Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (46 page)

N
ora disappeared
into Duke’s office and closed the door. Now I could hear occasional laughter coming from inside. Why would she want anything to do with Duke?

Duke was the closest thing I had to a father figure, but even so, he was more than a little rough around the edges, and only looked out for himself. Well, he looked out for me as well, but that was only because it benefited him.

“What’s going on in there?” Gayle asked, appearing suddenly behind me. “Who’s that girl I saw go into Duke’s office?”

“I don’t know,” I lied. “New member, maybe?”

“I can’t see her lifting weights, can you?”

I could picture her doing many things, but lifting weights wasn’t one of them.

“Maybe she’s applying for a job?” I suggested. “We do need a receptionist to answer calls.”

Nothing motivated me more than a pretty girl to look at while I pumped iron, and if she was around, I’d be setting personal bests within days.

“Maybe,” Gayle replied, sounding unconvinced. “Or maybe it’s just another one of his little tramps.”

She tried to say it as if she didn’t care, but I knew her better than that. I couldn’t blame her for being suspicious of Duke. He regularly messed around with other women, and it wasn’t unheard of for him to hook up with girls half his age, although what they saw in him, I had no idea.

As far as I knew, Duke had never actually cheated on Gayle, and they were “off” at the moment, so he could do what he liked. However, I had to admit, I was with Gayle on this one. I hoped like hell he wasn’t involved with Nora. She was far too good for him. Fortunately for her, I knew just who would make a good match for her.

“I can’t see a girl like that being interested in a relationship with Duke,” I said, doing my best to reassure Gayle and myself. “She won’t be anything more than a one night stand.”
Hopefully not even that
.

“That man needs to grow up. He’s too old for one night stands. She’s young enough to be his daughter.”

“You two aren’t together at the moment though, are you?” I asked. It did get hard to keep track.

“No,” Gayle replied reluctantly. Usually when the two of them broke up, it was at her insistence, but the second Duke showed an interest in any other woman, they would find a way to make it up.

“And didn’t I catch you coming out of the men’s locker room the other day, closely followed by that tall kid who started training here recently? He can’t be older than twenty.”

“Nineteen,” Gayle said with a smile. “And very enthusiastic.”

I grimaced. If Duke was the closest thing I had to a father, then Gayle was the closest thing I had to a mother. I didn’t want to hear this.

“You’re both as bad as each other,” I pointed out. “Stop worrying. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Gayle walked off and left me to my work out, but she kept conveniently finding reasons to walk back into the gym, and every time she did so, she glared at Duke’s office.

The conversation in there was getting more and more animated. The two of them seemed to be getting on well, which meant Nora was probably not someone he’d hooked up with. That came as a huge relief.

After fifteen minutes, Gayle came up to me again while I was in the middle of some bicep curls. I tried to finish my set, but I caught the look on Gayle’s face in the mirror and decided it might be a good idea to put the weights down.

“I need to speak to Duke,” Gayle said.

“Then go knock on the door.”

“You do it. It’ll look suspicious if I do.”

I sighed, but agreed to walk over and interrupt Duke’s conversation. It’s not like I’d be able to get anything else done with Gayle in this mood, and I was curious myself.

“What do you want to speak to him about?” I asked Gayle, knowing full well she didn’t need to speak to him at all.

“Just get him out of that fucking office,” Gayle replied, with her usual level of tact.

I smiled and walked over to Duke’s office. The conversation was muffled, but it sounded like they were talking about a mutual friend. Duke didn’t have any brothers or sisters, so this couldn’t be a niece of his. So how did he know her?

I knocked on the door, but opened it without waiting for a response. “I need your opinion on what to teach in today’s class,” I said to Duke, doing my best to pretend there wasn’t a stunning girl I’d fucked a few days ago sat on the other side of his desk.

“No you don’t,” he replied. “You just want to know what’s going on. And I bet Gayle sent you.”

Duke shouted Gayle’s name and a few seconds later she appeared next to me in the doorway. Her eyes immediately went to the girl sat at the desk, but she did her best to look surprised to see her. I doubt she had Duke fooled though.

