Taboo Step Surrender (Steamy Twenty Book Box Set)

by Steply, Virginia

  Should I even send it? It seemed so audacious and flirtatious, but that was probably just my shyness talking. And the picture just looked too good, someone besides me should see it anyway. I tapped ‘send’ before I could have any more second thoughts.

  I waited nervously for a response. Then I placed the phone down and tried to relax again. But a moment later it buzzed.

  It was Julia.

  Let’s study for History?

  Sure, I texted back. Come over whenever.

  I groaned and stretched. I wanted to keep lying in the sun. I gathered my things and looked at my selfie one last time before finally making myself get up.

  ****

  I headed back upstairs and changed out of my bikini. I kept playing around with my phone, taking pictures of myself naked and sprawled on my bed. I looked at them inquisitively, checking myself out. I deleted them all but one.

  My phone buzzed--another message from Luca.

  Wow. I have most beautiful sister, haha. Sorry if my english not so good.

  I jumped on my bed excitedly.

  Your English is perfect. ;)

  I wanted to laze around, and I wanted Luca to text me back, but I had work to do. I pulled on a pair of old running shorts and a t-shirt. Julia arrived a few minutes later, lugging her books in a heavy backpack.

  “Hey,” she said. Her face looked bleary. But I it wasn’t from a late night partying--it was from studying for thirty hours straight and being sad.

  “You look really happy for some reason,” Julia muttered.

  “Oh?” I blushed. I’d felt so bold sending that picture to Luca, but in real life that wasn't anything like me.

  “Whatever. Let’s take this AP History test and fuck it in the ass.”

  “Julia,” I asked sweetly, “are you eating Jordan’s Adderall again?” She looked at me blankly.

  “Snorting it. Come on, let’s study."

  The day passed quickly. Sometimes I wondered if I would have my ridiculously high GPA without Julia there to push me. I could see the sun setting outside, painting the sky all kinds of orange and magenta. If there was one thing I was going to miss when I headed off for college, it would be watching the sun set over Texas Hill Country.

  “Let’s take a break,” I finally sighed. Her Adderall was probably wearing off anyway.

  “Okay,” Julia said. We walked outside and I jumped into the pool in my underwear, shrieking. Julia rolled up the legs of her jeans and dangled her bare legs in the water sourly. I grabbed my phone and took another selfie, in my wet bra with the setting sun in the background.

  “Check it out,” I said, showing the image to Julia.

  “Cute,” she said flatly.

  I wanted to put it on Facebook in the hope Luca would see it, but then thought better of it; first, my nipples were showing through the white fabric of my bra, which could get me into all sorts of trouble in the future; and second, it was too sexy, just not my style. I'm a good girl at heart, I really am.

  Still, I was feeling naughty and wanted to take more pictures, so I did. I laid down on one of the pool chairs and slid a thumb under the hem of my panties, pulling it away from my wet skin ever-so-slightly before snapping another picture

  “Oh my God,” Julia said, watching me. "What's gotten into you?!"

  “What?” I giggled.

  “Just because you’re hot now doesn’t mean you have to turn into little miss super slut.” Jake Hanson, the school's football star asked me out last week; it was news all over school. Yeah, okay, maybe it went to my head a little.

  “I’m just having some fun,” I smiled, putting my phone away.

  “Whatever. Sheesh.”

  “Ooh, a message from Luca!” I wiggled with excitement. He had just sent me a picture.

  ****

  I squirmed with consternation as I looked at it. Luca had sent me a picture of him sitting in a hot tub, presumably somewhere in the Alps, with a stunning snow-scape as a backdrop, full of craggy mountains behind him. But it wasn’t the setting, or his chiseled, shirtless body that piqued my interest the most. It was the two topless girls sitting on either side of him. He was holding them such that his arms covered their bare breasts, and the expression on all three of their faces was one of utter mischief. Luca, who had seemed so rugged and handsome before, looked like a total douchebag. And why would Luca even send me a picture like that? Obnoxious. My phone buzzed again.

  Sorry!!! Meant to send to my friend Daniela. For art project about social media and culture. I am making lots of pictures for her.

  Interesting, I thought. I looked more closely at the picture

  I hope I did not offend.

  No, I thought. Not really.

  It’s okay lol. It’s not every day people send me topless pics of hot Italian girls.

  Not only topless, he replied.

  Naughty boy, I sent back.

  Yes I have not been so good lately. You are only one to see this picture, aside from me and Daniela.

  I think we all have pictures like that.

  You do...?

  I bit my lip, thinking about the picture I had just taken of myself by the pool. Of course, sending it to Luca would be way over the line.

  Yes ;)

  If you were not my relative I would be thinking you were flirting with me.

