Stephan (16 page)

Sticking my tongue out at Derick as I got in
his car, I did my seatbelt up and crossed my arm over my chest, and
ignored his groan. He got in the driver’s side and started the
car.

“You know, Derick, you used to be fun.” I
shook my head. “I never thought you were scared of your own twin.”
I sighed dramatically. “I guess Stephan is the stronger, more
dominant brother."

“Grrr, I know what you’re doing, Jade.”

“What? I’m not doing anything. I’m just
stating facts. I thought you were the more outgoing one. I mean, I
met you first and you seemed to know what you wanted. Clearly I
didn’t know the difference between a beta and an alpha. I do now.
Thanks, Derick.” I sat quietly letting him stew. I bit my tongue
trying to keep from cracking up. I could practically hear Derick
boiling over.

When we pulled into the driveway Derick
growled, “I hate you, you know that right?”

I did my best to look innocent. I had this
one down pat thanks to Stephan. “I have no idea what you’re talking
about, Derick. I understand you don’t have the balls to tak—”

“Argh, fine. I’ll take you. But you can deal
with Stephan when he finds out where you are,” Derick said as he
parked the car in the garage.

“Sure.” I got out, grabbed my school bag, and
skipped inside.

I heard Derick’s, “I so just got played,” and
I entered the kitchen to see a laughing Evelin.

*****

Stephan

“Son, do you want to tell me what Brand did
to you?”

I glanced up from fighting my personal
trainer and bodyguard to see my father standing at the gym
entrance.

“Brand, Owen, David, and Royce told me you’ve
been giving them a work out,” he chuckled. “They think I’m
overreacting to the shoot out and you could look after yourself?”
He raised one eyebrow. “I’m told not only are you beating them in
fights but your shooting is getting incredibly accurate. Are you
looking at joining Brand’s team? I can tell you now your mother
wouldn’t allow it no matter how old you are.”

Pulling off my tank, I wiped the sweat off my
body and threw it on the floor. “I’m just making sure I’m ready.
I’m pissed I wasn’t with Jade when she was shot at and Brand is
getting the brunt of my abuse because it was his advice I followed
when I stayed behind.”

Dad came in and started stretching. “I see.
Stephan, you can’t be everywhere. You can’t put Jade in a bubble
either. We have had people shooting at us before. I’d love to say
it will never happen again but when you have the money and
connections we have, it’s going to happen. You can’t beat yourself
up about it. You have to live your life the best you can. Speaking
of that, shouldn’t you be at rugby practice?”

I shrugged. My dad was right, but I felt
better to be doing something that could help in the future. “Yeah,
but I stopped going weeks ago when Jade almost got beaten to
death.”

Dad got on the treadmill. “Oh, I see. Does
the team not want you anymore?”

“No. They want me there. The guys are kinda
pissed I haven’t been going.”

“Really, and you haven’t because?” Dad picked
up his pace going from a brisk walk to a jog.

“Okay, okay, I’m going. When you see Mum will
you tell her and Jade where I am.”

“Jade’s not with your mum, son. Jade’s with
your brother.”

“What?” I didn’t wait for his reply, running
out to the garage. The little minx. I knew she was up to something
when she was talking to Cassie, but I thought I foiled her by
telling Derick, obviously my brother’s loyalties have changed.

Jade

I sat with the girls. We wolf-whistled and
fooled around. I didn’t care I was having so much fun. Derick had
driven me to practice, but what he didn’t know is I’d arranged to
stay at Cassie’s with all the other girls. We were having a girly
night.

“Thank God my brother was shirts this week.
I’m telling you I couldn’t be like this if he wasn’t. It is so
wrong to wolf-whistle and blatantly glorifying the male specimens
in front of you when your brother is half naked too.”

I laughed at Cassie and decided she needed
some payback for the help she’d been with Stephan…not. “Your
brother is pretty hot, Cassie. He’s super sweet too. I mean
redheads are in and he definitely has the bod—”

Cassie stuck her fingers in her ears. “La,
la, la. Stacy, nudge me when she stops traumatizing me. The
bitch.”

We all cracked up laughing and Stacy nudged
Cassie and stuck into her too. “Oh, Cassie, Jade’s right. I love
coming over your house now.”

