Anti-Stepbrother

“I want more than that. I want it all. You. Your laugh.” He pressed a kiss to the side of my mouth. “Your random idiocy that I find hilarious.” A kiss to the other side. “Your kindness.” He moved down to my throat. “Your strength.” The other side of my throat. “Your love, even when it’s not deserved,” he added, He lifted his head, his eyes finding mine. “I want you.” His eyes grew serious as he hovered above me. “I love you, completely and wholeheartedly. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“I enrage you?” I nodded, then thought about it, and my head bobbed down as my shoulder jerked up. “You did earlier, but I don’t know why. I think it’s just you. I call you Asshole in my head.” “You what?”

“Nothing’s the same as sliding inside,” he murmured after a moment. “The feel of being in there, feeling that clench around you, knowing you can push as deep as you want, as hard or gently as you want. Nope. I’ve gotta step off the joke train for a moment here. Nothing is remotely the same as that feeling.” Fuck.”

“There’s nothing plain about you, Summer. Don’t let some dickhead like your stepbrother make you think like that.”

“He lowered his head until his breath warmed my lips. "But here's my warning for you: I need you tonight. Don't run." He pulled hi head back, his eyes searching mine. "Please don't run.”

“You are that bad. You’re the six-monther, remember? #Sixmonthguy.” “Don’t start doing hashtags.” “#Sorry.” He”

“But my absolute favorite was when you said I was the Santa Claus Magic Mike, and I could bring my presents down your chimney all year round.” I”

“Caden had admitted once that he was always hard when I was around. “I’m ready to go as soon as you enter a room,”

“When he wore tight-fitting shirts, like he had today, I was having a harder and harder time remembering what kind of friends we were.”

“Turns out brain injuries are hard to live with.” He paused. “Or even just be around. People don’t like when they’re lives are upended by something they can’t see.” Caden”

“She’s not crying because you professed your love, dumbass.”

“Summer Stoltz had taken a cruise to Insanity Sea, and now I was docked back on land. And I felt the shit. I was the shit. Shithead Summer—that was my new name. I groaned, catching my head in my hands. “Oh, no.”

“It just occurred to me—what are you like when you travel?”I beamed at him, turning on his radio. “Eighties music, baby. Don’t tell me you didn’t light the fire.”He groaned. “This is going to be one long ride.”

“When he got out, I rolled my window down. “You look like you’re going to throw up.”He grimaced, pressing a hand to his stomach. “I don’t know if it’s from this, or if I actually am sick. I think Avery got sick from the weekend. She was puking this morning when I left.”“Avery, huh? At your place?”He rolled his eyes. “Don’t even start.”“But you see, I have to. I have to start. Avery’s my friend. I’m hanging out with your brother. You and I are classmates. I think we can develop our friendship to the stage where I give you shit. We should even start sitting next to each other in class.”“Don’t press your luck.”I kept going, “It’s a natural progression. Don’t fight it, Marcus. It’s like evolution. Don’t fight evolution. You’ll never win. Mother nature is a bitch. She’s always going to win.”“What the fuck are you talking about?”“How I get to give you shit. It’s an amazing experience in life, like giving birth. It’s painful for one person, but breathtaking for another. I’m the baby here. I get to feel air for the first time on my skin. Let me breathe, Marcus. Let me put my baby lungs to work and scream.”“I swear you’re making me even sicker.”“If you gotta puke, don’t suppress. It’s a natural body process.”He eyed me a moment. “Did you rhyme that on purpose?”“Maybe. Or I might be crazy?” I winked. “Or just a classy lady?”“Stop. I’m really going to puke now.” He groaned, pressing his arm against his forehead. “I was going to tease you back about Caden, but forget it. I don’t think I have the energy to deal with your rhyming.”“I’ve been told I’m amazing like that.”“Who told you that?”“Who hasn’t is the real question.”“You’re not making sense.”“I do that too. That’s very true.” I wondered if I should find him a bag, in case he actually was going to upchuck.”

“Thank you for letting me come.”I reached for the handle and was about to open the door when he stopped me. “I didn’t let you, Stoltz. You kept me company. That’s different.”

“She’d poked my arm. “How was the bathroom?”I poked her back. “An adventure to check off my bucket list. I sailed the golden seas and cleansed myself in the Greek sinks. I’m quite proud.”A line marred her forehead. “You keep getting a little bit weirder the longer school goes on, you know?”I shrugged. “It’s like crack cocaine.”“Wha—never mind”

“Now I felt one with the dirt on his Land Rover’s floor. I leaned over to inspect where my shoes sat. Yep. I could see myself down there, trying to make friends and failing like I had for the last two weeks”

“I think Kevin has feelings for me.” “Fuck.” He turned and headed for the bedroom. “Now I get your drift.” “Should I stay?” He motioned for me to follow. “Sure. Pretend I’m your girlfriend. Call me Carrie tonight.” “Are”

“Caden’s kinda…” She hesitated. “Overwhelming, isn’t he?”“What do you mean?” He was a big teddy bear to me now. Well, a hot and delicious teddy bear that wasn’t a teddy bear. He was more of a grizzly bear. No, not even that. What was I thinking? He was a damned panther, but I could hope one day he’d turn into a teddy bear. Much safer.”

