Playboy - A Stepbrother Romance (17 page)

Chapter 22

Cam

‘
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your standard muffin tins with paper liners.’

What the fuck was preheating?

I arched an eyebrow as I stood in the kitchen and continued to watch the video I’d found on my iPad of a popular celebrity chef giving instructions on how to make cupcakes. I’d never actually used my oven before, let alone a muffin tin, but today my kitchen would be getting a workout.

I knew Anya loved cupcakes and craved them all the time, so I’d decided to make her a whole lot of them as a little surprise for her while she was at college today. I knew she was nervous about going back to her classes this week, and she’d had a pretty rough time lately considering everything we’d been through, so I figured it was the very least I could do to make up for getting her into so much trouble with me.

I’d gone to the store straight after my Skype meeting with Marko and bought a whole bunch of supplies—butter, eggs, flour, pink food dye, powdered sugar…you get the drift. I’d even bought a cute little cupcake decorating kit, and I was hoping the pretty sugared decorations would hide the fact that I’d never baked or frosted a cupcake in my life.

Oh well. It couldn’t be that hard, right? All I had to do was follow some basic instructions, and the cupcakes would turn out just as well as they looked on the instructional video.

Famous last words.

An hour later, an acrid smell alerted me to the fact that I’d forgotten to set the timer on the oven, and I realized the cupcakes had been in there for fifteen minutes too long.

“Shit!” I said to myself out loud, grabbing a dish towel and yanking the scalding-hot tin out of the oven.

When the cupcakes were cool enough for me to pull them out of the tin, I assessed the damage. Only the top parts seemed to be burned, so I figured the cakes would be salvageable if I just sliced the tops off and covered the evidence of any damage with extra frosting.

Grabbing the bag of powdered sugar, I cut it open at the top with kitchen scissors and emptied some into a mixing bowl. As I did so, I slid on a chunk of butter I’d dropped earlier and forgotten to clean up, and as I attempted to steady myself, I dropped the open bag on the counter, upon which it practically exploded right in my face.

Goddammit. Apparently, today was not my day.

“For fuck’s sake,” I hissed to myself, wiping the white powder off my face with the same dish towel from earlier.

The kitchen looked like a fucking bomb had hit it, but the annoyance that had immediately struck me when I’d dropped the powdered sugar soon faded as I pictured what Anya’s reaction would be like when I presented her with a plate of homemade cupcakes. It was the last thing in the world she’d ever expect from me, seeing as I’d never cooked anything for her other than steak, and even though it was a tiny gesture, I knew she’d love it. The thought made me smile, and I began stirring some softened butter and pink food dye into the frosting mixture before glancing up as I heard a ringing sound coming from the display panel near my elevator.

It only rang like that when someone was in it without a keycard or a passcode. Assuming Anya had forgotten something earlier and lost her keycard in her mess of a purse as she’d done a couple of times before, I began to wipe my hands as I called out to her.

“Gimme a sec! Remind me to tell you the passcode so you can use that next time you lose the card!”

When my hands were dry, I walked over and pressed the button to open the doors, grinning widely to greet my gorgeous Anya.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t her.

It was Jana, wearing a barely-there black dress and stiletto heels. She probably thought she looked sexy, but in reality she looked like she spent her nights working a street corner in some dark, seedy area of town.

“Hi, Cam,” she purred.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake…what are you doing here?” I asked.

She wrinkled her nose at me as she stepped into my apartment. “You changed your passcode,” she said, ignoring my question as she gestured back towards the elevator.

“Of course I fucking did. The only people who have it now are the people I want to have it,” I said, crossing my arms and moving in front of her in order to block her from entering my apartment any further.

“You don’t need to be such a dick, Cam. I’m trying to give you one last chance,” she said in an acid tone before glancing over towards the mess on my kitchen counter. “What the hell happened here?”

“I was trying to bake cupcakes,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “For the new step-slut everyone seems to love so much on the gossip blogs? Christ, she has you whipped.”

“Don’t talk about Anya like that,” I growled. “Jealousy isn’t a good look on anyone, Jana. And by the way, the reason everyone loves her so much is because she’s a nice person...unlike you.”

