Stepbrother Commands (His Twisted Game, Book Seven) Read Online Free PDF

sleeves
rolled up and his tie loosened, one hand draped casually over his knee.
    “What’s this?” I asked.
    “Food.”
    “For us?”
    “Yes.”
    My heart leapt. He’d planned a picnic for us. I sat down next to him and he looked at me seriously.
    “Avery,” he said, his eyes serious. “I
know when you hung out with Jeffrey you didn’t intend this to happen.”
    “I didn’t,” I said. “I wouldn’t have done anything I
thought could put your business in trouble.”
    He nodded and then reached into the
basket and pulled out a plastic container full of purple and red grapes, and
two ham and cheese sandwiches on thick-cut multigrain bread. He fixed me a plate, like he’d done
last night. Something had loosened
between us, as if the knot of tension had dissipated. I wondered if he’d needed to punish me, to control me, to
fuck me, in order for that to have happened.
    He took a bite of his sandwich and smiled
at me. “You know what this reminds
me of?”
    “What?”
    “That time you set the kitchen on fire
making Jell-o.”
    “What?” I asked. “I did not set the
kitchen on fire making Jello!”
    “Yes, Avery, you did. You were making red Jello and you
dropped a towel onto the burner.”
    “Why would I drop a towel onto the
burner?” I said. I took a purple
grape and popped it into my mouth, the sweetness exploding in my mouth. The flavors were more intense than
usual, and I wondered if it was because Cole could afford expensive fruit, or
if it just tasted so good simply because I was with him, and that when I was
with him, everything was better.
    “Because we didn’t have any pot holders,”
Cole said.
    “I don’t even like Jello.”
    “You did that night,” he said. “The fire alarm went off and
everything.”
    “Did the fire department come?”
    He gave me a look. “Right. Because your mom and my dad were always amenable to having government
officials in the house.”
    “Good point.” I took a bite of my sandwich, which was just as good as the
fruit. The ham and cheese had been
slathered with an expensive-tasting honey mustard that was layered with flavor.
    “Cole,” I said slowly. “I just… where were you last
night? When you went with Lucy?”
    “I told you,” he said, his voice tensing
slightly. “I took her home.”
    “I know, but you were gone for an hour.”
    “We were talking.”
    “About what?”
    “She’s having a hard time with the
break-up,” he repeated.
    “You said. But how so?”
    “She didn’t want it to be over.” He shrugged. “So she’s sad.”
    “And doesn’t she have any friends or
anyone else she can talk to?”
    “No.”
    “No, she doesn’t have any friends? I find that kind of hard to
believe.” Lucy was a beautiful
model. How was sit possible she
didn’t have friends? “Wasn’t she
just out with her friends last night?” If she didn’t have any friends, who had she been out at the club with?”
    “Those aren’t her friends,” Cole
said. “Her family – ” He
shook his head, like he didn’t want to get into it. He reached out and ran the
back of his finger over my cheek. “Avery, I don’t want you to worry about Lucy. I’m with you. Not her.”
    “I know,” I said, even though I
didn’t. How could I trust anything
Cole said when he was so secretive? When I was with him, when he was being like
this, I felt so close to him, felt like he cared about me so much. I felt like was falling in love with
him.
    But how could I fall in love with someone
who wouldn’t let me in? It was
impossible.
    I felt like I was fighting a two-pronged
battle for Cole’s heart – on one side were all his emotional issues, his
demons, his trust issues, his battle against the need to control me. And on the other side were all the
girls who wanted him – Kalia, Lucy, and who knew how many others.
    It was frustrating.
    On the other hand, I had my own past, my
own secrets that I hadn’t shared with him. I’d done things behind Cole’s back,