“Oh me too,” Renee said.

“Yeah, pool weekends are always the best,”
Patricia piped in. She wiggled her eyebrows. “Tonight is gonna be
fun.”

We all held our stomachs as our laughter
deepened when Cassie turned bright red. “You guys are so cruel and
here I thought you were all my friends.”

I was having so much fun I missed a new
addition to the field. We all giggled and mucked about that it took
me a while to see a new body joined the shirtless team. A body I
knew very well because I’d slept on it for the last week. I smiled
when I saw him and waved. Good, I was glad Stephan was here. He
should have been here when it started twenty minutes ago. I didn’t
want him to give up anything he loved for me and I knew without him
telling me he loved rugby. I remembered him telling me he loved
playing sports.

Cassie wrapped her arms around me and I did
the same. “I’m glad he’s here. He needs to get out more and have
fun with his friends. Just because we have each other now doesn’t
mean he has to devote every second to me.”

“You need to tell him.” Cassie squeezed me
and I squeezed her back.

“You’re right. When did you become so
wise?”

“Oh when I started being friends with
you.”

“Argh, bitch.” I pinched her and she did it
back until we both were laughing so hard we couldn’t move.

*****

Stephan

It was hard concentrating on practice when my
favorite thing in the world was going on…Jade laughing, giggling
and smiling. I’d driven over to the oval furious Jade had left
without telling me. What I came upon on the field made my anger
disappear in an instant. Jade was on the seats with her
girlfriends, they were cat-calling and basically being crude
teenage girls. I chuckled when Jade yelled, “Tackle Brad again, and
that was a pansy grab.”

I should be annoyed Jade was so blatantly
checking out other guys, but she was laughing, giggling, and
pushing and shoving her friends and having so much fun. Jade happy
was my favorite thing to see.

“I think you all need cooling off,” Renee,
one of Jade’s friends, yelled.

I went over to my coach who didn’t even
comment about me being late and asked to be on the shirtless side,
I figured if Jade was going to check out the guys she might as well
look at me too. I was twenty minutes late but I got into the game
right away. Enjoying myself, the forty minutes left of practice
flew by.

“Can I expect you to be at the game
tomorrow?”

I hadn’t been to a game in weeks. I had
really been letting my team down. I looked up to see Jade sitting
with her friends smiling and laughing. She needed to get out, we
both did. My dad was right, we couldn’t stop our lives when we were
attacked. We moved on—more cautious and alert—but we lived. “Yeah.
I’ll be there tomorrow.” I gazed around at my teammates. “I’m sorry
for letting you down, but family comes first. I’m ready to be back
in the game if you’re still willing to have me.”

They guys patted me on the back. “All good,
man,” one said.

“Yeah, family comes first, bro,” another
said.

“Love to have you back.”

It went like this around the team. All of
them welcoming me and forgiving me for letting them down.

The coach left and my brother came over to
me. “So your woman is crafty. Even after you warned me I still got
suckered in. She’s pure evil.”

I laughed because the serious look on
Derick’s face as he gazed behind us at the seats was so convincing
I didn’t think he was joking.

“Oh laugh it up. She’s probably up there with
the giggling hyenas thinking up some diabolical plan to drive you
crazy and bring all men to their knees.”

Rolling my eyes, I wrapped my arm around my
brother’s shoulder. “She better not bring any other man besides me
to my knees. How about I go stop her diabolical plan? You game to
come with me?”

Derick shook me off. “Fuck you. Don’t come
bitching to me when you have blue balls because she still won’t
come near you.”

“I’ll have you know I don’t sleep alone
anymore.” We walked toward the girls.

“Yeah, when did that happen?”

“The night of the shooting.”

Derick shrugged. “Don’t get too comfortable.
Knowing you you’ll fuck it up somehow.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you.”

“Really, guys, there is a lot of fucking
going on. What happened?” Cassie said and Jade snorted before she
giggled.

“Oh my, Cassie, that was so not right.” The
girls broke down into a fit of giggles.

Picking Jade off the seat, I kissed her,
mashing her lips to mine. She pushed at me. “Stephan, let me go,
you’re covered in sweat.”

