Trick - A Stepbrother Romance

by Daire, Caitlin

  I arched an eyebrow. Once again, my Dad was being really weird. Life is short? Family is very important? I’d literally never heard him say anything of the sort.

  “So Mom is definitely okay with this?” I asked.

  He nodded. “She is.”

  Wow, thanks Mom, I thought. Way to throw me to the wolves!

  “What if I don’t want to take the job?” I asked reluctantly, already dreading the thought of having to be around Patrick all the time.

  He wrote a figure down on a piece of paper and passed it to me. “Here’s your starting salary.”

  I glanced at it, and my heart almost leapt into my mouth, which opened in a perfect ‘O’. No way could I turn down a job paying this much, even if I had to be around Patrick. I’d probably mine coal in the nude without any safety equipment if I was being offered this much. Ugh. In taking this job, I was practically selling my soul to the Devil. What choice did I have?

  “So you’ll take it?” Dad asked, folding his hands in front of him in a pyramid shape.

  I nodded slowly. “I guess I’m taking it.”

  He stood up. “Good. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  After he’d left, Patrick looked over at me again. “I guess you’re my babysitter now,” he said, reaching over and grabbing my thigh. “So, Miss Babysitter…do I have a curfew? Are you going to spank me if I stay out late?”

  I rolled my eyes and slapped his hand away. “Please. I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole, even if it was to spank you.”

  “I seem to remember you doing a lot more than touching me with a ten foot pole once upon a time,” he said.

  My whole face turned red, and I struggled to stop myself from slapping him. Luckily, my Dad came back into the office, preventing me from mauling Patrick to death.

  “I just need you to sign these papers,” Dad said. “And then we’re set. I’ll get someone to help you pack your stuff and move it into my guesthouse. Or you can take care of it yourself if you want. Sound okay?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Sure.”

  Think about the money and the experience, I told myself. Don’t think about Patrick.

  But even as I thought it, I knew that was impossible, considering my new job was literally to think about Patrick at all times and keep track of his every movement.

  Well, crap.

  CHAPTER THREE

  PATRICK

  I watched through slightly narrowed eyes as Lucy stalked out of her Dad’s office, almost hypnotized by her curvy ass as it swayed from side to side. Damn, she looked good. And she still hated me, which was exactly what I wanted and needed.

  I’d treated her like shit back in high school, and I’d regretted it ever since. I’d been an arrogant little son of a bitch back then, and all I’d cared about was maintaining my reputation amongst my peers. That entailed hanging out with certain people and acting in a certain way, and Lucy Martinez definitely didn’t fit in with any of that. I’d always noticed her around; the shy, quiet brunette in a slightly baggy uniform that did nothing to conceal her developing curves. We’d never spoken until my bio teacher asked her to tutor me, and even then I’d been a douche. I’d barely listened to her advice at first, although it was fucking good advice.

  And then one day something in me snapped. I couldn’t deny it any longer. I wanted her, and I was going to have her. She wasn’t like the other girls at school. Well, not the popular ones I hung out with, anyway. She was smart, caring and beautiful…basically the complete opposite of the on and off girlfriend I’d had throughout most of high school. Jessica Watkins. Christ, Jess was a bitch, but she’d been the queen bee, so back then it made sense for us to date.

  Jess was your stereotypical Californian princess with long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, dazzling white smile and a perpetual summer glow. What most people didn’t know was how fake it all was. Her hair was dyed and given a helping hand by extensions, her naturally dull grey eyes were brightened by blue contacts, and her teeth had veneers. And that tan? Came from a bottle. A lot of guys were into that fake pornstar-ish kinda look, but I wasn’t. At least not anymore. Even back then, though, I’d been wary of chicks like Jessica. I’d fucked her and been seen with her, because of what that did for my reputation, but she’d never had a chance at breaking through any of my mental barriers and actually meaning something to me.

  Not like Lucy. She was real. She could’ve been that girl for me, but I’d screwed it all up before any of that could happen. I’d been a class-A moron and a fucking asshole.

