Stepbrother OMG! (The Stepbrother Romance Series #2) (3 page)

“Fine!” he called. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I rolled
my eyes and buried my face once more in the pillows. I was as tired as I would
have been spending an entire day boarding, or staying up all night to cram for
a test. All I wanted is to go to sleep and wake up to find out the next morning
that I’d been horribly mistaken and that my new step-brother was some other
guy, that I’d been so tired that I’d hallucinated the whole thing. Plenty of
guys in the world could be named Jaxon, right? I barely remembered to turn the
TV off before my sense of bone-deep exhaustion overcame me. I didn’t even take
off my clothes or change into pajamas. I slithered under the covers and closed
my eyes and willed the morning to be at least a little bit better than the
evening had been. Maybe, if I wished for it hard enough, the whole stupid thing
would have just been a dream.

CHAPTER
3

I woke up early the next morning, my head aching and
my body feeling as though it was made out of lead. I took a deep breath and
turned over in bed, looking out through the window; it was barely dawn outside,
the sky still steely gray. I’d gone to bed so early the night before that I
didn’t even mind being awake before the morning was really started. I sat up in
bed and looked around my room. It was just as nice as it had been the night before—just
as luxurious, just as comfy, just as strange compared to the tiny room I’d had
with my mom and the tiny dorm I lived in at school.

No one would be up yet, I thought idly, picking at
imaginary lint on my pants. I needed to think. I needed to get out of my room
and out of my head and do something. I remembered my mom going on and on about
what a great home it was, how Bob had thought of everything—every little
comfort. My new step-father was definitely loaded, I thought, looking around at
the TV, the desk, all of it.

“Bob
had a pool installed downstairs, just above the basement level,”
she’d said the night before. Well, if he had a pool—it was heated, and
indoors—I could at least get moving.

I stripped out of my sweated, rumpled clothes and
dug around in my bags until I found my bathing suit. I’d packed it as an
afterthought, figuring that maybe there’d be a hot tub somewhere I could hit up
after a long snowboarding session. This was at least twice as good as that. I
grabbed one of the towels out of my bathroom and sneaked out of my room,
looking around. I had no real idea of where I was in the house, but I thought
about what Mom had said about the pool the night before as she’d been leading
me to my room—it was in the same hall as my room, she’d said, down a flight of
stairs. I got briefly turned around but finally found the stairway that Mom had
mentioned and hurried down the risers, looking around to make sure that no one
was following me. I opened a door at the foot of the stairs, and my eyes went
wide.

The pool was huge—regulation size. There was a
diving board at the deep end, the water was pristine, and there was faint steam
rising off of the glimmering light blue. It was gorgeous; it was the kind of
pool I would have dreamed of having in my own home when I was younger—perfect
for both practicing in and for having people over. The enormous pool was ringed
by lounge chairs, little low tables for drinks, and off to the side there was a
collection of rafts and toys, even weights for swimming with resistance. It was
an athlete’s dream pool, as well as a regular, fun pool—there was a bar, fully
stocked, next to the shallow end and I thought that it was probably pretty
convenient for anyone who wanted to throw a party. I wondered if there was a
stereo system; of course there was. For a moment I was hypnotized by it all.
The next moment I was hurrying through the door, letting it slam shut behind
me, and making my way across the slightly rough deck. I tossed my towel onto
one of the lounge chairs off to the side of the pool and walked over to the
deep end, marked eight feet.

I dove in and from the moment my body hit the water,
all of the tension inside of me seemed to dissolve. Apart from snowboarding, my
favorite thing had always been swimming; I felt
like
I
could really, truly think as I cut through the water, arms moving over and
around my head, legs kicking in time, my body moving through the water like a
missile. I went from one end of the pool to the other, breathing the way my
swim coach had taught me in middle school, feeling all of the stress in my mind
fade to nothing. The water was the perfect temperature—warm but not so hot that
it was annoying, and it was salt-purified rather than reeking of chlorine. I
loved it. I didn’t want to ever get out of the pool—if I could have willed
myself into becoming a mermaid, I would have done it right then. All I could
hear was the water rushing along my ears, my heart beating in my chest, my
breaths as I turned my head up to the air every few strokes. For a few glorious
minutes, everything was right with the world; I had forgotten Jaxon, my mom, my
new step-father, the whole sorry, awkward, mortifying situation.

