Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 139

Will

I wished I shared her optimism.

We finished showering, cleaning up after our lovemaking, then went to the bedroom where I thought Mr. Caveman would get to do a little more cave diving. Instead, we both stared at formal attire laid out on the bed, put there while we were in the shower.

“Okay, that’s creepy,” McKenzie said, and I nodded my agreement.

A heavy vellum envelope was lying on top of my suit. I picked it up and pulled out an invitation to a dinner and auction for a charity I knew. We were one of its top donors, in fact.

I had to laugh. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

She took the invitation from me. “‘Comunidades en Común’?”

“Yes. ‘Communities in Common,’” I translated. “It’s a charitable organization that helps starving children in Central America pursue their education to try to elevate them and their families out of poverty.”

“Why is that funny?” she asked.

“Because those are the very communities we target to abduct women and children into the illegal slave trade,” I answered, grimacing at the invitation in her hand. “I can’t believe they expect us to go. The hypocrisy....”

McKenzie looked from the invitation to me and back again. “Should I rip it up?”

“No. We’re going to need it to get into the event,” I sighed.

“But you just said you don’t want to go,” she said, confused.

I plucked the invitation from her hand and tucked it in the lapel pocket of the suit jacket lying on the bed. “Ike, and more importantly Grandfather, will take a very dim view if we don’t go.”

“We can’t have that, I suppose.” She huffed, looking down at her dress. She picked up the green gown with shimmery bits and turned it this way and that. “It’s got an open back.”

“It does,” I observed, looking it over myself. “Is that a problem?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I won’t be able to wear a bra.”

“Oh.” I looked at the fabric again and gave it a little tug. It seemed sturdy and opaque enough. “Try it on. Let’s see if it will be a problem.”

“Hmm. Okay.” She found stockings—with a garter belt—and lace panties on the bed as well and began pulling them on.

My mouth went dry when I saw the garter belt.

“Can you help me with this?” she asked, much to my delight.

I knelt down next to her and helped to get her in her stockings, sliding my fingers along her soft skin as I did so.

McKenzie poked me in the forehead. “No funny business. We don’t have time.”

“More’s the pity,” I lamented, then kissed the inside of her thigh before standing and patting her on the ass. “You’re all set. Do you want help with the dress as well?”

“Probably zipping it up, but I think I can do the rest.” She shimmied into the dress, which fit her perfectly and clung iridescently in all the right places. “I’m not sure whether to be grossed out or impressed that somebody knows my measurements.”

“Honestly, I was thinking the same thing,” I admitted. I stroked my hand down her open back. “Still, you look very sexy. I’m going to have a hard time concentrating on anything else all night.”

She giggled. “Good. Then you won’t have to think about how pissed off you are that Ike is sending us to this thing, even though it’s completely hypocritical.”

I pulled her to me, still completely naked, and kissed her hard. “You could make me forget my own name.”

“I guess I’ll have to give you a new one, then,” she said. She sobered and brushed my hair back with her fingertips. “Are you going to be okay? Really?”

I took her hand and kissed her fingers one by one. “Honestly? It’s going to be rough. I suppose I’ll get used to it over time. But this is the first time I’ll have attended one of these things since finding out what we really do.”

McKenzie wrapped her arms around me, the diaphanous fabric of her open sleeves brushing against my skin as she did so. “I’ll be there. We can get through it together. And Will?”

“Yes?” I replied, holding her tightly.

“I don’t ever want you to get used to it,” she said fiercely. “I want it to always bother you when we go to these things.”

I nodded. “I don’t think that will be much of a problem.”

“Good.” She pulled back slightly. “I suppose I should let you get dressed. Unless it’s a masquerade dinner, and we’re going as The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

“I’d… really rather not,” I replied. I kissed her one last time then began dressing. “There’s probably make-up in your exact colors in the bathroom by now.”

“Like I said—creepy.” She went into the bathroom. I could see her rummaging through the cabinets and the shock on her face when she found what she was looking for. “Oh my God, it even has my name on it!”

“What does?” I asked, searching around the bed until I found the cufflinks I was sure someone had already picked out for me. Maybe Polly. Or Ike himself.

I really hoped it had been Polly.

“This huge make-up case! Well, I mean, it has my initials. Kind of. It has ‘MKM,’” she said, opening the case and taking items out to look at them. “I’m not sure what the other ‘M’ is…?”

“‘McKenzie Kent/Killeen Masterson,’” I deduced.

She dropped a lipstick. “Holy shit! You’re right!”

I went into the bathroom and scooped the lipstick off the floor, handing it back to her. “It was an easy guess. Ike laid it all out for us on the way here.”

“Yeah, I should have guessed that, too.” She looked down at her dress. “Damn, am I supposed to put the make-up on before the dress?”

