Stepbrother Romance: The Complete Box Set

by Diamond Durango

  When she came, she screamed into the cushion. The last of the ecstatic spasms were still going through her when he clasped her hips and picked up speed. It was not a gentle hold but a possessive clamp, and that made her tremble. He had her right where he wanted her, and he wasn’t going to let her get away. His groans were getting louder, his balls slapping into her clitoris and creating fresh arousal on the heels of her satiation. The light outside snapped off and they were lost to darkness.

  He pushed in deep and lost control, emptying himself inside her. Once he let go, she collapsed into the cushions and turned onto her side to make room for him. Lying down beside her, he wrapped his arm around her ass to keep them locked together at the groin. She wanted to have sex like that everyday, but now he would shut her out. She knew all too well how this played out.

  It stung her more than she had expected. It was because he had given her the question over dessert. If not for that, this would have been nothing more than a fun romp, a good memory, and easily put aside.

  “When we were kids, who did you like more? Me or Wyatt?” Hollis whispered.

  She considered the question quietly for a moment.

  “It was Wyatt,” Hollis said in the silence. “It’s okay. Sometimes I could see it when you two were teenagers. How there was this intense connection between you.”

  “No.” She nestled into his chest. “I had a very different connection to each of you. When we weren’t fighting, you and I would have such a good time. I could joke and mess around with you in a way I couldn’t with him. And with him . . . he’s always been darker. Controlling and overbearing. But I owe him so much. Some of what he did . . . it was to protect me.”

  “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You gave me a question. I’ll give you one.”

  “Tell me then?”

  “Do you remember when I was thirteen and you two were fifteen? Your mom and my dad were falling out yet again, and thought they could save their relationship with a long honeymoon. That was what they called it. And they left us home alone. We ran out of food. We ran out of money. That had happened before, but they’d come back in the nick of time. This time, they didn’t. They weren’t answering their phones either. We didn’t know what to do.”

  Heavily, Hollis said, “I remember. I went over to Robby’s house and finagled a very long sleepover. His parents were nice people. They took me in, no questions asked.”

  “I was stealing food out of the trashcans at the junior high after lunch, petrified that someone was going to see me doing it. I had a friend at the time, a girl named Rayna. She talked incessantly about sex, always had new clothes and the newest cell phone. She was the only one I told about how bad it was at home since I knew her home life was hellish. She had the perfect solution for me. She was basically prostituting herself and other girls to high school guys.”

  Shocked, Hollis said, “God, Aviana. Did you . . .”

  “I was so hungry. And Rayna was cool, in my totally uneducated opinion. Sex was no big deal to her, and listening to her talk about it so casually convinced me that she was right. Her C crowd gave handjobs for twenty bucks; her B crowd gave blowjobs for fifty to seventy-five. Then there was her A crowd that went all the way for a hundred plus. She never told me who the other girls were. It was private, trade secrets as she said, and the girls gave their clients false names. I felt more secure that no one would ever find out about me. She made the arrangements and got me in contact with an interested boy. He and I worked out the details over email. He was going to give me two hundred dollars for my virginity. I’d owe Rayna a cut, but it would still leave me with half. I dolled myself up in my shortest skirt and your mom’s makeup, shaking like a leaf the whole time, and headed out the front door to walk over to his house.” She had had little grasp at the time of how warped it was that a troubled thirteen-year-old girl had built a prostitution ring out of her fellow eighth graders. It seemed so risqué and grown-up to Aviana, the idea of having sex with clients for money. Her fake name had been Stella Star.

  The arm around her tightened, as if Hollis were trying to protect her even though it was years later. “I didn’t want to do it,” Aviana said. “But I didn’t know what else I could do. What if our parents never came back from their honeymoon? Every time I wanted to turn back, I thought about eating out of the trashcan. That kept me going. At home, I’d left my laptop open. Wyatt’s laptop was acting up and he came into my room to borrow mine so he could finish his homework. He saw the messages about my price, and what I was going to do. I was only a block away from that boy’s house when Wyatt came racing down the road on his bicycle like a bat out of hell.”

