Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance (5 page)

“You don’t seem very happy to see me, Madison”

“Fuck!
” Madison jumps as she steps out of the hallway bathroom
right
into me and my questions. She catches her breath and glares at me as she straightens that creamy-colored skirt-suit that her handlers have dressed her up in, like she’s some sort of Senator’s wife. It’s supposed to be formal, and demure, and classy in a restrained, elegant way. 

It’s not
supposed
to be sexy. It’s not
supposed
to hug the curve of her hips and her perfect ass in a way that makes me want to tear everything off her
but
the skirt. Those heels are supposed to be restrained and chic; they’re not supposed to make me want to use them as handles as I drive my cock into her.

I shake my head, clearing the suddenly x-rated slew of thoughts from my mind. It seems there’s a
lot
about this girl that isn’t
supposed
to be.

She glares at me. “Perceptive, aren’t you?” She says with a scowl. “And don’t call me that.”

“Call you what?”

“Madison. It’s just Maddie.”

I grin broadly. “What, not a fan of the double presidential reference?”

“What do you
think
?”

“I think it’s pretty funny that we’ve got a new President who names her daughter after two
former
Presidents, that’s what I think.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine, you’re right, I’m not very happy to see you.”

I laugh. “That’s a shame, you seemed pretty gaga for me before.”

“Uh,
definitely
not.”

I smile broadly at her, remembering that flirt, that come-hither look, that teasing line. “Maddie,
please
.” I drape my arm over her shoulder but she quickly shrugs it off and shoots me a dagger look. “Oh
c’mon
, I think we made some magic happen, don’t you?”

She’s pursing her lips and shaking her head as she glares at me. “Are you making
jokes
about this? Is this
funny
to you?”

“Is it
not
to you?”

“No!” She hisses loudly, darting her eyes around the empty hallway before whirling back at me. “No, it’s
horrible
, and a scandal, and-”

“See, I sort of like the sound of that,
scandal
.” I arch my brows at her. “Kinda hot when you say it out loud, huh?”

Her mouth is open as she looks at me like I’ve got three heads, those pretty, perfect pink lips all pouty and open and aghast looking. “You
would
.”

“Oh, please, you don’t even know me, princess.”

“
Fine
with me,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest, sneering at me.

“We could fix that, if you wanted to,” I wink at her, and she blushes bright pink.

“Um,
yeah
, no thanks.”

“So, explain to me how the first daughter manages to get into a sex club.”

That blush only grows deeper as she quickly drops her eyes from mine and looks at her nails. She turns to glance down the hallway before she shoots me another glare. “Well why were
you
at a
sex club
?” She says tightly and quietly, her cheeks flushing just by saying the words.

“Because I like sex, obviously. Clubs I could take or leave.” 

Madison wrinkles her brow and makes a face. “
Eww?
”

I grin at her, loving the way it just gets that red to flush even deeper across her lightly freckled cheeks. I’ve been formally introduced to this girl for all of twelve minutes, and it’s taken about half that time to know that there is something
seriously
wrong with the narrative of her being in a place like
that
pretty much ever.

It occurs to me how bizarre of a meeting this is. Beyond the obvious implications of who we are — in the world and to each other — it’s sort of a strange feeling to be introduced to someone
after
you’ve been inside of them and
after
you’ve watched them come. The difference between us though is that
I
think it’s hilarious, and she clearly feels
exactly
the opposite.

She shakes her head and tries to push past me, but I stop her with a hand on her arm. “You’re dodging the question.”

“
What
question?”

“That night?
You
, there?” I shrug. “I’m just curious.”

She purses her lips together. “Well, be curious to yourself,” she hisses, glancing around the hallway again. “And why are you following me?”

“Um, because it’s my
job
, doll, that’s why. I’m your detail, I thought we’d been over this back there with
our parents
.”

Her face cringes. “Please
never
say that again?” She pinches the bridge of her nose with one hand, her arms crossed tight across that cream blazer. “So my detail needs to
linger
outside bathrooms for me?” 

“Gotta make sure you’re okay in there,” I say with a grin. “Never know when you’ll need a fresh roll of TP. And what happens if you sprinkle on the seat or something?”

I flash her another grin and she wrinkles her nose at me again in return. “You’re gross, and I’m sure I’m safe peeing in the most fortified house on the planet.”

“Well, yeah, thanks to guys like me keeping an eye on you.” 

“Well stop keeping an eye on me when I’m in the
bathroom
, okay?”

“What, you worried about me seeing something I’ve already seen?”

