Page 27 of The Stepbrother 2: Noah

“What, Maine?” I snapped.

“Did I say anything to you, Creed?” She had the nerve to have an attitude. Like her brother Jason, she was trying to make herself a victim to my pain. Jason had left with Devon, claiming he wouldn't speak to me again until I apologized to him. For what?

I hadn't been looking at her, but so she could get the full effect of my attitude, I swiveled my head in her direction.

"No, you didn't say anything, but you're staring at me like you want to."

“I just think it's funny when…”

"I just think it's funny" was how my mommy started a conversation where she was about to curse somebody out in the end. I just knew Maine wasn't about to play with me. I'd embarrass her so much she wouldn't be able to show her face.

Between what I learned when people spoke around me when I was little and unnoticed, and what I found out from inheriting God Daddy's estate, I knew a lot more secrets I could expose. I found no harm in keeping them quiet before the Devon and DJ situation happened. It wasn't like them keeping Maine's secret for her. Mine could ruin people I loved. They were better off kept quiet.

“You think it's funny when what, Maine?” I asked in warning. Ashley and Noah stood, waiting to see what happened next.

She rolled her eyes. “Nothing, Creed.”

"Exactly. Now go back to eating your fucking sandwich." I went back to eating my ice cream.

"Fuck you, bitch," Maine yelled. She slammed up from the chair, leaving the kitchen altogether. She knew I was not in the mood. I still hadn't gotten my wallet back, and now my keys had disappeared too.

Ashley followed Maine.

Noah took a seat beside me with a bottle of water. I could feel his aggravation with me wafting off of him like heat waves.

Neither one of us said anything right away.

He was the one to break the silence. “Is this what you wanted? Everybody afraid to say anything to you? Your parents' marriage in shambles? What's your end game?”

I didn't bother to spare him a glance. “All y'all had to do was give me my wallet and ID so I could leave, and none of this would have happened. By the way, how's your drop-shipping business going? Selling a lot of drop-shipping stuff?”

By my shoulder, Noah snatched me around to face him, his hand coming up to grip my jaw. My spoon clanked against the countertop. The smirk on his face said he had succeeded in doing what he set out to do, startle me and get my full attention.

"What is it that you think you know about me, other than that I indulge you in your brattiness?" His voice had dropped an octave. His grip on my jaw tightened.

"I know enough, Noah. Enough to know that not everything about you is as perfect as you all like to pretend," I spat out, knocking his hand away from my jaw. I stood up to get right into his face. With him sitting, we were eye to eye. “You forget who my best friend's father is, her husband? The whole time, you wouldn't take my parents' money because you're running around playing merchant of death by night and making millions.”

Imagine my surprise when AJ told me he knew Noah was in business with an A. Jackson, an arms dealer, and the son of a Russian, Nikolai, another arms dealer. Jackson was AJ's godfather. I had never met him or his wife, Lolita, but AJ bent the rules and made sure he didn't stay on the FBI's radar for too long, so Noah was safe from prosecution by the law, but not from persecution by me. The only reason I hadn’t told his secret wasthat he didn’t deserve my full wrath. Truth be told, I didn’t want my parents looking at him any differently." I had a soft spot for Noah that I couldn't make hard.

I leaned into him as he glared at me. "Your secret’s safe with me, though. It actually makes me wet." I grabbed his hand and slid it down into my biker shorts. His eyes fluttered to my mouth on contact with my pussy. "See," I said, leaning in and pressing my lips to his, then slid my tongue along the seam of his lips, until he opened his mouth, kissed me back, and used his ring finger to circle my clit.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Someone shouted from the other room.

Noah snatched his hand from my shorts as we both looked in the direction of the living room where the shout had come from. He was the first to move, pushing past me and heading that way.

When we entered the living room, Daddy had his rolling luggage at the front door, and Mommy was sprawled against it, crying. She looked a mess, with dark red eyes and snot all over her face.

“Move, Scarlett,” he sighed, sounding really fed up. Daddy stood about ten feet away from Scarlett.

“You’re not leaving me because of some shit that happened nearly fucking twenty years ago, after all you put me through!”

I could only see the back of his head, but I heard him sigh again.

“I said I’m fucking taking a week, not fucking leaving you, Scarlett. Cut out the melodrama.”

"Melodrama?" she echoed him. Straightening her long locs and wiping her face with the back of her hand, Mommy straightened and moved out of the doorway. “Fine,” she gestured, “Go. Butwhen you're strung out and popping pills, stay where the fuck you're at and call Tiffany.”

Daddy's hair brushed his shoulder as he shook his head. “Low fucking blow, whatever the fuck you say, Scar. This is exactly why I'm leaving. You're being mean for no reason.”

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