I zipped up my case and turned to the doorway. I had been so lost in thought, Haley had left. I went out to spend some time with her before I drove to Daniel’s. She was my best friend and I was gonna miss her while I was gone.
The drive to Port Jeff was less than a couple hours which made my lack of visits there even lamer I guessed. I swung into the large driveway of Daniel’s colonial. He was so lucky to have not lost this amazing property. His four bed, four bathroom home in Harbor Hills looked out over the waterfront and had its own private beach. I exited my car, leaving it in front of the double garage and walked to the front door where I rang the bell. After a couple minutes the door opened and Daniel stood there.
He looked as hot as ever and I felt my cheeks burn again. Why was I so goddamn sensitive around him? His face broke out into his signature smile and he stepped forward and embraced me in his arms. The heat from his body enveloped me. I didn’t want to move, but he then outstretched those strong arms and looked me over.
“Hey there, Kayla. It’s good to see you. You look well.”
I half smiled at him, feeling uncomfortable.
“Shoot, ignore my manners leaving you out here on the porch, come inside. You need help with your luggage?”
“Please. There’s a case in the trunk.”
“I’ll grab that and then I’ll park your car in the garage. We’ll take your luggage to your room and then I’ll fix us a drink, okay.”
“Okay,” I replied.
I hovered in the hallway while I waited, taking in the vastness of the space. Every time I came here the place took my breath away. He hadn’t decorated the place and the Realtor in me saw the potential of the property that had yet to be unleashed. The hall had a central staircase leading up to a landing from which all the other rooms veered off. It was a little old fashioned to me with its wooden moldings. It cried out for a modern makeover. If it were mine it would be fabulous.
“Okay, let’s get your things in your room.” Daniel had reappeared with my case. I grabbed my holdall from the floor and followed him up the stairs.
This wasn’t good. He was wearing jeans and they hugged his ass as he climbed the stairs. I wanted to reach out and feel his ass cheeks, see if they were as peachy as they appeared. His biceps bulged as he carried my case up the stairs. I felt between my thighs get wet. For fuck’s sake, he was only walking!
We headed a little way down the landing to my old room. He pushed open the door. It was exactly how I had left it, or rather, how my mom had decorated it. The room was ocean blue—everywhere. With its frilly curtains and bedding, it hurt my eyes to look at it. Daniel caught the grimace on my face.
“Maybe we could decorate while you’re here? Make it more your own?”
“Maybe. Though I’m not planning on staying too long, you know. My life’s back in Brooklyn and I need to return there as soon as I can.”
Daniel nodded. He looked a little disappointed and that made me feel bad.
“Though I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do a little makeover, given the hideous paint colors in here.”
“Great.” Another smile broke out on his face. “It would be good to get the house looking a little more modern. I need to make the most of having a hot Realtor in the house.”
At that, my face burned so hard I thought I might need a fire extinguisher.
Daniel ran a hand through that still shaggy brown hair. “Christ, Kayla. I meant hot as in good at your job. Jesus, I’m an idiot.”
“It’s fine.” I waved my hand in front of my face. “I knew what you meant and I am really great at my job.” I needed to get sassy Kayla back as soon as possible. That’s how I was. Confident and not afraid to speak my mind. “I’ve seen enough of this room for now. How about you fix me that drink and we sit out on the deck?”
“Sure,” Daniel answered.
I needed him out of my bedroom.
We walked back down the stairs, entering the hallway and then walked off to the right, through his vast living room with its dark leather chairs and huge TV, and out into the back yard. There was an acre of lawn out there, complete with a heated swimming pool at the rear of the lawn and a pool house. I had spent a lot of time in the pool house when I had visited when my mom lived here. It had been a place to escape, with its comfy couches and two separate rooms, one with a queen sized bed, the other a bathroom. Right now I could see it was all opened up. At the left hand side was the living room area with its large screen television against the far wall. To the right was a kitchen with all mod cons. It was perfect for hot summer evenings, lazing by the pool and eating a barbeque. We had never done that there. We had never been enough of a family to eat together, never mind relaxed together.
“I know you always kinda liked staying out there.” Daniel nodded towards the pool house. “But it’s better for this trip that you stay in the house.”
He excused himself to go fix the coffee and I took a seat on the swing seat out on the decking. There were two separate seats on it so I didn’t have to sit too close to Daniel. He came out with two steaming hot mugs of coffee and placed each one on a side table at the side of the swing seat before taking his own seat.
“So, what’s she done this time?” I cut to the chase. No point in waiting around to find out what chaos my mom had caused.
Daniel turned to me. “She’s shacked up with a film producer this time. They got married a month ago.”
It was good to see my mom hadn’t changed. Still after the men with untold riches and still keeping her only child out of her life. Not that I would have attended anyway but hey it would have been cool to know my own mom was getting hitched again.
“So how does that impact on us. Are they making a film about her life and they want us to star in it?” I joked.
Daniel sighed.
“Ah, nothing so amusing.”
“Her husband has a son. By all accounts, he’s always been a little rebellious. Excluded from school. That kind of thing. His mother died when he was eight. His father excused his behavior, right up until he met your mom.”