“You’ll get sick of fucking her eventually,” she said. “And then you’ll want me back up here. So why don’t you just give me your new passcode and save us both the trouble?”

I jerked my thumb towards the elevator. “Never gonna happen. Get out
. Now
.”

“Make me.”

“Are you fucking serious? Jesus, now I understand why everyone says to run away from people who describe their exes as crazy.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“I mean you always used to talk about your ex and call him crazy, when you’re actually the crazy one. People who describe exes like that tend to be the real problem.”

She pulled her phone out and began playing around on it, not even looking at me as she spoke. “So we’re really done, huh? Not even one last romp for old time’s sake?”

“We were done a long time ago. Now leave, please.”

“You sure about that?” she asked, glancing up at me with a playful smile on her lips as her fingers continued to dance over her phone screen. I could’ve sworn I heard the clicking shutter sound a phone camera usually made when taking a picture, but it was so brief that I figured I’d imagined it.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Fine. But like I said last time I saw you…you’ll regret ditching me. I don’t think you’ll like how things turn out once I’m finally over someone.”

I rolled my eyes and waved my hand, sick to death of her idle threats. “Sure, whatever. You’ll just go around telling everyone I’m crazy, just like you do with your ex-boyfriend. Go ahead, I don’t give a shit. Now get out!”

She stepped back into the elevator, a half-smile playing on her lips. “Bye, Cam,” she said. “Have fun with those little
cupcakes
.”

She spat out the last word as if a cupcake had deeply offended her at some point in time, and then the elevator door closed. I sighed with relief, glad the bitch was finally gone. She’d never really had me, and she’d sure as hell never have the ability to get into my apartment again. Only one girl had ever really had me, and only one girl ever would.

Anya.

Yep, it was only her, and a girl like Jana couldn’t even come close to measuring up. She could bitch about me behind my back and say whatever she wanted, and she still wouldn’t be able to hurt me or my relationship with Anya….right?

Famous last words…

Chapter 23

Anya

“There you are! Thank you for coming, honey.”

My Mom took my coat and hung it up in the foyer as I stepped into her apartment, and I gave her a nervous smile as she ushered me over to the lounge room. Only three nights ago, she and Pierce had practically been eviscerating Cam and me in this very same room, but her face was filled with contrition now, which made me feel a little calmer.

“Sit, sit!” she said, waving her hands at me. “I’ll be back in a second.”

She returned a moment later with a glass of pineapple juice, and I accepted it from her with raised eyebrows.

“You always used to want pineapple juice when you were sick as a kid,” she explained. “You said it made you feel better.”

“Thanks, Mom, but I’m not sick,” I said, my eyebrows furrowed with confusion. “Unless you’re insinuating that I’m mentally ill for wanting to be with Cam?”

She vehemently shook her head. “No, of course not. I just thought it might make you feel better like it used to. I was a real bitch the other night, and I know I made both you and Cam feel horrible.”

“Yes, you did,” I replied before taking a sip of the chilled juice.

She sighed. “I was just so shocked when I heard the news of what had happened, and I completely overreacted. You’ve always been such a good girl. Perfect grades in school, a full ride scholarship to college…always so good. So when Pierce woke me up to tell me that you’d been featured in a sex tape with none other than your brother, I was beside myself, and it all came flooding out when I saw you walk in the other night.”

“Stepbrother,” I corrected her.

“Yes, sorry. Stepbrother. I was also worried because I honestly thought he’d been taking advantage of you. I know what his reputation is like, sweetie. Everyone does. With this internship of yours, you’ve been helping him fix his image, but we all know that’s just smoke and mirrors. People don’t usually change that easily. I’m worried you’ll get hurt.”

“I get it, Mom. I really do. I didn’t trust him for ages either. It took him weeks and weeks to make me realize he’s not the guy everyone thinks he is. He puts on these outward airs of being this sleazy douche, but deep down, he’s a good guy. A really good guy. I just wish I’d had a chance to explain it all to you. I was going to eventually, but I thought I should wait a while and see how things went with him before telling you.”

