Page 4 of Broken Pieces

He’s just being friendly.

Even if we weren’t stepsiblings, there’s absolutely no way this boy would have any interest in me.

Right?

This is just my luck.

The first cute boy, that may or may not be flirting with me, is my stepbrother.

What sort of cruel fairytale is my life turning into?

Taking my hand, Max pulls me through the crowd and out of my thoughts.

We meet Maddox at the bottom of the stairs. He’s got a massive tub of ice cream in one hand and a bottle of champagne in theother.

When he spots the bouquet in my hand, he raises an eyebrow. Then he sees me holding his brother's hand and the corner of his mouth tugs up, just the slightest bit. “What did I miss?”

I’m going to leave Max to answer that one. I quickly pull my hand out of his, then rush upstairs ahead of them both. “You know what? I’ve not actually seen my new room yet, I'll meet you guys up there,” I call down, as I bound up the last few stairs.

As nervous as I feel right now, I’m also excited. Like there’s a chance that I might actually get a happily ever after this time.

1

Violet

Now

“You’re late!” I scold Maddox as he saunters into my bedroom like he's not got a care in the world.

“Calm down. There’s still an hour to go. Nothing really changes when you turn eighteen anyway. You're not going to suddenly be different when the clock strikes midnight. It's really not that exciting.”

Shrugging out of his leather jacket, he looks around my room and frowns. “Where’s Max?”

“Busy,” I huff, as I perch on the edge of my bed, folding my legs underneath me. “He said he’d join us once you got here. Wait, what are you doing?”

I slap my hand over my eyes as Maddox pulls his t-shirt off in one easy movement over his head then starts unbuckling his belt.

“I need a shower, I stink. Unless you want to smell sweat and gasoline all night?” I can hear the smirk in his voice.

Nope, the thought of those ridiculously manly smells filling my bed all night are one hundred percent not appealing. And the heat on myskin is only because it's warm in here and not because my stepbrother is getting naked in my room.

I can just imagine him shirtless, bent over the hood of a car as he works at the garage downtown.

Images just like that have been playing in my head a lot lately and now they're going to be running overtime, thanks to Maddox’s lack of personal space.

“You have your own shower! Go use that.”

“But yours has all the nice fruity shit that makes my dick smell good.” I can hear his pout without needing to see it.

“I really didn’t need to know that,” I mumble. When I part my fingers, I see Maddox’s bare shoulders as he walks into my bathroom. As I stare at him, I tell myself I'm only looking because his numerous tattoos have caught my attention. The ones I’ve seen plenty of times before.

Without my consent, my eyes slowly trail down to what a very dirty part of my brain hopes will be more bare skin.

But he’s still got his boxers on.

That's a good thing and I should definitely not be feeling disappointed by that fact.

Maddox walking around like this isn't something I haven’t seen before. The three of us are close and Maddox would walk everywhere shirtless if he could. Unlike me, he doesn’t have an ounce of fat anywhere. Neither of them do. I thought they were big when I first met them, but all they’ve done in the last three years is grow from tall lanky boys to huge men.

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