Free Soldier Stepbrother by Stephanie Brother

Prologue
    Anya stretched to put the star on top of the Christmas tree just as Cade came up behind her. She drew in a deep breath as his body pressed against hers. Her hand trembled a bit when she surrendered the star to him, and she couldn’t resist leaning back against his muscular frame as he moved forward to put the star on the highest bough of the six-foot tree.
    For just a second, she let herself savor the feel of him before the sounds coming from the kitchen reminded her they weren’t alone. She couldn’t lean against her stepbrother like that. She couldn’t even allow herself to think about him in any other way besides brother.
    With a small sigh, she stepped away from him and bent down to plug in the lights. When she stood up, she caught Cade staring at her butt in the tight jeans, and the confirmation of their mutual attraction was both dismaying and satisfying. It boosted her feminine ego to know he wanted her too, even as it made it that much harder to resist the forbidden.
    Pretending like it wasn’t impossibly hard to turn away from him, she left her stepbrother in the living room to join his mom in the kitchen, where Vivian was preparing the start of what would be the lavish Christmas Eve feast served later that night. As she worked silently, she reminded herself again why it would never work with her stepbrother.
    He’d only held that status for five years, and he had already been in the Army when their parents married during her senior year of high school, but that was long enough for everyone to deem them family. They got along well and were friends, so his mother and her father considered their blended family a success.
    Dad and Viv had no idea how she longed to run her hands over his taut frame, or how often she thought about him. How many times was he the image she masturbated to in the night? More importantly, how many nights had she lain awake worrying about him while he was in Iraq? He was home for leave, but he’d be going to Afghanistan after the New Year, and the cycle of worry would begin again.
    She hated that he was a soldier, and she hated he was her stepbrother. Most of all, she hated that she couldn’t have the one man she loved because his mother had married her father.
    ***
    It was after midnight, so officially Christmas morning, but it wasn’t the excitement of opening presents that kept Anya awake. It was the knowledge the forbidden man she ached for slept on the other side of the wall.
    Finally abandoning the pretense of trying to sleep, she got out of bed and slipped on a fluffy red robe and matching slippers. The candy cane embroidered on the lapel gave it a festive feel, and she knew Viv would be pleased she had worn the silly gift she’d opened after dinner last night with the extended family. Either that, or she would revel in the perceived humiliation of her stepdaughter.
    Christmas morning was just for their small family, and she padded down the hardwood stairs to the kitchen, wishing she could unwrap Cade. She hadn’t seen him in eleven months until his return home three days ago, and she had half-hoped she had recovered from her illicit crush.
    Except she hadn’t, and it had been the longest separation yet. Seeing him again when her dad had brought him home from the airport had made it hard to breathe, and it had taken everything she had not to throw herself into his arms and kiss him with all the pent-up passion she’d been hiding for the past five years. Instead, she’d settled for a quick hug.
    Still brooding about her situation, she almost collided with the object of her thoughts before realizing he was leaving the kitchen she was about to enter. Anya put up her hands to brace herself, and they found purchase on his muscled chest. He wore nothing but a pair of flannel pajama pants slung low on his hips, leaving the rest of his body free for her visual inspection.
    She stared at his ripped muscles, unable to resist the compulsion to touch the dagger tattoo on his