Dearest Stepbrother: Double Trouble - Ultimate Bundle
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Dearest Stepbrother
Double Trouble
The Ultimate Bundle
Double Trouble (Books 1 – 4)
Double Trouble Easter Eggs
Double Trouble: After College (Books 1-4)
Olivia Hawthorne
Copyright © Dearest Stepbrother – Double Trouble 2015
by Olivia Hawthorne
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
DOUBLE TROUBLE – Book One
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
DOUBLE TROUBLE – BOOK 2
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
DOUBLE TROUBLE – BOOK 3
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
DOUBLE TROUBLE – BOOK 4
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
DOUBLE TROUBLE: EASTER EGGS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
DOUBLE TROUBLE: AFTER COLLEGE – BOOK 1
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
DOUBLE TROUBLE: AFTER COLLEGE – BOOK 2
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
DOUBLE TROUBLE: AFTER COLLEGE – BOOK 3
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
DOUBLE TROUBLE: AFTER COLLEGE – BOOK 4
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
Chapter One
I hated them. Yes – THEM. Two stepbrothers that were brought into my life by a mother who didn’t give a damn that they teased me relentlessly in grade school and all but destroyed my middle school years.
There was no reason for their focus on me. I’d never done anything to them, never poked fun at them like the other students in our class.
Maybe they felt so frustrated by the torment they received for being identical, they felt the need to turn around and hurt me.
I was a shy bookworm as a child and I didn’t know how to handle it when my pigtails got pulled or gum was shoved into my ponytail by one of the twins, Alex and Asher.
Or Assholes as I liked to call them.
When it was time for me to start high school, I thought I would finally be rid of them. Our neighborhoods shared the same elementary school and the same middle school, but were zoned differently for grades nine through twelve. I was on top of the world, ready to change my image and change the way my life had been in school up until that the time.
The summer was a whirlwind of activity. New clothes, new hair and a vacation with my mother that would give me so much to talk about when I returned for my first day of school.
We were going to Florida with a man she’d met and dated for over a year. I’d been upset to hear she’d hidden the relationship from me, but understood when she explained that she wanted to make sure he was right for her before introducing him to me.
When she told me that he’d be bringing his sons on the trip, I’d been hesitant, but thought that, maybe, it would be nice to have other children along on the vacation to take away from the awkwardness of being with two adults who were in love.
Having packed my bags and gotten dressed for the five-hour drive, I’d waited outside patiently waiting for my mom and her new beaux to pull up in the large SUV they’d rented for the drive.
Mom wanted me to meet her boyfriend before leaving for Florida, but a last minute emergency at the hospital had prevented him from meeting us for dinner. When mom told me that, I high-fived her for landing a doctor.
The deep blue vehicle appeared at the end of our cul-de-sac. I watched as the sun glinted off the glittery exterior paint, the windows tinted a deep black making it impossible for me to see inside the interior of the vehicle when they first pulled around. With a smile on my face that stretched a mile wide, I stood in place with my bags sitting at my feet on the porch. Waving with a little too much enthusiasm, I bounced on my feet as my mother opened the front passenger door.
“I can’t believe it. In all my life with you, Kelly, I’ve never seen you ready for anything in time.” Her feet carried her quickly across the cement walkway, her arms wrapping me in a hug. “Well, thank goodness for small favors, because I doubt Eric and his boys could have waited a moment longer.” She motioned to the car and a man stepped out from the driver’s side, rounded the front of the vehicle and offered me a genial grin as he approached.
“Nice to meet you, Kelly. Your mom has told me so much about you. I feel like I know you already.”
“Nice to meet you, as well, Eric…” I covered my mouth with my hand when I realized I’d addressed him by his first name. Looking to my mother for direction, I asked, “What am I supposed to call him.”
She laughed, years of stress fading from the tired expression that normally marred her beautiful face. “Eric is just fine.”
“Okay.” Returning my attention to Eric, I said anything that came to mind to fill in the awkward silence. “I hope you have room for my bags. I tried to pack lightly, but…”
He laughed. “It’s okay, Kelly. With this monster for a vehicle, we have plenty of room. In fact, I’ll put your bags away while the boys step out to greet you. I believe you all should know each other since you went to the same schools growing up.”
I froze. “Um. I’m sorry, I don’t know who they are. What are your boys’ names?”
Before he could answer me, the back passenger door opened and out stepped Alex and Asher.
Tears welled in my eyes as the shock of the newfound discovery consumed me.
Not only was my mom dating the father of the two boys I hated most in the world…I would have to join them for a month long vacation in Florida.
Fate wasn’t fair.
My life wasn’t fair.
