In My Stepbrother's Hands

by Tara Lynn

  “So you still moving out of Tarmont?”

  “Ok, the sex wasn’t that good.” That was a lie, but I studied the ceiling and didn’t see how it changed anything. I couldn’t exactly move into my own place with Lucas in Tarmont. We might not be blood, but the world still saw us as family. “I gotta go find who I am out there.”

  “I used to think I wanted to leave,” Lucas said. “I thought I’d just take my bike and break out of this part of the world.”

  I let him hang in silence and he added. “I thought I was over that feeling, but seeing you leave makes me want to come along.”

  “Then come.” I looked over his rough profile and saw the hunk underneath our grime. “No one will know what our relationship is out there. We could find our place together.”

  He chuckled. “I know my place, baby.”

  “You just said-.”

  “What I want to do and what I have to do are two different things. I have to fix Tarmont. I love that town too much.”

  “Why?” I said. “You moved to that town. You don’t owe it anything.”

  “Blood must be answered with blood.” He traced a delicious finger up the center of my chest. “My dad helped wrecked that place. I gotta put it back together.”

  I sighed. The more he spoke, the more I fell for him. Fuck our parents - why did this have to be a one-time deal?

  He looked at me. “Would be better if you were there. Not right away, but someday. Once I get my hands on the place. Once people forget who our folks are.”

  I leaned in and kissed him. “I think I might like that.”

  Lucas started to pull me closer, but then his phone buzzed, back in his jeans. He jumped up to check, and came back. “It's your car. It's patched up just out on the road.”

  “That wasn't even an hour.”

  “It was just coolant after all. And Jimmy's good.” I stared at Lucas and he chuckled. “Not the same Jimmy.”

  I went back out and got dressed. Lucas led me out on foot. The trail wasn't anything rough, but his hand nestled at my back shepherding me through. The heat had died down, or the trees were blocking it. Any other time, this would have been a beautiful date - just out after a hot session in the middle of nature. But I spotted the road between the trees. I remembered the two snoring bikers, who might be done with their beauty rest.

  “Hey, you gonna be alright?” I asked, squeezing Lucas's hand.

  “You mean Earl and Jimmy? Fuck it, we pull guns on each other like they’re loaded with water. And my dad's president remember? Once he hears about all this shit, they're going to be in it deep. Messing around in the middle of an operation?”

  The tightness left my chest, and I smirked. “You're going to tell your dad the whole story?”

  “Uh, well, most of it.”

  The car was slumped half off the road. Everything looked to be where I'd left it. Lucas opened the door for me, while I got in and started the car. Not a whiff of smoke.

  I rolled down the window, looked up at his face, long and natural and hard and beautiful, perfect and at peace out here. “You wanna hop in?” I looked at the trash can occupying my passenger seat. “I can make room.”

  “I wouldn't mind,” he said. “Maybe one day.”

  He leaned in through the window and held my face to his for a kiss. It tasted like smoke, and beer, but mostly it tasted like him. “You take care now, Mia.”

  “You too, Lucas.”

  With nothing else to say, I pulled off. My tank was full and I thought the maps could wait another minute. I watched Lucas fade in my rearview, his form still on the road like he was part of the forest around, fading into a line. I turned a bend and the forest cleared. I even saw a highway sign. But Lucas was gone, somewhere back down the road.

  I had thought I’d turned my back on Tarmont, but now I knew I never could. Every time I tried to forget the bad memories, I would always think of this one, anchoring me to this place. My step-brother would be there waiting for me. One day, once I had the means to help, I knew I would return to Tarmont.

  And Lucas and I would be together again.

  Thanks for Reading!

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