Hunger (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) Read online

  Afterwards, I tossed the shirt and my soaked bra in the laundry basket and reached for a towel to cover myself with on the dash to my bedroom. I wrapped it around my back and gripped it with one hand while opening the door with the other.

  I managed to bite back the shriek of surprise when I nearly barreled into Luke, but I couldn’t stop myself from physically jumping. His eyes widened and he reached his hands out as if he was ready to catch me if I started to fall, an apologetic look on his face.

  “Jesus, I thought you were going to stop scaring me,” I said as I held my free hand over my wildly beating heart, forcing a laugh at the end.

  His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed hard. “I didn’t mean- I’m sorry. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt.”

  “I’m fine. Hey, maybe we should get you one of those cat collars with a little bell to wear on your wrist or something. That might help.”

  He didn’t even crack a smile at the joke and I averted my gaze from his face, suddenly uncomfortable with my state of undress, even though I logically knew I was completely covered.

  Luke seemed uncomfortable with it as well, but when he made no attempt to move out of the way after a few moments, I cleared my throat and said, “Excuse me.”

  His step back was hesitant, but it gave me enough room to brush past him and high-tail it to my bedroom. I quickly got redressed, then lingered in front of the door, my hand hovering above the knob.

  Did I really want to go back out there? Logically, I knew I needed to at least go clean up the mess of broken glass and coffee in the kitchen, but I wasn’t really looking forward to the idea of tip-toeing around the increasingly odd Lucas.

  But was hiding in my room for the next few months a viable option? I knew I’d have to deal with him sooner or later, so I took a deep breath and left the room.

  It was eerily quiet in the house as I made my way back into the kitchen. I stepped around the bar and frowned when I noticed the broken glass and coffee had already been cleaned up, nothing left out of place.

  Well, at least he was considerate.

  I poured myself another mug of coffee and made my way back to my room to spend a few hours lazing around in front of the television.

  ~*~*~

  It was around one in the afternoon when the doorbell rang, giving me a jolt of surprise. I sat up and pulled the earbuds out of my ears, pausing the music and frowning when I heard a bedroom door open down the hall, a little surprised that Lucas was still home.

  I had left the bedroom multiple times over the course of the morning and hadn’t seen another sign of Luke at all. At one point, I was damn near convinced he had gone somewhere.

  Turns out he was just hibernating in his room like I was.

  But now I could hear him running down the hall, presumably to answer the door. I wasn’t expecting anyone, so I could only imagine it was a solicitor, or perhaps one of Luke’s friends. If he had any.

  I shrugged and leaned back against my stack of pillows. Popping the earbuds back into place and cranking up the music, I closed my eyes and bopped my head along to the beat of the song.

  When the song came to and end and the noise quieted down, I heard a faint noise.

  “Jenna.”

  I opened my eyes and screamed when I saw Luke standing beside my bed, looming over me with a serious expression.

  “What in the hell, Luke?” I shrieked as I pulled the buds out again and sat back up. “Don’t you fucking knock?”

  “I did. You didn’t answer.”

  I was beyond irritated by his cavalier response. “Maybe I wanted some privacy!”

  “Or maybe you were dead or injured, or maybe you just couldn’t hear me because your music was too loud. I really had no way of knowing. If you simply want privacy, perhaps you should consider locking your door.”

  I gaped at him incredulously. Was this seriously what it was going to be like living with him for the next two months?

  God, I couldn’t wait for college.

  “What the hell do you want?”

  Finally, he showed an emotional reaction. He tilted his head to the side and eyed me suspiciously. “There’s someone here to see you.”

  I frowned and swung my legs over the side of the bed. “Who is it?”

  “A boy.”

  “How vague,” I said dryly, rolling my eyes. “Did you happen to get a name?”

  “I did. It’s Daniel.”

  Suddenly, my irritation at Luke was replaced by excitement. Daniel was my best friend from high school, and as far as I knew, he had gone away to stay with his dad for the summer before college started in the fall.

