Beautiful Brute: A Stepbrother College Romance (Court University Book 3)

by Eden O'Neill

  “Lawson…”

  He let me go, completely this time, but he also worked his hand down his jaw. He pulled back completely, staring out the window, but this time, he looked pissed, and I didn’t understand.

  I sat back to my own side of the car, adjusting my skirt.

  “So I can’t touch you either?” he asked, coming so far out of left field my eyes twitched wide. With a sigh, he wrestled dark hair. “I’m just saying. I thought…”

  “What did you think?” Completely closed off now, I felt suffocation in his nice car.

  He put his head back. “I thought you were casual. That this wouldn’t be a thing.”

  “What made you think that?”

  He lifted a hand. “I mean, I saw you that day at the pharmacy. I don’t know. With what you bought and everything—”

  “So that gave you license to try and get into my pants?”

  Another hand raise, this time to pat the air. “Just relax. It’s just seeing that I assumed sex wasn’t a thing for you. That you weren’t one of those closed-off chicks.”

  Chicks, huh?

  Suddenly disgusted with him and the fact I’d fallen for his Don Juan crap, I got out of the car. I didn’t know where I was going to go out in the middle of nowhere.

  I must not have, because after I got out with my purse, slamming the door, I stood there. I placed my back to his ride, huffing after being basically fondled.

  His window pulled down.

  “What are you doing, Cleo?”

  Silence.

  “You gonna get back in the car? I can take you home. Is that what you’d like?”

  Again, I said nothing. Needing a moment to cool the hell off before speaking to him.

  He gave me more than that.

  Before I knew it, he was starting the car, and I whipped around to find him backing away. “Hey!”

  Nothing but headlights in my eyes as he backed off the overlook, then onto the road. He peeled away after that, leaving me stunned, and screaming, I got out my phone. I barely could find the buttons to call Kit, let alone speak to her. I was shaking, unable to breathe. I actually had to squat just to relieve my panic.

  I heard her voice, and it took me a second to realize my predicament. I was alone. Alone out in the middle of nowhere.

  And I’d let myself get played yet again.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jax

  My phone buzzed with a number I didn’t recognize, and when I answered, a voice I didn’t really feel like hearing shouted at me.

  “Is this that asshole Jaxen Ambrose?” Kit, Cleo’s friend and roommate, blared into the line. She barked over chatter and whirling machines, and my eyebrow lifted.

  “Yeah, how’d you get this number, Kit?” I didn’t recall giving it to her, thought I’d remember.

  “You gave to it to me, you asshole. Before we slept together?”

  Oh, yeah. That was right. What started out as me trying to get her digits turned into us rolling around in her bed. I lounged back against my headboard. “What do you want? I’m trying to do homework.”

  Honest for fucking once, and frankly, all I could do being stuck down here in Florida. I had to at least ride out the semester if I even wanted a chance of graduating from college in the spring. Even still, the possibility of transferring in the middle of my senior year to anywhere would be difficult. It was already hard enough coming in as a senior so trying to transfer second semester? Yeah, it’d be a son of a bitch.

  Odds were, I’d ultimately be stuck at Bay Cove University. But at least, I’d be able to take advantage of the time. I’d gotten my own place on the other side of campus from her and Cleo. I’d found a nice apartment complex, and though I’d had to completely abandon my shit at the other place, it’d been worth it. I wasn’t trying to walk back up in that bitch.

  Not that any of them would want to see me either.

  I didn’t care so much about that part. Stepping back, for me, had just been easier. I hadn’t heard from either of the girls at this point, so I had a feeling the notion was shared. Truth be told, outside of my friends, I’d been lying pretty low on the social circuit. I’d finished out the weekend with them, a long, drawn-out weekend with awkward silences and judgmental eyes. After I’d come back and seen them, they’d allowed the ragging to go for the most part. What was done was done and what was said was said. I didn’t need to hear any more from them and they knew that.

  Rick had been even more quiet, not that I cared. In fact, the only people I was personally related to who had reached out to me were my moms, and since they’d only asked how I was doing, I knew at least Rick wasn’t running his mouth to them. I wasn’t surprised. My biological mother, Sherry, had had zero contact with my dad after the divorce. Too much tension there.

  That came with the territory when your husband cheated on you.

  This had been widely known in my house growing up. That infidelity had come and pulled them apart. They may not have spoken to me about it personally, but they’d known I knew. I’d heard it, nothing but arguments in my house toward the end there. I’d heard the truth. I’d even walked in on that last one.

  It’d been the last night my father stayed at the house.

  He’d been gone the next day, disappearing completely from our lives. The next thing I’d known, the only contact I’d had with my dad was through the family courts. The judge had asked me who I wanted to stay with, my father pleading with his eyes across the court room. It was like he’d wanted me to choose him.

  But why would I choose him when he hadn’t even chosen me?

  He’d completely abandoned us, gone for nearly a year without contact. The next time I had seen him had been in the court and that’d been laughable that he could ever fathom I’d want anything to do with him. Because of him, I’d gotten to see my mother’s looks changed. How she used to smile, but suddenly was in her room crying for hours on end. I’d had to make dinner for her, take care of her, for what felt like months before she’d finally been able to get up and out of the bed. She hadn’t even been able to look at me most days, like the mere sight of my face reminded her of him. In the back of my mind, I think I’d known it did. Something akin to shame on her face every time she’d realized she had allowed those tears to spill in front of me.