  Jess had blindsided me in the hall the morning after Lucy and I had hooked up, telling me that we were getting back together before calling me out on what had happened with Lucy. Everyone was there watching, and they’d all been waiting with bated breath for me to respond. Which one would I pick - the princess or the nerd? Would I keep my stellar reputation or totally blow it?

  I wanted Lucy. I wanted to tell Jess that yes, what happened between me and Lucy had meant something to me. But at the same time, I’d been a total fucking idiot. I’d been selfish, and I’d cared way too much about preserving my reputation. At seventeen, bullshit like that just seemed so fucking important, and I’d been haunted by my decision ever since. The look in Lucy’s eyes when I’d said no had torn at my insides, and I hadn’t been able to look back at her when I walked away with Jess. I’d barely been able to look at her ever again. Fuck, if I could build a time machine and return to that moment, I’d change everything. I’d tell Jess and her evil little girl posse to fuck off, and I’d scoop Lucy up in my arms and tell her how I felt.

  But I couldn’t do that. I’d humiliated her. I’d ruined her. High school kids could be vicious little pricks, especially some of the girls at Christchurch, and barely a week went by when Lucy wasn’t being gossiped about or ridiculed in the cafeteria. I was pretty sure she ended up eating lunch in the bathroom most days because of it, and every time I saw someone calling out shit at her or whispering behind her back, I swore I could feel my soul ebbing away even further. No, scratch that. I didn’t have a fucking soul back then, not considering the way I’d fucked her life up.

  I tried to help in my own way afterwards, but it was never enough. I told people to leave her alone. I beat the shit out of a guy who was bragging about how he was going to take her under the bleachers after school and make her ‘give it up again’. I scrubbed lipstick-written notes off her locker whenever I saw them, and I even painted over something someone had written in the guy’s bathroom in permanent marker. Loosey-Lucy has the good pussy – verified by our man Trick. Whoever wrote that was a fucking asshole.

  But I was the real asshole. It was all my fault that it was happening, and I’d been too much of a pussy to man up and apologize.

  I’d thought that when high school was over, that would be the end of it. She’d be able to move on, forget about me and all the shit I’d put her through, and hopefully have a better life somewhere else. Of course, fate threw us a curveball in the event of our parents getting married. I knew I’d be forced to see her and interact with her after that, so I’d decided to make her hate me even more. I deserved all the hate I got from her, so I antagonized her at every opportunity and made her think that I was always going to be a fucking asshole.

  See, I knew what she was like. If I’d ever said sorry, she was such a nice person that she’d probably have forgiven me, and I didn’t want that. I didn’t want her to ever forgive me. I wanted her to treat me like garbage. That was all a guy like me would ever deserve from a girl like Lucy Martinez.

  Hurting her was one of my two main regrets in life. The other was how fucking cocky I’d been in high school when it came to thinking about my future, which had led to me making some shitty life decisions. You see, I’d always known I was fairly good-looking. It was hard to ignore the girls with their simpering smiles wherever I went, and I’d even been hit on by more than a few of my Mom’s friends when I was only fourteen or so. I’d also had a gift for the gab and a talent for acting, so I�
��d just assumed I’d become a famous actor and have everything handed to me on a silver platter for the rest of my life. As luck would have it, I had become famous for acting, but I’d realized too late that it wasn’t exactly what I wanted or needed in my life. Don’t get me wrong; the money, fame and attention was awesome, but I’d come to realize in the last year that it wasn’t enough.

  I didn’t want everything to just be handed to me because I was conventionally attractive. I wanted to actually use my brain for something, but I’d blown off my chances at going to college to act instead. If I hadn’t been so cocky, I might have stuck with my studies and been on my way to making something of myself; something more than a pin-up in teenage girl’s bedrooms. People like me never lasted long in this business. Everyone loved us for a few years, and then they moved onto the next pretty young thing, and in the not-too-distant future, those bedroom posters of me would probably be lying crumpled up in a landfill somewhere.

  “Son? You all right?”

  I jerked my head back around to see my stepfather, Ron, staring at me from the other side of his office.

