TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

1

Chapter One

Cade

"I blew Denver State's running back."

My so-called girlfriend, Jenna, stared at me with wide eyes, expecting me to be surprised by her revelation.

"I know," I replied, my face impassive.

Her eyebrows shot up. "You...you know?"

"Yep. I am very aware that you sucked his dick last weekend. And the weekend before."

"Then why didn't you say anything? Why did you even agree to meet me here tonight?" she asked, crossing her arms.

I yawned and gestured to my buddies from the football team, who were standing over near the Fairview Ridge Hotel bar. The bar was our usual hangout when we weren't on campus, seeing as the team had been banned from the college tavern a while ago for various reasons; apparently we were too loud and drank too much.

"I only found out a few hours ago, and I already had plans to meet up with the guys here. Figured I could get this over with and then have a few beers," I replied.

My friends grinned and waved over at us, and Jenna narrowed her eyes. "So what, you don't even care that I cheated on you? It took me, like, a whole week to get the courage to tell you!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said, my voice thick with sarcasm. "I forgot this was all about you."

"So you really don't care? You aren't even going to try to salvage this?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I stopped caring the second I found out that my girlfriend was fucking other guys behind my back. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to salvage. We're over."

"I never fucked him."

"Whatever. Blew him. Same thing; it's still cheating. So we're done," I said. "Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go hang with my friends now."

She stood up in a huff. "You're such an asshole. I can't believe you don't even care that we're...we're over."

She accompanied that last sentence with a sniff as crocodile tears welled in her eyes. I pointedly yawned again before waving at her, and she stormed out, the fake tears already forgotten. I gritted my teeth as I headed over to my buddies at the bar, knowing I'd done the right thing in not giving her the reaction she'd been looking for. Jenna had always been an attention seeker. I guess that's why she'd gone after me in the first place; she'd probably only dated me because I was the quarterback for the local college team, not because she actually liked me as a person or anything, and the last thing I'd planned on doing was giving her any kind of reaction tonight when I dumped her.

Truthfully, I had been upset when I'd first heard the news that my girlfriend had been sucking some other guy's dick; a guy from our biggest rival team, no less. But I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of knowing I gave a fuck, especially since she clearly didn't give a fuck about me.

"You okay, man?" my friend Blake asked as I reached the bar and sat down on a stool. He was my best friend from the team, and he'd been the one who initially found out about Jenna's unfaithful behavior and told me. There were no secrets between us boys; never had been and never would be.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I got you a beer already."

"Thanks," I said, taking the drink from him and clinking my glass against his. "To being single."

"Fuck yeah!" One of the other guys was raising his glass as well, and I grinned and took a sip of beer.

It was probably going to take me a while to trust a girl again, but that didn't matter. I was only nineteen, anyway, and I shouldn't have even been looking to settle down in any kind of relationship. Life for a guy my age was about playing the field and having one night stands, and that's exactly what I was going to do from now on.

Starting with that girl over near the pool table.

I'd spotted her when I was heading over to my friends, and the sight of her had almost been enough to make me forget that I'd just broken up with Jenna only thirty seconds earlier. She was fucking gorgeous. Long, straight chestnut brown hair, banging curves, sultry green eyes and pouty lips. She actually looked kinda familiar, but I was pretty sure I didn't know her, and in a small Colorado city like Fairview Ridge, there was no way I wouldn't have met her before unless she was a ski-season tourist who was just vacationing here for a while.

Besides, she was so fucking hot that it was more likely that I'd seen her on TV than actually met her in person. She made Jenna look like a hag, and a small smirk spread over my lips. Nothing like some hot pussy straight after a breakup to make me forget there'd even been a breakup in the first place.

Blake spotted her and nudged me. "You checking out that girl?"

"You know it."

"She's pretty hot. Never seen her before, though."

"Neither have I. She's probably just a tourist," I said.

"Weird. The snow hasn't even started yet this year."

"It will soon, though. Give it a week or so. Maybe she's more of a hiker type, anyway. They do better when there's no snow."

"Thanks for the weather update, man. Now shut the fuck up and go talk to her," Blake said, slapping me on the back.

I grinned and headed over to the girl. Up close, she was even cuter, and at six foot three, I well and truly towered over her. She glanced up at me as I approached, then went back to chalking a pool cue.

"So, where have you been all my life?" I said in a joking tone, whipping out the most pathetic old-fashioned line I could think of. I'd always found that if you used a shitty line like that on girls, they'd laugh and think it was cute.

Then again, most girls I met laughed and fawned over absolutely anything I said, because they knew who I was-Cade Blackwell, RMU quarterback and son of Keith Blackwell, one of the richest and most powerful men in the state. Most girls knew who I was before I'd even set eyes on them, and they'd say and do anything for a chance to hook up with me. Apparently that was all, though-they just wanted to hook up and not commit to anything, as evidenced by Jenna's infidelity.

The girl at the pool table didn't laugh at my stupid line, though. Instead, she raised an eyebrow and set the cue down beside the table. "Hiding from guys like you," she said.

Her voice was so sweet-and yet so jarringly familiar-that I was caught off guard for a second. "Huh?"

"You asked where I'd been all your life. So I said I'd been hiding from guys like you."

"Oh, right, duh. Very funny. Also very mean. You might have to buy me a drink to make up for it," I said, stepping a little closer.

That finally raised a small smile from her, and heat rushed to my groin at the thought of those plump lips wrapped around my cock. If I played my cards right, that might be happening sooner rather than later.

"How about this? Instead of me buying you a drink, you play me in a game of pool. If you win, I'll buy you a drink then," she said, arching one eyebrow.

"And if I lose?"

"You go back over to your frat buddies and leave me alone," she replied, nodding over at the bar.

Her eyes were filled with mischief, and I could tell she was just teasing, so I grinned.

"You're on."