“Didn’t you want me wet?”

“Argh, that wasn’t me and wet with water not
sweat.” I smiled because she turned to face her friends and leaned
back on me. Jade wasn’t bothered by my sweat.

“Are you guys doing anything tonight while we
have a girls’ night?” Patricia asked.

Jade stiffened in my arms. This was the first
I’d heard of a girls’ night. I may not have known about it but I
knew Jade needed it. She’d have the guards with her and I had to
let her have a life. “I’m sure we can find something to do without
you girls.” Jade relaxed back against me.

“I say we have a game night. I haven’t kicked
your brother’s arse in a while, Cassie.”

Derick wiggled his eyebrows and Cassie
groaned.

“Hey, if I remember, it’s me who does the
arse kicking,” Scott bantered back.

“Fine. I say games night for the boys so I
can show you all who the king is.” Derick was on a roll. “My
brother needs his masculinity back. Jade holds his balls in jar. Do
you have permission to play tonight, bro?”

“Whoa burn,” Brad chuckled.

“Derick’s just pissed because Jade played
him. She’s smarter than him and he’s sulking.”

The girls laughed and Derick turned red.
Tightening my hold on Jade I breathed in her calming scent and
listened as our friends talked.

*****

My phone rang at lunchtime and I jumped to
answer it. I was trying to give Jade a tiny bit of space so I was
waiting for her to call. “Hello.”

“Hi, I’m at West Creek beach? Do you want to
come join us? Cassie said she’d drop me home, but I said I wanted
you to pick me up so Cassie can join the fun.”

“Yep. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Thanks. Can you bring some extra towels when
you come?”

“Sure.” I hung up, changed into board shorts,
went and banged on Derick’s door before I typed the code in and
entered. “I’m going to the beach. You coming?”

“When you leaving?”

“Now.” I left his room and went to the main
closet grabbing clean towels and a bag, shoving in everything I
could think of, including sunscreen and a small cooler. Going down
to the kitchen I grabbed four bottles of water and put them in the
cooler.

“Thanks for waiting for me.” Derick whacked
me on the back. “What’s the rush?”

“No rush. I’m picking up Jade.”

“Ah, I’m surprised you lasted this long.”

“Ha, ha very funny. Come on. Move your
arse.”

We took my car to the beach. I’d had fun last
night, all the guys had come around and we’d played card games,
video games, and pool until the early hours of the morning. I
wasn’t too keen to go to bed anyway. I’d gotten used to having Jade
plastered over me.

“Have you slept?”

“What?” I glanced over at Derick before
gazing back at the road.

“You’re blinking lots and really focusing on
the road. You’re full of energy like you’ve drank a bunch of Red
Bull.”

Okay so I’d had…four, no five Red Bull’s
since three this morning. “I’m good. I couldn’t sleep.”

“Watching and seeing how you are, is helping
me to believe it’s a curse and not a gift as I first thought.”

“Fuck you.”

“No thanks. I think Jade does it enough to
you. Poor bugger.”

Slowing down, I drove down the beach lane.
Going to the mass of cars, I parked and got out grabbing the bag.
When I heard the passenger door shut I pressed the keyless lock and
put the keys into the bag.

Walking down the wooden planks to the beach I
searched for the girls. The beach was dived into three groups:
families, couples, and groups of singles. Jade and her friends
weren’t hard to miss when you knew what to look for. Going to them,
my heart soared when I saw Jade look up and smile. Then she stood
and I took a deep calming breath to stop from going nuts at the
skimpy bikini she wore. That was it, we were going shopping, she
needed new swimwear or at least something that covered her breasts
properly.

Jade met me not far from their group. I was
surprised when she did something very un-Jade-like, she jumped on
me wrapping her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck.
“I missed you.” Her lips took mine and I tasted her. What the hell?
She was drinking?

Cupping her arse, I went to the group and
dropped the bag on the sand. Kissing her I let her have her way for
a while before I eased away from her mouth. Jade buried her face in
my neck and I groaned as she sucked on my skin. Damn, this was
torture. “Little bit, how much have you had?”

Cassie giggled. “Your girlfriend is a
lightweight.”