Redeemed Complete: A Military Stepbrother Romance (2 page)

I got up and set my bag on the bed. I’d packed something a little nicer than usual for the anniversary party. I couldn’t wear that twice, so unless I wanted to do a little shopping while I was here, I’d have to to investigate my closet for a dress for tonight. That might be a little bit of a problem. I liked shopping just as much as the next girl, but these days I wasn’t exactly flush with cash. I hoped I’d be able to find something nice that wouldn’t send my credit card company running to the bank with glee.

Rummaging through the closet, I found something - a dark blue dress, short but not too short with a bit of a plunging neckline. Just a little risqué for a family event, but I could also wear it out later tonight with Maggie. The trouble was, I’d managed to get a little curvier since I’d bought the dress a year ago, and now I wasn’t sure how well it would fit.

Maggie! That reminded me, I hadn’t checked my phone since I woke up. I wasn’t even sure where I’d put it. Not attached to my phone at the hip? I was the worst college girl ever. I giggled as I tried to remember where I left it. Maybe I needed to chain it to my wrist.

When I found it, I thumbed the screen and saw Maggie had left me a couple messages. Looks like she was planning on picking me up at 830. Whew, that would work out. I could show up at the family thing, shake some hands, give some hugs, make small talk about school for a little while, avoid Harrison completely, and duck out just in time to catch up with Maggie and have a couple drinks.

Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad night after all. Seeing Maggie would make it all better. She had that effect on me, and I loved her for it. That and many many other reasons.

I gathered up my toiletries and clothes. I didn’t have my own bathroom here. In high school Harrison and I had developed a complicated set of rules for the bathroom’s use, which worked really well. I figured since we were adults now I could just head over there and take my shower with no problem.

Since only my father and stepmother were home when I arrived, I hadn’t actually run into Harrison since I got back. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him and I was sure the feeling was mutual. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d had a conversation that wasn’t barely civil, as much as I’d tried to be nice to him. Harrison just didn’t seem to care, and eventually I got used to it. In fact, caring in general seemed to be what turned Harrison off in the first place. The feeling was infectious.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. The hallway was clear. I made my way first to the closet next to the bathroom. I didn’t have any towels in my room, so picking one up was first on the list. Opening up the hall closet brought yet another wave of nostalgia my way. The towels were on top, the sheets, extra blankets and pillows on the bottom. Just like they’d always been.

I remembered my stepmother trying to change that setup soon after they’d moved in, and I remembered how I’d gone through each time and rearranged things, putting them exactly back the way my real mother had kept them. My stepmother had asked me about it once, but I hadn’t explained, saying something vague and totally dancing around the issue. She got the hint, thankfully, and things stayed the way they were. The way they ought to be. No reason to change a good thing that worked.

Once I had had my favorite towel in hand, I was carrying way too much stuff. I could barely see where I was going, but luckily I knew the layout of this house like the back of my hand.

I’d managed to precariously balance everything I needed, and stumbled my way to the bathroom door. After a little bobbling between my hands, I lifted one of my legs, pushed the door handle down with my knee, and entered the bathroom, not registering that the light was already on. That meant someone was probably in there, but I wasn’t paying attention so much as trying to keep from exploding in a cloud of fabric and bathroom supplies. It wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

I walked in and dropped my stuff on the counter before I realized someone else was in the room with me. I turned to my left and my jaw dropped open.

Oh. Shit.

A man looked back at me.
 

Not just any man. The man. Harrison.

Harrison looked back at me.

Naked. My naked stepbrother.

With a growing smile on his face.

SHIT.

I stared. Nah, staring was putting it lightly. I full on gawked. I looked like I’d never seen something so fascinating before in all my life, and in the moment, though I’d never admit it to anyone out loud, I really hadn’t.

Let’s be clear. I didn’t like my stepbrother Harrison. He didn’t like me. We’d never gotten along, and as teenagers hadn’t bothered to figure out why.

