Page 4 of A**hole Stepbrother

“Do what you want,” I said with a long sigh. “But if you mess her around and make my life difficult, then you can say goodbye to escaping your parents at mine,” I warned him as I hit pause and stood up.

“What are you doing?” Sam asked me as he pulled his eyes away from Tilly and took in my sudden change in position.

“Well, I’m not going to let you go down there alone,” I said with amusement as Sam’s face fell.

We headed downstairs and out of the double glass doors that led out from the kitchen. The sun was warm and had filled the air with the soft smell of wildflowers that grew in the woodland than ran along the back of the garden. I scouted the gardens quickly for Tilly and found her sitting next to the pool.

Her pale skin was starting to tan and it suited her. Her toned stomach was on show because of the shockingly little coverage the tiny red bikini she was wearing seemed to offer. She looked good. She looked better than good. I could feel the same tightness in my pants that I had on the first day that I’d seen her, but I ignored it as I quickly followed Sam, who was making a straight-line approach to Tilly.

She didn’t notice us walking over at first. She was too lost in the book that she was reading. It wasn’t until Sam’s shadow had cast itself over the pages she seemed to love so much that she looked up with a startled and slightly irritated look in her eyes.

“Can I help you?” she asked as she glanced between us both.

“Oh, I’m sure you can,” Sam said in a greasy voice that made me want to cringe.

“I’m trying to read,” Tilly protested as Sam knelt down next to her and started to demand her attention.

“Well, why don’t you stop, so you can have some fun with us?” Sam asked as he started to reach over for her book.

“Get off,” Tilly snapped as she snatched her book away and stood up.

I watched as her boobs bounced with her movement. For a moment, I was totally captivated. If she had turned to look at me, she would have been able to tell exactly what my focus was on, but luckily she didn’t.

“There’s no need to be such a moody bitch about it,” Sam said, a little disgruntled.

“Hey, don’t talk to her like that,” I snapped at Sam before I could stop myself.

He looked at me in surprise and shock for a moment. I’d heard him saying a lot worse to girls before and my normal reaction was laughter. I could see his thoughts ticking away as he tried to work out why my reaction had been different. “Oh,” he said with a big grin that spread over his lips and turned my stomach into lead. “You do like her, don’t you?” he asked and his eyes flashed dangerously.

********

Chapter 7

Tilly

James had been avoiding me since the day in the garden, but all of that was about to change. It had to. It was our parents’ wedding day and he couldn’t avoid me for all of that. I mean, the reception was being held at our house, so he’d have no choice but to talk to me at some point. I was going to make sure of it.

I’d walked away when Sam had tried to take my book, but I’d heard what had been said afterwards. I’d heard Sam starting to taunt James about his liking for me. I’d dismissed it at first. I’d thought it was impossibility, but then his avoidance made me wonder and his lack of input left me to come up with my own solutions to the problem.

James was hot. I couldn’t deny that. I’d thought it the moment that I’d seen him in the science lab on the first day. I’d secretly been a little bit too happy that the only spare seat in the room had been next to him. I’d even broken the ice and spoken to him, but then he’d shown me what he was like on the inside and it had totally outweighed his angelic appearance.

That didn’t stop my heart from fluttering every time that I thought about the possibility of him liking me, though. I tried to tell myself that it was just flattery I was feeling and that there was nothing more to it, but I knew deep down that I was lying to myself. I mean, every time I thought about James and I talking about it, my mind would always take me to a place where we’d end up kissing. I couldn’t help it. It was as though my subconscious knew what I wanted, even if the logical part of my brain completely objected.

None of that had mattered so far, though, because I hadn’t seen him. I’d had no chance to see whether my daydreams were right about anything because I’d had no chance to play them out. I walked over to the full-body mirror that was hanging from one of the wardrobe doors in my room. The reflection showed me, but a version of me that was totally unrecognizable from the girl who had moved in just a few short months before.

