Another hand grabbed my ass and squeezed. Curling my fist, I turned around ready to pummel whoever it was in the face. “Relax, Hanna,” Lizzie said, clearly finding the murderous look on my face amusing. I lowered my fist and scowled.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
“I didn’t sneak up. No more moping; it’s time we found you a new boyfriend.”
I knew she was trying to be a good friend, but finding a new boyfriend was akin to dropping a peeled orange in my cat’s litter tray and then eating it. No, thank you. I shook my head and took a sip of my cherry-flavored wine cooler, savoring the sweet taste. Thank God the bartenders were too swamped to do anything other than glance at my fake I.D.
“Men are off my list forever. Don’t need ‘em. Don’t want ‘em.” How many times did I have to explain I was off the market permanently? The thought of trawling around the noisy club in search of a man was worse that eating the litter-covered orange. It was more like going to the dentist and asking him to do a root canal on all of my teeth without Novocain.
“Oh, come on, the best thing you can do is find yourself some good looking guy who knows how to party.” She gestured around the heaving crowd and smiled. “There are so many hot guys here. You can’t let that smarmy asshole dictate the rest of your life.”
“He’s not. I just need time. Can you drop it?”
“Nope.” She slung her arm over my shoulder. “You’re twenty, not ninety. Let loose. Not every relationship has to be about The One or falling in love. It can be about, y’know, having fun. You remember what that is, right? The sooner you get rid of your V card, the less uptight you’ll be.” A few people turned my way and sniggered.
Fire scorched my cheeks and blazed through my body. “Can you say it any louder? I don’t think the people waiting outside heard you.” I tried to hide the anger in my voice, but I couldn’t. Trust Lizzie to blurt out that twenty-year-old Hanna Davis was a virgin. It wasn’t something I’d meant to hold onto; I just hadn’t found the right guy yet. Every time I met someone I wanted him to be The One. He never was.
Lizzie hauled me into a hug. “C’mon, we’re going to find you someone who looks fuckable and knows how to fuck. Tonight, Ms. Davis, we’re getting you laid.”
“Um, I think I need another drink. Want one?”
“Sure.”
I untangled myself from Lizzie’s arms and shoved and shouldered my way through the throng trying to avoid bodily contact. As soon as I could make my escape, I was going home for an Eighties movie marathon.
Lizzie meant well, I knew she did. She didn’t have any issues hooking up with a different guy every other night. That wasn’t me. It never would be. My mother and stepfather raised me to keep my legs closed until my wedding night. I wished he and my mom had made it work, but no amount of prayers could save that train wreck of a relationship. I wasn’t going to wait until I was married like they wanted. Perhaps Lizzie was right—maybe I should just get rid of it. If I did, maybe guys wouldn’t see me as such a prude and maybe they would stick around longer.
A hand crept up my thigh and grabbed my butt. I smacked it away. That was it, I was going home. The other girls we came with could celebrate with Lizzie. Fending off bodiless hands was not the way I wanted to spend the evening. But before I left, I really had to pee.
The lounge area of the club was much quieter with fewer people. And after a century of waiting in line for the bathroom, I made it to the door, not quite inside, but I was close.
“Hanna? Hanna Davis? Hell, girl, look at you all grown up.” I stared at the guy who obviously knew who I was, and mentally flicked through the images in my mind trying to place him. Six-foot brick houses with tattooed arms that could rip thousand-year-old oak trees from the frozen ground didn’t usually talk to girls like me. He quirked an eyebrow as if waiting for me to recognize him. My eyes traveled from the neckline of his tight black tee to the jeans that hugged him in all the right places.
I tilted my head and squinted. There was something familiar in the way he held himself and my mind grasped at a memory. But before I could grab it, the woman in line behind me nudged me toward the bathroom.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m not sure I know you, and I really gotta use the bathroom.”
“I’ll be here.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall beside the men’s room. “It’s not every day I bump into my little sister at my club. And, if I remember correctly, my underage sister.”
“Hunter? Jesus. No f’ing way. Your club?”
