2. Chapter 2
His suit was tailored to every hard line of his body, the dark blue design making his eyes shine like the sea.
His cheekbones were clean shaven and cut from glass.
His coiffed hair the color of melted chocolate.
There was a healthy tan to his skin, making his eyes that much more piercing.
I couldn’t look away no matter how much I wanted to.
A sharp surge of something hot and liquid shot through me, keeping me rooted to the spot.
He was speaking, but I couldn’t hear him over the blood in my ears.
Murphy’s Law was a real pain in the ass sometimes.
Like I needed another shitty thing dumped on my plate right now.
Justin Kingston was not someone I wanted to deal with. Not now. Not ever.
I got to cut him from my life when my mom passed away. Not that he or my mom were really in my life when they were married, and mom was alive.
The age-old bitterness crept up my throat. I swallowed it down.
Not the time.
One crisis at a time. Any more tabs open in my brain and I’d get a 404 error.
I could avoid Justin Kingston for the remainder of this event. He’d never know I was here.
A body jostled me from behind, tittering laughter followed by a breathy, “oops.”
I caught my tray, but not the two glasses that slipped off the side.
Glass shattered.
A hush settled over the crowd.
Fucking Murphy’s Law.
A mix of pitying glances and stifled laughter followed. I focused on that, on anything but the weight of his gaze.
Don’t look, don’t look…
I looked.
Justin stared at me, our eyes locking across the wide expanse of what I’m fairly confident was his estate.
Despite the sweat sliding down my spine, I shivered.
The brief flash of disbelief and dare I say, remorse, on his face was my only consolation. He obviously didn’t expect me and the sight of me ruffled him. Good.
The silence stretched. People were starting to notice—not just me, but Justin’s focus on me.
Behind the podium Justin cleared his throat and readjusted his collar, breaking whatever spell had befallen us. A flash of gold glinted on his left hand.
He still wore his wedding ring.
It was the bucket of cold water I needed.
I spun, ready to high tail it out of there no matter what my boss had to say. Behind me, Justin’s voice carried on. The rough timbre of it caressing me.
I was losing it today. Fucking. Losing. It.
Maybe it was heat stroke. Or an aneurysm.
This time the security manning the door to the kitchen didn’t hesitate as he opened the door. People were already rushing by me with brooms and bags.
Justin’s voice trailed off and clapping ensued.
I kept my head down and kept going.
This time I was going to escape to the wine cellar. Screw my boss and this day.
I waited until I reached the cool, dark, and thankfully empty space before I pulled out my phone and texted Zoe, breathing a sigh of relief in the process.
Any news?
At the sound of footsteps, I tucked my phone away, expecting my boss to waltz around the corner, ready to cut me loose for the day. I’d been nothing but a liability.
Justin emerged from the shadows, his eyes a beacon of azurite light within the darkness.
The space in the cellar shrank with him there.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. If he was here to lecture me, I was so not in the mood. Those broken glasses and spilt champagne weren’t even his. No one got hurt and I was pretty sure the guests were still going to contribute to his holier than thou cause.
Under his gaze I felt like a moth, pinned. It rubbed me the wrong way.
The tension in the room rose, and the urge to fidget rose right along with it.
The silence between us hung in the air like a physical presence.
In public Justin had been all smiles and words of encouragement, but here, alone with me, the nice man seemed to have faded, perhaps he didn’t even exist. Instead, I stood with a man that had my body humming and my mind traveling to places it had no right traveling to.
He looked like bad decisions and wicked intent.
Like he’d have no problem bending me over and spanking me. And enjoying it.
The dim lighting only added to his allure.
He exuded money and masculinity, and I shouldn’t have found it attractive.
“What?” I snapped when I couldn’t take the silence any longer, my body on pins and needles.
Those piercing eyes of his skimmed over me, taking in me and all my frumpiness. My breasts tingled under his stare, my nipples hardening.
It’s the cold of the cellar, I told myself, crossing my arms over my chest.
He couldn’t possibly have noticed, but the way his jaw clenched, told me perhaps otherwise.
A perverse curiosity peaked, one I stamped down immediately.
No, Katie. Don’t even go there. He’s your stepdad.
He’s fair game, a voice sounding suspiciously like Zoe whispered in the back of my mind. There was no blood relation between Justin and I, only a convoluted relationship that spanned less than three years when he’d been married to my mother. And nearly a twenty-year age gap.
The Adam’s apple in his throat bobbed, his fingers curling into fists at his side. “I wasn’t expecting to see you.”
Like I’d planned this?
“I didn’t realize this was your house. Trust me, if I did, I would’ve passed on the shift. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here.”
A frown marred his forehead. “Have I indicated that I didn’t want you here?
” He took a step deeper into the cellar, stealing the oxygen from my lungs.
His suit looked almost black in the lighting.
Again, I was drawn to the cut, how it hugged his broad shoulders, tapered in at the waistline, and clung to his powerful thighs.
He stood a head taller than me, making me feel small, helpless… trapped.
My heart hammered in my chest, heat gathering in my face and between my thighs.