  I pulled up the picture I’d taken by the pool, of me in my wet white bra with the sun sinking in the background behind me. The wind was waving my wet hair, and my skin was glowing in the faint orange light reflecting off the water. My lips were pursed in a tight smile, as if I were sucking on a secret.

  I sent it to him. I immediately regretted it. It wasn’t as if the picture was even that naughty, but my heart was pounding anyway. I waited for my phone to buzz with a lump in my throat, but ten minutes later I still hadn’t received a reply. I guessed that was that.

  I sighed. I’d probably weirded him out, and our correspondence was over. Maybe someday we would meet, in a moment of extreme awkwardness.

  ****

  “You sent him that?!” Julia looked at my phone with a dour expression as I giggled uncontrollably. It was the first picture, the one I had taken in my bikini.

  “That’s really hot,” she said after a moment of poring over my phone. It was hard not to hear the note of disappointment in her voice. We had both been skinny, plain-Jane girls with braces when we had first met each other in our 9th-grade Honors English class.

  “Amelia,” Julia said, her voice level with grave seriousness, “you know you’ll probably meet him in real life sometime, right? Like he’s not just some random boy in Italy you can flirt with. He’s your stepbrother.

  Whatever, I thought. I would probably be 23 or something by the time that happened. I was going to be crazy busy in college, with internships during the summer. If we did have a chance encounter years from now, so what?

  “Check out the next one,” I said, my voice suddenly a little breathy. I couldn’t wait to see the expression on Julia’s face when she flipped to the next message I had sent him.

  “Amelia! Oh my God!”

  What? I thought. It was just the picture of me in my wet bra. You could sort of see the outline of my nipples, but it wasn’t that bad.

  Julia pushed the phone across the kitchen table. She looked kind of pale, like she was going to vomit. Jeez, I thought, relax.

  I looked at my phone and squeaked with surprise. I hadn’t sent him the picture of me by the pool: I fucking sent him the one where I was naked and lying on my bed, my legs spread wide with a sexy pout on my face!

  No wonder I hadn’t heard back from him.

  Yeah, if we ever met it was going to be the most awkward day of my life.

  Chapter 2

  “Daddy, I love them!” I gushed with excitement.

  “I know your birthday is in a couple weeks, Amelia. But Victoria and I already bought you something, so I thought we’d just give you the skis now. Especially since we’re heading to Aspen at the end of the semest
er. You’ll have to get your new boots fitted at the ski shop."

  Robert loved buying me things. I could always tell by the way he beamed as I delighted in my latest present. I couldn’t even begin to dream what I was getting for my birthday.

  I looked at my new skis with as much apprehension as excitement. They were for an expert skier: longer and fatter than the ones I had now. I knew I could ski in them just fine, but looking at them still made me a little nervous. They were bright pink, with a retro neon splatter design that practically screamed speed.

  I had gone skiing every winter since my mother married Robert, and by now I was pretty good; good enough for the set of pro level skis in front of me

  “And we have other surprise,” Victoria chimed in. “Lucas is coming to live with us!” She was positively beaming.

  “That’s wonderful,” I said, trying my best to sound enthusiastic. My blood suddenly turned cold, then hot with embarrassment. I wanted to run to my room and hide, but I had to stand there and smile even though I felt like throwing up.

  “He just got expelled from boarding school,” Victoria said, her voice lilting a little with disappointment. “So now he come live with us. But in a way, it is wonderful! We are all together now, as one family!”

  All together as one family. I wanted to cry. What if I actually died from embarrassment when I met him? And what would he think of me after I sent him those naughty pictures? Especially the naked one?

  Whatever he thought, it wasn’t going to be anything like who I really was: a shy, retiring, good girl in every single way except for what I’d done that afternoon, playing around with my stupid phone. Now my carelessness was about to catch up with me, in a big way.

  “Honey, are you okay?” Robert asked. I’m sure I looked totally red. It was times like these I wished I wasn’t so pale and didn’t turn bright red so easily.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I managed to say. Strangely I also kind of felt excited. I’d never done anything this crazy before, and I wondered how it all would turn out.

  And what was Luca really like, anyway? I’d probably be too mortified to talk to him, and I would never have the chance to find out.

  “Let’s all go outside,” Victoria said, ushering us towards the big glass doors that overlooked our massive backyard. There was a bottle of champagne outside, and three fancy glasses.

  Victoria excitedly poured us champagne and giddily clinked her glass against ours. The alcohol went down easily.

  ****

  “I told you it was a bad idea sending all those pictures,” Julia said, her little mouth hanging open in a little 'O.' “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. Just thinking about it made me blush.

  “I wonder what he’s like,” I said finally. “He seemed really...kind of nice before I screwed up and he stopped talking to me.”

  “Amelia-” Julia said in a voice that presupposed I had gone crazy, “What are you going to say when you meet him? It’s going to be really awkward.”