“Figures.”
“He threw him out just over two weeks ago. Parker—that’s his name—went through your mom’s belongings and found my address, so he headed here to find you. He thinks he can get you to reason with your mom. I’ve tried to explain but he won’t listen to me. I said I would invite you over and we could all talk. See if there was anything we could do. I said he needed to let you explain your relationship with your mom and that you hadn’t had it easy yourself.”
“So, where’s the little brat so I can put him straight?”
Daniel’s lips curved at the corners as if he knew something I didn’t, which of course would be the case seeing as he had already met this son who had been excluded from school.
“I told him to wait in his room. I’ll call him now.”
“Wait! In his room? He’s living here?”
“Yeah. I felt bad for him. He has no one. So I told him he could stay here until he got back on his feet. I kinda think he needs a father figure.”
I shook my head. “Daniel Scott’s home for stray kids. You can’t save us all you know? Sometimes parents are just wastes of space.”
“Yeah, my own was like that, so I guess it hits a nerve when I see it someplace else. Anyway, I’m thirty-five. I’m too young to be your dad or his dad. I know you always considered me as a stepfather, Kayla, but your mom and I were never married, so I wasn’t really.”
The door banged as Tom Hardy walked through it. Well, he looked like Tom, dark hair shaved close to his head, doe eyes and a wide pout to his mouth. Obviously some employee of Daniel’s. He needed to watch his manners. He was acting like he owned the place.
“So sweet, listening to the old family reunion, so I thought I would come join in.” He held out a muscled arm. This guy was stacked and seriously worked out. I figured he could lift me with just one of those arms.
I stood up and took his hand, looking toward Daniel for clues then b
ack at the Tom Hardy lookalike.
“I’m Kayla.”
“Aww, so formal, little...well…what should I call you? Your mommy is married to my daddy, so… stepsister?”
I stepped back. “What the heck.” I turned to Daniel. “This is Parker?”
I was expecting a boy recently excluded from school. This guy was not that young.
“Yes. Parker, meet Kayla. Kayla, Parker.”
Parker grabbed my hand and shook it. A little too firmly. I felt uncomfortable as my first thought had been how sexy the hired help was. Now I found out he was kinda my stepbrother.
“I’m sorry,” I said, flustered. “I was expecting someone a little younger.”
“I’m twenty-one, so I’m not that old.” He replied. “How about you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Well, now that those pleasantries are out of the way, I need you to come with me back to Los Angeles to get your whore of a mother away from my father.” He sneered.
I sighed. “If only life were that simple.”
“Are you kidding me? It is that simple. We go back home. You tell my pop her history with men. He kicks her out. Job done.”
“My mom hasn’t wanted anything to do with me for the last six years, so if you think I would get anywhere near her, you’re sadly mistaken.”
“Well, you need to try. I’m on the outs here. She’s bleeding him dry. That’s my inheritance we’re talking about.”
“Oh, it’s great to see that it’s your Pops you’re missing.” I sneered. “I’ve about had it with all you money oriented bastards.”
“You can’t be doing too bad. Dan says you live in New York.”
“I live in Brooklyn. I have a share in a rented apartment. I work round the goddamn clock to meet my rent. Don’t come here playing the victim because it doesn’t work with me. Do you want a nice life? Go out and earn one. I won’t be helping you with your daddy issues.”
I turned to Daniel. “Thanks for the coffee. I’m gonna head back up to my room and unpack. Maybe lie down for a bit. I’m feeling a headache coming on.”
“Okay, Kayla.” I could see in Daniel’s gaze that he wanted to say more but couldn’t.
“I’m gonna hit the pool. I’m feeling a little heated.” Parker walked off down the deck.
“I’m sorry, Kayla.” Daniel’s mouth was downturned, his shoulders slumped.
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” I reminded him. “I’m sorry that your relationship with my mom brought these problems to your door.
“We should talk about that sometime. My relationship with your mom.”
“There’s no need.”
“I think there is, Kayla, because I doubt it was what you thought it was.”
I nodded my head and walked back into the house. My head was already buzzing with meeting Parker and being reminded of my mom’s behavior. I didn’t need riddles from Daniel accompanying it.
Chapter 2
Daniel
I had no clue how to handle this. Kayla had entered my life when she had been seventeen, supposedly as my stepdaughter, but hell I had never felt that way about her. Her mom’s clear mission to land me for my money was apparent from the beginning and I wouldn’t have stuck it out were it not for the tall, willowy red-head that hung behind her. She was beautiful but downbeat. I had figured she needed someone to look out for her, to believe in her. So I had kept her mom in money so I could give Kayla a home. Instead, I had ended up keeping an eye on her from a distance as she decided she preferred staying with a friend and her friend’s mom rather than here. I tried not to take it too personally. Her relationship with her mom was complex. But the times I did see her she was always awkward around me. As much as I had tried to show her I wasn’t the same as the other stepfathers that had gone before me, she stayed distant. Once she had turned eighteen I asked her mom to leave. Her mom moved on and Kayla was led to believe her mom had left me. There was no reason for me to keep in touch with Kayla at all, but I couldn’t help myself.
