Free THROTTLE: (A Stepbrother Romance) by Holly Stone Page A

bittersweet taste in her mouth, made
her heart ache with longing. Everything had changed. Everything was the same.
Where was he?
    Nicky
regarded her with keen eyes, ever curious to know more. "Didn't you send
him letters all these years?"
    Every week without fail. Four hundred and twenty-three letters in total. Enough
words to fill several volumes. And twice a year he wrote back; sixteen letters
that she cherished, hidden away discreetly where prying eyes would never find
them.
    "No,"
she lied.
    Nicky
scoffed in disbelief, but let the subject drop. They were almost back to the
old house Nicky called home. Each worn step up to the porch creaked in protest
under their feet, like the old oak door that clung to its ancient hinges.
    Emma
barely noticed. Her mind was awash with old, familiar memories. As teenagers,
she'd practically lived at her best friend's house. That was before Jared’s
father had moved in with her mother promising stability, marriage, and enough money
that they wouldn’t have to count out the pennies at the register any longer.   It had all started out so promising.  
    She
remembered watching Jared chopping the firewood to the side of their home on
the first night they became a family of sorts. He’d been so closed off at
first, wary, like a wild animal that had been cornered and was looking for a
way to escape.   If she closed her eyes
and listened carefully, she could almost hear the rhythmic blows of his axe,
the cracking split of the wood and the scent of his sweat-soaked skin when he
returned from his work and brushed past her in the narrow hallway.  
    That
had been the start of it for her.   The
spark of feeling that grew inside her
until she had to face the fact that she had fallen in love with the man who was
at that time, for all intents and purposes, her stepbrother.
    "Are
you going to see him?" Nicky's voice broke through her reverie.
    "Huh?"
Emma's gaze snapped back to her friend, then dropped to the floor again,
picking over the peeling linoleum. "No, I don't think so."
    "Why
not? I don't get it, Emma. I know you've been waiting for him to get out. What
happened between you two?"
    "Nothing!"
she snapped, glaring at her friend.
    "But
he killed—"
    "Nothing
ever happened between us. Just drop it," she growled.
    Emma
didn't want to remember how things were after what happened but before he was
sent away. The pain, the fear, the desperate uncertainty—they were a distant
memory. She preferred it that way. Distance made it easier to deal with the
fallout of those dark, broken months.
    It
was late when she finally left, bidding Nicky farewell in the doorway. The sun
had dropped beyond the mountains, leaving the sky with fading shades of blue
and gray. Nights were getting colder as summer faded and fall began in earnest.
She wrapped her coat more tightly around herself, shoving her hands deep into
the fleece-lined pockets.
    Their
houses were only a mile apart; Emma knew the path by heart. Still, with the
dark of night drawing in, she felt a chill pass down her spine and hastened her
steps.
    Overhead,
the streetlights started to click on, each one emitting a low buzz at first as
the bulbs came to life. With a sigh of relief, she reached the end of her
street and trudged up the cracked concrete driveway, heading toward the front
door.
    It
was dark along the side of the house. The security light had been out for
weeks, but damned if she could be bothered to replace it. As she neared the
door she saw the note tucked behind the knocker, her name written in the neat
cursive she had grown so familiar with.  
    Jared
had come to see her and she hadn’t been home.   Emma cursed under her breath and looked around, hoping desperately that
she’d see his retreating figure and be able to call out to him, but he was long
gone.   Fumbling her key into the lock,
she swung the door open and reached for the light switch, then tugged on the
note carefully.
    Her
fingers itched to open it and read his words, to