Madison’s face goes bright red and she audibly groans and drops her face into her hands.

She tosses her head back, her dark hair framed wild around her shoulders and her chest heaving. Her lip is caught between her teeth, looking something between cute and mind-blowingly sexy that has me growling deeper and gripping her hips even tighter as she rocks them against me. Her eyes squeeze shut and her fingernails drag over my chest as she cries out, her body shuddering above me as I drive up into her again, and again, and-

“Please tell me why you’re here.”

I blink and furrow my brow at her. “You know, for a smart girl, you really don’t pay attention much.” 

“Cute. You know what I mean. Why
here
? Why
this
job?”

I shrug. “Military family, my dad served, I served.” 

Her scowling look softens for a second. “I forgot you’d served.”

“Yep,” I tap my shoulder, where the bullet went clean through. “God and country and all that.”

“Oh.” 

I laugh. “What, feeling bad about sassing a vet now?” She rolls her eyes and starts to turn away again, but I pull her back gently by the arm. “Listen, I know you’re pissed about being here.”

“You have no idea.” 

“Oh? I don’t?” It’s my turn to frown at
her
now. The sass is one thing, and the backtalk and the shitty attitude I can take. But the holier than thou ‘woe is me’ bullshit from spoiled little rich girl Madison Adams? Yeah,
that
I’m going to have a real fucking problem with. Because I’m here to do a
job
, not babysit a brat like her. And even if that job has a rapidly approaching expiration date, I’m going to damn well do it to the best of my abilities until they make me stop. 

“You think I don’t know what it means to not do what you want? You don’t
want
to be here, and then you have to be. But you see I
want
to do this job. I
want
to be here at the White House, but then I won’t be able to.” I arch a brow at her, hardening my look. “Life is unfair,
princess
; deal with it.”

“Yeah, well I’ll deal with it without perverts like you
lingering
outside the bathroom listening to me pee,
got it
?”

My stern look cracks into a grin as she points a finger at me before whirling to stomp away. And I can’t even help it — even if this little brat’s just managed to get under my skin and piss me right off — when my eyes drop to that perfect, sculpted ass encased in that tight little cream skirt. The jacket, the nude heels, the pantyhose, the fucking Kennedy pearls — all that formal shit just somehow gets my cock rock hard in my suit and my brain a
million
miles from where it should be, which is
not
thinking about my new stepsister’s ass like I am at this very moment. 

“And quit staring at my ass, dick.” She hurls back over her shoulder, before she ducks into one of the side offices and slams the door.

Yeah, this is going to be an interesting job alright.

CHAPTER FIVE

This whole situation is ridiculous.

All of it. As if being the first daughter wasn’t going to change my life enough, I’m walking into it on day one with one of the biggest secrets in the county. 

I slept with my new stepbrother. Well, or at least a man who now happens to
be
my stepbrother. Oh, and who also happens to now be my fucking
bodyguard
. 

Wonderful.

I have a secret bottled up inside that could topple a government if people knew about it, not to mention
ruin
me. And that’s a terrifying thought, especially in a place like
this
which is designed to suss out secrets. I mean the White House is the central nervous system of the whole government; this is a place where you’re not supposed to be able to keep things from
anyone
.

I glance nervously around my new bedroom — my lavish, elegant, princely and practically fairy-tale-esque bedroom in the East Wing of the White House. Yeah, I’m living in a place with
wings
; it’s all a
very
far cry from my one-room student housing in Chicago with a view of a brick wall, I’ll say that. 

But as nice as it is, as elegant as the cream-white accents, the tastefully framed black and white photographs of former residents, and the carefully arranged flowers in the crystal vase by the window are, as much as I grin like an idiot at the four-post bed that looks like something
directly
out of every princess fantasy I’ve ever had, something seems off.

And just like the tick-ticking of the heart beneath Poe’s floorboards, I know what it is.

It’s
guilt
. Guilt and shame, and they’re gnawing at me, clawing at me, and maddeningly making me paranoid as I sit in the silence of this room. I find myself frowning at the flowers by the window, wondering if there’s some sort or listening device in there — something that’s going to read my mind and let
everyone
know about my horrible little scandal. 

I’m dying to change out of my ridiculous get-up and back into something I can relax in like jeans and a sweatshirt, but I also realize with a chill that I’m actually not sure if I’m
really
alone in here. I mean this is the
White House
; who the hell knows where the hidden security cameras are?

You’re being paranoid; there are no “hidden cameras” watching the first daughter change.

Maybe not, but I also know that Hunter is probably right outside my room, that cocky little shit-eating grin on his face.