Cocked: A Stepbrother Romance by B. B. Hamel

somewhere else?”
    “Because it’s almost midnight and we’ve been driving for something like twelve hours.”
    “Fair enough.”
    “By the way,” he said, tossing me my bag, “we need to ditch this car and get another.”
    “Why?”
    “Been driving in it too long. Cops could be looking for it, or the cartel could be tracking it.”
    “How would the cartel track it?”
    “They have more resources than you’d think.”
    Without another word he stalked off toward the front office and I followed in his wake. Another pronouncement from Lord Camden. I’d either fall in line or else. I wasn’t sure he really cared if I believed him or wanted to follow him so long as I did it anyway.
    “Room for the night?” the clerk asked us as we walked in. He was young, maybe our age or younger, but pretty overweight. A small TV in the corner was playing anime.
    “Just tonight,” Camden grunted.
    “Got two rooms left.”
    “We’ll take the cheaper.”
    “Both cheap.”
    Camden paid up front and got the key from the night clerk kid. He gave me a little nod as we went to leave but quickly looked back to the TV.
    We walked toward the back of the building and up a flight of stairs, unlocking the door. Camden pushed it open, turned on the light, and started laughing.
    I looked inside.
    “Hell no,” I said.
    “You want to go ask for another?”
    I stormed out, back toward the office. The kid looked surprised to see me again, like he had forgotten we existed. Probably a good policy in a place like this.
    “You guys have anything else?”
    “Just the one other room.”
    “We’ll take it.”
    He shrugged. “You can if you want, but it’s exactly the same.”
    I groaned. “Come on, seriously? Anything but that.”
    He looked utterly bewildered and shrugged again. “I’m sorry. We’re all full up.”
    I left the front office with a huff, not bothering to look back. I walked back up the stairs, stormed into the room, and sat down on the one single queen bed.
    “You’re on the floor,” I said.
    “Hold on now,” he called out from the bathroom. “Why are you making the decisions?”
    “Because I’m the girl.”
    He leaned up against the doorframe and grinned at me. I looked up and my mouth nearly dropped open. He was shirtless, and his muscles were perfectly defined in the fluorescent motel light. I could make out a few scars along his side and his chest, and my staring only made him smile bigger.
    “I never said I was a gentleman.”
    “I know you’re not.” I looked away from his shirtless torso, realizing I was starting to breathe a little heavily.
    “Come on. It’s a big bed. I don’t bite.”
    “I do.”
    “I wouldn’t mind that.”
    “No. You’re on the floor.”
    “You sure? Gets pretty lonely on the road, you know.”
    “Save it.”
    “Sometimes it’s nice to have a warm body to cuddle up against.”
    “Cuddle up against your own hand.”
    He smirked and crossed his arms. I bit my lip and looked away as the image of his perfectly sculpted body pressed up against mine came to me completely unbidden. In that moment, I remembered all the times his mouth worked my soaking clit, all the times he made me come as if by magic.
    But that was years ago. Well before he ruined our life. We were both very, very different people.
    “Put a shirt on,” I mumbled, pulling up the covers and climbing into bed.
    He laughed again and disappeared back into the bathroom and started to brush his teeth. I felt my cheeks get red and I decided to turn on the TV to try to distract myself from the thought of his body.
    In the end, he made sure the door was locked, grabbed a blanket and a pillow off the bed, and slept on the floor. I tried not to dream about his lips, his mouth, his fingers along my spine making my back arch.
    ––––––––
    I woke up to the sound of the door closing.
    It was early and light streamed in through the large windows. I grumbled as I sat up and looked around the half-lit room. For