Bad Boy - A Stepbrother Romance (12 page)

She had a point.

She walked me to the front of the room while the audience clapped in anticipation, and I felt like I was walking to my own execution, especially once I reached the dais on the stage with everyone in the audience staring at us.

The presenter smiled at me. “So, Mr...”

“Mr. Chang,” Rory said, earning another desperate look from me. “Minho Chang.”

The presenter gave her a weird look and glanced at my nametag, and Rory shrugged. “Adopted,” she whispered.

He nodded and threw me a meaningful look as if to say he understood.

“Now, Mr. Chang, in the last thirty years, sexual dysfunction in men and women has been a hot topic in the pharma industry," he said, giving me a beaming smile. “I hear there’s been some stunning new developments in the chemical formulation of your drug, which has led to vastly improved effects compared with the old Viagra pills, and there’s also been talk of a female sexual enhancement pill, colloquially known as the female Viagra. So in a nutshell, what has your experience with this research at your company been like so far?”

“Err…” I said, my eyes begging Rory for help.

“
Well
,” she cut in, looking like she was about to nudge every person in the room and wink at them meaningfully. “As Mr. Chang’s wife as well as his lab partner, I must say, Viagra has been quite the life changer. Our latest formulation is over three times more effective than the old formula with
half
the old dosage, and let’s just say we haven’t only been testing it on lab rats...”

“Care to elaborate?” the presenter asked excitedly, grinning at the unsuspecting audience.

Well, they all thought we were here to sell Viagra to them, so I figured that I might as well do my best. “Uh, yes, our recent research has been a revelation,” I said. “I’m not the usual target demographic, I realize, but...”

“He’s actually been suffering with erectile dysfunction for years, and our particular line of work has afforded us the opportunity to experiment with that issue,” Rory interjected in a solemn voice before giving me an innocent smile. “He’s almost completely unable to achieve an erection on his own, but our latest formula is really something, and it’s been a game-changer for us. So to briefly sum it up, we aren’t just doing our pharmaceutical research for a name in the medical journals…we’re doing it for our marriage.”

“Wonderful.” The presenter nodded vehemently, obviously intrigued by our tragic love story of impotence and flaccid penises.

“Indeed.” I nodded wisely, a wicked idea suddenly occurring to me as I got into the swing of things. “And what’s more, I’m not the only one suffering from this lack of sexual arousal issue, and once we discovered the magical effects of Viagra on my wife here, we knew we’d struck gold.”

Rory’s mouth opened and closed as she stared at me, but I was on a roll now. I strolled to the whiteboard a few feet over from us, grabbing a marker from a table nearby.

“You see,” I started speaking and scrawling notes on the board. “There’s no need for all this research into a newly-formulated pill for women; the so-called female Viagra that our presenter here mentioned just moments ago. Our version of Viagra can and should be used by
anyone.
Now, here’s why. Our most recent studies show that the latest formulation of the drug actually increases the flow of blood to the female genitals as well as the male, causing arousal in both sexes. So it’s really not just for men.”

I turned my head over my shoulder and winked dramatically at the audience, who chuckled politely.  “Of course, my wife could tell you more about this herself, but she’s a little shy. So here’s a scientific drawing of the effects.”

The room fell into a stunned silence as I drew a stick figure couple on the board. Obviously, they’d all been expecting me to start drawing up some chemical formulas and equations instead, but nope…stick figures were all I knew how to draw.

First, the stick couple were having dinner, then the man was watching TV while the wife popped a pill, and I followed with an intricate sketch of them having sex in the weirdest position I could remember.

“Um…remarkable,” the presenter mumbled, glancing at the audience. They all seemed just as confused as he was, and a few people were even shaking their heads and whispering to each other.

The jig was almost up.

Rory’s face was bright red, but her mouth was quirked into a wide smile, so I knew she was having fun.

She nodded sagely. “It is remarkable. I’d also like to quickly show you the usual effects on men as well. A prime example is my husband here...let’s see...”

She looked at my crotch with narrowed eyes for a second before drawing a sketch of a penis on the board. “No, not quite,” she mumbled, erasing it and making it smaller.

