Stepbrother Dearest (8 page)

just major foreplay, but I felt completely out of control. The noises coming from the back of his throat

made me even hungrier for him, and I caught them with my breath.

At one point, I rubbed my tongue gently around the cut on his lip as he closed his eyes. Then, he took

over and started to kiss me harder, more demanding. I pushed my body into his and felt his erection press

against me. I didn’t care about any of the consequences in that moment. I just knew I never wanted this to

stop and shocked myself with what came out of my mouth next.

“I want you to show me how you fuck, Elec.”

He pulled away from me suddenly, looking stunned. “What did you just say?”

It was the most humiliating moment of my life.

His eyes widened, almost like he’d woken up from a dream. “Fuck. No…no. You need to understand

something, Greta. That is
never
gonna happen.”

Okay,
that
was actually the most humiliating moment of my life.

“Why would you say that after everything you just told me?”

God, I felt so stupid.

He rested his head again on the headboard, looking almost tortured. “It was important to me that you

know how much I want you and how beautiful I think you are—inside and out—because I feel like I’ve

beaten down your self-esteem even though it wasn’t my intention. I meant everything I just said, but the

kiss should not have happened. I shouldn’t even be in this fucking bed, but it just felt so good to lie here with you for a while.”

“How am I different from any of those other girls you give yourself to?”

He ran both hands through his hair, messing it up then looked at me with darkened eyes. “Actually,

there’s a big difference. You’re the only girl in the entire world that’s forbidden, and fuck me if that doesn’t make me want you more than anything.”

Nearly a month passed since that encounter in my bedroom.

Elec had left my bed that night shortly after he’d repeated that I was strictly off limits and that nothing

could
ever
happen between us. It didn’t make sense to me that he could feel so strongly about it,

considering we weren’t
actually
related. So, I felt that there had to be more to the story.

The worst part about what happened in my room was that Elec started to distance himself. There were

no more rude texts, no more invites to play video games. When we were home at the same time, he stayed

in his room, and I stayed in mine. He’d also been spending more time at the bike shop or out of the house.

I never thought I’d miss his insults and crude talk, but I would have given anything for things to at least

go back to the way they were before I kissed him—and told him I wanted to fuck him.

Ugh.

I cringed whenever I thought about it. But in that moment, I was drunk off him and wanted to know

what that felt like more than I’d ever wanted anything. I was ready.

Elec and I had both turned 18 in the weeks since that night. Our birthdays were just five days apart. So,

I definitely felt old enough to take that step with someone. It wasn’t as if I were intentionally saving myself for marriage or anything. I was a virgin simply because I’d never wanted it with anyone before…until Elec.

He’d spent the past few weeks making it crystal clear that it was never going to happen between us.

But I missed him.

Then, one night after dinner, the tides changed, and I got a little piece of him back. Normally, Elec never

ate at home, but this particular Wednesday night, for some reason, he decided to join us. Ever since the

night I saw how badly Randy treated him, I’d all but avoided my stepfather, except for sitting down with

him at dinner. My mother and I were not really on the best terms either because she continued to insist that it wasn’t her place to get involved in Randy’s issues with Elec.

Elec wasn’t making eye contact with me at the table. He’d just look down and twirl the pasta around his

fork. At one point, I’d stared out the window to gaze at the neighbor’s laundry lined up and drying in the

breeze. I could feel his eyes on me. It was as if he were waiting for me to turn away so that he could look at me when he thought I didn’t notice. Sure enough, when I turned toward him, his head moved downward

again, and he was back to playing with his vermicelli.

Randy was in rare form that night, complaining that the plain dinner of pasta and red sauce did nothing

to curb his appetite. He abruptly got up and walked over to the snack closet.

“Greta, what the hell are you doing stuffing all these underpants inside a can of Pringles?” he yelled.

My mouth hung open, and I looked over at Elec. We stared at each other for a good few seconds before

Elec snorted and lost it. We both simultaneously burst into laughter. Neither of us could stop.

I loved the sound of his genuine laugh.

Looking over at Randy’s confused face made me crack up even harder.

When the laughter dissipated, Elec was still smiling at me and said low enough just for the two of us to

hear, “I told you they weren’t in my room.”

Randy slammed the can on the table in front of me. I opened it and checked the inventory. “These aren’t

all of them.”

Elec winked. “I kept a couple for me,” he said seductively.

I rolled my eyes and threw one at his face. He promptly put it on his head and wore it like a beanie.

Only my stepbrother would look smoking hot with a pair of underwear on his head. He continued looking

at me with the wicked grin I’d longed for. It felt good to have his attention again, albeit briefly.

That night, I was just getting into my pajamas when my phone buzzed.

Can you come in here for a minute?

My heart raced as I walked down the hall. When he opened the door, he looked so incredibly sexy.

His breath smelled like mint toothpaste. “Hey,” he said, flashing his beautiful white teeth, which

contrasted perfectly with his tanned skin and black hair.

“Hi,” I stepped inside the room and took a deep breath, noticing that the clove cigarette smell was

almost completely gone.

He was wearing a black hoodie with the sleeves rolled up. It was left open over his bare chest, and his

hair was still drenched from the shower. I stared at his lips where the cut had long healed. The metal of his lip ring glistened, and I hadn’t ever yearned for anything more than to lick it, to feel his mouth and tongue against mine again.

Kissing me.

Licking me.

Biting me.

Change the subject.

“Why does it smell so fresh and clean in here?”

He lay back on the bed with his hands resting behind his head. I couldn’t help staring at the V just

below his abs and wished I could lie on top of him against his skin.