“What is it?” Gayle asked casually.

“I won’t be able to keep this a secret for much longer,” Duke began.

“If you’ve got her pregnant,” Gayle yelled, forgetting she was trying to appear calm, “I’m going to make sure you’re dead before the baby’s born.”

Duke turned to face the girl. “Gayle’s not always like this,” Duke said to her. “Sometimes she gets really angry.”

“What’s going on, Duke?” I asked. I wanted to know almost as much as Gayle did now.

“Riker, Gayle, meet Nora Delmonico. My daughter.”

R
iker had been
a complete jerk the other night, but at least he’d been friendly. Kind of.

Now he was positively cold around me. I’d expected Duke to be the one not taking the news well, but Riker and Gayle looked far less accepting of me than he had.

Duke and I had chatted for a bit about Mom, and I’d told him stories about what it had been like growing up with her. To Duke’s credit, he did genuinely seem to care about her, and there were traces of sadness in his voice, even though he hadn’t seen her in over twenty years. She’d left her mark on him, as she’d done with everyone she’d met.

Mom and Duke hadn’t had a conventional relationship. Or a long one. They’d met while Mom was defending him on aggravated assault charges. Mom had once criticized me for meeting men on Tindr, but that seemed positively romantic in comparison.

After getting to know the basics about each other, I’d finally broached the subject of spending more time at the gym. Duke had been cautious at first, thinking that I wanted to hang around with him all the time and get to know my father. I explained that I just wanted to get to know the people here a bit better, and told him how I would soon be working for Child Welfare Services.

The second I told him that, Duke relaxed and started telling me all about the kids that had come here and turned their lives around thanks to some basic discipline and training. He actually sounded quite proud of what he achieved with some of his customers.

In particular, he’d spoken a lot about Riker Clyne, the former criminal and now fighter slash teacher. Duke clearly had a strong bond with Riker and he was the first person I got introduced to as his daughter.

The woman called Gayle, who must be his girlfriend, quickly dragged Duke away and left me alone in the office with Riker, a man whose muscles seemed to pulsate twenty-four hours a day if my meetings with him to date were anything to go by.

“You’re Duke’s daughter,” Riker said slowly.

Not so cocky any more, are you
?

He sounded thoughtful now; not at all like the man who’d somehow charmed his way into my panties the other night.

I realized I’d stereotyped him. He looked rough, and clearly worked out a lot. Combined with his behavior, I’d assumed he was an idiot. I hated it when people were quick to judge others, but now I’d done the same thing. He’d just had a different upbringing to me.

One of the reasons I wanted to work for Child Welfare Services in the first place, was because every child deserved a fair shot in life. Thanks to Mom, I’d been pushed to succeed academically and could afford to go to a great college.

I hadn’t even taken out many student loans, which meant I could pick a career based on what I wanted to do for a living and not what I needed to do to pay the bills. How many people had that luxury? I was better educated than Riker—and probably everyone else in here—but that didn’t make me cleverer than them and it certainly didn’t make me a better person.

“Yes, I’m his daughter,” I said, aware that I had perhaps been staring at him a little too long. It said something for his face that despite the rippling muscles on show, I didn’t have any trouble looking into his dark brown eyes as I spoke.

“I didn’t know he had a child.”

“Neither did he,” I replied. “Mom died recently, so I decided to hunt him down.”

Perhaps I was just exhausted from the ordeal of meeting my biological father, but I was finding this conversation tougher than the one I’d had with Duke.

I could handle men like Riker coming on to me. Well, usually I could. The night with Riker had been different. I’d played it cool and calm that night until the moment I’d put his hand between my legs. Now I couldn’t even maintain a basic conversation with him.

This was purely physical. My body didn’t know or care whether Riker would be a good long-term partner. This was simple lust. Panty-drenching, desperate lust.

I wanted Riker in the same way that men wanted a bikini model, and it made me feel somewhat pathetic. I’d always thought I was above that kind of thing. Apparently not.

