“Britney Spears,” she finally admitted, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Circa 2007.”
“What?!” My voice was appropriately horrified as I glared at her. “You’re saying you’d rather be stuck in here with a derailed pop princess suffering a breakdown than with me?”
“Definitely,” she said with a grin. By now she was having fun with the little game we were playing, and all traces of her nervousness were long gone. “At least she’d entertain me by singing her greatest hits.”
“Oh, I do believe that is a challenge.”
My eyebrows shot up as I looked at her, and Rory groaned, knowing what was coming next. “Please, Finn, no…”
“OOPS!” I yelled at the top of my lungs and dramatically pulled her closer. She laughed, shaking her head. “I did it again…got lost in the game!”
I nudged Rory and she smiled at me, the cutest thing in the world. I winked, getting on with the song and shaking my ass as I sang the lyrics. Pretty soon, I had her doubled over with laughter and slowly joining in for the chorus.
“Oh baby, baby!” she sang, shaking her ass. Obviously, my eyes were glued to her behind at this point, and she caught me looking and blushed a deep shade of red. She didn’t scold me like I expected she would; instead she just kept laughing and singing into her invisible microphone.
It was probably the most ridiculous thing that could’ve happened in a broken down hospital elevator, but at least it got rid of the awkward tension between us. By the time we hit Lucky and were through Toxic and Work It, we were both laughing our asses off.
“You’re totally the next Britney,” Rory said, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes.
“Thank you,” I replied with a grin, which I followed up with a regretful expression. “They said that on X Factor as well, but even though I slept with Simon, I never had my big break.”
Rory laughed again, doing that adorable thing where she snorted, and I couldn’t resist any longer. She was so cute, so beautiful, so damned sexy. I needed her closer.
I grabbed her by the waist, and her laughter came to an abrupt stop as I pulled her towards me. She swallowed hard, looking up at me as I pressed her against my hard body. I made sure to keep her away from my erect cock, not wanting to scare her too much. But goddamn, I needed her close to me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered against her lips. She took a sharp breath as she realized just how close I’d brought us. “I couldn’t stop myself.”
She trembled like a leaf in my hands as I hovered only an inch away from the delicate skin on her neck. I wanted to kiss her so fucking badly, but I needed to keep myself in check. Rory wasn’t fighting me just yet, but she’d made it very clear on other occasions that she wanted nothing to do with me…and I couldn’t blame her for that, given the terrible impression I’d made on her so far.
Fuck, why did it have to be so hard?
“I know I shouldn’t,” I whispered, trailing a finger down her neck as she moaned under my touch. “I know it’s wrong to want this.”
“Finn,” she breathed under my lips, goose bumps rising on her tender skin as she turned her head to the side. “Please, I don’t think...”
“I know any second now, the elevator will start moving again.” I kept going as her voice trailed off, my lips murmuring the words against her neck. “And then we’ll come out and play the good little stepsiblings again. But just for one minute, I want to pretend we don’t have to.”
“Oh god,” she whispered, turning her head so she was facing me again. And that was the hardest thing—having to look into those big, beautiful brown eyes and not be able to permanently claim the girl that owned them for my own.
“Will you be very, very bad with me, Rory?” I murmured. “Only for one second, I promise.”
I thought she’d say no.
I was wrong.
She looked into my eyes, and before I had a chance to do anything else, she stepped up on her tiptoes. Time stood still as our lips met, slow and hesitant at first before melting together in a sweet, innocent kiss.
Instant chemistry.
She still wants me. The thought exploded in my mind like a thousand fireworks going off, and I deepened our kiss, finding a new desperation in my heart, a need to have Rory even closer. My hands pulled her in by the waist until her breasts were crushed against my chest, her hips grinding against mine. She was so small compared to me that I had to lift her a little so she could reach my lips better. A surge of heat straight to my cock made me curl my fingers in her hair, and sweetness swirled in my mouth from the incredible taste of her lips and tongue.