The corners of his lips lifted into a heart-stopping smile and he spread his arms as if to say “the One and Only”. “Mine and Jase’s. He’s around here somewhere.”
“Oh my God. This is insane.” The words tumbled from my lips and it was all I could do not to launch myself at him. “Stay right there. I really do have to pee.”
I was in such a hurry to get back out there; I didn’t even cover the seat with tissue paper. It’d been almost six years since I saw the twins. When our parents divorced, we promised we’d stay in touch—that didn’t happen. I was fifteen and they’d just enlisted. Before they joined the Army, they lived with their mom in Florida and only came to Georgia during summer vacations. So, it wasn’t like I saw a lot of them when our parents were married. Plus, with them being five years older than me, we had zilch in common.
After washing my hands and checking my appearance, I hurried out of the restroom. He was still there, and standing beside him was Jase. The Army had taken my scrawny brothers and turned them into men. Gorgeous men. Sexy men. Sexy? Had someone slipped something into my drink when I wasn’t looking? I frowned and shook my head, ignoring how my panties dampened when the twins grinned in my direction.
Dashing forward, I threw an arm around each of them, breathing in their musky scent, delighting in their hard bodies. Oh, boy, this was not good. I jerked away as if touching them had burned me and clasped my fingers together. “Seriously, you guys, I can’t believe this. You two don’t even look like you.”
Jase, whose hair was slightly longer than Hunter’s buzz cut, wore the same black uniform, narrowed his Chocolate-brown eyes and took me in from head to toe. The intensity of his gaze heated my skin to nuclear levels, and I touched a hand to my cheek trying to calm my face. Stepbrothers weren’t supposed to look at their stepsisters that way.
“It seems time changes everyone,” Jase drawled.
Not able to stand still, I shuffled from foot to foot and glanced at them from beneath my lashes. “Yeah, the last time you saw me I was skinny with braces and mousey hair.”
“Blonde suits you,” Hunter said, his eyes darkening to black. “Who knew our snotty little sis would grow up so sexy.”
“I’m not your sis. Not anymore. Never really was.” Ribbons of pleasure twisted down my spine and pooled at the base of my back. Jase thought I was sexy. Me? Sexy?The most I’d been called was pretty. Never sexy. If someone bet me a million dollars saying I’d bump into Jase and Hunter on a random night out, I would have lost. Yet, here I was catching up with two guys I didn’t think I’d ever see again.
“What have you guys been up to? Still in the Army? When did you buy this place?” Not wanting our conversation to end, I fired questions at them. “Are you married? Kids? Dating?”
Hunter laughed, and my nipples tightened at the deep, husky sound. “Not in the Army, not married, and no kids that we know of.”
“We bought this place about a month ago. And, neither of us is dating.”
With a grimace, Jase touched his finger to his earpiece and turned to Hunter. “Trouble.” Both of them pushed off the wall and hurried into the club and onto the dancefloor where the crowd undulated back and forth. They waded through, and a few minutes later, reappeared dragging two men by the scruff followed by Lizzie, who was screaming at my brothers to let them go.
“Lizzie, what’s going on?” I asked.
“What can I say—” she shrugged and gestured toward the two men who were bein
g hauled to the exit “—those two thought I was worth fighting for.”
When the man was deposited on the sidewalk, Jase and Hunter strolled toward me.
“Well, hello there,” Lizzie said pushing out her chest and licking her lips. Of course she’d want my stepbrothers—they were exactly her type. If I didn’t love her so much, I’d have dragged her out of the club kicking and screaming. I knew her fuck-me moves all too well. I shouldn’t be this possessive over two guys I barely knew.
“You know her?” Hunter’s forehead crinkled in question and he nodded toward Lizzie.
“We’re roommates.” Lizzie pulled me to her side and tilted her head against mine. “We share everything, don’t we, Hanna?”
“Not everything.” At least not like how she was implying. We shared toothpaste and makeup, sometimes underwear. Not men. Never men.
Jase crossed his arms and widened his stance. “Can I see your I.D., miss.”
