Hard Rock Stepbrothers The Complete Series (4 page)

As he whirled and exited the room, she called out, “Shane, wait!” And she nearly choked on her own unpleasant sense of Déjà vu.

“Let him go,” Hunter said, unfastening the cuffs then pulling her down into the crook of his arm. “Unless you want to be with him.”

She pulled the blankets up over them. “I’m happy right where I am.” Smiling she stroked his cheek and leaned in to brush a light kiss over his lips. She tried to ignore the fresh guilt that gnawed at her gut.

***

Shane tugged on a black cap and zipped up his grey hoodie. He stormed out to the garage, only to find his Porsche hemmed in by his brother’s Intrepid. Feeling particularly spiteful, he decided to take Hunter’s car instead of his own. After a quick trip back to the kitchen to exchange keys, he was off, driving down suburban streets to cool his anger.

So Mickie went from his arms to his brother’s. He shook his head and punched the steering wheel. And she’d been with Hunter before, judging by what his brother had said earlier, and the way Mickie had avoided his question.

What, fucking one of us wasn’t enough for you?
Hunter’s angry question to Mickie rang in Shane’s ears.

He turned left and drove onto Main Street, trying to think of anything but his brother and step sister. The grey light of pre-dawn was just beginning to bleed into the sky as he cruised into the center of Saint John.

What pissed him off the most was how carelessly Mickie had thrown him away for Hunter. But, of course, he was the budding rock star, the promiscuous one, so obviously he didn’t have feelings. He snorted at that. Both his brother and Mickie assumed he slept with and discarded women like tissue, and Shane admitted he played the angle up. But the truth was he’d always had deeper feelings for Mickie. Sure, there were women, casual flings, but he didn’t discard ladies the way his sister had so easily discarded him for his twin.

Just as he slowed down in front of the police station to wait for a red light, a woman came out of nowhere and yanked the Intrepid’s passenger door open. She was a petite, pretty blonde with bloodshot, wide hazel eyes. Her face reminded Shane of a pixie, with her small upturned nose and cupid bow mouth. She seemed terrified, as if she ran from something.

Thank god you’re here. I was just gonna call you,” she breathed, holding a hand to her chest as if she’d just run for miles. “I couldn’t wait. He found out, so I had to slip our evidence into the police chief’s office and make the call asap. I haven’t slept all night.”

Her face crumpled and she broke into tears.

That’s when Shane noticed the dark purple welts around her neck. “What happened to you?”

Her voice trembled as she spoke, “T-trent wanted to know what I’d done with the papers for his coke house. When I wouldn’t tell him…” She brushed fingers over the bruises and looked away from Shane. “I left him, but … I … I kind of need a place to stay.”

Shane’s brain scattered as he tried to process all this. It finally hit him that this woman thought he was his twin. She had to be a cop that worked with Hunter then. He went to tell her he wasn’t his brother, but she started to sob harder, so he gathered her into his arms as best he could and tried to comfort her. A car behind him honked because the light was green.

Shane put the car in drive and moved forward. The young woman’s head remained nestled against his chest.

“Look, I’m really sorry for what you went through, but I’m not Hunter,” he said, and her head lifted from his chest. She stared at him with narrowed, confused eyes. “But I can take you to my brother,” he added quickly, not wanting to frighten or upset the woman any further. “And you can stay with us until you find a place.”

The woman’s bleary eyes widened again and she gaped at Shane. “Oh, sonofabitch,” she blurted, briefly pressing a hand to her mouth afterward. “You’re Hunter’s twin. Well, of all the fucked up coincidences…” She ran a hand through her long, straight hair and heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry I just vomited information and problems all over you. I—”

He held up a hand and smiled as he shook his head. “It’s okay. Believe me, we got this a lot as kids.” They shared a laugh at that.

Deep down, Shane admitted he had a spiteful reason for helping this young woman, for taking her right to his twin. A part of him hoped to find his brother and step sister still entwined when he got home. He cringed inwardly at the thought of how seeing his brother in another woman’s arms might effect this distraught young woman. But though his rational, compassionate side screamed
Don’t do it!
his wicked side couldn’t drive home fast enough.