I kissed her, knowing it was probably the first and last time I’d be doing so. Her lips were feverish, nibbling and molding to mine, and her tongue slipped inside my mouth, dancing with mine and easily convincing me that this. Was. Fucking. It.
It would never get better.
Rory Villanueva was it for me. I’d only known her for a couple of weeks, but that much I already knew. It was a damn shame nothing could ever really happen between us.
I pulled on my hoodie to reveal a sliver of her skin at the shoulders. So innocent, yet so very hot in that forbidden moment. I loved that she was wearing my clothes as well, already feeling possessive and loving my scent on her skin. I could barely feel the hum of the elevator coming back on; wasn’t even aware of the tiny space moving until I heard the ping. The door opened but still, I didn’t want to move away from Rory.
“Rory? Is that you?” a familiar voice interrupted us, and we sprang apart like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice cold water on top of us. Fuck.
We were totally busted.
Chapter Eight
Rory
Oh, fuck.
I usually never said the F-word, even silently in my mind, but this was a moment for cursing. My friggin’ grandmother was standing in the main hospital lobby, peering at me…and I’d just been kissing Finn.
What the hell was wrong with me? I didn’t like him. I certainly didn’t want him.
Bullcrap, part of my mind told me. Of course you do. He might be a giant dickbag half the time, but you can’t deny how sexy he is.
Okay, so maybe that was true, but it didn’t change the fact that it had been a huge mistake. Not only was he a self-confessed liar, he was my damned stepbrother.
I just hadn’t been able to resist him as he stood so close to me, gazing down at me with those smoldering eyes and murmuring sweet nothings into my ear, making shivers run down my spine as heat exploded between my legs. Try as I might to fight the urges and resist him, I hadn’t been able to in the end, and I’d even been the one to kiss him first.
Oh, yeah…I was the one who’d pressed my lips to his, not the other way around.
Everything about him had felt unbelievably intoxicating, and I’d had to work hard to stay on both feet, because believe me…I’d actually wanted to swoon. Finn’s hands on my waist alone had made me so wet that I’d been afraid it would soak through my panties, and I could still taste and feel him now; the way his lips had crashed against mine, the way his tongue had darted inside to taste me. A shock had zapped through me when he’d done that, running all the way down my spine in a sinful line. His fingernails had dug into my scalp as he fisted my hair and pulled me closer, and it had felt as though every part of me was waking up after a long sleep.
All that from one kiss…a kiss that I already regretted with every inch of my being.
Something horrible suddenly occurred to me. My mind had been too blank to even consider this earlier, but I had no idea if Finn was even single now. I hadn’t seen Candice around the hotel at all since I’d moved in, but that didn’t mean she was out of the picture entirely.
Great. I’d become the worst version of myself—the kind of girl who kissed a guy when she wasn’t even sure if he was single. All because I couldn’t resist Finn’s charms.
I was turning bad, just like him.
My cheeks burned with shame. “Um…I…” I stuttered something in my Grandma’s dir
ection, and it was then that I noticed she didn’t have her glasses on. They were in her hand; she must’ve taken them off to give the lenses a quick polish.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “When you didn’t meet me back up at Dr. Cummings’ office, I decided to come down here looking for you. Then I saw that one of the elevators was broken, so I figured you’d been trapped in it. I’ve just been waiting for you here.”
I exchanged a panicked glance with Finn. Was Grandma just pretending like she hadn’t seen what we’d been doing, or were her eyes genuinely that bad without her glasses?
“I…um…I’m okay, yeah,” I replied. “Sorry for the wait.”
“Oh, it’s not your fault. I was just worried,” she replied. She slid her glasses back on as she spoke. “Oh, hello, Finn. I didn’t even realize that was you. I was wondering why Rory was straightening a random man’s collar.”
Thank you, God, I silently prayed. Nice save.
“Um. Yeah, his collar was sticking up, so…yeah,” I mumbled stupidly.