“Nope, not there either.” She made the penis smaller again, around an inch tall, and then she nodded to herself and drew an arrow to the right side of the board. “Ah yes, there we go, perfectly life-sized.”

“We can’t see!” someone shouted from the back row.

“My point exactly.” Rory nodded vigorously, drawing a bigger version of the penis with three exclamation points on the other side of the arrow.

“This is what the new formulation of Viagra gives us, ladies and gentlemen. Twice as hard for twice as long, and it only takes five minutes to take effect once swallowed. Seriously, give it a try, because for what a man lacks in size, he surely makes up for with his hardness once he’s popped one of these bad boys.”

The audience chuckled. Rory followed suit, and even though I was dying on the inside, I managed to hold back my laughter and keep a straight face.

“Obviously, the new formulation of Viagra has changed the lives and careers of these two people,” the presenter said, seemingly impressed with our utterly horrendous speech. “And it can change the lives of your customers, too.”

Elated applause followed with a few whoops, and Rory and I smiled politely at the audience.

“I am truly grateful for this amazing drug, and I’m willing to go the extra mile to show you all how much,” I said in the most humble voice I could muster up. “I’m really not opposed to demonstrating the effects right here.”

“
What
?” Rory gasped, and I flashed her a triumphant look.

“Please observe the blush on my lovely wife’s face. Pure sexual arousal. She took some of the new formulation only five minutes prior to this meeting, and we discussed doing a live demonstration, which I truly believe would take this presentation to a new level.”

“Finn!” Rory shouted, having finally reached her limit. “No!”

I grinned at her, not even caring that she’d blown our cover.

“Is your name not Minho Chang?” the presenter asked, checking something off on his notes. “Wait, our Viagra presenters haven’t even arrived, according to this...who the hell
are
you?”

“Anyway, charmed to meet you all,” I said with a flourish, bending down at my waist and bowing almost to the floor.

Rory was laughing out loud now, and I wasn’t close behind. As I saw two security guards approaching us, I grabbed her hand and made a run for it. We didn’t stop until we were safely out of the conference room and in a side hallway of the lobby, cracking up over what we’d done.

“Oh my god,” Rory said, tears of laughter streaming from her eyes. “That was the best thing ever.”

“The Viagra or the cock drawing you did?” I winked at her. “You got the size exactly right, by the way.”

We both cracked up again

“Thank you so much,” Rory said mid-laughter. “I needed that. I haven’t laughed like this in ages. God, we’re totally immature, right?”

“Yep. You’ve gotta act like a kid sometimes, though. Can’t take things too seriously in life.”

“I guess.” She snorted with laughter again. “I can’t believe we did that, and those people actually believed us! I had no idea you were such a comedian.”

“Yeah, and I had no idea you were such a substance abuser,” I told her, waggling my brows.

“It’s all in the name of love,” Rory said with all seriousness, then playfully smacked my arm. “Seriously, that was really a lot of fun. I guess sometimes it’s good to be bad for a while.”

“Definitely. You should try being bad more often. It kinda suits you.”

She nodded and smiled. “Well, thanks for taking me….my dear husband.”

“Sure. Anytime.”

An awkward silence followed, and we stared at each other, the air in the hallway strangely tense and thick all of a sudden.

I couldn’t stop myself. I reached forward, tucking a stray strand of hair behind Rory’s ear. Her cheeks were still bright red, but she didn’t look away, her eyes trained on mine instead. Her lips opened with a soft pop and I leaned in, ready to kiss her.

“Sorry, lovebirds, let me just get by here.” A woman’s voice interrupted, and we sprang apart like we’d just been licked by fire. A woman I didn’t recognize in a maid’s uniform smiled at us and pushed a cleaning trolley down the hallway, effectively separating me from Rory.

“Anyway,” I said.

“Anyway,” she repeated.

“Best get to... um, job. Work,” I managed to say, once again feeling like a stupid goddamned teenager, unable to string a coherent sentence together. Fuck, even when I
was
a teenager I’d been capable of talking to girls, but Rory had my tongue tied half the time these days. “You’ll be okay getting back to your room?”

