Bad Boy - A Stepbrother Romance by Caitlin Daire, Alyssa Alpha Page B

time now. “So we should just act like stepbrother and stepsister, huh? Like friends.”
    She nodded. “Yeah.”
    Well, friendship was better than nothing—certainly better than having Rory hate me like she had in the past, anyway.
    “I’m guessing the friendly sibling package deal doesn’t include any more of those lap dances?” I teased.
    Even in the moonlight, I could see her cheeks flushing violently. “I can’t believe I did that,” she said. “What’s wrong with me?”
    I playfully nudged her. “Wine is what’s wrong with you. It’s okay, though, you already seem to be sobering up.”
    “I think I sobered up the second you threw me over your shoulder and I realized I’d just been doing a stripper dance for the guy I’m meant to hate.”
    I chuckled. “Well, at least something good came out of it. You gave me a chance to explain the Clancy’s thing, you don’t hate me anymore, and we’re all good now. Right?”
    “Right. Friends,” she said, smiling weakly and extending her hand to me. “Just friends.”
    Yeah…just friends.
    I took her hand, and a spark of electricity shot up my arm as we shook. I ignored the feeling, had to push it away, because Rory was right—we couldn’t fuck up our parents’ relationship by getting any more involved with each other than we already had. We had to be friends and nothing more.
    Permanently.
    “Finn!” she said, pointing towards the sky a second later. “Look at that! It’s a shooting star.”
    My gaze followed her finger and indeed, there was a star falling down, its tail brightening the sky in a beautiful arc of light.
    “You have to wish for something,” I said with a grin. “And don’t tell me.”
    “Okay.” She was smiling as she closed her eyes, concentrating on her wish. It was adorable, and I had a sudden urge to pull her into my arms and never let her go. She peeked out before I could do that, frowning at me. “Hey, you have to do it, too!”
    I nodded, looking back at the star which was gone in a flash. And then I wished for something, wished so hard my hands formed fists and my brows furrowed.
    And like a stupid, naive child, I believed my wish would come true.
    Maybe, just this once, it would.

Chapter Ten
    Rory
    Twenty minutes later, I was back in my room, and Finn had returned to his suite after promising me that he’d keep the party noises down to a dull roar. Truthfully, I’d wanted to stay out on the rooftop with him all night, but it would’ve been rude of him to completely abandon his friend’s bachelor party, and it would’ve been wrong of me to ask him to stay with me.
    We both knew why.
    After I’d finally discovered that Finn was well and truly single and had been since we first met, a flurry of conflicting emotions had swept through my mind. I’d barely been able to speak coherently enough to apologize for treating him like crap for the last few weeks. Part of me had felt utterly elated as his words sunk in, and then it had all come crashing down when another part of my brain reminded me that our parents were together—even if we wanted each other, it was a terrible idea. Sure, there was a chance it could work out, but considering how most young relationships failed, the last thing we needed to do was make things awkward for our family by dating and most likely breaking up somewhere down the line.
    Besides, even though Finn wasn’t the cheating prick I’d initially thought he was, that didn’t mean he was the relationship type. I was pretty sure he wasn’t, and I wasn’t the ‘friends with benefits’ type of girl, so it wouldn’t have worked out anyway….although when I’d seen the shooting star, I’d wished it would.
    Oh well. At least we’d sorted out our issues enough to be friends now. That was better than sneaking around and avoiding each other or sitting through yet another awkward, tension-filled meal with our family.
    I sighed and checked the clock on my bedside table, wondering where my dinner