Stepping Over the Line: A Stepbrother Novel (Shamed) Read Online Free

because technically we weren’t.
    “I wondered where you’d run off to.” Constance had found me. “I got lonely. Wanna head back to my B & B for a private celebration?”
    No.
“Sure. Got a car?”
    She jingled her keys.
    —
    I woke the next morning with a headache and regret.
    Delilah had booked the bridesmaids at the Magnolia Inn, which was an antebellum B & B with far too thin walls and ridiculously easy-to-pick locks that literally
any
key would open—a fact Savannah and I had discovered one Christmas break when Dad had rented the whole place for his top employees and my usual saint of a stepsister and I had sampled treats from every minibar. At the tender age of seventeen, scotch had already been my sin of choice. She’d gone for cold Snickers.
    Even though I was alone in the bed, plenty of feminine laughs and chatter invaded my privacy from behind the room’s closed door.
    I stretched in the canopy bed, then eased out from beneath too many covers into too hot air. Why was it that no matter how much money was thrown at these historical restoration projects, no one ever got the central heating and air right?
    Sunshine shone through lace-panel curtains. The resulting filigree on the wood floor made my eyes hurt almost as badly as my head. I needed a shower and coffee—neither of which I cared to find here. I dressed in last night’s clothes, then headed into the thankfully empty hall.
    I’d made this particular walk of shame during three other pre-wedding events and one post-wedding one. What can I say? Kinda like my work pal Carol’s former man-whore, Nathan, weddings bring out my inner player.
    Downstairs, I slipped out the back door into an already steamy morning.
    Julep was too small of a burg for Uber or Lyft, so I called the one person I knew who wouldn’t give me shit about a one-night stand.
    Ten minutes later, Savannah rolled up to the corner behind the wheel of her mom’s gold Jag.
    I climbed in and cranked the A/C, aiming the vent at my face.
    “Really?” She hit the gas, throwing me back in the leather seat. “You’re such a pig.”
    “Love you, too,
Sis.
” I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.
    “Screw you.”
    “Already had the pleasure.”
    “When my friends you sleep with and never even call again tell me you’re a bastard, I defend you, but I’m done.” She turned too sharply, jolting me from my attempted slumber.
    “And?”
    “Never mind. You screwed Constance, didn’t you?”
    “Don’t remember.”
    “Of all of my bridesmaids, why’d you have to pick her? She’s got the fluffy heart of a baby bunny.”
    I snorted. “And a mouth big enough for my hard lion.”
    “You’re evil.” I opened my eyes in time to see her veer into the cypress-lined parking lot of McKinney’s Drugs. She parked, then snapped, “Wait in the car. You’re the last person I want to be seen with.”
    “Aye-aye, Dr. Savannah.” I saluted her.
    She flipped me the bird.
    Five minutes later, I was answering an email from Liam on the legalities of acquiring a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer when Savannah climbed back into the car, and tore into a roll of Tums.
    “You okay?” I asked.
    “Fine.” She popped two tablets into her mouth and chewed.
    “You look like shit.” Of course, she didn’t—even at her worst, she took my breath away, but dark circles beneath her eyes made her appear gaunt.
    “And you’re an ass.” She started the car, backed out of the parking space, then gunned it toward our parents’.
    “Being a bastard is part of my charm.”
    “Please, Garrett.” She stopped for a red light, and pressed her hands to her forehead. “I can’t deal with sarcastic you—not today.”
    “What’s wrong?” I angled to face her. As if she was on the verge of tears, her green eyes shone. For a soon-to-be-blushing bride, she looked anything but happy.
    “Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “It’s me. We used to tell each other everything.”
    “Those days are