“Oh. Yes, I think you are.” I felt like a complete moron. I’d been so busy fantasizing about getting her back out of the dress that I’d forgotten the natural order of things.

McKenzie laughed. “I guess you’ll have to get me out of it again, then.”

I groaned. “Yes, but I was hoping I’d be able to do a lot more when that time came.”

“Too bad, so sad.” She turned her back to me so I could undo the zipper at her waist. Once she stepped carefully out of the dress, she tossed it to me to hold.

My punishment for my lapse in judgment was to watch her apply her make-up, breasts bouncing, ass wiggling, and standing in those infernal stockings.

“Didn’t any of the women who stayed here get ready for the day in front of you?” she asked suddenly.

I frowned, not liking the direction this was taking. “I thought we agreed we weren’t going to talk about that. And you make it sound like this was Grand Central Station.”

“Sorry.” She carefully applied eyeliner.

I didn’t say anything for a while because I didn’t want her to poke herself in the eye. When she finished her mascara, I said, “Are you really that worried about the other women I’ve had in my life?”

She blushed. I could see that even under the natural tones she’d applied to her cheeks. “I mean, I try not to think about it. I don’t generally think of myself as a jealous woman. But, I don’t know. We’re here. This is your room.”

“Our room,” I corrected her.

“Well, yeah, our room. But it was your room, and I imagine there were women here,” she continued. “And tonight we’re going to this dinner where I’m sure people have seen you with different women on your arm. You know, women who aren’t me. There might even be some of them there, right? The ‘right kind’ of woman who travels in your circles?”

“You’re the only ‘right kind’ of woman I’ve ever met,” I said fiercely. “I don’t give a flying fuck what Ike said. And let me tell you about those other women who travel in my circles. Most of them are petty, spoiled, trophy wives in training. Not one of them caught my attention for more than three months. I was shallow. They were pretty and could be bought. I had needs. That was it. And that’s the sum total of it.”

McKenzie nodded, and I saw her eyes shimmer.

“Oh, honeybee.” Careful not to smudge her make-up, I put my arms around her and grabbed some tissues, dabbing gently at her eyes. “Are you nervous about going out with me and running into someone I dated before?”

“A little,” she acknowledged. She glanced in the mirror and sighed. “I’m going to have to do the eyeliner all over again.”

“Hey. Look at me.” I tilted her chin up with one finger. “You have nothing to worry about. I’ll be with you the whole time. Your speech is fine. Your age is something they’ll judge me for, not you. You’re intelligent, beautiful, and kind. Not one of those women can hold a candle to you.”

She gave me a watery smile. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. And I’d prefer to stay here and watch you bounce up and down on my dick in that garter belt and stockings, while I tell you how many million virtues you possess. But that’s going to have to wait.” I slid my hand over her bare breast.

McKenzie laughed and swatted it away. “You’re incorrigible!”

“You keep saying that like it surprises you,” I grinned.

“Mhm. Come on, handsome, we need to get ready.” She turned back to the mirror and began reapplying her eyeliner.

“I am ready. Someone decided to get me all hot and bothered,” I replied archly.

She scoffed. “Same.”

“So,” I said, “are you going to tell me about your boyfriends now?” I regretted saying it, mostly because she poked herself in the eye with the pencil. “Sorry, sorry!”

McKenzie winced, dabbed her eye with a Kleenex, then looked over at me. “You have terrible timing, you know that?”

“That’s not what you say in bed.” I tried brightening the mood.

She wasn’t having it. “I suppose it’s only fair, though it’s not like you gave me a number.”

“I’m not giving you a number. I’m eleven years older than you. It wouldn’t be fair,” I insisted.

“Fine, fine. Well, I can. Just two. Two guys. I mean, three if you count my middle school boyfriend, but that was just puppy love. I never slept with him,” she said thoughtfully. “My high school boyfriend was my first. Totally cliché. We thought it would be so special on prom night. It was awful. Awkward, painful, the whole works. The boyfriend I had last year in college was better, but he was always on his phone and forgetting birthdays and Valentine’s Day and things like that. I decided I deserve better.”

“You do deserve better,” I responded. I waited for her to finish with her eyeliner then took her hands. “I feel kind of bad being just the third guy you’ve been with after those two turds. I have… a lot more experience. I’m past my awkward years—I hope. Don’t you want to experience all that?”

“All what?” she asked.

I shrugged. “All the trials and tribulations. Finding out who you really are and what—and who—you really want. All—”

“Will, please shut up before I smack you,” she groaned. She squished my cheeks so I was making a fish mouth and couldn’t talk anymore. “I know who I am, and I know what I want. I know people change. I know I will change. I know you will, too. Hopefully, we change in a complimentary sort of way.”

It made sense. Or rather, it at least kept the little flame of guilt in me under a nice pile of dirt. I didn’t care if that dirt turned out to be bullshit. I loved McKenzie. She loved me.

That was all that mattered.