three
Luke
“What crawled up your ass?”My brother Charlie claps me on the back. I growl and give him a “piss off.”
He holds his hands up in surrender and steps back. He knows he doesn’t want to mess with me when I'm in this kind of mood.
“Whoa, that bad, huh?”
Yeah, I'm in a pissy mood—ever since her. I knock back the rest of the champagne and fight to keep from swinging the flute across the room and smashing it against the wall in frustration.
The most perfect girl I've ever seen is one of my damn stepsisters. The universe fucking hates me. I’m pissed off because I know she's off-limits.
I’m even more pissed off that my cock is still hard for her. The fucker hasn't gone down at all. In fact, every time I remember the way her cheeks blushed and how she smiled at me so radiantly, it makes me ache for her even more. I want her, but I can't have her because my dad would have to marry her fucking mom.
Yeah, I'm pissed off.
“Have you met all of our new stepsisters yet?”
My lips twist in irony.
“Oh, so we have three baby sisters now?” I ask sardonically.
Charlie gives me a quizzical look. “What? Did you want brothers?”
I cut him a look. “No, two fuckheads are enough.”
He grins at me, his eyes cutting over to watch a pretty redhead. His smile fades, and he becomes contemplative. I don’t know what all that’s about, but I have my own problems, so I don’t ask.
“I met one of them,” I finally grumble. “Lucy.”
Charlie nods. “That's the one I haven't met yet. What was she like?”
“Young,” I deadpan.
“Yeah, I hear she's the youngest one,” Charlie says. Figures. My dick would have to pick the youngest one to lust after. “There's Sharon, the oldest one.” He nods over at the pretty redhead and then Cynthia, the middle child.” He motions over to a blonde beauty. “Lucy is the baby.”
My jaw firms at hearing another man call her “baby” even though I know my brother didn't mean it in the context I'm taking it.
She is a baby. A sweet baby. My baby.
I scowl at the possessive thought. She's not my anything—unless you count my stepsister.
I grab another flute of champagne and down the entire thing.
Charlie merely chuckles before shaking his head. “Man, you really do hate these kinds of things huh?”
“Yes,” I growl out. Let Charlie think that’s what's wrong with me. Everyone knows I hate dressing up like a fucking penguin.
“Well, I guess I need to go formally introduce myself to the youngest sister,” Charlie says.
“You can't,” I tell him dryly. “She already left.”
Charlie raises an eyebrow at me. “She had to write a paper or something,” I grumble. “She's in college.”
“Oh yeah, she’s going to be a teacher, right?” Charlie comments absently as his eyes flit back over to the redheaded sister. What did he say her name was? Sharon? I don't know. I can't even keep up with my other two stepsisters’ names because the only one I can think about is my little Lucy.
“Well, I guess there's time to meet her. I'm sure we'll all meet each other soon enough.” Charlie claps me on the back again, and I grit my teeth.
I hate the way he does this shit like he thinks he's the alpha of the three of us brothers. He may be one year older than me, and he might be the golden child for being the CEO of his own company, but we both know I can still whoop his ass. I've got an extra foot on him in height, and I'm bigger and brawnier too.
“You going go introduce yourself to the other two?” He raises an eyebrow at me. “Get it over with?”
“No.” I shake my head. “Like you said, I'm sure we'll all meet each other soon enough. I'm out of here.”
I've had enough of this shit. My mood is officially soured, and all I want to do is go home and do my best to forget all about Lucy Shay and her big brown eyes.