Score - A Stepbrother Romance (21 page)

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“
I
t’s
all gonna happen tonight, girl!”

My friend Cerie clutched my arm and whispered in my ear, and I grinned and ignored the nervous twinge in my belly. She was right. In this moment, we were on top of the world – her, me and our other friend Lana, who was currently squealing and holding her short skirt so that it didn’t fly up in the wind, much to Cerie’s amusement.

My own skirt rode up a little over my thighs as I walked, displaying what Lana had always referred to as my bootylicious curves, and my long, dark hair caught some of the breeze as we headed past two gigantic bouncers and down the silver spiral staircase that led into the Mint nightclub. I silently thanked God that no one had thought to card us, because we would’ve run into more than a little trouble there seeing as we were all barely eighteen. The club blasted heavy dubstep music, and Cerie eyed several young men with flirtatious eyes as we scanned the main room.

Tonight was going to be the greatest night of my life…well, I was hoping it would be, anyway. I’d graduated from high school a week ago with a perfect GPA and letters of acceptance from all the colleges my Mom had always raved on about, so I had my pick of them all. That was definitely worth celebrating. On top of that, I’d decided that tonight was
the
night - the night that I finally threw off my prissy virgin shackles and found myself a real man. A hot as hell manly-man who’d take me and finally do away with my virginity.

I wasn’t still a virgin at the age of eighteen because I had some sort of deep moral beliefs about waiting till marriage for sex or whatever. Nope, I wasn’t like that at all. I believed that all people, male or female, should feel free to explore their sexualities as long as they were old enough to consent, and I’d never judged my friends who’d started sleeping with their boyfriends when they were only sixteen or seventeen.

I’d simply been too busy with other things in life. School had always been hectic for me, and it was my number one priority. I wasn’t one of those super genius people who were seemingly born with the ability to understand quantum physics and five different languages; I had to study my ass off in order to make the grades I knew I needed to get into a place like Caltech, my Mom’s ultimate dream school for me. She had drummed it into my head from a young age: go to a top college, study a STEM major and get a job as an engineer or something else related to that. To her, that was the path to success in life, and I wanted to make her proud seeing as it was just me and her these days - the two of us against the world.

As a result, I’d spent most of my weekends studying to keep my GPA up or working on extracurriculars while my friends were out at all the cool parties hooking up with guys. The most trouble I’d ever gotten into was when I was allowed to attend the occasional sleepover birthday party on school breaks, and me and my friends would get up to all sorts of mischief playing silly typical teen party games like Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle, and everyone’s favorite – a combination of the two: Spin-a-Dare. But all of that was hardly ‘trouble’ at all. Nope, I was a good girl through and through, and tonight that was going to change. I was sick of being that straight-edged geek girl who always had her nose in a book, and my friends were going to help me find the perfect guy to change that.

So that was it. Tonight was going to be awesome.

“Ooh, hot guys at two o’clock,” Lana murmured in my ear, nodding her head towards a group of young men in black pants, ties and button-downs. Classy, but maybe a bit
too
classy. They were typical young professionals who belonged in a stuffy wine bar, not in Seattle’s hottest new club. Mint was in the basement of Hotel Laurent, and it was our city’s premier nightspot at the moment. Famous international DJs and celebrity guests often performed sets at it, and everyone knew it was where all the famous models and actors hung out when they were in town.

Cerie waved her hand. “Nah, not them,” she said, obviously thinking the same as me.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I can scope out my own guys.”

They exchanged glances and then looked back at me, almost mirror images of each other. They were both tall, auburn-haired and pencil thin with the metabolisms of jet engines, whereas I was darker and had the metabolism of a rock suffering from an addiction to sugar and fried things. Oh well, that’s life for you. I didn’t mind the way my curves filled out my clothes.

“If we let you pick, you’ll somehow manage to find the one and only nerd here and end up talking about economics or physics all night. What you need is the opposite of that – a big, muscular hottie with tatts and an attitude. Someone you won’t get emotionally attached to,” Cerie said. “Honestly, the first time always sucks, so it may as well be with the hottest guy you can find.”