I’d always known Justin was a looker—I’m sure it was part of the reason my mom was so adamant about marrying him—but I’d never had this kind of response to a man before. Like all my senses were zeroed in on him and dialed to 11.
It was humiliating. The culmination of going too long without having an orgasm. It was the only explanation for my reaction to a man I abhorred.
“Katie?”
Shit. I’d gone off in my head. Justin was less than a foot away, concern in his eyes. His scent tickled my nose, something spicy mixed with the faint accent of chlorine.
I thought of the lap pool outside.
I thought of Justin in nothing but low slung boardshorts swimming laps under the sun. Skin wet and glistening, hair slicked back—
My breasts grew heavy, a throb settling between my legs. I could feel myself growing wet and it only fueled my irritation higher.
I needed to get out of here. The air had grown thick. The only escape behind Justin.
“What, Dad?” I laid the sarcasm on thick.
I was uncomfortable and had no idea what to do about my rampaging hormones.
My defense mechanisms kicked in. And unfortunately, the best defense was an insulting offense.
Piss him off and make him walk away. It didn’t sit well with me, but I had to remind myself that it was what he and my mother had been best at—walking away.
“Don’t pretend that you give a shit about me. ”
Arms caged me in, and I fought a thrill as Justin leaned into me.
“I do give a shit about you, sweetie. You were the one that shut me out after the funeral.”
“Ha. That’s rich.” They’d shut me out first, and yeah, it sounded petty, but I could still remember how I’d felt at eighteen, when I’d been standing at my high school graduation with no one in the audience. “Don’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot, do you?”
The only time he’d reached out to me was after my mother passed, regarding her will. Since I didn’t want anything from a woman that’d made it obvious she didn’t want me, the whole ordeal had been quick and efficient.
Confusion clouded his eyes, and I made no move to remedy it. My high school days were behind me. I was not reliving that humiliation. If he didn’t remember back then, it just went to show that I was that insignificant. I wasn’t even worth a memory for him.
The hallow ache in my chest was like an old friend, one I’d tried to shake loose long ago, but could never fully be rid of.
“It’s fine, Daddy,” the way his eyes flared at the word shouldn’t have intrigued me, but it did, and it only made me want to use it more.
“I’ve moved on. You should too.” There was something dangerously addicting about knowing I could get under his skin like he so effortlessly got under mine.
Then there was the attention he gave me, the sole focus when I baited him.
I felt seen, powerful, and turned on.
“Don’t call me that,” his growl scrapped against my skin.
Our eyes locked and a crackle of something akin to electricity sparked between us.
“Why not?” I sounded breathless, my pulse pounding.
It was unfair that this man had everything. That he never had to want for anything. Attention. Affection. Stability.
My own mother chose him over me.
I should want Justin Kingston in the ground, but at that moment, all I wanted was him in my mouth. To taste him. To experience whatever it was that would draw a mother to leave her daughter. It’d have to be magic, right?
But magic didn’t exist.
Even if I did feel under a spell.
Unable to help myself, I tilted my head back to stare Justin in the eye, refusing to give an inch. Our chests touched and I nearly moaned as my nipples brushed against the hard planes of his chest.
“Because,” his breath tickled my lips, his mouth ghosting over mine. Teasing. Again, I shouldn’t have enjoyed it, everything about this should’ve drove me in the opposite direction, not pulled me closer. “It makes my blood run hot.”
Oh shit.
I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. “And that’s a bad thing?”
I was in over my head. A pawn, a newb, I didn’t know what I was doing. I only knew two things. I needed to get away. And I wanted Justin to keep going.
“When I’m trying to keep my hands off you, yes.” Justin leaned in further, his lips brushing the shell of my ear, triggering goose bumps. “Do you want my hands on you, sweetie?”
“N-no.”
A dark chuckle greeted me. “I think you do, Katie.”
I would rather bite my tongue off and drown in my own blood than admit it. “Go to hell, Justin.”
He hummed in his throat and pulled back enough that I could see the smoldering blue flames of his eyes. “For you, I might just risk a trip.”
Then he stepped back, and air flooded my lungs. I gulped it down like water. I was flushed and bothered in all the wrong places.
His eyes were still on me, hungry, as if taking in their fill. “You’re temptation personified, do you know that?”
Was this a joke? A sick game?
“That’s no way to talk to your stepdaughter.”
“Considering you’re going to spend the rest of your life avoiding me, I don’t think it matters.”
My blood pressure spiked.
Me? Avoiding him? He was the one…
Before I could get a word in edgewise, he flashed me one more smirk and walked out.
I wanted to throw something but decided on sagging against the wine at my back.
Holy shit.
What was that?
The circuits in my brain were fried, my body vibrating.
I was still sucking down air, Justin’s dark words playing on repeat in my head when my phone buzzed.
Zoe.
“Thank god.”
I needed the distraction, my thoughts and emotions in too much turmoil.
Zoe’s cute boy at the financial office had come through. No name for the benefactor, but a billing address.
Something about it looked familiar and I hastily typed it into my phone.
I stared at my screen.
No.
The dot on my phone mocked me.
I was at the address.
My benefactor was Justin Kingston.
“Fuck.”