Defender: A Stepbrother Romance (7 page)

“You think you’re the only person in the world who can keep me from going to jail?” I laughed. “Aren’t we a little full of ourselves…”

He burst up onto his side and grabbed my arm, knocking me onto my back as he simultaneously pulled me closer to him.

“You should watch what you say to me.” His eyes were cold.

“Why? Did I hit a sensitive spot?”

He stared at me, anger darkening his features. The way he held his jaw made his bottom lip stick out just a little. I pressed my finger against it, unable to resist. He opened his mouth and my finger slid inside. And then…I don’t know how it happened. Maybe it was because the way holding my arm forced his hand against my breast. Or maybe he could just see the need in my eyes, the way I could see it in his. I don’t know. We were mad, and then we were kissing.

It was like no time had passed between the last kiss and that moment. My body ached in all the same places, a little more intensely than before. His tongue tasted a little different. He’d been drinking. I could sense something strong and sour–whiskey I think. But his hand felt the same on my thigh as he tugged it up against his, his cock just as stiff against my side. I wanted him…
damn
, I wanted him. I slid my hand under his shirt tail and tugged at his belt, pulling it loose with some determination, tugging it open even as his hand found a way inside my robe. He tugged the two sides apart and slid his outstretched hand over my belly, up under my breasts. He grasped my chest, my nipple hard against his palm and sending tingles all through my body. Something at the base of my spine tightened almost uncomfortably, and my clit was growing so hard that I had to reach down and press my hand to it to take away some of the ache.

Crawford hauled on top of me. We continued to kiss as he reached between our bodies and struggled with his zipper. I tried to help, but my hands were shaking so hard that they were useless. All I could do was deepen our kiss and wait. It seemed like it took forever, but it was probably only a few seconds.

For a brief second, I felt the heat of his member brush against my skin, and before I could even process what was about to happen, he was pushing himself inside of me, his cock so long and thick that despite my desperation, I wasn’t quite ready. It took a few seconds for my body to adjust to the invasion. I moved my hips, adjusted my position, and a hard sigh slipped from my lips as his pelvis rubbed against my clit, again sending shivers of pleasure rushing through my body.

He pushed himself up on his hands, and his eyes closed as he began to thrust inside me. I pressed my hand against his ass, the other grasping his hip, and pulled him even tighter against as I moved my hips in time with his rocking motions. New lovers always struggle to find each other’s rhythm, but Crawford seemed to know mine. He moved a little faster than I might have wanted, but our bodies seemed to be perfectly in sync with one another. And the sensations his touch sent rushing through my body? Mind blowing.

I didn’t want it to stop. I wanted to wrap myself around him and live in that place, in that feeling for the rest of my life. But the more he moved, the better it felt. And each movement sent me that much closer to paradise.

His eyes were still closed as he moved against me. I reached up and touched his cheek, and he moved his face toward mine, even kissed me lightly, but his eyes remained closed. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted to see pleasure dance in his eyes. But I was afraid to ask, afraid that once he opened his eyes and saw my face, it would destroy the moment. I was afraid it wasn’t me he was thinking of as he thrust inside me, that if he saw me, if he understood the full impact of what was happening there, he would run away from me again. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t survive that.

I reached up and nibbled at his shoulder, burying my teeth against it as my clit threatened to explode. I pressed my hips hard against him and cried out as the first tingles of my orgasm overran my body. My muscles tensed, and I couldn’t move. I was aware of a high, keening moan that filled the room, only vaguely conscious that it was coming from my lips. My vision began to darken around the edges, and a ringing invaded my ears. The tingles just kept coming, over and over until I thought I might go insane. All my muscles seemed to vibrate, including those wrapped around Crawford’s cock. And that seemed to set him off. He cried out, burying his face against the pillows as his cock swelled inside of me and the heat of his orgasm added to the pleasure rushing through my body.

We lay still for a long while, both of us lost in the pleasure of our mutual touch. I clung to him, my fingers buried in his flesh. Slowly, I became aware of his fingers entangling me too, one hand clutching my upper thigh, the other twisted in my hair.

He relaxed his grip as he came back to himself, whispering a quiet apology as he wrenched his fingers away from my body. When he rolled off of me, I was confused.

Well, that’s it.
Now we go back to acting like strangers, right? Or worse. Like we hate each other.

