Hitched: A Stepbrother Honeymoon Romance Read online

  Okay, that was the hard part. Now all I need to do is get my hand out from under Travis’ bicep, and I’m home free.

  It’s ironic. There are hundreds and thousands of girls out there who fantasize about waking up in Travis Carter’s arms, and all I’m trying to do is get out of them.

  I go slow and steady again, pulling my hand out from under my stepbrother’s massive, tree-trunk bicep. It feels a little bit like my hand is caught on something, but once I get my wrist free, the rest of the hand slides out much easier. With one last long, smooth yank, I pull my hand free and get ready to sneak out of the room as silently as I can.

  Until I see what’s on my hand.

  It’s a gold ring. With a big, fat diamond on it.

  At the sight of the ring, I lose my composure and scream just a little too loud. I clamp my hand over my mouth and try not to move, but it’s too late: Travis is stirring awake. In a few seconds, he’s going to open his eyes, and then he's going to figure out what happened.

  I didn’t just sleep with Travis last night. I married him.

  Chapter 4: Laney

  Ten Hours Earlier

  “She’s just so…” I can’t think of a word awful enough to finish my sentence, so I finish my drink instead. Then, when the waitress comes by our table, I order another round of drinks. They’re free, thanks to Travis, and they’re strong as hell. Just what I need to put that terrible party behind me.

  “She was trying to get me to quit my job and work at a tabloid! She practically called my boss and gave her notice!”

  “If you think that’s bad, try actually being related to her. Trust me, it gets so much fucking worse.”

  “Okay, but you don’t get to complain. You’re…” I gesture towards Travis’ body, and Travis smirks, “…you. You’re more famous than her. You have more money than her. If she tries to give you crap, you can just…go be on TV or something. Meanwhile, I have to live with her because my stupid content assistant internship barely pays me, which means I have to deal with her talking down to me and leaving brochures for fingernail implants on my bed.”

  Travis laughs. “Does she actually do that?”

  I nod. “She thinks my perfectly normal fingernails are holding me back.”

  Our waitress comes back with a tray covered in cocktails, margaritas, and fancy shots. “I got you a little bit of everything.” She winks at Travis as she leaves, and I roll my eyes.

  Travis looks at me and grins. “Jealous?”

  “Ew. No. Go pull her panties down and bend her over a craps table for all I care.”

  Travis laughs a little and raises his eyebrows. “That’s pretty specific, Laney. You haven’t been thinking about that, have you?”

  “In your dreams.” I feel my face start to turn a little pink, so I grab the nearest margarita like it’s a life preserver and take a drink. Just like the other drinks, it's sweet and strong, leaving a powerful burn in the back of my throat with every sip.

  Travis breaks the silence. “Your fingernails are fine, by the way.”

  “Yeah, I know. It just pisses me off that I’m economically dependent on someone who thinks they’re not.”

  “You could always live with me.”

  A shudder runs down my spine. Living with Travis was bad enough when we were younger, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like now. Him bringing home supermodels while I’m stuck on the couch…

  I shake my head. “Thanks, but I want to pay my own way out. All I need to do is to get my boss to hire me full time.”

  Travis shrugs. “Does she know you have two celebrities in the family?”

  “Yeah, and that’s why I think she’ll hire me if I give her a reason. But I don’t want some random desk job; I want to be a reporter. And that means I need to bring her a story. Something juicy.”

  “Juicy, huh?”

  “Yeah. Something big.”

  Travis smirks, pulling a brochure out from one of the martini glasses on our table. When I see what’s written on it, my eyes get huge.

  Win a trip to Royal Shores.

  The Royal Shores. The most exclusive resort hotel in Hawaii. So exclusive, they run background checks on their guests to make sure paparazzi don’t sneak in. To get in, you either have to be seriously rich or seriously famous…or, apparently, win this contest.

  Travis grins as he takes in the look of shock on my face.