My hopes for a normal four years of high school went down the drain.
And my happy home would never be the same again.
Chapter Two
The trip to Florida happened three years ago. I didn’t realize it on the way down, but the trip was planned for a more sinister reason than just a happy family vacation. My mom and Eric got married. They tied the knot. In front of Penelope’s Castle at Mouse World.
It was supposed to the happiest place on Earth.
It wasn’t.
I would forever remember that place as hell on Earth, the place where my mother made it official that I would never get Alex and Asher out of my life again. Maybe my life was like Princess Penelope’s. I’d ended up with practically the same thing – a rich stepfather and two evil twin stepbrothers. Penelope had it better off than me. At least she had stepsisters.
With
in a month after we returned, my mom sold the house I’d lived in since I was born and moved into the large mansion Eric owned in an adjacent neighborhood. I was heartbroken by the end of that summer and petrified at home as much as I’d always been at school.
I couldn’t escape them after that. The final bell of the day was no longer the beacon of hope that told me it was time to leave school and return to a place where I could hide from the ruthless torment I endured as a result of the malicious twins.
Now, that bell was nothing more than a reminder that I would be alone with them for three hours until my mother returned home from work.
Thing weren’t as bad now that I was a senior. I had more freedom. I could go to the mall with friends, or study at the local coffee until I knew she would be home.
However, I hadn’t been allowed to go out after school when I was younger and the years between ninth and eleventh grade had been nightmares.
I was still scarred by the way Alex would accidentally walk in on me when I showered, adamant the entire time that it had been a mistake when I knew that I’d locked the door. He could unlock anything: doors, windows…my diary.
Asher, on the other hand, was a different kind of demon. He became obsessed with me. He stalked me. He threatened and chased away every boy who dared attempt to date me.
I complained to my mother about both of them, but she never believed me. The boys were spoiled, and pompous as a result. They could do what they wanted, when they wanted, and I was still held to the usual standards my mother had always forced on me. She never disciplined the boys because she was afraid of upsetting Eric.
Sitting in my last class of the day, I watched the clock and chewed on my lip nervously. Most kids were bouncing in their seats, eager to get home. However, I was slouching lower into my chair with each passing minute. I had nowhere to go this afternoon, no friends who didn’t already have afterschool plans who could drive me around.
Molly would be at tutoring, Erica would be at cheerleading practice. Marjorie, Cindy and Callie were all members of the marching band and had a mandatory meeting after school. Homecoming was right around the corner and everybody was getting ready for the big game.
I walked home from school, my car sitting in my driveway with two flat tires. I knew that one of the twins had punctured them, but yet I was still the one who was blamed. My tires had a funny way of going flat at least once a week and both Eric and my mom were getting fed up with having to replace them. When I attempted to claim it was one of the twins – most likely, Alex – my mother scoffed and grounded me for a week.
All five school days, I’d spent the afternoons locked in my room, desperate to ignore the loud, blasting music from Asher’s room. If I dared to go anywhere in the house, Alex messed with me in any way he could.
If I was eating, he’d stick his fingers in my food. If I was watching television, he’d steal the remote and change the channel to porn. Even when I attempted to use my computer in my room, Alex would disable the wireless modem to prevent me from even that bit of entertainment.
He was tortuous and didn’t care that he was slowly destroying my life.
The bell rang and my moan of displeasure was drowned out by the excited laughter and chaos of the students pouring out the room. I took my time packing my bag, my head hung low as I left.
The walk home took almost an hour because I used every road that would stretch the fifteen minutes into something longer. However, I’d grown tired of being outside, tired of the heat and tired of walking around alone. Slamming my hand down on the knob of the front door, I used my other hand to hitch up the strap of my backpack. I could hear Asher’s music already and knew Alex was lingering inside ready to pounce.
Opening the door, I was greeted with an enthusiastic, “Welcome home, Kelly. What took you so long?” The undertone of cruelty coated each of his words.
“Hey, Alex.” I walked past him in the direction of the stairs. I didn’t have time for him today, didn’t care to be pushed around or humiliated in some way or the other.
He called to me as I took the stairs two at a time. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t your birthday coming up soon? You’re going to be eighteen and all grown up.”
“I know,” I answered. “I can finally move out of this place and get my own apartment. Guess you’ll miss having me around.” Quickly moving down the hallway, I retreated to my room and slammed the door shut before locking it.
Tossing my bag to the floor, I grabbed my laptop and jumped up on my bed. My pillows were a soft wall at my back when I flipped open the screen and played on social media for the ten minutes before Alex could turn off the wi-fi.
He was such an ass.