***

The house was still in darkness when he arrived ten minutes later with Sally, who he’d come to learn was his brother’s patrol partner. She didn’t offer more information about the asshole who had beaten her, or about the other stuff she’d blurted when she thought he was Hunter, and Shane didn’t think he should push her for private details.

“He’s probably still sleeping,” Shane said as they walked toward Hunter’s bedroom.

Sally’s brow wrinkled in a frown. “I hate to wake him up. You go in first.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Shane didn’t knock as he opened the door. “This is important. He’ll understand.” As he swung the door wide, he gently took Sally’s hand. “Come on in with me.”

Shane flipped on the light and, soon after, a chorus of surprised screams filled the bedroom.

“Shit, Shane…” came Hunter’s voice. “Sally! Oh hell … what’s going on?”

Sally’s eyes went wide as she gazed at the bed, where a naked Hunter and Mickie untangled themselves and clutched at covers. “Oh, damn, Hunter…I had no idea… I’m so sorry.”

Shane tried to hold back his smirk as he spoke. “Well, looks like you all have a lot to talk about. I’ll leave the three of you alone.” He whirled around and quickly left the room. Hunter shouted after him.

***

Hard Rock Stepbrothers Part 2

Hunter grabbed the front of Shane’s shirt and drew back his fist. His twin brother gave that infuriating smirk. His eyes glittered a brilliant blue and his stare seemed to say, “Do it, brother. I dare you.”

A tiny hand touched Hunter’s back and Sally Rollins, his patrol partner and best friend, spoke, “Don’t, Hunter, please. I need to tell you something important.”

This stopped him. He exhaled a large lungful of air and rubbed a hand over the back of his short, sandy brown hair. His fingers left Shane’s collar and Hunter stepped away a few inches.

Sally’s tiny pixie face came into view as she moved in front of him. Mickie, his step sister, came up beside Shane on Hunter’s other side. She was dressed now, and she cast confused glances between the other three who stood in the great room.

Hunter’s rage still crackled inside him, like electricity humming through wires. Trust Shane to pull such a childish act when he didn’t get his way. Hunter was sure his twin would see Mickie picking him as a huge blow to his ego. Shane was a budding rock star after all, so what would their cute and curvy step sister want with Hunter, a cranky beat cop who felt old before his time some days.

Where did Shane get off bringing Sally into his bedroom when he and Mickie were in there together? Especially in such a compromising position! Oh, Hunter knew exactly where he got off. Shane wanted to make sure Mickie ended up in his arms, and it was obvious to Hunter now Shane would do anything to get the woman he wanted.

Wait a minute, Hunter thought, how exactly did Sally meet up with his twin brother anyway? When he questioned this, the two gave him a brief explanation, then Sally stepped closer to Hunter and touched his wrist.

“I really need to talk to you about Trent,” she said. “He found out.”

Hunter noticed the bruises on her neck. His stomach plummeted to his shoes and any residual sleepiness left him as he became hyper aware. “Let’s go talk in my room.”

She gave him a funny look, then she glanced in Mickie’s direction and bit her lip. “Are you sure?”

Mickie waved Sally off, saying, “You two go ahead. It sounds like you have important things to discuss.” Then she wrapped the fluffy purple robe she now wore tighter about her and vacated the room swiftly.

Hunter knew she had questions, was most likely upset. Once again he thought of punching his still smirking twin brother, and that impulse only grew as he watched Shane trail after Mickie, probably with a plan to seduce her again while Hunter couldn’t stop him.

“Come on,” Hunter said, sighing heavily as he wrapped an arm around his petite blonde partner. “Tell me what happened.”

***

“That was a really shitty thing to do.”

Mickie glared at Shane as he followed her outside to the expansive deck made of maple. Though the wood was treated, she could still smell a hint of its natural, sweet fragrance. She leaned on a railing and stared toward the heated outdoor pool.

“What? Sally jumped in my car at the traffic light near the police station.” He faked an innocent look while he moved closer. “She thought I was Hunter, and apparently her asshole boyfriend beat her up. What was I supposed to do.”

Mickie gave him a scowl, shook her head. “You could’ve knocked first.”

He shrugged. “You heard Sally. She had something important to tell Hunter. Said it was an emergency. I was just trying to help a lady in distress.”

Mickie looked away, brushed a strand of mahogany hair behind her ear. “Riiight.”