“You need someone like
that,
” Lana said, nudging the both of us and nodding towards a table over to the left side of the club.

My gaze followed her nod, and I gulped as I saw who she was referring to. Major hottie alert. The guy was tall and inked, and under the flashing lights I could see exactly how his tattoos snaked around his bulging biceps. His nose was straight, his mouth firm, his brows heavy and his eyes bright. His face was vigorously alive and carelessly charming, and as he was approached by a blonde bikini-clad promo model, his eyes glowed with pleasure. Something about him seemed familiar, but I couldn’t figure out where I’d seen him before.

Suddenly it hit me. He was a model too. I’d seen him on a billboard only yesterday. Talk about aiming high for my first time!
Dream on, Sophie,
I told myself.

I groaned. “Come on…I can’t compete with that girl he’s with. Look at her! At least pick a guy I have a chance with.”

“What, you mean the tall blonde chick he’s with?” Lana said. “Check out his body language. His feet are facing away from her. He’s just being polite, and he’s definitely not into her.”

Lana fancied herself as some sort of expert on body language, and I had to admit, she was usually right.

Cerie cut in. “Even a Barbie would be jealous of how fake she is. Go and talk to him!”

I flashed her a reluctant look. “No, seriously, look at him! There’s no way he’d even want to go near me, let alone hook up with me tonight.”

“Oh, get over this insecure crap,” Cerie replied, playfully swatting me on the arm. “You’re great. Now do it. I dare you.”

“I double dare you,” Lana added.

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, guys, we haven’t done that since the ninth grade.”

The last time one of them had dared me to do something, I’d been fourteen and ended up passionately grinding up against a tree in Lana’s backyard. That was still preferable than being dared to go and talk to this unbelievably hot guy, though, and I gulped as Cerie nudged me in his direction and hissed in my ear.

“You can’t back out of a dare. That’s the rules, remember?”

I let out a sigh. She’d been correct in her earlier statement. Insecurity was decidedly unsexy, and I needed to pick up my game if I was ever going to go home with a guy. “Fine. But if I end up humiliated, you guys are buying me drinks for the rest of the night. And if he turns out to be a serial killer, I’m going to haunt you both.”

They grinned and nodded, waving me away, and I slowly walked past two grinding dancers and a guy who looked like he’d taken an entire bottle of pills before stepping towards the table where the hot guy was standing and sipping on a glass of amber liquid. As I drew closer, he looked over Blondie’s shoulder, and my stomach flipped over as our eyes locked. The corners of his mouth quirked up in a confident smile that made my lower half go all tingly, and I wondered what he’d be capable of doing to me in the bedroom if he could affect me so much with just one glance.

I heard him excuse himself from the blonde girl, and she was gone by the time I stepped up to him.

“Hey,” I said, feeling like a prize idiot the second the word left my mouth. ‘
Hey’? Great opening line, Sophie!
I thought bitterly. I really wasn’t cut out for this, but practice makes perfect, right? I could only get better from here on out, or so I hoped.

“Hey back atcha,” he replied, his smile morphing into more of a smirk. His deep voice easily carried through the thumping music. He looked older than me, but not by all that much. Twenty, maybe twenty-one.

I felt like a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car, and my plastered-on smile faltered as I stared up at him. God, he was tall, and up close his muscles seemed even more powerful. I wanted to look away so he wouldn’t think I was a total pervy freak, but at the same time I couldn’t tear my gaze away. Crap. What the hell was I meant to do?

I could hear Lana’s voice in my head again.
Keep smiling. Act confident even if you aren’t feeling it.

“I feel like I know you from somewhere. Are you the guy from the vodka billboard?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. I’m Drew. What’s your name?”

I opened my mouth to tell him, but something made me falter for a second. I didn’t want to tell him my real name. If I was going to shed my old nerdy girl identity tonight, then I wanted a sexy alter-ego name for the evening. Hey, it wasn’t like the guy was ever going to find out. I’d already decided that whatever happened tonight was going to be a one-time thing, just to get my virginity out of the way before I headed off to college in a few months.

“Err…Tatiana,” I said.