  ****

  I shifted nervously at the airport terminal with Robert and Victoria. Luca’s plane had been delayed, and I was tired. I didn’t know if I could take any more standing and waiting. It was 5pm.

  Finally it arrived. My heart began to pound.

  People started walking out of the jet way and into the terminal as I nervously scuffed the carpet with one of my sneakers. I had tried to beg off coming here, saying I was sick. But Victoria’s face had looked so disappointed that I immediately changed my tune, saying I didn’t feel quite so bad; she was a simple thing, and really believed we were one big happy family.

  I felt my heart beat even faster as I watched a dark, curly-haired kid who looked my age emerge from the jet way. He was wearing a pair of old Levi’s and a nicely-fitted brown shirt.

  He caught my eye and smiled, and started walking toward us.

  “Ciao, Amelia.”

  Was it really him? Luca looked tired, especially under the unearthly glow of the fluorescent airport terminal lights. It was 7pm by now, and one could see the daylight fading in the sky above the airport.

  He was nevertheless smiling warmly, looking happy to see me. I wondered how I looked to him…

  I reached out to grab his hand, and without warning he swept me in for a hug. I pressed against his warm body for an exhilarating second as two big arms squeezed me. I pulled away smiling, despite the embarrassment that was tingling through every nerve in my body.

  “Hey,” he said, beaming at me as one hand clapped my shoulder. “It’s great to finally meet you.”

  “You too,” I managed to say, right before Victoria enveloped him in a massive embrace.

  “Ciao, Luca!” They warmly exchanged greetings in rapid-fire Italian. Luca’s tired face suddenly looked completely alive and animated. She put Luca at length, one of her hands on his shoulder, and looked at him proudly.

  I shifted uncomfortably, wanting to pull out my phone and poke at it to hide from the awkward moment. Maybe I would have felt better if he wasn’t so good-looking. He was better looking in real life than he appeared in his pictures. Luca simply looked rugged, in a way I’d never seen any of the other boys in my school look. He was a mountain of a man already, even though he was only eighteen. His face was chiseled, and I could see muscles rippling under the skin of his forearms as he waved them when he talked. Even the way he stood made him seem older: relaxed and self-assured, with none of the macho posing and weird energy other teenage boys had.

  I tore my eyes away as heat started to pulse from my body. I felt cold resentment start to creep through me skin. I’d been so stupid, flirting with him over the internet. With his looks and self-assurance he’d be one of the popular kids within a week, and I’d never see him again.

  “Come on,” Victoria said, “let’s go. We are all going out for dinner.” Her arm was around Luca, and he was beaming.

  “I’ve just secured reservations at the Spur in thirty minutes. Let's hurry,” Robert said.

  We walked outside into the warm air and piled into Robert's Land Rover. I settled uncomfortably into the back seat with Luca.

  “Doing okay?” Luca asked, squeezing my knee, “you look tire.”

  “Tired,” I corrected.

  “Tired, yes, sorry,” Luca apologized, “thank you.”

  “I’m okay. How was your flight?” If this got any more awkward I was going to open the door and jump into the middle of the traffic.

  “It was okay,” Luca said. I loved the sound of his voice. I loved his sexy Italian accent. If only I hadn’t messed everything up. ”but the man sitting next to me, he was so fat--” he put his arms in front of him as if he was hefting a big belly, “he was like, part of the way on top of me, you know?” He pushed his elbow over my thighs.

  I giggled, despite myself. “Was it like that the entire flight? All the way from Italy?”

  “Ah, yes yes. All the way from Bergamo. It was like nine hours of that shit. And he was like, too fat to put down the--what you call thing between the chairs? Never mind, it just really terrible.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, touching his arm.

  “I was like, pressed against the window.”

  “Good thing you’re thin,” I chuckled.

  “I am thinking maybe I am a little more thin now, after being compacted.”

  I laughed out loud. Compacted. I imagined Luca smashed against the window of the plane. He was cracking me up with his accent and broken English.

  “You probably see the man when he walk out of the airplane. He wear purple shirt, and cowboy hat." I finally collapsed in fits of laughter, the way he described it was too much, it was absolutely hilarious. The man he was describing must have weighed 300 pounds.

  “Are you happy to go to Colorado?” he asked, changing the subject. “I ski a little bit already in Italy. I always want to go to Colorado, maybe to ski in Silverton. I hear many good things.”

  “Yeah,” I said, “But it's several weeks away,
so I'm not too excited. There's still some time and lots of school to go through before we go to Colorado."

  “That picture I sent to you is from Montebelluna.”

  “Oh?” I squeaked. I felt myself blushing. I wanted to forget all about what happened with the photos.

  “Yeah. I think you try to sent me another photo, but I was driving my auto through long tunnel in the Alps. I didn’t get it.”