“I okay. Go, you. Worry not,” she replied, teasing me with her best Yoda from Star Wars impression.

“Nerd,” I said with a grin.

“Hey,
you’re
the one who knew the proper scientific term for Viagra. Sildena-whatever.”

“True. I guess we’re both giant nerds. Anyway…gotta go.”

“Yep. See ya later,” she said, her eyes still fixed right on me.

Once more, I couldn’t help myself, and with the maid safely in a room down the hallway, I leaned in and pecked Rory on the cheek. The last time I’d kissed a woman so chastely was when I was a kid. Shit, this girl was turning me soft.

A blush rose in her cheeks as I pulled my lips away, my face still only a few inches from hers. “Hope you have a nice day,” I said softly before turning on my heels and leaving.

I didn’t look back over my shoulder, because I knew I’d go straight back to Rory if I did, and I needed to get out of here right fucking now…otherwise I wouldn’t be able to control myself around her. Honestly, though, part of me knew it was only a matter of time, anyway—one way or another, I’d lose all control around her in the not-too-distant future, and I’d have to take her in my arms and drag her to my bed; to hell with everything else.

There was an ancient proverb that went something like this: Don’t try to fuck your goddamned stepsister…don’t even think about it.

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t
really
a proverb, but it was solid advice that I probably should’ve been taking right about now.
But was I actually gonna take it and not think about Rory in that way?

Nope, apparently not…

Chapter Fourteen

Rory

Crap. What was that sound?

I’d been in the middle of a sexy dream about Finn when I jerked awake in the middle of the night to what sounded like a siren going off somewhere in the hotel. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, and after quickly glancing at the clock on my bedside table, I saw that it was earlier than I’d assumed—midnight. I’d gone to sleep early, but half the hotel staff were probably still up at this hour.

Weeoo-weeoo-weeoo!

The alarm continued to screech, and as the fuzziness of my half-asleep mind slipped away, I finally registered what it was.

The fire alarm.

Panicked, I jumped up and slipped into a warm nightgown before racing over to the door, and before I could open it, I heard someone pounding at it.

“Open up, Rory! We need to get out of here!”

I flung the door open to see Elijah standing there. His face fell with relief when he saw me, and he quickly ushered me down the hallway towards a group of other guests from the floor who were congregated by the elevators.

“A fire started in one of the suites on the third floor,” Elijah explained. “Someone left a hair straightener on in the room and left it behind before checking out, it seems. Damn maids must’ve missed it, so someone will be getting fired over this, no doubt. No pun intended.”

“Oh,” I said, rubbing my tired eyes as I hurried after him. I’d barely noticed it earlier, but there was a faint acrid smell hanging in the air. “Is everything going to be okay?”

“I certainly hope so. These things are usually easily contained, but the fire department haven’t shown up yet. We need to evacuate everyone either way. Let’s just hope the firefighters show up soon.”

“Where’s my Mom, James and Grandma?” I asked. “And Finn?”

“Your Mom is already outside, and I think I saw your grandmother with her,” he replied. “And Finn was at work at the club when the fire started, but right now he’s helping evacuate the middle floors with his father. Don’t worry, the fire hasn’t actually spread to any of the other floors yet, and no one is hurt. I’m sure the place will be fine within the next hour or so.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that my loved ones were safe. “Good. I hope the hotel is okay.”

It would be awful if the whole place burned down. James had put so much work into building this place up and running it over the years, and to see it all ruined over one stupid hair straightener being left on overnight would be horrible. For Finn, too. He saw this hotel as his father’s legacy, and I knew how hard he worked at helping James out with the place.

“Okay, everyone, we’re going to need to take the stairs. The elevators can’t be used under these circumstances, and that’s why they aren’t working for you,” Elijah called out to the group of people gathered at the end of the hallway.

I recognized some of them from the pharmaceutical conference earlier, and I dropped my gaze to the floor with an embarrassed smile. Even in this serious situation, I couldn’t forget how much fun I’d had with Finn earlier today. He wasn’t just a decent guy, he was smart and funny as well.