I felt awful for lying to my own grandmother, but what choice did I have?
“Always such a helpful girl,” she said. “Now, I suppose you never got that Jello, did you? Come along, we’ll get some now. Finn, are you joining us?”
“No!” I said, a little too quickly and a little too loudly.
Finn gave me a strange look before turning back to my grandmother. “Sorry, Mrs. Villanueva, but I have to get to work, so I can’t,” he said in a stiff voice.
I stepped out of the elevator and turned to face him. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, not meeting his eyes. “I can’t do this…I just can’t.”
Then I turned and strode towards the cafeteria, only turning back to make sure my Grandma was following me. Finn was still staring at me, an intense gaze in his eyes, and it occurred to me that I was still wearing his jacket. I was too ashamed to walk back over and give it to him, but I supposed I could ask one of the maids at the hotel to return it to his room later so I didn’t have to awkwardly face him.
As I entered the cafeteria, I turned my head back over my shoulder again. This time, Finn was gone. I felt a stab of guilt for running away from him in the way I had, but I had no idea why I was feeling guilty for that. It was Finn. He was a prick, and it had just been one stupid kiss. It didn’t mean anything to either one of us. Right?
Wrong, the annoying voice in the back of my mind told me. Totally dead-set wrong.
Chapter Nine
Finn
The kiss in the elevator had not been mentioned again, and after a lot of trouble sleeping for a few days, I figured it was probably for the best. I’d be better off forgetting the whole thing ever happened, and it was obvious that was what Rory was doing, anyway.
The new normal was the old normal—working days in the hotel, nights in Helvetica…except now I’d get to see Rory and her family occasionally, giving me apprehensive smiles whenever we ran into one another in the hotel.
I tried to steer clear of Rory as much as possible. Not because I wanted to, fuck no, but because I figured she wanted me to stay away. She didn’t make any attempt to approach me or hang out, so I stayed out of her way and purposefully tried not to bother her. She’d had enough of my teasing, and even though it was even harder to stay away after the kiss, I made myself keep my distance.
Tonight, I was getting ready for a rager of a party. My friend Brian was having his bachelor’s extravaganza in my suite, and I was actually looking forward to it. Maybe some booze and strippers were all it would take for me to start acting like the old Finn Grayson again.
Still, I figured I should let Rory know that there’d be some commotion on her floor…at least that’s what I told myself as an excuse to go to her room. We hadn’t spoken in a week now, and the tension between us had been sky high the last time we were forced to have dinner together with the family. I also had a nagging feeling that her abuelita was on to us. Nothing seemed to get past that firecracker of a lady.
I shut the door of my room and strode down the hallway to Rory’s. My heartbeat had sped up for some reason, and I felt like a goddamn teenager, like most of the time when I was around her.
I was about to knock on her door and get it over with when I heard soft laughter coming from the other side of the door. My hand formed a fist and I waited. Did Rory have a guy in there with her? Jealousy streaked through my veins, making me tense and nervous. She couldn’t possibly turn me down and then bring some jackass to her room, right under my fucking nose, all within the space of a week.
Could she?
I stopped feeling like a horny teenage boy and launched into full-on thirteen-year-old-mean-girl territory by leaning against the door and eavesdropping. The sounds coming through the thick door were muffled, but I could just about make out what she was saying.
“I know, it was really funny,” she said, laughing softly. There was a long pause before she spoke up again, and I knitted my eyebrows together, trying to figure out who the hell she was talking to.
“Yes, Britney Spears! He’s a horrible, horrible singer, Dana. Seriously, I thought I would die laughing. So funny.”
Her sparkling laughter followed as I realized a few things.
One—she was talking on the phone to one of her girlfriends as opposed to the imaginary hunk I’d wanted to drag out of her room by his hair.
Two—she was talking about me. She was describing what had happened in the elevator to a chick called Dana, and apparently, she thought I was funny.