But then he pulled me up against his chest and held me until we drifted off to sleep.

It was the most peaceful sleep I’d experienced in a very long time.

“
M
ake
sure I have that information on my desk as soon as I get back to the office,” I said into my smartphone as I boarded the elevator. A young woman in a Red Raider’s baseball shirt glanced at me, a soft smile on her lips as her eyes checked out my wrinkled shirt and heavy five o’clock shadow. I ignored her, more concerned with what my assistant was telling me than with anything some stranger might have inferred from my style of dress.

“Mr. Stone’s called three times in the last two hours. I think something’s going on with his nephew’s case, but he didn’t want to leave a message with me,” my assistant said.

“If he calls again, tell him I’ll be in the office in the morning.”

“I will. Is there anything else?”

“Not at the moment.”

“How’s your sister? Is there something more I can do on that case?”

Irritation soared through me. I didn’t want to talk about Eden. The memory of the previous night was still too fresh in my mind. I woke with her head on my chest, her skin like silk against my body. I wanted to wake her up with kisses and repeat what had happened, maybe a little slower, a little gentler. I wanted to taste her, every inch of her, and have her taste me. I wanted to…I wanted to do a million things that weren’t me.

I rarely let a woman sleep in the same bed as me unless I’m too drunk to send her home. And on those rare occasions when it does happen, it’s never a cuddling situation. I don’t sleep well as it is. Sleeping with a woman’s body draped over mine is just an unpleasant thought. It never happened.

Except for the past night. Except for the fact that I slept better that night than I had in years.

And I don’t do morning sex. Most of my court appearances are scheduled for the morning. I have to be on top of my game. Sex in the morning would wear me out, take my mind off of the business at hand. I simply don’t do it. Yet, I would have that morning if Eden hadn’t looked so peaceful.

Fucking Eden.

After everything, I somehow managed to let her get under my skin. I promised myself I wouldn’t, but I did and I only had myself to blame. I knew coming back to Texas would be dangerous, but I did it anyway. Seeing her again fucked me up inside. She had a power over me that I could never explain. That weekend at Stanford…she’d just been Eden before that, my little sister, the runt who followed me everywhere I went. But then she stepped off that plane and she was a vision. I saw the way other men stared at her, the way women glared at her. She was that desirable, that enviable. When I first saw her, I didn’t even realize who she was. Then she turned and smiled, and I knew I was in trouble.

I tried to reconcile in my mind that this gorgeous creature was my little sister, the same girl I grew up with. But when I caught sight of her out of the corner of my eye, my mind kept going to places it should have never gone. And then we went to a frat party and all those boys—stupid, immature fools—were dancing with her and whispering what they wanted to do with her. It made me lose my mind a little.

I was twenty-one, an adult by all definition of the word. Experience. I even bragged on some of that experience with her, maybe to prove something to myself, maybe to show off to her. I’m not quite sure why I did it. But when she got jealous, the sight of it gave life to that spark I kept trying to kill all weekend. And when we kissed, that spark stood up and laughed.

But then she was gone, and I was left standing alone with the most painful erection I’d ever had, wondering what the hell I was doing. Then I went searching for her and found her in the arms of my roommate.

Just the memory of it still had the power to make me want to put my fist through the elevator door.

“Why don’t you just do what I told you and keep your nose out of my personal business,” I barked into the phone, my tone low and cold enough that even the pretty girl sharing the elevator with me jumped a little.

“Yes, sir,” my assistant said in a quiet voice that didn’t quite hide the emotion that laced it. I could hear shock, hurt, and a little anger. I was impressed with the anger. I tapped the disconnect button just as the hotel elevator opened to my floor. I didn’t even glance at my fellow passenger, though I’m sure she was okay with that.

When I pushed open the door of the room I shared with Eden, she was sitting on the edge of the bed in the same skirt and top she’d been wearing the night before. She looked up, expectation in her eyes. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed that she’d dressed in my absence, that I didn’t want to go over there and press her down against the mattress. Instead, I tossed the bag of donuts I’d bought onto the mattress beside her and said, “We need to go.”

I saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes, but all she replied was, “Okay.”

