Forbidden Prescription 2: MFM Ménage Stepbrother Romance (Medical Romance)

by Brother, Stephanie

  I forgot myself for a moment, reliving every moment I could remember from the night before. For a moment, I wanted to stay, so badly I could taste it. Wake the boys up and see if they were still up for more fun. But then I caught up with my thoughts.

  No, Emma. You must leave.

  It wasn’t running away, but making a strategic retreat. We didn’t speak much the night before, but I wasn’t sure they’d want to wake up and find me still hanging around. I wasn’t brave enough to stick around and see.

  My face was burning by the time I got back. The twins were still sleeping, so I hastily put on my clothes and snuck out of the room. I hurried and didn’t feel relaxed until I was outside, but even then, I still felt like I wanted to hide. Walking past the front desk was awkward, even though it wasn’t the same guy from last night. The mark on my neck was low enough for my jacket to cover it, at least, so I didn’t have to run around with my hand on my throat.

  Outside, in the light of day and taking in the fresh air, I suddenly felt cold. I could not believe that I did it with them both. Abe and Carl Thomas, the stars of my high school days; at least to most of the female student body. The night had been amazing, and they’d lived up to expectations I didn’t even know I had and surpassed them.

  I wondered if people would see me and know. The thought sent a delicious thrill through me, not the reaction I would have thought. Maybe fear, shame? But how could I feel anything negative after a night like that?

  I wondered what it would be like to have them in my life all the time.

  I shook the thought off. It would be nice, but I couldn’t allow myself to blur fantasy and reality. Last night had been a fantasy. This morning was reality; making my way back to my mom’s place in yesterday’s clothes and probably smelling of sex. At least, I thought I did. If I had any luck at all, it was just in my head.

  Getting home was a bit of a walk, but it was still early in the morning, the sun wasn’t even out yet so everything just looked gray. No one was up at that kind of time. I made it to the front door before I remembered I didn’t have a key. Mom had a spare, but usually, she gave it to me the first evening I stayed, and I handed it back when I left.

  Well, fuck.

  I really didn’t think last night through. She would have locked the house down tight, there was no way I could even hope to sneak in. I didn’t have a lot of options, but I did have the keys to my car. I was resigned to it, already turning away to head for it, opening my purse and reaching inside. But then I froze when I heard muffled sound from behind the door, then a click as it was unlocked.

  I turned around to see my mother opening the door. She had on a robe that fell to her feet, stuffed inside a pair of fluffy white slippers.

  I fidgeted under her stony look, even though all I’d felt when she gave it to me last night was annoyed. Because I had done something I knew she wouldn’t approve of, and I was paranoid she could somehow tell. My hand twitched to cover the mark on my throat. But I held it at my side, curling my fingers into a fist. My jacket was collared, and I had it tied all the way up. I hadn’t looked in a mirror to see it was properly hidden, but trying to cover it up with my hand would make it obvious I was trying to hide something.

  I knew I was going to get it from my mother. There was no reason to add any more fuel to the fire.

  When she just stood there, arms crossed over her chest, I tried giving her a smile, tentative.

  “Morning, Mom. I’m surprised you’re awake at this hour.”

  She huffed, narrowed her eyes. “I’m surprised you managed to crawl out of whatever bed you slept in last night at this hour.”

  My heart leaped in my throat, and I was on the edge of panicking, thinking that she knew, but it calmed down before it got out of control when she continued.

  “There was no need to make a nuisance of yourself to someone else. Not everyone here keeps doctor’s hours.”

  She actually sneered the word doctor when she said it.

  I sighed. “You don’t need to worry, mother. I’m pretty sure I didn’t bother anybody.” At least, I was sure I hadn’t. I’d done my best to be quiet about it. “I was up anyway so I figured I might as well come back.”

  “Come back and annoy me some more, you mean. After turning your back on me and going to who knows where before calling me and telling me you’re spending the night at a friend.”

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered, meaning it just a little. “But you were being totally unfair yesterday. I didn’t mean to be late. If I could have dragged my car all the way here, instead of having it break down in the middle of the road, I swear I would have, just so I could be on time. But I couldn’t, and it happened, and I didn’t mean to do it, but I can’t change it.”

  I was coming awfully close to ranting, so I made myself stop. My breathing was coming a little heavy, all my frustration coming back from last night. Mom didn’t look the least bit affected, just scowled at me.

  “I got an invite to go out last night,” she said, her voice quiet. “It came from someone I am very close to. But because I knew my daughter would be coming home, by six, and would likely want some dinner, I couldn’t go. So, I declined the invitation, made up a room for you, and spent time making food I knew you liked and waited for you to come.”

  For a second, I felt confused, like I usually did around my mother. There were times when I thought she couldn’t stand me, and then she went out of her way and did things like that. She didn’t always do it, sometimes I’d have to make it back and get my own dinner, take some sheets and blankets out of the linen closet and make the bed myself before sleeping on it. It depended on her mood, so she must have been in a good before I was late, then.

  “I already told you, the car broke down. I didn’t mean to be late.”

  She acted like she didn’t hear me, continuing.

