Redeemed Book 2: A Military Stepbrother Romance

by Snow, Lucy

  “What was that about?” I hissed at him, trying to keep the smile on my face in case anyone was listening or watching us.

  “I saw you dancing with him.”

  “And? I like to dance with nice, attractive men, Harrison. Call me crazy but it feels good!”

  “We need to talk.”

  “I think we’ve talked as much as we need to, don’t you? You said all I needed to hear.”

  He looked wounded. “I need to talk to you, Laurel, please.”

  The way he looked at me with those big eyes of his, I couldn’t resist. No matter what he did to me, no matter how much he hurt me, I couldn’t help but give him another chance to at least explain himself. Maybe that was what our bond was all about.

  “Alright, alright. Let’s talk.”

  He brightened immediately, standing up straighter and taller than before. I felt myself start to get turned on, and I hastily tried to push that back. “Not here. Let’s go somewhere.”

  “Fine. Lead on.” We left the dance floor and moved around the hall looking for a place we could talk and not be disturbed. As we tried out different places I could feel James’ eyes meeting mine from the bar, as he raised a glass toward me. I smiled back, eager to get back to him when whatever Harrison wanted to say was done.

  Eventually we went out a door and down a hall and found ourselves in a courtyard with a fountain. The lights were on and there was soft music playing, but evidently the party planner had neglected to tell any of the guests about this place, because there was no one here but us.

  Harrison motioned to me and I sat down in front of the fountain, on a bench very similar to the one he’d taken me to in the forest.

  “I’ve made another huge mistake, Laurel,” he started, with a rueful smile. “I know you won’t be able to forgive me but I have to say this.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive, Harrison. You saw me dancing with James and now you’ve got all these thoughts in your head…”

  “This has been brewing for more than the last hour, Laurel, give me a little more credit than that.”

  “I don’t see why I should - you’ve definitely made and changed your mind about us in less time than that over the last few days.”

  He started to speak, opening his mouth and closing it a few times before he finally found the words. “OK, I’m sorry, and I deserved that. But please, hear me out. Yes, that was what set me off, seeing you dance with him. Of course, you’re free to do what you like, but I don’t have to like it.”

  I crossed my arms under my breasts and shivered slightly, the cold open air of the courtyard finally getting to me. A second later Harrison had taken off his jacket and thrown it around my shoulders. It smelled like him and I felt my resolve begin to crack.

  “And I don’t have to care what you think, Harrison. We lived like that for years and it worked out just fine.”

  He looked incredulous. “And after what’s happened since you got back is that how you want to go from here? Just like before? Do you think we can?”

  I shook my head, closing my eyes and wishing to be anywhere else. “I don’t know if we can, but it worked before.”

  Harrison leaned over, stopping his face in front of mine. “It didn’t work for me before, Laurel. It never did. I couldn’t stand not being able to tell you how I felt.”

  “You sure had a funny way of showing it.”

  “I was young and dumb and I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry about that.”

  He stood back up. “I’ve had some time to think about what I said last time, about fighting and wanting to. I realize now that you’re the reason I didn’t fight.” He looked at me. “You’re the reason I want to be a better person, Laurel, can’t you see that? I need you, even if only for my sake.”

  He turned around. “I may have saved you from Steve in the parking lot, but I need you to save me from now on. From myself.” He turned back to face me. “You’re so good for me, and I finally see that now. I don’t want to be another day without you.”

  “You’re not still scared about being found out, about being able to be ourselves around here?”

  “We don’t have to be here anymore. We can go somewhere else. I can choose where I go next, and you can come with me. We can make this work.”

  “And our parents? What will they say?”

  He sighed and closed his eyes before opening them again and speaking. “They’ve known how I felt about you. For a long time. Your father and I talked about it long ago. It was one of the reasons I left to join the military.”

  “What?!” This was all new to me.

  “He told me that if I came back and still felt the same way, he wouldn’t get in the way of us.

