Page 1 of Her Stepbrother Master (Master Me #7)

Sarah Wharton College for Women

Lorna Post Dormitory

LuAnn Walters had sobered up at least an hour ago and now she found herself fighting back tears.

Mrs. McCormick, their dorm mother had ordered her and her three roommates to pack up and evacuate their dorm room at Sarah Wharton Women’s College.

She sat in the parlor of the dormitory and drew her knees up to her chest, the remaining liquor in her stomach churning.

The words of the new hit Everly Brothers’ song “Wake Up, Little Susie” kept running through her head.

Yep, she was definitely in “trouble deep.”

“Remove your feet from the chair,” their house mother Mrs. McCormick snapped, her thick brows lowering over beady eyes. “A young lady does not sit like a six-year-old.”

LuAnn dropped her feet back to the floor and shifted. Her eyes burned from crying and her tongue had dried up in her mouth. Just a month from graduating, she’d really blown it this time. Her father would kill her.

Mary, a first-year student, still sniffled next to her, her handkerchief wound tightly in her fingers, her blond pin curls hanging limp. The door swung open and a short, portly man came in.

“Daddy!” Mary jumped to her feet.

“Not one word,” the man boomed, his expensive tweed jacket straining at the shoulders. He smelled of pipe smoke, which turned LuAnn’s stomach. He looked at Mrs. McCormick. “Where are her things?”

“They are already packed and standing in the hallway, Mr. Anderson.” Mrs. McCormick sounded pleased with herself.

“I am deeply ashamed that a daughter of mine has been expelled from Sarah Wharton College,” he said.

“As I said on the phone, Mr. Anderson, the girls have not been expelled from school, only evicted from the dormitories, since they have repeatedly broken the rules here. They will, however, be on probation.”

“Same thing.” Mary’s father took his daughter by the upper arm and tugged her roughly toward the door.

“She won’t be coming back. Obviously, she doesn’t take the education I’m spending a fortune on seriously.

I knew letting a girl go to college was a mistake.

Good night, Mrs. McCormick.” He pulled Mary out after him.

Mary cast a panicked glance over her shoulder at LuAnn, who shrank down further in her seat.

She was the only one left now. Who would pick her up?

Her father and stepmother were in Europe and Mrs. McCormick wouldn’t say who she had contacted in their place.

Her Aunt Betsy and Uncle Roger? She couldn’t remember who had been listed as her emergency contacts on her application and registration forms. Would they have listed her oldest stepbrother, Brian?

He lived and worked nearby in Hanover as an attorney.

She chewed her lip. What would her parents do when they found out?

Surely they wouldn’t pull her from school when she only had a month until graduation.

But she could hardly commute from home, which was two hours away.

The sound of a motorcycle roaring into the parking lot made Mrs. McCormick glare out the window. LuAnn’s heart jumped. Could it be?—?

A tap sounded on the door and it swung open. She looked up and caught her breath.

Her stepbrother appeared, but not the one she’d expected.

Brad, Brian’s younger brother, the rebel of the family and the object of all her teen fantasies, walked through the door in his leather motorcycle jacket.

His motorcycle helmet had tousled his wavy, dark hair.

He scanned the room, his gaze arriving on her face. “Hey, mouse.”

The pet name he’d given her when she was in middle school made something flutter in her belly. She stood up on wobbly legs. “Hi Brad,” she said, her voice cracking.

“Mrs. McCormick, I presume?” he asked, turning on his easygoing smile.

The housemother narrowed her eyes to scrutinize Brad. LuAnn imagined he looked a bit too much like the young men Mrs. McCormick had caught in their dorm room and not enough like a responsible adult here to claim his kin. “Yes...” She drew it out so it sounded more like a question than a response.

He held out his hand. “Brad Stanford, LuAnn’s brother.”

“Stepbrother?” Mrs. McCormick asked. “Or brother-in-law?” Clearly the different last name was taxing her brain.

“Stepbrother. You called our older brother, Brian, but he’s working through the night on a legal case and couldn’t get away. He sent me instead.” Turning to LuAnn, he asked, “What happened?”

She stared into Brad’s ocean blue eyes, her breath catching in her chest, as it always did when he was around. She’d had a paralyzing crush on him since the day he’d moved in with them when she was thirteen years old.

Brad raised an eyebrow, shifting subtly from the carefree rebel to the authority figure he represented.

