Page 2 of Hold Your Breath

“No, not really,” I admit with a sniffle.

“Shit,” the man blurts. “Hold on a second.”

“I have nothing but time.”

The man chuckles and I wait like he asked.

“Fuck, bro! Don’t stare at my dick unless you plan to do something about it.”

The man snorts. “Nothing I haven’t seen before. Willow is on the phone, and she sounds upset.”

I hear Micah scoff. “Willow, this better be good. I’m kind of busy right now.”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I had no one else to call. I need your help.”

“Have you called your mom or the guy you live with?”

Micah brings out the worst in me. I’m not normally a petty person—I’m nice to everyone I meet—but when I get mad, my mouth has a way of taking over.

“Oh shit, why didn’t I think of calling them first? Oh wait, I did, then thought,No, I better not,because I’m fucking naked and tied to a chair in my bedroom and the only person I could call was you. Don’t worry, I’ll just call emergency services and one of your firefighter buddies can come and cut me free. They can laugh about itwith you later.”

“Damn, I love it when you get mad.” His words are followed by a chuckle. “I will be there soon.”

He ends the call, and I try to wiggle my legs free. That way, the first thing he sees when he walks in isnotmy coochie spread wide open. This is going to make family dinners extremely awkward. I’ll have to move, maybe somewhere hot like Australia, so I won’t ever have to see him again.

Regret hits me hard. I should have just called Bray and begged him for a favor instead.

Fuck my life.

Chapter Two

Willow

Dash just confirmed how long it’s been since I called Micah. An hour—sixty long minutes. That asshole made me wait. The sound of a truck pulling up has my heart thumping against my ribcage, even though guys as hot as Micah don’t look sideways at a girl like me. At least we are stepsiblings, and I can file this under weird situations we helped each other escape.

Once, when I was in high school, he came home with hickeys all over his neck, and our parents would have sent him away to some military school. He begged me to help him cover them up with my makeup, as my mom wasn’t born yesterday, and if he started wearingturtlenecks, she would have known something was suspicious. In contrast, Thomas, Micah’s father, is a docile man, and he probably wouldn’t have noticed.

“You really shouldn’t leave a spare key under the welcome mat, Willy. Anyone could break in and have their way with you!” Micah shouts from the front door.

“Dick,” I mutter under my breath. I’m going to kill him as soon as he cuts me free.

After a few minutes, the door handle to my room twists open and I wait, my heart thumping in my chest. I know as soon as the blindfold comes off, I will be beet red and die of embarrassment.

The material slides up and I blink, ready to cuss out my asshole stepbrother for making me wait so long. However, I’m stunned into silence when it’s not Micah standing in front of me. No, instead, it’s the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my life. His shirt is stretched tight over his chest, and his jeans hug his thick legs. His brown hair is cropped short, and his green eyes smile without making this situation worse.

A second man walks into the room, his mouth opens, and he pauses for a second. He’s probably shocked that I am actually naked and tied to a chair.“Yo, Brookie, we found her!” he finally announces.

This man is also smoking hot. His dark hair is styled as if he is on his way out, and his dark eyes don’tsparkle; rather, they seem more unimpressed about having to be here. His muscles strain against his shirt and my embarrassment shoots up to a hundred as he smirks at me. “It seems you have gotten yourself into a bit of a pickle.”

I huff as Micah walks through my door.

His blue eyes give me a quick once over, and he bellows out a laugh. Like the other two men, he is all muscle, which I suppose he needs since he is a firefighter. His blonde hair is styled, and it seems I’ve interrupted a boys’ night out.

“Can you untie me, and we can forget this ever happened?”

Micah stops laughing and shakes his head. “I don’t know, Willy. I feel like I need to hear the story behind this. You don’t simply land naked, blindfolded, and tied to a chair every day.”

“You never told us your sister looked like this,” the first guy who entered the room says. I thought maybe we had a moment, but clearly he was in shock, and my heart sinks.

---