I cleared my throat and continued. “I shouldn’t have done that. I should’ve just been honest with you from the start and told you that I’d already known Cam for a while before you met Pierce, and I should’ve told you we had feelings for each other.”

“Yes, you should have,” she replied. “Then again, judging by the way I reacted, I can’t say I’m surprised you didn’t. I don’t exactly make it easy for you to approach me with certain things, do I?”

I smiled. “Yeah. Remember the time in junior high when I played spin the bottle with some other kids on our school camp? I told you about it and you grounded me for two months.”

Mom smiled back at me. “I guess I have always been quite strict with you. But I was only trying to protect you from turning out like one of those—”

“Like one of those girls who releases sex tapes online?” I said with a wry smile.

“Yes. Like that. But you and Cam were right last night. That tape—it was just a horrible mistake. I realize that now. I know you would never release it on purpose, and after seeing the way Cam spoke about you and looked at you the other night, I don’t think he would, either. I didn’t want to admit it to myself while I was still angry, but I can tell that he really cares about you.”

“He does,” I said softly.

“Again, I’m sorry for overreacting, and I’m going to talk to Pierce when he comes home. He said some awful things, and he needs to get together with Cam and say sorry as well.”

“You mean like what he said about Cam being just like his mother?”

She nodded. “Yes. I don’t know much about Cam’s mother, but I do know that she had a lot of severe problems and addictions, and she did some horrible things. It was unfair to paint Cam with the same brush just because he’s made some mistakes.”

“So you’re okay with us being together?” I asked.

She hesitated. “Like I said, I can tell he cares about you, but I’m still concerned about his reputation. Seeing as I haven’t really gotten to know him that well since his father and I got married, I asked Pierce to tell me more about him and his history, but he’s been refusing to speak about him for the last few days. You said that deep down he’s actually a really decent guy. Can you tell me more about that? It might make me feel a little less uncertain of him.”

“Oh. Sure.”

I took a deep breath and told her everything; every detail of the tumultuous way in which my relationship with Cam had developed, and every way in which he’d tried to earn my trust and respect.

“And Mom…” I said nervously, about to give her my last example of how Cam had supported and cared for me. “There’s one other thing Cam helped me with, but before I tell you about it, I need to explain something to you. I need to tell you about Shania.”

“Shania? Who’s that?” she asked, a puzzled expression on her face.

I took an even deeper breath and began to tell her all about how my father had had a secret lovechild behind her back, and how I’d never told her because I didn’t want to hurt her. I told her about how I’d been secretly earning money and using it to help my half-sister, and last of all, I told her how Cam had convinced me to go and meet her.

“It was such a good thing for him to do. He told me I needed to seize the day and do it while I had the chance, and he was right. Who knows what the future holds? For all I know, I could have been hit by a truck that day and never had the chance to meet her. I know that sounds depressing, but he was right, and I really had the best time with her. Shania is great.”

Mom was silent for a long time after I finished speaking.

“I know you probably don’t ever want to meet her,” I said, finally breaking the silence again. “And I understand…”

She cut me off. “No, I want to meet her.”

My eyes widened. “You do?”

She nodded. “Yes. The poor girl…it’s not her fault she was born via those circumstances, so she shouldn’t be punished for that by anyone. And it sounds like she’s had a really rough life. You were right to help her, and I’m proud of you. I wish I’d known about this sooner.”

“I’m sorry, Mom, I just didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I understand. You’re right, I would’ve been upset to discover yet another awful thing your father did to me while we were married. But that’s all in the past now, and I wouldn’t have snubbed Shania. I would’ve helped. I still want to.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ll talk to Pierce later, and we’ll sort something out. He has a lot of connections. He can help her get decent a job here in the city, if she ever wants to move here to be closer to you.”

“She did say she’s always wanted to live here,” I replied, my heart soaring at the idea of being able to have my half-sister closer to me.

“Well, we’ll figure something out. Pierce can also help get her a spot in whatever course she wants to study. Did you say she wants to study public relations?”

“Uh-huh.”

