Royal Brit Bastard: a badboy stepbrother romance (15 page)

His low, honeyed voice melted my insides. At that moment, he could have finished his sentence any way he liked.
Perhaps you’d allow me to… 
Yes, I would. I would have agreed to just about anything he could have said.

He guided me to the café in the sharp morning sun, and he sat across the metal table from me. I had no appetite, but he told the waiter to bring me coffee and a piece of lemon meringue pie.

“Pie?” I said when the waiter had left, “Do I look to you like someone who needs
pie
?”

His grin was as delicious as it was infuriating. It had an easy warmth and an openness. At the same time, there seemed to be something about it that was perpetually amused and quite pleased with itself.

The sound was soft and intimate under the café sunshade as he said, “You look to me like someone in an urgent need of pie. I would say that you were a borderline emergency.” He was playing with me. I tried hard not to like it. I hate it when men do that. I reminded myself so, repeatedly.

He continued, “Ceris, I see someone who needs to be loved, who wants to be needed. Someone born to care and be cared for, and who wants to be protected. Someone made for nurturing.”

I watched his eyes. I took in his strong, broad chest. I was trying to take in what he was saying. He said, “I’ve been looking a long time, Ceris. Hunting, you might say. I need a woman like you. My family needs a beautiful woman, exactly like you, Ceris.”

I was flustered. I didn’t know how to respond. His words made me tingle inside, but I couldn’t process his meaning. As I peered into his eyes, I was reminded, again, of Tyler.

I changed the subject and said, “Listen, I’m sorry I ran off like that on Thursday. I really didn’t mean to be rude.”

He said, “Funny. That’s exactly what I was going to say. I looked for you, but something came up and unfortunately, I had to leave. I’m so very sorry.” I thought about the two big shapes as they slipped into the back of his Bentley. “And I’m so glad now to have found you again.” As he said that, his grin grew quite wide. His eyes sparkled, crinkling in the corners.

His strong, white teeth shone above his perfectly cleft chin. A girl could get herself into a whole lot of trouble with a man like this.

A very large piece of pie arrived, along with my latte. I said, “Aren’t you having anything?”

He said, “I had a late brunch on the boat.”

“Is your boat going to be OK out there in the middle of the Hudson?”

“It’s a big boat, it can take care of itself. Besides, it’s not my boat.”

“Really?”

“Strictly speaking, no. A smart man said, ‘always rent if it flies… or floats.’” I caught his hesitation. I said,

“
Flies, floats or fucks
, wasn’t it?”

He smiled and said, “I only apply it to machinery and vehicles.”

“Are you sure?”

“Oh, yes.” His grin was so mischievous it made me want to do something very wicked. He said, “The man who said that had an insatiable appetite for Japanese girls. Beautiful girls to whom he was wildly generous and permanently unattached.”

“Are you not permanently unattached, then?”

“Not permanently, I hope.” Now I couldn’t tell whether he was playing or not. I knew that I was even more infuriated by his grin, but I couldn’t tell whether it had actually grown any more annoying, or whether the effort of not slapping him was just getting too much for me.

The pie had that perfect pastry base that dissolves on contact with warmth and moisture. The sweet pastry and sharp lemon was a heavenly balance with the crumbly cloud of meringue. His attention was rapt as he watched me eat. In spite of my earlier protest, the pie did make me feel a whole lot better.

A last triangular bite of pie sat among golden crumbs on the plate. He said, “You should finish it. It’s doing you good.” I wanted it, but I also wanted to show some restraint to myself as much as to him.

“Really, I’ve had enough.”

“Mm. Enough is as good as a feast?”

“Sure.”

“But there’s nothing wrong with an occasional feast.” He picked the little triangle up with his fingers. His nostrils flared as he lifted it and inhaled. His eyes sparkled as he held the delicious morsel towards me.

I tried not to lean forwards. I didn’t succeed. My lips parted and I leaned forwards. It was still just out of reach. He held it further forward, and moved it between my lips.

