Bad Boy - A Stepbrother Romance (4 page)

“It’s just unexpected,” Grandma said. “I think that’s what Rory is trying to say. Right,
mi niña
?”

I nodded. “Yes. I mean, you two have only known each other for a couple of months, right?”

“Yes, but it just seemed so right,” Mom said with a dreamy expression on her face. “As soon as we met, we both knew right away that we’d end up married eventually. Even though we come from two different worlds, that just never mattered. Then James took me on a trip up to his lake house and surprised me with a ring.”

“I’d only planned on proposing,” James interjected. “But it was so beautiful up there with the views of the water and the mountains, and I suddenly felt we had to seize the moment. So I made some calls and arranged for the nearest officiant to marry us right by the water that afternoon. We both wished you could have been there, but like I said, we just seized the moment and did it as quickly as possible. It was an engagement, wedding and honeymoon all in one.”

“I see,” I replied. “Well, congratulations! Shouldn’t you have waited until Flynn got here to tell us all, though?”

“It’s Finn,” James said. “He already knows. He found out thanks to my big-mouthed general manager.”

“Sorry, I meant Finn,” I said with an apologetic smile. “Well, I…um…I can’t wait to meet him.”

I was trying to sound happy, but my mind was whirling too much to register much of any emotion. This was completely unexpected. Earlier, I’d been wondering what it would be like to have James as a future stepfather, but as it turned out, he already
was
my stepfather, and I had a new stepbrother to boot.

God, why did my Mom always keep us in the dark about everything? She could be really flighty and selfish sometimes. I didn’t blame James at all; Mom had probably told him Grandma and I would be totally fine with them springing their surprise marriage on us, and he hadn’t known any better.

“So what happens now? Where will we be living?” Grandma asked, pursing her lips.

My stomach seemed to nervously flop around as I waited for Mom’s reply. I hadn’t even considered what we’d be doing in terms of living arrangements just yet. Even though our house in Hunter’s Point wasn’t the nicest place, it had still been our home for the last nineteen and a half years, and part of me really didn’t want to leave. Another bolder part of me was excited at the prospect of a new home.

That is, if my Mom even wanted us to keep living with her.

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you two behind. We’ll be moving in here,” Mom said.

“To the hotel?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up. I’d known James owned the place, but I had no idea he
lived
here.

“Yes,” she replied with a nod. “James and his son live here, because it makes more sense for them to always be close to the place in case something happens. So we’ll all be living here together as of next week.”

“Oh. Okay,” I said. I didn’t really know what else to say. It seemed like the decision had already been made, and I didn’t get a say in any of it.

I guess living in a hotel could be pretty cool. Room service, beautiful furniture in large suites, and wonderful views from the windows…not too shabby. Plus, there was a maid service, so my grandmother would be able to give herself a well-deserved break from all the housework she bothered herself with every day.

Something caught my eye near the front end of the restaurant, and I looked over Mom’s shoulder to see an all-too familiar man walking over to us with an intense expression smoldering in his eyes. My stomach dropped with horror as I registered exactly who it was.

No flippin’ way.

It was Mystery Man from the other night, clad in tailored black pants and a light blue button-up dress shirt…which appeared to have blood smeared on the front. Beads of sweat formed at my hairline as he sauntered towards us, and a million and one questions flashed through my mind. Why the hell was he here? Had he tracked me down like some kind of stalker? And why on earth was he covered in
blood
?

Maybe I’d become paranoid from watching too many creepy serial killer documentaries on Netflix, or maybe it was just the blood on his shirt, but either way I immediately recoiled and pointed in his direction.

“I think we should call security. That guy looks dangerous!” I said.

“What?” James gave me a funny look before turning and looking in the direction of my pointed finger. “Oh. There you are!” he called out, forgetting my concerns and stepping out from behind our table.

Um…what?

He patted Mystery Man on the back before turning to us with a broad grin.

