BASTARD: A Stepbrother Romance (These Wicked Games Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

my eyes. “You just got bigger.”
    “Stupid personal trainers. It was my publicist’s idea.” He crawls in and sits across from me.
    “Your suit,” I say, and I can’t help the laughter breaking free.
    He looks down at it, then back up at me. His expression is blank. “Shit.”
    And like that, he’s back. My Cade. My protector. He’s come back for me, my knight in shining armor.
    My savior.

Chapter 10
    “Why the rain, little bird?”
    I wipe my eyes some more. “I’m not crying.”
    “But you were.” He gets on his toes, toe-walks awkwardly over, and sits next to me. When his arm wraps around my shoulders, I lean into him without thinking. “Tell me,” he says quietly.
    I shake my head. My cheek brushes against his suit, and I’m surprised at how soft it is. “Is this silk?”
    “Maybe.”
    I chuckle.
    “You were saying?”
    “Same shit as always. I let your mom get to me.”
    “I always told you not to.”
    “That was easier to do when you were here.”
    He hugs me tighter, and I almost start crying again. “I know you think I left you, little bird. I didn’t. I know it seems like that. I’m so sorry you had to deal with them all alone.”
    My throat is too tight to respond. I try anyway, but just make a choked sound.
    “She’s a bastard.” He pets my head with one hand, using the other to keep it pressed against his chest. “She really did a number on you. What happened? Was she mad I didn’t come in?” He suddenly leans back, grabbing my shoulders and making me look at him. “Did she recognize me?” He looks to the entrance of the hideaway, as though she might have been waiting there all this time, for just this moment, to appear just as this revelation is revealed.
    “It’s not you,” I say, wanting to lean back against him. Instead, I make myself pull away.
    “Then what?”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “It does to me.”
    I shake my head. “It’s a long time ago.”
    “Tell me.”
    I bite my lip and look down at my hands. My right wrist looks puffy, and at seeing this it starts to hurt. I wonder if it’s placebo, or that other one, the bad one that sounds similar.
    “Mags?” He touches my chin, but doesn’t force me to look up.
    “It’s nothing,” I say, still staring at my wrist. It’s throbbing now. “She just grounded me.”
    “I know you’re tougher than that.”
    I lick my lips. “It’s the way she did it. It was embarrassing. More than embarrassing.”
    “What?”
    I turn away, lean back, and peak my head out the hole.
    “Mags?”
    When I see there’s no one watching, I scurry out. My wrist lets out a yelp of pain, but I ignore it and get to my feet and climb up the embankment.
    I hear Cade bumping around, then hear him cry out. “Fuck.”
    He comes out, and climbs to where I’m standing. His cheek is smeared with dirt. “Fucking roots.”
    “You always cut them.” I smile, then shrug. “They don’t bother me any.”
    I dash off through the trees, and duck through the hole in the fence.
    “Mags,” Cade calls after me.
    I stop on the other side, waiting in our yard.
    I smile as Cade crawls through the hole.
    He stands fully, shakes his head, and opens his mouth to say something.
    And then comes a sound that sends chills through me.
    I hear Cade mutter something under his breath as he looks past me. It sounds like “Shit,” but I could be wrong.
    I turn as the squeaky hinge ceases its cry.
    Cynthia is standing in the doorway to our house, and for once, it feels like I have changed something. But not something I wanted to.

Chapter 11
    “Hi there,” Cynthia calls out sweetly as she comes down the steps. “I’m Cynthia, Maggie’s mom. Are—”
    But then she freezes in her tracks.
    “Hi Mom,” Cade says coolly.
    “Cade… But…” She looks at me, as though I’ll have some kind of answer for her.
    But I don’t even know the question.
    “It’s me,” Cade says.
    She looks back at her son. “What are you… I mean. You didn’t call.