Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (36 page)

That day at the amusement park, I felt as
though I had gotten something back that I hadn’t had in a very long time. It
was unexpected and I was aware that it probably wouldn’t last, but I had waited
five long years to feel this way again and it didn’t take me long to realize
that it was definitely worth every second of the wait.

Chapter
20

Tyler

That was, to say the very least,
un-fucking-expected. In addition to the fact that I actually had a good time,
not only with Ashley but also with her father, who seemed to be completely
different in his own element, my stepdad had actually made me feel like he
wasn’t just banging my mom.

For the first time, probably ever,
considering my actual parents never gave a shit about one another, especially
my mother towards my father, I felt like I belonged to a real family. I had fun
with my mother, my stepfather
and
my
smoking’ hot stepsister. What’s even better was that I went through the entire
day and didn’t piss off any of them.

That was definitely a first and I was
pretty damn sure I wanted to try to do something like that again.

I was honestly amazed at how much I felt
the connection I had with these people throughout the entire day. Even my
mother wasn’t useless, which was also a first. She was a very good sport. She
held the bags for everyone, didn’t complain and actually looked like she was
having a good time watching her family have fun, instead of just trying to
think about what exactly it was that her family could do for her.

However, once the touchy feely day was
over, it was back to business as usual; after all, I still had a reputation to
uphold. Player and family man are basically polar opposites and I knew exactly
where my priorities lay.

Surprise or not, it still was only one day
in a lifetime that I had made for myself and therefore, the next morning, I got
up bright and early in order to make my way to the Y for my work-out before any
other
family
activities got in the
way.

The last thing I needed anyone to think
was that I had actually enjoyed myself the other day. Even if only the people who
were supposedly closest to me were to find out, I would have a big problem on
my hands. If they thought that the day before was anything but torturous for
me, they would want to include me in other pussy family outings and that wasn’t
going to fly with me. I needed to have my own freedom and if they started to
get all up in my business, then my lifestyle was going to go down in flames
real quick.

I figured I would disappear for a little
while, to show them that what happened the other day was in fact a one-time
deal.

So, as I went through my daily workout
routine, I focused on getting my head back in the game and pursuing my goals,
as they pertained to getting my stepsister in bed.

On the plus side, I couldn’t deny that
having her there with me at the amusement park hadn’t gone well. She mostly
stayed with her father, reveling in the newly forming relationship that I was
sure wouldn’t last, but I stayed with the both of them, encouraging and
enlightening the mood with my presence.

I had done one hell of a job figuring out
what I needed to do in order to help close the gap, at least for the day,
between my stepfather and his daughter, which in turn made me look like a hero;
and if there was any doubt at all, that was definitely what I was going for.

Even though I didn’t woo her enough to
sneak into my bed when we returned home later that night, I did feel as though
I had a good chance of reclaiming her trust. She seemed to be happy with me
again, having helped bridge the gap between her and her father and I was ready
to take full advantage of that situation.

I smiled as I thought about what it would
be like when I finally made up her mind, while I bench-pressed enough to make
my arms begin to shake.

After pushing myself to the limit, I sat
up and momentarily felt dizzy, as blood was able to rush back around my body
again.

Then, when the haze of sweat and slight
disorientation finally left my gaze, I saw someone I certainly didn’t expect
coming my way.

“Ashley?” I said as I stood up, sweating
profusely.

“Hey, Tyler,” she said with a smile. It
was clear that, without a bead of sweat on her, she probably hadn’t started
working out yet, but my mind began to wander to what she would look like,
glistening with the fruits of her workout, her neat ponytail now completely
amiss and tight ass shaking as she made her way into my arms.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded,
shaking the thoughts out of my head and trying to make it sound as though I
didn’t believe she was welcome here.

“I’m just trying to get a good workout and
I figured I would try out your haunt.” She shrugged. “It looks like it is doing
wonders for you.”

With that, she began to stretch and I
thought of trying to discourage her from being here, but I quickly realized
that probably wouldn’t work very well to my advantage and therefore, I just
smiled at her and shrugged. “Yeah, well, there is also a lot of skill and
precision that goes on. There is no gym in the world that will make you look
like the fucking monster that I have built myself up to be if you don’t
actually know what you’re doing.” I sneered at her in a teasing way.

“Fucking monster,” she repeated, sharing
my smile, “So, is that what you aspire to?”

“No, that is what I am,” I answered
confidently and she giggled. I cocked my head to the side and replied, “This is
a big place. You could get lost. Would you like for me to show you around?”

“That’s not necessary,” she said, shaking
her head, but I grabbed her hand and turned her all the way around to face me
in a way that I knew would get her attention.

As she gazed up at me, I raised my
eyebrows and returned a toothy grin. “Oh, but I insist.”

Instead of being freaked out though, she
just narrowed her eyes at me and moved her head to the side before she
answered, “So, I guess you weren’t really asking me then, were you?”

“Nope, but then again, I think it would be
fun to spend a little quality time with one another. You sure seemed to enjoy
it yesterday and come on, you and I both know that you didn’t come all the way
to this gym just to try out the equipment.”

She shrugged and snatched her hand back
from my grasp before she smiled at me and answered, “Well, when you make such a
convincing argument…”

“I thought I would,” I agreed. “What the
hell are we waiting for?”

