RICHARD (A BAD BOY ROMANCE) (62 page)

Chapter 15

I had fallen asleep on my couch,
waiting for word on how my stepbrother’s date had gone when I heard the knock
on my front door. I sat bolt upright, my heart pounding as the noise rocketed
me from my sleep and back into the waking world. My heart was pounding and
between my legs I could still feel the glimmer of lust from the intensity of
the dream itself. I’d been thinking of Tristan again, and in ways that I had
tried not to since that night at the restaurant. But try as I might the lust I
felt for him could not be denied, especially not by my subconscious mind.

Again the knocking came at my door,
and I glanced curiously over at the digital clock underneath my television.
Nine forty-six
?
Who in their right mind would come calling at this hour
? I rose up
from my couch and shuffled over to the door, wiping the sleep from my eyes
before peering through the peephole.

“Tristan?” I asked through the door
as I spied my brother standing on the other side. By the look on his face I
could assume that the date had not gone well. I was prepared to be utterly
furious as I undid the lock and pulled the door open. “What the hell are you
doing here?”

“You set me up with a complete
snob,” he said, raising an eyebrow at me as though he expected some kind of
apology.

“And how am I responsible for the
way she behaves?” I asked, my voice rising, though I couldn’t help but yawn. I
was still too tired to be completely angry just yet, but I’d settle for mildly
annoyed. “I’m not her mother.”

“No, you’re supposed to be my
matchmaker! And so far, the only match I’ve had is the one I can’t have,” he
said, stepping past me into my apartment.

“Tristan, we can’t, and you know
it!” I said, trying to force him back out, though I only succeeded in prompting
him to close the door behind him. “We can’t!”

“But I want to!” he said,
frustration clear in his voice as he paced like a caged animal. “Every time I’m
with those women all I’m thinking of is you, Gwen! I can’t get you out of my
mind. You’re all I think about anymore and I can’t stand not being near you.
You’re what I’ve always wanted, Gwen.”

My heart skipped a beat as he leaned
in close, his lips so close to mine as he whispered sweetly to me.

“So long as I have you then nothing
else matters, Gwendolyn. You’re the one that I’ve always dreamed of having ever
since we were younger. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now. You come
first, in all things. Gwendolyn… I love you.”

“Tristan,” I gasped, his arms
sliding around me tightly as he pulled me in close for a deep, passionate kiss.
I saw fireworks flash across my vision as my body melted against his own, my
body tingling as I began to feel the warm rush of my juices begin to flow
between my thighs.

Every logical part of my mind knew
that this was wrong, that we were doing something that we could never undo, but
my heart cared nothing for the reasoning of my brain. I knew what I craved just
as much as Tristan did, and his admission of his love for me only spurred me to
throw caution to the wind and give in to the thing that I desired most.

Our lips met in a passionate dance
against one another, his mouth so hot against mine I swore I would ignite like
kindling. I could already feel the stirrings of his member pressing against my
body, encouraging my own lustful body to shudder in excitement. I’d craved him
like a drug from the first moment he was inside of me, his dick sliding between
the slick lips of my pussy. I missed the cool touch of the metal piercing
against my sensitive little spot as he slammed himself into me over and over
again. I needed him more than I had ever needed anything else in my entire
life.

“I love you,” he whispered breathily
against my lips, his fingers sliding into my hair, grabbing a bunch of it and
gently tilting my head back so that he could better lay his soft kisses on the
skin of my neck.

“I love you too, Tristan,” I gasped,
my body arching into his as I felt his teeth graze over the soft flesh of my
neck. I felt like I was about to explode, my entire body practically vibrating
with the anticipation of feeling my stepbrother buried deep inside of me,
prompting me closer and closer to an earth-shattering climax like I’d felt the
first night we were together.

Without warning, Tristan swept me up
in his arms, carrying me from my living room and out into the hallway before
depositing me roughly on top of my bed, sprawled out helter-skelter as I
watched him begin to undress himself. I bit my lip in anticipation, my heart
fluttering as I watched him free his cock from the confines of his slacks. I
was soaked already, but by the time he pulled that monster out, I was utterly
drenched.

“God, I still can’t believe how big
you are,” I marveled, my face flushed with color.

Once he was undressed, my
stepbrother crawled across the bed toward me, savagely pulling at my clothes
until I was finally free of them before he began to kiss along the soft, gentle
curves of my most sacred of places. I let out a gasp, my eyes closed as he
buried his tongue into the velvet folds of my womanhood, my back arching. But
just as I was about to come against the expert ministrations of his tongue, I
felt something slide inside of me, and before I could process it, the enormity
of his cock was invading me, filling me up from the inside out.

This time, it was different. This
time, it wasn’t raw, hot, and heavy. We smoldered against one another, a low,
slow burn that consumed us from head to toe. We moved as one, not fucking, but
making love.
It was like nothing I’d
ever experienced. I’d never gotten close enough to anyone for it to happen like
this.

But with Tristan, it felt good. It
felt right. Tears brimmed in my eyes as I realized this was exactly where we
were both supposed to be: healing ourselves, the wounds that had been inflicted
upon us by our parents, and seeking solace in the only other person in all the
world who could truly understand the damage we’d sustained.

I wreathed my arms around his neck,
holding onto him for dear life as our walls finally came crumbling down.
Tristan covered me in kisses, some so hard they left me reeling, others so
gentle and light I could only beg for more. And when he came inside me this
time, it was like a flood—like he’d been holding back before, but now he could
give me all of himself, freely and without regret or hesitation.

I gave myself to him, too, coming
around his cock in a steady rhythm, finally obtaining that sweet release no
other man had ever given me. This was more than an orgasm. This was coming
home. Finally finding the place that I belonged.

