Dare: A Stepbrother Romance (11 page)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

DREW

I watched Sophie get out of the car outside the downtown Club Nineveh, her swaying ass hypnotizing me as she began to walk to the VIP entrance.

“Come on,” she said, turning and arching an eyebrow. “It’s your night.”

Just seeing her in that tight skirt made me want to bend her over the hood of my car and bury myself balls deep in her, but I needed to get sex off my brain. Tonight was an important night for my modeling career, if what my agent said wasn’t total bullshit, anyway. Apparently a bunch of scouts from bigger agencies across the country were going to be there scoping the place out for talent, and considering I’d blown off the campaign in Australia to stay here in Seattle, I could use the work. Promo gigs and commercial shoots paid me fuck all compared to editorial work, and as nice as my current agent was, she hadn’t found much for me to do lately. The vodka billboard had been the only major work I’d pulled in months now, aside from the Australian thing.

It was good to have something else to focus on - something that wasn’t Sophie’s crazy Dad. The land sale had gone through without a hitch within a week, and Marie and my Dad had mailed the proceeds off to the crazy motherfucker. He hadn’t been heard from in the two weeks since, and I was beyond glad that it was all over. Seeing Sophie happy was the sweetest feeling in the world, and now that she felt safe enough to go out again, she was attending this gig at the club with me. It must have been the first time she’d been out in weeks.

We still hadn’t told our parents what we’d been up to. We both knew we should, but for some reason, sneaking around just made it all that much hotter. Besides, we’d both figured that maybe it was best we wait to tell them until Sophie had started college – that way we wouldn’t even be living in the same house, and it would look a lot less seedy for us to be hooking up. Although to be fair, we were technically stepsiblings, and a lot of people would probably view that as seedy no matter where we were living.

Oh well. Can’t please everyone.

Honestly, though, I didn’t get the big taboo hype about stepsiblings hooking up. It wasn’t like we were related in any way, and our parents hadn’t even married till we were in our late teens, so who the fuck cared? Fingers crossed our parents would see it that way too…

The pounding bass in the club matched my pulse as I scanned the room, Sophie by my side. She leaned in and told me she was going to get a drink, and she lightly touched her lips to my cheek before stepping through the crowd towards the main bar. I wasn’t drinking tonight. Club Nineveh was filled with seedy fucks, all of them likely frothing at the mouth to get their hands on a gorgeous girl like her, and I needed to stay sober so I could do my best to keep her safe.

I watched her standing up at the bar, and just as I suspected, a muscular sleazeball was making a beeline for her. Fuck, already? Pushing my way through the crowd, I gave him the biggest fuck-off death stare I could muster up, and he drew back, focusing his gaze on a tall blonde instead.

“It’s okay,” Sophie giggled. “You don’t need to follow me to the bar. I can handle guys like that.”

“Maybe, but I can handle ‘em better,” I said with a grin.

She followed my line of sight a second later. Two guys in suits were sitting only a few yards away, and I recognized them as talent scouts from the biggest agency in New York.

“Are they the guys you need to impress?” Sophie asked.

“Yeah.”

“How? Are you going to put on a show, maybe sing and dance?” she said, her dark eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Very funny. Nah, they just need to see me, that’s all.”

“Well, it’s impossible for anyone to not notice you,” she said, poking me in the side.

I hated to sound conceited, but she was right. They’d already spotted me, and one was whispering fervently into the other’s ear as they stared at me. A familiar voice boomed out beside me a second later, and I turned to see Caleb standing there.

“Hey, I didn’t know you guys were coming out tonight!” he said, clapping a hand on my back. “How are you, man? You haven’t responded to my last few texts.”

“Sorry. Been busy. Family stuff, you know,” I replied, keeping my answer as vague as possible.

Caleb had been a decent friend once upon a time, but I’d felt us drifting apart in recent months to the point where I wasn’t sure we even had anything in common anymore. He was still interested in going out every night, getting hammered and trying to pull as many skanky girls as possible, all the while living off a multi-million dollar trust fund, whereas I’d lost interest in that the second I laid eyes on Sophie, as much of a pussy as that made me sound like. I had a trust fund too, but at least I worked. I didn’t want to live off my Dad’s money forever like some useless coddled brat.

