Her Contract (Romance) Read Free

dad’s house?
    “It must be hard for you… going through life without a sense of humor,” I say with a broad grin.
    She sighs with particular annoyance. “I don’t have time for this. I have a movie to see.” She shakes her head and goes to walk past me.
    But I cut her off, stepping right in front of her so that her face is mere inches from mine. “You know, seeing as you’re going to be my sis soon, we really should bury the hatchet.”
    Her face hardens before she takes a deep breath. “Stuff you, Lucas.”
    With a stout laugh, I take one hand out of my pocket and tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. Surprisingly, she doesn’t recoil.
    “No need to that, Anna. After all, you’ve already been down south. And the way I remember it, from those soft, little moans of yours, you thoroughly enjoyed it. As did I.”
    Her palm smacks my cheek with impressive force. Judging by the look on her face, though, I don’t know who’s more startled. Me or her.
    Raising my eyebrows, I crack another smirk to provoke her. “Still have that fire I see.”
    “Oh, you better believe it, dickhead.” She steps around me and walks toward her car parked in the driveway; a 2012 emerald green Volkswagen beetle.
    “I think you mean boss?” I shout after her, to which her reply is a sassy flip of the bird.
    Her little black dress, yellow pastel waist-cardigan and nude-colored heels make all the blood rush to my head.
    Yep - I have a boner just looking at her.
    When she unlocks the beetle and gets inside, she throws me a look of clear contempt and slams the door shut.
    After she drives off, I realize that all my efforts to erase the memory of her, for all these years, have been futile.
    So what? We had sex once when we were teenagers and we ignored each other afterward.
    It’s no big deal. Except I still can’t get her out of my damn head.
    She thinks I’m the biggest jerk-off who ever walked the planet and why? Because I-
    And then it hits me. The reason why she’s still so pissed off about it.
    She lied to me that night… Of course, I’ve done it before, you dick.
    Wow, go figure - I’m the one who popped her cherry.
    No, my future stepsister’s cherry.
     
     

Chapter 5

Anna
     
     
    “I don’t see how spending a week at Abigail Hartz’s beach house in The Hamptons is going to help with family bonding, Dad. Lucas and I are in our twenties. Who cares if we get along or not?”
    “Abigail cares. And for that matter, so do I. We don’t want any awkwardness at family gatherings, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Besides, you two will be working together in a few weeks. This could be a good way of getting to know each other better.”
    Oh, we already know each other. Intimately.
    “You really want me to do this, don’t you?”
    “Yes,” Dad states curtly and heaves my suitcase into the back of the metallic blue Ford Territory.
    “Fine,” I sigh with an eye roll and drag my feet over to the passenger side door. “But for the record, Lucas is an asshole.”
    “Language, Anna…”
    “I’m not twelve, Dad…” I throw back with a snarky undertone.
    “Well, you could’ve fooled me with that attitude.”
    A couple of hours later, we’re surrounded by lavish mansions and cars that cost more than I make in two years, including overtime.
    Abigail Hartz’s palace-sized house is one of less than a dozen oceanfront properties in Wainscott, so Dad tells me, and thus reflects architectural brilliance at a most affluent level. The White Stucco exterior appears bleak from the outside and somewhat uninviting despite its stateliness, but inside it’s a whole other story.
    My eyes widen at the sheer, homely beauty of it – the professionally decorated rooms that were seemingly designed for entertaining. Maybe Dad getting hitched to this woman does have its perks after all?
    “I want you to make yourself at home here, Anna,” Ms. Hartz says with a genuine smile. “All five bedrooms are upstairs and have stunning