  “Where is he?” I excitedly asked.

  “Outside.”

  I frowned again. “You didn’t let him in?”

  Luke shrugged. “I have no idea who that boy is, so no, I didn’t let a stranger into your house.”

  I paused for a split second, understanding his very valid point. Anyone could’ve shown up at the door and Luke didn’t want to invite trouble into the house without getting me first.

  “Alright, good call,” I told him before I broke into a jog towards the front door.

  When I swung it open, Daniel opened his arms wide and screeched, “My love! You came for me!”

  I laughed and jumped into his arms, giving him a huge bear hug. It had only been a week since we last saw each other, but Daniel was extremely melodramatic. It was one of the many things I loved about him.

  “Technically, you came for me,” I pointed out after he set me down on the ground. “What are you doing here? I thought you were staying with your dad this summer.”

  Daniel shrugged. “That was the plan, but the whole ‘bonding time’ thing wasn’t exactly going the way he and my mother wanted it to. So here I am!”

  “Lucky me.”

  “Oh yes. Lucky you,” he agreed, his voice roughened with a seductive tone as his eyes drifted behind me.

  I looked back, frowning when I saw Luke standing a few feet behind me, having obviously watched the entire exchange with a scowl, his arms folded over his massive chest. God, even though his long-sleeve Henley shirt was loose on his waist, it bulged across his chest and arms. I was staring hard enough to notice the two little balls of a nipple piercing when Daniel cleared his throat behind me.

  “Care to introduce us? Or are you going to keep being rude to your guest?”

  I rolled my eyes and gestured behind me. “This is Daniel. Daniel, this is Luke. He’s Clara’s son.”

  As Daniel walked past me to go shake the other man’s hand, his eyes widened with recognition. “Ohhh, the mysterious future stepbrother. I’ve heard practically nothing about you.”

  Luke’s scowl seemed to deepen and his eyes just barely darted to me before going back to Daniel. “Alright.”

  “He’s heard next to nothing about you because I knew next to nothing about you,” I explained, hoping he wouldn’t take it the wrong way.

  “You still know nothing about me,” Luke said as he warily eyed Daniel’s outstretched hand. He shook it reluctantly before he clipped out, “Nice to meet you.”

  As Daniel’s mouth opened to reply, Luke turned away and retreated down the hallway. I watched the emotions go over Daniels face—confusion, rejection, anger, followed by a dry acceptance.

  “Well, isn’t he just a ball of fucking sunshine.”

  “Tell me about it,” I mumbled as I nodded. “He’s been here less than a day and I can already tell you he’s really fucking weird.”

  “Weird how?”

  Suddenly paranoid that Luke was lingering around eavesdropping, I made a zipping motion over my lips and gestured to the back door. Daniel nodded and we made our way out to the patio, then down the stairs to sit beside the pool.

  “I should’ve brought my trunks. It’s hot as fuck out here,” Daniel commented as he sat at the side of the pool and dipped his legs in.

  “Sorry, but his room is right next to mine and the walls aren’t ve
ry thick.”

  “Oooh, sounds like there’s a story there.”

  I shrugged. “Not really. I just heard him moving around the room a lot last night.”

  His shoulders slumped, disappointed. “I was hoping for something scandalous.”

  “Oh, I can give you scandalous,” I said, glancing back at the door just in case Luke had silently lurked outside. I leaned in and whispered, “Clara told me why he was in rehab.”

  “Oh yeah? Drinks? Pills? Coke? Meth? Smack? Stop me if I’m getting warm.”

  I slapped his arm playfully and chuckled as I shook my head. “No, he’s not a junkie. He checked himself in for sex addiction.”

  “That sounds promising!” Daniel exclaimed excitedly. “You do so need to get laid, my dear. And I’d be willing to bet that boy is packing some seriously nice heat, if you know what I’m saying.”

