Free Stepbrother Desires (Billionaire Contemporary Romance) by Bianca James Page A

lot
harder than the other girls in the class. Maybe she knew I was serious about
this, unlike most of the others who were just there for a bit of fun and
fitness. I’m sure some of them were only there so they could tell their friends
and coworkers about their pole dancing classes to make their otherwise mundane
lives seem less tragic and a lot more interesting than they really were.

Chapter 2
Tyler
     
    The building
maintenance guy peeled the last of the backing layers from my name decal, now
stuck permanently, or as permanent as anything gets around here, on the crystal
clear glass wall of my corner office.
    T.J Reynolds III
    VP
Organizational Planning
    Named after my
great grandfather and founder of the Reynolds Oil & Gas, Tyler Jefferson
Reynolds, I stared at the name a little too long as the maintenance guy
shuffled awkwardly, in respectful silence, unsure whether to take his leave or
not.
    “Have I done
something wrong, sir?” he asked timidly.
    “Yes,” I said
softly to myself. “Oh, no, sorry, everything’s fine. It’s perfect. Thanks,” I
said aloud. “I’m not used to seeing my name all formal like that. I
guess I’m not just plain old ‘Ty’ around here, am I? I’m not in college
anymore.”
    Unsure how to
respond to my rhetorical question, the maintenance guy, Al, according to the
badge pinned to his sharply pressed cotton drill shirt, picked up his tool box
and turned to leave. I suddenly felt different . Like things had already
changed for me and were going to change a whole lot more now that I was
becoming an integral part of the family business and people like Al were going
to be treating me different to what I was used to. My fun in the sun college
days were well and truly behind me, now. Al and a whole bunch of other employees
were going to be counting on me to make decisions and keep them in a job.
     

     
    “Well, Son,
how’s it feel to be a permanent fixture around here?” I felt my father’s hand
clamp down on my shoulder as he approached from behind. We both stared at my
name and title on the glass.
    “Surreal, Dad.
That’s the only word for it.”
    “Now, don’t get
too comfortable. You’ve got a lot to prove and the board will be watching you.
Closely. You understand?”
    “Yeah, I know,
Dad. I’ve heard it all before.” I tried hard to remain respectful while we were
in earshot of the staff, but it still rankled that he kept beating the same old
drum over and over again, like I was a child and had to have everything
repeated.
    “And that
signage isn’t straight.” He shook his head as if to admonish me for accepting
such shoddy work. “Get it done again. Call maintenance and put a rocket up
their ass. That’s your first job.” He turned on his heels and was striding to
his office before I could tell him that it was actually perfectly straight.
    It had always
been like that with dad. Nothing I did was ever good enough for him. Anything I
thought was alright or that I enjoyed, well, he’d either tell me I could do
better or belittle my interests or hobbies.
    And when it came
to women, he was even more acid tongued. I sometimes thought it was because of
him that my stepsister, who I nicknamed ‘Wimp’ left home the way she did, not
even saying goodbye to him, or me when she moved out. Her mother, dad’s third
wife, always sided with him. She knew which side her bread was buttered on,
that’s for sure. That’s dad, though. He can be such a narcissistic bastard. An
insensitive one at that. He’ll destroy a relationship between mother and
daughter, stepfather and stepdaughter, stepbrother and stepsister without even
noticing the fallout, least of all give a damn. My old man can be a real prick
sometimes.
    I don’t know
why, but thinking of Wimp creates a strange sense of longing in the pit of my
stomach.
    What the hell
is that about?
    I tried to shake
it off and proceeded to unpack my box of personal crap to make my office feel
more homely. The nagging feeling of