Badass: A Stepbrother SEAL Romance by Linda Barlow, Alana Albertson

dark room, panicking.
    Shane rolled his eyes and whispered back, “Fuck that. I am not hiding. What the hell is he doing out there?”
    “Cassie?” my father said, again, his voice still very quiet. “You sleeping, sweetheart? I didn’t want to miss our Christmas Eve carols.”
    Oh God. Tears pricked my eyes as I realized. I wanted to throw open the door and hug him for remembering. But I couldn’t do that.
    Every Christmas Eve when I was a child, Dad and Mom used to come into my room as I waited for Santa, all excited and restless, and sing me Christmas carols. Daddy had a really nice tenor voice.
    The Christmas carol lullabies had stopped when I’d declared them “cheesy” as a teenager. But after Mom died, Dad started coming to tuck me in when I was home from college for the holidays. Mostly we would just hug each other and cry for Mom, but sometimes he would sit down on the end of my bed and sing. It was good for both of us—taking us back to happier days when she had still been alive.
    On Christmas Eve, my father would always sing O Little Town of Bethlehem and Silent Night, two of my favorite carols.
    He had done it last year.
    Now he was here to do it again, and part of me yearned for it. I guess I’d figured that now that he was with Molly, he would forget.
    Shane seemed far more relaxed about this disaster than I was. He had lain back down again, looking smug. I don’t think he’d really give a shit if we did get caught.
    He pulled me down, too. “Just pretend to be asleep. What’s he gonna do—break down the door?” he breathed in my ear. Then he started fondling my breast again. When I squirmed, he murmured, “Don’t make a sound.” He stroked my nipple with his fingertip, sending pleasure shooting through me again. “Better control yourself, babe,” he taunted, adding a little pinch to my pebbled breast. “Don’t want Daddy to hear you.”
    Dammit! What was wrong with him? If we were caught it would be terrible. Embarrassing. Worse than embarrassing—it would horrify both my father and his mother. It might even ruin their plans to get married. Tear up Dad’s relationship with the only woman he’d loved since my mother had died.
    Was that what I secretly wanted?
    No! I missed my mom—I ached every time I let myself think about her—but I’d already come to like Molly a lot, and I wanted my dad to be happy.
    All this went through my head at lightning speed, making me even more ashamed for not kicking Shane out the moment he’d entered my room. He probably thrived on risk, stealth, living on the edge. He didn’t care about our parents’ happiness. He just wanted to get his rocks off. Sexual fulfillment. Gratification. That had been all he wanted from the start.
    And I’d surrendered. Just because he had those merry blue eyes, that roguish smile and the best male body I’d ever seen naked. Not to mention a certain natural talent for fucking my brains right out of my head.
    There were no further knocks on my door. I heard Dad’s footsteps moving away down the hall. He hadn’t wanted to wake me up.
    When I heard his door click shut, I sat up and glared at my partner in crime. My pussy was still clenching from the nipple play and his nearness, but I couldn’t let him win this round. He was so smug. He didn’t give a damn. This couldn’t go on.
    “This can never happen again. I mean it, Shane. It’s over.”
    He rolled his eyes. He pulled away, but not before giving me another long, sweet kiss on the lips.
    I watched in silence as he gathered up his clothes, dressed. He even took the used condom with him, wrapping it in a tissue and stuffing it into the pocket of his jeans. He wasn't leaving it in my bedroom to incriminate me.
    God, I felt like a guilty teenager.
    “And don’t let my father see you or hear you. If he knew what we were doing, it would break his heart.”
    “I don’t give a shit about your father or his heart. But I do care about my Mom, so don’t worry.” He