Stepping Over the Line: A Stepbrother Novel (Shamed) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the bride doesn’t want to be showing in her wedding gown. Now, take a nice nap. You look like a wilted bouquet left too long in the sun.”
    “Thanks.”
    She left and I sighed. It wasn’t my style to feel defeated. My whole life, I’d set up goals and met them. I followed rules and always,
always
did what was expected of me by my parents, friends, and professors.
    That night with Garrett? I was pleading temporary insanity.
    He’d looked so damned good, and for years, I’d worked so damned hard.
    For that brief window of time, rules be damned.
    I didn’t want him to be my brother, I wanted him to be the man who didn’t make me feel like anything other than a wholly desired woman. I didn’t want to believe I’d planned on seducing him, but deep down, I knew on some level I had. Loving him was no excuse.
    In the panicked aftermath of guilt and shame, I’d then been with Chad in the shadows behind the club pool. I’d needed to erase what Garrett and I had done.
    Moreover, I’d needed to reassure myself that Chad was the man I wanted—
needed—
to be with. We had similar goals. He had his issues, but overall, he was a good guy and I loved him. Together, we would make a great life.
    As for the miniscule chance that my baby was Garrett’s?
    I refused to believe it was even a possibility.
    Eyes closed, my mind drifted to the Turks and Caicos villa Daddy had rented four years earlier as a treat for his top-selling team members. I’d been on summer break between finishing college and starting med school. Mom begged Garrett to meet us there, and he had.
    The trip had been beyond idyllic.
    Plenty of blazing sun combined with Garrett’s ripped chest.
    I’d been so hot for him that I’d had to pop into my bedroom for “naps,” during which I’d crawl into my bed and beneath cool sheets touch myself in all the places I wished my stepbrother’s fingers and tongue could be.
    I was used to the base urges he raised—geez, I’d been fighting them practically since puberty. But then he’d gone and done something that made him all the more desirable on a level I’d never even considered.
    Daddy’s top-selling agent had brought his wife and newborn daughter. They wanted to take a day sail and asked me to babysit. Of course, I agreed, and Garrett offered to help…
    “Who knew my legal shark of a brother was a secret softie?” I teased poolside while he slathered lotion on the adorable creature’s bare arms and legs. She wore a pink gingham bathing suit with matching hat and one of those swim diapers. “Have you been practicing on Jennie’s girls?”
    “Yeah. She tries, but she’s kind of a shit mother.”
    “Stop. Don’t say things like that.”
    “Sorry. It’s the truth. I guess whatever lousy parenting gene Mom had, she must have passed down to my sister. Hell, maybe I’ve got it, too?” He lifted the infant, cradling her close. She rested her chin atop his shoulder, melting my heart at the sheer beauty of this forbidden man I loved and the tiny angel I hardly knew. My heart ached for Garrett. His sister was the perpetual elephant in the room of our otherwise happy familial home.
    For a moment, the baby fussed, but then Garrett gave her a few light jiggles and soothing rubs on her back. Her expression morphed from fear and apprehension to sleepy contentment. My Garrett had done that. I was surprised, but shouldn’t have been. He’d done the same for me for all these years. Whether I’d gotten a bad test score or lost my favorite earring, I couldn’t remember a crisis when he hadn’t been there for me. The times when we were apart, I only felt half alive. When we were together, my heart sang as if he was the missing half that made me whole.
    Together, we kicked off our sandals on the pool surround, hopping and jogging and laughing away the pain of the hot tiles burning our soles. Finally on the sand, had Garrett not been my stepbrother, I would have taken his hand. Instead, I settled for just being