To Tempt My Stepbrother novel Chapter 2

“That was super hot,” Rose, the redhead in our group says. She is the artist. “Go and do it again.”

“No.” Jesus Christ. That guy is a sexy, pompous dickwad. “It wasn’t hot and I’ll not repeat it.”

“Yes, it was,” Taylor, the brunette, supports. She is the geek among us and the smartest. I finish the rest of her chapman and her eyes narrow in fake anger. She ditched her glasses for contacts tonight and she keeps squinting. “But it wasn’t a real kiss.” To me, it was. Rose makes kissy faces at me. “I wanted to watch you two kiss. Muah. Muah.”

“I think he likes you, Cathy,” Amelia says.

It is her first time talking since I returned to the table. I ignore her. She set me up for this.

“Don’t know. He wants me to follow him,” I say to no one and everyone. Rose hands me my bag. She is seated on my left. “His hotel is behind the pub.”

Taylor retrieves her phone from her purse. For the next few seconds, she types on her phone while I nurse my empty glass. The stranger is still there, staring at me openly. Sexy asshole.

“Yep,” Taylor says. She pushes her phone into my face to show me pictures of the hotel right behind this pub. “He didn’t lie. There’s one.”

Good for him, I guess.

Rose stirs her colourful drink with a straw. She looks up and I shake my head before she says a word. Because she can get away with staying out late doesn’t mean I can. My dad will kill me.

“Are you going to go with him?” she asks.

“Fuck you, Rose. Are you insane?” Rose laughs like that is not the craziest suggestion ever. I look around the table. Three pairs of eyes are staring at me in anticipation. “Jesus. He’s a stranger danger.”

“So? A bad bitch will go with him. Nicki is a bad bitch,” Amelia says to provoke a reaction out of me. Fuck this girl because she’s right about that part. “It’s only a kiss. We will wait for you.”

I push down the voice of reasoning in my head screaming at me to say no. There are four of us and just one of him. What’s the worst that can happen? Taylor nudges me with her knee. Rose bats her lashes and Amelia pouts. Only a kiss.

“You will wait for me. Promise?”

“Promise,” Amelia replies. “Your dad will kill us if we don’t have you home by 11 pm.” My dad is the principal so they know better than to mess with him when he has their future in his hands. “Just don’t go doing more than a kiss, okay?”

We will see about that.

Taylor strikes a conversation about Lucien, our school’s captain. She has been crushing on him since forever but hasn’t worked up the courage to ask him out. I tune them out as the hot stranger’s eyes find me. Even with his sunglasses, I feel his stare. He shoots to his feet and I grab my purse for lack of something to do.

The stranger slaps a bill on the counter, says a few things to the bartender and starts for our table. The pub isn’t crowded tonight so all eyes turn to him. He’s sexy and he knows it, that’s why he actually slow-walks towards us like a model on the runway.

Rose giggles when she notices who I’m staring at. “He’s hot, you have to admit,” she whispers.

True. But I don’t have to admit it out loud. I avert my gaze when he stops at our table. His sunglasses are still intact and I have to wonder who in their right thinking mind wears a pair of sunglasses at night. And to a pub. Amelia tells the stranger something but my heart is beating too fast for me to make out their words. He replies. It must have been funny, the whole table laugh. Rose snorts. If she’s snorting, then he has to be really funny.

I look up to his eyes that have been waiting for me to acknowledge him. “Hi,” I say.

“Last chance,” he replies.

Another look at the girls and they all give me an encouraging nod. I stand but I don’t move another inch. “How am I sure you won’t kill me?”

He laughs. I hate that his laughter is as gorgeous as he is. Wait, can laughter be considered gorgeous?

While he’s thinking up his reply, Amelia tilts her head to survey him. “You kind of look familiar.”

“I get that a lot.”

“Very familiar,” Amelia adds.

“That too, I get it a lot.”

Rose, Taylor and I share a glance. They shrug. No familiarity. We don’t see what Amelia is seeing. She is the oldest in our clique and we respect her a lot but we don’t see it.

Mister Stranger’s gaze finds me again. “What do you say?”

“You didn’t answer my question,” I mumble.

“Amelia has my number,” he says. I dart her a glance and she nods. Just what did they discuss in the short time that I blanked out? He raises his phone and it rings with a familiar number flashing on the screen. “So?” I draw in a breath. He isn’t so bad or my best friends wouldn’t have agreed to this ludicrous idea. But what do a bunch of teenagers even know? I step out to stand beside him, keeping a tiny distance between us. “I’ll get her to you in one piece. Nice to meet you, girls.”