Stepbrother OMG! (The Stepbrother Romance Series #2) (5 page)

“I just wanted to talk to you,” he said, keeping his
voice low. “I wanted to apologize.” Jaxon was only inches away from me. The
popcorn popping began to slow down. I stopped the microwave and snatched the
paper bag out of it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. My
heart was beating faster.

“Mia, we have to talk. Can’t you at least give me a
chance to talk to you about this?” Jaxon’s hand moved out, barely avoiding
touching my body, moving to my hip. I danced out of his reach, gripping the
popcorn in my hand as tightly as possible.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said quickly, my
mouth going dry.
“Nothing at all.”
I shook my head.
“We don’t need to talk about anything.” I hurried out of the kitchen and across
the den, down the hall and to my bedroom.

I got online and looked for anyone I could talk
to
. I didn’t want to talk about Jaxon, or about the stupid
situation.
Just wanted to distract myself from everything
going on.
I managed to find one of the Phi Kappa brothers and talked to
him about the game from the night before; I’d missed it but I’d caught the
highlights.
What are you up to?
I
thought about it. The guy I was talking to knew Jaxon. He was a sophomore; he
wasn’t super close, but it was in the frat.

Just
boring family stuff,
I wrote. I ate my popcorn and tried to
forget about the fact that Jaxon was in the same
house, that
he was only down the hall from me. I threw away the empty bag and turned off
the TV, signing out of the chat and curling up in my bed. I would only be there
a few days more. I would be able to stay away from Jaxon and we could
maybe—possibly—go back to normal once we both went back to the college. As long
as we could stay away from one another, it wouldn’t be difficult to pretend
like
we’d never had anything to do with each other.
If I could just stay away from him.

CHAPTER
6

The next morning, I woke up early and decided that
the only way to get my mind settled would be a session on the slopes. I
couldn’t trust Jaxon to leave me alone in the pool. I couldn’t trust him to
leave me alone if I went for a walk. The only way I could maybe avoid him would
be to get out onto the mountain before anyone else was around. I needed time to
myself, I needed space and air and the cold of the snow to think.

I put on my warm clothes and pulled out my gear,
checking to make sure that everything was as it should be. I smiled to myself.
Time alone, out on the mountain, cutting up the slopes—nothing could possibly
be better. My stomach was growling a little bit; I decided to go out to the
kitchen and grab a quick breakfast, maybe some coffee and something I could
take with me out onto the mountain for a snack later in the day. Hopefully I
had gotten up early enough that no one else was
around
.
I walked across the living room, still looking around. Jaxon was nowhere to be
seen. That was a good sign. I would get into the kitchen, maybe find a thermos
for coffee or hot chocolate, and grab something to eat before I went out.

When I stepped into the kitchen, though, my plan
began to dissolve. My mom was drinking a cup of coffee, leaning against the
countertop, smiling to herself. “Oh hey, Mom,” I said, hoping I could get away
with my plan.
“Smells good.”
Mom gave me a quick hug.

“You’re up early,” she pointed out. I shrugged.

“Went to bed kind of early.”
It wasn’t true—I hadn’t shut everything down in my room until a little after
one, and it was only about seven in the morning. But I was eager to get out of
the house, eager to get away from my troubles at least for a little while.

“What are you up to today?” I poured myself a cup of
coffee and snagged one of the imported strawberries Mom was eating out of a
basket. They were still dripping from the rinse she had given them.

“Thought I’d go out on the mountain,” I said, taking
a bite of the strawberry. “I’d love to get some time on the slopes. Get some
practice in.” Mom made a face.

“You can’t go out on your own,” she told me. “You
don’t know these mountains, and besides, it’s dangerous to go out by
yourself—you know that.” I did.

“Well…I’m sure there’ll be other people skiing and
boarding,” I pointed out. “It’s a great day out for it.”

“Not good enough,” Mom said firmly. “You need
someone who’s actually looking out for you. Bob and I can come with you.” I
frowned. I didn’t want to have to deal with my mom and her new husband. They’d
probably invite Jaxon and I’d have to spend all day pretending to be okay with
him, and like I didn’t know him. It would all unravel.