  “Give me that!” I snatch the brochure out of his hand and open it up. I open it, and my heart sinks.

  Of course. I should have known. For normal, non-famous people, it’s a honeymoon resort, so the contest only applies to couples who get married at the wedding chapel at the other end of the casino. That would explain why most of the tables around us are occupied by drunk, horny couples. There was a big line outside the chapel when we walked in. They're probably just here waiting their turn.

  I shake my head and put the brochure back on the tray of drinks. “I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”

  “Why?” Travis picks the brochure off the table and reads it.

  “It’s only for people who get married here.”

  “Yeah, but they’re giving away ten trips. Those are pretty fucking good odds.”

  I look around and do the math. Twenty couples here, twenty couples in line…holy crap, that’s a 25% chance to get enough celebrity dirt to make headlines for the rest of the year. It’s too bad I don’t have anyone to marry.

  I look up at Travis, who’s looking back at me and trying not to laugh.

  “Travis! Ew!”

  Travis raises his eyebrows and adopts a look of mock innocence. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

  I sip my drink, hoping that Travis doesn’t see me blushing.

  But of course he does.

  “Ohhhh, I see what’s going on. You thought I was going to ask if you wanted to marry me, didn’t you?”

  I bite my lip and try to come up with a response. “I mean, of course it crossed my mind that we could technically get married and enter the contest. That doesn’t mean I thought of it as a serious option. I mean, gross…” For some reason, my voice is weak and I’m stammering, like I do when I’m caught in a lie. Can’t we change the subject to something else?

  Travis shrugs. “Hey, I’m just saying, you were just telling me that it’d solve your Nina problem. I’d do a lot for my stepsister, even if it meant making you my blushing bride.”

  I let out a gasp and attempt to cover it by bringing my drink quickly up to my lips. Well, I’m already blushing…

  Okay, we need to change the subject.

  “Well, uh, thanks for the offer, but I think I’m going to try and find a scoop the old fashioned way.”

  I look down at the drink tray.

  “So…why do you get free drinks here?”

  Travis’ bright blue eyes make long, intense contact with mine, like he’s trying to read my mind.

  “Well…it’s a funny story. It started last year, when we rented out the roof of this place to shoot a commercial…”

  ***

  When the whole tray of drinks is finished, the waitress comes back, batting her eyelashes at Travis. “Want another tray?”

  Oh no. No way. No more drinks for me. I’m not at total hot mess level yet, but I’m definitely getting close. Ever since that last Long Island Iced Tea, everything that comes out of Travis’ mouth has been hilarious to me.

  “I’m good, thanks.”

  Travis shrugs. “I’ll take one more shot.”

  I start laughing. See what I mean? That wasn’t even a joke.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  The waitress leaves, and I go back to ranting about how terrible the OMG offices are. I was kind of hoping that she’d take the tray away, so I wouldn’t have to look at that stupid brochure out to the corner of my eye.

  It’s taunting me. I haven’t really been able to stop thinking about it since I opened it up. I can practically see the celebrities having illicit affairs in the glass windows. Even a
boring story that came from this place would get me promoted, and it's a 25% chance to win…

  The waitress comes back with our shot, setting it gently down onto the tray of empty glasses. “So are you two lovebirds here to enter the contest?”

  Lovebirds? Us? How’d she get that idea? I open my mouth to explain that we’re stepbrother and stepsister and therefore we definitely won’t be getting married, but instead I just say “Uh…”

  The waitress smiles at me. “Because if you are, I could put in a good word for you. You seem like you could really use a vacation.”

  I guess I must have been ranting a little too loud.

  “What do you mean ‘a good word’? Isn’t it a totally random chance who wins?”

  The waitress shoots me a secretive smile. “It’s a casino, honey. Nothing’s up to chance. I’ll tell the reverend to keep an eye out for you two, okay?”

  I look back at Travis, who’s looking at me with those intense blue eyes again. I break his gaze and look down at the brochure. My 25% chance of getting promoted just got a whole lot higher. And all I have to do is marry my stepbrother.

