STEPBROTHER: The Bride's Surprise (FMM Menage Stepbrother Romance) (Contemporary Women New Adult & College Menage Short Stories) (2 page)

BOOK: STEPBROTHER: The Bride's Surprise (FMM Menage Stepbrother Romance) (Contemporary Women New Adult & College Menage Short Stories)
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“Mm-hm,” Francis nodded slowly, making his hands spread apart to the width of a foot long sub.

 

“Our girl Livy attracts the men with the Magnums, non-Latex, size XL,” Francis smiled coyly.

 

Markie shook her head, shivering head to toe.

 

*****

 

Twenty minutes later Livy perched high on a scaffolding. Her legs were wrapped around the neck of a giraffe and she held a big fur ball in her arms.

 

Livy’s longtime friend and one-time companion Jacques, snapped pics of her cuddling the chimpanzee Max. While Livy flirted with the two giraffes, teasing them with a branch of Acacia leaves.

 

“Grand pappy Donovan, if there is a Heaven and I ever see you there, I am going to introduce you to my hand on her face,” Livy muttered.

 

Jacques and wardrobe had spruced up Livy with a cotton mesh bikini bottom and without a top.

 

Livy stared down into the lens, giving the digital cam all she had. Thank the Lord she had modeled skimpy panties putting herself through school. Her online degree in business didn’t help a lick as much as her own bod and her looks seemed to these days.

 

Livy leaned toward the camera lens and she winked.

 

“Perfect! I think we got it!” Jacques snapped a final pic and he called down to the crew. “That’s it. Drinks at The Goose are on me—.”

 

The crew applauded and Jacques joined the wardrobe department to help Livy to the ground.

 

Francis slipped a large manila envelope into Livy’s hands. “This was at the Castle Agency.”

 

Livy looked at the legal sized mailer. “What is it?”

 

“How should I know? I just work Creative,” Francis snapped for makeup. “Has your name on it, though, sweety.”

 

“Thank you, Ying and Yang,” Livy said to the giraffes. They blinked and they were led down a narrow garden path around the set. “How did we manage to get them here,” Livy asked Jacques.

 

“I called in favor or two,” Jacques set Livy down on the ground. 

 

“Jacques, you are amazing. Thank you,” Livy hugged her friend.

 

Francis snapped for Markie and wardrobe to debug Livy’s glossy kitten look. Francis and Markie exchanged glances and this time Markie pursed her lips.

 

“Come on, let’s go where we can talk,” Livy said spying Markie and Francis, squinting at them prettily.

 

“Mm, hmm,” Francis quietly said as he instructed the crew to break down the set.

 

 

*****

 

A gaggle of hours later and Livy stood outside her apartment flats, looking at how high she had to climb. Livy saw the sign in the lobby saying the elevator was out of commission.

 

Livy slung her tote back over her arm. Thank gosh, the city had started running local transit nights again. Livy hiked past her place and caught a trolley down the block.

 

Livy jumped onto the cable car with a healthy sigh. She knew she could never have made the trek in her demolished best heels. Max the chimp had done a magnificent job crunching her one good shoe into a knot. So much joy.

 

Today’s shoot had been a success. Now the agency would go another year from the revenue Livy generated. That was, if Livy could figure out how many surprises Donovan Lee had left before they found her.

 

Livy checked in to a hotel, using the Castle Agency credit voucher, knowing she could expense the time. Maybe she didn’t have much, but a dream for her family, and the hope she could continue things, so her mother would come out from her illness fine.

 

One thought of her mom’s bills and Livy wanted to jump back on the cable car and ride it into the ocean without a snorkel.
Yeah, that would show the world, wouldn’t it..?
Not.

 

Livy sat a glow table in the corner of the hotel bar, running her forefinger around the rim her acai flavored margarita. Her jaunt as a super model tempting jungle creatures with acai inspired her to explore more of her adventurous side.

 

Livy took a sip and darn if it didn’t taste good.

 

“Wow, maybe I should try new things more often.”

 

Like the large envelope that stared Livy in the face whenever she looked at the glowing table surface. Livy knew a string of messages and bills were waiting for her at home. Not that her professional engagements were twisty, but Livy made certain her personal life was not.

 

Livy was done believing in romantic trysts and the promise of a happy ever after. Give her a plate of s’mores and some fan-fiction with Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Chris Hemsworth with them, and she was good.

 

Livy picked up the manila envelope. Geez, it was heavy enough to use as a paper weight.

 

“You don’t scare me,” Livy poked at the mailer. Livy set it down and she ordered another margarita.

 

Her mobile rang.

 

“Hi, babe—.”

 

“Hi, Poppy. I know I need to pay your for sitting—.” Poppy Hepburn rang Livy insisted on phoning every night, and on the half hour. Like Livy couldn’t possibly tell fit was Poppy from her caller ID.

 

“Awesome and The Harringtons want you to add their Jack Russell into the mix, Liv.”

 

Livy pressed her hand to her forehead. “Bluck,” Livy said into the phone.

 

“I’m not the one with a dog walking empire, but I’d love it,” Livy heard Poppy whisper to the Russell, “Down boy.”

 

Livy and Poppy knew one another since kindergarten. They ran into each other again at college, and Livy wondered why Poppy was always free to hang. Everybody they knew seemed to go missing. When Livy asked, she always got the same reply. “I’m an independent woman, and I do what I want.”

