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I'm about to give her a nasty reply when Dad cuts in on the conversation.
"Honey, this is Valerie," he says in an attempt to be placating. He takes me by the elbow and drags me to the woman in question. We shake hands, my grip limp and stiff at the same time.
"My Cassidy," Daddy presents me like I'm some trophy, and at least that makes me feel a little bit better. He may try to replace Mom, but he never will find a good substitute for me.
"Nice to meet you," Valerie answers. It annoys me to see the genuine smile on her face, because I've already decided I'm going to be a pain in her butt. If she's nice to me, that might make things more difficult.
A reply is out of the question, so I just give her a sulky stare.
An awkward silence follows, and then Dad clasps his hands together. "We'll be sitting down for breakfast in a bit, Cassidy; do you want to get changed before that?"
A look down my front tells me I should do as he says – my body is already a bit sunburned, my bikini leaving me exposed. "I'll be right down," I say.
Back in my room, I take off my salty bikini and discard it on the floor, then head down the hall to the bathroom to clean up. As soon as I walk in there, I realize someone left the shower on in the bathtub.
"Daddy!" I scream at the top of my voice. "You left the water running!"
I don't even bother to turn it off, too lazy to push the curtain aside, instead checking myself out in the mirror above the sink. I'm not your typical Cali girl – far from it. I look Irish, with my long red waves, green eyes and freckled skin. At least I'm pretty now, as opposed to the lanky figure I used to have, along with braces and hair that is always limp.
I grab a towel from the rack and wrap my naked body in it, my mind switching to the guy on the beach. It still makes me furious to just think of what happened, and I make a mental note to find out who he is. I can rip his head off next time I run into him.
My mind swims with murderous ideas as I rush to brush my teeth.
I finish, spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste. Just then, the water stops in the shower and I turn around, feeling confused. All of a sudden, someone pushes the shower curtain aside, and I scream in horror as a figure emerges.
My heart beating like crazy, I scramble away, my eyes wide with shock as they land on a muscular male body. I try to ignore the enormous cock between his legs – emphasis on try. But before I can stop myself, I take in his impressive length. My gaze travels upward, towards a sculpted face – a familiar face.
"What the fuck?" I yelp, throwing a towel at his head.
The guy from the beach is in my bathroom.
I repeat, the douchebag, hotter-than-hell dude from the beach. In my bathroom. Naked.
He laughs like he doesn't have a care in the world, catches the towel and wraps it around his waist. My eyes are glued to his body, my heart beating fast in my chest. Don't look, Cassidy!
But I do.
I look.
And then blush.
He comes towards me, and I screech in horror. "What are you doing in my house?" I demand to know. He closes the distance between us, stopping close enough for drops of water to hit my scorched skin when he shakes out his wet hair.
He looks at me with that evil stare, the ever-present smirk lighting up his face. "Sharing a bathroom," he says like it's the most innocent thing in the world.
That is the exact moment my dad chooses to burst into the bathroom, ready to fight. "What happened, honey?" he asks, his eyes scanning the room for potential intruders.
I raise a shaky finger, slamming it into beach guy's chest. "This! Goddamn! Guy! Is taking a shower in my bathroom!"
To my utter surprise and anger, my dad laughs. And the guy joins in.
"What is going on?" I ask, my voice shaky.
"Oh, Cassidy," Dad says, rubbing my head like I'm some stupid kid. "This is Dominic. Didn't I tell you about him?"
"It's Dom," beach dude corrects him before winking at me. My eyes follow a rivulet of water snaking its way down his chest … over his abdomen, towards the place barely covered by a towel. Holy hell.
I focus on finding out why his name sounds familiar.
"Fuck," I breathe when I realize what's going on.
"Language," Dad scolds me, patting Dom on the back. "Don't want to make a bad impression on your stepbrother, do we?"
This is my stepbrother? I pictured him as a fourteen-year-old with braces and acne. He doesn't look like he's obsessed with Spiderman, either.
