Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance (9 page)

She sighs and makes a face. “Oh, Hunter, I’m so sorry for the formalities, you know.”

“No, I know, ma’am.”

She smiles at me. “Give it a few months, both of you, and then ‘Eleanor’ will work just fine.” She puts an arm around her daughter. “Once we’re all one big family.” Her daughter all but
audibly
groans as I do everything to hold back the chuckle in my throat.

“So!” I say gleefully, rubbing my hands togethers. “Ready for that tour?”

*****

“So, how was your night?” I’m honestly asking just to make small-talk, since she’s insisted on giving me the fucking silent treatment ever since her mom got me to take her on this little tour of the house. Except then she
blushes
, and suddenly, my cock grows a little tighter in my pants.

It’s not like she goes bright red, but it’s
just
enough of a pink glow to her cheeks, and just the smallest hint of a smile on those lips that she doesn’t quite hide fast enough that suddenly has my full and fucking undivided attention. Because I’m
not
actually a mind reader, but I’d know how this girl looks when she’s turned on
any
day. Any day, or say, last night, for instance. 

It’s the eyes that gave it away, really. It’s the way she looked around with that glassy sort of
intense
look in them. Then of course there was the pink flush, the way she shivered whenever I took the liberty of putting my hand on her, or the way her breath would catch whenever I caught her staring from across the tent.

Yeah, she was turned on last night, and the sudden blush
now
at my small-talk questions has me
way
more interested in what went on last night after she slammed the door in my face.

“Oh,
that
good, huh?” I grin as she whirls at me, her mouth wide open, a look of horror on her face.

“I was
not!
”

“Not
what,
I didn’t say anything.”

The flush grows deeper then, and I only grin wider knowing that my suspicions have weight to them. “So, that’s a yes on you breaking in the Lincoln bedroom on a solo mission?”

“You are
disgusting
, has anyone ever told you that?” She’s glaring at me, her face looking impossibly cute with that adorable little scowl on it. She’s pouting that mouth and those lips at me, but it’s not working as intended. If she’s trying to convey disgust, it ain’t working, because all I want to do is mash my lips against hers and press her up against the wall behind her until she’s moaning into my mouth.

“At times, definitely, but I’m not wrong, am I?”

She rolls her eyes and blows air out her lips. “
So
wrong, on every level.”

“Liar.”

“And just what am I lying about, Hunter?”

I grab her wrist as she tries to waltz on ahead, and she gives this cute little gasp as I yank her back a step. “You’re lying that you
didn’t
run into that bedroom last night, lock the door, and think the
dirtiest
things you could think about yours truly while you put your fingers all over that adorable little pussy of yours.”

I worry for a second that I’ve
actually
gone too far at the look of absolute shock and disbelief on her face at my words; that is, until she seems to catch herself, and suddenly the corners of her mouth are curling up in this wicked little grin. “Oh,
Hunter
, what’s the matter? Jealous?” Her eyes flash at me, and I can feel my dick twitch a little under my uniform.

I give her the grin right back though. “
Insanely.
” I jerk my head to a door next to us in the quiet hallway of the East Wing. “You know, I happen to know this office is open and camera free, if you’d like to show me the highlights.”

She grins and purses her lips, shaking her head at me sadly. “Oh Hunter, Hunter,
Hunter
; my
pussy
is actually none of your concern.” She winks as she turns to walk away again. “However
adorable
it may be,” she tosses over her shoulder.

Well shit, little Maddie Adams has a pair, it seems.

And the fact that this girl can toss it right back has me very,
very
intrigued. Far more intrigued than I should be.

…Like
anything
going through my head about this girl so far is anything close to appropriate.

I make it another twenty feet down the hall with her before I can’t stand it anymore. Hearing Madison Adams say the word “pussy” is literally my breaking point, and with a growl, I’m grabbing her arm and yanking her into the next office.

“Hey!” She hisses, but I ignore her as I march us across the empty room to the bookcase.

This bookcase, I happen to know from being in the Service, camouflages the entrance to the hidden escape hallway.

“What the-” Maddie gasps as I pull the copy of “Tom Sawyer” off it’s perch and twist the little brass bust of Teddy Roosevelt, swinging the bookshelf inward to reveal the long, dimly lit tunnel. 

“What in the
world-
” Her eyes go wide and her mouth hangs open as she marvels at the doorway. But I don’t give her much time to admire it before I’m pulling us through and shoving the door shut behind us.

“Why would they build this?” She whispers, biting her lip as I slowly push her back against the wall behind her. Her eyes glint something teasing and something needy at me in the low light.

“In case you’re in trouble,” I growl, moving closer to her, my eyes locked on those perfectly pouty pink lips.