  “What happened?”

  “He dragged me home. We fought the whole way. I was crying and screaming at him about how hungry I was and he had to let me do this so we could have shopping money. He dragged me all the way into my room and shoved me down on my bed. And then he pinned me there and roared in my face that he wasn’t going to let me sell my body. The first time I had sex, he said, it would be because I was in love. Not for a loaf of bread and peanut butter. He told me just to wait, give him a few hours, and he would come back with food. I had to promise that I wouldn’t budge from the house or invite anyone over until he returned. He was so angry that I didn’t dare disobey. I lay there in the bed for hours, weeping and hating him and listening to my stomach growl, and then I heard the front door open. He had fistfuls of grocery bags packed to the brim.” She had eaten so much that she’d almost made herself sick, and then she burst into tears. Wyatt cradled her to his chest like she was a baby, saying nothing and stroking her hair until she calmed.

  “Where did he get the money?” Hollis asked.

  “I didn’t know at the time. He wouldn’t talk about it. It was later on when I was in his room that I noticed all of his videogames were gone. So was his console. He’d sold everything. For me.”

  “He told me it broke so he threw it out,” Hollis said almost in a whisper. “And that he gave the games to his friends. I was mad at him for that. I would have taken some of those off his hands. Wow, did I give him shit over it.”

  It was easier to talk about this in the darkness. “The first time I had sex, it was with my boyfriend in college. I can’t say that I was all that in love with him, but I liked him so much. And I was shaking, but not because I was scared stiff. I wanted to do it. I was ready. Wyatt gave that to me. It was the best gift anyone is ever going to give me. I don’t have a painful, traumatic memory of my first time; I have a wonderful one. So I can’t tell you who I liked better, Hollis. The connections are different. You made me laugh. He kept me safe.”

  The crickets sung outside. It was the first time she had told that story to anyone, and it made her nervous. Hollis didn’t say anything as he stroked her buttocks and lower back, and she didn’t ask what he was thinking.

  In time, they fell asleep. When she woke up it was light outside, and he was gone.

  Chapter Five

  She spent the day tending to the needs of the house and job searching online. Always at the back of her mind was worry that she and Hollis had pushed too far too fast in crossing lines drawn long ago. He didn’t call or text her throughout the day, and she didn’t contact him either. Perhaps in silence those lines would redraw themselves, and they wouldn’t lose their friendship.

  Dad left another cheerful message on her cell phone. Everything was great. Ramona said hi! Did Aviana want to come over for dinner? He’d found a bunch of baby pictures while going through a shoebox and she had been so cute. How was the job search going? This was a hard economy.

  Aviana did not return the call. Reawakening those old memories the night before had stirred up a fresh wave of anger at him. It should not have been left to her stepbrother to protect her when she had a father alive and well. The thought of what would have happened if Wyatt hadn’t seen her laptop gave her chills. The intensity that Hollis had been referring to was after that incident. Every
time she looked at Wyatt, she’d remembered what he had done for her.

  He was on her side, even if he didn’t express it well. The little things she had always done to annoy him lost their allure, like leaving the cap open on the toothpaste or eating a snack with Hollis on Wyatt’s duvet. When she got lost in her homework, she knocked timidly on his bedroom door to ask for help. He gave it, brusquely but not letting her leave until she had it down. And when something was putting him in a temper, she rested a hand on his shoulder and he would calm. He needed to be touched. She had had no idea how much until then. Talking only agitated him further, but at a simple touch the wind went out of him. The day he got his early acceptance to college, he picked her up and swung her around in his joy. For a moment, she had thought in excitement that he was about to kiss her. Then their parents fell apart and she was devastated to see him packing up to go.

