Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 124

Will

If she thought she was being stealthy, McKenzie really needed to remember I’d been sleeping next to her for more than a week now. I bit back a smile as she faked breathing deeply and continued to stroke her hair as she laid in my lap.

“So, Shep, your father’s a judge?” I said, trying to make conversation. “Xavier…?”

“Xavier Pope,” Shep replied. “And we’ll use that term ‘father’ loosely.”

“I understand. I’d love to use the term ‘grandfather’ loosely as well,” I grunted, thinking of William Masterson Sr. with no small amount of bitterness.

“Can do,” Shep said.

Dolly shushed us both. “I’m trying to call the asshole. Would you mind quieting down for a minute? Yes, I’m talking about you, you lying, cheating, sonofabitch.”

I winced, expecting Xavier Pope to just hang up, but she just rolled her eyes as he kept talking on the other end of the line.

“No, I don’t need any money from you, thanks so much. Today’s your lucky day. I’m about to drop a Supreme-Court-Justice-making opportunity on your doorstep. You just have to keep Felicity out of it. And I mean all the way out, or not only will you lose your opportunity, you’re going to lose your balls because I will twist them right off,” she snapped.

We all went silent. Even McKenzie held her breath.

“I have a young man here who says his name is Will Materson the Third. And he’s got quite a—did I stutter? I don’t remember stuttering. Yes, Will Masterson the Third. Yeah, no shit he’s got a price on his head. Of course, Milton’s okay. You don’t think I’d risk our son’s life on purpose, do you?” she went on.

Shep cringed when his mother said ‘Milton,’ and I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek not to laugh at his predicament. If I’d been named Milton, I might have chosen Shep instead, too.

“They were on the run, and we picked them up. There might have been a small gun fight involved, but you know I always carry that shotgun. Can’t be too careful when you’re hauling gasoline.” She pulled the phone away from her ear as Xavier started swearing so loudly McKenzie didn’t bother to pretend to sleep anymore. “Well, I seem to remember somebody in this family being married—and still being married—to some hoity toity miss from the country club. If you wanted a choice in the matter, you sure went the wrong way about it.”

Xavier stopped swearing, and she put the phone back to her ear. “That’s better. Now, I’ve got Will, and I’ve got McKenzie Kent, who I guess is actually McKenzie Killeen? Her parents were in some kind of pseudo-witness-protection program.” She paused. “Yes, as I understand, her father’s name is Caleb. Mother by the name of Jocelyn… Jacey, yes. Hell, you seem to know more than I do.”

Shep leaned closer to his mother to try to catch what Xavier was saying, just as I was doing the same, but I sat back again quickly when she swatted her son. “Eyes on the road, Shep.”

“Yes, Mama,” he replied sullenly and turned his attention back to driving.

“Of course, I call him ‘Shep.’ I can’t believe you convinced me to name him after your father. Anyway, we’re heading your way now as soon as we pick up the truck. I assume you’d rather we meet you at the office than at the mansion?” she asked with false sweetness.

Xavier muttered a response.

Dolly nodded. “Great,” she said. “We’ll bring lunch. I figure there’s going to be a lot we need to talk about and very few people you can trust to even go get food, much less see to our wellbeing. I’m not an idiot, Xavier. I know this paints a target on all our backs.”

I felt a sting of guilt. Like Caleb and Jacey before us, McKenzie and I, mostly I, were getting a lot of good people in trouble. Killed, even.

“Maybe we should—” I began.

“Just a second, Xavier. Will’s about to try to fall on his sword or some other such stupid shit.” She craned her head around and scowled at me. “Boy, don’t make me come back there and slap the stupid out of you. We’re just taking you as far as D.C. Once we’ve made sure you’re in good hands, we’ll be out of it. Don’t you worry. I’m not in the business of getting us all killed.”

I swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Better.” She went back to her call. “See you in about seven hours, Xavier. Make sure everything’s ready.” She hung up.

“Mama, you didn’t threaten to kill him this time. I think that’s progress,” Shep grinned.

Dolly gave him a sour look. “I’m trying to sniff him out this time.’’

“I thought you said he wouldn’t try to turn us in for the ransom?” McKenzie said suddenly.

“And I thought you were supposed to be sleeping,” Dolly scolded her. With a sigh, she sat back and smoothed a hand over her untamed hair. “I did say that. And I don’t think he will. But I also know he’s still a human being. Human beings get tempted sometimes.”

“I hope he’s more interested in his career than hundreds of millions of dollars,” I sighed. “It’s a lot of money.”

“Trust me, if there’s anyone in the world who’s in it for the glory more than he’s in it for the money, it’s Xavier Pope.” Dolly tapped her fingers on her armrest. “Still, we’re gonna be careful.”

“We’ve been trying to be, but as you saw, it hasn’t panned out very well for us,” I muttered.

Dolly turned around and looked at me. “Chin up. Hopefully, this is the last turn on the merry-go-round for you.”

“Hopefully,” I agreed.

***

I finally got McKenzie to sleep for real by lying down beside her on the mattress in the back of the cab. I wasn’t entirely sure she believed I would go to sleep. She probably just passed out from exhaustion. I had been giving her body quite a workout, and she was still struggling with the death of her uncle and her grandparents, I knew.

While she slept, I spooned her and held her against me, my eyes closed and my ears perked for any sign we might get double-crossed.

