My dirty girl.
I shook the thoughts away just as she turned her head back over her shoulder and muttered something at me. “Did you know about this at all?” she asked. “Was it your idea of a joke to not tell me we’re related now?”
“No,” I replied. I’d been just as shocked as she was, although I’d hidden it fairly well. “I had no idea. I didn’t even know your last name, let alone who your Mom was, until now.”
She rolled her eyes like she didn’t believe me, and we took our seats a second later. The hostess simpered something about how a waiter would be right with us, and I ignored her, keeping my eyes on Anya instead.
A moment later, a waiter appeared to take our orders, and as he poured water into our glasses a moment later, Christina smiled at me from across the table. “It’s so nice to see you again, Cam. It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, I think it’s been about three months since we last saw each other,” I replied. “That’s ages. It’s half as long as you two have known each other, after all.”
Dad stiffened and squared his jaw. “Cam…” he said in a warning tone.
“What?” I said, holding a hand up. “It was a joke.”
“We’ve been over this,” Dad replied. “Your jokes aren’t very funny, son. You have the sense of humor of a prepubescent boy.”
Anya snickered beside me.
“I thought it was funny,” Christina replied, winking at me. Hmm. Maybe she was cooler than I’d initially thought.
Dad rolled his eyes. “You’ll get sick of his silliness one day, sweetheart, believe me. So anyway, how’s college treating you, Anya?”
“Good,” Anya replied. “Very busy, though. My management minor requires a lot of hands-on work. I’m actually meant to get an internship for it soon.”
“Any luck finding anything?”
She shook her head. “No, but I’ll keep looking. It’s New York. There’s always something.”
“That’s a good attitude to have,” Dad said with an approving nod. “Hopefully you’ll rub off on your new stepbrother.”
He looked at me and raised his eyebrows, giving me a thin smile, and I grinned back at him. He was just giving me shit; he wasn’t actually angry at me or anything.
“I’d rather rub off on you,” I murmured to Anya, pretending to lean over to grab my glass of water.
“Careful, or I’ll tip that one on your head too,” she whispered back.
I chuckled. I had to admit, she was witty, and that made it even more fun to play with her and make her squirm.
She ignored me for the next fifteen minutes to keep talking to my Dad, and I made small talk with Christina until our meals and drinks arrived, upon which my father tapped a teaspoon against his wine glass.
“Okay, everyone. Before we eat, I just want to properly thank you two kids for being here. I know this marriage came as a big shock to you, but not much is going to change for you other than the expansion of your family. You both already live on your own, so there’ll be no need for anyone to move when Christina moves in with me,” he said, looking at me and Anya before turning to her Mom. “And Christina...thank you for being you. I’m the luckiest man on earth. I can’t wait till the move is finalized, so that we can spend every night together for the rest of our lives.”
Ah, my father…ever the romantic. Let’s just hope it stuck this time.
He nodded at me and Anya, and we raised our wine glasses as Christina beamed at him. “Cheers,” I murmured before emptying my glass into my mouth.
“You’re supposed to drink wine slowly,” Anya said, looking at me. “Savor it. That way you get the best taste.”
I smiled at her and arched one eyebrow. “There are better things to taste at this table.”
She blushed, and I dipped my fork into my boeuf bourguignon. “Such as this,” I continued. “Tastes amazing. Didn’t think I was talking about you, did you, sis?”
“Of course not,” she replied in an acid tone before checking to see if our parents were listening. They weren’t. “I’m going to the bathroom. Can you meet me outside it in three minutes?”
“Sure. I’ll bring condoms.”
“God, you’re gross,” she hissed, standing up and pushing her chair in. “I just need to talk to you about something, that’s all.”
She excused herself to our parents and stalked away. Curious as to what she had to say to me, I headed to the restrooms exactly three minutes after she’d left the table. Who knows? Maybe she’d finally tell me why she left me high and dry without any explanation last year.
“Good, you’re here,” she said as I strode up to her. “Look, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but please don’t tell your Dad or my Mom what happened between us at that party.”
Ah, so that’s what this was about. She wanted to know that her shameful little secret was safe.
“What makes you think I’d tell them?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I guess it’s just the way you’re acting, and the comments you keep making. They aren’t blind, deaf or stupid. If you keep doing it, they’ll catch on eventually.”
I took a step closer. “Maybe I like doing it,” I murmured. “I seem to remember you liked it too, once upon a time.”
She shied away. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. Just keep it up, Cam. See what happens.”
I smirked. “Oh, I plan on keeping it up for you, princess…if you catch my drift.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Can you ever take anything seriously, even for just two minutes? Or would you explode and die if you didn’t get to make a sleazy, childish joke every five seconds?”
She was right. I found it hard to not always be joking around and making light of situations. What she didn’t know was why I did it. It’d always been easier for me to mask pain and sadness behind a layer of jokes and tomfoolery rather than admit any of it to anyone.
Ask any clown, they’d tell you the same thing.
“All right,” I said, taking a step back so that I wasn’t right up in her face. “Sorry. You’re right, and look…your secret is safe with me. I won’t say a word to our parents about last year.”
Her shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank god,” she muttered. “Thanks.”
