Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance (10 page)

I grin. “So why
did
he join the Marines? Your dad?”

Dexter snorts. “
Hell no
. No, no way. If anything, he’d have
not
joined just to throw it in the Major’s face.” He slumps back against the window frame, blowing smoke outside into the chilly January afternoon. “Probably my mom. I dunno, I was young when she died, but I know Hunt took it bad.” He takes another pull of his cigarette. “She was pretty awesome though, I remember that.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, shit happens, right?” Dexter shrugs. “How about your dad, you ever see him?”

“Only in the papers, occasionally.”

He grins at me. “He seems like a tool, no offense.”

“None taken, he is.”

Mom and I don’t actually really ever talk about my dad, because we don’t need to. We don’t need to remember someone who left us like that when I was so young, and especially someone who’s never really made the effort to be a part of
either
of our lives. 

My dad is basically a trust-fund kid run amok. A young hot-head my mom met when she was in law school and fell for. He pretty quickly fell for someone else, or rather
many
someone elses and left her with law school debt and a four year old. Basically all I know about him is that he spends most of his time in Europe, dates the occasional far-past-her-prime socialite, and sometimes makes appearances in shitty tabloids. 

Beyond that, I don’t really need to think about him.

“I can’t believe your mom won not only as a woman but as a divorcée. I mean,
I
voted for her, but this country is full of douchebags.”

I shrug. “Pretty sure it’s
why
she won.”

And it is. Single mom? Divorcée? A take-no-shit attitude? Yeah, you better believe that rang true with her core demographic. And really, I get it, and I get why me leaving school the way I did grates on her gears. I also get why even if she wants to marry him, she’s loathe to make the whole thing with Alec Ryan public. Because she’s strong on her own, and she knows it.

I immediately want to change the subject.

“So that’s why Hunter joined the Marines? Escape?”

Dex snorts. “Dude, he and dad
both
needed to not be around each other; big time.”

“Do either of them know you’re smoking?” I say, nodding with my chin at the smoke curling up from the cigarette between his fingers.

He eyes me, like he’s trying to read me. “Not unless you squeal.”

“What if I do?”

“I think that’d make you a pretty shitty stepsister.”

I laugh. “Agreed. Look, just — I don’t know — cut back or something, okay?”

“Deal.” He grins at me. “You know, you’re not so bad.”

“Oh, gee, thanks,” I say sarcastically.

He laughs again. “No, dude, I mean — I don’t know, you’re not as stuck up as I thought you’d be.” He grins. “Plus it's
awesome
to have another college reject around to take some the heat off me.”

I flip him off as he laughs in the window. “Hey, I’m just taking some time off. I had a pretty shitty semester last year, you know,” I add, suddenly frowning as I think about Harry. “You should go back and finish your undergrad, you know.”

“Yeah, she says the same thing.”

“Huh?”

Dexter quickly frowns as shakes his head. “Nothing.”

“No,
who?
”

“Just this girl,” he says with a shrug.

I smirk as I raise my eyebrows;
how the heck is Dexter sneaking around?

He snuffs out his cigarette on the windowsill outside and flicks it away before he closes the window and reconnects whatever he undid with the wiring. “Anyways, sorry you’re stuck with Hunter twenty-four-seven.”

“Eh, it’s not so bad.”

“Nah, he’s not bad at all.” He shrugs and flashes that Ryan-brother grin again. “I mean, a huge tool after the military, but he’s a good guy.”

*****

“Were you fucking smoking in here?”

I have no idea how much time has passed when I look up
again
from my book, this time to see Hunter scowling at me from the doorway. “And hello to you too,” I say with  a roll of my eyes. “And no, of course I wasn’t.”

“It smells like it.”

“Well, it wasn’t me.”

“Dex?”

I say nothing, and his stern looking face suddenly breaks into a grin. “I see you got the ‘be cool and you can be on my team’ shit from him.”

I keep my mouth shut and he rolls his eyes. He steps into the room and shoots a glance at the window where his brother was sitting before and smirks. “You know, I taught him that.”

How the fuck did he see that?

He saunters over and slumps into the arm chair across from me, steepling his hands and grinning wickedly at me like he’s holding something back. I frown and lower the book in my hand. “Oh
what
.”

The grin spreads across his face. “You know, you’re pretty bad at this.”

I frown. “At
what
?”

“Avoiding me.”

I roll my eyes. “
Please
, get over yourself. I’m not avoiding you, dick.”

“Clearly,” he says with a grin, spreading his arms wide.

“There’s no way you’re seriously
always
this full of yourself.”

“You’d be surprised, princess.”

I grin in spite of myself, feeling my face go a little pink as his eyes flash at me, as if latching on to that one little grin. 

