RICHARD (A BAD BOY ROMANCE) Read online

  “Richard!” came the all-too-familiar voice of my stepsister, Jessica. I did my best to put on a look of shock as I turned my head to look at her, pencil skirt, turtleneck, and all. “What are you doing here?!”

  “Jessica?” I asked, a mock tone of shock heavy in my voice as I spread my arms out wide. “What’re you doing here? Wait. Is this your party?”

  Her face reddened into an adorable maroon color, the one I’d always enjoyed putting on her cheeks. My sister and I had always had a distinctly love-hate relationship, emphasis on the hate. I knew for a fact that she’d kept this party a secret from me just so I wouldn’t do something like this—which was exactly why I had to do it.

  “You’re supposed to be at your own party!” she hissed, stomping closer and giving the other girls a scathing look that sent them running. It was kind of hot, the way all her little nerd friends respected her. She was valedictorian, head of more clubs than I could even count, and our school’s mathlete team leader. Calling Jessica smart would be doing her the greatest insult; my stepsister was a genius. “That’s the whole reason I planned this party for tonight—so that you wouldn’t be here!”

  “Well that’s just mean, sis!” I said, my hurt expression faltering as a grin began to crack again across my lips. “And for your information, I was at my other party. But I got bored—and then I heard somebody was throwing a rockin’ party across town! I thought I’d stop by.”

  “Richard, this is my party. I don’t need you coming in here and ruining it!”

  “Call me Dick, sweetheart. You know how much I hate that name.”

  “C’mon Richard,” she replied, giving me a glare I’d always found sexy.

  “I’m not going to ruin anything,” I said, glancing around at the less-than-lively atmosphere. “Jess, I’m here to get this place jumping!”

  “Please, don’t—” she began, but before I heard another word out of her mouth, I was making my way to the sound system with my iPhone in hand. I wove my way through the other intellectuals my sister called friends and pushed aside the geek hovering over the stereo. It was a pretty sweet setup—something you could always count on at a nerd party was that they’d have the best tech to play with.

  “Sorry, but this crap needs to go,” I said, unplugging the in-use iPod and tossing it to the makeshift DJ. I could certainly do without the greatest pop hits from the eighties. The moment I hit play, the walls thrummed with the deep bass as the sounds of Nelly’s The Fix pulsed through the speakers.

  “Richard, what the hell!” Jessica screamed over the music. “Nobody here likes this—”

  But before she could finish, a cheer had already risen up in the room. More and more people started to move in time with the beat and the sexually charged lyrics. It wasn’t long before most of the party was dancing dirty. The look on Jessica’s face was priceless, a mix of shock and indignation as she saw her friends start to grind against one another like they were in a club.

  “See?” I asked, leaning down to whisper into her ear, “This is a party. They want to let loose for a change.”

  She stood there in stunned silence, her eyes fixated on the people who she’d thought would never act so… dirty. I got a weird sense of enjoyment out of the way her perception of everything around her seemed to shatter, watching her question just how much she knew of the people around her and maybe what she knew about herself.

  “I…” she stammered, watching as her once quiet party turn into something she’d never anticipated. Even her best friend Becky had started to shake her ass on the dance floor, much to Jessica’s dismay.

  “You’re going to have to get used to parties like this, Jess,” I said over the music. “This is what college life is all about.”

  She let out a muted cry of frustration, lost amongst the throbbing bass before she turned and walked into the crowd to collect her friend and save her from my devilish music. I couldn’t help but laugh at the way she stomped away, furious that even at her own party I could turn everything upside down.

  But I was only just getting started.

  “Anyone looking to have a little real fun, follow me!” I shouted to the crowd before turning heel.

  “Truth or Dare!” I shouted, pushing open the door to what I assumed must have been the master bedroom. By Becky’s squeals of protest behind me, I knew I’d picked the right door. Spinning round I took stock of my latest followers. Sure enough, the girls who’d met me on my way in were here, along with Becky and a few of Jessica’s other nerdy friends. Surprisingly, Jessica herself had come along, arms crossed and her brow furrowed. She looked ready to breathe fire.

  “We’re not doing that!” Jessica said over the throbbing music still pulsing in through the open door.

  “Not going to play the best party game ever created?”

  “I think you mean the worst, Dick,” Jessica snapped, leaning against the walls as the others all made themselves comfortable around me. “Who the heck wants to be dared to do stupid things like stand on their head or tell their secrets?”

  I let out a loud, almost mocking laugh.

  “Oh, you sweet, innocent, girl,” I said, sitting myself down on the floor, two bashful little wallflowers quickly taking up the spaces on either side of me. “We’re all at least eighteen, Jess. Tonight we’re breaking out the adult version of ‘Truth or Dare.’_”

  Everyone crowded around in a circle, some of the party guests sitting on Becky’s mom’s bed while others crowded around on the floor, nervous smiles on all of their faces. I knew kids like these were just waiting for excuse to cut loose and go a little wild, and I had every intention of being the person to set that powder keg off.

