Steven: A Billionaire Stepbrother Romance Novel (13 page)

“Okay,” Steven said, as he placed a hand on my knee. “I finally did something that I’ve been talking about for a while now. I’m not positive that you’re going to love it, but I personally think it’s going to be a great thing.”

I cocked my head to the side.

“Well...” I said. “What is it, Steven?”

Steven’s smile grew and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. He unfolded it in front of me, revealing a picture of what appeared to be a mansion. He handed me the paper and then asked, “What do you think?”

I looked at the picture and then back to him, a confused look on my face.

“I think that it’s a picture of a giant house,” I said, as I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s cool, but what does it have to do with you?”

Steven kept his eyes locked with mine, his smile unwavering.

“I bought it,” he said, after a few seconds of pause. “I just bought this house. It officially became mine this morning.”

“What?!” I responded immediately. “You bought
that
house?”

I pointed to the picture.

“
This
mansion?” I asked.

Steven was silent as he nodded in agreement. My jaw dropped and my eyes grew wide.

“Oh, my God, Steven!” I said, my voice growing loud with excitement. “This house is beautiful! I can’t believe it’s yours!”

I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him in for a hug. Then I grabbed the piece of paper, looking over the picture of the giant mansion one more time, shaking my head in awe.

“You just went and bought this...that’s crazy,” I said.

Then I asked, “Is it weird that your rash decisions actually turn me on?”

Steven chuckled and shook his head.

“I’m just glad that my being rash doesn’t scare you off, to be honest,” he said. “Sometimes it’s more of a blessing than a curse.”

I laughed and shook my head.

“There’s not a whole lot that you could do that would scare me off,” I responded. “Now, when do we get to see this new house...or should I say, this new
mansion
, of yours?”

Steven relaxed back onto the park bench, bringing his eyes up to the sky and taking a long, contented breath.

“Well, how about...as soon as you get off of work?” he asked. “The moving company will be at your parent’s house within the hour, so by the time you get done working, I should be unpacking at the new place.”

As he spoke, I suddenly felt my stomach drop. My initial excitement was quickly tainted as a realization crossed my mind. Steven would no longer be living in the bedroom next to mine. He wouldn’t be under the same roof as me. The man that I loved was going to be moving away from me.

Steven noticed my look of disappointment immediately.

“You don’t want me to move, do you?” he asked.

I looked at the ground and shook my head.

“I’m really excited that you bought your dream house,” I said. “But yeah, I guess the thought of you moving out makes me sad.”

Steven pulled me close and squeezed me affectionately.

“Baby, it’s only a couple of miles away for your mom’s house,” he said. “And I think it’s going to be better for us anyway. We can be naughty whenever we want without having to worry about one of our parents barging in.”

My eyes lit up and a smile crossed my face as he spoke the last sentence.

“Now
that’s
a good point,” I said, as I gave him a flirtatious wink. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

––––––––

L
ater that afternoon when I got off of work, I hurried back home. I wanted to be there to help Steven pack up his room and to spend as much time with him as possible before he moved out.

When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed a large moving truck parked alongside the house. Several men were loading up Steven’s furniture into the back of the truck.

I parked at the end of the driveway and walked to the house, making my way upstairs. Steven’s bedroom door was open and I popped my head in.

“Hello?” I called out.

I heard some noise coming from inside of his closet, so I stepped into his room a little further.

“Steven?”

Steven popped his head out of the closet. Then he stepped out, his arms overflowing with clothes that were still on the hangar.

“Hey, babe,” he said. “Just cleaning out my closet. I had way more clothes than I thought that I did.”

Steven stepped across the bedroom, dropping the armful of clothes into a large suitcase that sat open on the bed. Then he turned to me, immediately bringing his hands to my hips and pulling me in for a hug.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. I had forgotten how much moving sucks.”

