Mine: A Stepbrother Romance: (With bonus novel Bossy!) by Kim Linwood Page A

Hunter bites out coldly.
    Blaze nods, eyes wide.
    “That’s good, because I was afraid that since my name isn’t officially on your paycheck, you might be confused. Make no mistake. I will be paying close attention to where my pennies are spent, and if I have any reason to believe that they aren’t being used wisely, I will put this operation down faster than a rabid dog. Are we clear?”
    Blaze Molloy, king of the blinding smile, looks about as white as his commercials promised to make your teeth. He’s not happy, but he nods.
    Hunter’s fingers squeeze, and Blaze winces.
    Still, nobody steps in.
    When we were younger, Hunter would get like this with his Dad, or anyone that he felt was manipulating him. As much as I’d love to see someone punch Blaze, I doubt he was really at fault for what happened to us. Not deliberately anyway.
    “Hunter.” I step forward, putting a hand on his arm. He tenses, muscle moving under my fingers. As a teen he was lean and strong. As a man, his strength both frightens and thrills me. “We’re cold.”
    He glances down, anger sliding darkly behind his blue eyes. He gives Blaze’s wrist another little twist. “Are. We. Clear?”
    “Yes, Sir,” Blaze spits out.
    “Good.” Hunter pushes him away, turning his back on him like he hasn’t just humiliated the shifty game host. “Daniel?” The guy from the helicopter comes over. “Take the girls to their rooms and make sure their things are there so they can get cleaned up and into dry clothes.”
    “Yes, Sir.”
    Friend? Butler? Butler friend? I’m not sure who Daniel is, but he seems to work for Hunter and when he says ‘Yes, Sir’, it doesn’t sound like ‘Fuck you’, unlike when Blaze said it. Daniel leads the way and we turn to follow.
    “Oh,” Hunter raises a hand, raking his fingers through his messy hair. “Make sure Sarah is in the Rose room. Amanda can be next to her.”
    Daniel cocks his head, watching Hunter curiously, but nods. “Of course.”
    My heart drops into my stomach, and then pounds its way back up until the rapid thud is all I hear.
    The Rose room.
    It was my grandmother’s favorite room, decorated in soft colors and always full of fresh roses. It overlooks the ocean, and as a child I’d play in there for hours, pretending the formerly elegant sofa by the window was my ship, and gazing out the window watching for the Royal Navy.
    Hunter missed those years—mostly—but even when I grew too old for that game, it was my favorite spot in the house to study, or just pass time where my mother wouldn’t come looking.
    This is so confusing.
    The room is important to me, but if he knew who I was, he’d put me in my old bedroom, right? That would be an obvious sign. The Rose room might just be him making sure someone who’d gone through a difficult experience got a nice place to sleep.
    I look back, but he’s turned away.
    Unlike the eight suspicious women who are glaring at me and Amanda like we asked for this to happen. Elena and a few of her crew are clearly furious, while Megan and some of the others just look curious and a little annoyed.
    I hurry up to make sure I don’t fall behind. Right now, Hunter and Amanda are the only two people on the island I think I can trust. A woman I’m in direct competition with and a man I fully intend to take my birthright back from.
    The irony of the situation isn’t lost on me.

Hunter
    I toss again, rolling over onto my side so I can look out the window. I never closed the curtains, so the full moon, looking huge in the sky, cuts a slash of light into my bedroom. It’s so bright the stars right around it are hard to see, but they’re there. Not a cloud in the sky now. Man, what a day.
    Fuck. Almost ten years. You’d think I’d have Liz worked out of my system by now. I thought I had. At least until she showed up. Now she’s the only thing on my mind.
    What does she want?
    Gone all that time, only to show up on a fucking reality show? That’s so