  “This is so stupid,” Jess muttered, taking a seat opposite me on the floor, her legs folded demurely. “We were having fun before you got here, Richard.”

  But from the mutterings and nervous squirming of the other guests, that statement seemed less than accurate. Even Becky couldn’t meet Jessica’s gaze, biting her lip as she glanced over at one of the other boys in the group—a boy who looked a little familiar, though I couldn’t exactly place him.

  Jessica too seemed to notice everyone else’s discomfort and frowned, her face turning that cute shade of red all over again. Seeing her mad was honestly the highlight of my life ever since our parents had moved in together and gotten married.

  “Whatever,” she muttered after a moment, resigning herself to sitting back and playing the game. “But I’m not doing any of your stupid dares.”

  “That works for me,” I said, chuckling as I searched for my first victim.

  It was so hard to choose at first, but after a moment of watching everyone, my eyes kept coming back to Becky as she stared at the boy a few spaces away from herself. He wasn’t a terrible looking guy—in fact, there was a charming quality about him that I knew would drive some girls insane. I smirked, deciding that Becky would make for the perfect start to tonight’s festivities.

  “Beckster!” I said, knowing full well how much she hated that name. “You’re first.”

  “What?” she squeaked, her cheeks flushing with color as she looked around at all the other people around her. “Me?”

  “That’s right, Beckerino,” I said, my grin growing wider the more nervous she became. With every new nickname, more giggles erupted from the crowd. “So, what’s it going to be? Truth or Dare?”

  Her eyes widened and she gulped down what might have been her own bile. Becky was never one for the spotlight, and seeing her squirm was almost as much fun as seeing Jessica squirming herself, though that brought to mind a much different kind of squirming. Becky glanced down at her knees, sweat beginning to bead at her temples, wringing her hands as though I’d just asked her to choose between her parents and a bus full of children.

  “Tick-tock, Becky. Take too long and I pick for you,” I said in a sing-song voice, which only seemed to make her more nervous.

  “I—Dare! Wait! Truth!”

  “Sorry, Becks, no take-bac
ksies,” I said with my shit-eating grin. “Dare it is.”

  Maybe it was just the kind of guy that I was, but dares were always my favorite, even when I was on the receiving end of them. Something about making people do what I wanted just did it for me in a way I couldn’t describe, even when I had to do something else in return.

  “I dare you…” I began, making sure to draw my words out, enhancing the tension that seemed to bubble up in the room as all eyes turned on Becky. “I dare you to go into that closet and play a good, old-fashioned game of Seven Minutes of Heaven with whatever guy I send in there after you.”

  “Seven Minutes of What?” Jessica asked, her tone incredulous. “What is this, the eighties?”

  “I… okay…” Becky said, biting her lip and glancing again at the dark-haired guy she’d been eying since we’d sat down. “Just seven minutes, right?”

  “Becky!” Jessica exclaimed, her eyes wide. I did my best to hold in my laughter, watching Becky shrug in response to Jessica’s objections before she disappeared into the roomy walk-in closet and shut the door behind her.

  Jessica turned her venomous gaze back on me as I combed over the prospective gentlemen in the room, deciding on whether I should grant Becky’s silent wish of having the young man she’d been eyeing be the one to play the game with her. Deciding to be merciful, I granted her wish, pointing at the charming boy and motioning him to follow after Becky for his seven minutes.

  Another distressed sound from my stepsister told me that I’d once again made the perfect choice as the young man smirked and eagerly strode across the room. I couldn’t shake how familiar that guy felt as he closed the door after him, blocking both he and Becky from sight.

  “While they’re doing that, let’s move on to the next victim,” I said, my eyes immediately resting on my stepsister, an enormous grin on my face. Her face went immediately went pale, her frown deepening as I tapped my chin in thought. “Jessica… Truth or—”

  “Truth,” she interrupted, her hands clenched on the hem of her skirt, hoping that avoiding a dare might save her from any undue embarrassment. I couldn’t help but laugh at just how wrong she was. “I told you I wasn’t going to do any of your stupid dares, you creep.”

  “You’re sure you want to go with Truth? I mean, you have to answer whatever I ask. You get that, right?” I asked, biting my lip as the perfect question came to mind. “I’ll let you have one takeback. Just because you’re my stepsister.”

  “No, I told you I want ‘Truth,’ Richard. Now just ask your stupid question,” she said, crossing her arms tight over her chest in a huff. I settled back, looking at her right in those gorgeous eyes as I savored this precious moment before I dropped her into a whole new world of embarrassment.

  You asked for it, I thought.

  “Out of every single person in this room,” I began, my grin spreading from ear to ear as I spoke, “who do you want to fuck the most?”