I looked up at him and then stood on my tiptoes, giving him a peck on the lips. Then I slowly pulled away, looking around at the mess in his room. Clothes and boxes were everywhere, scattered haphazardly and covering nearly every square inch of the floor. Steven was gorgeous, wealthy and muscular...but “organized” would never be a word that I’d use to describe him.

“It looks like you could use some help,” I said, smiling.

Steven released my hips and then sat down on the bed, taking an exhausted sigh.

“I think I could use all of the help that I can get,” he responded. “Can you help me get all of these clothes into boxes? I’ll start taking apart the bed so that the movers can take care of that next.”

I giggled softly and then nodded in agreement.

“I think you should hire me as your personal organizer,” I said, jokingly.

Steven laughed.

“I would do that in a heartbeat!” he said. “But I think I’d rather you just be my girlfriend.”

I felt my face blush a bit as he spoke. I smiled and looked at him.

“Girlfriend?” I asked.

Steven nodded.

“Hell yea,” he responded. “Are you kidding me? I’d love that.”

I shrugged my shoulders and then turned to pick up a pile of shirts that were laying on the floor.

“I’d love that, too,” I said. “But before we do anything official like that, maybe we should actually tell our parents. We’ve been talking about it for a while now, but more and more, it seems like we should just go ahead and do it.”

Steven stood up from the bed and finished stuffing the pile of clothes into the suitcase. He then used his weight to squeeze it shut, before locking the clasps that held it together. The suitcase looked like it was about to explode.

“Let’s do it,” he said, as he picked the suitcase up off of the bed and set it on the floor. “Let’s tell them. Let’s tell our parents about it today.”

I stopped immediately and turned toward him.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Don’t you have enough going on today with your move and all.”

Steven chuckled and then shrugged his shoulders.

“There’s never going to be a good time to do it,” he said. “So I feel like this evening is as good of a time as any.”

I grabbed a few more shirts and then tossed them into a moving box that was nearby. I knew that eventually we were going to tell our parents about us, I just kind of hoped we’d put it off for a little while longer. I couldn’t imagine how my mom was going to react and I didn’t even want to think about William’s reaction. But Steven was right, when he said that there would never be a good time. There would always be an excuse. So I shrugged my shoulders and slowly nodded my head in agreement.

“Okay,” I said, swallowing back the anxiety that had crept inside of me. “Let’s tell them.”

Steven took a long, deep breath. I could see that the idea of telling them also made him quite nervous.

“Sounds good,” he said. “How about this...I’ll tell my dad when he comes by my new house this afternoon. And you tell your mom after I leave with the moving truck. That way you and your mom will be alone and I’ll be alone with Dad. Seems like if we have them isolated, then they won’t be able to feed off of each other’s reactions.”

It was logical enough for me. I’d much rather just talk to my mom anyway and let Steven talk to William. I couldn’t handle exposing the secret to both of them by myself.

“I think that sounds like a plan,” I said, with nervousness in my voice. “God, I can’t believe we’re actually going to do this.”

Steven stepped close to me and then leaned forward, kissing me on the lips. As he pulled away, he looked at me with his fluorescent blue eyes. They pierced right through me, as always.

“It’s the only way that we can be together for real,” he said. “I’m done with this sneaking around stuff. I want you and I’m not afraid who knows it any more.”

I couldn’t help but to smile. He certainly did a good job of making me feel loved. And somehow, his confidence rubbed off on me, making me feel better about coming clean with our secret.

“You’re right,” I said. “And we’re going to tell them. Tonight.”

––––––––

S
teven was all packed up. The moving truck was full and the movers were pulling out of the driveway as I stood in the front entrance, watching them leave. Steven was putting the last box of valuables into the back seat of his car. I watched as he closed the car door and walked back toward the house.

I stood in the entrance to the house, pouting out my lower lip.

“I’m sad that you’re leaving,” I said. “I don’t want you to go.”

Steven walked toward me, the definition of his muscles clearly defined underneath his tight blue t-shirt. He placed his hands onto my hips and looked me in the eyes as he responded.