“Right. So anyway, how’ve
you
been, babe?” Caleb replied, focusing his gaze on Sophie and giving her what I assumed he thought was his most winning smile.

“Um. I’m fine thanks,” she replied.

The act he put on around women was fucking ridiculous. He always puffed his chest up and tried to make his voice sound a little deeper and more intimidating, and he ended up sounding exactly like what I imagined a bicep would sound like if it tried to sing.

“Don’t call her that,” I hissed in his ear. “She’s not your ‘babe’.”

“Hey Sophie, would you mind giving me and your stepbrother a minute?” he said, ignoring me and continuing to stare at her. I noticed he accentuated the word ‘stepbrother’.

She nodded and sat down a few feet away, and I kept my eyes on her, making sure no more douchebag gym junkies approached her.

“So,” Caleb said. “I’m guessing this protective brotherly act you’ve got going on isn’t so brotherly, huh?”

“That’s none of your business,” I said curtly.

He took a swig of whiskey, and judging by his breath and the way he was slightly slurring his words, it wasn’t the first drink he’d had.

“Actually, it is. We had a little deal going on, remember? I thought you’ve been avoiding me ‘cause you couldn’t get her, but judging by the way she’s looking at you, I think you did nail her. So what’s the problem? You don’t want my Phantom? I’ve got the keys right here, man.”

He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and dangled them in my face, and I was suddenly struck by the urge to punch him.

“There’s no deal. The dare, the bet, whatever you wanna call it…it was fucking dumb. Keep your car,” I said.

“Well, if there’s no deal, and you won’t admit there’s anything going on between you two, then I guess you won’t mind if I take a shot at her.”

“Fuck off,” I said, clenching my fists. “Don’t go near her.”

Sophie must have noticed the tension in the air between us, because she returned to my side, her forehead knitted in a quizzical expression.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“You might find your stepbrother isn’t the guy you think he is. Drew and I had a little deal, and he’s trying to back out of it,” Caleb said, his eyes narrowed. Fuck, why was he doing this? Being drunk was no excuse to be such an asshole.

Sophie’s eyebrows shot up even further. “A deal?”

“He’s talking shit. Want another drink?” I said, hastily trying to change the subject.

Unfortunately, Caleb wasn’t giving up that easily. He slid an arm around Sophie’s shoulder and whispered in her ear for a moment, and her eyes went wide as she jerked back and stared up at me with her eyebrows furrowed. Fuck. She knew.

“Look, it was just a stupid dare,” I quickly said. “It didn’t mean anything. It was a fucking stupid idea we came up with after you told me how your friends had dared you to hook up with me that night at the hotel, but I forgot all about it ages ago. Sophie, you gotta believe me. What we have now is real. It’s got nothing to do with that dare.”

“What dare?” she asked. “What are you talking about?”

Caleb drunkenly cackled with laughter. “All I said to her just then was that you wanted to fuck her in the ass tonight.”

Shit. That fucking prick. He’d tricked me into thinking he was telling Sophie about the whole thing, and now I’d opened my big mouth and really stepped in it. She folded her arms and continued to stare up at me.

“Well?” she demanded, her eyes narrowed. “What’s this about a dare?”

Well, fuck. Just when things were finally going well…

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SOPHIE

As I stood there waiting for an answer from Drew, my heart hammered like crazy. I looked at him, watching him try and fail to slip on that mask that gave nothing away. I had a strange, heavy feeling in my chest; one that I hadn’t felt in years. A warning that I was about to be let down. About to be hurt.

Suddenly I was mentally transported back to being seven years old again, and my school teacher was telling me that my Mom had fallen down the stairs and was in hospital. I’d had that exact same feeling then - a deep sense of foreboding about going home. I’d known the real reason Mom was in hospital, and I’d also known that I’d have to be alone in the house with my Dad while she was gone. Without her there to try and shield me, I was going to be a target for his drunken rages. Yep, it was a really shitty feeling knowing that you were probably about to be hurt but not being able to do a damn thing about it.

As Drew rubbed his head and opened his mouth to say something, Caleb grinned.

“Good luck, man. Car’s outside if you still wanna collect your reward,” he said, slapping him on the back before looking at me and winking. “I gotta get myself another drink. Don’t worry, babe. I’ll be back for you in a sec.”

