Page 24 of His Big Bad Stick

His eyebrows hook down and he looks like a viper ready to strike.

“You’re going to tell me who to avoid?” I ask.

“Friendly warning.”

“The word friendly isn’t in your vocabulary.”

“You’re right. Yet I look at you and I guess I want to be nice once in a while.”

I’m taken back. Heat floods my cheeks.

Colver then steps closer to me.

I’m lying to myself if I don’t admit that there are chills moving up and down my body.

Want me to stay away from Archer? Give me a reason then… do something about it…

I can’t believe what I’m thinking and feeling right now.

I live in the same house as him.

His father is married to my mother.

So? What does that even mean?

“I gave the warning, kitten,” Colver says. “Don’t be fucking stupid about it.”

His nostrils flare.

I’m too mesmerized by his evil eyes and my insane fantasies to realize he’s grabbed my paintbrush… until it’s too late.

Colver paints a black X through my painting.

“You’re a bastard,” I growl.

He looks at me. “Of course I am.”

He then presses the paintbrush to my forehead and makes a wet paint line between my eyes and along the bridge of my nose.

Colver places the paintbrush down and walks through the bedroom door this time.

I stand there, shocked.

The guy who is sort of my stepbrother (until this marriage blows up) just ruined my painting and painted my face.

And he wants to tell me who to hang out with?

I start to smile.

I wonder if Colver’s warning about Archer is… you know… jealousy…

Like, really?

Am I able to make this big, bad, evil ‘stepbrother’ of mine… jealous?

6

Colver

---