  “But then you come here, late, two hours after the time you said you would, with no call. You get here and you don’t even stay, I am talking to you and you’re turning your back to me. After I lost what would have been an enjoyable evening, and made food that went to waste.”

  I sighed. So, we were back to that again. I rubbed at my temple, feeling a headache coming on.

  “Mother…”

  “You don’t send me enough money. Then when you come to visit, you’re out all night.”

  “I didn’t mean to stay out late last night. But I called and told you I would be away.”

  “You’re only here for a couple of nights, one night is already gone. I’m not going to stick around and babysitting you Emma because I do have stuff to do, that I have been doing with you not here.”

  “I’m not asking you to stop your life just ‘cause I’m here now.”

  “It doesn’t seem like it to me. Because I’m going to be out most of today, I’m going out to meet my friends. Tomorrow morning, I have church and I won’t be out until lunch, and you never want to go with me, and you usually leave pretty early in the afternoon.”

  I had to if I wanted to beat traffic. I made a mistake of leaving a little late, around four thirty, once and I spent over an hour in traffic. I got back home at midnight and I had to be up by four the next morning because I had a paper to study for.

  I opened my mouth to tell her something along those lines, but she just talked over me.

  “Why the hell do you bother to come down here, huh? Is it to waste my time, laze around in my home and eat my food? I’m a modest worker, Emma. I don’t make that much money, and there are still bills to pay.”

  I wondered why, too, sometimes.

  “I understand about the bills. I’ve been sending you money, haven’t I?”

  “Well, it’s not enough. You ever come back here and put me through last night again, and you will be funding your pay.”

  I gaped at her. “You could kind of say I already do. Mom, I usually go out and buy groceries for you when I’m here, even when you don’t need them.”

  She gave a wry twist of her lips. “Buying me s
tuff I don’t need isn’t exactly helpful. I either need to give it away because it’s going to spoil, and I don’t want to be wasteful with food, or I give away what other stuff you bought but I have no need for.

  “I know you have money Emma, I know you’re going to have a lot more when you finally get around to getting a job. You don’t need to flaunt it for me. I am a simple secretary, I always have been. It got me through raising you. I do appreciate the money you send me, but don’t buy me things that I don’t need just to show off.”

  I was so angry I couldn’t even stand to listen to her. After everything, all she could think about was the money? She was my mother, she’d used up resources to raise me, whether it was her legal and moral obligation or not. I would have given her money anyway, but to hear her talk, I owed it to her.

  Whatever. I turned away with her in mid-rant, and this made the second time in my life I had done that.

  Never again, I promised myself. I still felt like a shower, but I could have one once I was back in my own space. I wasn’t going to visit mom again or call, or email, or whatever. I’d send her the money anyway like I did every month. I was calculating it all, and once it was twice what I estimated she’d spent raising me, no matter how long it would take, I would cut off all contact with her, because clearly, she didn’t care either way.

  I jumped in my car and headed back home.

  Chapter Eleven

  Abe

  I woke up, and the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was my brother, lying next to me and facing in my direction.

  It wasn’t the weirdest thing, we ended up on a single bed often because it was just cheaper that way when we were sleeping in a hotel. Of course, we didn’t often do it naked. Carl maybe, because he had no shame, but I never slept naked, unless I’d had a woman in my bed and we were doing more than just sleeping.

  I sat up, blinking the sleep from my eyes, frowning as I glanced at my brother then around the room. I knew we were in Libreville. We were in town to see our dad, and Carl ended up dragging me to a bar. I didn’t think we were drunk, though.

  Then I remembered last night; meeting Emma Davis and bringing her back with us, spending hours in bed not sleeping. I realized why it felt like something was missing. It was more like someone. I looked around again, already knowing she wouldn’t be there. I got up and went around the room, anyway. I went to the front room, and then checked the bathroom.

  No Emma.

  After the amazing night we had, I was more than a little disappointed to wake up and find Emma gone. It was a bit of a surprise, I’d had one night stands before where it had happened—either I walked, or the woman did—but it was implied that things wouldn’t be going further than a night of intense fucking. With Emma, though, I didn’t just want more of what we had last night, I wanted to see her.

  Hell, neither of us even thought to ask for her phone number, so we had no way of contacting her later.

  The first thing I thought of was going to look for her. She would probably be going back to her mom’s. She was around for the weekend, so there were two whole days to look for her.

  But, we—and it was going to be we because I wanted to go and no way would Carl just sit back and wait for me—would probably just end up making things difficult for her with her mother. It was the last thing I wanted. If I had some idea when she’d left, I might have had some chance of catching her, but it wasn’t like she lived that far away.

  Fuck. I was really tempted to run out after her anyway.

  Because I was already up, I went to the bathroom and had a quick shower. I was coming out, a towel wrapped around my hips, when Carl woke up, sitting up in the bed so the sheets pooled in his lap and looking around, squinting his eyes. Pretty much like I had maybe twenty minutes ago.

  He saw me and blinked the sleep from his eyes. “Emma?”

  His memory was better than mine. I dried my hair with another towel and tossed it aside, heading for the closet to get some clean clothes.