  Wait, what am I thinking? I can’t marry Travis. He’d…make it weird……it’d go back to being like it was when we first met…

  But then I look down at the brochure again, and realize that I have a choice. I could either go back to complaining about my life, or I could actually do something about it. Right now.

  Nina’s face from the party flashes through my mind. Condescending. Controlling.

  Fuck it. I take the shot in the middle of the table, grab Travis’ hand, and lead him across the casino floor.

  After that…it’s kind of a blur. Before I know it, I’m squeezed into a wedding dress, looking into Travis’ eyes as the reverend tells him he can kiss the bride. We laugh, but then, somehow, our faces get a little too close and Travis brings his mouth onto mine, claiming my lips with a surprisingly powerful kiss. And after that…well, I have no idea what happens. The feeling of Travis’ lips on mine is the last thing I can remember.

  Chapter 5: Travis

  Before I’m even fully awake, I feel a girl in bed with me. And not just any girl…

  A total fucking babe. I can tell by the curves pressed up against my body that whoever ended up in my bed is a serious knockout, and I’m definitely going to have to fuck her brains out again the second she wakes up. I may not remember this girl, but once I’m done with her, she’s never going to fucking forget me.

  But the next thing I know, someone’s screaming. I open my eyes and get a serious fucking shock when I see Laney, my stepsister, standing at the foot of my bed in her underwear.

  And that’s when yesterday’s events, up to a certain point, come flooding back into my mind. She was at the cocktail party. I took her into the casino. We got drunk, and then, I guess…

  “We got married!”

  “What the fuck?”

  “Look!”

  Laney shows me her right hand, which is sporting a seriously expensive diamond ring on it.

  I’m quiet for a few seconds, looking at the ring, and then at Laney, and then back at the ring again. Then, I totally burst out laughing.

  “Travis!”

  “Holy shit, Laney, if you liked me that much, you could have just asked me out.”

  Laney tries to give me a look of death, but it just ends up being totally adorable. Especially with her standing there in nothing but her bra and panties. Honestly, it’s a good thing I’m under a blanket, because I’m hard as a fucking rock right now. Hey, maybe I should pull it off. Maybe if Laney sees what her new husband’s packing, she’ll change her mind about this whole marriage thing. Maybe she’d even come back to bed…

  “Travis, this is serious! If Dad and Nina find out, they’ll kill us! I’ll probably get fired, and then I’ll be stuck living with Nina for who knows how long!”

  Something clicks in Laney’s eyes, and she cocks her head to the side.

  “Wait. I think that’s why we got married. It was going to help me move out somehow. We did it to win some kind of contest.”

  I don’t remember shit once we got to the casino, but that sounds right. That doesn’t make it any less hilarious, though. And it doesn’t explain how we ended up in bed together, stripped down to our underwear. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t part of the contest.

  “Maybe, but I’m pretty sure this,” I gesture towards Laney’s body, “wasn’t part of the contest.”

  Laney bites her lip, shifting from foot to foot as she notices me starting at her tits. God, I can’t believe that I fucked her and I don’t even remember it. Actually, hold on a second.

  I fish my wallet out of my jean pocket and go through it. “All my condoms are still here.” I lean over the side of the bed. “Nothing in the trash can. I don’t think we fucked.”

  Laney’s eyes get as big as moons when I say the F-word. God, if she’s not careful, I’m going to turn back to the old me around her. The me that was dying to see her in her underwear like this…

  “Well, what if we…”

  I shake my head. “No way. I never do that, not even when I’m drunk. There would be way too many little Travises running around if I did. Besides, you’re not sore, are you?”

  Laney stretches her legs and thrusts her hips out, testing for soreness, and my cock practically explodes. She shakes her head, and I grin.

  “Okay, then we definitely didn’t fuck, because if we did, I guarantee you would be so sore, you wouldn’t be able to get out of bed, and you probably wouldn’t fucking want to.”

