Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 143(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 143(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
What a piece of work. I swear, sometimes I feel caught in a Dilbert cartoon because my manager is so condescending and presumptuous. But at least distributing the staplers will give me something to do for the next few minutes because soon, it’ll be five o’clock … and then I get to go home to Hunter.
2
Elle
Finally, it’s time to go home! I settle into the driver’s seat of my tiny hatchback, and pull my phone out. My fingers are practically trembling with excitement, but as I scan the screen, a frown graces my lips. Dang it. The vibrating sound I’d heard coming from my purse didn’t indicate messages from Hunter, but rather from Clara. My bud’s asking me how I am and sharing pictures of her baby boy.
I sigh with disappointment. There’s no doubt that the child’s adorable, but no infant can compare to a strapping alpha male with a dirty mind. Frowning with exasperation, I quickly answer Clara’s sweet message with an equally sweet reply and then press send. After all, she’s my friend and I’m happy that she’s happy. But still: cute babies are no comparison to hungry, domineering alpha males.
During the drive home, I wonder why Hunter ended our chat when he did. Is it because he’s thinking of “something else to put me in my place”? What does he have in mind? It sounds so kinky, yet I can’t really imagine what he means. Perhaps I should ask him when I see him? But that would mean breaking the unspoken rule we have that we don’t chat like this in the house. What if I tried to change that rule? What if we could speak our minds, as long as Alex is out of earshot? Of course, I don’t want my stepbrother to overhear because it’d be awkward, to say the least.
Then again, we have a weird family dynamic. The first key is that we’re not actually a family at all. Not biologically, at least. Hunter used to be married to Janine, his ex-wife. Together they adopted Alex when Alex was twelve or thirteen. Then, after Hunter and Janine got divorced, Alex continued living with Hunter while Janine went her merry way. So when Hunter got remarried to my mom, Charity, we all moved in together - Hunter became my stepdad, and Alex became my stepbrother.
Tragically though, my mom died in a car accident not long after the wedding. It was a horrible shock, and one that has taken me several years to process. I was in middle school when it happened, and losing the most important woman in my life made me into a husk of a person for a while. I did my homework and went through the motions of life, but I was actually numb inside.
Still, I continued living with Hunter and Alex in our shared house. It made more sense than for me to move in with my biological dad, who lives all the way on the other side of the country. Besides, I wasn’t the only one who had been stunned by Mom’s death. Everyone was numb, including, of course, my stepfather Hunter. We didn’t talk much, but I knew he was suffering too, and it made my life a tiny bit better.
But we’ve been living as a trio for years now. My mom’s death was a while ago, and I’ve since graduated from high school. Not only that, but I have a job now, so I could theoretically move out into my own place. But things have started getting steamy lately at home … in more ways than one.
After all, that’s my horrible secret. Not only has my stepfather been showing interest in me, but so has my stepbrother. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but after a while, I could no longer deny it because whenever either man was in my vicinity, I could feel their eyes on me. It started with furtive glances here and there, but now, I can see how they both hungrily stare at my curves, watching me move and undressing me with their eyes.
Even worse, I should be bothered by it, but I’m not. Not by a long shot. It’s such a turn-on that I’ve consciously started moving differently, dressing differently, and even behaving differently. I act sexy around Hunter and Alex, and it’s about fifty million shades of wrong. But it’s also confusing because I like it.
And then there’s the whole texting thing that Hunter and I started a few weeks ago. I can sense this isn’t sustainable. Heck, anyone can tell that this isn’t sustainable because I want him so badly. Is that wrong to admit? Yet I know Hunter wants me too, and that sooner or later one of us is going to slip up and act on it. And someone is going to end up getting hurt.