Mine - A Stepbrother Romance by Caitlin Daire Page A

then I’d have to get her home safely.
    I had a beer and caught up with some of my friends who I hadn’t seen in a while, but it was hard to concentrate on any conversation when I had one eye on Arizona the whole time. Right now she was munching on a party snack and talking to some redheaded girl she’d just met across the other side of the room, and I looked over my friend’s shoulder and narrowed my eyes as a giant of a man approached her.
    I didn’t recognize him, but I could tell he spelled trouble. Giant was probably a gross understatement. He put every other guy in the room in his shadow, even well-built guys like me. At least six foot five with the kind of muscular, tattooed body that was only possible through pumping iron and abusing steroids, he had the jawline of a beast and bright blue eyes that looked ready to put out fires.
    And he was heading straight for Arizona.
    Every other chick in the place was eyeing him up, but he ignored them and cocked an eyebrow as he said hi to her. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, so I excused myself from my friends and stepped closer, not missing the blush that was spreading across Arizona’s cheeks.
    “So you wanna dance?” the guy said, leaning in closer.
    “Oh…um…okay, sure,” she replied, her face reddening even more.
    She took his hand and followed him over to where a bunch of drunken partygoers were already dancing, and something inside me boiled over. No fucking way. I didn’t like her much, and I sure as hell wasn’t happy about her being here, but there was no way I was going to let her go off with a walking amino acid like that. I knew exactly what guys like him were about. Everyone thought I was bad, but I was tame compared to some of the predators around, and he was definitely one of them.
    His ice blue eyes smoldered as he looked down at her, and he roughly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her in close, moving to the beat of the music in fluid steps.
    Fuck that. I strode over and grabbed her arm. “Sorry bro, gotta talk to my little sister for a sec,” I said, staring at the guy. He reeked of pot and Paco Rabanne cologne. What was this, the seventies?
    He grunted and put up a mild protest; obviously a man of many scents but very few words. Arizona glared at me.
    “Your Dad called,” I lied. “Come on.”
    The guy let her go, but I could feel his eyes on my back as I led Arizona away from the party and up a darkened hallway.
    “What are you doing?” she protested. “Did Roy really even call?”
    “No,” I replied. “I was just saving you. You’re welcome.”
    “Saving me from what?” she asked, glaring daggers at me. “From dancing with a nice guy?”
    “He’s not nice, trust me. That dude was shadier than an umbrella factory.”
    “Do you even know him?”
    “No, but I can tell.”
    She crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to hide her cleavage from me, but the action only pushed her tits up further. “You’re just pissed that I’m actually having fun. I know you were trying to humiliate me tonight, but you failed at that. Too bad. Now leave me alone.”
    I leaned in close so that her back was almost pressed up against the wall. “So what, you’re just going to go fuck every guy at this party to prove something to me? Okay, I get it, I shouldn’t have tried to embarrass you, but that doesn’t mean you need to go slut it up with the first skeezy gym-bro you find.”
    Her dark eyes flashed at me. “I’m not going to fuck anyone, as you so delicately put it. I never have, and I’m not going to start now with some guy I just met.”
    “ What ?”
    Her hand clamped over her mouth as she realized what she’d just said, and I pulled back. “You’ve never…you’re a virgin ?”
    “Shut up,” she said. “It’s none of your business.”
    Fuck. Seeing her standing there in the skimpy nurse’s outfit I’d given her, with all her curves and sexy pouts, there was no way in a million years I’d have ever