I couldn’t resist getting in one final dig at her before I headed back to the table. “That doesn’t mean I won’t say anything about it to you ever again,” I said. “And it certainly doesn’t mean it won’t happen again…”
I could practically feel her rolling her eyes to the ceiling as I turned away from her, and she called out after me.
“Dream on, Cam. It won’t happen again. Ever!”
Sure, princess. Keep telling yourself that.
I’d thought about Anya every day for the last eighteen months, and I’d always hoped to run into her again. Some people might say it was just a coincidence that she was my stepsister now, but I knew it was more than that. It was a goddamned sign, not that I’d ever believed in that sort of shit until now.
I’d spent so long wanting her, so much time searching for her to no avail. Now the universe had done me a solid and handed her to me on a silver platter, and I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity I’d been given. However, I was going to toy with her a little, just to get her back for leaving me the way she had.
One day, one way or another, Anya would want me again, and when that happened, I was going to make her beg for it…
Chapter 4
Cam
I was hard as fuck.
After dinner last night, I’d come home to my apartment and gone straight to bed with Anya still on my mind, so it was no wonder that I’d dreamed of her all night and then woken up with a serious case of morning glory.
Groaning, I sat up and looked at the clock to see that it was already after one in the afternoon. I should have been awake hours ago, but all I wanted to do was lie around in bed, thinking of my new stepsister. As I settled back under the sheets, I reached down into my boxer shorts and stroked up and down my hard shaft, closin
g my eyes and remembering the first time I’d met Anya.
It had been a fairly typical night for me until I’d seen her. I was still on the racing circuit at that point, and my team and I had been celebrating a recent win with a rager at my apartment. People were drinking, smoking, hooking up...just the usual. I’d only had one beer because I’d wanted to keep a sober eye on things and make sure no one fucked my apartment up, and that was when I’d first spied Anya out of the corner of my eye.
She’d been standing in the corner, nursing a glass of champagne. As much of a sleaze as this made me sound like, the first thing I noticed about her was her incredible body. Her hourglass figure was accentuated in a dress which flared out around her waist, and her cleavage almost made me drool.
The second thing I noticed was her gorgeous brown eyes, and the third thing I noticed was how glum she looked. I’d never met her and had no idea what she was doing at my party, but I felt compelled to go and talk to her…and not just because of her amazing tits.
“What’s up?” I asked, heading over to her and grinning. “You look like someone just died.”
She jerked her head up and looked at me. “Maybe someone did just die,” she said, her voice solemn.
“Oh. Shit. Sorry, I…”
She smiled. “I’m just screwing with you. No one died. At least no one I know. I’m just a bit pissed at someone.”
So she had a good sense of humor. I liked that. Most girls I partied with were shallow, ignorant and about as interesting as an empty pizza box…with equally empty heads. But not this girl. I could already tell that after just ten seconds with her.
I still didn’t know who she was, but that only made the chase more interesting, though I guess it wasn’t much of a chase. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I was going to have her. Exactly how and when were the only questions.
“Smartass,” I replied. “Well, this is my apartment, and beautiful girls don’t get to be upset in my home. So tell me…who’s got you all riled up?”
She arched an eyebrow. “Do lines like that usually work for you?”
I feigned a shocked expression. “Lines? What line?”
“The ‘beautiful girls don’t get to be upset in your home’ one. I mean, come on…”
“Well, you are beautiful,” I said with a wink. She blushed and glanced down at her feet. “But you’re right. That was totally a line.”
“Well, I’ve got a line for you, too,” she replied, looking back up at me. “You can use it on other girls, if you want. I won’t copyright it.”
“Oh yeah? Hit me with it, then.”
“Did you fall from heaven?” she asked, affecting an innocent, wide-eyed expression.
I grinned. “Are you saying I’m an angel?”
“No, I’m saying it looks you fell out of the sky and landed on your face.”
I chuckled. “Good one. I’ll definitely use that. And I think ‘smartass’ is gonna have to be your new nickname.”
She smiled, but her face soured almost immediately as she looked across the room.
“So who upset you?” I asked, following her gaze.
She nodded towards a pale blond guy on the other side of the room. He was a friend of a friend, but I couldn’t remember his name.
“See him?” she said. “I’m meant to be on a date with him. Only ten minutes after we arrived, he started making out with some other girl. Oh, and I’m pretty sure he’s high on coke, which kinda disgusts me. No offence, if you’re into that sorta stuff.”
“None taken. I don’t like drugs either. He sounds like a fucking dick,” I replied, glaring at the guy. Did he not realize what he was missing out on?
“Yeah. I don’t really know anyone else here, so I’m just going to drown my sorrows in this champagne, and then I’m going to go home.”
“Aw, don’t be like that. Stay!” I said. “It’ll be fun.”
“Kinda hard to have fun when my date has his tongue down another girl’s throat.”
The guy was indeed playing tonsil hockey with some skanky-looking peroxide-blonde chick now, and I rolled my eyes. “Are you really all that upset about him? He’s a dick, and like you said, he’s high as fuck. You don’t wanna be dating a fucknut like that, do you?”
