“I mean, I’d say that. You two look so much alike. It’s uncanny really. Wow.”
My jaw worked, but Maggie smiled, finally letting go of me. Noticing her daughter was mysteriously absent from the conversation, she waved at Cleo. “Darling, why didn’t you call us? I’m sure your father would have wanted to know Jaxen got here early.”
I fought the cringe. Obviously, I knew stepsis and Rick were close. He had been in her life for a long time.
He was her dad.
I heard her even call him that, listening for a while before I made my appearance. It just made what I planned to do to this girl that much easier.
Cleo slid under her mother’s arm, but I wouldn’t look at her, letting my dad talk and go on and on about how good it was to see me. It was a friendly enough exchange, but all the while, I felt the younger whore’s eyes on me. She obviously had questions for me.
This was going to be fun.
“Well, now. How about breakfast then?” Maggie suggested. “We’ll all go out and—”
“Actually, if you have the stuff, I can get something together,” I said, stealing the attention. I smiled. “I don’t mind. Used to cook a lot at home.”
I’d learned from the best, no thanks to my dad. He hadn’t been there to show me anything. Let alone how to cook. Even still, he flashed a wide smile in my direction after what I’d said. He shook my shoulder. “Bet you’ve learned a lot from your mom, haven’t you?”
I noticed he left out Mama in that sentence, both my mothers celebrity chefs. Perhaps, it bothered him that after him my mom had moved on from asshole to something better. I forced my grin. “Right. Learned a lot from both of them.”
Rick kept his own smile, rubbing my shoulders. He asked if I needed help after that, help getting things together or if I needed anything. Like the good son I was, I told him I didn’t need a thing. And actually urged him and my stepmom to relax. I heard they’d just got home.
They should rest their feet.
I swear to God, I should have gotten an Academy Award for that shit. Because not only had they left with grins of delight, they left me with my stepsister. Told her she should stay and get to know me.
Yeah, she should.
She needed to know all about me. The room clear, though, I gave her my back, rooting around the kitchen for the eggs. I was well aware her attention was on nothing but me the whole time.
She just didn’t say anything.
She didn’t dare and not for a long time. Eventually, she eased her little self over to my side of the bar, and once there, she played with her T-shirt.
I dragged my gaze up the length of her, how scared and intimated she appeared to be. Again, she didn’t fool anyone. I knew how this girl was.
I knew what she took.
I knew what she thought was hers, and that alone let me know all about her. Her lips parted. “Jaxen…”
“Jax,” I said, eyeing her down to her Pony shorts. Such a waste. This girl’s tits were gorgeous, but she dressed like she rolled out of kid’s donation bin. Even last night her dress had basically been down to her ankles, part of that whole “innocence” thing she obviously tried to pull off. Again, I gave her my back, cracking some eggs before whipping them up. She came toward me again, her soft breaths pants behind me.
“But…” she started, and I slowed, whisking slowly. She blew out a breath. “You told me your name was Brett.”
I did tell her that, told her a lot of things. But that was just the beginning of all this for her.
I grinned.
“My name is Brett,” I said, nearly laughing. “My middle name that is.”
It’d been really so easy. It was like she’d gone to that club to get laid and maybe she had. I wouldn’t put it past her.
I mean, she was her mother’s daughter.
She started to say something else, but I walked up on her.
And how those double-Ds shook.