Reading Online Novel

Sweet Billionaire Stepbrother 1(14)



“Don’t be ridiculous.” I wished everyone would just find another topic and leave me alone. All this fuss was giving me a damn headache.

Interrupted by the ring of a phone, I sighed with relief.

“Oh, that’s mine. Please excuse me,” Sloane said as she pulled her phone out from her purse. She rose from the table to take the call outside.

Grayson’s good humor had evaporated. I'd never known him to be a moody person and his behavior was confusing the shit out of me. My stomach twisted into such a tight knot that I could barely eat any more food. Luckily Mum and Taylor kept blabbering on, so I didn’t need to contribute to the conversation.

Moments later, Sloane returned, her complexion pale and tears in her eyes. I rushed to my feet to comfort her, placing my arm around her shoulder. “Hey, hon, what’s the matter?”

She dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a napkin, clearly upset.

“Sit down,” I coaxed, pushing her down gently into her chair.

Her shoulders slumped forward. “Um, it's Jeremy. He can't make it to the ball tomorrow night. His grandfather died this morning and he has to leave to go to the funeral in Melbourne. He can't be my date and there’s no way I’m going alone.” Tears ran down her cheeks and my heart went out to her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I gasped, feeling really bad for Jeremy. It had been touch and go for a few weeks as his grandfather had battled against lung cancer.

“Don’t cry, Sloane.” Grayson sounded genuinely concerned for her. I watched as his hand covered hers and squeezed. “Tell you what . . . if you want, I can be your date.”

Sloane blinked up at Grayson, a smile breaking through her tears. God, she looked so beautiful and vulnerable in that moment. “You’d do that for me?” she said, her voice shaky.

“Of course. It's sad what happened to Jeremy, but that doesn’t mean you should miss out. I’ll find my formal suit when we get home and have it dry cleaned tomorrow.”

What the hell just happened? Was I going to be sitting at the same table as my stepbrother at the ball?

How was that going to work with my plans of trading in my v-card?

Feeling eyes burn into me, I looked up and locked eyes with Grayson. While he was patting Sloane’s hand, his gaze was fixed on me. The satisfied smirk on his face blew me away. He had a plan. If only I knew what it was.





8: Layla


After another two hours of going from one shop to another, both Sloane and I had finally each bought a dress. Grayson had left us after lunch, excusing himself politely. Thank God. I couldn’t bare much more of his stares and Sloane cooing over him like a love struck teenager. It was all a bit much, so I’d taken the first dress that wasn’t too awful just to get it over and done with.

Sloane was on a renewed mission to get herself all beautified and blabbered on non-stop about how awesome Grayson was to step up. It made my head hurt.

After the dress hunting, it was time to find matching shoes and underwear. After numerous arguments with my mother about the suitability of certain shoes—and totally losing the battle—I settled on a mid-heeled sandal.

I’d break my neck on sky-high heels and apparently flat shoes were completely banned from being worn with evening dresses. It didn’t make sense to me, I was a practical woman. For starters, I preferred buying something that I'd wear again and I was certain there weren’t too many formal functions in my near future. Besides, who’d even know I was wearing a pair of flat and super comfy shoes under my dress?

By the time my mother announced that the next stop was her beauty therapist, I wasn’t surprised. In fact I was relieved to be able to just get away from all the constant chatter about ball gowns and what color lipstick would suit my skin tone best.

All I wanted was to just listen to meditative music while someone else pampered my face and body. Mum had booked me in for the whole enchilada: body scrub, facial and waxing. I'd never been prodded, poked and pummeled as much in my life.

It was more exhausting than any assignment I’d ever worked on.

“I'm having French polish on my nails please.” I said to the technician who was giving me a manicure and pedicure. How Mum did all of this on a regular basis was beyond me.

In my next life I wanted to be a man—all they needed to do to get ready was to have a shave, shower and get dressed. Nobody frowned if they wore comfy shoes with their tuxedos.





9: Layla


“Ah, Bella, today I turn you into a princess.” Mario said with a wink as I planted my ass in his chair. “Just leave it up to me. You will see.”

I’d survived the dress shopping and beauty therapist the day before, so how bad could hair and makeup be. Mostly I was looking forward to the massage chair that would knead the tight knots out of my back and shoulders. And the complimentary glass of sparkles.