Stepbrother Studs: Taboo A-Z Boxed Set Volume 1: A Stepbrother Romance Bundle (Stepbrother Studs Boxed Sets) (2 page)

“Your security’s not
that
great,” she countered.  God, she was enjoying this.  That was kind of awful, but she loved seeing him taken down a peg or two.  “How do you think I know you keep my cum-covered panties in your night table drawer, shoved all the way to the back?”

Aaron watched as she pulled her iPhone out of her pocket, waving it at him in triumph.

“How do you think I got pictures of the eviden—?”

“Okay, what do you want?”  His color dropped almost as fast as his grin.

She gave him the sweetest smile she could manage.  “I’ll have to give that some thought.”

She made a real show of relaxing back in her seat with her eyes closed—mostly closed—getting a peek of him silently seething.  Anger aged him.  When he was mad, he graduated from cute to hot. 

Feeling a little overly warm, she leaned forward and yanked her sweater over her head, cursing as her half-folded ponytail caught in the collar.  She stuffed her top into her bag and pulled out a headband, shaking her hair out over her shoulders as a shield against the chill of the air conditioning.  She never knew how to dress for these journeys.  Last time she’d taken the Maple Leaf, the roomette’s temperature control was all messed up and only seemed to have two settings—Arctic or Sahara.  Her hair hung down over her chest and she felt the pressure against her nipples even through the layers of her cotton bra and white cami. 

She tried to figure out what she wanted from him.  As much as she hated the thought of him leaving college before his degree was done, pressuring him would just make him hate her in the long run.  Being hated for the sensible stuff was for parents, not siblings.  And she wanted him close again.  She wanted him to confide in her, share stuff with her that neither of them could ever tell anyone else.  Like he had when he was recovering. 

Maybe she should make him tell her what Marnie did to him.  No—make him
write down
what Marnie did to him…

The idea nearly made her laugh.  Aaron could be a jerk, but he was no idiot.  No
way
would he add to her blackmail material by committing his fantasies to print.  He’d probably even struggle to voice them, though from what she’d seen of him jerking off, whatever he was thinking about was pretty intense. 

While holding
her
panties.

She really wanted to know what the hell was going through his head when he did that.  Because as much as the idea of him jacking off with her underwear bewildered her, she’d barely been able to take his eyes off of him.  She decided to start with good negotiating tactics—ask way too much, then tone down the demands. 

She knew she could only do this now, here, while he was balls-to-the-wall.  Did she dare?  As usual, her mouth was moving before she could even think about it. 

“Get your cock out.”

“What?”

“If you want the pictures safe, that’s what you need to do.”

“How do I even know you have them?”

“That’s for me to know, and you to have nightmares about.”  She shrugged and tucked her iPhone into the side pocket of her bag. 

“What is this?  Game of Phones?”

“Cute.”  She giggled at his outraged expression.

“There’s nothing cute about this.  I don’t know when you got so evil.”  Aaron slammed back in his seat with a grunt and pulled his bag into his lap, folding his arms over the top of it.  They sat in silence for a while, him glaring, her pulling her iPhone back out and playing Scrabble while she waited.  She didn’t want to blow this by pushing too hard.  He was fidgeting, and that was enough to tell her he was mulling it all over.  Eventually he sighed.

“What’re you doing?”

“Just emailing you… something.”  She swiped her way past a few of her friends’ selfies in her photo archive.  She didn’t remember saving any of them so they must have gone straight to her phone’s memory from a group chat on Whatsapp.  She saw Aaron out of the corner of her eye, shifting forward to the edge of the seat.  She took a corresponding lean backwards, anticipating his grab.  As she hit the back of her seat, she nearly dropped her phone.  His expression of complete panic inspired her and she gasped at her screen before clapping her hand across her chest in ‘relief’. 

“Oh God, I nearly sent that one to Mom!”

“You wouldn’t!” 

“It’s just a little slip of the finger, with
so
many ‘Allens’ in my contacts list.” 

“You are one manipulative…” His teeth ground the rest of his insult to oblivion as he stomped over to the door, snicking it shut and snagging the blind.  Then he turned, unbuckling.  He popped the buttons on his fly and thumbed jeans and boxers down to form a horizon across his lower hips.  His gut was taut and toned with a neat line of glossy hair that ran south from just beneath his belly button.  A pretty little treasure trail.  It made her mouth water. 

“Show me the pictures first.”

“Cock first.  Then you get to see.”

“I am
not
risking being busted for public exposure and getting put on a sex offender list for pictures that may not even exist, so you show me what you’ve got or I’ll use this belt.”  His knuckles tightened around it at both loose ends.  “Across your ass.”

This was about as much emotion as he’d expressed in months.  Melinda felt heat flood through her legs and up through her back, picking up her pulse before it spread forward and down, warming her breasts and her pussy.  She pulled a foot up and sat on her heel, pressing it between her legs.  She couldn’t lose it now.  It took everything she had to remain forceful when all she wanted to do was pull him close and ask him never to move too far away.

“If you don’t have the balls to keep the deal, how are you gonna have the balls to tell Mom and Dad you want to do something else with your life?”