  Things had gotten a lot better when Mama came into our lives. She’d been able to pick Mom up, help her, help me help her. I’d just been a kid, and she’d been our saving grace. This family had healed because of her.

  And how high and mighty my bio dad thought he was. Coming in and trying to be a dad to me now. I was in my fucking twenties, didn’t need a “dad” anymore, and when I had, he’d been nowhere insight.

  Just like now.

  Things got hard, and he bolted, but this time, I didn’t let it affect me. I enjoyed his radio silence and was biding my time. The semester would be over soon, then I could get the fuck out of this bitch.

  “Right. You’re doing homework,” Kit said, calling me for some goddamn reason. “Anyway, you got a car?”

  Another eyebrow lift, and I moved my textbook off my lap. “Why?”

  “Obviously, need a ride.”

  I smirked, lying back. “And you’re calling me? Go get yourself a ride share.”

  “I would, but Cleo is out in the middle of fucking nowhere, and it’s just a lot easier if—”

  “Wait. Wait. Hold up.” Cleo? I sat up. “What about Cleo and why is she out in the middle of nowhere needing a ride?”

  “Because some asshole she went out with tonight left her there and I’d go get her myself but my car died. I’m also at work now and stuck. I tried all our other friends, but no one is answering their phones.”

  “Where is she?” I was already up and out of the bed, jerking my shirt on. “Address now.”

  If this girl couldn’t keep herself out of trouble for a fucking night. First she hopped into the ocean not knowing how to swim and then this.

  “Wait. You’re going to help her?�
��

  Fuck me, if I couldn’t help myself and in my frenzy to get pants and shoes on, I passed it off as guilt. I felt guilty for what happened over the weekend. I’d wanted to fuck with her, piss her off, but I hadn’t known about her brother. That had changed things a little. I’d wanted to break her.

  But that shit…

  Yeah, that was deep shit, and rather than go on with her friend about this, I urged Kit for a fucking address so I could go pick Cleo up. She gave it to me, someplace literally out in the middle of goddamn nowhere. Kit could only give me landmarks outside of the road Cleo was on, and finally getting to my car, an electric blue Madza, I revved it up. I’d bought the thing new shortly after the semester began. Fuck, if I was trying to bus it to and from classes while I’d been down here.

  “You’re really going to get her?” Kit asked as I pulled out of my complex’s garage. “This isn’t a trick? Because seriously, Jax, this isn’t a joke. Cleo’s all alone out there.”

  Exactly why I was in my car trying to get to her. The only thing keeping my mind off the prick who’d left her out there was because I was trying to get to her. I grunted. “You hear me in my fucking car, don’t you? Does it sound like I’m messing around?”

  An air of relief in her voice, but the sigh that followed didn’t sound convinced. “I guess I just thought you’d need more convincing. I called you in desperation. Really couldn’t get a hold of anyone else.”

  Well, I didn’t need convincing, already on the road and tapping the location into my phone. Without street numbers it couldn’t get me anything solid, but close enough when Kit mentioned a trail.

  God, this fucking Girl Scout.

  Kit was apparently spot on with Cleo’s location. Because not only was Cleo exactly where Kit said she’d be when I got there, the Girl Scout was in the dark using her cell phone for light. There were no streetlights out here, the place completely pitch black. I saw nothing but a little glow as I revved closer, pulling onto a dirt car park.

  My lights on, Cleo shielded her eyes from them, backing away a little so I could park. She was also half dressed in an outfit that barely covered her ass and a sweater that fell off her shoulders, exposing the flushed state of her neck and arms.

  I saw fucking red.

  Getting out the car, I slammed the door, stalking up to her, and seeing me, her eyes flashed wide.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed, gripping her little cell phone like she was about to throw a goddamn tantrum. She stomped her little brown boot and everything.

  Cute.

  She was completely cute, and I’d have noticed it more if I wasn’t so pissed. I growled. “Who the fuck left you out here in the middle of nowhere?” It was freezing, and working my coat off, I attempted to put it around her basically bare shoulders.

  She shrugged away from me, doing nothing to help the current state of my rage.

  I shot a hand out with the jacket. “Fine. But it’s cold out here, and you need to put this on.”

  “I want nothing from you,” she huffed, but her knees… clattered. Folding her arms, she pretended not to notice. “Anyway, I called Kit.”

  “Well, Kit’s car doesn’t fucking work. She’s also stuck at work so she called me.”

  She made a face like she sucked a lemon. “Why would she do that?”

  “I was a last resort.” And even though she fought me this time, I made her put the jacket on. Eventually, she took it, sliding her arms through the holes, and I put out of my mind what a vision it was to see my stepsister swallowed up by my coat. It swam on her, making her all petite looking as it swallowed her up.

  Channeling my senses back to my aggression, I folded fingers over my eyes. “Who the hell left you out here? Tell me.”