As the sweet pastry began to melt, his strong fingers gently traced my tingling lips. His tongue moistened his lips as he watched me eat that sweet morsel. Our eyes stayed locked on each other’s as I felt his fingers, still on the plush pillow of my lower lip.

My heart pounded as he watched me, as the sweet meringue and tangy lemon flavor melted away in my wet mouth. When I swallowed, I tilted my head slightly, slid my lips over the top joints of his fingers, drew them into my mouth, licked and suckled them.

“Have you remembered yet where we last met, Ceris?”

I stared at him. He slipped a business card from his pocket and slid it across the table to me. I couldn’t believe it, although the evidence of my eyes was clear. The card read, ‘Tyler Bone, CEO, Bone Capital.’

“All this time.” I said, a sob near the back of my throat. “I thought about you, Brock and Amon every day.”

“And we’ve been thinking about you, too, Sis.”

With a rush, all of the feelings that I’d had so long ago about the three brothers came rushing back and poured through me. Now I understood them, now I identified them.

Now I knew why they were so wrong. And I shook so hard because now I knew that it didn’t matter to me how wrong it was.

The chairs scraped and fell behind us as we both jumped to our feet. Tyler swept across the table with an arm, and the plates and cutlery clattered to the stone floor. The waiter appeared and we had to part.

With impeccably pleasant manners, Tyler gave the waiter a warm smile but his voice was a firm rumble as he said, “Would you kindly fuck off.” Off he kindly fucked.

My body rammed against Tyler’s, my hips ground into him as he slipped his fingers from my mouth, and his lips met mine. We kissed softly at first, then hungrily, wet and forcefully, and my ass suddenly stinging as he slapped it, hard.

I devoured his tongue and melted into him in a shuddering torrent of longing. His fingers stroked my neck in a soft, fluttering caress as his other hand slapped me again, and I whimpered, pressing my tongue onto his, pushing our mouths to a deeper seal. I pressed so tightly against him, and he was so strong. I dissolved.

“Tyler,” I looked at him, with all the sobriety that I could muster, while my knees shook and the wet heat between my thighs was insistent. It didn’t seem like enough seriousness, but it was all that I had, “I’m just coming out of a relationship, and I’m really not ready for another one yet.”

“When you’re ready is the one time that good things never come along.”

“Are you a good thing, Tyler?”

“Good is one of the things that I can be, Sis. You might remember some of the other things.”

“OK, are you still the kind of a guy that will do anything to fuck a girl until he’s had her, and then he doesn’t want to know her anymore?”

“Absolutely not. Why would you think that?” A frown spread across his brow.

“I don’t. I… I don’t know, I just want to check, Tyler. Because, if you were then that would really upset me, and we should fast-forward.”

“We should fast forward to where you tell me what an ass I am and leave me watching your fabulous ass depart with your finger in the air?”

“Mm, maybe not quite that far.” He wanted to play, so I could play, too. “Maybe just before that.” I bit my lip, “to the part where we fuck.”

His face creased into a dark scowl. The look he gave me was so pained, I couldn’t bear it. And I’d made such an idiot of myself. I blustered, feeling hopeless and humiliated,

“You don’t… What do you think… I mean,” I couldn’t stand it. “Oh, look, I have to go.”

I turned and made for the door, almost crashing into a table on the way. How could I have made such a horrible mess of something that could have been… what
could
it have been?

What could it ever have been with me around to trash it? Maybe I had screwed things up with Ant in some way, maybe it was me and not him. Maybe… maybe I should get out of there and jump in the damn…

“WAIT!”

I told myself,
don’t stop. Keep going. Don’t allow yourself to be played and made a fool of. Not twice in two days. Go. GO!
I stopped. I stood absolutely, obediently still and I waited for him. The world seemed to fall silent as I waited, frozen, rooted to the spot. I waited as the turmoil inside me swirled louder and every part of me clenched.

