Royal Prick (A Stepbrother Romance) (3 page)

Chapter Three

-Royal

“Welcome to Sauk Falls, Royal.” My father’s deep voice shattered the bubble that I surrounded myself in. I needed that bubble because without it I was like an F-5 tornado heading down the Oklahoma plains. My teeth ground together as I sized him up; my gaze going down to his extended hand and then back up to his face.

Did he honestly think he could be gone from my life for seventeen years and then walk right back into it like we were a normal father and son with a good relationship or something? No fucking way.

                     “Yeah I don’t shake hands, and I don’t plan on bonding with some asshole who abandoned me for my entire life.” I shoved past him and headed toward the car he was standing in front of. It’s an Audi. Of course it was. I almost wanted to laugh, not the funny kind of laugh but the lunatic kind of laugh. I should’ve known, still I’m surprised. Shock wasn’t something that gets me nowadays, not when you have heard it all.

                     “Your mother tells me you’re fighting. Wreaking havoc at home? That you’ve put a number of people in the hospital and have been arrested?” I smirked.

“Don’t get in the ring with me and not expect to wake up in the hospital,” was all I could say.

Still now wasn’t the time for him to show up and suddenly want to be a dad. Again. Fuck. No. I answered his question with amusement and anger, and opened the door to the back seat, throwing my bags in then sliding in right next to them, not wanting to sit next to him or hear any of his excuses. This man doesn’t know me, and I’ll show him just how much he doesn’t if he keeps it up.

                     I sensed the second he realized it’s a lost cause. He sighed and went around the car, opening his door and getting into the driver’s seat. I could tell he wanted to say something or ask me more questions, but he didn’t, which was a smart choice on his part because I wasn’t in the mood for fucking father son time.

I stared at the back of the headrest in front of me with a slow simmering anger. All the things I have wanted to say to this man— this stranger— and here he is right in front of me and I can’t manage to muster up one sentence. Not one that really matters. My fists could say far more than my mouth ever would.

                     “Is that how you got the shiner above your eye? Putting kids in the hospital?” Mark asked, hinting at the fighting conversation again. I cracked my knuckles and took in a deep breath, feeling as if there was barely enough oxygen in the car. The space was too confined to be having this conversation.

                     “You should see the other guy. Both eyes swollen shut, a broken nose, and busted up teeth. Don’t fuck with me or what’s mine without the intention of getting fucked up,” I commented, then went back to ignoring him. I still watched him out of the corner of my eye though. I could see where I got my eyes and handsome features, or so my mom calls them from. We share the same shade of blue colored eyes, and our jaws are shaped the same. We share the same body size and shape. Toned, athletic, and muscular.

                     “What’s yours? I wasn’t aware a seventeen-year-old could have possessions?” he laughed, and it’s a warm laughter, the kind that should make someone feel comfortable, but to me it’s just mocking and crude. It didn’t work on me. It just made me angrier. I sat in silence, knowing that the months ahead of me were going to be very quiet and lonely ones. I wanted nothing to do with this pathetic excuse of a man, nor did I want to try and fit into his picture perfect family.

                     “You eventually have to talk, Royal. I mean you’re going to be here for an awfully long time. Remaining silent is going to be kind of hard with a stepsister like Noelle, and well me as your father. I have so much I want to explain to you. Things that need to be said when the time is right and you’re ready of course.” He sounded so excited, so happy. My mind caught on the word stepsister. Sibling. My blood boils at the thought. It didn’t sit well with me, not at all. In fact, it hit the bottom of my stomach and echoed back up into my throat. I could feel the hate for her already forming and my hate for him increasing. It’s like a thick black fog that I couldn’t rid myself of.

                     I didn’t need anyone else in my life to hate, especially not some little sister that wants to tag along at every turn.

                     “Everything you want to talk about is in the past, Mark, meaning nothing you tell me now could change what has already taken place. Nor will anything that happened make up for the fact that you’re a shitty excuse for a father.” I said his first name instead of Dad, just to remind him that I would never see him as my father.

He would never be a parent to me, not after everything that had happened. We settled into a deep silence, the low hum of the car radio being the only thing that could be heard. I took the quiet time for what it’s worth and feasted my eyes on the tiny little buildings outside my window.  It’s a small town, kind of quaint and dainty, but at least it had a small grocery store. I continued to stare off in my own little realm, my anger festering as I began to notice just how large the houses were getting as we headed out of town and into the countryside. Of course my mom wouldn’t tell me my father was apparently filthy rich. If she did, I wouldn’t be sitting in this car right now.

