Page 2 of The Problem with Playboys

Oh right. Are you meeting your stepbrother?

Her stepbrother was Parker Sullivan, an arrogant sports agent with the client list, bank account and movie-star good looks to back it up. A total playboy. They’d never met. Chloe’s mom’s marriage to Parker’s dad had beenthatshort. Chloe had done plenty of snooping online though, and she could admit that she’d perused more than a few of his photos. From a purely subjective standpoint, the man was awfully nice to look at.I think so,she replied to Taylor.

Good luck. Call me when you’re done. I need that drink!

Will do.

Chloe decided she should text Parker to give him an update on her arrival. Her mom’s divorce lawyer had given Chloe his number, but Chloe and Parker had not yet communicated.

Hi Parker, this is Chloe. I’ll be at your dad’s house in a little more than an hour. Would appreciate it if you could have my mother’s things ready. She wanted to make this as fast as humanly possible.

Sure thing, sis.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at her phone and quickly tapped out a reply.I’m not your sister.

Sorry. Step-sis.

Chloe hadn’t even met Parker and she’d already formed an opinion of him. Yet another impossibly good-looking rich guy with absolutely nothing to lose.Not for long. The divorce is final soon.

But not yet.

“What a jerk,” she said, knowing that Liam would never answer. Apparently everything she’d ever heard about Parker Sullivan was true. Chloe didn’t want to think about what it was going to be like to meet him face-to-face. She had a well-documented weakness for cocky guys. She could hear Taylor and Alexandra scolding her.Stay away, Chloe. Stay away.

An hour later, they’d reached the ultraswanky enclave of Sagaponack. Chloe had been out to this part of Long Island many times, mostly for summer parties in the Hamptons. She wasn’t particularly impressed by the miles of pristine lawn, the sprawling estates and the grand homes, but that was only because she’d grown up around this much wealth and opulence. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the finer things—she absolutely did. It was more that the shiny veneer could only hide so much. In the end, all families had common threads. Secrets. Deceit. If you were lucky, love or kindness. But money made everything more complicated, and the folks who lived out here had decades-old piles of it.

Liam pulled up to a wrought iron gate, entered the temporary passcode they’d been given and began the drive down the crushed-stone driveway. On either side were manicured hedges and stretches of bright green grass as far as the eye could see. Ahead was the mansion owned by George Sullivan, Parker’s father. Generations of Sullivans had lived here, all of them financiers and bankers. Chloe appreciated that Parker had broken free of that mold and gone into a different line of business. Score one for Parker.

Liam brought the car to a stop in front of a grand entrance with wide stone steps and a towering double front door. He hopped out and rounded to Chloe’s side of the car, opening her door. She swung her legs around and took Liam’s hand, but Chloe wasn’t particularly tall and it was a bit of a drop down. Her skirt hitched up her thigh a little higher than she would have liked. Her feet landed on the rocky driveway, her heels teetering on the uneven surface. She quickly straightened her clothes, then looked up only to see Parker standing in the doorway. His thick chestnut brown hair, impossibly sculpted features, and penetrating blue-gray eyes were even more impressive in person. But it was the smirk that really caught her eye. He’d seen that whole mishap with her skirt. And he’d loved every second of it.

Parker hadn’t anticipated getting such an eyeful of Chloe on their first meeting. That glimpse of her creamy thighs definitely had everything in the vicinity of his hips running hot. Even better, her cleavage when she bent forward to straighten her skirt—she wasn’t busty by any means, but what she had was perfect. He could imagine them fitting just perfectly in his hands.

She was pure poetry in motion as she strode toward the front door, hips swaying in that tight skirt, lithe legs shown off with a pair of criminally sexy sky-high heels. He’d seen photos of Chloe, every one of them showing a very pretty face, big brown eyes and lush red hair. But the flesh-and-blood version of her was a total bombshell. It was like she’d been downloaded from one of his fantasies, the sort of woman he dreamed up in his head when he didn’t have female companionship but still needed a release.

“You must be Parker.” She ascended the staircase like a goddess, but he could also tell from her tone that she was exactly like every type-A rich girl he’d ever met—a little uptight and just begging to be unraveled. He loved the challenge of that. He lived for it.

“And you must be Chloe.” He reached out his hand to shake hers. For a moment, they stood there, palms touching and looking into each other’s eyes. The electricity between them was immediate and a bit shocking. Parker had chemistry with lots of women. But he’d never been former stepsiblings with any of them.

“Do you want to bring me my mother’s things or should I come inside?”

“Right down to business, then?”

“Yes. I’m meeting a friend for a drink back in the city. I don’t want to be late.”

Parker stood back and invited her in with a sweep of his hand. “That’s too bad. It seems like we should get to know each other at least a little bit. My dad was married to your mom, after all.”

“For just under eight months,” Chloe said, stepping inside and turning back to him. “A blip on the map for my mom, I’m sorry to say.”

“I hear you. My dad’s marriages keep getting shorter. It won’t be long and he’ll be asking his lawyer to draw up divorce papers during the engagement party. But he still insists on getting married. I don’t get it. Why bother?”

Chloe slid him a look that said she was surprised by his insight. “That’s exactly what I keep asking my mom. Why allow yourself to get entangled in someone else’s life? Just sleep with the guy, go to parties with him and on nice vacations. It’s not that hard to keep things casual, is it?”

If only she knew how much she was turning him on right now. “I totally agree. One hundred percent.”

Chloe looked around the foyer, her gaze landing on the box sitting on one of the antique upholstered chairs flanking a marble-topped chest of drawers that had been in Parker’s family for generations. “Are those some of my mother’s things?”

“That’s everything.”

“What? No. That can’t be possible.”