Double Huge:A Twin Stepbrother Romance(18)

I felt the tears rising again as I thought of Luke with other women. So  Sabrina was actually just one of a bevy of women he'd bedded. My heart  seemed to break, even as my brain acknowledged the truth of his words. I  felt so lost and lonely, knowing Luke was a virile man but denying his  need for regular release.         

     



 

"Get yourself together," he whispered again harshly. "The guests of  honor are on their way." Indeed, a hush had descended over the crowd and  people were turning towards the main doors in anticipation. My face  still felt hot and my chest constricted, but I turned around and put a  smile on my face just to appear normal.

The doors swung open and a distinguished looking couple stood at the entrance.

"Surprise!" roared the crowd. The man was tall and fair, and the woman  dark but stunning, both in their sixties. Luke walked forward to greet  them, affectionately kissing the woman on her cheek and shaking the  man's hand warmly.

"Mom, Dad," he said. "Welcome to your twenty-fifth anniversary celebration," he continued smoothly.

I felt myself go faint. The sandy-haired man was my biological father,  Robert Woodson, and Luke's stepfather. Luke was deliberately outing us.  The world around me blurred and the ground rushed up at me with alarming  speed.



THE END

Read A Baby for My Billionaire Stepbrother, Part 4 next





Previously  …

My son with Wildflower was also my nephew?

The girl I'd called Wildflower had walked out on me two years ago,  leaving my bed empty and cold. I'd shuddered in her absence, my body  aching as my mind whirled with worthless thoughts. How could she have  done this? How could she have walked out on a relationship so caring,  loving and mutually respectful? My body ached each night in remembrance  of her warm, female heat.

But a chance encounter brought her back to me. Except this time the  blonde has a baby in tow  …  and one look at the child was a revelation.  His dark hair and grey eyes were a spitting image of me, from the top of  his head to the bottom of his toes. No way was I going to let  Wildflower waltz off with my baby  …  even after she revealed that we were  actually stepsiblings  … .





CHAPTER ELEVEN


Luke




I rested my head on my folded hands. My face felt flushed and hot, my  body shaky as I leaned against the makeshift hospital bed I'd had  wheeled into our bedroom. My wildflower lay cold and deathly pale  against the white sheets, her pallor accentuated against the hospital  whites.

She was so tiny! Her frame was so thin, she barely made a bump against  the sheets. She lay corpse-like, her hands peacefully folded, skin waxen  against the sterile setting.

I could barely breathe, putting my head between my knees before I  hyperventilated. What had I been thinking? I'd dragged Wildflower to my  parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, not bothering to tell her  where we were going. I knew she was upset about the fact that we were  step-siblings, but I'd been so angry with her that I wanted to throw her  in the lion's den. The sudden sight of her biological father, Robert  Woodson, had stunned her and she'd fainted in the ballroom, collapsing  amidst the press of the crowd.

After that, everything grew blurry for me. I knew I'd acted like an  animal, immediately on my knees beside her, her head in my lap as I  tried to revive her.

"Call 911," I'd snapped. "Get the Club's private doctor here. Call my  doctor as well and tell him to meet us at the hospital." I'd barked  orders like a man possessed, cradling her lifeless form.

"Alana, shhh, hush baby, everything's going to be alright," I'd crooned,  rocking her back and forth. Her limp body was still and quiet, even as  the party guests thronged around us.

"Who is that?" I could her people asking.

"She must be someone special, Luke's on his knees," said another.

"She looks like Robert  … " said a third.

I'd had this crazy idea that maneuvering a confrontation between Alana  and her biological father would force us to take on the issue of incest,  and spark a conversation about Georgie, our beautiful baby boy already  born of the relationship. But clearly, I'd been dead-wrong. Robert and  my mom had no idea who she was, and Alana had been wildly unprepared. So  much so that my miscalculation had caused this  …  the love of my life  unresponsive and dead to the world, hooked up to all sorts of monitors  in our bedroom.

I cursed myself. Love of my life? Yes, that's what this horrific,  terrifying situation had forced on me. The moment she'd collapsed, I'd  had the sudden realization that nothing else mattered except for this  woman. Not the fact that she'd left me two years ago without warning …   not the fact that she'd kept my son from me during the two year absence  …   not the fact that our relationship was technically forbidden by rule of  law. What mattered to me was that my Wildflower was alive and well,  happy and content with our son in her arms.         

     



 

I realized that every last barrier I'd erected had come crashing down.  I'd been determined to take Georgie from her, crushing her in a custody  battle with my superior resources. But now I was willing to give her  anything  …  even if it meant taking Georgie to the far ends of the earth.  I was a rich man. I'd find some way to see Georgie regularly, my boy  would know his father.

But all of that seemed insignificant now. Sobs wracked my body, coming  out in choked gulps as my lungs heaved for air. I clutched her hands in  mine, terrified at their coolness, how small they seemed underneath my  big fingers.

"Wildflower, I'm so sorry," I choked out. "I'm so sorry for everything  … "

I caught my breath, knowing she couldn't hear me, but my heart was so  full I needed to talk just to get things out of my system. "Wildflower,"  I started again. "You're everything to me. Everything that I've said to  you in the past two weeks is bullshit. I was wrong, I was terrified  too. I know you only had my best interests at heart when you left me two  years ago."

"I was angry that you kept my son from me. But I know you did it to  protect me  –  you were afraid of what people would say if they found out  that we're stepsiblings. But don't you see? It's too late. Georgie's  already here, and I love both you both with all of my heart."

"Yes, love," I gasped, almost barking out the words. "Do you hear that  Alana Johnson? I love you. I always have. I loved you the minute I saw  you across the room in that waitress outfit. You were like a shining  star in the middle of a boring meeting, and I couldn't take my eyes off  of you after that."

"And it's been like that for two years now. I haven't been able to stop  thinking about you, you haunt my days and nights. Every morning, I think  of you as soon as I wake, and at night, I pray that I'll dream of you.  Your warmth, your sweetness, has been what's kept me going all this  time."

"And I've just found you again, you and our beloved baby boy. You can't  leave me so soon after coming back. I'll do anything to make things  right by you  …  whatever you need, you and Georgie will always be the  ones for me, whether you stay here or go somewhere else. Please, just  don't die Wildflower, it's too early. I can't let you go so soon after  finding you again," I sobbed, my mea culpa barked and gritty, the  outpouring of my feelings for this girl who had captured my heart two  years ago and never let go.

I held her hands to my face, kissing her lifeless fingers, gripping her  so hard that surely I must have cracked a few knuckles. But there was  nothing on her waxen face to show that she'd felt any pain, or heard  anything I'd said. She was truly in a comatose state, the panic of  public shaming causing her to shut down, mentally even if her physical  body was still there.

What had I done? I berated myself and buried my hands in my fist. My life was over when it had just begun.





CHAPTER TWELVE


Alana




I could hear him sobbing through the haze that was my mind. My brain  felt cloudy, as if there were cotton balls surrounding my senses, making  it impossible to speak, move or give any indication of life. I could  hear the beeps and hums of machines next to me, their incessant whirring  a steady fade of white noise.

As I tried to clear my head, my eyelids flickered momentarily. I could  see Luke with his dark head bowed against my hands. He sobbed,  feverishly kissing my hands as his big shoulders heaved and hot tears  coursed down his face. What was causing him to lose his self-control?

Suddenly, the events of last night came rushing back and I lapsed back  into stillness, the anguish overwhelming. Luke had been so angry with me  that he'd anally raped me before dragging me to a black-tie event. What  I'd thought was a routine charity function as actually his parents'  twenty-fifth anniversary. His parents being his mother and my biological  father.