LuAnn swallowed. “I broke some dormitory rules.”

Brad said nothing, as if waiting for her to elaborate.

“We were, uh, drinking. And smoking. And we sneaked boys into our room.”

Brad’s face grew serious. “I see.”

“It was not her first violation of rules, either. She’s been written up a few times already for smoking, sneaking out after hours and missing curfew,” Mrs. McCormick was happy to interject.

LuAnn pressed her lips together.

Turning to the older woman, Brad said, “I’m sorry for the trouble she’s caused.” He beckoned to LuAnn with a quick curl of his index finger. “Let’s go.”

She stumbled forward, still shaky from both the liquor and the disastrous evening.

The moment they stepped out of the office, Brad shocked her by smacking her backside, hard.

She jumped and scooted forward, out of his reach.

“You’re in big trouble, mouse,” he said.

She looked over her shoulder to see if he was serious. He had a way of teasing that always confused her.

He didn’t appear angry. In fact, he wore the same nonplussed expression as always, but her bottom sure stung.

“I know.” It was a safe enough answer. She’d be in big trouble with her parents when they showed up.

But did he mean she was in big trouble with him?

Her bottom tingled where he’d spanked her, heat flowing not only to the smarting skin, but to her sex as well.

She didn’t know what to expect from her stepbrother.

Worse, Brad’s stern demeanor embarrassed her more than if it had come from some other family member.

Even though he’d never thought of her as more than a silly little girl, she’d spent years tongue-tied in his presence, trying to show him she could be as cool as he.

To be treated like a child by him in this situation stung more than the slap to her bottom, which she reached back now to rub.

“Where are your things?”

“Over here.” She led him down the corridor to what used to be her dorm room. Her trunk and three suitcases stood packed outside the door, the stuffed bear Brad had given her for Christmas when she was thirteen sitting on top.

He picked it up and looked at her, cocking a brow.

She snatched it away, bending to pick up a suitcase to hide her flushing face.

Brad lifted the trunk as if it weighed nothing and marched down the hallway and out the front door, passing Mrs. McCormick without comment.

“Will LuAnn still be attending Sarah Wharton?” Mrs. McCormick asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, without turning back. “That’s up to her dad, I guess.”

LuAnn picked up the smallest suitcase and followed him as he marched through the parking lot, straight to her light blue Thunderbird.

Her father had bought it brand new for her when she went off to Sarah Wharton so that she’d be able to drive home on weekends to visit.

He’d always been generous with money—not so much with his time or approval.

“Keys, mouse.” He set the trunk down and held out his hand.

She lowered the suitcase and fished in her purse, pulling out the keys and promptly dropping them at his feet. “Sorry,” she said, breathless again as she stooped to pick them up. She bumped his arm with her head as she came up. “Oh.” She staggered back. “Oops.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but otherwise he ignored her antics, still holding out his open palm for the keys.

She dropped them into it. “Brad?—”

He hefted her trunk into the backseat of the T-bird, then placed her suitcase in on top of it. “What?”

“What are you...where are you taking me?”

“I’m taking you home to Surry, I guess. Wait here,” he said, turning to head back to the dorm.

She watched his back as he walked away, his wide shoulders strong and sturdy, the leather jacket giving him bad boy appeal. Brad had always been a ladies’ man. He’d had one year of high school left when he moved in with them, and he’d gone dancing with a new girl on his arm every other weekend.

While Brian had lived with them to attend a local college and all through law school, Brad had moved out right after high school, preferring to work his way through an architecture degree, living on his own.

She’d overheard their parents conjecture that he wanted his own place to bring girls home, which had only enhanced his mystique in her eyes.

She looked around the parking lot until her eyes fell on his Ducati parked near the door.

What was his plan? To drive her the two hours home and come back for his motorcycle?

And did he plan to just drop her off to stay at her parents’ house unchaperoned for the duration of their vacation?

She wouldn’t be able to attend her classes, and she was so close to finishing her two-year Associate’s Degree with a teaching certificate.

Brad returned with the last two suitcases and fit them in the trunk.

“Get in.” He lifted his chin toward the passenger side door.

“Wait, Brad,” she said, turning her best puppy dog eyes on him. “Let’s just discuss this for a minute. You can’t very well take me home and leave me there unchaperoned until my dad and your mom return.”

He pursed his lips, considering.