She nodded slowly. “Great. Even if she ends up wanting to stay in Syracuse, we can still help her out there.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I said, reaching across and grabbing her hand. “She’ll be so grateful. She’s already done so well with the small amount of money I’ve been able to save for her.”

“If she’s anything like her sister, I’m sure she’ll make me proud,” Mom replied, winking at me before leaning over and hugging me. “Oh, my girl. You’ve turned out so well. I know I haven’t been the perfect parent, but I must’ve done something right.”

I smiled and hugged her back, and her phone beeped a moment later.

“Oh, it’s your Aunt Patty,” she said. “Hold on, I’ll just ask her to call me back later.”

While she talked to my aunt, I decided to text Cam, Kara and Shania to tell them how things had gone with my talk with Mom. To my surprise, I already had five texts and three missed calls from Kara. My phone had been on silent, so I hadn’t even noticed she’d been trying to get in touch.

Hey, how’s it going with your Mom? Let me know! Xoxo,
the first text read.

After that, the tone of her texts changed and became progressively more troubling.

OMG. You need to get online.

Seriously Anya, go online and see what everyone is saying about your BF!

Ok, I guess your phone is on silent, but you should call Cam ASAP. Everyone on the internet is saying he’s on cocaine! But that’s not true, right? You said he told you the coke scandal thing from six months ago was just a rumor.

Oh god, there’s actually a timestamped pic of him with white powder just under his nose. It was taken today while you and I were in class. I guess it’s not a rumor….?

My heart hammered, and I clicked onto a web browser on my phone before typing in the name of the city’s most popular celebrity gossip site. Surely Kara was mistaken or playing some sort of sick prank on me. Cam had been adamant that he’d never touched drugs, and there was no way he’d lied to me. He’d proven to me beyond a shadow of doubt that I could trust him, so I knew he couldn’t have been doing cocaine today.

And yet there it was on my screen, staring me right in the face. Evidence.

In the photo, Cam was standing in his apartment foyer with an angry expression on his face, and a telltale smattering of white powder on his upper lip and nose. His hand was in the air, gesturing to whoever was taking the photo as if he was telling them to get out. He wasn’t actually looking at the camera, which seemed to be held down low, and that made me think the photo had been taken without his knowledge.

My heart sank.

No. This couldn’t be. After all this time, he couldn’t be lying to me and hiding things like this from me, could he? I recalled everything he’d told me about his mother and how he’d never touched drugs or even considered touching them after discovering what had happened to her. His eyes had been filled with so much pain when he’d discussed it. Only a psychopath could fake emotion like that, and he wasn’t one of those.

That was when I made my decision.

Right then and there, I decided to stick by him. I’d told him that I trusted him, and I was sticking by that. There had to be some sort of explanation for the photo I was looking at. Maybe it was Photoshopped? Like he’d told me the other week, a lot of people wanted to steal the limelight from him, and making him look bad was a good way of doing that.

“Anya? What’s wrong?” Mom asked, frowning as she saw my expression.

I glanced up from my phone. “I think Cam is in trouble again.”

Her eyes widened. “What is it?”

I showed her the picture and told her of my suspicions about the picture being a setup, and her eyes widened even further. “Oh no.”

“What’s going on?”

A masculine voice startled us, and we looked up to see Pierce. In our shocked state, neither of us had even seen or heard him come in. “Well?” he asked again. “What’s wrong?”

“Pierce…it’s Cam,” I said. “They’re saying he’s ‘back on cocaine’ in the tabloids, but it’s got to be a Photoshop job or something. I think someone is setting him up.”

Pierce’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

I showed him my phone, and he stared at the screen, staying silent the whole time.

“He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t. He’d never touch the stuff!” I said. “He told me that after he found out what happened to his mother, he never wanted to have anything to do with drugs. Please, Pierce, you have to believe me. He didn’t do this!”

I knew I was babbling, but Pierce still didn’t respond. Mom and I exchanged fearful glances, afraid of how he would react, and a moment later, he got up and strode out of the apartment without another word to us. Just as he reached the elevator, I heard him mutter something to himself under his breath. It sounded like he’d said something about wanting to kill someone.

Oh, shit….

Cam was
really
in trouble now.