RICH BOY BRIT (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance)(28)

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a similar scene happening between Andrew and Jessica. Jessica was crying, but there was a relieved smile on her lips. “We don’t want you to break up,” she muttered.

“This is about love,” Andrew said, kissing his daughter on the cheek, “not about title. We’re not breaking up. I’m married to Annabelle, and I’ll stay married to Annabelle. And you don’t have to break up, either.”

“He’s right!” Mom barked, causing me to jump. She was so eager to prove that she still loved me, that this changed nothing, that (bless her heart) she was almost frightening. “You are in love; Andrew and I are in love. There is nothing wrong about that. So much love cannot possibility be wrong. Don’t look so worried!”

This went on for some time, with Mom and Andrew repeating themselves many times, but the message was always the same. They still loved us; they weren’t breaking up; Jessica and I were free to be together. I met Jessica’s eye through the fray, and she smiled warmly at me, and I smiled back.

Is this real? her expression seemed to say. Tell me it is real.

It’s real, I smiled, as Mom repeated herself for the tenth time. You don’t have to worry anymore.





Jessica



As the days passed and Eli and I became more comfortable together—began to turn into a real couple—I realized something. I could not return to the US. I could not leave him. But, equally, I could not abandon college. I had worked hard to get into college, and I loved literature too much to simply leave it. When I mentioned this to Eli one night, I didn’t expect him to do what he did. I didn’t expect him to fix it so that we could be together.

But he did.

I was in my bedroom, leaving over a book, absorbed in the words. But not like I used to be absorbed; I didn’t throw myself into the world of the book because I found the real world unbearable, as used to be the case. I loved my life in the real world now. I wouldn’t sacrifice it for anything, even a life buried in books.

Eli walked into the room, a wide grin on his face.

“What is it?” I asked, putting the book aside.

He knelt beside me and took my face in his hands. “Mom has a friend on the board of my university,” he said, his words coming fast, jarring. “She has just got off the phone with her friend. If you want, you can transfer—and stay in Bristol for the coming semester, and the semester after that, and the semester after that!”

“And we’ll be together?” I said, my chest becoming warm at the prospect.

“Always,” he said, he brought my forehead to his lips. “Always. What’s your answer?”

What a silly question, I thought.

“My answer is yes, obviously!” I laughed.

I didn’t realize I was crying until he kissed the tears away.





(BONUS BOOK #1)

CHANCE

(A Stepbrother

Romance)





By





Mia Carson





COPYRIGHT ? 2016

All Rights Reserved





CHAPTER 1


Claire got out of the cab and looked in horror as Trent, her fiancé, held a woman in his arms and kissed her lovingly on the lips in front of his house. She wanted to run or close her eyes and pretend the man she had been dating since after high school, for three years, was not kissing another woman the day before their wedding. But even the darkness that would come if she closed her eyes was insufficient to rid her confused mind of the event unfolding in front of her.

He stroked the woman’s face and spoke soothingly to her; he was so engrossed in their conversation that he didn’t see Claire until she had seen too much. By the time he did see her, her cheeks were drenched with tears. She remained motionless as he ran towards her.

“Claire, this isn’t...”

She looked up at him, feeling like a zombie. She felt nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing except the woman who stood uncomfortably a few feet away from them.

“Look, I can explain,” he told her. But there was nothing he could say to make the situation right.

“I wanted to see you one last time before tomorrow,” she said as the tears poured down. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Claire,” he said softly, his eyes pleading with her. “I never meant for this...”

“You’re fucked up, Trent, and you know it. Just fucking leave me alone!” she said as she walked away.

“Claire!” he called after her, but she didn’t stop. “Let me at least give you a ride home.”

“Fuck off,” Claire said, just as she stumbled into an older man on the pavement, but he caught her as she did.

“You okay, ma’am?” the man asked. “Can I help you?”

“I just need a cab,” she sobbed. “Please just get me out of here.”

“This way,” he said as he led her to the yellow and black checkered cab around the corner.

She composed herself long enough to give him her address, but try as she might, she could not get the image of Trent kissing another woman in public out of her mind.

“We’re here,” the cabbie announced a few minutes later as he pulled up to her driveway.