It was a tense ride in the elevator. She brushed her hand against mine as she passed me to step into the metal box. I pulled away. I don’t know why. Maybe out of habit. But I suspected it had more to do with the fact that just standing near her, just smelling her natural scent, hearing her breath, was driving me crazy. I hated that all I could think about was taking her back into that hotel room and throwing her on the bed, of burying myself inside of her until neither of us could stand it another moment. I don’t suppose it mattered why I pulled away. The only thing that mattered is that by doing so, I caused a flash of pain to float through Eden’s eyes. And that killed something deep in my soul.

She marched through the lobby out to my waiting car the moment we got off the elevator, clearly uninterested in my company. I followed as soon as I’d dropped the keycard off at the front counter. She wouldn’t even look at me as I opened the passenger door for her. A part of me couldn’t blame her. I’m not sure I would have looked at me either.

We drove in silence for a while. However, it was almost forty minutes from the hotel to our parent’s house. Not even I could stand that level of tension for so long. “We should probably talk about what happened last night.”

She dragged her fingers through her hair, a sigh slipping from between her lips. “Do you have someone back in New York?”

That was the last question I expected her to ask. The car swerved a little as I lost my concentration for a second and forgot to ease into a curve. “What do you mean?”

“A girlfriend,” she mumbled as innocently as if she were asking what kind of coffee I liked to drink.

I glanced at her, taking in the guarded look she’d so carefully crafted onto her face. “Why?”

She sat up a little straighter in the seat, her fingers again burying themselves in her long, thick hair. “You don’t talk about your personal life during your rare conversations with Dad and Mom.”

Because I don’t really have one worth discussing with family.
But I wasn’t going to tell her that. “Why do you want to know about my life in New York all of a sudden?”

“I just want to know about you, period.”

“Now you’re interested. After all this time—“

“You’re the one who walked away from me.”

“Because you…” I stopped. I really didn’t want to think about what happened that summer after I graduated from Stanford with my bachelor’s. I didn’t want to remember what she asked me to do or why.

“It’s been a long time since you’ve acknowledged me.”

“You say that likes it’s my fault.”

“So it’s all my fault?”

“I walked away because of what you did.”

“What I did? I just asked you for a favor.”

“That was one hell of a favor, considering.”

“Considering what?”

Now I knew she was playing with me. She had to have known I would find out she was with Joshua after she left my arms that night at Stanford. She couldn’t stand the idea of kissing me, but it was okay for her to go off and do God only knew what with my roommate? And then ask me to—

“I don’t want to fight with you, Crawford. I just want to get to know you.”

“I’m going back to New York as soon as I drop you off.”

You’d think I’d hit her in the stomach. She gasped. But that was it. She didn’t say anything, didn’t even look at me. But her body became as rigid as a marble statue, her eyes glued to the windshield like the scenery unfolding around us was something she’d never seen before.

“You had to have known that I didn’t intend to stay here forever.”

Silence.

“I have commitments back there. I have a career that’s taking off, a partnership waiting just around the corner for me. I can’t put that on the line for some stupid personal injury case.”

“So last night was… just an accident?”

Her voice was raw, laced with emotions that I’ve heard in a woman’s voice before, but this time it cut through me like a knife, tearing at me until it felt like there was nothing left inside. Like I was hollow.

“It was just the end of something we never should have started a lifetime ago.”

She nodded, her bottom lip trembling.

“You have to understand that this—whatever it is—it can’t happen between us. Mom and Dad would be horrified if they knew. I mean…” I looked over at her and wished I hadn’t, the tears sliding silently down her cheeks worse than the photos of her raw wound spread open in the emergency room after her accident. My palm actually itched, I wanted so badly to reach over there and comfort her. Instead, I knew I had to put the final nail in the coffin.

“Where did you honestly think this was going, Eden? We can’t be together. We’re siblings.”

She shook her head. “That’s not what you were thinking last night.”

“No…” I glanced at her, steeling myself even as the sight of her crying silently beside me destroyed everything that might have made me a decent guy once upon a time. “It was… Look. I don’t know. We had sex once, and we can’t let it go beyond that.”

Eden sat motionless, silent, blank-faced.

I pulled to a stop outside our parent’s farmhouse a few minutes later. Eden got out and ran to the front door, brushing past my mother as she disappeared inside. I couldn’t even gather the will to lift my hand in a goodbye wave to my own Mom.

I wished I never left New York.