  My cheeks went crimson with embarrassment and I shook my head. “How would you even be able to tell that?”

  “Hey, it’s a gift. Plus I totally eyed his junk already.”

  “Of course you did.”

  Daniel raised his hands in the air and shrugged. “What do you want me to say? The man is sex on a stick and I happen to like sticks. No, actually, I love sticks. You can never have enough sticks.”

  I covered my face with my hands and shook my head back and forth. “Oh my god, please stop talking. I will pay you to shut the fuck up.”

  “I don’t think so. And oh my god— Did you see the nipple ring? I wonder what other piercings he has. And I’m pretty sure I saw some ink peaking out of that shirt of his. I wonder what...”

  As Daniel continued to rave about Luke’s appearance, I forced myself to stop listening. I kept my face covered by my hands because I knew I must be completely red from embarrassment. Not from the choice of topic. Daniel talked about men and sex like this all the time.

  But because Luke was about to be my stepbrother.

  Because Clara asked me to be careful around him.

  And—most of all—because I had already noticed how fucking gorgeous he was and hearing another person talking about Luke in that way wasn’t making it any easier for me to heed Clara’s warning.

  ~*~*~

  Chapter Three

  After Daniel finished his tirade about the hotness of Luke, the two of us went in to grab glasses of lemonade before going back out to sit by the pool. I was swirling the water around with my foot when Daniel broke the silence.

  “So, you never told me what you meant when you said he was weird.”

  I took a sip of my lemonade and placed the cup back down beside me. I gave him a little shrug. “It’s just... everything. He tries to make small talk, but obviously doesn’t know what to say so it’s just ridiculously awkward. Clara told me he doesn’t know how to act around women.”

  “Clara said that?” Daniel asked, eyebrows raised high with surprise. “Seems like an odd thing to say about your own son.”

  “Well, that’s another thing. She kind of... warned me to be careful around him, whatever that means.”

  “Ohhh, I get it.”

  “Do you really? Because if so, please fill me in because I’m sort of lost.”

  “Oh, come on. Even you’re not that naive. If he just got out of rehab for sex addiction and you’re prancing around this house in your tight little outfits, of course she’s going to warn you to be careful,” Daniel explained sourly, like he couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured this out on my own. “Has anything else happened?”

  A thought popped into my head. “Yeah. Last night, I heard him come out of his room, then just... stop. Right outside my door.”

  Daniel waved a hand in front of his face and sighed dramatically. “Oh, lord have mercy, that boy wants you. You’ve tempted the beast in him and mark my words—one day very soon, he’s going to claim you like the wild animal he appears to be.”

  “You’re such a freak,” I told him with an exaggerated eye roll and a slap to the arm.

  What I didn’t want to admit was that what Daniel said actually sounded rather... nice. In a way, Luke kind of scared me, but being around him was like getting an adrenaline rush. He was slightly creepy and awkward as hell... but also the single most intense person I had ever met.

  I swear his eyes looked directly into my soul every time he glanced my way.

  “Then there was this morning,” I said absent-mindedly as the memory was jogged in my mind. “I was fixing a cup of coffee when all of the sudden he says, ‘You’re very lucky, you know.’ Scared the shit out of me. I dropped my cup and got coffee everywhere. He’s fucking sneaky.”

  “What’d he mean by that?”

  I frowned, realizing that I never thought to ask. “I don’t know. He was freaking out about burns so I went to the restroom to check for damage and put the shirt in the hamper, then when I opened the bathroom door he was right there. Just... waiting. It was creepy.”

  “Please tell me you were half-naked.”

  “I had a towel covering me, thank god.”

  Daniel snorted and leaned back on his elbows. “The story would have been far more interesting if the towel magically dropped to the floor.”

  I mimicked his position, leaning back and turning my head to squint in his direction. “That would be massively fucked up, don’t you think? I mean, he just broke a sex addiction. I don’t want to be the one to push him into picking it back up again. Or what if he took a vow of celibacy in rehab or something? Is that part of the treatment?”

