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

long gone.” The light changed, and she moved the car forward.
    Our relationship rolled backward.
    “They don’t have to be,” I said. Sure, we could never be what my secret heart had always wanted, but the thought of not at least having her as a friend was intolerable. “Savvy…” I reached for her hand, but then drew back. “Let me in. Maybe I can help? Did you and Chad have a fight?”
    “No.” She sniffed, brushing away silent tears with the back of her hand while swerving around two moms with baby strollers. “Chad’s wonderful. I love him with all my heart. I just don’t feel well, okay? And Mom’s gone more than a little wedding-crazy. We’re having teas and luncheons and showers. It’s all too much. I wanted something quiet. Just a small church ceremony with family and friends. A punch and cake reception at the club.”
    “Want me to talk to her?”
    She shot me a narrow-eyed glare. “Who are you, and what have you done with my prick of a brother?”
    Don’t call me that,
I wanted to rail. How many times had I wished our parents had never married? But if that had been the case, maybe I never would have met her. If having her as my stepsister was the best I could do, I’d take it.
    “Seriously, G, this sudden nice guy routine doesn’t suit you. Makes me suspicious—like you’re pulling one of your sharklike lawyer moves to set me up for a fall.” She pulled into our family home’s circle drive and pressed the garage door remote.
    “Knock it off. I would never hurt you, and you know it.”
    Her pinched expression told a different story.
    Did she think about our night together? Did she remember how incredible we’d felt? The way, for those all-too-few intense moments, the world had stopped?
    “Take a shower,” she said before climbing out of the car. “You smell like an ashtray that got left in a brewery.”
    Don’t go,
I wanted to say.
Let’s do brunch. Tell me about your residency and dreams for the future and what it felt like the first time you saved a patient’s life.
    Of course, I didn’t say any of that, and she shut her car door and entered the house.
    I sat utterly still, staring at the blank garage wall.
    If we hadn’t had sex, would we not feel like strangers now? Was she pissed at me for ruining things between us? Or was I flattering myself to think I was even on her radar?

Chapter 4
Savannah
    In the house, I ran straight to my room and quietly shut and locked the door.
    The exertion sent me straight to the bathroom, where I threw up the toast I’d managed to eat for breakfast. For some women, pregnancy was one of the happiest times of their life. They felt consumed with peace, well-being, and the joy of having a tiny life growing inside them.
    I was not one of those women.
    I’d lost ten pounds and my pale complexion and straw-like hair made me look like a background sewer rat from
Les Mis.
At the same time, my boobs were enormous. My obstetrician said this was normal—even fairly common—for first trimesters. I thought I was being karmically punished for not telling my future husband that there was a possibility that this baby could be Garrett’s. But how would I even start that conversation?
    Um, sweetie, love you lots, but I accidentally drank way too much at my graduation party, and then jumped my stepbrother in a pro shop
.
We couldn’t be bothered to use a condom, because I’ve been secretly hot for him literally from the moment we met. Promise, it was only that one time, and we’ll never be together again, but there’s a fifty-fifty shot that this baby you’re marrying me for isn’t even yours.
    I flushed the toilet, then wet a washcloth with cold water, and clamped it to my forehead.
    I’m a horrible person. The worst.
    Further complicating matters was the fact that my insides glowed nuclear neon green with jealousy of my friend Constance. I hated her for sleeping with Garrett. How could she not know he was mine? But then the joke was on me, because no