Addicted (The Addicted Series, #1)(62)

"I'm Krystal. Listen, dinner's going to be in about twenty minutes, and I was really hoping that we could start this off on the right foot. I'm asking you as a favor, could you please join me, my Mom, and your Dad for dinner in the dining room?"

I blinked a few times. This beautiful girl was going to be my new stepsister? And, by the way, if things went right, my next sexual conquest? Damn, I must have won the lottery. "Sure. Can you give me ten minutes to kind of wash up? I was so wiped out from the flight I just kind of crashed on the bed here."

"Sure," she said, stepping back. "You look like you need privacy anyway. I'll wait with them in the TV room. Please, twenty minutes."

She turned and left, closing my door behind her. I lay back on my bed, stunned by what had just happened. I mean, I'd planned on f*cking her anyway, but this was truly a case of having your cake and eating it too. She was just the type of girl who pushed all my buttons. Athletic looking, with some nice tits and a flare to her hips that promised a good ass too. Her skin was tinted olive, and I bet she darkened really well when she wanted to, none of that fake bake shit for her. My cock twitched in my shorts, and I thought about it. What the hell, I still had eighteen minutes by my clock. I could use a little relief.





Chapter 5


Krystal




For the two days leading up to the wedding ceremony, dealing with Julian was a strange experience. On one hand, he was just as much of an arrogant * as I suspected he would be. Every time he looked at me, every other word out of his mouth in private was some sort of boast or false sounding line. It was annoying.

At the same time however, I could see past that, regardless of what he was saying, a lot of the reason Julian acted the way he did was because he was angry and insecure. Somewhere hidden underneath the two hundred and ten pounds of muscle, tattoos, and swagger was a hurt little boy. In some ways I felt sorry for him over it.

On top of all that, there was the undeniable fact that Julian was handsome. I could see a streak of Johnathan in him, and at the same time, he'd taken the best features from his mother as well. Taller than his father, he carried a lot of muscle on his frame, and from the way it was arranged, it was real muscle too, not fake bodybuilder pump stuff. He had come down to the community center with me, and I got a chance to watch as he put in a pretty good workout in the weight room. In fact, by the end he was able to chalk his name up on the wall for setting the room record for the overhead press, a pretty respectable feat.

The night before the ceremony, I was relaxing in my room when I heard a soft knock on the door. "Come in," I said, setting aside the book I'd borrowed from the manor library. I was slightly surprised when Julian opened the door and came in. "Julian."

"You sure I can come in?" he asked. He was dressed in what I'd come to understand was his normal house attire, a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts, although he'd promised that he'd wear a tuxedo for the ceremony. "I mean; you didn't seem all that happy at the end of dinner."

"I think you can understand why, don't you?" I replied. Despite Johnathan's best attempts, the family dinner idea had fallen apart both nights we tried it. Julian could not let go of his anger and his arrogance to do more than snipe at his father, making the whole meal an ordeal. It was a shame, since the food was delicious. I was going to ask if I could learn some of the recipes before I went back to Chicago. "I mean, I prefer dinner without daggers being stared over the table."

"Hey, at least they weren't being stared at you," Julian replied. "But I just wanted to come by and say . . . well, that I'm looking forward to tomorrow. You know, I didn't know if I was going to like you when Johnathan said Sandra had a daughter, but you're pretty alright."

"Thanks. I know things will be a bit strange, but who knows?" I replied. "Anything else?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, sounding slightly thrown off guard. I'm pretty sure he had expected me to return his compliment, but I'm not that sort of person. I'm going to speak the truth. "Tomorrow, your Mom and Johnathan are probably going to expect us to have a dance together at the reception. I was kind of wondering what sort of stuff you dance to. You know, just to make it a bit less awkward and all."

"Considering your Dad's bringing in Meat Loaf and Patti Russo for the reception, I'm figuring there's going to be a lot of Wagnerian rock. Pick your favorite from there." I actually enjoyed listening to some of John's collection, and had downloaded quite a few of the songs myself for personal use. I'd even cooked up a surprise with Yuki that she'd arranged with the reception band, that I wanted to spring on them.

"I know. Trust me, I grew up with a lot of that stuff. While I can't stand most of it, I guess I can put up with a slow song or something like that. But, why don't we get a little practice?"

I shrugged and got off my bed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said, let's do a little practice dance. I don't do it very often, and I don't want to look like a jacka . . . I mean idiot." I'd told Julian the day before that I didn't like his constant cursing, and while he had dismissed it at the time, I noticed he was somewhat lowering his curse quotient.

"Alright," I said, stepping closer. "Although I'll be wearing three inch heels tomorrow."