Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance Read Online Free

me. “Do you two know each other?”
     
    “No!”
     
    We both say it at the same time, far too quickly and far too loudly , which only makes the red flush in my cheeks deepen as I cringe into my coat. 
     
    He seems to recover immediately though as he clears his throat and smiles charmingly at my mother. “I think maybe Madison and I met at one of the campaign fundraisers, Madame President.”
     
    ‘Madame President’; give me a fucking break , I think, rolling my eyes.
     
    “You were in Iraq, dude,” Dexter mumbles from the couch, glancing at his cell phone. “You didn’t have to go to those things.”
     
    “Well,” he shrugs, turning to grin at me. That wicked, wolfish, teasing grin. The eyes that pierce right into me, and that arrogant, cocky stance like he’s not at all bothered by the nuclear meltdown happening in slow motion in this room. “Maybe we’ve bumped into each other somewhere else then.”
     
    Please kill me right now.
     
    My mother  turns back to me. “Well, anyways, you know perfectly well why you’re here, Madison. You’re here for damage control.”
     
    “ Damage control? ”
     
    My mother purses her carefully painted lips, and narrows her perfectly made-up eyes at me —  eyes shadowed with a tint that polls the best with her target demographic, I’m sure — as she frowns beneath her perfectly coiffed shoulder-length hair — a style I’m positive is meant to make her appear “just like one of the other moms” with her female voter base. 
     
    “Madison, you’re going to have to start acting the part, you know.” She shakes her head. “I can’t have the daughter of the President running around leaving school and airing her gossip out to dry.”
     
    I stare at her. “Mom, I left school because of Harry. Because he hit me.”
     
    Okay, when the daughter of a Presidential front-runner winds up in a law-school medical center with a black eye, a crashed car and alcohol on her breath, tabloids get hungry. The fact that the only reason I’d driven in the condition I had was that my asshole boyfriend had hit me after I’d broken up with him was a bit lost on them.
     
    And of course, the only reason anything got aired out to begin with was because of who my mother was. Any other mom in the world and I’d still be finishing my law degree. Not that my mother could be bothered to take that into account on her iron-march towards the White House.
     
    Her look softens. “Yes, dear, I know. And I’m sorry, you know that.” She stands tall and regal looking behind her desk with the dramatic American flag hanging behind her by the window that overlooks the great lawn. “But we’ve been over this, and we agreed it would be best for you to spend the semester here.”
     
    I know the story. Publicly, I’m taking a semester off to ‘explore the outreach possibilities available to me in Washington D.C. with my mother, the President.’ Checks have been written and handshakes exchanged en masse to ensure that the reality of me being on academic probation for drinking - not to mention my hastily swept away D.U.I. never sees the light of day. 
     
    “I’m so glad you’re worried about my well being, mother.”
     
    President Adams rolls her eyes. “Oh, don’t be a drama queen, Madison.”
     
    Dexter snorts from the couch, kicking his feet up on the coffee table, grinning; “Oh man, this is juicy.”
     
    “That is enough , Dexter!” Major Ryan thunders again.
     
    Hunter steps up behind him and flicks his younger brother’s ear, which only has Dexter jumping off the couch to try and punch his older brother back. The room erupts as Major Ryan strides forward to get between Hunter and Dexter, my mother throwing her hands in the air and the two brothers squabbling.
     
    What the fuck is going on here? This is insanity. My mom and Alec aren’t even married yet, and here we all are playing out the part of the everyday, normal, dysfunctional American family. A fucked up