Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
I’ve never had a reaction even close to this before. I don’t do this. I’m not that kind of girl.
I’m the kind of girl who gets annoyed with boys. Who rolls their eyes at them. Who generally has no interest in any of them.
I’ve never scribbled a boy’s name in my notebook or written our initials into a heart. But right now, I want to scribble Tanner Lawson on every inch of material I can get my trembling hands on.
My mother leaves the skis on the ground, grabs a few bags of groceries, and heads in with David, chatting about how cute the rental property is.
We’re in the mountains with no neighbors anywhere in sight. It’s a cute cabin tucked away in the forest with smoke puffing out of the chimney and a hot tub on the back porch. I would normally be running in to explore every room, but there’s something more interesting to explore out here…
“Our rooms are in the basement,” he says as he grabs a bag and looks back at me with a grin. “Far away from our parents’ wandering eyes.”
I swallow hard. “Great.”
“We’re sharing a bathroom.”
“Oh yeah?”
He pulls the bag out of the trunk and walks past me, close enough that I can smell his cologne. It’s making me drunk with lust. He’s making me shaky all over.
This guy is incredibly unsettling.
“I just had a shower,” he says as he runs a hand through his damp hair. “It was nice and hot.”
“I bet it was,” I mutter under my breath.
Shit, now I’m picturing my stepbrother naked in the shower, the hot water running down his hard clenched muscles… over his chest… down his abs… streaming along his long thick…
Stepbrother, Eleanor! He’s your stepbrother!!!
“I’ll see you inside,” he says with a wink. My eyes drop to his ass as he walks to the cabin. He glances at me over his shoulder with those dark eyes simmering with heat before disappearing inside.
“Oh, God,” I whisper as I look up at the sky. Snowflakes tumble down on my face, probably melting immediately when they touch my burning cheeks.
This is crazy.
This is insane.
This is my new family.
Not only are we sharing a bathroom, but it’s attached!
An attached bathroom with Tanner, my new, hot, totally-thinking-of-him-platonically stepbrother. How am I supposed to think of him platonically when I can hear the shower running and I know that his perfect body is unclothed, wet, and dripping with soapy bubbles gliding all over his nice hard—
Okay, I need to get it together. This is not good!
I take a deep breath, drop my bag onto the bed, and open it. I’ve never been this flustered. I’m so agitated and distraught that I put my shampoo away in the dresser.
“Breathe,” I remind myself. I take a few deep breaths, trying to shake out the shakiness. It only works about ten percent.
I grab the shampoo and slowly, carefully, tiptoe into the bathroom to put it in the shower. I’m so curious about my new stepbrother that I can’t help but look around at the products he uses. His hair is so perfect that he must use some expensive, exotic, totally-exclusive-for-hot-people shampoo. I’m surprised to see that’s it’s just regular old drugstore shampoo. See? He’s as normal as you, so it’s—
“Hey.”
I jump up in shock and my hand squeezes the shampoo bottle hard. Shampoo surges out in a high arching stream and lands all over my face like I’m re-enacting the end of a porno for my new stepbrother.
He leans back on the counter, tattooed arms crossed over his muscular chest, and watches me with an amused grin.
A clump of shampoo drips off my chin and lands on the tiled floor with a schlop.
I look past him to the mirror and die inside when I see the ridiculous reflection staring back at me. I have streams of white shampoo streaked across my face from my forehead to my chin. It looks like a… Actually, I don’t even want to think about what it looks like.
He reaches over and grabs a tissue from the box on the counter.
“Don’t move,” he says as he chuckles while coming over. “That stuff burns when it gets in your eye.”
“I got it,” I say, trying to grab the tissue from him.
He pulls it away out of my reach.
“I’m your stepbrother,” he says. “I can clean you up when you get all dirty.”
My eyes dart to him as my heart pounds. He wipes the tissue across my forehead, scooping up all of the shampoo.
He’s so close. He’s so tender and gentle. He smells so good.
I’m mesmerized as I stare up at his face. It’s all tight with concentration as he wipes my skin clean.
He tosses the tissue into the garbage and grabs another one. He wipes my chin softly and then stares at my mouth with hungry eyes as he wipes the corner of my lips.