Shackled: A Stepbrother Romance Novel Read Free Page B

mind filling up the tank on your way home? I want to make sure we’ll have enough gas to get you two out to the cabin and back.”
    “Will do,” I agreed, shoving the keys in my pocket and swiftly taking my leave.
    Once I was alone in my room again, I quickly changed into a set of my typical work clothes to avoid raising suspicion and stopped trying to fight the smile off my face.
    This certainly was going to be a bonding weekend.

Chapter Four

Fiona
    “ T his is bullshit ,” I mumbled to myself as I dug through my luggage to pull out a few sets of clothes for the weekend.
    I ignored pretty much everything that would be suitable for a typical cabin trip and instead grabbed my sexiest clothes, knowing damn well that Brenda would drag me out to the club to go dancing every chance she could. Not that I really minded. Since starting college, I had grown to love men’s attention.
    Which was something that in high school, I’d only wanted from one guy. One guy who wouldn’t give me the time of day—at least not in the way I wanted it.
    But that was all in the past now. I rolled my head around on my shoulders and willed myself to relax, sighing with relief when I felt some of the tension draining from my muscles. I reminded myself that I wasn’t going to have to spend more than an hour with him before Brenda picked me up.
    I was definitely going to take advantage of that short time to lay into Jonathan with the myriad of reasons why we would never be friends—let alone family —ever again.
    As long as I could keep my emotions in check long enough to do so.
    Even thinking of how he’d looked yesterday when he walked into the kitchen was enough to cause my body to react in a way I wished I could stop. Jonathan had been affecting me like this since I’d turned sixteen and realized that he meant a lot more to me than just a friend.
    Too bad that by the time I had the nerve to admit it, I was forced to face the reality that my attraction was one-sided in the most horrible way imaginable. While I often wished that I never worked up the courage to tell him how I felt so I wouldn’t have ended up so heartbroken, I really wished that I had never developed feelings for him in the first place.
    I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands, roughly scrubbing away my tears as I relived prom night for the thousandth time. God , why was I still hung up on that night? On him? It’s not like I hadn’t already had seven months to process it and move on. Or so I’d thought.
    I supposed the biggest problem was that I’d never expected to see him again. Just having him standing in front of me was enough to totally throw me off my game. At least while I was away at college, I was too busy obsessing about trying to be a good student to think about him as much.
    Now though? Now I was stuck with having to confront both my feelings and Jonathan himself.
    Maybe I wouldn’t even bother to ream him about the past. Doing so would likely end up with me being an emotional wreck as he harshly told me to get over it.
    Would if I could.
    I scowled down at my suitcase and dug out the remainder of the clothes I wanted to bring, shoving them into the small bag Mom was loaning me so I didn’t have to cart my entire suitcase to the cabin. I pushed away the thoughts of Jonathan and focused on my guilt over the fact that I still hadn’t told my mom that I’d dropped out of college.
    I dug into the bottom of the bag and searched for the letter, scanning it with my eyes for what felt like the hundredth time. I had been carrying it around with me for the past two weeks. The more I looked at the letter confirming that I was no longer a student, the more the reality of the situation sunk in. Eventually, accepting responsibility for the choice I made would give me the courage I needed to tell her the truth.
    Well, that’s what I told myself anyways.
    It was easy enough to rationalize my guilt away with the fact that it would be awful to tell her and just