“Your alarm’s about to go off in ten minutes,” Caden called from the doorway. He had a cup of coffee in hand and wore only jeans.I tried to keep my eyes front and center, but I lost. The tattoos were a nice little zig-zag pattern, pulling my gaze down, all the way down. Caden’s slow, smooth chuckle told me he knew what I’d just done. My cheeks only warmed a little.I shot him a look, falling back to the pillow. “I feel like this should be the first skip day of my school career.”“You’ve never skipped before?”I shook my head, rolling it side to side on the pillow. “Am I missing out? Should I embrace my inner deviant?”He smirked. “You can skip a class for any reason in the world. It’s your life.”I sat up, eyeing that coffee. “You were supposed to be the bad influence.”His eyebrow lifted. “I’m not selling it enough?” He lifted his cup. “You want some coffee?”“I’m wondering if today is the day I try coffee too.”“You’ve never had coffee?”“I’m beginning to think I’m lame.” I thought about it. “Really lame.”“You slept at some guy’s house last night. Think of it that way.” His smirk was back. “Not so lame now.”I could do one better. “I slept at a fraternity house.”“And you drank beer.”“It was the second night in a row that I drank beer.”“See? Not so lame after all.”“You’re right.” I sat up. “I’m halfway to total badass.”

“It’s no problem, but maybe we should get going? I don’t want to deal with a crazy chick.”My lip twitched. “No doubt. They’re like serial killers. They bounce back.”“Yeah. Just like serial killers.”

“Caden grabbed Kevin’s throat and lifted him up, holding him against the wall.”

“Caden wasn’t sure about that, he tended to be selfish. He liked to keep Diego for himself, but since I took Colt to Diego’s bar one time, there’d been no turning back. Marcus and Avery came the next time, and I was pretty certain that Marcus developed a guy crush on the bar’s owner. Diego wasn’t having it, though. Diego had a new bromance going, and it was with Colton. He declared it the weekend before. I wasn’t sure who was more miffed, Caden or Marcus. Then again, Colton looked a bit wary himself.”

“I could crash on a couch in Clarissa’s dorm. “Like fuck you are.”

“What do you think?” I asked.“You called me.”“Yeah.”“You told me this stuff.”I wasn’t sure if these were questions, but I nodded again, just going with it. “I sure did.”“And you know I’m not a bullshitter.”“It’s part of your intrigue.” I waved a hand at him. “It completes the whole intimidation factor. Also makes girls wet their pants for you.”That didn’t even faze him. He didn’t blink. “So I’m going to give you my honest opinion.”“Oh.” Now I could see where this was leading. “Okay. Yeah. Give it to me straight.”“What the fuck are you doing?”“What?”He got up for a beer, placing one in front of me as well when he returned. “That’s why you came to me. You know you’re being an idiot, so stop being an idiot.”

“No one said a word, and I waited a beat, then pushed forward. Screw Kevin. Screw Maggie. Screw whatever happened to them now. I went after Caden.He didn’t have to push his way through the crowd. It automatically opened for him. Not so much for me. I was at a disadvantage, and when I ran to the parking lot, he was already in the car and peeling past me.“HEY!” I yelled, raising my hands in the air.He braked, a little too close for comfort, right next to me. The passenger window rolled down. “What?”I reached for the door. “Let me in.”His eyebrows pinched together. “Why?”“Let me in.”He unlocked the door.I opened it and climbed in. “Okay. I’m with you.” I had no idea what I was doing.“Excuse me?”“I’m with you.” I clapped the dashboard, pointing ahead. “Whatever you’re going to do, I’m in. You seem to need a friend. You’re in luck. I could use one myself. So I’m in.”“I’m going to get drunk and have sex.”“Oh.”He cocked an eyebrow. “You still in?”He was laughing now. He was still mad, but he was laughing.For whatever reason—maybe I did want to go with him, or maybe I heard my own voice calling me boring and pathetic again—I sat back and folded my hands in my lap. “I’m in.”He shook his head. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into..” He shifted his Land Rover into drive and started forward. “But that’s your problem, not mine.”He careened out of the parking lot, and I fell against the door. I grabbed the oh shit handle above my head, and I had a feeling that was going to be the theme for the rest of the night: Oh, shit.”