  Laney buries her face in her hands. “What does it matter? My life is over.”

  I shrug. “No it’s not. Trust me, as funny as this shit is, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to marry drunk people in Vegas, and if there actually was a contest, then that’s definitely illegal. Our marriage license wouldn’t hold up in court even if we wanted it to.”

  Laney fidgets with the ring on her finger and takes a deep breath. “Okay. If you’re right…maybe it’s not the end of the world as long as nobody finds out. I think I’m going to…take a shower. Where’s my dress?”

  “I think I’m lying on it. Hold on.”

  I sit up in bed, and Laney’s breath starts to come faster as the blanket falls off my upper body. God, she’d better stop acting like that, or else I’m going to start getting tempted to pull her back into bed and consummate our marriage. “Here it is.”

  I toss Laney her dress, and she hugs it to her body, suddenly self-conscious about being in front of me in nothing but her bra and panties.

  “Alright. Everything’s going to be okay.” Laney turns and walks into the bathroom, giving me an amazing view of her curvy ass as she leaves. Then, the door closes, the shower turns on, and I’m lying in bed, having a hard time thinking about anything other than my stepsister’s naked body under all that water.

  Fuck, man. Just when I thought I’d finally gotten over her, that she was right and nothing could ever happen between us, this shit happens. She tells me that we can’t be together, and then she marries me, strips down to her underwear, and crawls into bed with me. If that’s not a mixed signal, I don’t know what fucking is.

  All I know is, all those feelings I tried to suppress from the days we were living together, the ones that kept me up at night and pounded in my head when I was trying to get with other girls…they’re all back. With a vengeance. And the girl whose body heat is still warming the bed beside me is going to have a hell of a time convincing me that they’re not real now.

  Chapter 6: Laney

  Three Years Earlier

  Travis found out about my poster today. The one I used to keep on the wall across from my bed. The one where he’s looking into the camera, wearing jeans so low on his hips that you can practically follow the V of his pelvis all the way down to his…ugh.

  Obviously, I took it down the second I found out that my dad was marrying his mom. I was going to throw it away,
but I wanted to do it when Dad was out of the house to make sure he didn’t see me carrying around a sexy poster of my new stepbrother, so I stuffed it into a box under my bed.

  And then I forgot about it. Until today.

  When we moved from my old house into this huge new one, I didn’t unpack most of my things. I think I just didn’t want this place to feel like home. I mean, it’s huge, and it’s gorgeous, with big glass windows looking out over the Pacific Ocean…but it feels like the kind of place other people are supposed to live. Between Nina pacing up and down the halls practicing monologues and Travis teasing me every time I cross paths with him, I feel like I’m on some kind of terrible family-swapping reality show.

  But this morning, I decided that even if it wasn’t ever going to feel like home, I wasn’t going to magically get my old life back by keeping my stuff in boxes. So I started pulling everything out, decorating my room and filling up my closet. And that’s when I saw it. Travis’ face, looking right at me like I’m the most delicious thing on the menu.

  I definitely needed to get it out of the house ASAP. I don’t trust Travis not to snoop around my room while I’m out with friends, and if he found this…God, he’d never let me live it down. He already thinks I’m secretly dying to jump his bones, and if he knew about this poster and the stupid little celebrity crush that went with it…

  Yeah, this thing needed to be gone. And I was pretty sure I was alone in the house. Dad and Nina were in New Orleans for the week trying to get Nina cast in the new season of some terrible cop show, and I didn’t hear Travis. Usually when Travis is home, I can tell. He’s either blasting music, practicing tricks on the half-pipe in the backyard, or working out in his room. And since our rooms are right next to each other, separated by what has to be the thinnest wall in California, I can always hear when he’s in his room. And since I didn’t hear anything, I got the idea that maybe I was safe to dump this thing into the nearest trash can and make sure Travis never found it.