“But…I’m not in trouble,” she whispers, her chest rising and falling as I move against her. She smells like honey and vanilla, and something vaguely floral, and I want to bury my face in that scent and drink it in. I want to peel away the layers of her clothes until it’s just her skin I’m smelling; just
her
that I’m touching, inhaling, and tasting.

“Not yet maybe,” I say, moving my hand up to push her hair back over her ear.

She swallows heavily, and I can feel my cock about ready to tear a hole through my pants as I feel her hips
just
barely arch up to press against me. 

Fuck the job, fuck the duty, fuck the situation with our parents; all I want to do is
fuck
this girl again. All I want to do is wrap those legs around me, and slide every inch of my cock inside that utterly
perfect
, tight, wet pussy of hers.

“That night was a one time thing, you
know,” she says, utterly unconvincing.She looks like she’s one second away from
moaning
out loud.

“Oh, of course,” I growl, leaning my face closer to hers.

“I’m serious.” Her voice is barely a whisper, and I can
feel
the words breathe across my lips.

“
Definitely.
” 

And I’m about four millimeters away from bruising my lips to hers, when my
fucking earpiece
squawks.

The moment
shatters
like glass as she suddenly gasps and shoves me away, wriggling out from between me and the wall as I groan and knock the wall with palm of my hand.

“
What?
” I growl irritably into my mouthpiece. 

A routine check-in. Wonderful.

I’m still okaying everything with the radio op when I glance up to see her glaring at me as she pushed the secret door back open to the office. “Maddie-”

“I’m
serious
, Hunter,” she spits out. “A
one time
thing.” 

And this time she is serious.

“Get it out of your head, I
mean it
.” Her eyes flash at me, but not in the way they did moments ago. This time it’s angry and resolute. Then she’s marching out of the hidden hallway and away from me.

Fuck
.

CHAPTER NINE

Three days later, and we haven’t spoken much. Under normal circumstances of course, that would be easier, but I think we can establish that living in the White House, as the daughter of the President, with a twenty-four hour security detail, is anything
but
normal circumstances.

And of course, that’s not to say we haven’t talked
at all
, because that would be impossible seeing as he’s
always
there. He’s
always
around, even off the clock, so to speak. He’s there at the breakfast table, smirking at me with that confident, cocky grin, or burning holes in me with those piercingly blue eyes at the dinner table with his dad, my mom, and Dexter.

So when I find myself
alone
in one of the side libraries off in the West Wing, it’s like taking a timeout from the whirlwind that my mind has been ever since that day behind the secret bookshelf. 

Because I haven’t stopped thinking about it for three days. I
can’t
stop thinking about it, or
him
, or how he
felt
that day.

The door creaks open, and I look up sharply from my book with a scowl on my face. Except it’s not the older Ryan boy who pokes his head in; it’s his brother.

“Oh,” Dexter says, frowning. “Are you like, hiding out or something?”

“I-” I shrug and smile. “No, come on in.”

He grins, a look not totally unlike that of his older brother. “You just looking to escape Captain America?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Captain America?”

“Hunter,” he says with a roll of his eyes. He moves to the window and slumps down on the wide sill. “I’ve been calling him that ever since he went full commando and joined the Marines like a complete spazz.” 

I grin; the name sort of fits, honestly. 

“I mean talk about a buzz-kill. Don’t get me wrong, he’s my brother, but that guy used to so much
fun
before he got deployed.”

Something about the way Dexter says it makes me think that “fun” maybe means more “reckless and wild” than just knowing how to have a good time.

“Well, he came
back
, which is always a good thing.”

Dexter shrugs. “Yeah.” He reaches into the pocket of his hoodie and draws out a pack of cigarettes, making me raise my eyebrows.

“Um, I don’t think you can actually smoke in here.”

“I’ll crack the window.”

I frown. “I
definitely
don’t think you can do that either.”

He winks before he pulls something that looks like a paperclip out of his pocket and starts to twist it around some of the security wires leading away from the window. I watch with my mouth open as he slowly cracks the window open, and no alarm goes off.

He turns as I raise my eyebrows at him, and he grins. “Yeah, take a wild guess who taught me how to pull that off.”

Hunter, of course. 

He brings a cigarette to his lips and flicks the lighter in his other hand, bringing it to the end as he inhales.

“You know, as your soon to be stepsister, I have to tell you that's a gross habit.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, thanks.”

“And dangerous.”

“Hey, my brother joined the Marines, I smoke. I’d say the life expectancy of my escape is leagues beyond his.” I raise an eyebrow at his shitty choice in wording, but he stops me with a shrug and a raised hand. “And yes, I’m always this difficult, before you ask.”