                     We took a right pulling into a driveway that seemed like it’s over a mile long. I could see the house in the distance, it’s like a small spec on a road map. It’s a two story house, with a giant ass yard, green grass surrounding the entire estate. White siding covered the outside of the house and the shutters were painted a dark green color. I took it all in as well as the three-car garage attached to the house.

My hate rose with each elaborate thing I had to see. Every foot that the car rolled closer to the massive house mad me more resentful.

                     “This is what you spent the last seventeen fucking years doing? Creating an empire of shit you don’t need while my mother and I struggled to get by? Here you are with this big ass house and fancy fucking cars, and then there is my mom over there busting her ass working two fucking jobs just trying to make ends meet and put food on our table.” I wasn’t even trying to hide my dismay. I was sick to my stomach with hate.

He was a pitiful excuse of a man. Tension showed in his movements as he gripped the steering wheel hard, pulling us into the second garage door. I was getting to him, weaseling my way underneath his skin.

                     “You act like I neglected you or something? Like because I have nice things I never tried to take care of you. This is the part of the story that you never got to hear. The part I told you we needed to talk about.” Mark sounded slightly shocked, and I was more confused as to what he considered neglect and not neglect. What he did was most definitely neglect. The fact he even confused the two told me he had a major fucking problem.

I was over hearing excuses. My life was a revolving door of them. I grabbed my bags and opened the car door. I blew out a breath and then took in fresh oxygen. I wanted to get this done and over with as soon as I could.

I didn’t want to be here, but since I had no other option I made a couple promises to myself.

                     No commitments.

                     No relationships.

                     No friends. If I could help it. I was lost in my own thoughts, setting the boundaries that I needed to stay within as Mark spoke.

                     “You need to adjust your attitude, son. You’re here because your mom couldn’t handle you anymore.” He acted like he knew who I was. What I had been through.
Like he knew me. Fucker didn’t know shit about me.

                    
“No.” I whirled on him. I could see the shock in his eyes, the same colored eyes I had. We were the same height, but I had a good twenty pounds of muscle on me that he didn’t. I could land a right hook against his jaw without a thought. “I’m here because my mom deserves a break after raising me by herself for the last seventeen years. I’m here because someone failed to be a positive influence in my life, and I’m supposedly a problem child now, so thank you,
Dad,
” I finished my jaw tight. I wanted to tell him how horrible of a father he was but stopped, hearing the door to the garage open behind me.

                     “Royal…” The anger in his voice was nothing compared to my own. He didn’t have a fucking clue as to… “I want you to meet your step sister Noelle.” He said her name softly, like she was some beautiful fucking creature or something. I turned around, and my heart was beating out of my chest and I hadn’t even fully laid my eyes on her yet.

       
              Noelle.
Her name matched her. My eyes scanned over her body, from top to bottom. I was totally fucking wrong when I said having some kid of a sister follow me around. She was practically the same age as me, and she was far from a fucking child.

I took in her tan and somewhat toned body. She was lean but curvy in the hips, giving her that hour-glass figure that so many women wanted. Her blonde hair was the color of sunshine, and it was stacked up on her head in a tight bun. Our eyes collided, her hazel colored ones meeting mine in a death stare.

                     I could tell she was going to kill me, or I was going to kill myself trying to get rid of her.

                     “It’s nice to meet you, Royal.” My name on her lips made my dick hard. Instantly, I wanted to fuck her. Which made her so off limits it wasn’t even funny, and it wasn’t just because she was my stepsister. She was part of his precious future; the life he left my mother and I for. That very thought doused my hard dick with ice cold water. She was the reason we struggled for years. I would bet every single thing I had which wasn’t fucking much.

                     “I would say it’s nice to meet you too, but we both know that’s a fucking lie, right?” I smirked at her, my eyes darkening. I could practically hear her intake of breath change. Was she turned on by my anger, or my defiance to fit in? She probably wondered if all the things she heard about me were true?

                     “Royal, that is no way to talk to your sister,” Mark scolded me.  I’m sure he was getting ready to take off his belt and whoop my ass. Like he knew what was good for me. The minute he started acting like a father was the minute he could tell me what I could and couldn’t say. Until then I would do whatever the hell I wanted.  

                     I snuck a look at Noelle out of the corner of my eye. She watched me with caution, and I could see the worried look in her eyes.