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I mean I’ll be a little further than one bedroom over, but I’m still only a couple of miles away. And once we come clean to our parents, we won’t have anything to hide from them. You can come over whenever you want.”

Suddenly, I began to have doubts as to whether or not I really wanted to expose our secret. I started to feel that maybe it wasn’t quite as necessary as I had originally thought.

“Steven,” I said. “Why couldn’t I just come over to your house anyway? I mean even if our parents didn’t know about us? It’s not like it’s that weird for a stepsister to spend time with her stepbrother. We’re kind of like siblings. I don’t think it’s all that suspicious.”

Steven’s face turned more serious as he looked at me. His hands were still on my hips, holding me with his strong hands.

“Kelsey, we talked about this,” he said. “We both agreed that it would be best if our parents knew about us.”

I nodded my head and then my voice started to raise as I took a defensive position.

“I know, Steven,” I said. “I just don’t know if I can actually go through with it. They’re going to freak out.”

Steven shrugged his shoulders and responded, “So what? Who cares?”

I placed my hands onto his muscular chest and gently pushed him away.

“I don’t care if they freak out,” I said. “I don’t care if they disapprove or if they think it’s weird or whatever. What I
do
care about, is whether or not they’ll let me see you once they know. I have this feeling that they’ll do whatever it takes to keep us apart once they find out that we are together. And we have no way of knowing what they’re capable of until we tell them. And once we tell them, it’s too late.”

Steven was silent as he listened. I could tell that something I had said triggered him to think. He slowly looked at the ground, as he put his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

“I guess I hadn’t considered that,” he said. “I sort of assumed that they would have been happy for us.”

“And maybe they would be, Steven,” I said. “But at the same time, there’s a chance that they wouldn’t be. And I don’t know if I want to take that chance. Like I said, if they’re furious about it, then who knows what lengths they’ll go to in order to keep us apart?”

Steven sighed as he lifted his gaze from the ground. There was a look of disappointment on his face, but it also seemed like he understood where I was coming from.

“I just don’t know what to say, Kelsey,” he said. “I was kind of excited for the opportunity to tell them about us. Your new stance on it has sort of taken me by surprise.”

Admittedly, a part of the reason that I wasn’t ready to tell our parents about us, was because of the fact that I still thought that I may be pregnant. What would it have been like to tell our stepparents that their kids were sleeping together, and the next week notifying them that they were going to be grandparents soon? I had too much on my plate as it was and I didn’t want to complicate things any further.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I said. “I just don’t think it’s the right time to tell them. I promise that we will some day soon, but there’s just too much going on right now. Besides, we’ve been able to keep it a secret this long, so what’s the harm in keeping it a secret for a little while longer? It’s not going to change anything between us. I’ll still come stay the night at your new house. I’ll just tell them that I’m going to a friend’s house or something.”

Steven slowly began to smile. I could tell that he felt relieved that we were going to put off telling our parents. It was a big relief for me too.

“You’re right, Kelsey,” he said, nodding his head. “It won’t hurt to wait to tell them. I want to make sure that it’s the right time before we do. Because the last thing I’d want is for them to get crazy on us and try to keep us apart. I’d never forgive myself if that happened.”

Steven then approached me once again, pulling me in for a deep hug. He held me tight to his body, squeezing me affectionately.

“I love you, baby,” he said. “Everything is going to turn out great. I just know it.”

I smiled as I rested my head on his shoulder. I knew that he was right. Everything was going to turn out just fine. We just needed to be patient and wait for things to unfold naturally instead of trying to force them.

“Thanks for being so understanding,” I said. “It’s one of the things I’ve learned to love about you.”

Steven pulled away from our hug, and then brought his gaze to my face.

“So, will you still come over tonight?” he asked. “I really want you to see my new house. You’re going to be amazed.”

I smiled wide and nodded eagerly.