Free Dirty Little Secret: New Adult Rock Star Romance (Not Exactly A Stepbrother Romance Book 1) by Kristen Strassel, Allyson Starr Page B

his shorts.
    “Can you come look at some things in the basement? I’ve got to put together the order with the party rental place for the Fourth, before they run out of everything. I think some of it can do double duty, but I need a second opinion.” Holy shit, Mom came in the room . It reeked of sex in here. Bret had me dripping in anticipation of his cock. Mom would know. She wasn’t stupid. I held my breath. If I breathed, it would come out in a pant, and the comforter would move like a living thing. Was it possible for me to will myself to die? The silence might kill me, along with the shame. Both had their feet on my throat, choking the life out of me.
    “What are you doing?” Mom asked.
    “I was about to go through my closet.” Bret still sounded funny. Or maybe I was tunneling out from lack of oxygen. It was hard to tell. “There’s crap in there from high school. But yeah, let’s go look at the party stuff.”
    The door closed, the voices were gone, and I could only hope he managed to get her out of the room when he left. I couldn’t sense anyone. The room had fallen completely still, save the throbbing of my own internal organs. I dared to exhale, tears stinging my eyes.
    Bret was gone too long. My relaxation turned to panic. What if she went to my room, and I didn’t answer? I couldn’t have gone anywhere without asking to borrow her car. Mom knew; there was no way around it. She probably threw Bret out of the house and was in the process of changing the locks. My arms tingled, and a heavy feeling crept in as the blood stopped flowing to them. I considered rolling over, but it wouldn’t help. I’d probably die here, naked and tied up in my stepbrother’s bed.
    It wouldn’t be a boring death. At least I had that going for me.
    I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut when someone ripped the comforter off me. If it was Mom, I couldn’t face her. What the hell would I say?
    “Sorry,” Bret muttered, making fast work of untying my arms. I tried to shake them once they were free, but they didn’t work all that well. He rubbed them, and the feeling returned, but the rest of me was totally numb. “She had a whole list of things she wanted me to go through.”
    “Because she knew you had a girl in your bed.” I pulled the comforter up to my naked body and hugged it. “Did she say anything about me?” Half the reason she wanted to have this party was to make the two of us work together, like civil adults.
    Bret shook his head. “She didn’t. But she knew I was lying to her.” He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “That was close.”
    “That was insane.” I jumped off the bed and searched for my clothes in the tangle of sheets, pillows, and Bret’s neglected laundry. He really knew how to set the tone for a girl. Ugh. “We can’t keep doing this, Bret. It’s totally disrespectful to my mom. We’re using her house as our fucking dungeon.”
    “You knew all along we could get caught.” Bret smirked. “And until she knocked on the door, you were willing to go forward with it. Ellen didn’t suspect anything, as far as you were concerned. You know as well as I do she would’ve ripped that blanket off you and kicked us both out of the house without a second thought if she did. So what? She thought I had a girl in here. I’m twenty-five years old. I haven’t lived under anyone’s roof in almost seven years. She won’t ask specifics about who I choose to entertain. Or how. Some questions don’t need to be answered.”
    “That’s for sure.” I scoffed, pulling my shirt over my head. I picked up my shorts and slid them up my legs.
    Bret clasped my hand. “Where do you think you’re going? I’m not done with you yet.”
    “Were you here when your stepmother almost caught you eating out her daughter? I pretty much considered that our fade-to-black moment.”
    “Hell, no.” Bret pulled the shorts away from me. “She’s halfway through a bottle of Chardonnay, and she got what she