“Ladies, this is my son, Finn. Finn, this is my new wife, Anna, her mother, Adelina, and her daughter, Rory.”

Oh no…

I stared up at them, completely and utterly dumbfounded as my Mom and Grandma said hello and shook Finn’s hand. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and I couldn’t believe what was happening right before my eyes. Nope, nope, nope. This was some sort of crazy nightmare, right? He couldn’t be my new stepbrother. He just couldn’t be.

And yet he was.

Well, at least I knew his name now…

“Nice to meet you, Rory,” he said, a glimmer of lust in his eyes as he turned his attention to me. “I can’t wait to become better…ahem…acquainted with you.”

Seriously? After the other night, surely he knew the only part of me that wanted to get acquainted with him was my fist. I mumbled a vague response, unable to form a coherent sentence. At least he was pretending this was the first time we’d met so we didn’t have to acknowledge where we’d really met and make things awkward for our parents.

“Now, what on earth is this on your shirt, Finn?” James asked. “Did someone throw a drink or a bottle of sauce on you? You’re filthy!”

Finn kept looking at me, a small smile turning the corners of his lips up as he replied to his father. “It’s blood. I got in a fight outside Clancy’s,” he said, not even taking his eyes off me for a second. “But don’t worry, it’s not my blood.”

Ew. Did he think he was all awesome and hardcore for getting into bar fights? I guess he was even more of a douchebag than I already thought.

“You couldn’t have changed shirts before you graced us with your presence?” Grandma asked, raising an eyebrow. “It’s so unhygienic…my goodness!”

Good old Grandma. She’d only just met the guy, but she was already giving him a dressing down for looking so disgusting. And no wonder. Seriously, the guy was hot as hell, as much as I hated to admit it, but showing up at a Michelin-starred restaurant with blood on his shirt was unbelievably gross.

“I’m sorry…Adelina, was it?” he said. “I was already late, and I didn’t want to be even later, so I rushed straight over here from the bar.”

“You can call me Mrs. Villanueva, young man,” she replied, her voice stiff. “This first name nonsense is far too familiar.”

I stifled a giggle, glad that she was treating the prick exactly how he deserved—like a bad little boy. Ironic, because he obviously tried to present himself as having a bad boy image…just not the kind of bad boy my Grandma saw him as.

Mom and James looked uncomfortable, clearly aware that this was off to a bad start, and James glanced over at me before quickly changing the subject. “Sorry, Rory, what were you saying just before Finn arrived? Something about the security here?”

“Err…nothing,” I mumbled. “It’s okay.”

Truthfully, I would have loved nothing more than to have security drag Finn away so that I wasn’t forced to share a dinner table with him, but I was going to be sharing a lot more than a table with him soon, given that we had to live together, so I bit my tongue and tried to ignore him as he slid into the booth next to me.

My body had already started to betray me. The warmth from his leg next to mine under the table was making my heart race like mad as heat blossomed between my legs, and I kept staring straight ahead, praying he wouldn’t somehow notice.

“So…made the big announcement yet?” Finn asked, glancing around the table.

James nodded. “Yep.”

He looked beyond pleased with himself, and my Mom’s megawatt smile practically lit up the room. I couldn’t help but grin despite my horror at the stepbrother situation, and my grandmother did the same. Even though Mom had selfishly eloped, we couldn’t deny how happy she looked, and that made us happy too.

“I’m so happy to finally meet you, Finn,” Mom simpered, reaching across and touching his hand. He immediately drew it back and slid it under the table, his smile faltering for a second.

“Er…yeah. Me too,” he muttered.

“Rory always wanted a brother, and now she has one. How exciting, right?” she went on.

I couldn’t even pretend to keep smiling at that, so I took a sip of water and nodded, hoping no one would notice my sudden change in expression. Finn’s hand suddenly crept up onto my bare thigh, and I almost spat out my mouthful. He looked straight ahead, pretending that nothing was going on, and I struggled to maintain my composure as I tried to figure out what to do without drawing attention to what was going on. On the one hand, I didn’t want to make things weird for Mom and James while they looked so enraptured, but on the other hand, I didn’t want this sleazy asshole touching me.

