Page 2 of Bought For Us

“Well, Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” I whisper to myself.

“I thought your name was Cora.”

My head snaps up and over to the door. Eyes widening, my lips slowly part when I find the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my whole life.

I’m not even joking. It’s like the gods hand-picked him from heaven themselves.

He watches me, leaning against the door frame, this lazy smirk taking over his handsome face.

“I-a-I....” I struggle to speak. Gosh, this is embarrassing. He chuckles, running a hand through his messy brown hair.

“If I didn’t just hear you talking to yourself, I’d think you didn’t know how to talk.” He raises an amused brow, shoving his hands into his expensive looking brown slacks that pairs well with his white polo.

My cheeks heat. “I can talk.”

“So you can.” He grins harder.

“And my name is Cora.” I add stupidly. Wait, who is he? And how does he know my name?

“I assumed as much.” He nods his head, taking a quick look around my room before bringing his attention back to me. “How do you like the room?”

“It’s nice. Really nice.” I tell him, shifting awkwardly. “And you are?”

“Oh shit, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Zachary, but everyone calls me Zack. Apart from my mom. But she gets a pass and all, seeing how she birthed me and what not.”

Zack. Mom.

My lips part again in shock as realization hits me. This is Rose’s son. I’ve heard her talk about him. But what is he doing here? I thought he lived with his dad on the other side of town. Maybe he's visiting?

I didn’t get a chance to meet him at the wedding because he refused to go. I heard Rose crying to my dad over the phone about it. I guess he didn’t handle his parents’ divorce well and hated the idea of her with someone else.

Does that mean he hates my dad? And if so, does that mean me too? He doesn’t seem to hate the idea of me being here.

Given, we’ve only been talking for a minute or two. Well, him talking, me staring at him like a weirdo.

“What are you doing here?” I blurt out.

He raises his brows. “I live here. I should be the one asking you what your excuse is.”

“Shit. Sorry.” My eyes widen in horror. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean your mom said you live with your dad. I wasn’t expecting you here.”

“Ah.” He nods his head, pushing himself off the frame of the door. “And she was right. But, my dad is going to be doing a lot of traveling for work in the next few months, so Mom thought it would be best if I spent the school year here.”

“Oh.” Excitement, that confuses me a little, rushes through me.

“Yeah,” he says slowly.

My heart starts to pick up as his eyes slowly trail over me. I chew the inside of my cheek, wondering what he really thinks of me. Not that I should care. He’s my stepbrother.

My really hot stepbrother.

“There you two are.” Rose’s voice startles me, my eyes snapping over to where she’s standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Mom.” Zack greets her and goes over to give her a hug.

“Hey, sweetie,” she laughs. “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow.”

“I know. But Dad left yesterday and I was bored.” He shrugs.

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