“Mom, come on,” I said with a groan. “I’m not a kid
anymore. I can take care of myself on the slopes, there are plenty of rangers
and other people out, I’m not going to go off into the woods or anything, and I’ll
stick to the normal trails.” Just when my mom would have argued harder, Jaxon
came in. I wanted to scream.

“That looks like great coffee,” he said mildly. I
moved away, letting him grab a cup of what Mom had brewed. “What’s going on?”
he glanced from me to my mom.

“I wanted to go out boarding, but Mom won’t let me
go alone,” I said. If I had to talk to Jaxon, at least let him be on my side.

“Bob and I would be happy to go with you,
sweetie—and we’re not going to cramp your style, just keep an eye on you while
we ski.”

“Mom, there are plenty of people out there. I’m not
going to disappear!” I hoped Jaxon would back me up. Instead, he did the one
thing that could possibly make a bad situation worse.

“Oh, if you don’t want her going alone, I can
totally hit the slopes with her, show her around,
keep
an eye out.” I wanted to groan. I wanted to scream with frustration. But I had
to keep my face neutral. The stubborn look left Mom’s face immediately and she
smiled.

“That would be perfect, Jaxon, you are such a
sweetheart to think of it.” Jaxon shrugged, glancing at me for just a moment.

“I’ve been looking forward to hitting the slopes
myself. Be good to have a buddy.” I felt sick to my stomach. Suddenly I didn’t
even want breakfast anymore, much less the coffee I had in my hands.

“Eat something nourishing before you go,” my mom
said, grinning at Jaxon and me. “As long as you two are out having fun
together, Bob and I can hang out inside by the fire. Keep your phones on you;
call us if you need anything.” Mom practically danced out of the room, ready to
go screw her new husband’s brains out.

For a moment, I almost decided not to go. The very
last thing I wanted was to have to spend all day with Jaxon, avoiding talking
to him. I just wanted to practice, to go down the mountain over and over again
until I was so exhausted I couldn’t even think. But of course, that wasn’t an
option. If I wanted to get some time out of the house, I’d have to take his
company. “We are not going to talk about anything,” I told Jaxon firmly. He
shrugged.

“We’ll just hit the slopes and make sure neither of
us breaks a leg,” he said, holding his hands out in a peace-keeping gesture.
“Fine by me.
I need practice anyway, before competitions
start up.”

“Fine.”
I reached into the open pantry and got out a container of oatmeal. My stomach
was grumbling and roiling with a mixture of hunger and disappointment and
nausea. I knew I had to eat—but I had the definite feeling that whatever I did
eat was just going to end up painting the slopes later in the day.

CHAPTER
7

I decided that it wasn’t worth the disappointment of
not getting in my slope time to avoid Jaxon, no matter how uncomfortable it
was. I got my gear after breakfast and met Jaxon at the entry of the mansion.
The place was only a couple of miles away from the trails; Jaxon grabbed my
stuff from me and loaded it onto the back of a snow mobile and we set off for
the mountain. “Have you ever been out this way?” Jaxon asked me. I shrugged.

“Not really,” I said. I didn’t really want to talk
to him. “Look, let’s just…pretend like the other one isn’t here at all.”

“How are we going to do that and still look out for
each other?” Jaxon called over his shoulder.

“We’re not.” Jaxon stopped the snowmobile. He turned
in the seat and looked at me.

“If you’re not willing to at least let me look out
for you—and look out for me in return—then we’re not going. I’ll turn around
and you can hang out with Dad and your Mom.” I sighed.

“Okay, fine.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “But
like I said before—this isn’t… we’re not going to talk to each other about
anything.” Jaxon looked at me for a long moment before nodding and starting up
the snowmobile again.

We made it to the trails and I finally began to
relax. I trekked up to the top of the slope, not even waiting for Jaxon; I
decided privately that I would mostly ignore him, just get through some runs,
have a good time, and get the whole situation out of my head. I took it easy
the first time down the trail, jumping the ramps as low as possible, getting a
feel for the conditions and the features. It wasn’t the same as the practice
track, it was a little slower, but it was satisfying to get out on the snow
again. I started to smile, even after I ate powder over-shooting my stop at the
end of the trail. Behind me, Jaxon laughed.