 

O-kay
, Livy thought.
Why couldn’t she live that way?

 

Livy tapped a series of digits on her phone. She wired money to Poppy, relieved she had gotten two things right today. “Check your mail, babe.”

 

“Ooh, cashola,” Livy replied “Thank you, girl. You need me to do the doggy thing more, don’t you?”

 

Livy burst out laughing in the bar. She turned her head when she gained the looks of more than a few teetotalers and diehard drinkers. “I’m sorry Poppy. It’s been that kind of a day.”

 

“So you texted,” said Poppy. “Giraffes, really?”

 

“A chimpanzee too. He tried to eat my shoe—.”  Livy pulled her ear away from the phone.

 

“No!” Poppy cried. “Let me at that mad little thing. I’ll get him good and trained like my ‘boo’, Geoff,” said Poppy. “By the way, any word on your granddaddy’s will,” said Poppy.

 

“I’ve got a big, hairy envelope staring at me,” Livy ran her fingernail under the sealed portion of the giant letter.

 

“And how is your boyfriend you call ‘boo’?” Livy said, smiling.

 

“As rascally as you and Jacques from what I hear,” Poppy repeated Livy’s name. “Liv? Liv you there?”

 

A bartender set a bowl of nuts on the table.

 

Livy looked up beaming. “Cashews?”

 

“Your favorite.” The stylish sixtyish bald barkeep rounded the tabled as he winked.

 

Livy was known by the hotelier who ran the place where she stayed. That was how she could get away with breaking the upscale establishment’s dress code. Livy’s shirt front matching her jeans and sneakers read, “Kiss me, I’m a real blonde.”

 

Livy wished she had as much power to command what she wanted in the real world, and especially with her grandfather Donovan Lee’s will.

 

“What is going on with you and Jacques? The whole coast is talking about how the famous photographer almost eloped with the granddaughter of an ad empire,” said Poppy. “I called your home and you weren’t there again. Liv? Are you at the
hotel
again?

 

An ad empire?
Livy could ever be an heiress to a fortune. Hah. A granddaughter to a madcap businessman, maybe, but an
heiress
? “Don’t I wish,” Livy said under her breath.

 

Livy doubted her life could turn any twister if she Double Dutch dared it.

 

Livy leapt up from her seat reading the letter she’d yanked from the mailer. “What in jumping-jolly faeries did grand pappy do?”

 

“Livy, not that Irish folklore junk again. I swear Donovan Lee and his messed up Irish folktales.

Liv?” Poppy said after a moment. “Liv, what is it?” Poppy chimed into the phone.

 

“Leaping Pookas!” Livy plopped back right down into her plush chair as the hotel bar guests stared. Livy reread the papers, but she could hardly believe what they said.

 

 

“Well—what?” Poppy said.

 

 

“Grand pappy willed his company, to me,” Livy blinked holding a deed to The Castle Agency.”

 

*****

 

The bike messenger rode up to the twentieth floor front of the midtown business district. “Delivery for Foxtail Ad Agency.”

 

Secretary Rhonda Flemings, tapped her com and PDX and she buzzed in the messenger.

 

“Don’t you ever sleep?” Rhonda took the manila package that the ebony biker Mike handed her.

 

“Got to get the packages out before classes,” Mike said, handing Rhonda his message tablet.

 

Rhonda glanced at her makeup in her PC mirror she’d queued up on her monitor. She never wanted to look like she was unkempt when a young strapping man was in her radar. Even if she was twice his age.

 

Being single in the city meant a girl had to accentuate the positive. All was fair in love and catching the worm. Rhonda knew Mike was a worm worth knowing; and over the years she’d learned how to be a very friendly bird.

 

“You keep hanging around here like you do and you might get more than you bargained,” Rhonda saw Mike glancing at her and smiled.

 

“Aren’t the girls on campus keeping you busy?” Rhonda signed Mike’s tablet with expert penmanship.

 

“Nah. These days, the girls want a billionaire, or a hustler,” Mike took the tablet and he penned his initials beside Rhonda’s signature.

 

Rhonda shook her auburn hair so it lilted around her pretty fortyish face. “See you next time, okay?”

 

Mike nodded and he took the slip of paper Rhonda had handed him.

 

Mike entered the elevators grinning as he keyed in Rhonda’s number into his mobile phone.

 

“Tell the brothers the package and papers have arrived,” Rhonda said as she pressed another button on her com.

 

Rhonda’s cell phone buzzed.

 

“Mike Nichols, mm? A good, strong name,” Rhonda quietly said as one of the brothers of the Foxtail Group asked for the package.

 

Rhonda scheduled a Brazilian wax. A woman had to be prepared when good times were coming, Rhonda calmly smiled.

 

*****

 

“That’s great news, Livy! Isn’t it?” Poppy and Livy walked the hills of the city giving the throng pooches a healthy shakedown.

 

“Remember when I mentioned the fine print?” Livy sucked a dollop of crème from her latte. The caramel sugary goodness made a moustache around under her nose.

 

“Yeah,” Poppy reigned her gaggle of canines from the curb.

 

“The papers I signed to handle granddad’s business are about more than I thought,” said Livy.

 

“I’m a paralegal and even I don’t know what that means,” Poppy followed Livy as they headed up the street.

 

BOOK: STEPBROTHER: The Bride's Surprise (FMM Menage Stepbrother Romance) (Contemporary Women New Adult & College Menage Short Stories)
10.98Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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