Stepbrother Romance: After Mine (Contemporary Stepping Book Series) by GP Joyner

Prologue
    I sat in
traffic staring ahead at nothing in particular. The road looked
busy and everyone seemed to be going home to their families, home
to their wife and kids, home to their husbands and loved ones. Not
me, I must have been the exception that day, I was moving in a
completely opposite direction from the mass. I was going to meet
him that day and we were going to spend the whole night together.
He was married with three kids and had probably lied that he would
be on a business trip for the weekend. I knew his family, I knew
them well. How could I not? I was the MC (master of ceremony) at
their wedding and my daughter (who was two at that time) had been
their flower girl. I have witnessed every birth, every birthday,
every christening and every Christmas tree. They say that the enemy
you know is better that the one you don’t but I beg to differ.
Ignorance is bliss; whatever you do not know will not hurt you and
such was our case. My husband and I had separated and I had been
left to raise a daughter by myself. Being a single mother is not
easy but he had made it easier on both of us. I at least had the
advantage of not introducing a stranger into her life and having to
explain who he was and where he had all of a sudden come from. To
my little Shantell he was simply “Uncle Gavin”.
    So it all boils down to one thing, how do I feel
about this affair that I have been having with my strep brother for
the last 8 years? Who do I see when I look in the mirror? Am I an
adulterer or fornicator? Is it really incest if you are not really
related to the person by blood?
    I look at my wrist watch for the millionth time that
day and just as I was debating to text him and let him know I was
coming late, my cell phone rang. My heart felt lighter and happier
when I realized it was him and I let out a smile as I answered
him.
    “Hello”
    “Hi”, I said “I was just about to call you, I am
stuck in traffic but I should be about ten minutes late”.
    “Usual place”, he replied and I could tell that he
was equally excited to hear from me.
    “Ok”
    “I have already ordered dinner, I hope you are in the
mood for shrimp?” he went on to say.
    “That is ok”.
    “Ok, I will see you in a bit”, he ended in a
finality tone before he hung up the phone. I looked around me and
could hear some of the cars start up their engines. It was a clear
indication that we were about to move and I could feel the
excitement in my crotch as I thought of Gavin. The rest of the
drive was smooth as I headed to the usual rendezvous spot and
parked at the usual spot too. I stepped out of the car with my
handbag and my small duffel bag in hand, parked for the night. I
looked up at the usual room and saw the lights on a clear
indication that he was in and patiently waiting on me. My head
however threw me back to when we first met how it all started and
how we had gotten this far and still not knowing anything about the
future. The picture was clear as day in my head and I smiled when I
thought of the day one more time. It was one of those moments that
you never want to recall and yet still has power over you in an
incredible way.
    Gavin and I were bonded through marriage; both our
parents were end products of divorce who somehow found solace in
each other. Gavin and I never really talked or tried to bond with
each other but we were somehow casual friends. We would exchange
the occasional casual greeting from time to time out of fine
protocol but nothing ever went beyond that. Not until ten years
later when I placed a call to him for help. My ex husband and I had
gotten into a very nasty fight and as usual he had gotten physical.
I had mastered the art of being a shock absorber but this day was
different, this time he was aiming for the jugular, badgering at my
Achilles and punching where he knew it hurt most. The only thing
that came to my mind at that time was Shantell and what would
happen to her if the father kills me. The image of my