I realized I was smiling like a fool a moment later, so I quietly cleared my throat and tried to stay grounded. I listened for more, desperate to hear the thoughts which Rory would never tell me willingly.
“Yes, I know I’ve told you a million times.” She giggled in embarrassment, which only made my grin grow wider. “Oh my god, Dana, stop! He’s my stepbrother now, remember? Of course I wouldn’t!”
Was it just me or was her voice a little too shaky with nerves? So she had thought about me in that way, as much as she was trying to deny it. Little minx.
“Dana!” she gasped. “Don’t be so horrible! I would never, ever, ever, ever do that...no, you don’t get it. I could never sleep with him.”
Sure, I mouthed against the door. We’ll see.
“Stop calling me a social goblin! I know I need to go on more dates. And no, I will not take any more blind dates from you. We all know how that ended last time.”
Quite well, in my humble opinion.
“Don’t you dare! I am not going to a sex shop with you!”
Oh? Things had taken an interesting turn.
“I do not need a vibrator, Dana.”
Pause.
“No, not a butt plug either! Jesus, will you let it go?”
She was angry and giggling at the same time, and the whole thing was making me grin like a fool. I only felt a little bit bad for invading her privacy, mainly because I was learning some fascinating stuff about my sweet, innocent stepsister.
“Oh, okay. I’ll see you later for drinks anyway, right?” she said a moment later before pausing for a few seconds. “Yeah, I know you can only stay till eight, it’s cool.”
Another pause, which I used to back away a little, scared she’d exit her room at any moment and bust me eavesdropping the same way I’d busted her the other week. She said goodbye to her friend, and then nothing happened for a couple of minutes until I heard her speak up again.
“Room service?” she said, her tone more curt and professional. I realized she was one the phone again. “Yes, can I please get you to send up your special for dinner tonight? Uh, about nine P.M. Okay, thank you.”
She was ordering dinner for later on, probably wanting to make sure she pre-ordered the special before we ran out of the fresh rock lobster we were serving for dinner in the main hotel restaurant.
Oh, she was gonna get a ‘special’, all right.
I backed away from the door as quietly as possible, sneaking back into my own room with a devili
sh smile plastered on my face. My night was looking up; not just because of the booze and strippers, but because I had a very fun room delivery planned for Aurora Villanueva…
***
It was only a few hours later that I found a bare-chested, very busty and very friendly girl sitting in my lap, grinding against my cock.
“Come on, Finn,” she purred, her voice seductive and flirty as she twisted on my lap, trying to grab my attention. She couldn’t quite get me to commit to the lap dance she was busily performing, as my eyes kept drifting towards the door of my suite.
I was a fool.
Here was a gorgeous woman, sexy as fuck and ready to do anything and everything I asked of her….but I wasn’t asking, and I wasn’t going to. Judging by the wetness of the crotch she currently had pressed against my groin, I figured she was much more turned on than I was.
“Sorry, I can’t,” I grunted, pushing her off my lap. She pouted, but I couldn’t have cared less. I walked away, my steps slightly woozy as I made my way across the room.
The room was loud and boisterous, male voices cheering for the group of strippers someone had had the great idea of hiring. My head was fuzzy with the noise, and I needed to get out of here, fast, otherwise my head would explode.
As I made my way through the room, several of my buddies high-fived me and patted me on the back. I grinned and returned the happy cheers, though truth be told, I really wasn’t feeling the party. I was exhausted, and what was worse…all I could think about was Rory.
I got closer to the front door of my suite, and only when I was a foot or so away did I hear someone frantically knocking on it, like they were about to tear it down. I managed to stumble over before flinging the door wide open. The knocking ceased right away, and I looked down into a pair of familiar, warm and soft brown eyes. Only they weren’t particularly warm or soft right now; instead, they were blazing with angry fire.
Rory.
She barged past me and stomped into the main room, glaring at everyone in there. The thumping music spilled into the hallway, and I quickly closed the door after her to make sure we didn’t disturb anyone else.
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