Pulse: A Stepbrother Romance (7 page)

“So, you’ve been hinting and beating around the bush about this rehearsing of yours, what’s that about?”

Leah sat back and blew on her coffee to cool it down. The way her lips pursed together was altogether too distracting, and I fought to keep myself under control.

“I have an audition for a play tomorrow night. It’s a huge deal. It could mean the start of my professional acting career.”

“I thought you were still in school?” It was one of the few things I had picked up about her from Mom before I knew who she was. “NYU?”

She nodded. “I am. Third year in performing arts. But getting a piece of paper isn’t the most important thing in acting. Getting experience, making contacts, proving yourself—that’s how you work your way up in the business.”

I nodded. It was the same thing for the music industry. It was part of the reason I had gone nowhere with it despite my passion for creating mixes and tracks. I had no connections.

“What about you? You work at a warehouse? You’re obviously part of a dangerous crowd.”

Her questions awoke unspoken echoes of her accusations at the hotel on the weekend. She’d accused me of being the wrong type of guy—a dangerous guy. She wasn’t wrong.

“I’ve worked at the warehouse for eight years,” I said. “Ever since my dad died and I had to pick up a job to feed the family. There was never time or space to do anything else.”

She frowned. “I thought you worked there just because you didn’t care to do anything else.”

Is that what she thinks?
I couldn’t blame her. I’d almost given up hope years before. It would be so easy to just settle and let this be all I was. The rest of the crew had done it. They would work the same jobs and dick around with drinking and drugs and petty crime the rest of their lives because they knew nothing better and didn’t want to.

I eyed her. There was no reason not to tell her the truth. She might be the person who changed my life. “That’s not the case. If I could survive, I would quit that job tomorrow and go after my real passions.”

“Which are?”

“You’ve already seen it. Heard it, anyway.” Would she be able to guess? The clues were there if she’d been paying attention.

“I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “Heard your passions? What are you… You mean the music?”

I smiled. She was a bright one, this stepsister.

“Bingo. What we listened to the other night, at my apartment, I made all that. It’s what I love to do. It’s what I’ll go home and do tonight.”

Leah sat up straighter and leaned forward. “Chris! You created that? Are you serious? Those were the best tracks I’ve heard in a long time!” Her eyes were wide. Sincere. “I felt so alive while it played around us, it worked together so well with what…” She trailed off.

The air in the Starbucks had gotten hot. The way her lips had a constant slight pout to them was enough to drive me to distraction. Did she know how sexy it was when she stared at me like that?

“I’m glad you liked it,” I said.

“
Liked
it? Even in the moment I remember thinking I had to get my hands on that music and add it to my playlist!”

I laughed. She had a way of making me feel like all my problems were surmountable—when she wasn’t trying to shove me away. “I’ll send you the files so you can listen to them whenever you want.”

“I’d like that.” She smiled, then cocked her head. Her brunette hair fell down in cascading waves. “Hey, are you free tomorrow night? I have my audition and then my friends are throwing a little party to either celebrate or commiserate, depending on how it goes. You can come by, if you’d like.”

I tried not to jump at the invitation. Especially since I already had plans for Tuesday night with the crew. I’d already bailed on them once. I could just see the look on Derek’s face if I did it again.

And for the same girl.

Not that they’d know that. Or that the girl was my stepsister.

“I already have something I’m doing that night,” I said, and Leah’s face fell just a touch. Enough to show me what I’d wanted to know—she wanted me around. I’d earned that much with my candor. “I’ll see what I can do to get out of it, though. And I’ll need your number so I can let you know. Seeing as how you gave me a fake one last time.”

She grimaced as she reached for my phone to put her number in. “I was hoping you wouldn’t remember that. We were just flirting at a bar, and you are clearly not my type. You can’t get that angry at me.”

“I must have been at least a bit your type,” I said. “After all, you came home with me.”

Our eyes met as she passed the phone back, and her fingers lingered on my hands. She bit her bottom lip a little. “Well, now you have it. I should be going. So much preparation still to do. It never feels like it’s enough.”

She took her hand back and stood.

“It was good seeing you again, Leah,” I said.

“Yeah, it kinda was, wasn’t it?”

Before the tension could get any higher, she walked away. I watched her go, short spandex and all.

I know one thing: I’m going to be at that party tomorrow night, no matter what.

“Thank you, Miss Allen. We’ve seen enough.”

I stuttered on the rest of the line I’d been reciting.

“You—are you sure? I still have a lot more left I can do.” Inwardly, I groaned. Getting cut off in the middle of an audition was never, ever a good sign. I’ve known that since I was five.

The director leaned forward. “No, that’s all right. We’ve made our decision.” The other two members of the panel nodded in agreement. “We have many people we have to see today, a lot of roles to cast.”

“Thank you very much for coming out today,” said the woman to his left. “We’ll be in touch.”

Yeah, right. I’ll never hear from you again.

As I left the stage, another bright-eyed hopeful brushed past me. She was disgustingly pretty.

Ugh. She won’t even have to say a word to have them wrapped around her finger. That’s just not fair.

I was in a foul mood the entire walk back to the apartment, picking apart the audition in my mind. I’d felt good, confident, until the moment they’d cut me off right in the middle of my stride. Where had I gone wrong?

As I put my hand on the apartment door, the chattering of voices became audible. I’d forgotten about the party.

I do not want to see people right now.

