Read Online His Dark Secret – A Stepbrother Romance by Vanessa Wilde - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Vanessa Wilde
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the size of mine – though of course I didn't ask to compare – and the veins were so thick and visible above the skin that I thought he might have some kind of problem (this is before I realize this is normal in boys and men who work out. I hadn't had much of an occasion to spend time with any of them beforehand...)
If I had to sum it up, I'd've said he seemed like a nice, quiet kid, if a little stiff. All in all, pretty unremarkable.
That impression lasted all of a couple of weeks. And holy heck, did it change...
//////\\\\\\
My mom and Mr. Stevenson scheduled the wedding in record time, settling on a date in late August, so that Jonathan and I wouldn't be living with a couple out of wedlock when school started in September.
At some point in the intervening period, his dad must have gotten him onto some kind of facial cream, because on the day of the wedding (which was, as it happens, the second time I ever saw him), his acne had totally cleared up, revealing crisp, clean-cut features which made him seem an emaciated, elongated kind of 20. It was a little freaky, actually: I could've sworn he'd grown another couple of inches, too.
The ceremony was pretty low-key, and everyone was home by 10 – including Jonathan, Mr. Stevenson, mom and me. Our parents said they wanted to have a first night as a family as quickly as possible, having each failed to provide such an environment to us over the previous years.
The next day, they left on their honeymoon.
I'm afraid to say they went to Niagra Falls.
I never had the least desire to ask if they went over it in a barrel.
If I had, my mom would have giggled, Mr. Stevenson would have smirked, and they would have shared a horrible, satisfied look with each other.
\\\\\\//////
I didn't see much of Jonathan while they were gone; he kept to his room, and we had Aunt Jill over looking after us, and interminably filing and painting her nails.
The next week, school started.
That was when it all began to change.
I still didn't see Jonathan very much at all. Maybe sometimes during mealtimes, when he wasn't at late practice or the gym.
Because of that, enough time passed between each sighting that I was able to register the changes: like watching someone dance under a strobe light, he seemed to evolve in great fits and jumps.
Slowly but surely, he started to fill in that lanky frame which had been so stretched over the previous years. His shoulders seemed to naturally widen to accommodate the ever-increasing mass of muscle.
Where before he had seemed like the bastard child of a scarecrow and a stork, making even the most casual walk seem a stumble, he now began to have that natural, confident kind of walk that made you think he knew exactly where he was going, even if he was just as lost as you.
I first started to really notice these changes when girls in my class started to ask me about him in increasingly hot and bothered tones. I hadn't exactly been unpopular before – in fact, I think I'd settled into a new high school in junior year better than you'd've had any right to expect me to – but the number of girls who would just come up and talk to me definitely took a massive upswing the week after his breakthrough performance for the varsity team in October.
It's at that point, though, that my dislike for him started to grow.
That stand-offish silence gradually turned from awkward to downright rude. I mean, sure – I get how all of a sudden living with a complete stranger under the same roof might not make you want to tell them all your most intimate secrets from the get-go. Hell, I was in exactly the same situation!
But as the weeks passed, and seeing my mom and Mr. Stevenson fawning over each other became a new, depressing kind of normal, he didn't change his attitude toward me at all. If anything, it got worse!
Like, whereas at first, he would just grunt a
If I had to sum it up, I'd've said he seemed like a nice, quiet kid, if a little stiff. All in all, pretty unremarkable.
That impression lasted all of a couple of weeks. And holy heck, did it change...
//////\\\\\\
My mom and Mr. Stevenson scheduled the wedding in record time, settling on a date in late August, so that Jonathan and I wouldn't be living with a couple out of wedlock when school started in September.
At some point in the intervening period, his dad must have gotten him onto some kind of facial cream, because on the day of the wedding (which was, as it happens, the second time I ever saw him), his acne had totally cleared up, revealing crisp, clean-cut features which made him seem an emaciated, elongated kind of 20. It was a little freaky, actually: I could've sworn he'd grown another couple of inches, too.
The ceremony was pretty low-key, and everyone was home by 10 – including Jonathan, Mr. Stevenson, mom and me. Our parents said they wanted to have a first night as a family as quickly as possible, having each failed to provide such an environment to us over the previous years.
The next day, they left on their honeymoon.
I'm afraid to say they went to Niagra Falls.
I never had the least desire to ask if they went over it in a barrel.
If I had, my mom would have giggled, Mr. Stevenson would have smirked, and they would have shared a horrible, satisfied look with each other.
\\\\\\//////
I didn't see much of Jonathan while they were gone; he kept to his room, and we had Aunt Jill over looking after us, and interminably filing and painting her nails.
The next week, school started.
That was when it all began to change.
I still didn't see Jonathan very much at all. Maybe sometimes during mealtimes, when he wasn't at late practice or the gym.
Because of that, enough time passed between each sighting that I was able to register the changes: like watching someone dance under a strobe light, he seemed to evolve in great fits and jumps.
Slowly but surely, he started to fill in that lanky frame which had been so stretched over the previous years. His shoulders seemed to naturally widen to accommodate the ever-increasing mass of muscle.
Where before he had seemed like the bastard child of a scarecrow and a stork, making even the most casual walk seem a stumble, he now began to have that natural, confident kind of walk that made you think he knew exactly where he was going, even if he was just as lost as you.
I first started to really notice these changes when girls in my class started to ask me about him in increasingly hot and bothered tones. I hadn't exactly been unpopular before – in fact, I think I'd settled into a new high school in junior year better than you'd've had any right to expect me to – but the number of girls who would just come up and talk to me definitely took a massive upswing the week after his breakthrough performance for the varsity team in October.
It's at that point, though, that my dislike for him started to grow.
That stand-offish silence gradually turned from awkward to downright rude. I mean, sure – I get how all of a sudden living with a complete stranger under the same roof might not make you want to tell them all your most intimate secrets from the get-go. Hell, I was in exactly the same situation!
But as the weeks passed, and seeing my mom and Mr. Stevenson fawning over each other became a new, depressing kind of normal, he didn't change his attitude toward me at all. If anything, it got worse!
Like, whereas at first, he would just grunt a
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