Read Online Stepbrother Bastard by Colleen Masters - Free Book Online

mine.
    “ You wanna talk about manners? ” Cash growls at me, his gorgeous features
hard and unreadable.
    “ Oh
shit, ” I whisper, feeling the breath
rush out of my lungs. Just when I thought this vacation couldn ’ t
get any more twisted …

 
     
    Chapter Four
     
    I
gape up into Cash Hawthorne ’ s stony face, attempting
to wrap my mind around what the fuck, exactly, is happening here.
    “ What … How
are you … What? ” I stammer, as the figment
from last night ’ s salacious dream takes a
swinging step my way.
    “ Didn ’ t
mean to spook you, ” he says, lips twisting into an
unconvincing smile. “ You city girls are
awfully jumpy. ”
    “ And
you country boys are hard to track down, ” Sophie says from over my
shoulder, “ Which of John ’ s
boys are you? ”
    “ I ’ m
Cash, ” he replies, his hard eyes
still trained on me. 
    “ I ’ m
Sophia, ” she tells him flatly, “ The
doe-eyed one is Annabel. And the short one right there is —”
    “ Madeleine, ” I say softly, holding out
my hand for Cash to shake. I ’ m embarrassed to see that
it ’ s
trembling, “ Madeleine Porter ” .
    Cash
glances down at my hand, then back up at my face, his wry smile unflinching.
Even I ’ m
baffled by my outstretched hand — pretending not to know
him was my first instinct. But did I just do something egregiously wrong?
    “ Right, ” Cash says, ignoring my
hand completely.
    “ Let ’ s … go see if Mom needs any
help in the kitchen, ” Anna suggests, looping her arm through
Sophie ’ s.
    “ God
yes, ” Sophie mutters, turning
to go, “ Hell,
we could use a knife to cut through all this male ego clogging up the air. ”  
    My
little sisters hurry back into the house, leaving me squared off against Cash,
the man I spent last night fucking every which way. The man who also happens to
be the son of my mom ’ s one-time — and
likely present-day — fling. The man who is
currently looking at me in such a way that tells me I seriously missed the mark
with my morning-after etiquette.
    “ I
think I need to sit down …” I say quietly, feeling my knees turn to
water.
    “ Suit
yourself, ” Cash
shrugs, shaking out his sweat-slicked curls. “ You ’ re
our house guest. Apparently. ”  
    “ This
is your house …” I
echo, trying to make any of this sink in. “ But
then what … what were you doing at that bar last
night? If you live here, I mean? ”
    “ I
don ’ t
live here, ” Cash
says impatiently.
    “ But
you just said —“
    “ My
dad asked my brothers and I to come out here for a couple of weeks. Bit of male
bonding or some shit, ” he cuts me off, “ I
was on my way here when I stopped for a drink. Same as you, I imagine. ”
    “ So … Did
know anything about this? ” I ask him, sinking down onto the porch
steps. “ About
us being here? About me — ? ”
    “ What
do you think? ” Cash
shoots back.
    “ I
don ’ t know what I think, that ’ s why I ’ m
asking you, ” I
reply tersely, “ Could you drop the
asshole act and talk to me? ”
    “ What
act? ” he laughs shortly,
setting his helmet down on the seat of the ATV, “ This
is just me, babe. Don ’ t know what to tell you. ”
    “ You
can tell me why you ’ re acting like a jerk all
of a sudden, ” I
say, wrapping my arms around my knees. “ I ’ m
sorry if I didn ’ t handle this morning
well. You know I don ’ t have much experience
with the whole —”
    “ I
honestly couldn ’ t care less, ” he says evenly. I don ’ t
know him nearly well enough to tell if he ’ s
lying to me. “ But hey, let ’ s
maybe not mention the fact that we fucked like animals all last night around
our families, yeah? Might make them a little uncomfortable. ”
    I
stare up at him, mind reeling along with my heart. “ So,
what … You ’ re
saying we just forget it ever happened? Pretend we ’ ve
never met? ”
    “ Isn ’ t
that what you want? ” he asks, eyes hard on my face, “ I
mean, wasn ’ t