Free Stepbrother Desires (Billionaire Contemporary Romance) by Bianca James

Chapter 1
Anna
     
    Shit! It
really shouldn’t be this hard. Should it? I thought,
just before I landed square on my ass.
    I’d seen the
bimbos on YouTube doing this stuff and they made it look so easy. What should
have been a smooth, sexy dismount from the dance pole quickly turned into a
total train wreck. I hit the deck hard and fast. Straight away I knew there was
going to be some serious bruising the next day.
    After months of
practice and countless lessons, I was still struggling with some of the basic
pole dancing moves and spins I needed to execute before I could progress to the
more advanced routines. But, things weren’t going to plan. Alright, that was
the biggest understatement since Noah said ‘looks like rain’. I couldn’t even see the plan from where I was standing.
    What I could
see, though, were the chances of remaining financially independent and being
able to pay my college tuition as a Pole Dancer ebbing away by the minute. I
couldn’t let that happen. There was no way I was going back home and asking for
a handout. Not while he was still there and not while there was even a
slim chance of making it on my own.
    It seemed like a
great idea at the time. After all the kickboxing lessons, many months of
serious weight training, regular Swing Dance classes and some intense yoga
sessions, I thought I was athletic and flexible enough to pull off some decent
moves on the pole. It looked like a pretty easy way to earn my living expenses
and college tuition. The money sounded good and from what I could tell, you
didn’t exactly need a doctorate in nuclear physics to get a job in a ‘Titty
Bar’.
    OK, so now
you’re judging me. I can tell. Sure, Pole Dancing isn’t exactly glamorous.
Yeah, it has a sleazy reputation. But that reputation is more because of the
dirty, drunken old men who hang out at the strip clubs than the girls who
actually work there. Well, that’s how I see it, anyway.
    And wasn’t it only
a few years ago that they tried to get Pole Dancing into the London Olympics.
So, technically, it’s a sport, then, isn’t it?
    A lot of things had
changed since I left home for college, trying to escape the aching need, the
hollowness I felt at being in the same house as my stepbrother. One of the biggest
changes, though, was how I looked. I barely recognized myself as I looked at my
reflection in the huge mirrored wall that surrounded the pole stations in the
studio. Even lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, I could see how obvious it
was that I wasn’t the curvy, OK, chubby stepsister any more. That girl
was so yesterday. Even my mom, who hadn’t seen me in almost a year, would barely
recognize the lithe, toned, hourglass figured girl who stared straight back at
me. All the hours at the gym, kickboxing classes and a hell of a lot of
discipline in the kitchen had finally paid off in spades.
    Maybe I was
ready to meet someone. Someone special. Someone I could truly be with, heart
and soul. Someone I wasn’t forbidden to fall in love with.
     

     
    Laying there,
trying to regain my composure I realized how far I’d come, how much I’d grown
up, since I left home. A couple of years ago, I’d have been so embarrassed at
making such as ass of myself that I probably would have cried like a girl and
run to the bathroom. But that wasn’t the new me. Not now. I wasn’t a runner
like I’d once been. I’d learned to stand my ground and tough it out. I was a
better person for it, too. If only I’d been tougher back then. If only I had
the strength not to have run away. Maybe I wouldn’t have needed to go to
college in another city. Maybe I wouldn’t need to get a job in a Titty Bar to
pay the bills. If only.
    “Hey, Anna! You
OK down there? You haven’t pulled anything, have you?” Kandice’s voice broke
through my reminiscence. “Back on the pole, girl. That steel ain’t gonna work
itself, now.”
    Kandice was a
great instructor, but she was all business and I was sure she pushed me a