Stepbrother Takes (His Twisted Game, Book Five) by Chloe Hawk

 
 
 
    STEPBROTHER TAKES (His Twisted Game, Book Five)
    By Chloe Hawk

 
    Copyright
2015, Chloe Hawk, all rights reserved.   This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.   All characters are eighteen or older.

 
 
    AVERY

 
    It was unbearable.
    I couldn’t take standing here at this
stupid photo shoot, trying to pretend everything was okay.  
    I tapped my foot against the floor
impatiently, counting the seconds until I could be alone with Cole again.
    Why?   So you can ask him why he never
mentioned he was engaged to Lucy Caro, ask him what she has to do with the man
who followed you, with whatever secrets he’s hiding?   He’s not going to tell you anything, and you know it.  
    Could it really be a coincidence that
Jeffrey had mentioned Lucy to me just an hour before she showed up at Cole’s
photo shoot?   Had Cole requested
her to be the model for his ad?   And how else was Lucy involved with Cole?   There was no way Jeffrey would have mentioned her if she was
just someone Cole had been involved with romantically.   There had to be more to it than that.
    I blinked away the tears threatening to
spill down my cheeks.
    Every one of my nerves was on high alert,
my body so tightly wound I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin.
    Kalia glared at me, shaking her head at
the sound of my foot tapping on the hardwood floor.   “Can you stop that?” she asked.   “The photographer needs to concentrate.”
    I wasn’t in the mood to put up with her
attitude.   But before I could come
up with a bratty reply, Cole came walking out of the dressing room, knocking
the breath right out of me.
    He was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans that
hugged his tight ass and muscular thighs.   A black t-shirt under a dark grey leather jacket set off his broad
shoulders and his hair had been slicked back.   His eyes burned bright blue, and there was just a hint of
stubble on his cheeks, giving him an air of mystery and danger.  
    “Okay,” the photographer said.   “Let’s get started with the shots of
the two of you, then we’ll let Lucy go and we’ll shoot Cole’s solos.”
    From what I could tell, the photo shoot
was part of the mega advertising blitz for Cole’s dating app.   The app was a mix between Tinder and
Facebook – it would show you people in your immediate area who were
looking to date, but they were all friends of friends, so there was at least a
little bit of a vetting process.
    The premise of the spot they were
shooting was that Cole, the founder, actually used the app himself and Lucy was
the girl he met.  
    All of this information had been relayed
to me by Kalia as soon as I came out of the bathroom.   I couldn’t believe I’d been able to retain any of it.
    Lucy took her place with Cole behind the
white backdrop.
    “Any instructions?’ she asked as a makeup
assistant adjusted her hair around her shoulders so that it looked perfectly
tousled.
    “Just go with it,” the photographer
said.   “We’re looking for playful,
yet sexy.”
    “That won’t be hard,” Lucy said.   “Will it, Cole?”   She laughed and pushed her back into
his chest as he slid his arms around her waist.   The photographer began snapping away.
    Cole was tall and broad-shouldered,
dwarfing Lucy, even though she must have been at least five-foot ten.   They looked perfect together, so
naturally beautiful.   This was the
kind of girl Cole should be with – gorgeous and successful and
confident.   Not someone like me, who
had nothing figured out and nothing to offer.
    Stop,
Avery, I told
myself.   It’s just acting.   They’re
in a photo shoot together. It’s pretend.   She’s a model.   She said herself
that they’re not together anymore.
    It was true.   Actors did this kind of thing all the time, even kissing and
shooting sex scenes with each other.
    But still.   Cole wasn’t really playing a role.   He was playing