I had been in the pool for maybe, at most, ten
minutes when something started to feel off. I frowned, keeping my strokes
going, wondering if I’d felt a twinge in my back or in my side—a stitch,
something that would explain why I suddenly was having trouble focusing. In a
moment, though, I realized that it wasn’t something wrong with my body; I could
feel someone watching me. It was probably just one of the people on the staff
at the mansion, I told myself, keeping my face in the water. Or maybe it was
Mom; she’d know I’d gravitate towards the pool like an otter. But the sensation
didn’t go away, and after a few more strokes I knew it was no use trying to
ignore it. I pulled up, putting my feet down in the middle of the pool; it was
towards the shallower end, and as I swung my hair back out of my face and stood
fully, I was head and shoulders above the surface.

Looking around, I found the cause of my unease;
Jaxon was standing near the lounge chairs, watching me. All of my hopes for a
quiet morning swim to clear my thoughts and figure out some way to get through
this stupid holiday went away in an instant. It was worse than just his
presence; Jaxon was in swimming trunks, his muscular chest and arms showing in
all their glory, his flat abs and the cut of his hips attracting my eye. In
spite of how incredibly awkward I felt, and how angry I was all at once, I
couldn’t help noticing that he was just as hot as ever. I felt a lurch in my
stomach. My step-brother was hot. I
was getting—at least a
little bit—turned
on at the sight of him. These were not the kind of
feelings that anyone should be entertaining for their step-brother. “Hey, Mia,”
Jaxon said, smiling slightly. He came towards the pool and sat on the edge a
few yards away from where I’d stopped.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, knowing I was
pouting and not particularly caring.

“Same thing you are—I wanted to go for a swim.” I
took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Your place, I guess. I’ll leave you to it.” I
turned to swim for the shallow end pool steps.

“Mia, wait.” I closed my eyes.

“What?” I turned around to look at him.

“We’re going to have to talk to each other
sometime,” Jaxon said, crossing his arms over his chest. I found myself looking
at the way his muscles rippled; the sight made my mouth water, and I felt my
pussy tightening, remembering exactly what it had been like on the couch with
him in the common area of the frat. How good it had felt, how hard I’d come. I
clenched my teeth.

“No, we aren’t.” I shook my head. “We can pretty
easily just totally ignore each other. It’s a big house. You ignored me just
fine in the frat—and that’s a way smaller space than here.” Jaxon groaned.

“We have to get this out of the way, Mia. Come on.”
I shook my head again.

“Not interested,” I said. I turned away quickly
before I could be tempted by the sight of him any further. I cut through the
water, kicking to the stairs. I didn’t even bother with grabbing my towel; I
walked out of the pool area soaking wet and walked as quickly as I could to
where my room was, locking the door behind me and grabbing one of the other
towels from my bathroom. My heart was beating fast in my chest—part of me
wondered if Jaxon would follow me, try and make me talk to him. But I was glad
for the long silence that told me he had given up, at least for the moment. I
decided to take a shower and just stay in my room until it was time for breakfast.

I was too hungry to stay in my room when Mom came
and knocked on my door to tell me breakfast was served. “Jaxon mentioned you’d
both got in a morning swim,” she said with a grin, leading me through the hall
to the dining room. I shrugged. “Are you guys getting along okay?”

“Mostly…we’re just kind of giving each other space,”
I said, knowing that Mom wanted me to say something—and that telling her that I
couldn’t deal with the idea of being in the same room as Jaxon alone wouldn’t
go over very well. “It’s kind of a weird situation, you know?”