It almost looked like she was saying…
They were right.
I sneered to myself. Of course they were right. I was the new bad boy of Sauk Falls.

                     Royal the epic fucking prick. You may bow to your prince now.

Chapter Four

-Noelle

Royal had been in the house no more than three days, and I was already regretting any of the good things I had said about him, or at least I was regretting having said them out loud.
Jekyll, and Hyde by Five Finger Death Punch
started, the music blaring through the walls rattling the pictures and bookshelves I had hanging on the wall. What an asshole.

I clenched my fists in anger. I had been right about Royal. He was gorgeous, almost like
Ryan Gosling
gorgeous. The picture my mom had of him didn’t do him justice whatsoever. He was way hotter in the flesh, and the icing on the cake was that he knew it and used it to his cocky advantage.

“Fucking A,” I swore under my breath. I couldn’t even hear myself think let alone focus on any type of homework including the five-page paper that I needed to finish. I literally had one of two options. I could sit here and hope he would turn the music down, or I could stomp across the hall and talk to him, and demand he turn that God forsaken music down?

Then there was the issue of keeping my eyes where they needed to stay. Like off his lean muscles, tight shoulders, and don’t even get me started on his incredible ass; you get the point. Since the moment he got here all I could think about was how his tight denim jeans clung to his hips in the most delectable way. I would bet Jordan twenty dollars he had abs underneath that shirt he wore. Was I jealous of the shirt? Probably, it was touching his body.

                    
Enough.
I spoke to myself.

I just needed to go in there and tell him to shut his fucking music off. I couldn’t focus on anything with my brain vibrating out of my head. I shoved my pencil into the crease of my book and slammed it shut jumping up from my bed. Nervous butterflies erupted deep inside my belly just as I opened my bedroom door and walked across the hall. The beat of the music was vibrating throughout my body. I stood outside Royal’s bedroom door for a moment, contemplating if this was really a good idea. I was terrified, deathly afraid of Royal. He was so different than what I had expected, so different than anything I had ever seen.

I shoved the fear away, knowing if I showed him that I was scared that he would do nothing but use it against me for the rest of his time here.

                     I squeezed my hand into a tight fist raising it to land loudly against the white wooden door. The pounding of my fist against the wood grain did nothing. Hmmm. I knocked again just a little bit louder than the time before, seriously hoping that he actually heard me this time. Again nothing happened. The music wasn’t turned down, nor did he open the door. I wanted to yell at him for ignoring me, but instead I grabbed for the door handle, gripping it tightly in my hand. I took a deep breath and twisted the knob throwing the door open in anger. Thank God I took a breath before I opened the door because there was no way air could pass into my lungs right now. Not after what I found when I opened the door.

              My mouth watered and sweat coated my palms. I took in his entire room but

mainly just him. There he was in all his glory, on the floor, his hands pressed firmly into

the wood floor, as his body lifted up and down. The muscles in his shoulders, back, and

arms bunched together with each up and down motion he did. He was doing pushups,

but why? I couldn’t look away no matter how hard I tried. It was like watching a bad

accident right before my eyes. I didn’t want to look but couldn’t help it.

                    
Look away, Noelle, look away.
I licked my lips, suddenly feeling hotter than I ever had.

       
 I was mesmerized by the tightness in his muscles. His throat cleared, as if to pull me from my thoughts just as he got up from the floor. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and hoped like hell that he couldn’t see the blush spreading across my face. The contours of his face were covered by a mask that was completely devoid of any feeling. It was as if he didn’t want you to know his emotions until he felt you should.

                     “Can I fucking help you?” His words were clipped, his voice rough. My body shook with emotions that I had never felt before. I huffed out a breath. Okay, so he was pissed off. Well I was, too. I straightened my shoulders and tried to make myself seem taller, bigger, less like tiny naive Noelle and more like someone that wasn’t intimidated by his bullshit.

                     “It’s a common courtesy in most households to answer the door when someone knocks on it,” I yelled over the music making sure he could see how angry I was. Long, tone, and tan arms reached out grabbing the remote for the stereo off the nightstand next to him. He shot me a cold glance as he turned the damn thing off.

The coldness in his eyes caused a shiver of panic to run down my spine. I forced myself to look away, not even caring that it made me look weak to do so. I couldn’t bear to look into the frigid waters of his soul any longer.