I felt his warm breath on the nape of my neck, and as his dark, musty scent drifted into my nostrils, I quaked. My knees almost gave way, as his dark voice breathed into my ear, “Come with me.”

The launch waited, bobbing by the marina quayside. We stepped into the deck at the back, and I saw a big, dark silhouette in the wheelhouse. Tyler didn’t say a word, and we stood in the back as the boat took us out into the river to the huge yacht that brooded in the middle of the Hudson.

Tyler led me aboard the yacht and inside. We went down wide steps into the sunken levels of a dark lounge. He led me across a thick, brown carpet to the middle of the floor. He held me by my shoulders and looked into my eyes. I trembled.

“Ceris, I have a proposition for you.”

Whatever I might have expected him to say, that wasn’t it.

“Can you stand it if I ask you something very shocking?”

I had sudden panic as I realized just how far away we were from the shore. Out on a boat, there was nobody to see or hear what might happen to you. Maybe I shouldn’t have come onto this boat.

Whatever might happen to me out here, just a few hundred feet from the shore, nobody would ever know.

“Brock came very close to you this morning in the park.” He could not be serious. He surely didn’t expect me to believe that ragged, homeless man was his brother. That was too ridiculous. “Are you ready to meet them again, Ceris?”

I didn’t know what to say. As I drew a breath I heard a sound and I turned, then I shrieked as I jolted back. I leapt into Tyler’s arms, my head turned and my eyes wide. From the far sides of the room, the other two huge, golden-brown haired brothers padded slowly towards us.

Their smiles were broad and their arms were open as they approached. I clung so tight to Tyler’s chest my fingers clutched and pulled on his soft shirt. My pulse thumped and I shouted, “Tyler!” as I shook in pleased surprise against his hard trunk.

The brothers came closer, and I jumped against Brock, making him hold me. I threw my arms around him, pressed against his huge, strong body. My round, quivering ass felt small as his huge hands pulled me tight to him. My panties were hot and wet, and I trembled all over. He held me tight as I clung to him. Then he looked in my eyes.

His voice was firm and insistent. “Calm yourself, now.” He set me on my feet in front of him. I jumped to grab Amon. I planted a kiss on his strong lips, and he held me tight. My body trembled against his.

Tyler’s thick, dark voice made my thighs vibrate. “Brock, Amon and I,” and the other two brothers’ eyes blazed at me. Their dark eyes shone the color of dark honey.

Brock’s mouth opened, and he said, “Who’s been stepping on
my
yacht?” his booming voice made me damp in my panties.

Amon pressed closer and I felt his strong thighs against my legs. I trembled as his nearness warmed the insides of my thighs. I pressed back against Tyler as the heat rose and my juices welled inside my skirt. My body shook as his warmth heated my crotch. Amon grinned as he said, “Who’s been perfuming
my
cabin?”

I was hot, and obscenely wet, down there. The three brothers stood a half a pace back. Their heavy heads lifted and they grinned with a mischief that I remembered from years before. And I remembered why they are so dangerous. Tyler’s hands held my shoulders.

From behind me he said, “Now that we’re all reacquainted, let me leave you together for a moment.” And he left me alone with my two gorgeous stepbrothers. He went through a door and was gone.

The air was thick with a strong, hot, feral scent that had a sweetness all of its own. The room itself had a delicate fragrance, like sandalwood or incense. I breathed heavily, my heart pounded, but I remained as I had been told. Briefly, I wondered about what I had let myself in for, but a kind of calm seeped through me.

Brock, Amon and I looked at each other. The atmosphere in the room was charged, and tension played at the sides of their mouths. They licked their lips. It all reminded me of when we were much younger, when they would corner me in darkened rooms.

How I feared those times. And how I craved them. Those moments when, for all three brothers, I would be everything.

Through the narrow, dark-tinted windows around the dimly lit room, I saw the towers of Manhattan on one side, and the flat edifices of New Jersey on the other. If we were on land, it would be a three-minute walk away. Afloat, it was the other end of the universe.