I put my own hand on top of his, and he looked momentarily excited until I dug my sharp nails right into him. He took a sharp intake of breath, but to his credit, he didn’t reflexively yank his hand out and make what had happened obvious to everyone else at the table.

“Fun’s over, dirtbag,” I hissed, making sure Grandma and our parents weren’t paying attention. “You can go back to your cage now.”

I pressed my nails down further, and finally, he pulled his hand away, but not before shooting me a dark look. I glared back at him, wishing he could hear my thoughts.
Too bad, prick. Dislike me all you want, because I already can’t stand you.

Honestly, what did he expect after the other night? For me to be nice to him? For me to fall over my feet trying to hook up with him? Yeah, right.

A waitress came over and poured the bottle of champagne into our flutes, and James held up his glass before clearing his throat. “To our new family,” he said. “Cheers!”

“Cheers,” I mumbled before tipping the champagne flute back and emptying the entire contents of it into my mouth. After the last ten minutes, I needed more than a drink…I needed a full-body sedative. Unfortunately, alcohol was all I could have right now.

I decided it had been immature of me to stab Finn with my fingernails and hiss insults at him. I should’ve just ignored his hand on my leg or moved away, but I’d let him get a rise out of me instead. As I sneaked a glance at him again, he smirked at me before winking, and I realized that had been his intention all along—he’d wanted to get a reaction out of me. It was just like what my Grandma had always said about my bully in elementary school.
She just wants a reaction, and you’re giving it to her. Ignore her and she’ll start to ignore you.

Maybe that wasn’t the best advice, but it had worked for me, so from now on, I was going to ignore everything Finn said and did in order to try and get a rise out of me.

“Playing hard to get?” he whispered when I completely snubbed him for the next half an hour.

“Playing hard to want?” I replied before mentally slapping myself. Dammit. So much for ignoring him. I’d vowed not to react to him anymore, and look how long that had lasted…

Okay, okay. This time it was for real. No more reactions. He could sleaze onto me all he wanted, and I wouldn’t respond at all. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

Not now, not ever again.

Chapter Four

Rory

Today was D-day. Otherwise known as move-in day.

Any misgivings about sharing a building with Finn had been forgotten the second I stepped into my new bedroom; an executive suite on the tenth floor of the hotel. A man named Elijah, who was apparently the hotel’s general manager, had shown me into the room while James led Mom and Grandma to their new rooms, and I gasped as I took it all in.

“Wow!”

A huge bed with a quilted velveteen headboard stood on one side, made up with soft white sheets and a matching white quilt cover with gold brocade around the edges. A matching bureau, vanity and bedside tables made up the rest of the furniture on that side of the room, and I could also see a half-open door which led into a walk-in closet.

I glanced over to the left to see what appeared to be a kitchenette, lounge and dining area on the other side, and further down from that, there was an entrance to a spacious bathroom. I checked it all out before turning around and looking back at Elijah.

“This is all mine for as long as I live here?” I asked. It was like having my very own house, minus a laundry room.

He nodded. “Yes. Not as big as the penthouse suites, but still a decent size.”

“You don’t say,” I said, marveling as I checked out the incredible view from the window. It was more than decent. “Who has the penthouse? Just guests?”

“No,” Elijah said. “There’s two penthouse suites. We keep one available for high profile guests, and for the last two years, Finn has been living in the other one. James used to prefer living on a lower floor. Less time in the elevator.”

“Used to?”

“Well, now that he’s married your mother, he’s made Finn move out of the penthouse suite, and he’s moving up there with her. It’s much bigger and therefore more ‘homey’, which I’m sure Anna…er, your mother appreciates.”

