Forbidden Prescription: A Stepbrother Romance (29 page)

“Did you guys settle on the wedding date yet?” I asked.

“Lacie, it’s this Sunday.”

“Holy shit, Mom! That’s three days from now. What am I going to wear?”

She laughed at me, because just like always, my concern had always been what to wear. We shopped for both of us and headed home with a smile on our faces.

As I headed to my room, I saw that I had a text from Les.

Lacie babe, you okay? Need to tell you something. Buzz me when you are free.

I dreaded the worst and wondered what would have come up. I prayed that there weren’t any more troubles with the orphanage and then called her up.

“Les, tell me what it is you wanted to tell me,” I pleaded.

“Maybe, you should talk to Nick again.”

“What did he do Les? Did he hurt you or something? Is the orphanage okay?” I asked, worried.

“No Lacie, he didn’t hurt me. He came to apologize and was looking for you. Actually, he spoke to the CEO of the company who was demolishing the orphanage and paid him a hefty amount and bought the place. He then repealed the notice for demolishing the orphanage. He didn’t tell me all the details, either. I found out because I overheard him talking to the security guards to keep this whole ordeal a secret. When I confronted him about it, he simply said, ‘people change sometimes, Les.’”

I didn’t quite know what to say, my heart had definitely warmed at hearing it, but there was more than the orphanage to him. I felt like I was cheated as he had led me on. When I didn’t really say anything, Les added, “I think you guys should meet once. He told me that he was headed somewhere for urgent work, but he would be back next week. He asked me to let you know that he wants to see you again.”

I told her that I would think about it, then decide what was to be done.

That night, as I lay in my bed, I kept wondering if I had been too quick to judge Nick. Maybe he wasn’t so rude. Maybe I should have at least let him explain. He had called, but I had never picked it up. We did have a great time together, and maybe there was a part of me that still wanted to believe that he could set every wrong right.

I decided to meet him once I was back at New York City, and I eventually went off to sleep. I decided to focus on Mom’s wedding and giving her the best time of her life.

* * *

T
he next couple
of days went by in a blur. There was so much to do, and Mom was always busy sharing some stories about Ralph. She was so smitten that it really looked like love had a zing to it.

I often thought of Nick, and how I would feel when I would meet him again. There was definitely something between us, and I ached to hold him in my arms, to steal a kiss all of a sudden and to just spend the night doing things and feeling the bliss of the perfect orgasm. But I knew things had to wait at least until I reached New York City the following week.

Nothing in my life had prepared me for the shock that awaited me. On Sunday morning, as we were headed to the church for the wedding, I saw Nick there. He was wearing a tuxedo and his light green eyes had the same dazzling impact on me. I couldn’t help myself from approaching him.

“Nick!”

“Lacie!”

We both called for each other at the same time and then smiled. For a moment, neither of us spoke, and then we spoke again together.

“What are you doing here?”

It looked like a beautiful coincidence of sorts, except we were both clueless. I decided to clear the matters when destiny had made us bump.

“I am sorry, Nick. I didn’t even give you a chance to explain. It is just that Les had told me about your past, and the way you reacted to her made me jump to my own conclusions. I am really sorry. I should have let you explain, but I was just too hurt.”

“Don’t be sorry, Lacie. It was my fault. It was only after you left me alone that I realized I had fallen for you. The times we had spent together have been the most precious and beautiful time of my life. I was struggling to spend my day without you, and all I wanted to do was hug you and kiss you senseless. I realized then that I was in love with you. Yes, Lacie, I should have told you
the
three words. I love you. You are the only woman who has ever made me feel this way, and the days spent without you have been nothing but a nightmare. I want you back in my life, and this time, I swear I am going to be by your side until the end of time.”

I got really teary eyed. That was the thing about weddings. Every time you attend a wedding, you end up seeing another love story blossom. I couldn’t have asked for a better place or a better setting for Nick to propose me. I could barely hide my tears and happiness, but I knew it was Mom’s day and I didn’t intend to take away the limelight from her.

“Nick, I am so happy. I would really like to kiss you right away and have some wild time, but we won’t break this news until the wedding is over. It is my mom’s day and I don’t want to steal the show. Let her enjoy the glory and tomorrow morning I will tell her and Ralph about us. I am sure they will be delighted to hear about it. Mom is going to love you.”

Nick stood there frozen, stunned and speechless. I couldn’t quite understand why he was reacting in this way. I tried to retrace my sentences and find out if I had subconsciously said something, but when I couldn’t decipher it, I had to ask Nick what was wrong.

“Ralph is my dad.”

Now, it was my time to be shocked and stunned. How could destiny play such a vile game? Just when I had reconciled with the one true love of my life, I found out that he was to be my stepbrother.

I could feel the walls shaking, and I would have fallen down if Nick hadn’t caught me in his arms.

I didn’t know what to feel or how to react. Could I ever see Nick as my
brother
? What would happen to the chemistry we had, the times in bed!

There were just so many questions and no answer.