“You can quit with the act, Will,” Shep said after a while. “You’re a really bad fake-sleeper. Even worse than McKenzie.”

I peeked my eyes open. “She’s asleep now,” I whispered.

“Good.” Shep looked at Dolly. “Mama, you think she’s gonna be okay?”

“I think they’ve got therapy in Witness Protection,” she replied. “They must.”

“I don’t remember Witness Protection working out so well for Caleb and Jacey,” I murmured. “Whatever Xavier does with us, it’s going to have to be something better than that.”

“Hmm. True.” She tapped her fingers on her armrest again and opened her mouth to say something more, but Shep interrupted her.

“Mama, we’re home,” he said.

I carefully extricated my arm from under McKenzie and sat up, looking outside. There was a very nice-looking red truck sitting outside of an unassuming little home on an unassuming little street. The truck was the only way I was able to guess which house was theirs.

As we pulled up in front of the house, I saw my guess was correct.

“Okay. Everybody inside to shower. We’ve got two bathrooms, so it shouldn’t take long,” Dolly called, waking McKenzie up. “I figure you two have been in those clothes for a while now. Shep’s sweats should fit you okay, Will, and I’ll find something for McKenzie from my curvier days.”

Dolly and Shep then got out of the truck, and we followed them out. I half expected a bomb to go off, a shot to be fired, a helicopter to descend from overhead, or something, but the neighborhood remained as sleepy as ever.

McKenzie took my hand, her fingers trembling, and I knew she was scared of the same things. I threaded my fingers through hers and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

Once inside the house, Dolly waved us toward her bedroom, which was the master bedroom with the master bath. “You two shower. I don’t care if you do it together or separately, but you have to be quick about it. I don’t like hanging around here too long.”

“Feels safer to be on the road,” Shep added from the living room.

Dolly gathered up some extra shampoo and soap from under the sink. “I’ll go take a shower after Shep in his bathroom once I’ve got clothes laid out for you two. And if you’re going to take a little intimate time, don’t be too loud. No matter what we do, these walls never keep out too much noise. My biggest complaint about the neighborhood, but also one of the biggest selling points if you’re on the run.”

“You’ve been on the run before?” I asked while McKenzie poked her head in the shower.

Dolly shrugged. “Rich people always think they can have their own way.”

Her cryptic answer just confused me more, but she was gone before I could ask any follow-up questions.

McKenzie came over to me and started stripping off my shirt. I let her. My cock knew we were going to be having intimate time before my brain had a chance to catch up. She unzipped my pants and went to her knees, but I tugged her back up by her shoulders, shaking my head. “No time,” I reminded her softly.

I kicked off my pants and boxers after toeing off my shoes and socks. Then I stripped McKenzie naked and backed her into the small shower, closing the glass door behind us.

The water started out cold when it hit us, and I quickly turned us so it was pelting, freezing, against my back, shielding her from the unpleasant sensation. But it warmed up soon enough.

She kissed me with a desperation I wished I knew how to assuage with more than my body. I didn’t know how to take the guilt and pain away, and that tore at my soul. I could certainly distract her, which I started to do by kissing her back and massaging her breasts. But I couldn’t heal the pain.

“Will,” she said achingly, and I held her tight, just letting the water wash over us for a while.

McKenzie was the one who grabbed the soap and started giving me a very, very indecent scrub.

I groaned, and my cock strained in her hand. I decided to return the favor, and soon, both of our hands were busy, and we were gasping with need.

She turned and pressed her palms against the shower wall, spreading her legs and offering herself to me.

Knowing she must still be quite sore, I gently guided myself into her and slowly pushed in to the hilt, biting my lip against another groan as I felt her tight and hot around my cock.

McKenzie whimpered, and I knew my guess was correct. I kissed her shoulder and her neck, massaging a breast and her clit while I thrust inside her. I wished we had more time. I wished we had a bed. I wished I could do something, anything, to make her burden lighter.

Instead, I could only do this.

She didn’t seem to mind my failings, however. She pushed back into every thrust, taking me as deep as possible. I brought my hand up from her breast to her mouth when she began making loud noises of pleasure.

McKenzie cried out against my hand, and her inner muscles fisted around my cock. I had to bite down on my arm to keep a bellow of pleasure to myself as I spurted into her, letting her body milk every last drop of cum from me.

We stood there a moment, my cock still buried in her, warm water sliding over us. Then she crumpled in my arms, sobbing.

I held her tightly, then gently pulled out and turned her to face me so I could hold her properly. While she cried on my shoulder, I shampooed her hair. By the time I got to the conditioner, she’d pulled herself together enough to take the shampoo and wash my hair. We were gentle with each other, like either one of us could break at any moment.

She was still tearful when we got out of the shower, and I was patting her dry. I kissed her thoroughly, not knowing what else I could do.

McKenzie hugged herself against my wet body, and I wrapped my arms around her, stroking her back. I grabbed a brush off the counter and began combing out her hair. Wet, her hair turned an even darker, richer honey color.

“Stay with me, Will?” she finally rasped, her voice heavy with unshed tears.

“Forever and always, honeybee. You don’t have to worry about that,” I vowed, tilting her chin up so she could see how deeply I meant it.

She hiccupped and kissed me.

It might have been too soon to say more, but I certainly felt it. I was deeply, desperately in love with McKenzie Kent.