“Too eager to show off, aren’t you?” he called out,
skidding around to a stop at the base of the trail. I rolled my eyes.

“I wasn’t even showing off!” I got back up and got
my feet off the board. “I’m going to do it right this
time
.”
Jaxon nodded, smiling—the way he had before things had gotten so weird between
us, when we were in practices together. We started going down the trails
together, and I found myself getting more and more into it. It was a relief; it
was so good to get past all of the weirdness, to just go back to the way things
had been before Jaxon and I slept together, before he shut
me
out and starting ignoring me
.

Jaxon seemed to be enjoying himself just as much as
I was; we teased each other about lame tricks, we cheered each other on to land
the newer jumps and grabs we’d both been working on. At one point we got into a
snowball fight, pelting each other with powder we gathered up on a run down the
trail. Jaxon took me over to where the people who owned the trails had built a
half-pipe specifically for snowboarders and we worked it hard. Just like he did
when we’d been in practice before things got weird, Jaxon gave me tips, advice,
critiqued me as if he respected my skills as a boarder. We didn’t even stop for
lunch; Jaxon brought food with us, and we ate out on the mountain, scarfing
down ham-and-cheese pastries and guzzling thermoses hot chocolate with protein
powder added to it before we hit it again.

“I’m going to be so sore tomorrow,” I said, shaking
my head as we went up another time. “You don’t have the number of a good
masseuse, do you?” It felt weird, but good—talking to him the way I always had
before. Every time he smiled my stomach got butterflies, every time he looked
at me I could feel myself warming up. I knew I should keep my guard up and
maintain a distance, but I couldn’t make myself do it. Jaxon tweaked one of the
braids I’d put my hair into to keep it out of my face and I smacked him; he
shoved me over into the snow when we were walking to the chair lift and I
pulled him down with me, nearly yanking down his pants in the process. It was
the kind of thing brothers and sisters did, but it didn’t feel brotherly or
sisterly—and even though I was scared out of my mind, I couldn’t make myself
stop doing it, or ignore him when he did something. Once we were both back with
our parents, we’d have to stop—I knew that, and Jaxon had to have known it too.
If we acted this way around them, they’d know for sure that we hadn’t met for
the first time a day and a half before. We were too close, knew each other too
well.

I was getting all wrapped up in Jaxon just
like
I’d let myself get before—getting turned on by him,
almost. I couldn’t help noticing how good he looked, couldn’t help the tingles
I got every time he was close to me, or looked at me. It was stupid and crazy,
but I was letting myself fall for it, letting myself get the same stupid
feelings of interest that I’d had before he shut me out and started snubbing
me. It was too easy to let myself fall for his easy charm, to respond to his
little flirting comments, to want to do more. I had to stop myself from
dragging him over to me and kissing him over and over again. He’d never make a
move on me—it was too risky, even out on the mountain on our own—but I wanted
him to. I knew I’d have to do everything I could once we were back among other
people to pretend like I wasn’t the least bit interested in him, but even while
we flirted and taunted each other, I also knew that I couldn’t wait for the
holiday to be over. I wanted nothing more than to be away from him—away before
I couldn’t make myself stop, couldn’t fight the feelings that were brewing in
me any longer.

CHAPTER
8

Eventually we couldn’t stay out on the mountain any
longer; we were starving, and as the sun started to go down in the west, it got
colder and colder. We joked about keeping each other warm, but we knew that
there was no way to avoid having to go back to the house. Our parents would
start worrying, and that would completely defeat the purpose of our cover
story, of even having a cover story. I put my arms around Jaxon’s waist as he
drove us back to the mansion on the snowmobile, and I could feel myself
tingling all over. It was dangerous—and we’d have to be on our best behavior
once we got back—but I couldn’t help myself. It was like tumbling out of an
aerial; once you committed to the jump, you were going to come careening back
to the ground and nothing would stop you. Jaxon was the ground I was about to
hit.