There were a few minor grumbles and groans, but everyone trudged down the stairs without too much of a fuss. I couldn’t blame the people for being annoyed, as selfish as it seemed. I lived here with my family, so it was a different story for me, but the other guests had checked into the Crown expecting a luxurious stay, not a harrowing episode where they would be woken at midnight and forced out of their rooms.

Once we’d reached the outside of the hotel, I turned back to see black smoke billowing out of several windows on the third floor. Jeez. It was much worse than what Elijah had made it out to be. Either the fire was spreading fast, or he’d simply been trying to keep me and the other guests calm as we made our way out.

Probably the latter.

Wailing sirens and flashing red lights alerted me to the fact that the fire department had arrived, and I frantically looked around the crowds of sleepy people and hotel staff, looking for my family. Finally, I caught a glimpse of my Mom, and my shoulders slumped with relief as I ran over to her.

“There you are!” she said.

“I just got out,” I said. “Did you remember to bring Grandma’s medication with you?”

After my grandmother’s medical checkup a few weeks prior, she’d been diagnosed with dangerously high blood pressure. Dr. Cummings had prescribed some medication for her, and he’d said that she’d be fine as long as she took it twice a day, every day. If the whole hotel went up in flames, then she’d lose her meds, and she might not be able to get another script for another day or so depending on how booked out the clinics were. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted her to stay healthy and take her meds every single day without fail.

Mom’s brows wrinkled. “What?”

“Grandma’s meds,” I replied. “Did you grab them? Where did she go, by the way?”

I’d only just noticed that she wasn’t standing right next to Mom, and I craned my neck and looked around, figuring she couldn’t have wandered off too far.

“She didn’t come out with me,” Mom said with a shrug. “I thought she’d come out with you. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

My jaw dropped. How the hell could she be so blasé about this? This was her mother she was talking about, and she wasn’t even sure if she’d come out of a burning building or not?

“Are you serious?” I said, my hands clenching into fists by my side. I’d never, ever hit someone in my entire life, but right now I was seriously tempted to give my mother a good slap across the face. “You know she sleeps through anything, right? Even with the alarm going off, and even if the hotel staff banged on her door for an hour, she probably wouldn’t have woken up. Someone needs to actually go into her room and get her!”

“Well, I assumed you’d get her. You have one of the spare keycards to her room, right?” Mom said with another shrug. “Don’t worry about it; I’m sure someone’s getting her. She’s only on the second floor, anyway.”

“Yeah, and that’s right below the third floor, which is on
fire
, in case you hadn’t noticed!” I said. “I would’ve got her, but Elijah told me you already did!”

“Well, don’t worry about it. Like I said, someone will find her,” she said. “God, how did I raise such a worrywart?”

I shook my head in disbelief, unable to believe how little she cared about her own flesh and blood. “You didn’t raise me,” I muttered. “She did.”

With that, I turned and dashed back towards the hotel entrance. If no one else was going to make sure my grandmother made it out of her room safely, then it was up to me.

“They’re almost all out,” I overheard Elijah say to another staff member as I dashed past him at the entrance. He didn’t even notice me go back in.

People were still pouring out through the main lobby, and I shoved my way past a group of seemingly-drunk men on my way to the stairs.

“Hey, you’re goin’ the wrong way, sweet-cheeks!” one of them called after me. “Damn…this place might be on fire, but it’s still not as hot as that ass!”

Seriously? We were in a burning building, and this guy thought it was an appropriate time to sleaze onto women?

I rolled my eyes before dashing up the left-hand side emergency stairs, finding them empty. Everyone else must have already made it out or gone down another set of stairs. The alarm continued to blare in my ears, and I wrinkled my nose at the harsh smell of smoke which was permeating the air in the stairwell now. As I reached the small landing between one set of stairs and the next which would lead me to the second floor entrance, the cord from my dressing gown came loose and started to swing down at the floor, right in between my legs. Before I could even register what had happened, I tripped over it and flew backwards with a scream.

