Risk: A Military Stepbrother Bad Boy Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    And gorgeous. And kind and funny and oh, god.
     
    I had to shut these feelings down. And I did, in the best way I knew how: by organizing. I went over my course schedule for the day, figured out where I would need to go for class, what all I would need to do, and before I knew it, I had disappeared into a daze of pleasant planning. My preferred existence. When I was planning, I could make sure everything was logical. Everything was reasonable. The world, my life, it all made sense. That’s what I wanted, and no one, not my father, not Dakota, not even Damien—no one could interfere in the pure worlds of my organization and planning.
     
    “Hey,” came a voice, followed by a knock and my door easing open.
     
    My mouth just about fell open when I saw him: Damien was standing there, a towel wrapped around his waist, his perfect body slicked with shower water from the waist up. His well-formed abs glistened, and I felt another shiver go up my spine as I took in the glorious sight.
     
    “I’m done in the shower, if you want it. Just letting you know.”
     
    “Th-thanks…” I murmured, barely able to form words. And then, like that, he was gone.
     
    At that exact moment, my phone buzzed. It was Mitch:
     
    “ready for another year of bullshit?” his text read. He meant another year of school. I grabbed my phone and texted back frantically:
     
    “omg huge news. Do u remember my brother Damien? He’s back for the year.”
     
    Mitch’s reply came back in seconds. I could always count on Mitch to text back promptly:
     
    “Ur brother? Wasnt he kicked out like 4 years ago”
     
    I replied:
     
    “Yes. Its crazy. Will explain at school.”
     
    He sent me back a goofy emoji. Mitch is my best friend. We’ve been best friends ever since we were little kids. He’s also super gay: he does musical theatre, paints his nails, has long, almost androgynous hair. As you might imagine… This being high school and all… He gets bullied pretty severely.
     
    I showered, dressed, and before I knew it, Damien and I were walking to school together. It was so bizarre—days ago, we hadn’t known each other and now, here we were, walking side by side to school, like we had really, truly grown up together.
     
    “So, when is your GED class?”
     
    “Three hours in the morning,” he said. “I’ve got my afternoons free, so I guess I’ll go and try and find some sort of part time job.”
     
    “Good luck with that.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
     
    “Oh, just that Laramie’s a shit hole and no one can find a job. Not even adults, let alone kids.”
     
    Damien raised an eyebrow.
     
    “You really don’t like this town.”
     
    I sighed and shook my head.
     
    “Damien, I don’t know. This is the only place I’ve ever lived but…”
     
    “But you need to get the hell out?”
     
    “Right. I can’t remember the last time I even left Laramie. It’s suffocating.”
     
    “Yeah. The first time around, I only lived here for a few months and I was feeling the same thing.”
     
    “But,” I said with a small smile. “I don’t think I could just go and sign up for the Marines and get out like that…”
     
    Damien shrugged. “They’d take you.”
     
    Finally, we were at the beginning of Laramie United’s sprawling, derelict campus. Students from all corners of town, bleary-eyed, sad for summer’s passing, streamed onto the school’s fields.
     
    “Hey, beautiful.”
     
    I turned to see Mitch loping across the field towards us, waving. He was clad in his usual bright neon pink shirt commemorating whatever school musical the theatre group had done last spring semester.
     
    “Is this…” he started upon seeing Damien and I. I nodded rapidly.
     
    “Mitch, this is Damien. My… My stepbrother. Damien, this is Mitch, my best friend.”
     
    There were stars in Mitch’s eyes as he shook my brother’s hand.
     
    “That’s… That’s a hell of a handshake you’ve got there, Damien,”