Kisses From My Cowboy Stepbrother, Part 2 (of 2)

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

About This Book

Previously in this series

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Love stepbrother romance? Check out my other series!

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"Y
ou just have to trust me, Emily," Connor said, before kissing my neck once more. "I can keep this a secret. I promise..."

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M
y new stepbrother, Connor, wasn't the man who I thought he was. It turned out that he had some secrets from his past that were too big to ignore.

So I didn't hesitate to make the drive to his farm in Iowa to find out the truth. I had no know. Was what my mother told me about him actually true? Was the sweet Connor that I had met on the farm actually who I thought he was, or did he have a dark and dangerous side that not many people knew about?

Either way, I was on a mission to find out the truth about him, one way or the other...

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T
his story is the final part of a two-part series and ends with a HEA.

***

“L
ooks like we both got kind of wet out there,” he commented, innocently.

I hadn’t even realized it because of the adrenaline, but my clothes had gotten soaked in the rain.

“I have a change of clothes in my car,” I said.

Then I turned around and looked out the window, where the rain had turned fierce. It was a total downpour.

“I don’t think either of us are going out in that,” Connor said. “Just give me your clothes and I’ll throw them in the dryer.”

As he spoke, Connor slipped off his shirt and bundled it up in his hands. His skin was shining, reflecting the light and accentuating the muscles of his chest and abs. My eyes moved downward, where the lines of his hips disappeared into the waist of his jeans. My lips parted and I breathed in quickly as my pussy ached.

Oh, God... he’s so hot.

Connor smiled at me and reached a hand out, waiting for me to hand over my clothes. I felt a bit nervous undressing in front of him, but I also didn’t want to sit around in wet clothes all afternoon. So I smiled coyly and then grabbed the bottom of my shirt, pulling it over my head. As I finished taking the shirt off, I noticed that Connor’s gaze had moved toward my bra-covered breasts.

“Connor!” I chastised, covering myself up with one hand.

He just smiled and brought his eyes back up to my own.

“Sorry,” he responded. “You’re just so hot.”

I blushed at the compliment. “Well, thank you,” I said, throwing him my shirt. He caught it with one hand and tossed it over his shoulder. He then quickly unbuttoned his jeans. He slipped them off in front of me, letting them fall down to his ankles. His black boxer/briefs were revealed, along with his muscular legs, which I had not seen before.

Goddamn. Is there anything about this guy that isn’t sexy?

It was like I was standing in front of an underwear model. It almost didn’t seem real. Connor noticed me staring at him and then immediately gave me flak about it.

“Emily!” he cried, as he playfully covered up his chest. “You dirty dog, you! Stop staring at me!”

I started laughing as I shook my head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I responded.

Then I reached down and unbuttoned my own jeans, carefully slipping them off so as not to accidentally slide my underwear off with them. The wet denim clung to my skin but was I able to get them down without my panties coming off. Once the jeans were down to my ankles, I stepped out of my shoes and my jeans at the same time. Connor walked over and picked my pants up from the floor. Then he stood up, sliding his gaze up and down my body.

So there we were, standing inches from each other in nothing but our underwear. I could feel the sexual tension thrumming in the air. My body tingled and my crotch began to throb as I looked at my cowboy stepbrother who stood before me, looking as sexy as ever.

“You are perfect,” Connor exhaled slowly.

This is bad news, right here. I’m going to get into a lot of trouble...

***

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I
n the first book, we meet Emily and Connor. Emily is a young, recently divorced woman who is looking for a fresh start. And Connor is a rebellious and sexy rodeo man who has nothing to lose. From the moment they meet, their connection is obvious and it’s clear that they are meant for each other.

The only problem is that their parents are dating and about to get married, meaning it won’t be long before they become stepsiblings. So they have some pretty big secrets to hide. But nothing is as big as the secret Connor has been hiding from Emily...

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A
fter just a few hours of sleep, I woke up in my bed and slowly sat up. It was still dark outside and the morning sun wasn’t even close to coming up. The only light in the room emanated from the clock radio on the nightstand, which put off a reddish glow that covered the walls. I glanced over at it and sighed.

“It’s 3 am...” I whispered. “I shouldn’t be awake right now.”

I kicked the covers off and then got up, making my way over to the dresser where my cell phone had been charging. I picked it up and unlocked the screen, scanning down to Connor’s phone number.

Should I call him? Just to see if what my mom said about him was true?

Anxiety built at the thought of actually confronting him about it. My thumb hovered over the “call” button and I almost pressed it. But then I immediately reconsidered.

“No,” I muttered. “I can’t. I promised Mom that I wouldn’t say anything.”

It was difficult, but after a moment, I set the phone back on the dresser and walked over to the bed. I sat on the edge of the mattress and placed my hands on my knees, taking a deep breath.

My mom and I had just gotten home from Richard and Connor’s farm the previous evening. And on the drive home, my mother had decided to tell me something about Connor, my new stepbrother, which had me dizzy with anxiety.

