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

near him, for reveling in the warm Caribbean sun, walking through sun-kissed sand that made us laugh and skip in a mad dash to the cooling water. Once there, we sat at the surf’s edge, where the baby giggled when the gentle surf licked her toes.
    I filled a mental bottle of the scene. The white sand, turquoise water fading into a cerulean sky, the faint briny smell, the lonely cry of gulls diving high over our heads and the occasional happy shrieks of our temporary ward.
    I looked toward Garrett and our gazes locked. My breath caught in my throat and my chest tightened with all the trapped words I’d forever wanted to say.
You’re beautiful. I love you. Kissing you just once would make my life complete
.
    With the infant between us, he leaned forward, and I leaned forward.
    All air had long-since left my lungs.
    We were alone in paradise with no one to bear witness to what may or may not happen. He leaned closer still. Close enough now for me to smell lunch’s sweet mango chutney lingering on his breath.
    He tilted his head.
    I slanted mine in the opposite direction.
    Kiss me
, my heart cried.
No one will ever know. It’ll be our secret.
    He reached out to me, sweeping flyaway strands of my long hair behind my ear. His simple touch made my body hum, and I topped his hand with my own. With our gazes still locked, I moved his hand lower, over my lips, where I kissed his palm.
    A low, guttural moan escaped him. He closed his eyes, arching his head back.
    “We’re alone,” I said.
    “No, we’re not…” He snatched back his hand to cup the baby’s head.
    Okay…What did that mean? Sure, we had the baby, but the sweet little thing napped more than she was awake. Was I flying solo in my attraction for him? Had I forever imagined the whole thing?
    No. He shifted his legs—I assumed to hide his Empire State Building-sized erection.
    “Do me a favor,” he said. “Either hold the baby or run to the house to grab my phone. I’m expecting a call from Liam that I have to take.”
    Just like that, whatever magical web circumstance had spun between us was gone, just as it had been too many times before to count. We’d played this game for years. Pretending what we felt for each other was normal. Deep down, we both knew it wasn’t.
    Maybe I should have pressed the issue? Maybe we could have carried on a clandestine, long-distance affair? Meeting up in Denver to boink like bunnies, then never speak of it again?
    The really scary part of our avoidance dance was that I feared just sex with him would never be enough. I wanted the total package. Holding hands and sharing meal prep and stories at the end of our days. He might be my stepbrother, but he was also my best friend. I had no right to want more, but I did. And that fact crushed my heart.
    The baby fussed, so he pulled her back into his arms, inadvertently filling me with an irrational jealous rage.
    “Are you ever going to at least kiss me?” I blurted.
    “No.” He clambered to his feet. “My mom and Jennie put my dad through enough, no way would I disrespect him—you—like that.”
    “What if I want you to kiss me?” I chased him all the way back to the villa.
    “You only think you do.”
    “I think you’re afraid!” I ran around him, blocking his way.
    “You should be.” His tone darkened the way it usually did when he talked business.
    I wanted to press my bikini-clad, sun-drenched body against him. I wanted to kiss his every objection away until nothing but the obvious truth stood between us—that our being together was inevitable. Only what he was more of an adult to realize was that it wasn’t. Our parents’ marriage had forever ruined our chance at a normal loving relationship, and in that moment, I hated them.
    The rejected woman in me hated Garrett even more…
    It had been a while since I’d thought of our day on the beach with the infant whose name I now couldn’t remember. Garrett had been wonderful with her—far better than I had been.