Stepbrother Romance Complete Series

by Ava Grace

  I continued to shake as I got in my car and started up the engine. I sat there for a moment seething then grabbed my cell phone and dialed Mia’s number.

  “Seth?” she answered after a couple of rings.

  “I need to see you,” I said by way of greeting. “I’ll be home in five. Come for a drive with me.”

  “Okay,” she said without hesitation. “Is everything okay?”

  Was it? I didn’t know how to answer her question. “I’ll see you in five,” I said before hanging up the call and putting the car in drive. I actually made it home in four minutes according to the clock on the dash, but Mia still waited for me on the sidewalk at the bottom of our front yard. She got in the car then put on her seat belt before turning to face me. Her mouth fell open.

  “Is that blood on your face?”

  I avoided her inquisitive stare then got us moving before replying to her question.

  “Yeah, it is.”

  She gasped. “What the hell happened? Are you hurt?”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s okay, it’s not my blood.”

  She frowned. “Then who does it belong to?”

  I sighed. She was going to find out anyway so it would probably be best if she found out from me.

  “Seth?” she prompted when I didn’t answer her right away.

  “It’s Dean’s,” I said after a moment. “He was over at Ethan’s place.”

  She froze, staring across at me with wide eyes. “Why do you have Dean’s blood on you? Seth, what did you do?”

  I took a few turns, driving the car mostly on autopilot, unsure where I was going, but not really caring. I guess we’d end up where we ended up.

  “I punched him,” I said. “Broke his nose.”

  “Good,” she said, surprising me. She was always surprising me. “He deserved it. Do I want to know what he said to provoke you?”

  I shook my head. “Probably not.”

  Another frown creased her brow. “Right. It was bad then.”

  “Would you expect anything else from him?”

  “No, I guess not.”

  We drove in silence for a while before I got on the Pacific coast highway and headed towards Malibu. I’d made the drive all the way up to San Francisco once. It had been beautiful and I’d vowed to myself that the next time I did it, I would take Mia with me. I wanted to take her everywhere—show her the world. I’d give her it too, if I could.

  “What do you want to talk about?” Mia asked. “I know you didn’t invite me on this trip just to show me the scenery—however pretty it might be. What’s going on in your head?”

  I sighed. “I’m sorry about this morning. After what happened between us, I was…confused. I reacted badly. I should have talked to you earlier, I just didn’t know what to say.”

  “And now?”

  I looked across and met her gaze. “I still don’t know what to say. Not really. I mean, I know how I feel about you, Mia. That’s not in any doubt, but the crap I got from Dean today is only the tip of the iceberg.

  “Are you ready for that? Do you think you can handle it? Because it’s not going to be easy.”

  She stared at me, her gaze strong and steady—knowing. “I never thought for one minute that it would be easy. Nothing that’s worth having is ever easy, but that makes it all the more worthwhile when you finally get what you want, doesn’t it?”

  I nodded. “I guess you’re right. It does.”

  “Besides,” she went on. “Anyone we give a damn about will come around eventually. They’ll do it because they love us and want us to be happy. And everyone else? I don’t really give a crap about what acquaintances or strangers think about who I decide to spend my time with. If anyone has a problem with the person I love then they’re more than welcome to get the hell out of my life.”

  I barked out a laugh. “Eloquently put.”

  She giggled. “I thought so.”

  I put my hand on her knee and she covered it with her own hand making me feel instantly calmer. How did her touch have the capacity to soothe me like that?

  “Tell me, when did you get so wise?”

  She turned to stare out of the passenger window, grinning wryly. “Someone has got to be the smart one in this relationship. It might as well be me.”

  I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “So we’re in a relationship now, are we?”

  When she looked back at me, her expression had cleared, the bravado had gone and there was a vulnerability to her now that hadn’t been there before.

  “I’m yours,” she said quietly. “If you’ll have me.”

  There was only one answer I could give and not that and now that I came to think about it, I’m not sure I ever had a choice when it came to Mia. It was as if her soul had entwined with mine on the moment we first met and now she had my heart, too. I shook my head and she must have assumed the wrong thing because her expression fell. I turned my hand around and linked our fingers together.

  “I’m the one who belongs to you,” I said. “So the question is, will you have me?”

  “Hmm,” she murmured. “I might need to think about…”

  “Hey!” I protested and she giggled—the sound so light and carefree.

  “I’ll have you,” she said at last. “Now, tomorrow, always.”

  A slow smile spread across my face and my heart burst with love for my stepsister. “I can live with always,” I told her.

  And I would.

  The End

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  Read on for a sneak preview of my upcoming release – His To Take, a contemporary new adult story, book one in my new bad boy romance series.

  His to Take

  Chapter One

  I tugged at the collar of the crisp white shirt, my best friend Roman had made me wear and thought about the way I could murder him when I next saw him. I’d decided strangulation was a good way to go about it. After all, his goddamn bow tie was strangling the life out of me. That would serve the fucker right for asking me to take his place at this shindig in the Hamptons, waiting on people with more money than sense. Not one of them had looked me in the eye as they’d taken a glass of champagne from the tray I was lugging around.