“Oh,” I said with a gleeful smile, wishing I could have seen Finn’s face when he was forced out of his penthouse. “So where is Finn now?”

“This floor with you. Right next door, in fact.”

My gleeful smile immediately faded. Dammit. Out of every freaking room in the entire hotel, he had to be next to me? If this was some attempt by our parents at getting us to bond, it wasn’t going to work.

“Um…is that set in stone?” I asked. “I’d rather be next to my Grandma.”

“Your grandmother is on a lower floor. Second floor, to be more precise,” he said. “She told me she doesn’t like elevators, and at her age, we’d hardly expect her to be running up huge flights of stairs just to get to her room.”

“Oh. Fair enough. And I can’t move down to her floor?”

Elijah shook his head. “Sorry, hers was the only available room down there at the moment. Of course, once some of the second floor guests have checked out, we can have a look at possibly moving you down there.”

I sighed. “No, it’s okay. Too much effort. I’ll stay here. Grandma’s only a short elevator ride away, anyway.”

“Exactly. Now, do you need help unpacking? I can send up a maid.”

I smiled and shook my head. “No, thanks. I’m okay.”

He handed me an envelope. “This contains your keycard. If you lose it and need another, come and see me at the front desk. And in the right bedside table over there, you’ll find a list of numbers for room service, maid service, dry-cleaning and so on. Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

With that, he left, and I ignored my suitcases and sprinted over to the bed before jumping on it and bouncing like a child out of sheer excitement. At first, I’d been worried about leaving my childhood home, but living in a prestigious hotel was going to be awesome. Not only that, this bed was so damned big and soft. Much better than the crappy old single bed I’d had in Hunter’s Point.

After unpacking a few things, I decided to take a stroll around the hotel and familiarize myself with it a bit more. Grabbing my keycard, I left the room and walked down the hall before pausing outside what I now knew was Finn’s new bedroom suite.

I could hear strange muffled sounds coming from inside. Out of sheer curiosity, I frowned and pressed my ear up against the door only to realize that the sounds weren’t strange at all…they were familiar guttural grunts along with feminine moans.

Oh God. Finn was screwing a girl in there. I didn’t know why, but my heart sank a little at the thought of him with someone else, and instead of running away, I stayed and listened, seemingly frozen to the spot.

I guess I was a glutton for punishment.

After a moment, I realized he wasn’t actually having sex with anyone. He was just watching porn. The man I’d heard grunting had spoken, and he sounded totally different to Finn. On top of that, the moaning woman was whimpering and moaning ‘oh, yeah baby…fuck my pussy harder!’ in an extremely fake way, and I rolled my eyes. No one sounded like that in real life; it was definitely porn.

For some reason, my heart soared a little with the knowledge that Finn was alone in there.

A second later, it occurred to me what a dirty creep I was, hanging around outside my stepbrother’s room and listening to him watching porn as he most likely pleasured himself.
Leave, perv!
My brain commanded me to walk away, but I remained firmly rooted to the spot with the side of my head pressed against the door, my body throbbing with desire as I imagined Finn’s big hands coiling around my body instead of coiling around his cock.

I couldn’t stand the guy, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still think he was the damn hottest guy I’d seen in…well, forever.

Suddenly, I remembered something my grandmother had said to me years ago.
Stay away from the bad boys.
Too bad I didn’t seem to be able to listen to that advice in recent days, considering I was standing outside the door of the baddest bastard I’d ever met, listening to him jerk off.

Without warning, Finn’s door gave way, and I tumbled sideways and onto the floor, right into his room.
Crap.
As I landed on the plush carpet, I winced and looked up, and my face flamed a fiery red as Finn smirked down at me. He was shirtless, and his boxer shorts barely contained a raging erection.

“I thought I heard someone creeping around out there. Having fun, little pervert?”

“I…uhh…I just…” My mouth dried up at the sight of his hard-on, and I fumbled for words, unable to think of a decent excuse as to why I’d had my ear pressed to his door.

