Stepbrother Commands (His Twisted Game, Book Seven) by Chloe Hawk Page B

the
plates on the matching leather ottoman.
    He grabbed the remote and turned on the
TV.
    I walked across the room and sat down
next to him on the couch.
    “What was she doing here?” I asked, not
willing to let it go.
    “She wanted to talk.”
    “About what?”
    “She’s having a hard time with the break-up.” He shrugged, like his ex-fiancé being
in his hotel room without me knowing was no big deal.
    “Were you… did you invite her here?”
    “Avery, nothing happened.”
    “I don’t…” I twisted my hands together in
my lap. I was trying not to sound
like a jealous girlfriend, but part of me felt like I had every right to sound
like a jealous girlfriend. “Did
you invite her here?”
    “She asked if we could talk after the
photo shoot. She was upset.”
    “Upset about what?”
    “I told you, she’s having a hard time with
the break-up.”
    “What kind of hard time?”
    He sighed and tilted his head back, rolled
his shoulders like he was trying to work out some tension. “She’s sad.”
    “And you had to comfort her?”
    “She wanted to talk,” he repeated.
    “About?”
    “About the reasons we broke up.”
    “And what are the reasons?” I tried to keep my voice steady, like I
was asking from a place of sincere curiosity, and not trying to interrogate
him. But it didn’t work.
    “You’re jealous.”
    “I’m not!”
    “Then why can’t you just let it go?”
    “Oh, I don’t know, Cole, maybe because
she was your fiancé, a fiancé I knew nothing about until yesterday!” My voice was raising, and I could feel
myself losing control of my emotions, my grip on them slipping out of my grasp
little by little.
    “Why do we have to get into the past?” He demanded, frustrated.
    “Because the past can change everything.”
I was getting choked up and I tried to swallow around the lump in my throat,
but it didn’t work.
    “No.” Cole reached for my hand and intertwined his fingers with
mine. His hand was big, strong, safe. “The past means nothing. The only thing that matters is right
now.”
    His words were meant to give me comfort,
but they didn’t. What about the
future? If all that mattered was
right now, then how could I ever feel safe with him, feel secure that his
feelings for me were real and not just some fleeting thing?
    And besides, the past did matter.
    “The past does matter, Cole,” I
said. I lifted my chin in the air,
daring him to refute me. “You obviously
still have some kind of relationship with Lucy, and I have a right to know
exactly what’s going on.”
    He grinned, and his fingers wandered over
my wrist, making me shiver. “Like
I said, you’re jealous.”
    “No.”
    “Yes, you are.” His voice was husky, deep, and his eyes got that hooded,
lustful look I was beginning to recognize.
    “No.” I shook my head and tried to pull away from him. I didn’t want this to turn into
sex. I wanted answers, wanted to
know why Lucy had been here, what the exact reasons were that they broke
up. The past was the past, but Lucy
was obviously still a part of his present. Otherwise why would she be in his hotel suite with him?
    But Cole didn’t let go of my wrist. He held me tighter, then pushed me down
on the couch and laid on top of me, his weight pressing against my body.
    I felt the first stirrings of desire
starting in my belly, like tiny little flames licking together, feeding on each
other as they grew. “No,” I
said. “Cole, I want to talk about
this.”
    “Why?” He lowered his head and licked my collarbone, smooth and
slow. His lips moved up my skin,
toward my ear, soft and warm and oh my god it felt good. “Because you’re jealous?”
    “I’m not jealous.”
    “You don’t have to be jealous, baby
girl.” His teeth nipped the bottom
of my ear, sending shock waves through my body. “You are so fucking sexy, Avery. You drive me insane. I cannot keep my hands off you.”
    He sat up in one fluid motion so that he
was straddling me, then took his hands and