  “No,” she bit out. “No, I won’t. And why should I tell you anything?”

  I stalked into her space, breathing the same air, tasting her. Her scent hinted of wine and that same soft sweetness I’d been trying to force out of my head. I’d been trying to sever this girl from my memory like a violent disease since last weekend. Especially since she’d left such an impression the last time.

  I’d had her all over me, her trembling limbs looped around me when I’d saved her. She’d held onto me for dear life, like I’d been her life-force and she wanted to fuse herself into me. It’d been like she needed me beyond the immediate sense. I’d obviously saved her…

  But that’d been all it was, her need for survival. Even still, she’d gotten so deep inside my head.

  And it drove me goddamn crazy.

  “Fine,” I growled, then shot a finger toward my ride. “Get in the car then. I’ll take you home—”

  Shock riddled me frozen when she squatted in her boots. She quite literally hunkered down, nothing but defiance in her eyes as she hugged her arms in my jacket. She lifted her chin. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  Son of a…

  “Hey!”

  Hands at her thighs, then her ass when I tossed her over my shoulder. Her curtain of long hair fell down my back as she kicked and flailed her skinny legs.

  “What are you doing!” A slap to my back, a punch to my arms. “Put me down this instant!”

  Chuckling, and I couldn’t even help myself. She was even cute mad and certainly not threatening.

  “No.” I swung around with her in my arms, making her squeal. I chuckled again. “The way I see it, you got two options…”

  “What?” She growled, punching my back again.

  Good. I had her attention.

  I grinned. “Option A.” I thrust out a finger, though she couldn’t see. “I leave you here, then track down this fucker who left you. Then proceed to chop his balls off and force-feed them to him.”

  Her legs stopped. Good, really listening now.

  “Or option B.” I paused, and getting a firm hold of her, I returned her to her feet. She slid the entire length down my body, every soft and supple curve in my hands. I felt every quiver, every shake trembling within her.

  I even felt her heartbeat.

  It thudded against my chest, and once I got her to the ground, she didn’t move. In fact, she held on to my shirt so tight her little fists paled.

  I braced her shoulders. “You let me take you home. Get you safe,” I finished. I wanted her to take that option and was beyond questioning it at this point. I just wanted to help her, save her.

  I guessed we were both fucking crazy.

  She was for jumping in water after me despite being deathly afraid of it. I supposed I was now jumping into my own tremulous waters.

  “Option B,” came from her pretty lips, though a bit struggled. Clearly, she labored over the decision and was maybe even conflicted by it.

  My hands fell away from her, making myself. “Good choice.”

  I jerked my head in the direction of the car, and she followed me to it. I got inside after she did and hoped to God I was making the right decision here. I hoped to God I wasn’t fucking myself over. I was letting her do this shit again.

  I was letting myself do this shit again.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cleo

  “Where’d you get the car?” Silence had been between us for quite some time before that. My stepbrother was like a raging bull coming down off something. His hand grappling the wheel, he looked intense, no doubt pissed at having to come and get me.

  So why had he then?

  I didn’t understand why he bothered since he hated me, his hands ghost white on the wheel most of the drive. It was a long drive. Lawson had basically taken us out in the middle of nowhere for our scenic look of the ocean. Looking back, it really hadn’t been a smart decision to come out here. I didn’t really know the guy despite going to school with him and had probably had too much wine to make the right decisions tonight.

  He probably knew that, Cleo.

  His objective was obviously clear, get the girl alone after getting a few drinks in her. He thought I was an easy lay just because of th
e way I’d been reintroduced into his life.

  Asshole.

  My asshole radar must have been broken. How else could I explain being in the current presence of basically my enemy, my stepbrother? He saved me again, but so what? He had more than one offense to make up for, his list a mile long.

  With a sigh, Jax swept his hair back, dusky brown curls flopping into his face. He appeared to have just gotten out of the shower, his hair still wet and darker than usual. The fact that I noticed annoyed me, how hot he looked in his bucket seat while he drove. His black T-shirt strained across his hard chest, the lean muscles beneath his golden skin shifting at even a subtle turn of the wheel. He wet his lips. “Bought the car at the beginning of the year. Needed a way to get around.”

  That new car smell definitely surrounded me, and the guy probably paid cash for it. I knew his moms did pretty well, were celebrity chefs and had some restaurants. He didn’t talk about them at all, really nothing about his life before he’d invaded mine. I shrugged. “It’s nice.”

  A smirk. “What would be nice is if you could stay out of trouble. Who the fuck was that guy who—”

  “Oh, don’t act like you care,” I shot, watching the red heat creep up his neck. I huffed. “You don’t. So don’t pretend.”

  Silence as he drew his hand down his chiseled jaw. He didn’t protest so I assumed he didn’t care.

  I gripped my arms, staring out my window at a dark beach. “Where have you been anyway?”

  “And like you care about that?”

  I swung my gaze over, clashing immediately with his. His friends had made it sound like he was pretty laid-back, happy-go-lucky even. I mean, I’d seen a hint of that, I guess, but he was so different around me. So intense, and that’s when he wasn’t angry. He seemed to constantly straddle the line, anger or nothing but serious.