Read Stepbrother Catfish: The Complete Series Online
Authors: Izzy Sweet
Stepbrother Catfish: The Complete Series (25 page)
We slept together that night, in each other’s arms.
At one point, Charlie woke me up and we made love again.
The following morning he fetched my bag from the foyer, and when I was dressed, he led me to the Christmas tree to open presents.
“This is for you,” Charlie said while picking up a small rectangular white box from under the tree.
“I have nothing for you…” I said, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
“It doesn’t matter,” he reassured me, “You can get me something later.”
He pushed the box into my hands.
I knew what was inside. It had to be another piece of jewelry.
I didn’t know how I was going to explain I gave all the other pieces to Hannah.
I stared at the box, almost afraid to open it.
“Go on,” he urged.
I flipped the top back and gasped.
Inside was the most beautiful pink sapphire necklace I had ever laid eyes upon.
He grinned at my reaction and came around me to help me clasp it behind my neck.
It was amazing. I loved it.
But now I was going to have to ask Hannah for the matching ring back.
He came around me to admire it, “It looks beautiful on you.”
I smiled and ran my fingers across the gems.
“You should put on the matching ring.”
Crap. There was really no good way to explain it.
“Yeah, about that…”
He was stone cold silent while he listened to me explain that I had given every present he sent to me to Hannah.
By the time I was finished, he still hadn’t said a word.
I feared the worse. I braced myself for an angry reaction.
Then he started laughing.
“You’re not mad?” I asked, hopeful.
He shook his head, his laughter fading, “No, no I’m not mad. I’m very amused by the lengths you will go with your stubbornness.”
Whew, he wasn’t mad. I was relieved and started to relax a bit. I probably could have even laughed just from the absurdity of it.
“But,” he said with a wolfish grin, “I don’t think I should let you off so easily….”
“Oh?” I asked.
“I do think I’m owed compensation for every dollar spent.”
I gulped. He may be the heir to a billion dollar fortune, but my mother married into it, not me. My personal bank account was quite meager.
“How much did you spend?” I asked, trying to play it cool.
Inside I was terrified of how big the number was.
“Take a guess.”
“Hundreds?” I asked hopeful.
He shook his head.
“Thousands?” I gulped now. I didn’t even have four figures to my name.
His grin grew and he shook his head again.
That was bad, very bad.
“A million?” I asked, horrified yet flattered. I had no clue what the jewelry had been worth… Hannah had no idea…
He nodded.
“You spent a million dollars on me?”
He nodded again.
“I can’t repay that.” Who could?
“Oh, I think you can,” he said and pulled me close.
“How?” I asked, tipping my head back to look up at him.
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him, “A minute in bed for every dollar spent.”
“A million minutes in bed?”
“You think you can handle it?” he asked with his brow raised. “It is quite the debt. We can negotiate if you like.”
Oh, it was quite the debt, but after thinking about it, I was definitely getting the better end of the bargain.
“I can handle it,” I told him and then gave him my own grin, “We should get started.”
That was one debt I couldn’t wait to start repaying.
Over and over again.
The End
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I’m going to die!
I scream inside my head as the escape pod I’m currently riding in touches down, somewhere.
The impact rocks me to the core. Thankfully, I’m strapped into a very elaborate, very effective safety harness. Right now I can’t move if I wanted to.
The dashboard in front of me flashes white and red with warning. Then a loud siren starts to blare.
As if I didn’t know I was in deep shit!
The pod starts to roll.
The shocks and protections of my harness and seat have kept me safe, thus far. My brain hasn’t slipped around in my head. I didn’t end up on the console as a splat. My body seems to still be in one piece instead of pieces. But now I’m trapped, helpless as the pod rolls and I roll along with it.
My stomach lurches as I go up and down, over and over. The escape pod must be rolling down a hill or something.
Stop, please stop. I’m going to be sick!
My blood rushes to my head as I roll. My vision blurs, darkness is creeping in. Then it drops and I feel like I’m free falling.
There’s another impact. The metal of the pod groans now with stress. The pod rolls once, twice. It pauses while I’m upside down. Figures just figures it would stop like this. Then one last rotation and I end up upright. The whole thing shudders then settles.