How had she gone from not seeing her stepbrothers for almost a year to being torn between the two of them? And in less than twenty-four hours. She put a hand to her forehead. And she thought dealing with her editor in chief at the Saint John Gazette was difficult.

Shane slipped closer and his arm drifted across her back. His fingers molded to her waist and his sultry heat seeped through her robe. His very touch seemed to scorch her with his blatant lust.

“Come on, sis,” he said, pressing his cheek against hers. “Let’s kiss and makeup. I’m sorry.”

She turned in his arms, but pushed him back. “What do you know about Sally? Is she … with Shane? You know, in a romantic way?”

Hunter’s lips tensed in a thin white line. He shrugged again and looked away from her a moment. “Who knows? She didn’t say. But judging by how she acted when she thought I was him? They’re good friends.”

She tried to gauge his face and ignore the jealousy nagging at her. Was Shane leaving his words purposely ambiguous to mislead her? She wouldn’t put it past the cad. Still, she did wonder just how close Sally was to Hunter. Were they just partners, friends, or were they also lovers? Maybe they’d had a fling in the past but were just friends now? And why was she driving herself nuts with these questions?

“Are you jealous?” Hunter gave a taunting smirk, but she could also see worry in his narrow-eyed gaze.

Mickie decided to play him a bit, like he was playing her. She shrugged and tried to keep her expression nonchalant. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”

He pulled her back into his arms and she let him this time. His finger caressed beneath her chin, tilting her head up so their gazes met once more. “Well, the best revenge would be to make out with his twin.”

She opened her mouth to say, “I don’t want revenge,” but the words were stolen away by Hunter’s hot tongue flitting over her parted lips.

She sucked on it before she could stop herself. In return, he nipped at her bottom lip until she moaned and clutched at his back. He clamped his lips down on top of hers and sucked her tongue farther into his mouth.

Mickie decided to keep going with it for one reason: a double shot of revenge on her stepbrothers. Even if Hunter didn’t know she was enacting said revenge with Shane on the deck at that very moment. Sure, she felt guilty for being spiteful, but she was angry and confused. And Shane would taste her spite before they were done tonight, too.

“Let’s go skinny dipping,” Shane said. He pulled back and started undressing before she agreed.

“Sure.”

Mickie pretended she was going to untie the fluffy belt on her robe. But as her stepbrother ran down the few steps leading off the deck, she cinched the knot tighter and smirked at his departing back.

He made a beeline for the diving board and splashed into the electric blue water as she reached the side of the lit pool. The round lights embedded in the side of the pool made the water glow a soft sky blue. Ghostly ripples danced over her bright purple robe and exposed skin as she drew closer to the edge.

“Get in, sweetie.” Shane swam to the side, sporting a vulpine grin.

Mickie moved her toes away from his slippery fingers when they crept over the edge. She gave a little giggle and skipped toward the pool lounger to her left.

“Not yet.” She shook her head and toyed with the belt on her robe again. “I think you’re due some sexual torture.”

He pushed off the side of the pool, floating closer to the center as he gave her an expression of mock disbelief. “Who, me?” He pointed his hands at his chest, exaggerating the gesture. “How exactly did you come to that conclusion, Ms. Mickie?”

He went to rise from the water, but she stopped him with a wag of her finger and a shake of her head. “Not yet, I said. You have to learn patience, Shane Fayette.”

With that, she sat in the lounger and slowly, seductively, spread her legs. But she tucked her robe between them as she did this, so he couldn’t take a peek. He groaned in disappointment.

Her hands hovered over the knot in her belt. “How’d you like me to put a little show on for you?”

“What kind of a show?” His response was throaty with lust.

She swallowed hard. What she was about to proposition was so vanilla really, but she’d only done it twice for her former boyfriend. Hell, she was too vanilla, but maybe over a summer with her stepbrothers she’d change that.

“You stay in the pool, I play with myself for you.” Slowly she untied her robe and slipped it open. “You can’t come out, can’t touch me, until I say so.”

His grin widened, showing white teeth that glowed from the shining pool lights. “Maybe you’re not such a good girl after all. I like the way you think.”

Sliding her hands down her exposed breasts, she said, “I’ll take that as a yes.”