TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

11

Chapter 11

Jace

I lay in my bed later that night, wondering why it had been so damn easy to open up to Rayna. I never discussed my past, not with anyone, yet with her it had been so simple. I'd basically poured my heart out to her at the reception-not the worst parts, but the general story of what had happened to me in the last two years-and let her know exactly who I was and why I'd become this way. It was the truth, and I'd finally admitted it; admitted that I'd become a huge douchebag in the last couple of years. But that didn't mean I had to like who I'd become.

With Rayna around, I was beginning to think there was another way through life.

If she could like me and accept me for who I really was deep down, then surely others could too. I usually found it difficult, if not impossible, to talk about my feelings and experiences with my friends, and I couldn't even discuss it with my family. To be honest, that was the reason things had gone so sour with my Mom recently. When I dropped out of uni and moved in with her to try starting afresh a year ago, she couldn't understand how much I'd changed; how I'd gone from a normal kid to the trashy idiot I'd become. I didn't understand it either, and I didn't know how to stop. I fell in with all the wrong people again, and before I knew it, I'd fucked things up irrevocably.

But that was a story for another day.

Anyway, Mom just didn't know how to cope with all of that, and I didn't know how to explain my reasons for acting the way I was to her-I couldn't even explain it to myself until now-so although she never expressly told me to leave, I knew it was for the best. Sometimes things just didn't need to be vocalized for them to be completely obvious. I hadn't wanted to hurt her any longer, so I'd left at the first chance I'd gotten and wound up back in London....right here with Rayna.

So the move really had been for the best. With someone as cool and understanding as Rayna to talk to and share my concerns with, I could seriously start to move on and get a real fresh start to my life.

I yawned and closed my eyes, trying to get some much-needed sleep, but my phone rang, delaying that for the time being. I checked the caller ID to see that it was my friend Tom.

"Hey, man," I said as I answered. "How you doing?"

"Good, good. How's your new job going?"

"Pretty decent. Typical finance stuff, but it's all right," I said.

Truthfully, the job I'd recently scored at my Dad's friend's company bored me to tears, but it was still a job, so it was better than nothing. I wasn't doing anything I really wanted to in life, but I was still lucky to have the sort of connections that could get me jobs. It was more than some people could boast.

"Cool. Oh, and how was the wedding?"

"It was pretty good," I said, my mind instantly snapping back to the conversation I'd had with Rayna at the reception. We'd agreed to be friends from now on, but deep down, I knew it was simply an excuse to start being around her again without making her feel awkward. There was nothing that could stop me from wanting her, but now that our parents were officially married, there was nothing I could do about that.

"Cool. Anyway, I'm having a Halloween party next Friday night. You in?"

"Sure," I replied. "Can I bring someone?"

There was only one person I wanted to take as a date, even though it wouldn't be a real date by any means.

"Of course, the more the merrier. You bringing a girl?"

"Yeah. Just my new stepsister, though," I replied.

A part of me wanted to claim that Rayna was my girlfriend, just so she would be out of bounds to everyone else at the party, but everyone would soon figure out who she was, so there was no point in doing that.