karen – but I had to come down here a couple of months ago on business. I picked up a local paper, and lo and behold, I saw a marriage announcement with your mother’s picture in it. I read it out of curiosity, and I saw that it mentioned that she had a twenty-one year old son named Bradley.”

He cleared his throat again and then continued. “I thought about it, and I realized your age sorta matched up with when I left her. So I looked you up on Facebook. The minute I saw a photo of you, I knew you were mine.”

I sat in stony silence, still unsure as to whether he was completely full of shit.

“Your Facebook page said you were at USM, and there were posts saying that you’re a member of this fraternity. I wanted to contact you right away, but I wasn’t sure if you’d want to hear from me. So I waited a while, and finally, I couldn’t wait any longer. I wanted you to know that you had a father, despite whatever your mother might have told you. I figured she’d probably decided to go it alone, and likely told you I’d abandoned you or something like that. I don’t blame her for doing that. Like I said, we had many issues. In some ways, you might’ve been better off without two parents, seeing as we would’ve been fighting all the time.”

“You think I was better off?” I said angrily. “You know what she had to do to take care of me? She had to give up her job. The place she was working at the time didn’t allow maternity leave, and they wouldn’t take her back and allow her to work part-time once I was born. So she had to take whatever shitty jobs she could get which allowed her to work around my schedule. I missed out on a lot of things as a kid, all because I didn’t have two parents.”

Tobin’s eyes filled with remorse. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I was only trying to make you feel…”

His voice trailed off for a moment. I didn’t fill the silence. He scribbled something on a piece of paper he pulled from his pocket and then stood up.

“I understand if you want nothing to do with me, Bradley,” he said, holding out the piece of paper. “But if you ever want to talk, or if you ever need any kind of help, feel free to call me. I’d love to get to know my son.”

I took the piece of paper with his number on it, tempted to scrunch it up and throw it in his face. Instead, I slipped it into my pocket and looked up at him. “I don’t need your help. I’ve made it this far without you.”

“I understand.”

He started walking back towards the entrance and then turned to me. “I hope to hear from you, but like I said, I understand if I don’t. Either way, I’m happy to have met you, even if it was just for a few minutes. From what I’ve seen, you’ve turned out to be an amazing kid. I’m proud of you.”

With that, he was gone, and I sat on the couch in a stupor, staring into space. Fuck. Could it be true? Had my Mom lied to me all these years about Tobin abandoning her? If so, why the hell would she do that?

I needed to call someone. I needed to talk about this before I asked my Mom about it, but I didn’t want to talk to any of my frat buddies or other acquaintances. Carter was a decent guy, and he’d met my Mom before, but it felt weird even thinking of telling him about this whole situation. There was only one person I felt comfortable sharing vulnerable parts of my life with.

Mia.