Read Hard: A Military Stepbrother Romance for Free Online

leave it a
minute longer.
    At
least she’s too excited to care you’re late…
    She
stopped abruptly when we entered the large entryway, turning to look at me properly
for a moment. My eyes were caught on the large, sweeping stairway set out in
front of us and leading up to a balcony that seemed to extend over this room
and further into the one to the right as well. Part of me was tracking entrance
and exit points, but the larger part just wondered how on earth my mother had
fallen in with this crowd. She was pretty, sure, but we’d grown up in squalor
and that sort of thing stuck - molding herself into the type of person
comfortable in this sort of atmosphere wasn’t something I’d thought she had in
her. I looked back as she touched my arm lightly and the slight hesitancy there
made my gut tighten.
    “Seth…there
are some things I’ll never be able to change, but I want you to know it’s
different this time. Just look at this place. Not our usual haunt, eh?”
    I
should have been able to match the wry smile that gave her, but instead this
was just strange. This wasn’t where we belonged, no - and it was never
something I’d wanted either.
    “There
was so much I wanted to give you growing up - and now, I can. We’ve had our
difficulties, but stay for a little bit, please? I know you can, that work at
the base is light when you’ve just only returned. We can have some proper time
together again. Just wait and see, this will be different.”
    The
anxious hope in her eyes hurt, all the more because I could read so clearly
what was written there.
    It’s
not too late, is it?
    A
question I didn’t know the answer to. I looked around again, at the opulence of
the surroundings, a place I didn’t fit and certainly didn’t want to stay if I
could be back at the barracks having a laugh. But I took her in again - the
soft glow of well cared for skin, the healthy weight she’d finally put on and
the attention in her gaze. She was right, it was nothing like any visit I’d
ever made. Almost as if she’d finally heard the frustrated suggestions,
lectures, pleas that I’d given up on giving her. It was what I’d wanted for her
for so long that I’d almost forgotten the desire.
    And
she was my mother - whatever that meant. Something in me refused to abandon her
now that she might finally be on the right track.
    Reluctantly,
I turned back to her and gave an inch, ignoring the unease still coiled within
me.
    “I’ll
stay. For a bit.”
    Her
smile lit the depths of the room and she wrapped her arms around me again,
returning to the excited girl-like state I’d never liked. But I couldn’t
begrudge her that, and followed when she finally led us to where my new
step-father to be was no doubt waiting.
    Just
what have I gotten myself into?
    Her
chatter continued as we navigated the broad hallways.
    “…I
know it’s too soon to say anything, but I really think we can be a proper
family now…”
    Family?
    I
didn’t get a chance to ask as she turned into a large sitting room and I
stepped through to see an older man standing waiting for us. My mother went to
him immediately, slipping her arm around his waist while I stayed by the door,
eyes measuring him automatically. His weathered face had the narrow features
that gave him an aristocratic edge and made him seem older than his
black-and-grey hair implied. The eyes had the same spark of stubborn
intelligence that I’d seen in the better officers I’d served with, but without
the deadly glimmer I was used to. It took all of two seconds for me to find the
slight disapproval I was looking for, but I’d already expected that.
    At
least he’s not a leather-clad biker bum.
    The
thought amused me and I let my familiar lazy, arrogant smile spread across my
face as I stepped forward with a hand out. His eyes narrowed but he shook it
with good grace and nodded.
    “Pleased
to meet you, Seth - I’ve heard a lot about you, and it’s always good to meet
someone serving in