It’s over. Bless the stars, it’s over. I made it.
***
It takes several long minutes for my body to stop violently trembling. My lips are pressed together and my eyes are clenched shut as I hold back the sickness. If I throw up, it’s going all over me. So I focus all of my energy in holding the sickness back.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
I’m alive.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
I’m not dead.
Slowly, I peek one eye open. The red and white warning lights are still flashing. My stomach gives a threatening lurch. I swallow the bile back.
I let my eyes adjust to seeing. After some time, I think my body can handle processing multiple senses. I feel safe enough to peek my other eye open.
The screen connected to the console is going crazy. All kinds of weird symbols and words are flashing, but to me, none of it makes any sense. All that I can think is that red must be bad. Something must be wrong with the pod, but even if I figure out what it is, I won’t be able to fix it.
This is why princesses are not supposed to leave the planet.
My head starts to throb in tune with the rhythm of the blaring siren. If I want the noise to stop, I’m going to have free myself from my seat and do it.
I hold my breath for a moment. The rumbling in my stomach continues to ebb. Slowly, I release the breath and my fingers begin to slide across the straps of the harness, searching for the release.
Logically, I know the sound of the siren has remained steady, but as my fingers fail to find the harness release, and the throbbing in my head pounds harder and harder, it feels as if the siren grows louder and louder until I fear my ears themselves are about to explode.
Damn it all, how did I get myself into this thing?
The sickness is forgotten now as I frantically twist and turn, seeking out the magical button that will free me from the thing that just a few minutes ago kept me safe and whole. The button is nowhere to be found. My fingers search fruitlessly until I’m so frustrated, I end up screaming out.
“Just let me out! Please!”
Nothing happens. It would be too much to ask for voice activated control in such an outdated vessel. But I still hoped. My head drops forward in defeat. I cover my ears with my hands, but it’s in vain. The siren is so loud I can feel it rattling my bones. I start to cry. I survived the crash only to die pathetically.
I’m so pathetic. I don’t know how to operate an escape pod. I’m worthless. If they ever find me, I’ll go down in history as the first princess to die by safety harness.
I let my tears flow freely but as my nose starts to drip, I instinctually wipe at it. Princesses don’t drip snot all over themselves. What would the people think?
I wipe the snot hand on the skirt of my gown and then I use the back of my other hand to wipe at my eyes. I peek my eyes open for a moment, to try and clear them, and that’s when I see it sitting right between my eyes: the harness release.
I press the release and then tear myself free of the safety belts. Stumbling forward, I almost fall, my knees unsteady, but I manage to get myself the four feet to the console.
I stare, stupidly, for too long at all the different buttons that make up the console. There’s so much variety, so many sizes, and colors and none of them are labeled. I have no clue how to stop the siren, but there’s one button that stands out. One giant red button that keeps blinking. That must be the button. It’s red, all the strange letters scrolling across the screen are red. I bet it’s blinking because that’s the beat of the siren. It looks like an emergency button. It’s the biggest.
I push the giant red button and the siren stops.
Yes!
My ears are still ringing. It will probably be days before I can hear normally again. At first, I don’t believe my ears as the ominous sound of air pressure releasing reaches them. I don’t want to believe I heard that sound, I don’t. But then I look up and sure enough, the pod is starting to open. There’s a sky to be seen between the cracks.
No, no, no, no!
I thought dying trapped in the harness was bad, now it looks like I’m going to die from asphyxiation.
I don’t know where I am. I don’t know if there’s any oxygen. The only way to tell would be to run a safety check before even daring to open the pod. Anything can be out there but now out there is coming in.
I inflate my lungs with air and hold it. I jam the button. I press it over and over again, trying to stop the process. Nothing happens. Desperately I consider the other buttons. There has to be a way to stop it, there has to be. There’s another red button, though not quite as big. I push it.
The siren starts up again.
The walls of the pod shrink lower and lower. Bright rays of light beam inside, I squint my eyes against them.
I pound the smaller red button. Thankfully the siren stops. My lungs are burning. Spots are dancing in front of my eyes. Even if I can get the pod to close up again, I’ll probably pass out.
This is it.