  “She’s gone. I woke up and she wasn’t here.”

  I looked at him in time to catch his frown. “She actually walked out on us?”

  I sighed, pulling on some pants and turning to face him. “Are you really surprised? Yeah, she was into what we did last night, but she was nervous about it, to begin with. And she was worried about people finding out, she probably doesn’t want it to get back to her mom.”

  “Yeah… I remember Mrs. Davis used to be pretty strict. I doubt dad would approve, either.” He paused, laughed. “Well, if it was one of us with twins, he’d secretly approve, though he wouldn’t say it out loud because he’s supposed to be a responsible parent.”

  I rolled my eyes. I didn’t know if that was true, but I wouldn’t put it past the old man.

  “Go get a shower and get dressed. I’ll call for breakfast. Unless you’d rather go eat out?”

  “Nah, just order something.” He slipped out of the bed, unselfconscious about being naked, headed for the bathroom. “So long as I get coffee, I won’t care so long as the food is edible.”

  As he went for his shower, I reached for the hotel phone and made the call downstairs. He took a while. He was coming out when the food arrived at the door. I left him to get dressed as I went to get the food and tip the staff member that brought it up.

  Five minutes later, he was sitting on the couch, pouring himself a cup of steaming, black coffee, and sitting back with it held in both hands, eyes closed as he breathed in the aroma and sighed in contentment.

  I laughed.

  “Fuck you.” He removed one hand from the cup to give me the finger, and then took a sip of his hot coffee

  “Whatever, princess. Just hurry up, okay? We’re going to see dad.”

  He groaned. “Do we have to? Didn’t we see him yesterday?”

  I raised an eyebrow at that, but he didn’t see. “Yes, we were with dad yesterday. But then someone decided he was bored and we had to leave.”

  “I doubt the bastard is lonely without us. He probably invited his friends over for a drinking party after the little kids left.”

  “Maybe, but we’re still going. Dad called us back, remember? I doubt it was just so we could catch up, and we didn’t even get to do that yesterday. He’ll probably tell us today since you insisted on telling him we’re leaving tomorrow.”

  He sighed, his expression disgruntled. “Fine, then. Just let me finish my coffee first.”

  He took his sweet time finishing his coffee and then poured some more for himself once his first cup was gone. He even had a couple of the muffins I had brought up with it. I started without him, but I was done a lot faster. I didn’t know if he was doing it to be considerate of dad, because it was still kind of early, or if he just wanted to put it off.

  While I waited, I went around packing our stuff. Even if we weren’t going to leave early, I didn’t want to end up in the same room, not if Emma wasn’t going to be there. I’d keep thinking about what we did instead of sleeping. Carl didn’t look surprised when I moved to the front room with our bags.

  Finally, he was done with breakfast. He grabbed his bag, and I took mine, and we left with our keycards. We stopped by the desk in the lobby to hand over the key cards and pay for our stay, then left.

  “What do you think dad would want?”

  I glanced at Carl. He wasn’t really asking, we’d both guessed, he probably just wanted to know what I was thinking.

  “Here’s an idea. Why don’t we get there and ask him?”

  He grumbled but dropped it. “It better be good, making us come out here and stay for days.”

  I rolled my eyes. “We haven’t been in town long enough for you to start getting grouchy over it, idiot. It hasn’t even been a week.”

  “Yeah, well, this town is boring. It’s why we left, remember?” He paused, grinned a little. “Well, except for Emma. I still can’t believe we actually did that last night.”

  I was surprised he would talk about it. While I’d had one-night
stands, it wasn’t really my scene, so I didn’t do it often. Carl was the opposite, with more one-night stands than dates. Sometimes, it stretched to more than a night, but I knew he was more comfortable with casual. So, it wasn’t just me that wanted to see Emma again.

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “Last night was amazing.”

  We didn’t talk more about it, keeping silent the home way back, each lost in his own thoughts.

  When we got home, I knocked on the door, then reached for the handle and twisted it. The door opened.

  “I keep telling him to lock the fucking door. What if he gets robbed, or something?”

  “Dude,” Carl laughed, adding in an eye roll. “Who in this town is going to rob anybody.”

  “A bunch of idiotic kids doing it on a dare or some other stupid kiddy shit. You remember what high school was like, right?”

  “As much as I appreciate you worrying about my health, I don’t really have anything of much value to steal in this house.”

  Dad walked out of the kitchen, scaring us both. It was maybe ten in the morning, but I didn’t expect to find him up before noon on a Saturday.

  And yeah, it was true he didn’t have much of value. The house looked pretty much like it did when we were little kids, he hadn’t bought anything in nearly two decades. When Carl asked why not, when we started sending him cash, he’s said something about wasting money on new stuff when the old worked just fine.

  But then where was all the money going, then?

  Dad eyed our bags, raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question it.

  “Why don’t you two put your bags down and come into the kitchen? I still can’t cook, but I’ve got plenty of frozen stuff. It would take maybe a minute to put something in the oven.”

  I let my bag fall just a few feet from the front door. Dad kept our old room for us. If we were going to stay, we’d take our bags upstairs later.

  “Thanks, but we already ate.”