Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (21 page)

I stopped and screamed, “Get the hell out
of here!”

He looked up at me and answered, “It’s
okay. You don’t have to stay with him. You don’t have to take this from him. I
can help you.”

I glowered down at him. “What are you
talking about? I’m fine and I know that I don’t have to stay here. Did you hit
your head?”

At this, Zachary stopped and looked up at
me. “No matter what he tells you, you have a choice and you are the victim.”

I narrowed my eyes as the pieces of what
he was talking about began to take shape in my mind. “Wait a minute…Do you
think that…Shawn…that I…” I began to laugh, ignoring his confused expression.
“No! You obviously know how hard he hits. He isn’t forcing me to do anything…”
I paused, feeling slightly awkward admitting this out loud to anyone, but
especially to my ex-boyfriend; still I thought that it needed to be said.
“Every time that I had sex with Shawn, it was completely consensual. And I
loved it. So, don’t believe everything you hear.”

“But…Dalilah told me…”

“Yes, and if you knew anything about Dalilah,
you would know that she is nothing more than a lying bitch. The only abuse that
went on during the relationship between her and Shawn was from her. Shawn would
never hurt a fly.”

With almost perfect timing, Shawn ran up
and smacked Zachary so hard that it almost knocked him out.

I immediately glared at Shawn and sighed,
before looking back at a recovering Zachary. “Well, that wasn’t necessary,” I
told him flatly before I rolled my eyes.

Shawn laughed dryly. “Yeah…like hell it
wasn’t.”

Chapter
34

Shawn

Valerie might not have thought that it was
all that necessary, but I certainly did.
 
I was sure once the truth was wedged between those meathead ears of his
and he finally understood that I wasn’t about to do anything to hurt Valerie,
at least not intentionally and certainly not like that, he would understand
too. However, if he didn’t understand, I was more than happy to let him know a
second time…and this round, I would be more than ready.

After he recovered from the punch, I told
him to get the hell out and never come back, so he did.

Once he was gone, I locked the door and
turned around to meet Valerie very close to me. Before I had any time to react,
she embraced me in a hug. She grasped me tightly and rocked with me for a
moment, before she pulled away and asked frantically, “Are you okay?”

I smiled at her and even though literally
every bit of me hurt, I told her, “Yeah…I’m fine. He really didn’t hurt me.”

“What was that all about?” She glowered at
the door after Zachary.

I sighed. As much as I thought to turn her
against the asshole even more than she was already and knew that this would be
a perfect opportunity, I sighed and lamented as I replied in his defense, “I
don’t think it was him. Dalilah told him a lie and trust me, she can be very
convincing. She knows how to manipulate people and…she did it to get back at
me.” I shrugged. “She threatened to call the police, but I guess she figured
this would be easier and would leave less of a trail.”

My argument in her stupid ex-boyfriend’s
defense didn’t hold up too well with her, because she answered, “That might be
true, but he still came over here and just attacked you. He didn’t even bother
to find out the truth.”

“He was angry,” I replied, realizing that
the truth was better than trying to agree when I didn’t. “In fact, I think that
seeing him do that makes me respect him a little bit more.” I breathed a short
laugh.

“Why?” She demanded, now seeming to be
angry.

I knew then that I had completely backed
myself into a corner and I knew that expressing what I was thinking was really
the only way out of it. I looked at her with a genuine expression, wrapped my
arms tightly around her waist and sighed. “Well, because I know that if the
roles were reversed, or if I had thought anyone hurt you, I would have done the
same thing.”

She thought about this and I saw her eyes
turn a little bit lighter. “Really?”

I nodded earnestly. “Of course.” I
tightened my grip on her. “Even if we never speak again…you could do pretty
much whatever you want to me and I know, as stupid as it sounds, as long as my
heart is still beating, I am going to do whatever I can to help you…with
whatever you need. I…”

Thank
God I stopped there,
I thought as I felt my breath draw back,
close and quick with the surprise of what I was about to admit. Even though I
was sure by now she knew exactly how I felt about her, there was still no point
in expressing it.

She stepped closer to me and carefully
snaked her arms around my neck before she turned her head to the side. “You
what?”

If we weren’t interrupted then, I might
have actually told her. I found that with her close proximity, I was getting
completely lost in her eyes and I knew for sure that was going to be an issue.
I knew that if I stared too much, I would become completely moldable and she
could probably get me to tell her anything she wanted.

However, instead of me falling into her
trap, the way that her hand moved hit an incredibly sore spot on my neck, and
even though I tried to shift it away without letting her know that I was in so
much pain, a rush of lightheadedness overcame me.

I swayed slightly and heard over the
otherwise deafening, consuming darkness, Valerie yell, “Oh my God! Shawn!” I
felt her hands clasp tightly around my arms.

When I came back to, after the black
curtain that was forming in front of my eyes had opened again, I saw Valerie and
realized that I was leaning against the door, sagging dramatically..

That
would be the second time today a girl had to save my ass…
I
vaguely remembered thinking before I smiled at her and insisted, “I’m
okay…Relax. I’m good.”

She pulled me quickly over to the couch
and had me lay down before she almost reprimanded me, “You aren’t good, Shawn.
You just passed out!”

I could tell by the look on her face that
she was extremely worried, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do to make
her feel better. I nodded. “Okay…But I am feeling better,” I told her and I was
fairly certain that I was being honest with her. I couldn’t actually be sure,
but I was almost positive that not passing out again was an improvement.

“What hurts?” She asked.