“Are you saying my room normally smells like shit?”

“Did you quit smoking?”

“I’m trying.”

“Really?”

“Yeah…this weird girl who walks around commando once told me it was bad for me. So…I thought

about that and finally listened.”

“I’m really proud of you.”

He sat up straight and looked at me. “Well, the truth is, you were right. That shit will kill me someday. A

lot of aspects of my life may suck, but there are other things that make it worth living.”

Something in the air seemed to shift when he said it, and an awkward silence ensued.

I cleared my throat. “Why did you need me to come in here?”

He walked over to his closet to get something. Then, I realized it was his book. He handed me the

binder. “I wanted to give you this. I want you to read it.”

“Seriously?”

“I don’t let anyone read my shit, Greta. This is a big step for me. Whatever you do, don’t show Randy. I

don’t want him anywhere near it.”

“Okay. I promise. Thank you for trusting me with it.”

“Be honest, too. I can take it.”

“I will. I’ll take my time with it.”

***

I’d gone straight to my room that night and started reading. Minutes turned into hours. I’d told him I’d

take my time with it, but the truth was, I couldn’t put it down and ended up staying up the entire night to

finish it.

Even though the story was told in the third person, and the boy named Liam was supposedly only

loosely based on Elec, it felt like I was getting a window into his mind and soul through Liam’s character.

There were too many similarities that I knew were derived from his life, particularly the fact that Liam’s

father was verbally abusive. The beginning of the story before Lucky came into the picture was quite sad.

At the same time, it would make me cry in one part and literally laugh in the next. There were actually lots of funny parts separate from the main plot.

In one scene, Liam had a crush on the girl across the street, so he asked Lucky to go her house. His

hope was that the girl would think Lucky was lost and that the dog would lead her back to Liam’s house.

Instead, Lucky, who was a big dog, ended up humping the girl’s Pomeranian puppy out front. Liam

watched from the window as she took her puppy inside and slammed the door. Lucky proceeded to take a

dump on her lawn before running back home to Liam empty-handed.

But the main plot surrounded Liam’s ability to sense evil via his hypersensitive hearing. The

information he received was not always clear, often jumbled unless Lucky was present. At one point, Liam

took information surrounding the murder of a local girl to the police. It turned out that a corrupt police

officer was behind the crime. He had Lucky kidnapped so that Liam wouldn’t be able to help authorities

finish solving the murder. Lucky ended up escaping, and the reunion scene between Liam and the dog was

so touching that it had me bawling.

Everything was depicted so realistically, from the vivid descriptions of the Ireland landscape to the

emotions Liam experienced. There was even a fun bonus chapter written from the dog’s point of view at

the very end. I had found only a few grammatical errors and jotted them down in a notebook for him.

By the end of the story, I’d felt as though I’d fallen in love with the characters, which was a testament to his writing. At the same time, I felt closer to him and was so honored that he’d given me a glimpse into his incredibly creative mind. I needed to find the right words to properly explain to him how amazing this

was…how amazing
he
was.

So, the next day, I decided that I would sit under a shady tree after school and write down all of my

feelings in a letter that I would give him when I returned his manuscript. I poured my heart into it and

explained why I felt he was born to write and that it didn’t matter if his father wasn’t proud of him but that
I
was so incredibly proud of him.

***

That afternoon, I planned to drop the letter off at his room. When I got to the top of the stairs, my

stomach turned when I heard a girl’s voice from behind the closed door.

Giggling

Lips smacking together

Elec hadn’t brought anyone home since long before the night we kissed in my bed. I thought that maybe

he’d been respecting my feelings for him or that he’d changed.

I was wrong.

Knowing he was with another girl used to annoy me and make me jealous, but this time, it felt different.

It just made me incredibly sad. I couldn’t even bear to stay in the house, so I left the book along with the note in front of his door and ran back down the stairs, worried that his writing wasn’t the only thing I’d

fallen in love with.

It upset me that he hadn’t even acknowledged my letter after several days.

Victoria had also given me no choice but to finally tell her the truth about my feelings for Elec. She

wouldn’t stop talking about how she couldn’t understand the fact that he never asked her out again after

their kiss at the diner. I had no patience for it anymore and told her everything that had happened between

us. She was shocked, but at least it got her to stop talking about him once and for all.

Elec continued to basically ignore me over the next week. He took on more hours at the bike shop and

during the other times, stayed in his room with the door closed. He obviously knew that I’d overheard the

girl in his room that day since I had left the book on the ground outside. He clearly didn’t care to apologize or address what impact that might have had on my feelings.

So, when Corey Jameson asked me out on a date that week, I said yes. Corey was probably one of the

sweetest guys at school. Truly, I was not physically attracted to him but needed a distraction and knew at

least, we would have a good time together. He was one of the few males I’d considered a friend, although it

was obvious he wanted to be more.

Friday night rolled around. I had styled my hair into waves and put on a royal blue dress I’d bought on

sale at the mall, but my enthusiasm level was the same as if I were going over to Victoria’s to watch a

movie.

When Corey came to the door, my mother opened it and yelled upstairs, “Greta, your date is here!”

There was low music coming from Elec’s room, and the door was closed. A part of me wanted him to

see me leaving with Corey, but another part didn’t want to deal with him.

Corey was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with flowers, and that made me feel oddly embarrassed for

him. I could never picture Elec picking up a girl and handing her Gerbera daisies. Let’s face it; he didn’t

need to.

“Hey, Corey.”

“Hey, Greta. You look awesome.”