In a way, I’d lived out my dream. I’d transformed from the ugly duckling I had once been, but that meant nothing as I looked at my bright and beautiful reflection. My perfect red curls that hung loosely from the professionally set bun didn’t matter, the midnight blue dress with sewn-on gems that sparkled like the stars didn’t matter, and my newly tanned skin that set my blue eyes blazing meant nothing, because I still felt invisible in my new life.

I walked out of my room and my ears were filled instantly with the sound of harp music playing from the garden. I turned and frowned at the solid wooden doors that had been holding off all of the noise that was overwhelming my senses, and I jumped when I saw James walking out of his room. I hadn’t seen him in days, and just the sight of him sent my heart racing.

He turned and stopped when he saw me. An uncomfortable look filled his eyes and I could feel my forehead frowning in response. “Hi,” I said, as though we were two strangers who had just met for the first time in the most embarrassing of situations.

“Hey,” he said, but his voice was missing emotion of any kind. “They’re pretty well sound-proofed, huh?” he said as he followed my eyes back to where they had been looking before he’d walked out of the room.

“Yeah,” I said with a small nod.

“Well, we better get down there,” he said as he gestured for me to turn around, and I did without any hesitation.

I walked over to the stairs and listened out for the sound of footsteps following mine, but they didn’t. I thought about looking back to see what he was doing, but my gut told me to just go downstairs, so that’s what I did.

The ground floor of the house was alive with activity. The maids were rushing around as though their lives depended on the day going perfectly, and the buzz of conversation had started to play over the harp from the garden. I looked down at my dress and quickly straightened myself out, and then I walked into the small lounge that was kept mostly for private use.

“Do I look okay?” my mom asked me as she turned and saw me walking into the room. Her eyes were filled with worry and I smiled at her in a way that I knew would give her reassurance.

“You look good, Mom,” I said as I nodded and walked over to help her fasten the back of the dress.

*******

Chapter 8

James

I’d given Tilly a five-minute head start before I’d followed her down the stairs. The conversation in the hallway had been awkward enough without extending it to a walk downstairs too. I knew that she’d be with her mom when she got down there, so it would be safe for me to go down and find Sam before the wedding began.

The downstairs was busy with life, but it wasn’t anything that I hadn’t already expected. I weaved my way in and out of the busy maids who were rushing around, probably due to being warned from my dad that their jobs were on the line if anything went wrong. I reached the large glass doors at the back of the house and walked out into the gardens.

They’d been dressed ready for the wedding, but it had been done tastefully and it actually looked quite nice. I could see that nets of fairy lights had been hung over the perfectly pruned trees, and I expected they would look almost magical when night time took over and gave them a chance to sparkle.

White, solid-wood chairs had been placed out in rows in front of a raised stage that would hold my father and new stepmother. I scanned the faces of the crowd that was already seate

d and waiting for the wedding to begin. It only took me a few seconds to find Sam’s reddish-brown hair poking out in the crowd and I walked over and slapped my hand against his back to great him.

“Looks alright, huh?” I said as he turned around and grinned at me.

“Not as good as that stepsister of yours. I saw her walking down the street and wowza,” Sam said as he rolled his eyes and panted like an actual dog.

“Did you just say ‘wowza’?” I asked him with a disapproving look.

“Oh, calm yourself down,” Sam said with a flamboyant hand gesture. “You know she’s way out of your league,” he said as he turned back to the girls he had been talking to before I’d come over and interrupted him.

“Girls, did you know that his girlfriend is due at the reception?” I asked them as I leaned in and smiled sweetly.

They looked at me curiously for a moment, as though they weren’t quite sure what I was trying to say, which gave me an inclination into why Sam was talking to them. “You have a girlfriend?” one of them, a brown-haired girl, asked Sam. She looked cross, her small features all screwed up with her displeasure over the situation.

“I don’t,” Sam said quickly as he glared at me.

“I can assure you, he does, ladies,” I said with another grin and then I watched as they both stood up in a huff and walked away, bickering to themselves about their close encounter with Sam.

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