LUST (A STEPBROTHER ROMANCE)

“There was a time when I wanted to hear you say those words, Nathan, but I’m not that girl anymore. I’m here for one reason and one reason only,” I replied, turning away from him.

“I’ll stop making light of the situation. This must be uncomfortable for you, but it’s terrifying for me. I’ve barely slept in weeks. You’re the only one I can trust right now. I just thought since we’d be living here together for a few days, we might clear the air.”

His words made me equal parts uneasy and flattered. I’d never seen Nathaniel Hale as anything less than in control. In his little world, things happened the way he wanted them to happen. I’d fallen into that circle of influence once, and it had taken me years to break free. Now, he had no control. I was responsible for his safety, and there were no nets strung out beneath this trapeze act. His eyes were drilling into my own, but the look on his face was grateful, rather than self-satisfied... It almost made him seem… Human…

I lingered in the heat of Nathan’s stare just a little longer. Some secret part of me was reveling in his attention. All those times we had been together, I was so desperate for this man to look at me like this… Like someone he respected, instead of someone he fucked. Breaking away from his gaze, I flipped my hair and stood up straight, reaching out to hand him the credit card with Candy Love printed on it.

“What do you like—Chinese?”

“Seems like the easiest choice,” he said, taking the card from my hand.

Our fingers met for one single, glorious instant, and I felt the ripples of his touch race all the way up my arm and into my chest, heat blooming near my heart. I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly dry and my stomach suddenly filled with a thousand anxious butterflies.

What the hell is wrong with me? He’s an asshole, remember? The man who took what he wanted and used you like some kind of call girl?

Maybe it was because he was starting to change. Maybe it was because he was demonstrating concern for others and a willingness to sacrifice his comfort for the good of the city. Maybe it was because I’d never truly expected him to accept any responsibility for anything…

It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t supposed to change my mind, especially not this quickly. Was he manipulating me? Was all of this just a ruse because he needed protection?

I pulled my hand away and tried to temper my expectations as he pulled the burner phone out of his pocket and began rifling through the kitchen drawers in search of a menu. A few moments later I was on the couch with the TV on, trying to lose myself in some trashy ‘reality’ show while he placed his order with whatever restaurant he’d managed to dig up.

He covered the phone with one hand and called to me from the kitchen-cum-bedroom. “What about you? Maybe some orange chicken?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How’d you know I like orange chicken?”

He grinned and shrugged. “Who doesn’t like orange chicken?” he said, the moved his hand away and began speaking to the restaurant again.

“You know, we could go out,” he added a moment later, presumably while he was on hold. “I’m pretty sure the Paddies aren’t going to be hanging around some two-bit Chinese place after what happened today. We should be safe as houses. And it’d be a lot nicer than hanging around in here all day.”

“I’m not up for it,” I answered, which was the sad truth. After what had happened this afternoon, I wasn’t in the mood to put myself in a room full of completely unpredictable people. “Besides, we’re safer here with the other officers around. Laying low right now is not the worst idea in the world, you know.”

He shrugged. “It’s no fun, either.”

I rolled my eyes. “We can worry about fun after you’ve testified.”

Nathan smirked as he got back on the line. “Then it’s a date.”

I was going to object, but he was already speaking to the restaurant again. That hadn’t been what I’d meant, but the longer I let it settle, the less I wanted to correct him. Sure, we had fucked, but that’s all we’d ever done. A date was never on the table…

I curled up against the armrest of the couch and hide my smile behind my hand. One date when this was all over? That couldn’t hurt, could it?

4

“Wake up sleeping beauty. Dinner is served.”

I opened my eyes. The TV screen was flickering in front of me and a soft, warm glow was coming from elsewhere in the darkened room. I could smell the Chinese food we’d ordered, the aromatic mix of soy and spices. It must have arrived when I was sleeping.

But I never heard the driver…

As if sensing my confusion, Nathan sat on the coffee table in front of me and smiled. “You were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t want to wake you. I met him outside and brought the food in myself.”

Then he extended his hand to me. “Come on, before it gets cold.”

Groggily, I reached out and put my hand in his. When his fingers closed around mine, I felt my flesh sizzle. My nerves burned for him, and I realized that I never wanted him to let me go. That’s how it always was with Nathan. It didn’t matter how much I loathed him, or how little respect he showed me… He awakened a desperate need inside me the first time I met him, and that fire had never truly went out.

I curbed those desires, instead letting him help me up and sitting down at the little table he’d prepared for us. “Look, you can’t be taking any chances here. You don’t go out that door without me,” I said firmly.

Nathan just let out a little sigh. He’d managed to find a few plates in the cabinets, and he used them to arrange our meals in a way that looked a hell of a lot more appetizing than it would stuffed in those pagoda-style boxes. My orange chicken popped against the lush green broccoli beside it and the sauce-stained rice resting underneath. He’d even poured me a glass of green tea, probably the kind you could get from the vending machine down the hall.

But the best part was the candles. With the rest of the lights dimmed, they made the room look cozy and quaint. I felt much more at home than I had when we’d first walked in together.

I smiled, looking up at Nathan as I tucked my hair behind my ears with my fingernails. “This looks incredible… But where in the world did you find the candles?”

He picked up the remote and turned off the TV. “A man needs to have a few secrets. Anyway, it’s the least I could do since I I’m the reason you’re stuck here.”

But that was the thing—I didn’t feel stuck.

“You’re important,” I told him, picking up my fork as he sat down. I stabbed at a piece of orange chicken, measuring my words, trying to ensure that what I said was both enough and not too much. I needed to appeal to his ego. “This city needs to see a man like you stand up for what’s right. Your testimony is going to make sure Wal

lace never hurts another innocent person ever again. Can you imagine what that means to the women and girls he’s devoted a decade to enslaving?”

Nathan didn’t answer. He only smiled weakly and skewered a bit of his broccoli beef onto his fork.

“Oh, come on,” I teased him. “You don’t have to be modest—not in here with me. You can brag a little, if you want.”

He chewed, then swallowed a gulp of his own green tea. “I thought you didn’t like arrogant, self-centered Nathan?”

“I don’t. But I have to give credit where credit is due. You’re putting your life on the line for the greater good. That’s something not a lot of people would do. It’s something you can be proud of.”

Nathan went quiet for a time, watching me eat. When he spoke again, it was in a tone I’d never heard from him before.

“Can I tell you something?”

I looked up at him and frowned. He sounded soft, hesitant, uncertain. His brows were furrowed and the corners of his eyes pinched. For the first time since I’d known him, Nathan looked like a man shouldering an unseen burden, a far cry from the man who would tie me to a bedpost and fuck my brains out without even a hint of care.

I stopped eating and put my fork down. “Yeah. Of course.”

Nathan puts his elbows on the table, wringing his hands together as he looked away from me and to the dancing candle flames instead. They lit up his eyes, highlighting the gold rimming his pupils as he took in a deep, shaky breath that nearly snuffed them out. When he spoke, his voice grated with the pain of a man who’d made a terrible, perhaps unforgivable mistake.

“When my father died,” he began, “I took over his company. You know that, obviously, but… what you don’t know is that I’m nothing but a figurehead. I have no idea how to run a business, let alone an international corporation. Dad tried to groom me for the job as best he could, but I wouldn’t listen. I didn’t want to do what he did for a living. Besides, Dad was young. Nothing was going to happen to him for a long time. When he passed from a heart attack at forty-nine and it all fell to me, I panicked. I decided to continue on with my original plan and ignore its very existence.”