“You just thought you’d listen in? You know, porn is free on the internet. You don’t need to steal mine. Besides, there’s not exactly all that much privacy for you to flick the bean out there in the hall.”

“I wasn’t ‘flicking the bean’,” I hissed, getting up off the floor. “Don’t be disgusting. I was just…I was just checking to see if you were in.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Really? Why?”

“Um...”

Dammit. I really hadn’t thought that excuse through.

“To see if you could fix my shower. It’s being weird,” I finally said. Lame. That was such an obvious lie.

His lips twitched, and I could tell he didn’t believe me. “Sure,” he said with a wink. “I’ll take a look at your shower. I could even…clean your pipes.”

I rolled my eyes. “This is real life, not a porno. I don’t need my pipes cleaned, thank you very much.”

“Hey,
you’re
the porn-obsessed weirdo who hangs around people’s doors trying to listen in while they beat the meat, not me.”

“Gross. I told you, I just wanted you to fix my shower.”

“Sure, sis.”

He followed me back down the hall, and I let him into my room and sat on the end of my bed as he fiddled around in my bathroom. “Shower’s fine!” he called out a few minutes later. “Nothing wrong with any of it.”

“Oh, I guess it fixed itself. Or maybe I’m just not used to these fancy luxury bathrooms,” I replied, blushing even harder. “Thanks anyway.”

He walked out and looked at me, running a hand through his hair. “Look, Rory, about the other night at Clancy’s, when we first met. I know I lied to you about—“

I arched an eyebrow and cut him off. “Wow, so you actually admit it. You did lie to me. I didn’t think a guy like you would actually say it to my face.”

“Yes, I lied, but…”

I stopped him short again, not wanting to hear his excuses. “Don’t worry about it, Finn. Really. We’re related now—kind of, anyway—so let’s just forget we ever met that night. It’ll only make things more awkward if we keep bringing it up, and we don’t want to wreck things for our parents.”

His face fell a little, but he didn’t argue. “Yeah, sure. If that’s what you want,” he said, his voice stiffening slightly.

“It is what I want,” I said before pressing my lips into a firm line. Just because we were forgetting about that night didn’t mean I had to be nice to him and act like his best friend. Right now, I honestly just wanted to forget he existed at all.

“Right. Well, I’ll get out of your hair,” he said. His mood had visibly darkened, but I didn’t care. Why would I? Had he had any regard for my feelings when he’d lied and led me on for ages when we first met, acting like he was single and pretending to be my date?

Nope.             

I halfheartedly waved at him as he left the room, and then I smiled and lay down on the bed. I was actually kinda proud of myself for refusing to listen to whatever bullcrap excuse he had for his shitty behavior. It had taken a surprising amount of willpower, because even though I didn’t like him, part of me still wished there was another explanation for what had happened the other night. Luckily, the logical part of me was bigger, so my willpower had won out in the end. I’d known that if I let him convince me he was actually a sweet guy despite all those tattoos, bulging muscles and unruly hair, I’d become yet another one of those stupid girls who fell for his bad boy charms and subsequently for his lies. Like Candice, from what I’d seen.

I actually felt sorry for her, even though she’d called me a fat skank. I knew she’d just been acting out at me after seeing her boyfriend cheating on her.

Despite all the negative stuff I was thinking about, the area between my legs was still throbbing like mad from my earlier expedition, and I was more turned on than I’d ever been in my entire life. I unbuttoned my jeans and slid a hand down into my panties, and right at that second, there was a knock at the door.

Of course.

“Um…yes?” I called out.

“Rory, it’s me. I took the elevator…it actually wasn’t that bad. Usually they’re so cramped. Anyway, would you like to get an afternoon snack with me and your Mom?”

I sighed and yanked my hand out of my panties, my mood quickly deflating. Nothing like a visit from Grandma to kill the libido, right?

Considering who I’d been thinking about just now, that was probably a good thing…