Harrison wasn’t good at being cool. He was great, however, at being hot. Even in high school that’d been clear, much to my chagrin.

Now, though, things were different. Well, it wasn’t so much that things were different…they were the same. Only more so.

I hadn’t seen Harrison in three years now, but in the meantime he’d managed to transcend hot and enter into the realm of pure gorgeous.

Holy shit. Nova-level hot.

He’d always had muscles. I’d seen him flex them for girls at the pool enough times to know they were there. But this was different, this was on another level. His time in the military had been very kind to him. His muscles bulged and flexed as he moved. They covered his entire body, which didn’t look it like it had any fat on him. Harrison had muscles I didn’t even know existed before that very moment. Muscles I couldn’t help but gush over.
 

This wasn’t fair. How dare he?

His face had thinned out too, gotten even more masculine and cut. That square jaw under those green eyes drove me wild. The short military cut on his black hair really worked for him. He’d had it much much longer in high school and while I’d liked the shaggy look then, now the clean cut really did him favors.

Harrison was a stone fox of a man. I couldn’t put it any other way. He’d managed to get even hotter since I last saw him. I wondered if women flocked to him like zombies on fresh brains. I could feel my own brain shutting down and my jaw going slack, moment by moment. Any longer and I’d have started to drool.
 

And if it were any other man, I wouldn’t have minded.

Why did it have to be him? Of all the men on this planet, why did the sexiest man alive happen to be the one I hated more than anything?

I must have been standing there staring at him, because Harrison looked at me began to smile. All I could think about was his body and how much I wanted to feel him touching me. Not speaking, nothing of the kind. From experience I knew that Harrison and I didn’t work at all when we spoke. Silence was what we did best around each other.

Just touching me all over. Doing disastrously naughty things to me. For hours and hours on end. Over and over again. Till I couldn’t take it anymore. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be that long before I was screaming for mercy, but I had to know.

“See anything you like?" Harrison’s voice sounded long and low, like in it he’d harnessed the power of earthquakes. It rumbled and shook the room in a way that I’d never heard anyone else speak before.
 

I hated him for it, because it was so unimaginably sexy. I didn’t want him to have this power over me, and just speaking was enough. Shut up, Harrison, don’t say another word.

Please.

But I couldn't put any words together, couldn’t get the right sounds to come out of my mouth to apologize, to yell at him for being naked and gorgeous and right in front of me, or just to say anything at all.
 

Nothing worked in my head, nothing worked in my throat. I was mute, and I hated him for it. I kept standing there, trying to figure out what to say. The sounds that came out of my mouth must have sounded like gibberish.

“Well, if you're not going to say anything, and just stand there, I'm going to keep going about my business." Harrison turned and looked at himself in the mirror once more, flexing his muscles in a way that was definitely for my benefit. What an ass. He knew exactly the effect he had on me, on all women, and he used it to his benefit with no shame. How could anyone like this guy?

I could feel my cheeks burning. I still said nothing, still stared. The moments ticked by, and I realized I was staring so I could memorize Harrison’s features, his shape. So I could think about them later when I was alone. That wasn’t weird. Nope, not at all.

Harrison turned to me again. "Just had an idea. If you get to see what I look like," he chuckled, thrusting his hips in my general direction and striking another vamping pose, "then I get to see what you look like.” The smile on his face looked like a Cheshire cat’s grin. His eyes stared back at me, without a hint of his characteristic guile. Unlike most of the time, now Harrison meant what he said. Ugh.

Finally, the words in my head started to make sense. “N-No," I managed to get out. I looked him up and down one last time and then backed out of the bathroom, banging into things on my way out and wincing at the pain. I just needed to get out of there and back to the safety of my room. No Harrisons in there, just me and my own dirty and unwanted thoughts.