Clunk.

Clunk.

Crash.

I hit the previous landing with a thud, and my vision swam in front of me as I tried to climb back up. I totally and utterly failed, legs and arms too wobbly and weak to move. Every inch of my body ached terribly, especially my head and right arm, and I gasped and tried to stop my eyes from closing as a flurry of thoughts swept through my mind.
Grandma…Finn…are you okay? Am I going to make it out of here? Why can’t I move?

Coming back in here had been a stupid idea. Noble, perhaps, but stupid. I’d wanted to save my grandmother, but all I’d done was put myself in harm’s way as well. I should’ve gone to a firefighter or emergency-trained hotel staff member and asked them to make sure my Grandma made it out of her room safely, but instead I’d put myself at risk like an idiot.

Too late now. I’m trapped. I can’t move.

Hindsight was a real bitch.

Feeling even woozier as the pungent scent of smoke hit my nostrils again, I finally closed my eyes, my mind drifting away to another place. Maybe this wasn’t real. Maybe this was all just a nightmare. Yes, yes…that was it. Just a nightmare. I’d wake up soon.

“Rory! Jesus fuck,
Rory!
”

Someone was calling my name. It seemed far off in the distance, and I tried to open my eyes again. All I could see was fuzzy greyness in front of me.

“Help…” I murmured weakly, not even sure if I was hallucinating the voice or not.

“Don’t try to move for a minute,” a calm masculine voice said a few seconds later. I felt two strong arms scooping me off the hard floor, and my eyes fluttered open and shut several times as I tried to see what was happening.

“It’s me. I’ve got you, and you’re gonna be fine,” the voice said.
So familiar.

“Finn…”

“Yes, it’s me. Don’t worry, you’re gonna be okay,” he repeated, his deep voice soothing my frantic mind as I remembered everything that had happened.

“Finn, my Abuela!” I choked out. “She’s in…”

My voice trailed off as my head began to pound again, and Finn slowly carried me down the stairs, still trying to calm me. “It’s okay,” he said. “Your grandmother is fine. I went and woke her up myself, and she’s outside now. I even got her blood pressure medication from her dresser. Figured she might need it if this place blows up.”

“She’s okay,” I whispered, head lolling to the side as relief flooded through my system.

“Yes,” he said. “And so are you. You had a fall, but you’re fine. Just stay with me. Don’t close your eyes again.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I was trying to help, but…”

He cut me off. “Don’t apologize. You did what you thought was right. Everyone’s safe, and that’s what matters.”

Finn continued to reassure me all the way up until we were safely out of the building, and he carried me over to one of the ambulances which had arrived at the hotel. I heard him explaining what had happened to an EMT, and then I felt myself being lowered to a soft surface.

The EMT did a few basic tests to make sure I wasn’t concussed, and then she looked at my right arm.

“Doesn’t look broken,” she said. “It looks like it’s just going to be badly bruised for a while, but we’ll bring you in to the hospital anyway, just to make sure. You’re a lucky girl, you know.”

I nodded weakly, and then a frisson of joy shot up my spine as Finn grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I was sore and exhausted, but feeling him close to me, touching me…that was all I needed to feel happy again.

“Thank you,” I said softly before launching into a coughing fit.

I didn’t know what else to say to him. ‘Thank you’ wasn’t enough, but how could I possibly express the sheer gratitude I felt towards him right now in only words? I wanted to thank him in more ways than that…I wanted to grab him, tear at his clothes, kiss him, lick him, taste every inch of him and screw him senseless, just to show him how much I wanted and appreciated him for being here for me tonight.

He’s your stepbrother,
the logical side of my mind reminded me, as it always did.

Screw logic.

Maybe I
did
have a concussion, but either way, it wasn’t enough to stop me from wanting Finn more than anything. I didn’t just want to sleep with him. I wanted to wake up with him too, spend every day with him.

The other week, I’d thought that my feelings for him were most likely a fleeting sexual infatuation, but I didn’t think so anymore.

After what had happened tonight, I was quite sure that I was actually falling for him.