Aaron stared at the floor.

“Take your cock out, then I’ll show you the pictures.”  She softened her voice a little.  “Hey, I’ll even say something on your side, if they give you a hard time.  I promise.”

He tugged the front of his boxers down with his thumb, then slid his right hand in and pulled himself out.  Melinda caught sight of a pink tip and the soft fold of pale foreskin peeking out past his knuckles before he put his cock right back into its gray enclosure. 

Melinda put her phone back in her bag, but kept a hold of it.

“Hey, pictures! Now! We had a deal!”

“What was that?  A cameo appearance by the tiniest, shyest cock ever?”

“It’s
not
tiny.”

She grinned—her insult had landed exactly where she wanted, slap in the middle of his mile-wide competitive streak.  Oh, this was going to be fun.

“Well you must be suffering from Northern Exposure because you were out all the way but I barely got a glimpse.  The deal was that I
see
it.

He darted a look over at the blinds and reached back into his boxers.  This time when he pulled it out, he cradled his cock across his shaking palm and fingertips. 

“There.”  His gaze locked onto hers.  “I still think you’re lying about those pictures.”

“I’m really not.”  She couldn’t take her eyes off his crotch. 

His body was hard and slim, his length just a shade darker than his beautifully tanned skin.  It was straight and full-looking, even when soft.  She hadn’t paid any attention to it when she caught him jerking off because the expression on his face had filled her head too much to take in any other details.  Besides, she hadn’t wanted him to catch her watching him.

“Aaron, I know which panties you took last time.”

“Prove it.”

“Okay.”  She stood at the same time as he sat back down, kicking off her shoes and reaching up under her skirt to yank down her tights.  They were black and thick, Canada-proofed, and they took a moment to remove.  The cool air caressed her inner thighs, touching her like the brush of fingers over the growing damp spot between her legs.  She settled back in her chair and spread her knees, hiking up her skirt.  She was wearing her white ones with the little cherries dotted all over them.  “Recognize these?”

Twin flushes striped Aaron’s face like Apache war-paint.

“All summer, I kept finding these in your room,” she said, meeting his dark gaze.  “I keep looking for them because they’re my favorite, too.”

“They’re just… panties.  I’m not the first or last guy to borrow a pair of panties.”  He tried to sound dismissive but his color kept rising.  He shifted in his seat, looking at his own knees.

“I like them because they fit like a glove, and they’re really soft, like I just bought them.  Even washing doesn’t make them feel old.”  She glanced at his cock, which had thickened.  Just a little.  She smiled.  “Deny it all you want, but your cock likes them too.”

He closed his eyes and wrapped his fingers round his length like he was trying to hide it.  As if—it would never fit behind his hand now.  His knuckles shifted just a little and she realized he was giving himself a little squeeze.  And, he hadn’t put himself away. 

She took a deep breath and ventured into the land of no-return.

“I’ll show you more—if you show me more.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to know what’s going on in your head when you steal these.” 

She moved her feet so both heels were spread at the edge of the seat, sliding a hand between her legs and touching herself lightly through the cotton.  Everything was sensitive, but especially there.  She bit her lip, pulling her hand away when she heard Aaron’s sharp gasp.

He tore his gaze from between her legs, groaning, and she saw his cock jump.

“What are you thinking about, Aaron?”  she asked. 

“Remember when I busted myself up, falling off that stupid wall?”

“Yeah.”  She frowned, remembering how banged up he’d been. 

“You were wearing those the day you came over to my dorm room.”  His flush deepened.  “You struggled a little getting onto the bunk behind me and I caught a flash before you straddled my legs.  Remember you had to rub that cream stuff on me?  It was the only thing that helped.”

“Yeah.”  A grin spread across her face before she could catch it.  So he
did
remember. 

“You were really gentle putting that stuff on.”  Aaron wiped his hands down his face.  “And then you stopped...  you know, when you got to my boxers… but I was so hard by the time you were done.”

“I thought you’d forgotten.”  She remembered it too, that moment.  She’d seen the rise in his shorts, how he turned to keep it from her.  But she’d known.  She’d felt it too. 

“Forgotten?”  Aaron gave a shaky laugh.  “Not likely.  I… the truth is, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.  I just… I didn’t know how to be around you.”

“It’s just me now.”  Melinda’s anger had all gone. 

“No one’s watching you ‘be’ around me in here,” she continued.  “It’s just us.  And… I swear I’ll
give
you all the pictures if…” Could she really ask?  She chanced it.  “If you get yourself off.”

“I don’t know.”  His hand was still around his cock, and it had risen to life quite nicely, she noticed, in spite of his apparent doubt. 

“Want some help?” 

He swallowed, looking at her, but not saying anything.  She saw his knuckles give that little squeeze again and eased back into her seat, sliding her fingers down between her legs.  She pictured him in his dorm bunk, hips shifting against the bed as she smoothed the arnica up his inner thighs, almost right up to the crease of his groin.  She remembered his face coming up off of the mattress, lips parting to let out a soft groan, knuckles whitening around the sheets.