Stoned: A Billionaire Stepbrother With Benefits Romance (My Brother's Keeper Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

STAT.”
    “It’s not that.”
    “Then what is it? You never were bothered by
taking anything you wanted before.”
    “Then it’s different, that’s all, and I have
an apology to issue,” he said, heading off to the concierge to
figure out where Ms. Shepard was staying within the hotel.

CHAPTER TEN
     
     
    Allison frowned at her phone. It was already
eleven p.m. in New York, and her fiancé should have been home right
now. Maybe he was slammed back at the Columbia library working on
his latest research project. Hell, he’d been talking about going
back to Baltimore for the weekend to research more about Poe. Maybe
he’d decided to actually do it. Either way, there was nothing she
needed to hear more right then than Tom’s voice.
    I kissed him. What the Hell was I
thinking?
    Okay so Robert had started it, but she could
have broken away faster, should never have felt so drawn to it as
she was. What was wrong with her? After, okay and maybe Cassidy
wasn’t wrong about this part, after months of lobbying Tom to set a
wedding date, she was kissing another man and actually feeling
things.
    Things Tom hadn’t made her feel in years.
    “God, I’m the worst person ever,” she said,
standing and about to go to the bathroom to get a hot shower. No,
scratch that. She needed a cold shower. It was then that there was
a knock at the door. She hoped like Hell it wasn’t someone from the
hotel staff upset that she’d been a little aggressive with Franklin
this morning getting into the keynote.
    God, like that had gone well.
    Stalking over to the door, she flung it open
and prepared to give her biggest smile and best lies to the staff,
assure them she wouldn’t pull anything like that again. Her face
fell when she realized it was Robert. “Weren’t you done making me
feel crappy?”
    He sighed and surprised her all over again by
looking down at his feet. “Look, I feel like I need to
apologize.”
    “You’re not sorry that you won over
Schmidt’s.”
    “About the kiss,” he said, gesturing down to
her ring. “I didn’t know you were engaged before I kissed you, and
I’m really sorry.”
    Allison was about to slam the door in his
face, but there was something so sincere and humble about his tone
that she couldn’t push him away. Sighing, she opened the door wider
and let him pass into her room. She sat down on the sofa and was
shocked a third time in quick succession when he sat down next to
her. She should have asked him to stay standing or take a
chair.
    Of course, you shouldn’t even have let him
in. What do you think is going to happen here?
    “I’m listening,” she said, holding her hands
out, palms up.
    “Look,” he said, taking her hand in his. She
noted he chose to do it with her right. “Maybe I am an ass.”
    “Oh, you definitely are. I think it’s a big
part of your brand.”
    “Okay, so I’m an ass.”
    “Well you said it,” she said, smirking back
at him.
    He obliged her by laughing. “Maybe, I just
shouldn’t have taken advantage that way. I’m still not sorry about
Schmidt’s.”
    Allison pulled her hand back. “I
figured.”
    He chuckled again. “Look, you’re not without
talent. I dig that honest creative attitude of yours.
Unfortunately, it’s naïve to try and sell people stuff in a way
they don’t want.”
    “Excuse me.”
    “I didn’t make the rules, Goldilocks. Sex
sells and that’s what I have to do. It’s made me an empire and I
don’t regret that. I’m just saying if you could abandon your high
horse, you’d be a Hell of an ad exec.”
    She stood up and stomped over to the sink by
the kitchen. “I am an ad exec. I know we’re not as big as you
guys.”
    “You’re in trouble and just bending a little
would help.”
    She slammed the glass down as she started
pouring water into it. “Maybe I don’t bend.”
    Robert’s eyes blazed at a statement like that
and he was rushing to her then, taking long, deliberate strides her
way. She stilled there, curious to