  “Honey, it’s rehab. Not a priesthood,” Daniel dryly commented.

  “Well, whatever. It’s just feels wrong to—”

  “Poke the caged lion?”

  “To provoke him,” I said, finishing my original sentence and ignoring Daniel’s comment.

  “Hmm. I prefer my analogy. And that cage of his is mighty rusty judging by the look he was giving you. Bet those bars would crumble like a biscuit if you showed him a little skin.”

  “Like a biscuit? Seriously?”

  “Yep. Speaking of biscuits, I’m starving. Want to grab a bite to eat?”

  “I could eat,” I said as I stood up and shook the water off my feet over the pool. “Just let me get changed into something less pajama-y.”

  Daniel trailed behind me. “I’ll wait for you in the car. God help me if I were to get stuck with that fine piece of hunky goodness alone. I don’t know if I would be able to control myself.”

  “You’re an animal!” I said with a laugh as I opened the back door and stepped inside.

  “Yes, ma’am. And you love it.”

  I was still laughing as I slid the door shut behind him, the sound dying when I turned around and saw Luke standing beside the coffeepot, glaring at the two of us. The scowl from earlier was still firmly in place and I wondered how long he had been lingering around in the kitchen waiting for us to come back in.

  Daniel looked between the two of us a few times before pointing a finger to the door and whispering, “Car. Five minutes or I’m going without you.”

  I wanted to curse at him for ditching me, but instead I just ignored Luke’s looming presence and started walking to my bedroom. The moment I turned down the hall, I heard Luke’s trailing footsteps as he followed me. By the time I got to my bedroom door, I’d had enough.

  I spun around on my heel and demanded, “What?”

  Luke barely reacted. One eyebrow raised minutely as he stared at me with that annoyingly blank look. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be having any ‘summer flings.’”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “In the car. Mom asked if you would be having any boys over this summer and you said no. So who the hell is that?”

  His pointed tone irritated me and I felt a massive tantrum coming on. I crossed my arms over my chest and shrugged. “What the hell does it matter? You’re not my father.”

  “No, I’m not. But maybe your actual father would want to know that his daughter is having boys over when he’s not home.”
r />   I chuckled as I opened the door to my room and stepped in, somehow sure that he was following behind me as I dug through my dresser for clothes.

  “Go right ahead and call him. Tell him Daniel came by and we’ve been in my room all day with the door locked. Now we’re going out to eat.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  I turned back to face him and felt like I was pinned down by the weight of his threatening glare. But I managed to stand strong as I bit out, “Get out. I have to get dressed.”

  To my great surprise, he respected the request and turned around, pulling the door quietly closed behind him. I sighed and stripped myself, quickly pulling on my outfit before grabbing my phone off the charger and rushing outside to Daniel’s car.

  “Ready to go?” he asked as I buckled my seatbelt.

  “Yes. Get me the hell out of here.”

  “Did your hot almost-stepbrother give you shit?”

  “Of course he did. Apparently he thinks he’s my father, you know, since he’s known me for almost a whole day now.”

  Daniel roared with laughter as he turned the ignition and backed up out of the driveway. After we pulled onto the street, I glanced back at the house just in time to see Luke standing in the window of his bedroom watching us pull away.

  How creepy.

  ~*~*~

  I was shoving my mouth full of delicious burger when Daniel asked me a question I really didn’t want to be asked.

  “So, how long do you think it’s going to take before you two start boinking?”

  I paused mid-bite to stare at him over the table. He was smirking cockily and had his arm draped across the booth, his food momentarily ignored in favor of grilling me. I finished chewing my food before washing it down with some of my coffee before I gave him a scathing glare.

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  Daniel rolled his eyes. “Oh, come off it! You know it will. It’s inevitable.”

  “Nope. Never gonna happen.”

  “You’re lying to yourself.”