The Step Brother

Chapter Twenty Three*

As soon as we get home after Liam's, I'm pulling Harry into my bedroom to finish what he started earlier.

"Eager, baby?" Harry teases against my lips. I choose not to answer him and begin to work at his belt. "Oh no you don't. My mum is downstairs, and I have to go." He smiles and pushes me away from him.

"What?" I look at him out of breath. I could kill him right now.

"I'm meeting Zayn to go work on my bike. I'll be home for dinner." He smiles and kisses me chastely on the lips. "Love you."

"You are such a tease, Harry Styles." I groan and fall back onto my bed. I hear him laughing as he leaves my room and heads downstairs.

When I hear Harry downstairs telling Anne he is leaving, I decide it was probably best for him to leave. It's a miracle she hasn't caught us yet, but I'm very thankful for that. I badly want to tell her and my dad, but I still don't think that's a good idea. It sucks to keep it a secret, but I don't think they would allow it.

Now what am I supposed to do?

Maybe I can help Anne with dinner. I've been spending all of my time with Harry, and I really should take some time to get to know Anne better. She is a lovely woman, it was just hard at first because I didn't want her to replace my own mother, and now that I've finally accepted that she would only ever be my step-mother, I've spent all of my time with Harry.

I go down to the kitchen to find Anne rolling out some type of dough on the counter. "Hey, what are you making?" I ask her.

"Oh hi, Chloe. I didn't know you were home." She turns to face me and smiles. "I'm just making some bread. I'm so stressed out with all of the wedding planning, and baking is really therapeutic."

"What are you stressed about? Is there anything I could help with?"

She laughs softly as she kneads the bread dough. "Everything, sweetie. But today, I've been trying to decide how I want to do my hair. I had my hair in an up-do for my first marriage, so I was kind of thinking of leaving it down, but my hair is so boring down."

It takes everything in me not to tell her to calm down and relax because the wedding isn't for another two months, but I know that won't help. "I think you should leave it down, too. Maybe you could curl it?" I suggest.

"I'm terrible at doing my own hair. Straight is about all I can manage." She sighs as she arranges the dough in a pan and brings it to the oven.

"I could do it for you?" I offer. "It'll only take a half hour or so, maybe we can do a practice run right now? See if you like it?"

I'm going crazy over here and I need a distraction from the ache between my legs. This should give me something else to think about until Harry returns.

"Oh Chloe, that would be lovely. Are you sure?" Anne claps her hands together in anticipation.

"Yeah, it's no problem." I smile.

She moves to the sink to wash off her hands. "Do you mind doing it in my bathroom? There's a chair in there, and I can show you my choices for the bridesmaids dresses if I find my iPad around here."

"Sounds good. I'll go plug in my curling iron and meet you up there?"

"Wonderful. Thanks, Chloe."

I go back upstairs and grab my curling iron from my bathroom and bring it to my dad and Anne's bathroom. Once I get in there, I realize I've never actually seen it, and wow. It's huge. It's almost bigger than my bedroom back in Arizona.

I plug in the curler just as my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out to see a text from Harry.

From: Harry What are you up to?