Lizzie threw her head back and laughed. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” Hunter held his hand out waiting for Lizzie to produce her identification.
She sighed and dug around her purse. “Who are these knuckleheads?”
“Before our parents divorced, they were my stepbrothers.”
“Awesome, you have an in with the doormen.” She stopped rummaging through her purse and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“They own the place.”
The dollar signs in her eyes shone brighter than the the Las Vegas strip at sundown. Lizzie was always on the lookout for a sugar daddy. She glanced in Jase’s direction and gave him a butter-wouldn’t-melt-smile, “I must have lost my I.D. when those boys were fighting over me.”
“No proof. No partying,” Jase said.
“We have to ask you to leave.” Hunter continued.
“What? But…but in two hours, I’m turning twenty-one.” An epic tantrum was on the way. Being Kate Upton beautiful, Lizzie got everything she wanted. She wanted Jase and Hunter.
“And in the space of two hours, we could lose our license for serving someone who’s underage.”
“Guys,” I said before Lizzie pitched a fit. “I know we shouldn’t be here, but we’re the only ones in our group under twenty-one. I promise I won’t drink, and Lizzie won’t take another sip before midnight.”
Lizzie held up her hand in a Boy Scouts’ salute. “Scout’s Honor.”
Hunter glanced at Jase who quirked an eyebrow, then Hunter held the microphone of his earpiece to his mouth and mumbled something I couldn’t decipher. “Someone is on the way to escort you and your party to a roped off area in VIP,” he said. “I have a feeling when the clock strikes midnight, your friend will find her lost I.D.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I owe you big time.”
He raked his eyes over my body. “Yes, you do.”
Lizzie moved forward to hug Hunter and Jase, but they stepped out of her way. It seemed they were immune to her powers. Their dismissal made my heart beat double-time and the pain caused by Garret’s cheating seemed to fade.
”If you weren’t Hanna’s roommate, you’d be blacklisted from all of our clubs for life.”
Without saying thank you, Lizzie marched off to gather up the girls. A VIP area at the Establishment was worth at least five grand. Way more than any of us could ever afford.
“Thank you so, so much,” I gushed. “I promise we won’t cause any trouble.”
Neither Jase or Hunter smiled. Crap. Bumping into them couldn’t have happened at the gym, in the street, or at the mall. It had to be at their friggin’ club when I was underage drinking.
“From what I remember,” Jase said, “you don’t turn twenty-one for another six months.” He signaled to the red-headed bartender who served me. “You give her alcohol?”
The bartender glanced from me to Hunter to Jase and back to me. If she got fired because of me, I would die.
“She didn’t know. I have a fake driver’s license.” I reached into my purse and produced my three-hundred dollar I.D. Jase snatched it from my fingers more or less taking five months of busting my ass tutoring couldn’t-give-a-crap high school kids.
A thunderous expression twisted the bartender’s face. “I’m so fucking sick of you little bitches coming in here with your fake ass I.Ds.”
Jase smiled dangerously and leaned across the bar. “That “little” bitch right there is our little stepsister. And, the next time I hear you refer to any of our customers, the people who pay your wages, as little bitches, you’re fired. Understand?”
The bartender visibly swallowed and took a step back, but her murderous eyes stayed on my face. If she had the chance, she’d stab me to death.
“Go join your friends.” Hunter placed his hand on the small of my back and began tracing circles with his thumb. The ground beneath my feet quaked and I grabbed onto Jase’s sinewy forearm to stop from falling to the floor. He peeled my death grip from his arm and twined his fingers with mine. They flashed one another a look, and something unsaid moved between them. Heat flared between my legs and my breath came in shallow gasps.
God! For crying out loud, we were related, okay, not by blood, but our parents had been married for ten years. I was five, my stepbrothers were ten. I was a flower girl, they were page boys.
Familial familiarity should have killed any attraction we had to one another. It was wrong. Plus, even if we weren’t kinda related, I couldn’t choose just one. Unless… I gritted my teeth and kicked that notion right out of my head. I hadn’t even had sex with one man yet here I was fantasizing about having sex with two—at one time.
