Beware of Bad Boy

Chapter 29

"I think there's a great beauty to having problems.

That's one of the ways we learn."

-Herbie Hancock

CALEB

I was so whipped.

How did it come to this?

I needed to reassert my manly authority in this relationship and quit letting Gianna get her way just because she was so damn hot. And Beautiful. And Funny. And Smart. Oh crap. I was in trouble.

I couldn't believe I was sitting in on an art club meeting after school. Wait, I could believe it because Gianna promised if I spent an hour at art club, checking it out, she'd spend an hour in my room tonight doing whatever I wanted.

Oh yeah.

Finally, it was over. When I left the art room, Gianna was outside leaning against the wall, smiling smugly.

"Why do you look so pleased?" I placed my hands on either side of her head against the wall, and swooped down for a kiss.

"Because," she said in between kisses.

"Because why?" I asked in between more kisses.

"Because I can tell by your face you enjoyed art club."

"It was alright," I said noncommittally. "What'd you do while I was in there? Sit out here, waiting for me? Yearning for me?"

"Psh, whatever! I went to the gym to watch cheerleading practice." She looked shy and embarrassed, avoiding my eyes.

"Thinking about rejoining?"

"Maybe," she admitted softly as her cheeks turned pink.

"You know I'll support whatever makes you happy, right?" I tipped her chin up to look into her blue eyes.

She sighed. "I miss it. Plus, it was a good dance workout Monday through Friday. I'm going to get out of shape if I don't rejoin or start going to the gym."

Holding her hand as we walked out to my car, I brought her hand up to my mouth and sucked on the tip of her index finger. "I can think of another good workout you could try."

Gianna gasped, yanking her hand away. "You are so bad."

"You love it." I ran the back of my fingers along her cheek. "And I love it when you blush for me."

"It's not every day that some guy starts sucking on my body parts," she whispered as if we had an audience.

I laughed at her embarrassment. "I'd hope not. Don't forget, you owe me an hour in my room tonight. There are many parts of you that have yet to be sucked on."

Her cheeks went from pink to red. I imagined what other parts of her body I could make blush. Perhaps I'd find out tonight.

I teased my girlfriend the whole way home by hinting at all the things I was going to do to her tonight. I planned on doing everything short of actually having sex with her. I'd rather my nosy stepmother not be downstairs baking or knitting or whatever the hell she did, while I was having sex with Gianna for the first time. We'd go to my mom's place for that. When my mom wasn't there, obviously.

"My god, Caleb Morrison! You are such a pervert!" Gianna turned the radio up to drown out my naughty words, but the song on the radio was "Bedrock" by Young Money. I laughed as she fumbled to turn it back down.

"What's the matter, Gianna? Does that song make you think of how I'm gonna make your bed rock tonight?" I grabbed high up on her thigh and squeezed. She squealed and pushed my hand away.

"I've made a deal with the devil. But it'll be your bed rocking. Your room, remember?" Gianna didn't seem too enthused. It hurt a man's pride. Maybe she doubted my seduction skills. I'd just have to enlighten the poor girl.

"All this talk is making me hard-" I started saying.

Gianna interrupted so I couldn't go on, "You are such a pervert! My virgin ears are burning!"

"That's not all that'll be burning by the time I'm through with you."

"Pervert!" Gianna yelled, covering her ears. She was trying so hard not to laugh.

"Now that you mention it-" I began, but Gianna cut me off again.

"Crap!" Gianna sounded panicked and I swung my head to see what caught her attention.

Pulling up in front of the house, I understood what she was referring to. Parked right in the driveway like it belonged was a big black truck. "What the hell is he doing here?"

Gianna had her face in her hands, muffling curses. "Take one guess."

"I'm going to kick his ass. Again." I took my time getting out of the car and going around to Gianna's side.

"No, I'm not getting out. I don't want to deal with her."

When Gianna didn't budge, I reached down to unbuckle her seatbelt and pull her out. "You're making me think you're ashamed of me, princess."

Gianna looked at me with wide eyes. "I'm not ashamed of you! I just don't want to deal with my mother freaking out about you."

"In my opinion, I think Josh is doing us a favor. It's about time this came out in the open." I guided her forcefully towards the front door.

Before I could open it, Josh came waltzing out with a satisfied smile on his face. He looked momentarily surprised to see us, but his smile soon returned. I let go of Gianna to shove him to the ground.

Gianna stepped between us, placing her hands on my chest. "He's not worth it, Caleb. We have bigger problems to worry about."

I looked at her, then down at Josh, then back at her. "Let's get this over with." Before going into the house, though, I kicked Josh in his knee. As I slammed the front door shut, I saw him limping to his truck. I'd still beat that fucker later.

When I turned around, Gianna waited with a scowl on her face. "Are you done?"

"For now, unless he wants to come back for more." Shaking off the anger, I wrapped my arms around her. "It's gonna be alright. I'm sure your mother can be reasonable about this."

"Doubtful," Gianna muttered.

As if on cue, Julie entered stage left from the living room. Gianna tried to back out of my embrace but I held my arms tightly around her while steadily meeting Julie's shocked gaze.

"Please tell me what Josh said isn't true. Please tell me you two haven't been sneaking around behind our backs."

Gianna's spine straightened as she backed out of my arms. "Mom, quit being so dramatic. You make it sound so dirty and seedy."

"It's wrong! You two are stepsiblings! You aren't supposed to date!" Julie was about to lose it, if she hadn't already.

"We're related through marriage. It's not like we're blood-related. We didn't even know each other until recently," I pointed out.

Julie turned towards me, eyes flashing. "I don't want to hear your attempt to defend it, Caleb. I welcomed you into my home and this is how you repay me? By defiling my daughter?"

"Dammit, mom, quit making it sound like that. Caleb cares about me and I care about him. Plus, no defiling has taken place." Gianna then unthinkingly added, "Yet."

I groaned inwardly. That was not a smart thing to say right now.

Julie's face turned red with anger as she practically frothed at the mouth. "This is going to stop right now! I've already called Scott and he's on his way home. Gianna, go to your room. Caleb, wait in the living room for your father to come home. I'm going to go start dinner. This will all be settled shortly."

Gianna let out an exasperated sound and ran up the stairs. I did as my wicked stepmother ordered and sat on the couch. This should be interesting. Twenty minutes later, I could hear my dad pull into the garage. When he came in through the garage door, I heard Julie already bitching at him about me.

My dad entered the living room with Julie at his heels yapping like a dog. "Tell him to stay away from my daughter, Scott."

My dad looked tired and stressed. "Caleb, is this true?" He already knew it was true. He found out about it weeks ago, but maybe he didn't want Julie to know he'd been keeping it a secret for us.

Standing up so we were all on equal footing, I tried to explain. "Yes, but it's not the way Julie describes it. She makes me sound like some sort of sexual predator. I'm serious about Gianna. We haven't even had sex yet,"