I placed my laptop on the side table and lay down. The sun was shining brightly through my bedroom window casting shadows across my floor from the curtains flowing in and out of the sunbeams. I hated the idea of moving away from my mother, but with my birthday coming up in two weeks, I couldn’t imagine purposefully remaining here.
I would have to get a job to pay for an apartment, and that would take a toll on my schoolwork, but I was willing to give up the scholarship I’d worked so hard to achieve just to get away from Asher and Alex. I hated them that much.
Luckily, Asher didn’t humiliate me at every turn, like Alex, but his weird obsession was starting to scare me. He would watch me when we were in a room together and always managed to sit next to me at the dining room table. It wasn’t much better at school. Even with his arm draped around his choice in blonde for the week, his eyes were always glued to me.
I didn’t understand why he watched. I wasn’t his type. My hair was cut short and was a tawny brown. I was tall and lanky, not curvy like the girls he always dated. Both boys were on the lacrosse team and they had their pick of the girls at the school.
What was so interesting about me?
Chapter Three
My birthday was in two days, and as usual, my mother was already sending me a barrage of text messages wanting to know what I wanted. So many times, I’d texted out a reply requesting that she pay for my deposit for a new apartment, but erased the message before hitting send.
How would I tell her I was leaving? She would never believe me when I said that it wasn’t about her, it was about the torture I’d endured at the hands of Eric’s twins.
Everyday I searched the want ads in the paper for part time jobs that I could work while also attending school. The pay rates were ridiculous and all the decent jobs went to people much older than me. The recent dip in the economy was all over the news and I was concerned that the job market was too thin for me to find anything that could pay my bills.
“Hey, Kelly.” Asher’s voice sounded from the opposite side of my bedroom door followed by a soft knock. “Can I come in?”
“No.” It was an immediate response and my final answer. I never let either of them into my room. I couldn’t control the space when I wasn’t home, but when I was, I kept the door locked as often as I could.
“I need to talk to you, Kel. Please open the door.” He sounded sad and I found it odd that he used my nickname. Only my mother called me Kel. It was only three in the afternoon and my mother wouldn’t be returning for another two hours. There was no telling what type of prank they had hidden behind that door. I’ve been sprayed with every vile thing known to man, doused with buckets of water, sometimes even pushed around while they sang a stupid song they’d made up about me back in first grade. You would think that, now that we’re older, they would have let that song go.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t.
“Go away, Asher. I’ll only open the door when my mother is home. I don’t trust you or your evil twin. Fuck off!”
Yeah, I said it, but I was close to eighteen now and I was sick of their shit. From now on, I would say it like it was, despite whether I’d be in trouble with mom and Eric for having done so.
“C’mon, Kel, I need to talk to you about something. I promise Alex isn’t even in the house
. Check your computer. You have internet. If he was home, you and I both know the wi-fi would be turned off.”
Looking up from my textbooks, I laughed. “Nice try, Asher.”
Something hit against the door and I heard him beg, Please, Kel. I need to talk to you before Alex gets home. It’s important. Please.”
He wasn’t going to give up. “I’ll come out there, Asher, but you’re not coming in here.”
“Okay. That’s fine. Whatever you want, Kel. I just need to talk to you.”
Closing my book with a heavy thud, I pushed up from my bed and padded my bare feet across the carpet. Almost as soon as I’d unlocked the door, it flew open and Asher moved inside my room. I couldn’t stop him. He was so much bigger than me that even if I’d tried to push him out, it would have been useless.
“What the hell, Asher?” I screamed as he slammed the door closed and leaned back against it.
I was trapped.
His eyes were burning with something I didn’t recognize, the heavy pounding of his pulse visible in his neck.
“Don’t be mad, Kel. I know you don’t want me in here, but I have to talk to you and I’m more comfortable in here.”
“Well, I’m not! Get out!”
“Just listen to me, please!” He begged.
His brown hair was spiked up and styled, his green eyes sparkling like emeralds within the sunlight shining in through my bedroom window. His muscular chest was bare, his jeans hanging off his hips low enough that I could see that top band of his boxers. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit he looked good. And the thought that two of these perfect male specimens existed in the world seemed almost unfair to woman-kind.
“What do you want, Asher?”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I noticed the way his eyes lowered and stared at the cleavage my posture created. Quickly, pulling my arms away from my chest, I stepped back to place distance between us.
His eyes locked to mine. “Homecoming is coming up in five days.”
“Yeah? So?” I had no idea why he wanted to share the information with me. Of course, Homecoming was coming up. As usual, I wouldn’t be going because I couldn’t get a guy to come within five feet of me, thanks to Asher. Meanwhile, the twins would be escorting the beautiful girls they had somehow tricked into dating them.