As much as I’d told everyone it would either be a celebratory or consolatory party, I hadn’t believed the latter. Considering the short amount of notice I’d had, I put everything I had into preparing for the audition. Not to mention the years of schooling and practice for that moment.

Relax, Leah, it was your first professional audition. There will be others. No one gets the first role they audition for.

It was tough to take the half-hearted consolation, especially from myself.

Might as well get this over with.

I pushed the door open. There wasn’t much of a foyer to the small apartment, and the front door was visible from the living room where a dozen people sat on couches and chairs borrowed from the eat-in kitchen.

“Leah!” Tyra yelled, and everyone stopped their conversations to look as I entered. “How did it go, girl? Did you blow their minds?”

I put on as good of a smile as I could muster. “No idea. I thought it was going well until the moment they cut me off to go to the next audition.”

About half the people in the room were also in the performing arts faculty. Those people had sympathetic looks on their faces. The others just smiled and congratulated me.

“Time for a celebration,” Tyra said as she got up from her seat. “Let’s do a couple shots. That will put you in a party mood.”

I wasn’t feeling it, but Tyra would not be denied. It only took a moment for me to cave—after all, everyone was here for my sake.

Almost everyone.
As much as I had tried not to let myself notice, the person I’d been most anticipating wasn’t in the room.

The bottles came out for rounds of tequila shots, the harsh liquor dampening the edge from the disappointments of the evening. After a couple more, a warm blanket of happiness spread over me.

My favorite people.
They were all artsy, in different ways. Half of us were aspiring actors, but there were a couple musicians, a painter, and three dancers. Tyra fell into the last category, and it showed in her figure.

Someone broke out Cards Against Humanity and the evening devolved into each person trying to make the most outrageous or offensive combinations of cards.

“Anyone need another drink?” I asked as I got to the fridge.

There was a knock at the door, and I pulled it open without thinking about who might be on the other side.

“Hi. Sorry I’m late.” A leather jacket covered his typical t-shirt. His scent washed over me.

“Chris!” I had built a dam around my disappointment and convinced myself that I didn’t even want him to show up. Now here he was.

We stared at each other.

We seem to do that a lot.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” His cocky grin reminded me we still stood in the doorway.

I flushed, feeling my cheeks heat from more than just the alcohol. “Please, come in. Take your shoes off.”

I could see the looks that my friends were giving Chris. Only the two musicians were guys, the rest were women. And mostly single. New York City was notorious for having way more single women than men. To his credit, Chris didn’t seem to notice everyone looking at him, instead taking in the apartment. “Nice place you have. I think it’s nicer than mine.”

Humility?
It didn’t seem like the Chris I thought I was getting to know.

“Thank you. The rent is fully paid for by student loans. So it will hang around my neck forever unless I hit it big. Can I get you something to drink?”

He pulled a bottle of whiskey out of his jacket. “I didn’t want to impose. Brought my own.”

I gave him a glass and brought him over to the group. “Everyone, this is Chris. Chris, this is everyone. Chris is my stepbrother; our parents just got married this past weekend.”

A couple of the girls perked up at the announcement, including Tyra. I hadn’t told her yet that Chris was the guy I hooked up with from Swim on Thursday night. From her lack of reaction, she hadn’t gotten a good look at him that night.

Or she had been too drunk.
Let’s hope she doesn’t put it together.

The girls’ attention gave an interesting possibility I hadn’t thought of before. If I could get Chris interested in one of them, then I could solve the entire mess between us. Or at least sweep it under the rug a little while I tried to get myself under control around him.

I pulled Tyra aside the first chance I had.

“Tyra, I need to tell you something, but you can’t tell a soul.”

She nodded. She was ridiculous, but she still looked out for her friends and their interests. “What is it, Leah?”

“You know Chris? Well, I hadn’t ever met my stepbrother before the wedding. Except that once I got there, I realized I had.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

It was a convoluted lead-in. I took a breath and came right out with it. “Chris is the guy I went home with from Swim on Thursday night.”

Her lips rounded into an “O” and her eyebrows raised. “He’s the guy? The best sex you’ve ever had was with your stepbrother?”

“Shh! Jesus, Tyra, don’t go shouting it out. I don’t want anyone else to know.”

“Sorry. But wasn’t that awkward at the wedding? What the hell, Leah!”

I nodded. “Mega awkward. Not something I want to get into. I wanted to let you know, and to tell you I would have no hard feelings if you went home with him tonight. In fact, I would love it if you did.”

She looked out into the living room where Chris was in deep conversation with the only other guys in the room, Kevin and Sean.

“He’s not my usual type, but he is hot,” Tyra said. “And he was really that good in bed?”

I’d been trying not to think about it, but I nodded. “So good. It was incredible.” My body shivered a little at the memory of how powerfully I’d come that night.

“You know I can’t turn down great sex,” Tyra said. “You’ve given me my mission for the night, girl. I’ll get me some of that dick.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, Tyra. Just go home with him and enjoy yourself. And please, for the love of God, don’t tell me all the details later. I’ve already been there and done that and gotten the postcard.”

She stalked toward the men and sat right in the middle of the couch, even though there wasn’t any room. It put her almost entirely in Chris’ lap.

And that’s that.

Tyra was a huntress, and once she had her sights set on someone, that was it. Game over. No man stood a chance against her when she wanted him.

Now why didn’t that make me feel any better? My stomach churned at the thought of Chris taking her back to his place and playing his music for her as they got down and dirty. Would they dance in his living room as we had?