He was slurring his words, obviously very drunk, and Drew’s jaw twitched. His right hand curled into a fist, and before I could try to stop him, he’d delivered a massive blow to the left side of Caleb’s face. I screamed for him to stop, and Caleb staggered backwards, blood pouring from his split lip. He spat on the ground before wiping his mouth off and looking back up.

“Fuck you, man. It was all a joke.”

“It’s not a joke where Sophie’s concerned, fuckwad. Now get the fuck outta here,” Drew said, lips curled into a snarl.

Holy shit. Whatever this ‘dare’ business was, it was obviously pretty serious if it was enough to make Drew punch his friend in the face. The two talent scouts were staring at us now with their eyes wide, and a small part of my mind figured that Drew had just totally blown his shot with them by openly fighting in front of them like a complete idiot. Two surly-looking bouncers were heading towards us, and Drew grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the club through the side entrance.

“Hey!” I protested. “Let me go!”

“We were gonna get kicked out anyway,” he said, stopping in the dim alley beside the club. “Look, let me explain what happened back there.”

I folded my arms again. “Oh, finally. I’ve only been waiting for a hundred years! So what the hell is this dare thing? And what’s this about a car?”

He sighed. “Look, like I said, the whole thing was stupid. It didn’t mean anything. Caleb dared me to sleep with you ages ago. He said he’d give me his Atlantis Phantom if I managed to do it.”

What the
hell?
My heart plummeted into my stomach. That’s what he thought I was worth? A bet over a shiny new car. Nothing more.

I didn’t speak for a full thirty seconds. Drew just stood there, waiting for me to react.

“Oh god…this is why you suddenly started being nice to me a few weeks ago, isn’t it? I knew you were up to something!” I finally choked out.

“It started out like that,” he admitted. “But then…”

I interrupted him. “And then what, it was just easier to keep sleeping with me? I mean, why call up one of your skanks when I’m just across the hall, right?”

He didn’t say anything and just let me rant for a moment. I think he was lost for words for once in his life.

“So none of this was real. I was just part of some stupid bet so you could get your dream car? Well, I hope you’re happy with your new ride!” I said, my voice hot with anger.

“No. You know it’s not like that. This
is
all real. Yeah, I was being nice at first because of Caleb’s thing, but I realized how shitty that was pretty fast. After that I swear it was all real. And besides, the first night you saw me at Mint…your friends dared you to sleep with me too. I wasn’t all that mad when you told me about that. Can’t you just look at this from my point of view?” he said. “Can’t we just move on?”

“I’m really trying to see things from your point of view, but I can’t seem to get my head that far up your ass!” I replied.

He did have a small point, as much as I hated to think so. I was kind of being a hypocrite, because my friends
had
dared me to hook up with him, but this felt different. I hadn’t been doing it to get a freaking car, and I hadn’t planned on leading him on for weeks and weeks, pretending to be all nice and in a committed relationship…which is exactly what it felt like he’d been doing to me. All for the sake of a
car.

“For fuck’s sake, just listen to me! There’s a hundred girls I could call tonight, but I only want you, and I’ve only wanted you since you came back into my life. Doesn’t that tell you anything?”

“All that tells me is that you’re a man-whore with a Rolodex,” I hissed.

“Jesus, Sophie, calm down! You’re carrying on like Tom Cruise at a couch sale.”

Seriously? He was trying to make jokes at a time like this? Hell no.

“God, what do you expect, Drew? It’s just one thing after another with you! I keep thinking you’ve become this great guy…then wait, suddenly you decide to crap all over things again!” I replied. “How many times is this going to happen? How many more secrets are lurking around the corner?”

He held his hands up. “None! I swear.”

“Bullshit. It never ends with you.”

“Are you quite finished?” he asked. “I’m trying to tell you that I…”

I cut him off. “Oh yes, I’m finished. And so are we.”

I turned on my heel and marched away. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe I was being dramatic. But I wasn’t waiting around to be hurt again. All we did was fight, make up, argue again…rinse and repeat. It had been like that from the minute we re-entered each other’s lives. Our idea of a relationship wasn’t healthy at all. It was total bullshit. Perhaps our childhood friendship should have been left where it belonged – in the past.

Drew called out after me, and I didn’t turn my head back to see if he’d followed me at all. Mostly because I was afraid he wouldn’t.