Stepbrother OMG! (The Stepbrother Romance Series #2) Read online

  I groaned in the darkness. It was hopeless. The only thing I could do would be to completely and totally avoid Jaxon. He had snubbed me at school and I had been hurt by it, but it was easy to see now why he had. I would just do the same thing I’d been doing and pretend that he didn’t exist. I’d stay away from him and eventually the awkwardness of the situation would go away on its own and I would be able to stop thinking about how good the sex had been and how much it sucked that I clearly couldn’t even hope to ever have sex with him again. Even if Mom and Bob got a divorce, how weird would it be to have sex with someone who used to be your brother—even if it was only by marriage?

  It wasn’t fair. I was sure that Jaxon probably didn’t mean anything by the sex, but why would he have even done it if he knew that we were going to be siblings? I had to assume that Jaxon was just as weirded out by the situation as I was, so he couldn’t have known anything about our parents when we’d ended up having sex on the couch. Or maybe he was just ashamed of the fact that he had knowingly slept with a girl that he knew was going to be his step-sister. How long before the holiday had our parents gotten married? And why hadn’t mom told me?

  I turned over onto my stomach, staring at the TV. The harder I tried to forget about what had happened between Jaxon and me the more it came back to me. It was too easy to remember him taking off my shirt, pulling my bra away from my body, sucking on my nipples until I was soaking wet for him, more than ready to take whatever he had to offer. I shivered in a mixture of disgust and remembered desire as the sensations and the facts came back to me in flash after flash. Jaxon finding my clit with his fingertips, rubbing and stroking me until I gushed on his fingers, hot and ready and soaking wet. “Fuck, Mia, you’re soaking wet. You’re so fucking hot, girl—so hot and wet, fuck.” I could hear his voice in my head, barely above a whisper, as if it had happened only the day before and not weeks.

  All I had to do was close my eyes for a second and I could see him naked—the scattered brown hair on his chest, the muscles rippling underneath his skin, the deep cuts of his hips, the sight of his hard cock standing up, proudly erect. If he’d known then that we were going to be siblings, that his dad was going to marry my mom…he couldn’t have known. I couldn’t believe that he’d had any idea that it was going to happen. But it was almost the very next day when he had started to snub me. It didn’t make any sense, but it made all the sense in the world.

  What in the world was I going to do about it, other than just avoid him entirely? It was a big house, and there was plenty to do. As long as I could avoid any stupid “family time” events that Mom cooked up out of her need for us to all be one big happy family, I thought maybe I could bear it. It was only a few days, and then I’d be back on the campus and Jaxon and I could go back to pretending like the other one didn’t exist.

  I remembered how angry he’d been when I’d confronted him about the way he was being such an asshole to me. He’d told me to completely forget anything had happened, and I’d tried—but I hadn’t succeeded. Maybe if a little more time passed, I’d be able to do it. I had to hope. I couldn’t deal with how incredibly awkward it was; especially when it was difficult not to remember that Jaxon had made me come so hard I’d been willing to put aside my scruples of wanting to stay single and uncommitted in any way just to get another chance at him. God, I thought, burying my face in the blankets. I’d been such an idiot the whole time. But then, Jaxon could at least have told me what the hell was going on. Maybe he hadn’t known at all; maybe he’d just brushed me off for reasons of his own and it was just convenient for him that our parents had gotten married—though it sure as hell didn’t seem any more convenient for him than it was for me.

  I’d just have to make the situation work. I’d do as much as I could away from the house, keep myself busy and out of Jaxon’s way. He would probably be just as anxious as I was to avoid being alone together. That should, at least, make it easy. If only our parents didn’t push too hard.

  I had been sitting in the dark with the TV for maybe an hour when my peace—such as it was—was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Mom, I told you I’m fine, I’m just tired,” I called out. With my luck she had gotten out a stack of board games and would want me to partner up with Jaxon against her and Bob at Pictionary or something.

  “It’s not your Mom, it’s me.” I groaned as the familiar voice came through the door. Jaxon. What the hell was he doing at my door? He spends weeks completely avoiding me and pushing me away and now he comes to my door. The very last thing I could have wanted in the entire world.

  “Jaxon, go away,” I called out, turning away from the door.

  “I want to talk to you, Mia,” Jaxon called back. I cringed, realizing that I’d seen about a handful of people in the house other than Mom, Bob, Jaxon and me. Any one of them could be within earshot. Mom could be just down the hall. I didn’t know anything about the house. I wanted to tell him to go to hell, that he was the very last person in the world I wanted to talk to right about then, but it’d be too obvious that we knew each other already if I said that.

  “I’m tired and I feel sick to my stomach. I just want to sleep,” I called over my shoulder. “Please just leave me alone. It was a long freaking drive to get here.” I heard a dull thud.

  “Mia, I know it’s a long drive, I made that drive myself.” I sighed, clenching my teeth. Why was he doing this? He had been just fine with ignoring me. I would not have thought that I would ever be at a point where I preferred him going out of his way to pretend I didn’t exist—but that was before. As hurt as I had been, I was more than ready to bring ignoring each other back into style.

  “Jaxon, I don’t feel like talking. I really don’t.” Another thud at the door.

  “Come on, Mia. Just let me in. Open the door.” I buried my face in the thick, fluffy pillows on my bed and groaned out, lifting my head and letting it fall into the soft cushions over and over again.

  “I am not going to let you in, Jaxon,” I called out. “Just leave me alone, will you? I’m not going to talk to you tonight. I’m going to bed.” I could feel Jaxon’s presence lingering outside of my room for a few more moments and I wondered if he’d go so far as to actually talk to me through the door—or at least try to. If he did, I’d have to open the door and let him in just to avoid anyone at all knowing what we were talking about.

  “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 l
ittle 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.