Stepbrother Bastard 1: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance by Lily Bisou Read Free Book Online Page B

see?”

    “Oh my God, get out. Tell my mom I’ve completely lost my appetite.”

    “I’m not your slave, Sweetheart. You’ve got those sexy legs that function so how ‘bout you go tell her?”

    He re-opens the door and gestures out. I can’t stop myself from biting at my lip as I try to figure out my next move. “Ryan Fucking Caulter,” I say under my breath as I move on by him and out the door. “Oh, if you don’t mind clearing your shit out of myroom too. Thanks.”

    I hear him laugh as he catches my hand. I’m sounding childish right now, I know that. I’m bickering with him like real siblings do. That thought alone leaves me on the verge of gagging. “Mum’s the word,” he says. I snatch my hand back only to find him wink at me as I escape outside into the fresh air.

VI

    “There you are. You have a little nap?” my mom says from a lounger beside the pool.

    “Something like that,” I say and take a pre-poured champagne from the silver tray beside me.

    Outside, the air is warm, the sun is setting into hues of pastel lilacs and yellows so that the view of Downtown Los Angeles looks like a cartoon kingdom, some jazz music is drifting through the air from hidden speakers, and still all I can do is turn my eyes to peek at Ryan. Like the cool kid he truly believes he is, he’s reclined against the barbecue sipping a beer and pretending to be looking at the view too. It only takes me watching him three seconds until his gaze flits over to me. He notices me staring back and immediately shifts his eyes somewhere else.

    “Well, there’s plenty of food to go around,” Mom says as I join her in an adjacent lounger so we’re out of Ryan’s earshot. “Did he introduce himself to you?”

    “Ryan? Oh, he sure did.”

    “Good. Isn’t he a handsome thing? Pity you guys didn’t meet before me and Walter. I think you’d both make an amazing couple, really. As wrong as that is of me to say at this point.”

    “I think Star Magazine would suggest otherwise, Mom. I don’t think that’d be responsible parenting on your part.”

    “Oh, come on, Sweetie.” She clicks her tongue at me and removes her sunnies to let me know she’s serious. “You know all those stories the media write about him are drivel. Don’t you go believing anything of what you’ve read because from what I’ve seen, Ryan is nothing but a gentleman.”

    I bite my tongue, impulsively wanting to bring up the fact he kicked me to the curb post-coitus because the next girl in line for the Ryan Express had arrived at his door.

      Instead, I say, “His last name’s Caulter.”

    “It is indeed,” Walter interjects as he joins our side of the pool. All our eyes are aimed at Ryan. I’m sure he just loves the fact that all attention is on him but he pretends to be in deep conversation on his cell phone. “It’s my late ex-wife’s name, Grace. Ry wanted to take it out of honor for his mother and, naturally, I happily obliged.”

    I’m brought back to reality. Something about close deaths humanize a person for me. It’s proof that Ryan has felt deep pain, vulnerability, and heavy loss in his life and that offers me at least some repose toward his usual character.

    “My condolences,” I say.

    “Oh, I do appreciate that, Grace. But myself and Hattie had been estranged for a while when she was diagnosed.” Walter’s voice drops a few decibels, I assume out of respect for his son. “Ryan was the one that had to deal with it the most. He went to every chemo treatment with her and every checkup. He definitely made me a proud father throughout that time, I’ll put it that way. But then you get the tabloids getting shots of him clubbing occasionally as a release from the stress and suddenly he’s demonized.”

    Ryan joins us and takes a seat adjacent me. His presence stops the conversation that’s perhaps a little too heavy to be having with him so early in our strange relationship to each other.

    “You doing anything