Free STEPBROTHER Love 1 by I. Scarlet

looking away. “Is that it?”
    Not good enough?
    It hurt my heart to see that pain on his face, to hear him say those words.
    He was best guy I knew.
    He was my brother, and I loved him so much.
    I reached out and took his hands in mine, pulling him out onto the dance floor, and entangling his arms around me before drawing my arms up around his neck.
    I looked into his eyes as the music played a slow, pulsing song I was pretty sure was on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack.
    “Never say that again,” I whispered, and then rested my head on his chest, feeling his heart beat against my cheek.
    Whether I should or not, I was falling in love with my stepbrother.
    And no matter what anyone thought, there wasn’t a better man in the world.

 
    Chapter 14
    Joshua
     
    It was like someone had just turned every light on in the whole world and was shining it down on the two of us, right there on that dancefloor.
    I couldn’t believe Cali was in my arms.
    I couldn’t believe she’d pulled me out here and to her with such determination.
    That look she gave when she said to “Never say that again,” made my heart just about explode out of my chest.
    Sure, we hadn’t talked about the kiss, and we certainly hadn’t kissed again, but I knew, just from the way she held onto me, with her sweet honey-blonde head on my chest, that she felt exactly as I did.
    I was fucking in love with her.
    Fuck me!
    I’d been in love with her for two freaking years.  I was just too stupid to own up to it until I’d seen her again at that party.
    And now?
    And now I loved her.
    I know it sounds trite and fucking shitty, but it was as if my heart was beating for her now, and only her.
    Bullshit, right?
    But I swear that’s exactly what it felt like.
    And I could practically hear her name with every beat.
    Cali…
    Cali…
    Cali…
    Damn, I was a goner.

 
    Chapter 15
    Cali
     
    You would think if someone was already packed, and had a limo lined up to take them to the airport, and you had the freaking plane tickets in your hand, that it would be a quick and simple thing to get off to the airport.
    Well, that’s what I thought too, but mom had everyone running around the house, trying to find things she hadn’t packed and desperately needed.  If I didn’t know better I would think my mom was afraid of flying… but that was a crock since I’d been with her for at least ten different flights to places as close as the Bahamas and as far away as Seattle.
    The limo was waiting, the driver had come to the door to announce that if they didn’t leave in the next ten minutes they wouldn’t make their flight.
    I thought, with how often flights were late and pushed back, that they would be safe.  But having mom make everyone run around the house like headless chickens, while she got redder and more hyper with every passing minute, that there had to be something wrong.
    When she sent Paul off—again—to find a mini bottle of conditioner she swore was in the laundry room, I grabbed her by the arms and made her look me in the eye.
    “What is wrong?”
    She blinked and shook her head, a smile I knew damn well was fake on her lips.  “Nothing, sweetie.  I’ve just forgotten so much… I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached.”
    I gave her my best you’re-not-fooling-anyone look.  “Please, you look like you did…”—wait a minute—“this is exactly how you acted the first time I went away on my own.”
    She laughed and swatted the idea out of the air with her hand, but that laugh died on her lips and tears started to well up in her eyes.
    No, no, no… she could not start crying.  If mom started crying, I was going to be crying with her, and then she and Paul would never make their plane.
    Which was a bad thing… right?
    I stamped down on why I wanted her and Paul to stay.  And I really didn’t want to think of the reasons I was dying for them to go.
    I just wasn’t going to think about it one way or the other.
    And then it hit