  I’d have to have a long conversation with my father some time very soon, but now was not the time.

  Harrison pulled up and close, cradling my face in his hands. I was unable to stop him, nor did I want to anymore. “I don’t care about what anyone else thinks, Laurel, I just want to be with you forever.”

  “Forever’s a long time, Harrison,” I said, skeptically.

  “I know. I hope so. Because I want to hold on to you as long as I possibly can, so forever sounds like a good place to start.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “How can I prove it to you? Tell me how.”

  I looked up at him, standing there in the courtyard, holding me so close, and I kissed him like I’d never kissed him or anyone before. “You just did.”

  Chapter 25 - The Love

  The open courtyard was no place for two people who needed a place to get busy. It wasn’t easy to find a place to be alone at a giant fancy anniversary party. Sure, you could find places to talk amongst yourselves, but finding a place where you could be free from worry of getting caught while you, ahem, got a little busy? That was a taller order.

  Luckily, Harrison was a tall guy, and in my crazy sky-high heels, I was no slouch in that department either. Unfortunately, the height that made them so sexy and so rare to wear also made it tough, or damn near impossible, to run in, so if we did get caught, we’d probably have some explaining to do.

  And it wouldn’t go well. There was no possible way it could go well.

  “Laurel! Harrison! What’re you two doing?! How could you?!”

  “We’re uh…checking each other for…ticks? Can’t be too worried about Lyme disease these days!”

  Yeah that wouldn’t really work and I didn’t want to even try to test it out. Maybe if I had some time to come up with a better excuse it might work, but I really had more important things on my mind. Like Harrison’s cock, And getting it inside me as soon as possible.

  So we kept looking, testing out different rooms in the hall, but not finding any that were a combination of unlocked and, you know, not a broom closet. The first broom closet we came upon, though, that was unlocked, Harrison was ready to go, and was about to push me into and up against the wall, when I objected.

  “No,” I said, putting my foot down and my hands at my waist, which had the undesired effect of showing even more cleavage than I thought. I’m sure Harrison appreciated in that; I was sure of it because I saw his eyes glaze over and he had to shake his head and refocus before I continued. “I appreciate the sentiment and the circumstances, Harrison, but I am not the kind of girl you fuck in a broom closet.”

  “What?” He sounded so ready to go, so excited, and then so deflated as he made sense of my words. “But this is all we can find! Come on!” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in.

  Jerk! His warm chest filled my view and I pressed myself against him. Like I didn’t now he’d try this, like I hadn’t been building up my tolerance, my resistance, to this in my head all this time. Who did he think he was dealing with here?

  The real thing was so much better, though. So, so much. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to. With as much force as I could muster I pulled myself away from harrison’s chest, pushing him back with my arms, till they were stretched out.

&nbs
p; Again, he looked down at my boobs spilling out of my dress, and smiled. I had him right where I wanted him. “Ahem, I’m up here,” I said, smiling.

  “Yes, hmmm?” He responded, eyes once again glazed over, not really understanding me. He was in another world, such was the power of breasts over men. Who said women didn’t rule the world? “Did you say something?” He looked lost, but not lost in a bad way. “I was thinking about something else….” He trailed off, eyes still glued to my chest. I giggled, conflicted between feeling objectified yet totally loving it at the same time.

  “Eyes forward, soldier!” With that, Harrison snapped to attention and focused on me. “We are not having sex in this closet, Harrison.” I made up my mind right then and there. He started to smile at the implication that we were going to have sex at all. “Take me home.” A girl’s gotta have standards.

  “You want to do it in your bed again?”

  “No,” I replied, looking him square in the face. “I want to do it in your bed.”

  Harrison paused, his eyes widening. “Are you sure about that?”

  I stared him down. “Absolutely.” I tried to make my voice as strong and unwavering as I could, but even I knew it had a little bit of a spike to it.