“Please don’t be upset—I know the wedding was
sudden, but you always did want a brother, and now you have one!” I forced
myself to smile—I had always wanted a brother, but I certainly never expected
to end up having a brother I’d previously slept with.

The table had a ton of food on it; eggs, bacon,
toast, pancakes, home fries, and all kinds of fruit. “Jaxon always eats a huge
breakfast,” Bob explained to me, “and your mom told me you’re no slouch in that
department either.” I grinned but in spite of how hungry I was being around
Jaxon made me queasy. I glanced at Jaxon and it was pretty easy to see that he
felt the same.

“Bob and I are going to go skiing—really cut up the
slopes. Are you in?” Mom dug into her bacon and eggs with an enthusiasm that I
could only hope to match if I were a million miles away from the situation. I
piled potatoes and pancakes on my plate and tried to eat as hungrily as I
possibly could just to seem normal.

“Kind of want to take it easy today; I think I
pulled something at the gym the other day, lifting weights.” I was terrified
that if I said I wanted to go, they’d make Jaxon go too—some kind of family
bonding thing. “Besides, you’re all…honeymoon-y,” I said with
as
big of a smile as I could manage. “I don’t want to horn
in on couple’s time.”

“Nonsense, baby—if you wanted to spend time with Bob
and me, there’s no problem! We both want everyone to feel like one big family.”
I glanced at Jaxon. There was no way that we’d feel like family in the next
million years.

“You both look so ready to go,” I said. “I don’t
want to hold you up. I’ll just hang out here.” Bob looked excited at the
prospect of more alone time with my mom; my stomach churned with the idea that
they’d probably not do a whole lot of skiing while they were out. The idea of
my mom making out with Bob—even though, objectively, I had to admit it was easy
to see where Jaxon got his good looks—was less than appealing. The thought of
my mom making out with anyone was less than appealing.

“Since you’re hanging out here at the homestead,
Jaxon, why don’t you show Mia around the house while we’re out?” Bob glanced at
my mom. “She should know where everything is—this is going to be her place from
now on when she’s not on campus.” I wanted to throw up. Instead—because mom was
evidently thrilled with the idea—I made myself smile.

“That sounds great, Bob,” I said. “I know I sort of
got lost a little bit on the way to the pool this morning, and mom even told me
where it was.” I looked from my mom and new step-father to where Jaxon was
sitting, across the table from me.

“Ah, yeah—it’d be great to show her around,” Jaxon
said; to my surprise he actually looked genuinely interested in the prospect.
“Give us a chance to get to know each other better.” It was on the tip of my
tongue to point out that he knew me really well—he’d seen me naked! But I
remembered that our parents had no idea that we’d even met before we both came
home for the holiday.

“Yeah,” I said, keeping my fake smile firmly in
place. “It’ll be good to get some time alone to get to know each other.”

CHAPTER
4

The minute our parents were out of the house, Jaxon
turned to me and said, “So, where do you want to start the tour?” I sighed.

“Do we really have to?” I asked him, looking around
to make sure none of the household staff were in earshot. “It’s not like we
actually need to get to know each other better.”

“It’ll be fun,” Jaxon said, smiling slightly.

“No, it won’t,” I told him, shaking my head. “What
is wrong with you?” Jaxon shrugged.

“It’s not a bad place, and we’re going to have to do
it anyway.
Might as well enjoy it as much as we both can.”
I thought—I was shocked to realize—that it still looked as though Jaxon
genuinely liked the idea of spending time alone with me, leading me through his
house and showing off all of its rich person’s treasures. I wasn’t sure what to
think about that. I had thought that Jaxon would be just as interested in
spending as little time as possible with me as I was to avoid him. It didn’t
make any sense; how could Jaxon not be feeling incredibly awkward and
uncomfortable? Sure, he’d obviously had more time to deal with the situation as
I had, but that would only make him feel worse, wouldn’t it?

“This is so incredibly dumb,” I told Jaxon, looking
around once more to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Someone could have been
hidden, but I didn’t think
they
were.