He arched an eyebrow, and I mentally kicked myself for not having chosen a more realistic fake name. To my mind, Tatiana was a very Russian sounding name, and with my black hair, curves, tanned skin and chocolate brown eyes, there was no way I looked anything other than Latina. Oh well.

“Cool. Nice to meet you, Tatiana.”

He extended a hand as he spoke. I shook it, and my stomach turned to mush as electricity seemed to spark between us. I finally managed to tear my eyes away from his, and he slid the same hand under my chin and tilted my face back up so that I was forced to look into his eyes again.

“You’ve got amazing eyes, babe,” he said, dropping his hand back to his side. “Keep them on me.”

The intensity of his expression made me even more nervous, and I couldn’t tell if he was actually interested in me or just loving the thrill of the chase. Not that he had to do much chasing. I was the one who’d approached him, after all.

“So, you been to Mint before?” he asked.

“No,” I replied. “This is my first time at a club, actually.”

He smirked again. “Well, there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there, sweetheart?”

I felt naked under his gaze, and I got the distinct impression that he’d somehow read my mind, and the ‘first time’ he was referring to had nothing to do with the club. I was thankful that we weren’t standing in broad daylight, where he’d easily be able to see the blush spreading across my cheeks.

“Do you like it?” he continued, taking another sip of his drink and coolly appraising my figure with those gorgeous eyes.

“Sure. I only just arrived, but it seems okay. Cool music.”

He shrugged and affected a bored expression. “Yeah, I guess. All clubs are the same to me. I get paid to be seen hanging out at them, so they all blur together after a while.”

Lucky bastard. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re uber-hot. People will literally pay you to show up at their events. Drew seemed a bit full of himself for bringing it up, but there was no denying the effect he was having on me despite his seemingly egotistical attitude.

“So you just come here to show off those muscles and make bank, huh?” I said. Cerie had told me that guys liked a bit of friendly teasing mixed in with their flirting, and unfortunately, that was the best I could come up with while feeling this nervous. Dammit, this was really not going well. My own awkwardness was making me internally cringe. At least he was still talking to me, though. That had to count for something.

He snickered. “I don’t need to show off. I just need to show up.”

God, he really was incredibly arrogant. If he actually wanted someone to like him for more than his abs, then he needed a set of brakes installed on his mouth. Then again, maybe that was his thing - hook up with girls and make sure they didn’t like him enough as a person to really care if he ever called them again afterwards. Oh well. Didn’t matter to me. This was going to be a one-time thing. That was the plan, right? I just had to follow through with it.

“So…what are you doing later?” I asked.

“You,” he said, without skipping a beat. He managed to keep a completely straight face as he said that, aside from a brief twinkle in those bright blue eyes of his, and I wondered if he was that bold by nature…or bold from using that same line over and over and having it work. Probably the latter.

I’d always heard that it was women who had no problems getting laid, but this Drew guy was proving quite the opposite. All he had to say was one word and I was melting on the inside, and I was willing to bet it was no different for any other woman who encountered him. I bet no one had ever said no to him, not in his entire life. And why would they?

“You’re very forward,” I finally replied, and he smirked again.

“I’ve got a room upstairs in the hotel. You coming or not?” he asked.

He said that last part in a smug tone, as if he didn’t believe I was up for the challenge. Little did he know I was more than up for it. I nodded, and he took my hand in his before leading me across the room, past my friends and out of the club. Cerie and Lana grinned at me and gave me the thumbs up as we passed, and soon Drew and I were alone in an elevator, on our way to the penthouse suite of the Laurent. Neither of us spoke, but that was okay. This wasn’t a date, and we both knew we weren’t here for conversation.

He swiped a keycard into a lock when we arrived on the top floor, and I admired his broad shoulders and back as I stood behind him. Compared to him, I felt tiny and vulnerable, despite my curvy frame. When the door opened, I stepped forward and drew in a sharp breath as I took in the incredible view from the window on the other side of the spacious room. City lights sprawled out below us, and I admired the beauty of it before gasping as Drew came up behind me and slid an arm around my waist.