C
hapter 9
: Walking My Own Path

L
ife could be really cruel
. I had been so happy with the news of my mom’s marriage, but nothing quite prepared me for this event. How could Ralph be Nick’s father? There are so many guys out there, why did it have to be his father!

I couldn’t understand what to do. We had just confessed our feelings, and Nick had expressed his love. To find out that he would be my stepbrother crushed me. There was nothing brotherly to me about Nick, and after having spent too many nights learning the terrain of his body, I couldn’t quite see him as a brother, no matter what.

“Nick, what are we going to do about this?”

“Lacie, I don’t know, but there is no way you could be a sister to me. Man, this sucks. As much as I love that my dad is getting another shot at his life, Jesus, why does it have to be
this
way?”

We both stood there inside the church, not knowing what to say or what to do. We were torn amidst the emotions. I was genuinely happy for my mother, and so was Nick for his father, but we were definitely worried about us, too.

As the vows were exchanged, I saw Mom smiling. They were in love, one could feel that and we were too. I realized that there was nothing wrong with my dating Nick. After all, we weren’t biologically related. It was just a weird way of destiny knocking us, but there was no way I would let some chance happening ruin the true love of my life.

I decided to talk to Nick about it before talking to Mom. Nick was my one true fantasy, and it was hard to let him go just because I had found him to be my sort-of brother.

After the ceremony concluded, Mom called me. “Lacie let me introduce you to Ralph’s family–this is Nicholas Jackson, his son, and this is Matthew, his brother.” The list of people went on and on, and despite the wedding supposedly being a low-key affair, there were close to a hundred people.

I signaled Nick not to tell anyone anything right away because I wanted to talk to him about the details before we discussed about our involvement any further. I didn’t quite have a plan, but I wanted to make us work. I knew that Mom would understand me after all; she always did. But even when I tried to come up with a plausible reason, it sounded a little weird, even to my own ears.

When I saw that the guests had started moving towards the reception area, I quickly gestured Nick to meet me at the back gate. I excused myself and headed there too.

Once we were there, I decided that I had to discuss it thoroughly with Nick. There was no way we could simply pretend and ignore the whole thing. I was pacing up and down when I saw Nick approaching and holy shit, he looked so handsome that I could still feel my toes curling. There was no way I would ever get over him, and to be frank, I didn’t want to.

“Nick, I love you. I don’t care how weird and twisted it sounds. I want to know, Nick, what have you decided? I mean I do understand that with the marriage, things have changed, but it doesn’t change the way I feel about you. I want to know, Nick. What do you think of me, now that I am, well, your stepsister?”

For a moment, Nick didn’t say anything, and I dreaded the worst. How was I supposed to know what was going on in his mind, but before I could come to a conclusion, Nick closed the gap between us and kissed me hot, firm, and deep. My mind reacted immediately to his touch, and I met him, stroke for stroke.

I deepened the kiss and let his tongue invade my mouth. I allowed his tongue to get inside me, and the kiss spoke of how much we both had ached for each other.

No, there was no way we could be siblings because there would always be this overwhelming sexual energy between us. I had the strong urge to rip apart his tuxedo and lay my fingers on his bare chest and touch him everywhere. As I bumped my body closer to him, I found that he was hard, and it pleased me to know that I was not the only one aching for the other.

He put his fingers in my hair and took out the bow pin. My hair fell and he let his fingers lose in the curls. The kiss was still going strong and we were in no mood to part. However, it was broad daylight, and we didn’t want many of our guests to see us lip-locked in this way.

Very reluctantly, we broke the kiss, but the urge to touch, cuddle, and kiss was stronger than ever.

“Did you get your answer, Lacie?”

“Yes, Nick. I did. I love you.”

“I love you, too. I want you and I don’t care what fucking weird relation we may have just gotten into. My body craves you and it always will.”

I gave a sigh and realized that we needed to tell our families about it. It wasn’t going to be easy, but as long as we were together, we would make it work, or at least, so I thought.

I took Nick’s hand and asked him if he was prepared for what faced us ahead.

“It will be challenging, Nick. They might be disappointed and shocked. Are you prepared for it?”

“I would do anything for you, Lacie. The times I spent without you have made me realize how much I love you. There is no way I can spend my life without you in it. We will make it work, honey.”

I hugged Nick, and I wanted to do a lot more so badly. The time spent without him had been so terrible that I couldn’t imagine a life without Nick in it. I had no clue how Mom would react, but I really prayed that she would understand me.

* * *

I
t was
hard to find a suitable time to break the news to Mom. I could sense that Nick was as tense as I was, and we were both clueless of the way our parents would react. I knew that it wasn’t the best of time to break the news, but then again, we really didn’t have much of a clue when the right time would be.

I tried to find an appropriate chance, but Mom was surrounded by too many guests. I found myself getting awfully tense, and though I knew that I was grown up enough to make my own decisions, there was something that kept tugging at my heart.

“Don’t work yourself up, Lacie. I will be there for you. I am not going anywhere,” Nick said. I looked around, and when I found that there was no one there except us, I stole a kiss. I would never get tired of kissing him.

“Why did you buy the orphanage? Were you angry that I left without even letting you explain?”