Even though it was obvious that she had
come here for me, which was encouraging, I wondered why she insisted on hiding
that to start. The thought had crossed my mind that she was just trying to play
hard to get.

After all, when a woman goes from hating
the very fact that you exist to showing up at your gym to see you within a
matter of twenty-four hours, she has to have some kind of saving grace. She
sucked at it, but I had to give her props for trying.

So, without making her wait any longer, I
started to make my way through the gym as I enthusiastically showed her around.
It was a big gym with a lot to see, which made my life a little bit easier,
especially when I was sincerely trying to figure out how to make her stay with
me longer so I could lay on my charm even thicker.

Then, we made our way to a billboard in
the gym, which had the announcements of everything that was going during the
week. I usually wasn’t interested in it, unless there were competitions which I
hadn’t seen yet, but I figured a woman might be interested in the foo-foo
offerings that the otherwise stable gym had going on in rooms where I wouldn’t
be caught dead.

However, when I showed her this, she
immediately gravitated towards a sign that I didn’t expect and hadn’t seen
before.

“Hey Meathead, this looks perfect for
you,” she said at once, pointing toward the sign.

“Yeah, I’ve done those competitions
before,” I answered, trying not to act as interested in it as I really was. The
fact that I had not seen it first bothered me, but the fact that she knew me
that well was something that I thought was interesting. In fact, that was the
most encouraging news I had received from her in a long time. Still, I played
it cool. “There’s really no fucking contest anymore though. They used to
interest me, but then they became increasingly boring…”

“You’re going to enter,” she insisted.

“No,” I scoffed at her, “I’m not.”

She shook her tight ass, which looked even
tighter in those yoga pants and glared at me with a challenge in her eyes as
she said, “Then, I’ll sign you up and you will have no choice but to do it or
risk the world thinking that you are…” she smiled in an evil way, “to use your
words, ‘a fucking pussy’.”

“You’re a bitch,” I responded quickly,
almost as though it was a kneejerk reaction.

She shrugged, unfazed before answering, “I
know,” and turned around to write my name on the signup sheet.

Chapter
21

Ashley

I couldn’t believe I had actually done
that. I smiled with a sense of excitement, but tried not to laugh as I asked
Tyler his last name.

Begrudgingly, he spelled it for me. I
turned around and raised my eyebrows toward him. “I think we’re done now,” I
jeered. “If you need any help, or if you’re looking for a coach, I would be
happy to help.”

He narrowed his eyes back at me and I
couldn’t quite tell if he was intrigued by my actions, or feeling emasculated,
but since I figured that the latter was probably the most opportune for us
both, I was inclined to believe it so I kept up with my act.

“Thanks,” he answered inside of a laugh.
“I certainly don’t need someone that skinny teaching me anything about a
strongest man competition.”

“Well, I am going to start my workout now,
but if you need me, you’ll know where to find me.” I flashed him my sexiest
smile before I walked by him.

It was all that I could do to not look
back and see if his eyes were following me, to gauge his reaction to what I
would have considered a crazy stunt. Even though it didn’t bother anyone else
but Tyler, it had still taken a lot for me to do something like that,
especially when he was dripping with sweat and looking better to me now than
any man I had ever seen. There was something about the sweat, or perhaps it was
the pheromones that were being released through his workout that made me even
more attracted to his delectable body.

Although, it hadn’t started out like this
at all. In fact, I hadn’t even known he was going to the gym. Of course, I was
curious, seeing as how he was up bright and early at four-thirty in the
morning, getting dressed and running out of the house quicker than I could even
get my clothes on.

When I finally made it out, I saw that he
was running down the street.
Of course he
runs to wherever he is going.

Lucky for me, I had a car and a fairly
good field of vision, since the street that the beach house was at the end of
was fairly long. So, I waited to see which way he turned before starting up my
car and following him that way.

Since I was sure he had probably paid my
car absolutely no mind, I figured he wouldn’t even know to recognize it if I
started following him.

I was right. I had kept a safe distance,
but still, he seemed to be oblivious to the possibility that he was not
traveling alone.

When he got to the gym, which I figured
was where he was going, I waited in my car for a little while and tried to
close my eyes for a few moments while in the parking lot before I made my way
inside to find him.

The building was huge and open twenty-four
hours, but by this point, I figured unless he was conducting interesting
business inside of the gym, which was unlikely for the amount of people who
were there, it would probably be okay to make myself known.

After all, there was nothing juicy,
especially for someone like Tyler, to get up at all hours of the night to feed
what I was sure by now was an addiction to his own reflection.

When I had made the decision to follow him
though, I wasn’t sure what I would find. Part of me hoped that I would catch
him doing something really illegal and I could send his pompous ass to jail for
a long, long time. But after yesterday, part of me was happy that he was just
going to the gym, a place where he would have bragged about going at that time
in the morning, if I had only asked.

As much as I hated to admit it, yesterday
at the amusement park was just a little bit more special because he was there.
I actually felt like we were bonding.

My father and I were able to talk and
really become close, like we were
before my mother died,
but it didn’t take me long to realize that Tyler was also a big part of that. I
had a lot of fun with him too and therefore, when I had gone up to him, in all
of his virile glory, there was a part of me that was even more content to find
out that he wasn’t making any crazy deals or doing anything illegal inside the
gym either.