He eyes the pile of books and magazines strewn around my chair. “Nice hiding place, by the way.”

I make a face. “Cute. I told you, I’m not
hiding
.”

“Fine, sulking, or whatever.”

I sigh, shaking my head. “You’re impossible, you know.”

“I try. Let’s go back to you sulking around though.”

“I’m not
sulking
, I’m just-” I rub the bridge of my nose with my fingers. “Look, I’m going kind of insane being cooped up in here, okay?”

“Yeah you’re looking a little hermit-ish,” he says, nodding a chin at my pajama pants. “You going to cut back on bathing to really pull off the look?”

“I can bathe just fine, thank you.”

He leans forward in his chair. “You sure? I’m happy to help if you need, it’s all part of the Service.”

I can feel myself blush as I roll my eyes and shake my head. “I bet. Look, I just need to get the fuck out of here at some point.”

“The library? I agree.”

I roll my eyes. “Out of
here
like this ‘this house’. I’m
in
this place day after day and I’m starting to go fucking crazy.”

Hunter cracks his knuckles. “Well, we’ve got another press thing tomorrow, and then you’re going to meet with some foundations your mom set up for you to get involved with on
Wednes-”

I groan loudly and drop the book on the ground at my feet. “No,
now
. And I don’t mean to go pose in front of cameras. Look, I need to do
people
things. I need to see culture or whatever. Can I just go exploring or something?”

He grins, raising an eyebrow at me. “
Exploring?
” 

“Yes, exploring, or fucking
something
. I don’t want to spent the next however long I’m here lounging around like a damn hermit. I feel cooped up here.”

“The word is ‘safe’, Mad-”

“
You
know
what I mean.” I stand and slump my shoulders as I look at him pleading. “Please.”

He makes a face. “What exactly did you have in mind?” 

“A museum?”

He snorts. “Are you kidding me? No way, they’re huge public spaces. It’s a security nightmare.”

“Dude, there are
priceless
world-renowned museums in this city, and I live like a block away from all of them and I can’t go see them?”

“It’s a risk.”

“It’s your job to mitigate that.”

He glares at me, but there’s a little bit of a smirk in the corners of his lips. “I’ll bring it up with the director.”

“Pushover,” I say with a grin.

CHAPTER TEN

Pushover
.

It’s like her own little barb right back; her own little dig right back at me after I teased her.

And I
like
that. I
like
that she throws it right back; that she takes my shit and dishes it right back.

Still, there’s abso-fucking-lutely nothing “pushover” about me.

Of course that said, a few days later, we’re in a damn motorcade, on our way to the damn Smithsonian, after I damn well called ahead and arranged for the exhibit wing that hasn’t opened yet to be sealed off.

Goddamnit, I
am
a pushover. For her at least. I frown and decide not to think too hard about what that means.

“Thanks,” she mumbles from her side of the backseat of the Escalade, as if reading my thoughts. “You didn’t
have
to do this.”

I snort. “Right, like you wouldn’t have made a big stink about it until I did.”

She grins. “You have no idea, but still, thank you.”

“You know, after the announcement, I won’t be able to pull shit like this off. Then you’ll just be fucked.” She rolls her eyes. “Well, only if you ask nicely, that is,” I say with a wink. “Like last time.”

Her face goes bright red and she quickly darts a glance towards the divider separating us from the driver.

“Relax, he can’t hear us.”

Her face sours into a sharp glare. “
First
,” she hisses out. “That’s never happening again,
ever
. And secondly, I’d never
ask you nicely for it
, you dick.”

“Sorry, you’re right.” 

She rolls her eyes and makes a face at me as she starts to turn back towards the window. 

“You’d ask
dirty.
.”

She whirls back to me, her eyes wide and her mouth open in this shocked look. “That is
never
going to-” She stops, pursing her lips and sneering at me. “Having fun?”

I grin. “With?”

“With trying to get a rise out of me.”

I laugh. “Well that depends, is it working?”

“Nope.”

“Clearly.” She sticks her tongue out at me and I raise a brow, “That an invitation?”

“Dream on.”

“Way ahead of you.”

Her cheeks flush pink as she tries to hide the grin on her face by turning back towards the city flashing by the tinted windows of the Escalade.

“But honestly, once I’m off the Service, I probably won’t be able to arrange field trips like this, so enjoy it.”

“Well thanks,” she says, rolling her eyes at me. “And for being
so
humble and gentlemanly about it.”

“Any time, doll.”

We sit in silence for another block before I find myself opening up my damn mouth again. “You know, your mom is going to be good for my dad, as — uh —
complicated
it might make things.”