  Harrison’s bedroom was like the scene of the crime. The scene of many crimes. If there’d been this many actual crimes committed there, it would have been condemned years ago, biohazard tape and everything. Scientists would be pouring over the place taking measurements and readings with fancy gizmos, trying not to disturb the site of so many unholy rituals.

  “I think we can make that happen.” And then he grabs my hand and we were off. We headed out of the hall as quickly as possible, taking great pains to run into as few people as we could. Anyone we saw who asked the question, Harrison explained I wasn’t feeling well, and that he was taking me home so that I could rest. It seemed as good a story as any.

  In the parking lot, we jumped into Harrison’s car and sped off, Laughing to each other the entire time. The ride home was a blur, and I was a little afraid that Harrison’s enthusiasm would get the better of him and that we would get into an accident, but Harrison drove with as much control as you could, for someone driving with reckless abandon.

  The house was dark and empty when we arrived, and by the time Harrison pulled his car right up to the curb and shut it off, we both already had our seatbelt off and our doors half open.

  As soon as the front door closed behind me, Harrison’s lips were buried upon mine, and I thrust myself into him, clinging to his hard body, and not wanting to let go ever. I unzipped his coat and he unzipped mine, and in a frenzy of kissing and feeling each other up, each of us helped the other out of them, depositing the coats on the floor - we could pick them up some other time.

  We stood like that in the foyer kissing like it was going out of style, our lips dancing together, a dance that was both new and yet somehow familiar, and just as exciting as the first time we had done so. Harrison reached his hand around the back of my head, coiling my hair around his fingers at the roots. He was messing up my fancy hairdo from the party, but I had a hunch I wasn’t leaving the house tonight again. It might look strange, for someone who wasn’t feeling well to come back to the party.

  Each pull on my hair made me moan a little bit, the sound coming out of my mouth without conscious thought on my part. I couldn’t get enough of Harrison’s touch even over my dress, and I couldn’t wait for each of us to undress the other.

  But we should probably go upstairs to that. Harrison must’ve been reading my mind just at that moment, because I felt him notch me toward the stairs, and I was only too happy to accommodate, taking slow steps backwards my arms still wrapped around his neck, his arms still wrapped around my waist, our lips and tongues still joined together as we shuffled toward the staircase. We must’ve looked hilarious!

  Navigating the stairs while holding on to someone else, and not being willing to let your lips separate proved more of a challenge than both of us must’ve thought going into it. More than once we crashed hard, one of us sitting down on the stair while we both giggled and tried to keep connected. This was the kind of teamwork that true relationships were built out of, I could tell.

  Finally, we made it up the landing, neither of us worse for wear, and both just as turned on as when we’d started. This time instead of going into my room, we continued down the hall and ended up in front of Harrison’s room. I felt like he should run some police tape over the door, as if to warn people before they went inside. That might make for a good gift idea.

  I couldn’t remember a time before when I opened Harrison store without hesitation, but this time I did. I expected to see a horror show, with various girls underwear lining the walls, and a large list running down one wall listing the names of all the girls he’d slept with.

  But Harrison’s room was a lot more normal than I’d ever expected. In fact there was nothing in it besides a few photos that made it seem like Harrison’s. I remembered seeing glimpses of it back during high school, and all the band posters and other weird paraphernalia was gone now. It seems like a room that hadn’t been used very much a long time.

  Of course, right now I had other things on my mind. As soon as I opened the door and took a look inside, Harrison had grabbed my head and turned back around, bringing me in for a quick kiss. “Get inside,” he growled, and gave me the gentlest of pushes into the room. “I need you.”

  I didn’t have any reply, and just let myself be pushed into the room, exaggerating the push a little bit in order to fall on the bed on the other side.Harrison grinned and came after me, pressing me down into the bed with the force of his kiss. I clung to him with my lips, wanting to feel him on me as much as I could.

  We stayed like that for a few minutes, just exploring each other’s faces with our mouths, and I felt the desire welling up in me like a geyser about to go off, though this was definitely unscheduled.