  I mean, I know I was so far beneath them we were practically from a different universe, but I didn’t actually have two heads. Would it kill them to acknowledge me or to say thanks for the drink? I guess it would. Man, I had no idea how Jacks put up with this shit on a regular basis. The longer I schlepped my unwilling body around the room, the more I resented being there. I kept fantasizing about stripping off the monkey suit and parading around in my wife beater, just to see how long it would take them to call security to have my ass hauled out of there. Once they got a gander at all the tattoos I was sporting under the shirt, I didn’t reckon I’d last more than three or four minutes in the room, five tops. The thought made me chuckle.

  “And just what do you find so amusing in this room full of stiffs?” someone asked from over my shoulder.

  I turned and as my breath got caught somewhere in the vicinity of my throat, my dick tried to fight its way out of my pants. The girl in front of me had to be around my age of twenty, give or take a year or two. Her long, dark hair was in some sort of up-do that looked like it had taken hours to get right. She was dressed similarly to the other women in the room—in a little white mini dress that probably cost more money than I’d know what to do with.

  I tried to get some air in my lungs as I nodded to the tray. I cleared my throat. Twice. “Champagne?”

  “I’m not old enough,” she informed me with a smirk. Regardless, she plucked one of the flutes off the tray and downed the contents in one before replacing the glass with a wink. “Thanks. I needed that. I’m Cassie, by the way. And you are...?”

  I had just untwisted my tongue enough to try to force out a reply when a woman appe
ared at the girl’s side, her face twisted into an ugly expression that made her look like she’d swallowed a wasp.

  “Cassandra, what have I told you about drinking?” the woman seethed. “For god’s sake, the mayor is here, along with dozens of your father’s business associates. Why do you insist on embarrassing us at every turn?”

  A strong and sudden urge to protect Cassie rose up in my chest and in response to it, I took a step closer to her side. Who the hell did this woman think she was, anyway?

  “Don’t worry, Mother, I was just leaving,” Cassie said. “This party blows.”

  Wasp woman narrowed her eyes before turning on her heel and hotfooting it to a group of men stood nearby. She practically draped herself over one of them, leaning in to whisper in his ear.

  “Ah, I take it that’s your father she’s ratting you out to,” I said watching the display.

  Cassie looked over her shoulder then shook her head. “Nope, that’s his best friend. My mother’s lover. One of them. My father’s over there.”

  I hid my surprise as I turned in the direction she was nodding to and saw a cream suited, silver haired man with a girl who looked younger than Cassie plastered to his side.

  “Ah, and that’s your sister?” I said with a modicum of hope.

  Cassie giggled. “No. But I like your optimism.”

  I glanced around the room. “Is this some sort of wife swapping party?”

  She threw her head back and let out a peal of laughter that managed to somehow reverberate through my entire being. “That’s every day in the Hamptons,” she said when her hilarity had subsided. “I take it this is your first rodeo?”

  I nodded. First and last, if I had anything to say about it. “It sure is.”

  She pursed her lips. “Really. Well then come with me. I’ll educate you.”

  I was about to suggest that it probably wouldn’t have been the best idea for me to slack off my duties when she pulled the tray out of my hand and plonked it down on a nearby table.

  “There,” she said, grabbing my arm and leading me across the room. “Now you’re my guest. And as my guest, I’m going to show you around this horror show I call home.”

  “You live here?” I said, unable to disguise my surprise.

  The house had to be worth upwards of twenty mil—not that I’d ever had much time for expensive things. Still, it made me wonder what the hell Cassie was doing talking to me. Why wasn’t she giving me the stink eye like everyone else in the room?

  “I take it you like to piss off the rents,” I said as we made our way through a large glass conservatory then into a dining room that could have comfortably seated fifty people. I gestured to the monkey suit. “By spending time with the help.”

  She grinned. “I live to piss off my parents. It’s my one true pleasure in life.” She paused. “Does that make me a bad person?”

  I shrugged. Bad? No, but I’m guessing a therapist would have a field day with you.”

  “Oh, she does.”

  I politely ignored the fact that Cassie had just told me she has a shrink even though I was more than curious as to why a girl of her age would need one. I glanced around us as we headed for the large, winding staircase in the middle of the grand hallway. “Where are we going?”

  “My bedroom.”

  I nearly choked on my surprise. “I thought you said you were going to show me around.”

  “I am. I’m showing you my bedroom.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. And I was seriously on board with anything that might be about to happen in said bedroom, too. It had been a while since I got any Hamptons pussy and those girls were usually dynamite in bed. They were probably bored of their uptight tennis club peers and wanted to get their rocks off with a genuine blue collar New Yorker. I could get behind that. If you’ll excuse the pun.

  About the Author

  Ava Grace is a full-time writer who specializes in erotic romance and erotica, but she dips her toes in the waters of other genres too. She is British, but has lived in several countries and has yet to determine where she will finally settle. She shares her home with two very large, very boisterous cats. Ava appreciates each and every person who has taken the time to read one of her stories. If you have enjoyed something she's written then please leave a review, however brief. She'll be eternally grateful.

  If you'd like to contact Ava, her email address is authoravagrace@yahoo.com

  Ava adds new stories regularly so please check back often if you'd like to keep up to date with her new releases. Alternatively, join her mailing list to be the first to learn about her releases and upcoming projects. http://eepurl.com/cHiYJ1