The Stepbrother (Red's Tavern 5)

When was the last time someone had really, truly held me like this?

And why was it making my throat feel tight, realizing that it had been so, so damn long and I’d needed it so much?

I let out a slow breath, cozying up against him and forcing my thoughts away.

Nothing mattered right now other than the fact that I belonged right here. Maybe not forever, but for tonight, at least.

12

Fox

When I woke up, the light was already coming in bright through the cracks around the sunshades.

The air in the RV was cool, but it was warm here under the blanket with Sam. I knew we were going to have to get up soon. I didn’t want to move from this place, though. He was breathing softly, still asleep, the faint sunlight falling over the smooth dip between his neck and shoulder. His sandy-blond hair almost looked like a halo in this light, so soft and shiny.

I reached out, running my fingertips through it.

I couldn’t make sense of what was going on in my head. Every moment I’d spent with Sam since coming home, I’d grown to like him more. I almost felt like I’d been blind, somehow, to the entire world around me back in high school. It wasn’t that I hadn’t liked Sam or anyone else at school—it was that my head had been somewhere else entirely.

All I had been able to think about was my career. Success, at any cost. And now, so many years later, I’d become totally lost, even with all of my career goals being ticked off one by one.

This trip had been the first time that my life hadn’t felt empty without work.

With Sam, it felt like the whole world opened up. And it was because he was so open, to seemingly anything. Sam was genuinely a better person than me, and made me a better person by proxy. I wanted to fuck him—God, I wanted to fuck him, over and over again—but I also just wanted to be around him, to bask in his shine, to be around his energy.

“Mmm,” Sam hummed gently, pulling in a breath as he woke up. He turned over, looking up at me with big eyes and a slight smile. “You watching me sleep, creeper?”

“Call me a creeper all you want, but I know you like being watched.”

“I love it,” he admitted. “You caught me.”

“Your fault for looking so good when you sleep,” I murmured, stroking his hair again.

“I dreamed that you fucked me,” he said softly, blinking heavily.

“Sam, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that wasn’t just a dream.”

He puffed out a laugh. “I know you fucked me in real life, too. God, you fucked me perfectly,” he said. “But I dreamed about it too. You fucking me on a beach.”

“Sounds sandy.”

“We had a beach blanket. Shut up, it was romantic as hell.”

My heart pounded a little faster in my chest. There was a beat of silence. He glanced up at me again, almost like he felt guilty for letting the sentiment slip out.

Romantic.

There was no way on Earth that the two of us should have been having any feelings for each other in the realm of “romantic.”

And yet just him saying it had made my heart go wild in me, had even made my cock stand at attention again under the sheets. I’d always thought of myself as the least romantic person on the planet—sex was hot, but all matters of romance and love should be kept practical and methodical.

But here I was, nervous like a schoolkid because my stepbrother was having those kinds of dreams about me.

“We can’t walk out of this RV looking like we just fucked,” I muttered, running my fingertips along his collarbone.

“Nah, I thought we’d walk out there with hard cocks out, pinching each other’s nipples while we make out,” Sam said.

“Smartass.”

He gave me a little push on the shoulder. “Of course I’m not going to walk out there announcing to the family that my ass is wicked sore from your cock, or something. We’ll be discreet.”

“Right,” I said.

He leaned over, biting me gently on my wrist before getting up and heading to the bathroom. I followed and we freshened up, brushing our teeth and finally throwing on some clothes.

“There,” he said, smoothing out his hair in the mirror. “That doesn’t look like I’ve just been fucked, right?”

“Well, I know I fucked you, so to me, that’s all I see,” I said, stepping in closer to him and meeting his eyes. “But yes. Sure. You look very presentable.”

He hummed. “Maybe a little too presentable?” he asked in a flirty tone. “Fuck me up a little bit, Fox.”

He closed the gap between us, pushing his body up against mine and kissing me hard. I sighed against him, realizing how much I’d already missed the feeling of his soft skin on mine, even in the last fifteen minutes. I kept him close, burying my hands in his hair as I slid my tongue against his.