He challenged me every passing second I stood in his doorway. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. It took some major convincing to force myself to look at his face and not anywhere else on his shirtless body. Royal felt no shame though, he didn’t seem to care; his own eyes roaming all over my body from the roots of my honey colored blonde hair to the tips of my toes. I suddenly felt self-conscious in my jean shorts and bright colored t-shirt; my skin warmed all over, and a spark of fear filled my body.

                     I felt like I was being sized up. Like I was silently being judged.

                     “Noelle?” His voice was husky and thick. Though there was a warm tone to it, one that made me want to do things I know I shouldn’t, and as my name rolled off his tongue I felt the need to beg him to say it again. Which was strange since I didn’t beg anyone to do anything, especially someone like Royal.

                    
Like I said—bad things. Very bad things.

My nostrils flared as I forced my chin higher. This guy was a class A asshole. He knew what he was doing, and it didn’t bother him one bit. He was getting amusement from seeing me flustered.

                     “Yes, I’m surprised you could remember my name or the fact that there are other people living in this home.” My voice was all snark, and I could see the ghost of a smile lingering against his lips as I spoke. He wanted to give in and smile but didn’t. That small smirk forming into a scary snarl as he forced his way into my space forcing me to take a step back, or be chest to chest with him.  My back hit the door that was behind me causing it to slam shut, and the feeling of being trapped overwhelmed me. “I just wanted to see if you could turn your music down a bit; I’m trying to study,” I squeaked out quietly

                     “This might be your house,
princess
…” The look in his eyes was feral. I could feel the heat of his stare against my skin. “But it doesn’t mean you can barge into my fucking space and order me around.” Sweat formed against my brow, and my teeth sunk into my bottom lip without thought. It was as if I was no longer under control of my own body. Once again I found my stare lingering all over his body.  Across his slick and tone shoulders, down his impeccable chest, and over his eight pack of washboard abs.

Royal had the physique of an athlete, someone who took the time to strengthen their body. My insides quivered with a need that I didn’t understand. My eyes honed in on the droplets of sweat that were clinging to his body; the small drops gliding over his muscles and down toward his black basketball shorts, which seemed to sink lower on his hips with every single movement he made, revealing the very top of his….

                     “If you wanted me to take off my shorts all you had to do was ask…” he interrupted my thought before I could finish it. My heart was racing out of my chest as his agile fingers gripped the sides of his shorts. What the hell!

              My eyes grew wide with fear and maybe a tinge of excitement as he shoved his shorts down his long toned legs. I averted my attention to his face knowing that all his junk was on full display. I forced a breath into my lungs and narrowed my eyes at him trying to show him that anything he did, didn’t affect me as much as he wanted it to.

                     “This is my house, too.” My words trembled, teetered on the very verge of not even being said. I tried to take another step away from him, keeping my eyes on the stupid smirk that started to form on his face.

                     “You want my cock, Noelle?” His words were dirty, hell he was fucking dirty. I shook my head now, causing my hair to fly into my face shielding my emotions from him.

                     “Just….” I stuttered again. “Just put some damn clothes on, Royal, and for fucks sake please keep your music down.” I turned on my heels, pulling the door open as quickly as I possibly could, running from his bedroom and straight into my own slamming and locking the door behind me.

I could practically hear the laughter escaping his lips. There was no way I could handle him. He was so much more than I ever expected.

So intimidating.

So dark.

He had a story to tell but was too afraid to tell it.

                     I was going to have a heart attack if I had to deal with this kind of behavior every single day. I really thought there was some good in him, but maybe my mom was right? Maybe some people were a lost cause? If he refused to even be civil then what was the point?

                     “Deep breaths…” I whispered to myself leaning against the wall. Royal didn’t give a shit about what I had to say… The loud pounding of his music all but said it. I ran a hand down my face in frustration. This wasn’t going to work. He was bad, very bad; the worst kind of bad. The kind that I spent my entire high school career avoiding.

                     I wanted to stomp back over to his bedroom and remind him that it was me who fought to make sure he could stay here but didn’t. It would be pointless. He didn’t care about anything but himself. Instead, I threw myself down on my mattress as another song started, the beat of it causing a dull ache to form at the back of my head.

                     My thoughts lingered back to what had just taken place. Did he really just take his shorts off in front of me? Did I want him to? I couldn’t think about anything else for the rest of the night as I sat in my bedroom wondering what it was he was doing across the hall.

                    
Royal.
I shook my head saying his name out loud. He would fit right in with all the other jocks and assholes at Sauk Prep; it was I who would still look like an outcast.