  “Oh. Uhh…yeah, sorry. What were you saying?”

  “I was just saying you’re free to go now. Remember, you’re filming some scenes in the coming week.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  I stood up and made to leave, and Ron cleared his throat. “Patrick?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Go easy on my daughter. Like I said earlier, I know you haven’t always gotten along for whatever reason, but you two are going to be working together from now on, so I don’t want to see any more of this animosity. I expect both of you to try. Whether you like it or not, we’re all family. Act like it.”

  I nodded slowly. “Got it. See ya later, Ron.”

  Ron Martinez was a decent guy, even when he was pissed at me or anyone else. Lucy had been right earlier. I probably wouldn’t have scored half the auditions and gigs I did if it wasn’t for him tirelessly promoting me and vouching for me. Yeah, he probably did it for the sake of my Mom, but I was still grateful. He was a straight shooter, never bullshitted me about anything, and I was glad my Mom was with him. She deserved a decent guy after everything she’d gone through in my younger years.

  Abandoned by my biological father when I was only a baby, she’d worked two minimum wage jobs and scrimped and saved to try and give me a decent life. Unfortunately, her taste in men had been horrendous until she met Ron. Throughout my childhood and early teenage years, she’d gone through three abusive fuckwits who drank themselves into a stupor and tried to beat the shit out of her every other night until she finally worked up the courage to tell them to fuck off, one by one. She was like a magnet for those bastards.

  I’d tried to defend her by standing in her way and blocking the punches when they came, so there were more than a few times I’d shown up to school with cuts, bruises and a black eye. I told everyone I got them from fighting guys who’d tried to badmouth me, and in my elaborate lies, I’d always been the winner. Of course, that made everyone respect me even more. To them, I was the alpha bad boy who’d never back down from a fight.

  I still hadn’t lost that kind of reputation. The media loved a bad boy, and half the time I had paparazzi following me around, trying to capture me on camera doing something ‘bad’; something that’d help them sell more magazines and online subscriptions. And the girls…Christ, the girls. They were everywhere, fawning over me and begging me to fuck them.

  Shit, some of them were straight-out nuts. Zero respect for themselves. At a season premiere after-party a few months back, I’d gone for a piss only to find not one but three scantily-clad models waiting for me in the bathroom. And no, they weren’t there to make sure I washed my hands. Life was a regular pussy buffet for a guy like me, and while I was happy to take advantage of that, I didn’t get it. These girls all knew I wouldn’t get into a relationship with them, and yet they were still happy to throw themselves at me for a chance at…what? The ability to tell their friends that they’d fucked a celebrity?

  I lit what I assumed would be my final smoke for a while as I headed out of the studio and into the main parking lot, and my cell phone beeped a second later.

  Almost there. You done?

  It was my friend Alex. My car was getting serviced at the moment, so he’d offered to come pick me up when my meeting with Ron was over.

  Yeah, just waiting in the east parking lot, I texted back.

  He pulled up in his pale yellow VW bug a few minutes later, and I rolled my eyes.

  “This car, man…you’re practically a woman,” I teased, leaning down to get in.

  He laughed. “I wish I was a woman. Then I could wear more makeup in public without everyone staring at me.”

  He dramatically fluttered his dark eyelashes at me, and I grinned as he lit up a menthol cigarette. He only smoked them because apparently that’s what all the 1950’s screen sirens had smoked, and he idolized them. Alex often described himself as being ‘as gay as a bucketful of rainbow glitter’, and that was a fairly apt description. Some of my other buddies thought it was weird that we were such good friends, but I didn’t give a shit what they thought. His sexuality was none of my business, and he was a great friend. I’d never understood why anyone cared about what other people did in their private lives.

  “So, Mr. Werewolf, what was the meeting about?” he asked as he turned onto the road that led away from the studio.

  “Not a werewolf anymore, remember? That show is done.”

  He pouted. “Don’t remind me. Just when it was getting good…”

  “Don’t worry, there’s still the sixth season that you haven’t seen yet. Premieres on Friday. I think you’ll like the way it ends. Anyway, I scored a new gig on Six Angels, so my stepdad is trying to get me to clean my act up.”