“Aww, you're no fun, Laurel." As I closed the door I could see Harrison turned back toward the mirror. “Come back if you want another look, but don’t forget the price! First hit’s free, but I can’t just give this shit away,” I heard him call out from within the bathroom. I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts of his hard and sexy body from the cobwebs inside. It didn’t help, they only got more stuck in there. Even if I consciously wanted to forget that body, there was no way that would happen any time soon.

Shit.
 

Shit.

Shit.

I beat a hasty retreat back to my room, Only taking a breath when I finally closed the door behind me. I leaned against the door, breathing heavily, and trying to make sense of what I had just seen.

Harrison was perfect physical specimen. Not in my wildest dreams had I imagine that he could become even more sexy then he had been when I last saw him.

The trouble was I couldn't actually have him. Harrison was someone that I was not allowed to touch, no matter how much I wanted to. I've known that for a long time now, and it made me feel terrible, but at the same time also turned me on more than I possibly could've imagined.

I finally calmed down. I looked around the room and realized as my eyes came across my clock that I was running out of time. I stood up slowly, opened the door and looked out into the hallway, trying not to get caught again. Looked like the coast was clear. No random Harrison sightings.

I gathered up my things again, and quickly stole my way to the bathroom. I peered inside but this time the lights were off and Harrison must have gone to his room. I was safe for a couple minutes at least.

I quickly took a shower, washing the dust of my nap off. The hot water felt amazing against my skin after the long ride and the sleep. I took a little longer than I should have given the time constraint, but the one thing that Summitville had going for it was the shower in my parents’ house, so so much better than the one in my tiny New York apartment. A few extra minutes might not be a good idea, but I could barely drag myself out of the shower even after it.

I got out, put a towel around me stood in front of the mirror doing my makeup. After I was done I unwrapped the towel before letting it fall to the floor, picking up and putting on my bra and panties. I felt the soft silk wrap around my torso and my waist, luxuriating in their touch.
 

Sexy underclothes were my one true vice. Not exactly a hobby you could go around telling anyone about, and I didn’t exactly publicize it, but it wasn’t easy to pass by a nice lingerie store without stepping and buying a little something for myself. Even if no one else got to see me wearing it, just knowing it was there put a little bounce in my step each day.

Then I heard a sound in the doorway and froze.

I must have forgotten to lock the door because when I finally turned to the right, Harrison was standing there with his sexy big grin on his face. I had to stifle a shriek. “What are you doing here?” I gasped.

He’d put on a little more clothing. Not too much, just a pair of gym shorts to cover himself up. I couldn’t help but stare at his crotch, looking for the shape of his giant cock against the folds of fabric.

He looked me up and down slowly, like an appraiser with a gemstone. I watched him, unable to move beyond trying to cover myself up a little bit more. “Just enjoying the view, ‘Sis’,” he said that last part with a sneer.

I stared him down. “Don’t call me that. Get out of here.” I tried to be as cold as I could, but inside I was mortified.

He stepped toward me and I turned to face him. Harrison kept coming, and I backed away. “What’re you doing?” I was getting hot, and I could feel my nipples hardening against the cups of my bra. I was no stranger to the effect Harrison had on me. Any closer and I’d get wet. He might not even have to move.

Harrison kept coming, and I found my back against the wall, looking almost directly up at him towering over me. The only thing I could hear was both of us breathing. I longed for him to bridge the tiny gap between us and touch me almost as much as I wanted to yell at him for invading my privacy, but I couldn’t find the words to express either idea. I could feel his breath on my skin. I was so excited I couldn’t move, couldn’t think.

“At least now we’re close to even, even though you’re still wearing too much clothing for my taste.” He winked at me. “You've grown up quite a bit, Laurel. Good for you.” We waited there like that, looking at each other. I tried to speak, but even if I’d been able to I don’t know what I would have said.

He turned and walked out of the bathroom without another look or word. I could feel my cheeks flushing and though I didn't want to admit it, I was more turned on possibly could have imagined. I didn’t understand the effect Harrison had on me.

In stunned silence, I finished getting ready for the party and went downstairs, not knowing what the rest of the night would bring.