Stepbrother WHOA! (The Stepbrother Romance Series #5) Read Free

knew it would take lots of practice before I could do exactly
what he’d suggested, but I could feel how much more control I had over the
tricks just based off of the few suggestions he made.
    We took turns watching each other go down the
slopes, riding down to keep pace, and I saw over and over again what a
phenomenal boarder Jaxon was. It was easy for me to see that snowboarding had
been the thing that had really taken him out of his bad days as a teenager;
that he had thrown himself totally into it. He had some natural ability, but
he’d also worked hard relentlessly to get to where he was. I realized that I’d
been coasting on the fact that I was something of a badass among my friends,
willing to try tricks that no one else did, working hard but more or less just
going for the flashiest things instead of actual technical skill. I had been
distracted at the tournament, but if I’d been working harder at perfecting my
tricks—if I’d worked as hard as Jaxon did, for example—being distracted
wouldn’t have mattered as much.
    After all, based on how hot and heavy he’d come onto
me at the lodge afterward, it wasn’t hard to believe that Jaxon had been every
bit as distracted as I was, and he’d come home with the gold for that
tournament. He had every possibility of taking home the same first place prize
at the next meet; and I wanted to be right up there with him, getting my
picture snapped, getting attention from the people I admired most.
    I started to relax and things got better and better.
Jaxon and I started to fool around, goofing off on our way down the slopes,
joking to each other. Jaxon’s advice was really starting to work, and I felt
more and more confident in my abilities. We kept going for it, shooting down
the slopes together, hitting aerials, trying more and more adventurous tricks
as we got sillier over the course of the afternoon. “We should really head
back,” Jaxon said. “I’m starved.”
    I agreed. I was hungry—our lunch had been huge, but
hours of going down the slopes had burned all the calories I had eaten at the
taco place Jaxon and I had chosen. We loaded up our gear into Jaxon’s car;
before I could get into the passenger seat, Jaxon pushed me up against the door
and kissed me hungrily, his hands wandering over my body slowly. “Keep your
cool, Jax ,” I murmured, chuckling lowly as he began
to nip at my neck. “We don’t want frostbite—at least I don’t.” Jaxon laughed
and kissed me once more before opening the door to let me in.

 
    Chapter
Three
    “So we’re going to keep things cool back at the
house, right?” Jaxon tweaked my braid playfully.
    “Yeah,” I said, shrugging. We didn’t really talk
about it over dinner—we’d sort of danced around the issue. We both knew that
things would be complicated, but we were mostly just going to see how they
went. It was obvious that the guys in the frat knew that something had happened
between us; it wasn’t worth dealing with the drama to have to explain how it
had changed. If we just acted as normally as possible, it would be better all
around. We didn’t even come close to the subject of our parents.
    Jaxon pulled away from me just a little bit, and we
both tried to compose ourselves as much as possible as we made our way towards
the front door of the Phi Kappa house. When we’d left earlier in the day, no
one had really been up—the party the night before across campus had apparently
been a rager . I giggled to myself at the thought of
putting one over on the guys I hung out with; it was petty, but there was a
thrill to the idea of having a secret relationship—at least one that was secret
from people other than our parents. Just
keep it cool, I told myself.
    “Hey! We were wondering when you two lovebirds would
get back,” one of the brothers said as Jaxon and I walked into the frat house.
My face burned up with a blush.
    “Lovebirds?” Jaxon snorted. Alex, coming through the
living room with a beer,