  As we kissed, I pawed at Harrison’s clothes, unbuttoning his jacket first and then starting on his shirt before he’d even taken the jacket off. My dress would be a little tougher, but that could wait until Harrison couldn’t take it anymore - I was already at that point with him, I needed to see and touch his bare skin, and I needed him to press himself against me, and I needed it long ago, so we were already behind on time.

  And we had lots of time to make up for.

  I’d gotten halfway done unbuttoning Harrison’s shirt, showing the glint of his tattoos in the soft moonlight coming in through his large window, when Harrison finally shrugged out of his jacket and threw it across the room. I was one step closer.The tattoo snake across his skin, and as the light changed while he moved and breathed, it looked like they moved across his skin like animals. It was hypnotizing.

  When I got his shirt off, I let my hands drop to my sides and just breathed in deep, taking in his gorgeous chest and dark tattoos. His body was so perfect, and just the thought of him above me nearly made my toes curl.

  Harrison moved his head back and watched me admire him from below, a big smile on his face that stretched from ear to ear. I couldn’t help but swoon when he looked at me like that. Like I was a treasure, a present for him to unwrap. His hands moved up and down my arms, teased my breasts over my dress, and pulled gently at my hair, all the things he knew I liked.

  I licked my lips and turned to his belt. This time I would not be pushed away or held back, and I think Harrison could sense that, because he didn’t even try to stop me. I uncoiled the belt from around his waist and grinned up at him as I unbuttoned his pants. Harrison winked back at me. When I lowered his pants, Harrison stepped out of them, leaving him just in his boxers and socks. It was a look that made me giggle, and Harrison raised an eyebrow at me.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked, giving me a little love tap on the shoulder. “Never seen a guy in his boxers before?”

  “Oh you know I have,” I said coyly, “but the socks, they just make the entire look just work for
me. Please, Harrison, leave them on.”

  His eyes widened. “You really mean that?”

  I laughed and pushed myself further up onto the bed. “Of course, not, silly. Take them off. Now.”

  “Yes, m’am!” was all Harrison said in reply, as he already had picked up one foot and was busy getting rid of the sock on it. When he was done with both of those he quickly got rid of his boxers as well, and my gorgeous stepbrother was once again completely naked in front of me.

  I sat up on the bed, and made no attempt to hide that I was ogling him - I just couldn’t help it. He was all of the perfect men I’d ever seen rolled into one composite, and each time I saw him like this I wanted to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming.

  “You’re not dreaming, Laurel,” Harrison said, again reading my mind in that weird way he always seemed to be able to do, while he struck various modeling poses that made me laugh out loud. “I really am here in front of you, you’re really in my bedroom, and…” he trailed off as he leaned over and stuck his face right n front of mine, “I really am about to fuck you.”

  “Yes, please,” I murmured, my eyes closing, the moment getting a little too overwhelming. Harrison, for all his seeming mind reading powers, took this opportunity to ramp things up and kiss down the side of my face, to where my neck met my shoulder, bringing moans out of me that I couldn’t control. “You’re so wicked,” I breathed, still eyes closed.

  “Guilty as charged, Laurel, but you’re a little wicked yourself.”

  My eyes snapped open, and I glared at Harrison’s smiling face in between those sexy cringe-inducing kisses of his. “What do you mean?”

  “All night I’ve been trying to hide how hard I was getting at the party seeing you in this sexy dress. You know blue is my favorite color. You picked this dress out just to mess with me.”

  “Maybe a little,” I confessed, sighing in relief that my dastardly secret had finally come out. “I wanted you to notice me.”

  “Laurel,” Harrison started, this voice becoming hard all of a sudden, “I know I’ve been a little bit of a dick these last few days, but believe me, from the bottom of my heart - it would be impossible for me not to notice you.” I looked deep into his eyes and saw how earnest he was and my heart melted all over again. “Believe me when I say this, Laurel, you are my only lighthouse in this world. As long as I can see you, I know I will have both purpose and a place to go.”