  I watched as her frown dissipated into an expression of the purest shock I’d ever seen on anyone’s face. I watched her eyes, expecting them to dart around the room, to find someone she’d been aching to go after for among the guests she’d invited, but the more I watched her, the more I realized that her eyes never wavered from me.

  _ THREE _

  Jessica

  Who do you want to fuck the most?

  “What?” I finally shouted as I sat up, fists clenched. My stepbrother had done some shitty things in the past, but this one would take the cake. He came into my party and took it over, turning my nice, quiet evening into some bacchanal. And now he had the gall to ask me who I wanted to sleep with?

  The entire room was silent around my stepbrother and me. I could feel their stares boring into me as they waited for my response. Every pair of eyes was asking the same question again and again.

  I could see some of the boys in the room sitting up, attentively waiting for my answer. I knew what they wanted to hear without them having to say a word. Every single man in that room was hoping I’d look into their eyes and confess my deep, unadulterated desire for their bodies, about how I’d always wanted to impale myself on their rigid members while I screamed out to the heavens how incredible they were in bed.

  “You’re a real piece of shit, Richard.”

  “I’ve been called worse,” he said, shrugging, that lazy smirk still plastered across his face, “but you’re the one who asked for ‘Truth,’ Jess. I mean, the easy thing to do would just be to tell everyone who you want to bone. That’s the whole point of ‘Truth’ in this game, after all—telling secrets.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to tell anyone my secrets,” I said, glaring daggers at my stepbrother as he lounged back on his hands. I watched more than a few women looking at him as he sat there, biting their lips excitedly. I hated them for wanting him the same way I hated myself for wanting him. “This game is stupid.”

  A resounding boo came from the people in the room, along with a few who stood in the doorway to observe. The sound came mostly from the men, who were still so eager to picture me laying prone in front of them with my ass in the air, begging for whatever they had passing for a penis.

  “But those are the rules, Jess-ic-a,” my stepbrother said, accentuating every syllable of my name. “If you didn’t want to play by the rules, then you really shouldn’t have started to play.”

  “I never said that I wanted to play your stupid game, Richard—”

  “You sat down with everyone else,” he said, shrugging again. “Everyone’s playing, and now it’s your turn. You chose to tell a truth, and now that I’ve actually asked you one, you don’t want to play anymore. That’s not very sporting of you.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “Ask someone else that stupid question.”

  I tried so hard not to look at him as he spoke, but my eyes constantly returned to the way his lips moved, so full and soft-looking—lips I’d dreamed time and time again of kissing in the heat of passion, with his cock buried inside of my body.

  “It’s against the rules,” he said, his voice rising and falling as though he were singing a song. “You have to answer it.”

  I hated the way Richard’s gorgeous eyes looked right through me, how they made my heart flutter and skip with just the slightest glance in my direction. I could already feel my insides beginning to squirm, my thighs clamped tight to deny the heat that was rising between them. I had butterflies, and those butterflies had butterflies.

  “Ask me something else,” I said, arms crossed over my chest as I felt the scorching, concentrated glare of every man in the room on my breasts, imagining what they must really look like beneath my modest top. “Anything else.”

  “But where’s the fun in that?” he asked, a laugh rising from the others in the crowd. “If it’s not embarrassing, then what’s the point?”

  “I hate you,” I muttered, my fists clenched. I hated how sweaty my palms were, how nervous and excited his mere proximity made me. It was so hard to deny the wetness growing between my legs, not to mention uncomfortable.

  That question rang over and over again in my mind: Who do you want to fuck the most?

  And every time my mind asked the question, the answer was sitting right in front of me, his tasty-looking muscles rippling and moving whenever he shifted his weight. I licked my lips, trying my best to keep them from drying out. I wanted to hide, and at the same time, I wanted to crawl on top of my stepbrother and show him who I wanted inside of me the most.

  A sound broke me away from my thoughts, one that I’d almost thought had come from my imagination. Everyone’s head turned to stare at the source of the low, deep moaning that had brought the rest of the room to complete silence. Slowly, grins began to spread across the faces of the guests, and suddenly Richard let out a chuckle before turning back to face me.

  “Looks like Becky is having a fun seven minutes,” he said, grinning at me wickedly as I heard a few cheers rise up from a few of the men who sat around the room as the low, soft noises contin
ued, one loud and clear, the other was softer and muffled with a strangely rhythmic quality to it that I didn’t quite know how to explain.

  “Go Michael!” one of the other guy’s shouted, laughing uproariously.

  I clenched my fists tighter, feeling my nails digging hard into the heel of my palm as I realized what was happening. I hated that Becky was in there with Michael, and the image of her mouth wrapped around his hard cock intruded into my thoughts like a train wreck. It was hard to get it out of my head.

  “See, Jess?” Richard asked, motioning toward the closet door. “Becky’s having fun with the game. Maybe if you’d relax and play along, we can all have fun.”