  He widened his eyes. “Six Angels? I almost got a role on that last year, but they pulled out at the last minute. I didn’t fit their ‘wholesome image’, apparently.”

  “Sorry, man. I didn’t know.”

  He waved his hands. “Don’t stress. Not your fault. Besides, with the way everything is at the moment, you need to take whatever jobs you can get. Lord knows everyone else is. Even Pete Van der Kamp is off doing commercials in Japan because he hasn’t been able to find work here in ages.”

  Pete was a slightly more successful actor than me and a complete prick to boot, and I snorted at the thought of him falling from grace. What was it they called it when you found someone else’s misfortune amusing? Schadenfreude? Yeah, that was it.

  Alex concentrated on the road for a moment, and a wide grin spread across his face. “Wait a sec. I didn’t fit their wholesome image because I’m gay, but you...you were up to scratch?”

  “I know, right? Doesn’t matter that I fucked the casting director’s daughter a while back- both of them, actually – I’m straight, so they offered it to me.”

  He snorted, and I continued. “They did make me sign a morality clause, though. That’s why Ron is making me clean up. He’s hired Lucy to help.”

  “Lucy as in your stepsister?” Alex replied, giving me a classic side-eye. “The one you…?”

  His voice trailed off, and I nodded. “Yeah. Her.”

  “Shiiiiit. Guess you guys will be spending a lot of time together, then?”

  “More than that. She’s moving up to our Calabasas house, probably as we speak.”

  “Wow. So you gonna keep up your douche act or what?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want her getting close to me,” I replied.

  As I spoke, I conjured up an image of her in my mind. She’d only gotten hotter in the last year and a half. Piercing hazel eyes that were no longer hidden behind glasses, full lips, and an ass that wouldn’t quit. And those tits…man, they were perfect. Not too big, not too small. Just a perfect handful.

  Alex sighed and cast a disappointed look at me. “Don’t you think it’d be easier if you just made up with her? I mean, I get that you want her to
hate you for what you did back then, but if you’re gonna be working and living together, I think you should try to bury the hatchet.”

  I shrugged. “Easier said than done. I wrecked her life. Even if I apologize, I don’t deserve her forgiveness. It’s just too late.”

  “It’s never too late to apologize,” he said quietly. “She doesn’t have to forgive you. She doesn’t have to like you. But if you at least start with an apology, it might help you both move on from all the shit that went down back then.”

  I looked out the window, watching as we zipped past the trees lining the road. It was smoggy as hell today, although for L.A. that wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary. As Alex sped up, I thought about what he’d just said. Maybe he was right. By being a dick to Lucy all this time, maybe I’d actually been making it harder for her to move on from what I’d done. Then again, I still didn’t want to risk bringing it all up with her. She’d probably punch me in the face.

  Not that I wouldn’t deserve it.

  “I’ll think about it,” I said.

  Alex nodded. “Good. How about we go get a drink?”

  “Fuck yeah.”

  “Don’t worry, I know a place where no one will recognize you,” he said with a wink. “Gotta protect that image now!”

  I rolled my eyes. Of course. My soon-to-be squeaky clean image. It was bullshit. No amount of good behavior in the media was going to change anyone’s mind about me. I’d probably be booted off the new show within three episodes, and I honestly doubted I’d even care if that happened. If it did, I’d have more time to concentrate on doing other shit. Maybe I could take some online courses or something. Better myself a little bit, for real.

  For myself, not for anyone else.

  Alex and I sat sipping on beers twenty minutes later in some backstreet dive bar, and he’d been right –hardly anyone gave me a second glance. It was mostly patronized by older guys who didn’t give a shit about teenage heartthrobs, and the only flicker of recognition I noticed was in the female bartender’s bright blue eyes. She eyed me up a couple of times after we sat down, but I wasn’t having any of it. The only woman on my mind right now was Lucy, as much I was trying to stop thinking about her.