In Tristan’s arms.

Chapter 16

I awoke to the sounds of my phone
ringing from the inside of my slacks as they lay strewn across the floor by my
stepsister’s bed. My eyes fluttered open, and I could hardly help but smile as
I felt the silken skin of my lover beside me, stretched out across her bed with
the blankets just barely covering up those gorgeous breasts.

I leaned down and dug my phone from
the pocket of my pants, frowning as I noticed my father’s number writ big
across my screen.

“What do you want?” I asked, hiding
none of the scorn in my voice.

“Do you have
any
idea what it is you’ve done, you utter fool?” he screamed, so
loud that I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “My reputation is ruined!”

“What in the hell are you talking
about?” I asked, utterly perplexed.

“Turn on the damn news,
you
repugnant idiot!” he snarled.

I didn’t like the sound of this,
drowning as I reached over to the bedside table to turn on the flat screen that
hung opposite from Gwen’s bed. The screen immediately showed an image of
Gwendolyn and I emblazoned across it, our arms wrapped around each other as we
kissed passionately. From what I could tell, the picture had been taken from
the street looking in on Gwen’s apartment.

I was furious. I couldn’t believe
some damn scumbag of a reporter had stooped to getting pictures of me through
my sister’s windows. If there was one thing that I utterly hated about being a
member of the upper
class
it was the disgusting amount
of attention everyone paid to the comings and goings of your life.

“You realize that my name has been
sullied, don’t you?” my father growled menacingly over the phone. “You’ve made
me a laughing stock with your disgusting lust for your own sister!”

“We’re not even related!” I shot
back, my face reddening as Gwen began to stir beside me. I could only imagine
what she must be thinking as she realized what was on the television.

“It doesn’t matter you fool! They
know her mother is my wife, and that is scandal enough!” He screeched.

“Scandals fade out,” I said. “And
what in the hell do I care? I’ve been in the middle of more than a few. This
will blow over like the others, and once it has, Gwen and I will continue on as
we like.”

“You truly think the press will
leave you alone just because you stop being interesting? Or that you’d ever see
yourself appointed duke after what you’ve done? You’ve ruined any chance you
ever had of taking my place in Parliament.
You
stupid
child, you’ve ruined everything you touch, like you always have.”

“I don’t need your damn title,” I
snarled back at him. “I don’t need anything from you, least of all your place
in that outdated shithole.”

My father let out that cruel,
heartless laugh of his that I hated more than anything else.

“You think I’ll stop with just the
title?” he asked, unable to contain his cold mirth. “I’m going to ruin you,
boy. Everything you’ve enjoyed of your privilege as my son will be taken from
you by the end of business today. The trust fund, the respect. All of it.”

“You can’t do that,” I said. “It’s
not yours to take from me I—”

“Oh, on the contrary,” he interrupted.
“Your trust fund specifically stipulates that it go to my
son
. And, by the end of business today, I’ll have had the paper
work to disown you filed with the courts. You’ll have no claim to a single
pound of that fund… a fund that my new baby boy will gladly inherit when he
comes of age.”

“You disgusting old bastard,” I
hissed. “You piece of shit.”

My father laughed again, this time
more uproariously than I’d ever heard it. It was the sound of his victory.
Without the trust fund I was destitute and homeless. He’d won.

“Goodbye Tristan, and good
riddance.”

He hung the phone up with a click
and I threw mine across the room with a clattering crash. My heart was
hammering from my anger, the back of my neck hot with it as I stared at the
muted news caster saying something about the entire affair. I didn’t have to
turn the sound on to know she was making some kind of horrible joke.

Good
riddance to you, too
, I
thought, leaning back against the headboard as I watched them show the same few
photos again and again across the screen.
Maybe
this will be for the best
. I took a deep, calming breath and tried to
collect my thoughts. There was an upside to all of this, and I just had to find
it.

Now that I was no longer a member of
my father’s family or even a member of the aristocracy I was more than free to
live my life as I saw fit. I’d already told Gwen that I cared nothing for the
title so long as I had her and I had meant every word of that. The more that I
began to think about it the better all of this was working out for me.

I would be able to be with my
sister, given now that I wasn’t bound to my father’s family by the same legal
binding that would have made me refer to her mother as my own in any capacity.
In
fact
the simple thought of not having to worry
about hiding anymore filled me with a joy I hadn’t felt since I was much
younger. The thought of walking out with Gwendolyn in public made my heart soar
to new heights. We didn’t have to sneak or hide any longer. We didn’t have to
pretend that our love for one another was anything other than what it truly
was.

It was Gwendolyn’s gasp that brought
me back to reality from my thoughts. I turned over to find her staring at the
television, her eyes wide with shock as she saw the two of us kissing on
screen. Her face was pale as a sheet.

“I suppose they were going to find
out sooner or later…” I said, trying to perhaps break her from her shock. “And…
now that my father is disowning me we can finally be together. We don't have to
hide anymore,
Gwennie
.”

She turned to look at me, her face
incredulous and her eyebrows raised.

“Do you
honestly
think what just happened was a
good
thing?” she asked, her voice tense.

“Well, yes,” I said, a laugh
breaking from my lips. “We don’t have to hide anymore! We can be together out
in the open and no one can—”

“What have you done?” she whispered,
looking at me in horror. “You ruined everything that I’d built for myself… and
I
let you!
”

Gwen backed away from me in the bed,
tears streaming down her face, a sight I hoped never to be the reason for. My
chest felt cold and I was suddenly aware of just how vulnerable I felt with my
clothes off.

“What have you done?”