  They were siblings. They were strangers. They were siblings. They were strangers. When their parents were together, her dad introduced himself as the father of three kids, two boys and a girl. When he was single, he only had a daughter. That was why Aviana had never quite been able to categorize the boys as her brothers. They could be yanked out of her life at a moment’s notice, and were.

  Yanked away because the truth was that they were not really her siblings, and now she had slept with Hollis. It had been much hotter than the sex she had had with Mark. Instead of a friendly romp full of pleasant sensations, Hollis made her feel desired. Unfortunately, it might be a one time only exhilaration if Hollis was redrawing that line.

  What if he backed off so far that they weren’t even friends? Had she ruined everything? When five o’clock came and went and he didn’t come home or call, she suspected that she had. By seven, she was sure of it. Distressed, she set aside her computer and walked around the house in search of something to do. There wasn’t anything. She went to the kitchen and started dinner, chopping up lettuce for a salad, making meatballs and dropping them into a simmering pasta sauce. The strands of spaghetti softened and curled in another pot.

  If she had any money to her name, she would take herself to a hotel. That was better than living here with Hollis as a stranger to her. From her father’s overly friendly tone, she guessed that she might have a chance at returning home for a short period of time. But she didn’t want to go back to that.

  She was dishing the spaghetti into a bowl when she happened to look out the window. The Phemus was at last coming up the driveway. It was almost eight.

  She would be calm and casual, and above all, act like nothing unusual had happened between them. Putting a smile on her face, she called out, “Hey!” when the front door opened.

  “What are you making?” Hollis called. “It smells awesome.”

  “I made myself spaghetti and meatballs. Do you want some? There should be enough for two.”

  Hollis came into the kitchen, his jacket and tie gone. He had the same casual happiness in his expression that she did. “Just a little for me. I ate too many appetizers at Wayman’s with Ivy.”

  He had gone out without her, and with another woman. Well, he certainly didn’t waste any time. Swallowing down on her hurt, Aviana passed him the bowl and said, “New girl?” Her appetite was gone.

  Hollis stared at her. Then he broke into laughter. Leaning on the counter, he speared a meatball with his fork and said, “Uh, no. She’s married and sixty years old. She runs the mailroom. I wanted to talk to her all day but it was just too crazy, so we met up after work. I’d heard one of her clerks was leaving.”

  It was only work stuff. Nothing to do with romance. He was just having a good time with a friend from Luxure. “Oh.”

  “This is really good,” Hollis said about dinner. “Feel like culinary school? Then Wyatt can hire you to be our personal chef as well as my maid.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “But until you get accepted, Ivy is interested.”

  Aviana looked at him blankly. “I’m lost.”

  He set down the bowl. “For the clerk job in the mailroom. It’s probably not what you want after going to college, but Luxure is a wonderful place. It’s only thirty hours a week but you’ll get paid better than most people would in a mailroom-”

  “Hollis, were you out there getting me a job?”

  “Penny is moving back home to Michigan to help with her folks. They’re getting older and have health problems. She just gave her two-week notice, and Ivy needs someone. She hates going through the hiring process and she had a stream of duds before Penny and the little team of clerks she has now. I told her all about you. All you have to do is not make an ass out of yourself in the interview and it’s yours. She said to call her in a week or so and you two can arrange a time for you to come in. I’ll give you her extension. This is a great opportunity, Avvie, even if it doesn’t look too grand at the start. Let everyone get to know you and like you in the company and you might find yourself stolen away to one of the departments-”

  “Oh my God! Hollis!” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “I don’t know how to thank you for this.” He kissed her on the lips, and not in a friendly way. Oh. The lines hadn’t been redrawn, at least not yet. That excited her.

  “I’m sure you can think of some way to thank me,” he whispered, his lips tickling on hers. As his tongue dipped into her mouth, she stroked the front of his trousers. He hardened quickly under her fingers.

  “Bed?” he asked.