I’d been through a lot this morning. That’s all it was. My brain was fried, and my body wanted straightforward physical stimulation.

Not even Riker’s criminal background put me off. Duke had told me about Riker coming to the gym after a stint in prison for attempted murder. Regardless of your upbringing, attempting to kill someone was inexcusable. This was not a man I should have anything to do with.

And yet, I didn’t walk away. Neither did he.

“Duke said I could hang around for a bit,” I explained, already regretting my decision to spend time here over the next few months. It wasn’t too late to back out. I could just tell Duke it was too awkward. But that would be cowardly. My mom would never have done something like that.

“You’re going to sign up?” Riker asked.

“No, not really. I’m just going to talk to people about their lives. I’m going to be a social worker in a few months.”

“So you want to spend time at the zoo talking to the animals?” Riker asked angrily. “These people are projects for you to learn from. Is that it?”

“That’s not what I meant,” I pleaded. “I just want to find out why people are here and how they turned their lives around.”

“Most of these people
haven’t
turned their lives around. That’s why they’re here and not at one of those nice fancy gyms down the road.”

“Look, I just want to help. Is that so bad?”

“You don’t want to help,” Riker snapped. “You want to feel better about yourself.”

Making myself feel better had nothing to do with it, but I did have a selfish motivation. Mom had dedicated her life to helping others as a criminal defense attorney, and I wanted to make her proud of me. I could earn more money in the private sector, and maybe that would make me happy, but I knew in the long run that wouldn’t give me any true satisfaction.

Mom had enjoyed her work. It had been tiring and stressful, but she wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I wanted to find a similar passion. Mom had done her best to help poor people find some justice through the legal system. I wanted to make sure they never got into the legal system in the first place.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said eventually, although my hesitation likely gave away how close he was to being right. “You can’t hate everyone who wants to help.”

“We’ve had people like you in here before, you know?” Riker said. “People have tried to ‘save me’ from what I do. No one here needs your help.”

“I have no intention of doing that,” I said firmly. “Clearly you’re beyond saving.”

“Whatever. Just stay the hell out of my way.”

Riker turned and stormed out of the office, but if he thought he was going to get the last word in, he had another thing coming.

“Why are you teaching?” I yelled out after him.

He stopped and turned back to face me. “What?”

“Duke told me you’re teaching people combat today. Why are you doing that?”

“The same reason I do everything—money.”

“Not to help people and repay your debt to society?”

“I spent five years in prison,” he replied. “I’ve already repaid my debt to society.”

“Okay, well maybe I’m doing this for the money as well. Does that make you feel better?”

“You don’t know what it’s like to truly need money. Besides, I’m sure you have a fat inheritance to live off now.”

I stared wide-eyed at him. “Please tell me you didn’t just use my mom’s death to prove a fucking point?”

Riker shook his head. “No, I didn’t mean… whatever. Just keep out of my way.”

He stormed off again and this time I didn’t attempt to get the last word. I hated to admit it, but he’d got a reaction from me. Had I really chosen my future career just so I could walk around feeling proud of myself?

Worse still, if that’s the reaction Riker had to me, what would everyone else think? I wouldn’t be much of a social worker if I couldn’t connect to any of my clients. I thought hanging out here for a few months would do some good, but I stood out like a sore thumb among all the muscle-bound men and women here.

I had to at least try. Mom would have never backed down so quickly. Besides, there were worse places to spend the day. At least I’d be in tip-top shape by the time I started my new job. And if it all went badly, there was still time to let Child Welfare Services know that this whole thing had been a big mistake.

I headed to the exit and did my best not to look at Riker as I walked past. He was in the far corner setting up the space for his first combat class. I shouldn’t have expected much from him. He was a convict and fighter. Hardly an upstanding member of society.

Part of my body didn’t agree with my brain’s rationalization. In one way, Riker was every bit the man I wanted right now.

One thing was for sure, I would have to stay out of his way like he’d asked. For both our sakes.