They flanked me upstairs to my friends who were now whooping up a storm. Those girls knew how to party with or without alcohol.
Jase leaned down until his mouth was a hairsbreadth from my ear. “When the club closes, come to our apartment.” He pointed to a staircase almost hidden by the shadows at the back of the second floor. “Hunter and I are looking forward to catching up with our little sister.” The husky timbre of his voice when he rasped “little sister” sent goose bumps racing over my skin. But I couldn’t let myself get excited, at least not more than I already was. He might just mean they wanted to find out what I’d been up to for the past five years, or how my mom was doing. With smiles that crinkled their eyes and zeroed in on my heart, Hunter and Jase ran down to the main floor.
Not wanting to let them out of my sight, I took a seat by the balcony and watched as they moved around the club. They were perfection. Back when I knew them, they were willowy jocks who played nonstop basketball and did everything together—it seemed they still did.
“I thought your brothers were dickheads. Hot, but dickheads—” Lizzie sat beside me interrupting my scrutiny, “but they’re very, very cool and now I know they own this place, they’re very, very fuckable. I could tell they wanted me.”
Usually, I would have agreed and laughed, but tonight, Lizzie’s confidence grated on my last nerve. No way in hell did they want her. They wanted me. Or at least…I was being a total fantasist and an idiot. They were probably just glad to see me. But if they did want me, I didn’t think I had the power to say no. Maybe they were The One I was waiting for?
Every so often, I’d catch them staring up at me. Even from my place on the balcony, the barely-concealed hunger in their eyes sent butterflies rally racing around my belly. Their blatant lust left me a throbbing mess, and if they kept it up, I would have to disappear into the restroom to take the edge off.
After a year of watching the clock, midnight struck and one of the club hosts presented Lizzie with an ice-cold magnum of champagne courtesy of Jase and Hunter. Since I’d promised my stepbrothers I wouldn’t drink, I refused a glass. I didn’t want anyone to get into trouble and I didn’t want to piss my stepbrothers off. And, if anything were to happen, I wanted to be one-hundred percent sober.
“They want me,” Lizzie slurred and tottered toward the stairs that led down to the dancefloor. “They haven’t been able to take the
ir eyes off me all night. I’m gonna make my move.”
Before she made it to the stairs leading to the dancefloor, I grabbed her wrist. “The only move you’re going to make is into a cab.”
“Wha? No way. I don’t wanna. Lemme go.” Slumping onto the sofa, she took off her stilettos and dangled them from her fingers. “I’m gonna get me some twin cock.” With a widening of my eyes, I implored the other girls to help me, but they were just as wasted as my roommate and staggered off in various directions like a bunch of drunken cats.
“Get those hot brothers of yours up here!”
“Stepbrothers.” I confiscated Lizzie’s shoes and attempted to haul her into a sitting position, but after a few minutes of wrestling, she flopped forward like an inebriated ragdoll and passed out.
“Looks like you could use some help.” The sound of Hunter’s deep drawl pebbled my nipples and stole my breath. If I turned around and jumped him, would that be inappropriate? Probably. I clenched my fists to stop myself doing just that. How could someone I’d spent every holiday during my formative years with make me want to do things—such dirty things? Staying behind and going up to their apartment was all kinds of wrong. But, oh, how I wanted it to be right.
Willing my hormones to settle down, I turned to face him. At that moment, the club lights went up, and for the first time, I got a clear view of the man he’d grown into. Stubble covered his jaw and his golden skin shone with the sweat of someone who busted his ass working. He flashed me a smile that just about did me in.
Hunter cleared his throat and pointed at a now snoring Lizzie.
I didn’t even realize I was staring until I blinked my stinging eyes. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“Want me to help you with your friend?”
“Um, yeah, she’s a mess. I’ll take her home; make sure she gets there without killing herself.”
“There are cars outside for all of your friends. Hunter and I will drive you home after.” His eyes pierced my heart. “We have a lot of…catching up to do.” There was a challenge in his words as if he were daring me to stay.
Nine Steamy Step Stories Page 4