When I opened the door to her today I was mind blown. Her red hair was tousled and the breeze had blown it across her face a little. I wanted to reach out and push it behind her ear. My dick had hardened as my gaze had taken in her pale green sundress, with its thin straps resting over Kayla’s freckled shoulders. Its loose cotton hung over that still slim silhouette and with the light behind her it had made the dress partially see-through so the shape of her legs and the space between her thighs was apparent as she stood there. My first thoughts had been to hug her--she was finally here. Then I realised Kayla wasn’t the hugging type so I just held her away from me. I made an excuse about getting her luggage so that I might hold the suitcase in front of my crotch. The last thing I wanted to do was to have embarrassed her. I knew she would have enough to contend with, in the fact she was going to have to meet Parker soon.
Then I showed her to her bedroom, even though she knew how to find it herself. It had been so long since she had visited, she was acting like a stranger. The room had been a mess, still in the paint that belonged to the nineties. I loved to paint, but unfortunately, it was on canvas rather than walls. Still, I suggested she might like to decorate it. Again my conversation stemmed from the fact that as I had stood in the bedroom alongside her all I wanted to do was push her down on the bedspread and lift that dress up so I could see her secret places.
And I called her a hot Realtor. I wanted the ground to swallow me whole.
The worst thing though was her introduction to Parker. I knew Parker was a good looking dude and there was no way I wanted them to hit it off in that way, so I encouraged the stepbrother talk. I figured though they weren’t related, if she saw him in that kind of relationship, it would prevent anything from happening.
It was also the reason I had given Parker a home here. He was a decent enough guy, though a little self-centered. But it gave me a reason to get Kayla into my home. I didn’t want her to go rushing off to LA in search of her mother. Not that I thought for a moment she would anyway. But selfish or not, I wanted her here with me for a while. So I could spend time seeing her laugh, listening to her sass and, admittedly so I could fantasize about nailing that sweet little body. I had always wanted her, for seven long years and if I had my way, she would be seeing me in a far different way to a stepdaddy before she went back home—if, she went back home. Because, if I got my way, I would have that girl mine and pregnant within weeks.
I watched as Parker lifted himself out of the pool. He grabbed a towel and dried off. I had given him a job at the art gallery I opened in Chandler Square. It was funny how my career had changed. When Patty, Kayla’s mom, had come into my life, I was running a chain of tattoo parlors. You might think they wouldn’t do so well in the more affluent parts of New York, but you would be incorrect. All the rich housewives competed with each other for the most beautiful tattoos and my artwork was renowned. All my shops had had the best artists in them, where you were guaranteed a fantastic inking. Yet within twelve months of Patty being in my life, I had to sell the chain on to keep afloat. Keeping my house had been touch and go, until after she had left and I’d been trying to sell some of the contents of my home. An art collector had picked up a couple of my canvases--things I had painted for fun--and unknown to me, he’d shown them to a dealer. The dealer had gotten in touch with me about securing more of my work. Soon, this hobby had become a passion and had given me a renewed vigor for life. I had opened my own gallery in Port Jeff, a pay-it-forward if you like, someplace to buy art from fresh new talent and a permanent display of my own work. I was very fortunate. So with that regard, I could afford to feed the two twenty-somethings I found living in my house until I worked out how to get Parker to leave without taking Kayla with him. And getting Kayla to want to stay.
I felt hot and uncomfortable. The heat from the day made my tee cling to my body and too many thoughts of Kayla were making me want to jack off. I decided to go for a swim myself now that Parker had gone through to the bathro
om in the pool house. I would do a few laps in the pool and try to cool off and calm myself down before dinner when I would see her again.
Chapter 3
Kayla
After unpacking I had taken a shower and laid down on the top of the bedspread for a while. I couldn’t very well stay in here all day, could I? At some point, I was going to have to reappear downstairs. I swung my legs off the bed and lifted myself up, walking towards the window and pulling the drapes open slightly to let in some light. The window was wall to ceiling and looked out over the lawn and pool. Daniel stood at the side of the swimming pool. I watched as he laid a towel across the back of a white plastic beach chair and shrugged off his tee, followed by his board shorts which revealed his swim trunks. I couldn’t see very well from this distance. I would have given anything for a telescope so I could have spied on that package in his trunks. After my shower, I had been so hot that I laid on my bed completely naked. I knew that Parker had been at the pool and Daniel had been on the deck so I felt safe that I wasn’t going to be caught in the nude. Plus, to be honest, it was a fantasy of mine for Daniel to walk in on me naked and him not being able to walk away from me if he did. Being close to him stirred something inside me. I scolded myself. I mustn’t delude myself that I was here for any other reason than I guessed he still had feelings for my mom and that extended to me. Maybe he was hoping I would go with Parker to find her and bring her home? The thought made me angry. It made me want to pick up the frilly bedspread and rip it apart. How was I going to cope with being this close to him? Keeping such proximity was going to kill me. Daniel dived into the water, a sleek practiced move which made me wonder if all his moves were so smooth and elegant.
Double Delight: The Complete Series - Sold, Share, Submit (MFM & MMF) Page 10