I shrugged, feeling slightly woozy again
before I answered her in a silly way, “Everything? Is that an answer?”

This only made her appear more concerned,
though, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I was just trying to focus
on whatever it was that was going on with me and not have that black curtain
come over my eyes again. To look at Valerie, you would have thought that I was
dying. “It’s not a very good one!” she exclaimed. “Do you want me to call an
ambulance?”

I could tell that her breath was
heightening and I knew that if we continued to have this conversation, she was
going to start legitimately freaking out and I couldn’t have that. I needed all
of the help I could get maintaining my own composure. I felt sore and I knew
that I was still bleeding a little bit. My head heart and my chest and back
still felt tight from where Zachary had leaned into it.

I didn’t think that anything was broken,
but I did feel as though there were many different ailments going on that I
should probably be cautious of.

I tried to breathe deeply, but realized
that it was fairly painful. I wheezed slightly, but shook my throbbing head in
response to her question, which I was afraid was not convincing. “No. I will be
fine…”

“Are you sure?” She stared at me with an
inquisitive look and I nodded, even though I could tell that my eyes were
scrunching, giving away the amount of pain it took to perform the motion.

After a long moment of consideration from
Valerie, she finally said, “Okay, well at least let me get you some ice.”

“Thank you…” I said, feeling that my cheek
was swollen and my limbs were sore, but by the time she returned, even without
the aspirin that she gave me along with the ice, I was beginning to feel a lot
better.

Apparently all my body needed was rest,
but the other helpful nuggets didn’t hurt that much either.

Chapter
35

Valerie

I was really worried about Shawn. Plus, as
I tended to him and realized exactly what he had done and what he had gone
through for me, I began to feel a little guilty.

There I was, trying to have a conversation
with my mother and glaring at the little bit of noise he was making, all while
he was trying to protect me from what he originally thought was a crazy
ex-boyfriend.

I personally still thought he was crazy,
but Shawn did have a point. However, I still refused to believe that he took
the word of a total stranger to him, without even attempting to know whether or
not it was the truth.

Despite that I was not a fan of violence
and I was horrified by the brutality of their fight, I had seen a side to Shawn
today that made me feel extremely safe with him. As much as I hated to admit
it, while I loved everything about Shawn, I had never thought that he would be
much use if we ever got into trouble.

I was almost certain that this was the
first fight he had gotten in since the second grade and even that didn’t end
well. But this one, even though he came out of it with a few bruises and cuts,
he had done really well, especially against Zachary, who by contrast was always
looking for a way to show the world that he was all man.

It wasn’t that I wanted Shawn to fight for
me, but it was just the knowledge that he would if he needed to made me happy
and caused me to feel a sense of attraction to him that was strange. I had
always thought that Shawn was attractive, but now, that attraction coursed a
little deeper. I didn’t know exactly how to put it into words, but there was
definitely a change and I liked it a lot.

I helped to tend to his wounds and within
an hour, Shawn seemed like he was
 
back
to normal. The swelling had gone down and he was able to move without grimacing
and so I was able to stop feeling so overwhelmingly worried about him.

Instead, I focused on being near him, but
not worrying so much about his health. Yet, there was still a part of me that
watched every single thing he did. I didn’t want to miss any signs that he was
worse off than either of us thought and despite what I would have thought
before this whole terrible situation, Shawn had made it very clear that he
would not tell me if he was in any more pain.

So we watched a movie together and
throughout it, I began to instinctively snuggle closer to him, careful of his
injuries.

By the time the movie was over though, I
was feeling a strong sense of allure. I felt his arms holding me securely, while
his touch gracefully rubbed up and down my back as my head lay on his chest,
listening to the rhythm of his heart. I knew that it was only a matter of time
before I began to feel the pull of his allure.

When the movie was over, I was feeling
extremely needy and just as I had predicted, I felt myself begin to be pulled
into his essence, wrapped up by the spirit that had always enthralled me. I was
ensnared by the charm that had always attracted me to him.

Shawn didn’t even have to say anything.
Just the feel of him, close to me, while the scent and sound of him being close
enough to touch me was an amazing and enthralling feeling and at this moment
especially, I couldn’t get enough.

When the credits rolled on the movie and
we began to arouse from the half-stupor that the movie had cast upon us, I
looked up and caught a glimmer in his eyes.

He smiled at me and I felt my lips part in
a beam back toward him. As I did so, I felt a pressure coursing through my
body, heating and making me feel a tingling sensation.

Suddenly I wanted to kiss him.

The familiarity and exploration of his
face, along with the closeness of our warm and already excited bodies made it
so that no matter what I did, I could not look away from him. I focused on his
lips after a moment, realizing the delight that I had in kissing them once. I
wanted to do it again.

Yet, I also wanted to resist, hoping,
naively that I could overcome the power that Shawn apparently always had and
always would have on me. However, I knew soon enough that was a futile mission.

As though reading my mind, Shawn eased his
way up toward me in a sensual motion. Before I knew it, he was ducking his head
toward me, his lips parted slightly, while his hand came to rest on my face.

Moments later, the “come hither” look that
was in his eye and the expression on his face caused me to turn my head to the
side, readying myself to accept his presence on my lips.

From the first brush of his lips against
my own, as my mouth took in his sweet, familiar taste, all of my anger, all of
my misunderstanding and all of my willpower dissipated. There was only the
desire for his lips to reside on my own, drinking of my drugging nectar, with
his curious tongue easing its way deeply into my mouth.