  “No.” It had been too long since she had gotten to do this. Getting down on her knees, she looked up to him as she undid his belt and zipper. His eyes were intense upon her, two deep blue pools mesmerized by what she was doing. She freed his large erection and brought her lips to the tip for a kiss. He got even harder. Then she gave him another kiss and another, slowly opening her lips more and more with each one. He inhaled sharply with her first lick.

  That was what she loved about giving head. The power of it; how her man’s arousal fed into her own. She was wrapped around his cock while he was wrapped around her little finger. Withdrawing, she spread her saliva from the tip of his penis to his shaft. His eyes never wavered, fixated on her and smoldering. Taking off her shirt and bra, she rolled her hand up and down his shaft and slipped him into her mouth.

  He tasted good. She took in his warm, silky smooth cock deeper and deeper and then pulled back all the way, letting her fist roll up his shaft until he popped out of her lips. Her thumb rolled over his sensitive tip. He grunted with pleasure and that made liquid pool into her panties. Giving him a naughty smile, she pumped at his cock and moved in to lick and suck at his balls.

  “Avvie,” he said, and she adored the helplessness in his voice.

  She fondled his tight scrotum and lavished attention on his cock. He played with her hair, pulling it back over her shoulders when it got in the way. Bending back when his moans grew more intense, she rubbed his cock over her breasts. He would come when she said he could come, she thought, and it amused her to find such dominating thoughts in her mind that only appeared at moments like these.

  “Do you like this?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he hissed. She pushed her breasts together, holding them up and offering them to him. He crouched, rubbing his cock over her nipples, and sank into her cleavage. His hips moved with small thrusts and she tipped her head forward to lick him each time his penis protruded from the top of her breasts.

  When he straightened, she took him back into her mouth. Then she gave him all she had, no teasing or withdrawing, until a change in his breath let her know that he was on the precipice.

  He pulled back, just the tiniest bit like he wasn’t sure if she would want him to ejaculate in her mouth. She moved forward, taking him in deeper, and he climaxed with a guttural cry. Copious amounts of his seed spurted into her throat and she swallowed it down.

  Their eyes met again. She didn’t break the gaze as she pulled up his boxers and trousers, redid the zipper and button. The belt she left l
oose, liking how it looked that way. He offered his hand and she took it to get up. After they shared a lingering kiss, she said, “Thank you for the job opportunity, Mr. McAllister.”

  “My pleasure,” Hollis said. “I . . .”

  “What?”

  They were quiet, her head against his shoulder, his arms around her naked back. When no answer came, she didn’t push. Kisses dropped into her hair. Then Hollis said, “You won’t get rich off this job, but it’s the best way with Luxure. It’s a fantastic company, but everyone is always so damn suspicious of outsiders. Even interns, but especially when new people are coming in as management. For you to work your way up from the ground floor . . . this could lead to all sorts of great places. And Ivy is okay with you not having any experience.”

  She still couldn’t believe that he had done this for her. “I expect I’ll be thanking you quite a lot.”

  “You won’t hear me complaining.”

  What she wanted to say was how much this meant to her. But they were back to little jokes and if she went too far, she’d scare him off. She still wished that he had told her whatever it was he truly wanted to say.

  They just didn’t know how to do that with one another. Not yet. Maybe not ever. That bothered her now that he had let her see into him a little. He nuzzled her hair and said, “You should have some dinner. Or do you need something else first?”

  She smiled. “Like what?”

  “Mmm-hmmm,” he said, turning her to the counter. His fingers slipped below the waistband of her sweatpants. Then the moans echoing in the kitchen were hers as he circled around her clitoris. He brought her to a climax that left her shivering, trapped between him and the counter and his fingers going and going until the last sparks of her orgasm were gone.

  That night, they embraced in the upstairs hallway. Reluctantly parting, she went to her room and closed the door to ready for bed. A job. She would grill Hollis later over how best to dress for the interview, and what she should wear day to day if she got the clerk position.