“It can’t be true,” I whispered, as I stared across my dark bedroom, my focus landing on the opposite wall. “Connor isn’t a bad guy. He can’t be...”

I couldn’t get it out of my mind, though. It was the reason that I couldn’t sleep. The Connor that I had gotten to know while on the farm wasn’t the man I thought that he was, at least according to my mother.

She had told me that Richard, Connor’s father, had showed her some very sensitive information about his son. Apparently, when Connor was living in Boston, back before he joined the rodeo, he had been involved in various amounts of illegal activity.

When my mom had first told me about this, I immediately assumed it was something petty. Like maybe he had some unpaid traffic tickets or had gotten in trouble with drinking and driving. But it turned out that it wasn’t that simple.

On the drive home, my mother had told me something that would change my perception on Connor forever. She told me that the reason he joined the rodeo tour and moved back to Iowa, wasn’t just because he wanted to be back home with his father. He was running from the law. He was part of a crime syndicate, which specialized in bank robbing.

When she had first uttered the words, I found myself laughing. I thought for sure that she must have been joking. There was no way. I mean really? Connor, the sweet and sensitive cowboy who was about to become my stepbrother used to rob banks for a living? Yeah, right! A cowboy turned outlaw?!

However, given Mother’s tone and stern gaze, it became pretty clear that she wasn’t joking about it. She said that Richard had told her everything. Connor had apparently left home when he was young and moved to Boston because he had a friend living there. The next thing Connor knew, he was deeply involved in an underground network of criminal activity.

My immediate reaction was one of disbelief, which then slowly turned to shock. I asked my mom if he had ever been to jail and she slowly nodded her head.

“Yes, honey,” she had said. “He has. Richard didn’t tell me how much time he’s, but apparently it was enough to make him reconsider his choices.”

But even after hearing the evidence, a part of me still couldn’t fully believe it. Connor was too sweet to do something like that. He was a giant teddy bear...or was he? My thoughts flashed back to the night in the bar when he had gotten into that biker’s face, threatening to kill him.

Maybe he’s a lot tougher than I’ve given him credit for,
I thought.

And as I sat there on the edge of my bed, I began to feel almost nauseous as I thought about it. I was really starting to like Connor. I mean a lot. He was everything that I could have ever wanted in a man. And now, suddenly, there was a whole other side to him that I knew nothing about.

I didn’t want my perception of Connor to be tarnished with his history, though. I wanted him to stay perfect in my mind, unflawed and amazing, just like the time that he and I had spent together on the farm. I wanted the Connor that had protected me at the bar and who had kissed me and almost made love with me in the back of his truck. I didn’t want the bank-robbing bad boy who had a dark, vague history...or did I?

I don’t even know what I want any more. What in the hell am I supposed to do?

Not only had I been slowly falling in love with the guy, but he was also going to be my stepbrother soon. So even if I were able to somehow stop my feelings for him, I still wouldn’t be able to get him out of my life. We were family. And whether I liked it or not, Connor, the so-called criminal, was going to be a part of it.

It would have been so nice to be able to call Connor and confront him, but I couldn’t. I knew that if I did, then my mom would get in trouble with Richard for telling me the secrets, which he’d told her in confidence. So I had to sit there and accept it for what it was: a giant secret that would weigh on my shoulders forever. Or at least until I could somehow get to the bottom of it on my own and find out for sure whether or not any of it was actually true. I just had to figure out a way.

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A
fter tossing and turning in bed for the rest of the night, I finally opened my eyes to see the morning sun. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and there even seemed to be less smog in the air. Which was surprising, since we lived in the middle of Detroit.  

I slowly got up from my bed and walked over to the dresser. I immediately picked up my cell phone and unlocked the screen, noticing a text from Connor. A burst of anxiety filled me as I opened the text.

It read, “
Good morning, beautiful! I’m so glad I got to spend time with you while you were here on the farm. I really hope you’re able to come out and see me this week.”

A smirk crossed my face as I read the message. As if I wasn’t already confused enough about Connor, he had to go and text me a sweet message like that. He wasn’t making the situation any easier.

I can’t let the stories of his past bother me like this. But I also can’t let it go. I need to find out the truth about Connor. It’s the only way I’ll be able to rest.

Below me, I could hear the sound of my mother in the kitchen, humming to herself as she went through her usual morning routine. She was happier than I had seen her in a long time and I needed to protect that. I couldn’t let my secret relationship with Connor screw up anything between Richard and my mom.

I held my cell phone in my hand, re-reading the text from Connor. I found myself smiling, feeling the butterflies begin to flutter inside of me. There was no denying that I had a crush on him.

“The stories can’t be true,” I whispered firmly. “There’s no way. No bank robber or ex-con or whatever he is, could ever be this sweet.”

I quickly responded to his text with, “
Hi! I’m glad I got to spend time with you, too! And yes, I’m going to still try to make it out to the farm this week, assuming everything goes as planned.”