“No, it’s not really him I’m upset about. It’s just…oh, never mind. You’ll think it’s stupid,” she replied, looking down at her feet again. It was adorable how she acted when she was embarrassed.
“I promise I won’t think it’s stupid,” I said. “Scout’s honor.”
She snorted and looked back up at me. “You don’t look like you were ever a scout.”
“Whatever. Tell me anyway. If I laugh at you, I promise you can tip your drink on my head.”
She giggled softly. “I’ve always wanted to tip a drink on someone’s head,” she said. “Okay, fine, I’ll tell you. I was mostly just excited about tonight because this is the first real party I’ve ever been to. So I guess I’m just upset that it turned out to be such a downer.”
“That’s not stupid at all,” I replied. “But you shouldn’t leave. Fuck that guy. Hang out with me and have fun.”
She smiled shyly. “Do you really want to hang out with some whiny girl who you don’t even know?”
“Sure, why not? Your first party should be a good one. I’m Cam, by the way. Cam Meyers.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh! I had no idea. You’re that guy.”
I grinned. “That guy, huh? Jesus, you make me sound like a notorious ax murderer.”
She blushed even more. “No, I’ve just heard about you. You’re kinda famous. I saw something in the papers about you winning some big car race, but the photo was pretty grainy, so I didn’t recognize you until you said your name.”
“I do tend to look better in person,” I said, pretending to preen myself like a peacock.
She laughed, a tinkling sound which made something feel warm and tingly deep inside me. “Sure, sure. By the way, I’m Anya,” she said.
“Nice to meet you, Anya. So why don’t we show your dumbass date what he’s missing out on by having tons of fun without him?”
“Okay. You’re on,” she said. “But if I don’t have fun, I’m going to call the papers and make them write an exposé about how lame your parties are…seeing as you’re famous and all.”
I chuckled. “Fair enough. Let’s go. I’ll introduce you to some people.”
She seemed to be a little shy around new people at first, but once I’d introduced her to a whole bunch of my friends, she quickly became more open and confident. She’d only had a few sips of her champagne, so all it had really taken for her to come out of her shell was a bit of encouragement. I liked that about her. She didn’t need to get wasted to have fun like so many other girls did.
She was just a totally cool chick, all on her own.
She was in the middle of recounting some hilarious story about something that had happened at her new college when her date from earlier came stumbling over.
“What the fuck?” he slurred, looking around at the group of people surrounding her. That included me. “I told you not to talk to any other guys tonight!”
She glanced at me, and I nodded at her. That seemed to give her all the reassurance she needed to tell this douchenozzle to fuck off, and she glared at him defiantly.
“Leave me alone, Dave. Do you seriously think you can order me around and ban me from talking to guys when you’ve just spent the entire night with your lips almost surgically attached to another girl’s mouth?”
“That’s different,” he said. “It’s different for guys.”
“Uhh…no, it isn’t,” she replied, her forehead wrinkling.
His face darkened, and he stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “Don’t be a fucking bitch. You’re mine, and you’re coming with me,” he said.
Fuck that noise. “Don’t you dare touch her like that,” I growled.
I easily tore his hand away from its grip on Anya’s arm, and then I shoved him,
hard. He went flying backwards and landed on my coffee table, which almost broke under his weight as he hit it, and he slid down onto the floor with a moan. He was so off his face that he could barely get up, but when he finally managed to do so, he stumbled back over to us.
“Back for more?” I asked. “How about you save me the trouble and get the fuck outta here?”
“Don’t want no more trouble, man. I’m just here for her,” he said, his tone still savage. Man, he was even higher than I’d initially thought. “She’s mine, and I’m taking her home.”
“Actually, she’s with me,” I replied. “And this is my home you’re in, so you better get the fuck out right now before I throw you off the balcony, shit-stain.”
His pinpricked eyes focused dimly on me for a long moment, as if he couldn’t understand a word I’d said, and then he looked back at Anya.
“He’s right,” she confirmed. “I’m here with Cam.”
And then she did something amazing.
She kissed me.
Jesus, that was unexpected…but perfectly welcome. She launched herself at me and wrapped her arms around my back, standing on her tiptoes as she pressed her warm lips to mine, and I responded immediately, sliding my tongue into her mouth as my hands roamed all over her curves.
“Time to go, Dave,” some of my friends said in the background.
At least that’s what I thought they said. I could barely even make out the sound of their voices, because my mind was too caught up in my embrace with Anya.
She tasted like heaven, and her dark, wavy hair smelled of cinnamon and vanilla. I pulled her closer as her body trembled against mine, and she moaned into my mouth as I deepened the kiss. I was pretty sure that if I died now, I’d die a happy man.
All from one kiss.
“He’s gone, guys! You can stop pretending now.” Another friend of mine interrupted us, and Anya pulled away. Fuck. I hadn’t been pretending.
She gave me a shy smile and touched a hand to her lips. “Thanks for playing along,” she said. “I figured that’s what it would take for him to finally take the hint and leave, short of you actually throwing him off the balcony.”
“No worries,” I said. “But I wasn’t playing along. I meant it.”
Bad Boy - A Stepbrother Romance Page 24
