Read BIG: (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance) for Free Online Page A

avoided by girls who wouldn’t date me because of my body, and now...”
     
    “Let me guess...” Her gaze stayed focused on his face, on the way his eyes shifted from hers. “Women now only want you for your body?”
     
    “Sometimes it feels like it.”
     
    “Well, if you’re going to pick a problem to have?” She smiled when he raised his eyes to meet hers. “I mean, that’s not a bad one, is it?”
     
    “Maybe.” He tossed his shirt on the bar.
     
    “You know, I dated this guy once, this fucking gorgeous guy.” She made a face, remembering. “I spent the whole time thinking I was punching above my weight class, you know? Always worried I couldn’t measure up.”
     
    “You?” He snorted at that, shaking his head, his gaze moving over her, head to toe. That made her cheeks redden just slightly.
     
    “No, listen, seriously.” She met his eyes, trying to appeal to the man she knew was still in there. “You don’t have to be heavy or have bad teeth or bad acne or whatever to feel bad about yourself. I’ve been there, too. But Ric... you’ve always been attractive. Even at your heaviest. And now? Bloody hell, man, you’re gorgeous—inside and out. I think your head just has to catch up and realize it.”
     
    “Gorgeous inside and out?” he repeated, looking incredulous, like he didn’t believe her for a minute.
     
    “I’m blaming the alcohol for anything I saw tonight, just so you know.” Annalesa felt his amused gaze on her as she sipped. She hadn’t planned to say any of that out loud. But, since she had, she decided to go all the way. “You’re brilliant. You’re funny. You’re talented—you should’ve been on the Olympic shooting team, you know—and you’re the bravest man I’ve ever known.”
     
    “I can’t believe you’ve ever been self-conscious.” He gave her dark chestnut-colored ponytail a light tug. “You do know you’re one of the beautiful people, right?”
     
    “You make it sound like a club.”
     
    “I think it is.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “A club I sure as hell never thought I’d belong to.”
     
    “We’re all just people, Ric.” She wrinkled her nose. “Even that insufferable Cyril. He was model, you know. But he picked his scabs like a five-year-old. Gross.”
     
    “You were obviously too good for Cyril the scab-picker.” He laughed, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. “What did you say? You felt like you were punching above your weight class? You, my dear, could never be punching above your weight class. You’re in a class all by yourself.”
     
    His compliment made her flush and the way his fingers brushed her cheek made her shiver. “I met Cyril in a gallery in Paris. He was so handsome, I thought he wouldn’t look twice at me. Turned out he didn’t know much about art—turned out his hot little body was the subject of a lot of the photographs at the show. Also turned out he was a complete bastard.”
     
    “Have you ever dated anyone who wasn’t an asshole?”
     
    “I went out with a nice guy named Hans for a while. He was very sweet. But... I have to confess, I got a little bored. We just... didn’t click. No chemistry. There hasn’t been anyone else.” She had no idea why she felt the need to make it clear that she’d spent most of her time single over the last four years.
     
    “Are you going back to England?”
     
    “I thought I might move to Paris.” Annalesa shrugged. “See if I can get a place on a curator’s team in one of the big galleries.”
     
    “Why don’t you start your own gallery?” He looked at her like she was crazy for not thinking of it herself.
     
    “My own gallery?” She laughed at the thought. “Do you have any idea how much money you need to set up your own gallery?”
     
    “Uhhh...” He cocked his head at her, frowning. “You know what this trust meeting’s for, don’t you?”
     
    “Well, yeah.” She grinned back and rubbed her hands