My stepbrothers seduction

Aria is playing with fire

Adria held two cones, one for her and Lily, and Nathan had two for himself and his girlfriend.

Lily squirmed happily as she collected hers from Adria.

“Thank you, sister,” she said to Adria happily, immediately lounging into her cone.

“Mmmm. It tastes amazing. Do you want to have a taste?” Lily said to Adria and only offered her, no one else.

Adria couldn’t help but smile. “Enjoy yourself, I’m loving mine,” Adria declined.

Lily looked at her cone, “What’s that?” she asked.

“Biscoff. Have you ever tried it? It’s my favorite,” Adria said as she pushed it towards Lily.

“It actually looks good. You got Nathan to try it too?” she asked, sounding amazed. It’s not something that was normal.

Adria just smiled in response.

“I’ll try his instead then,” Lily said as she turned towards her brother, who she was sitting beside.

“But she offered you, why take mine?” He looked hurt and pissed.

He seemed to be really enjoying the flavor.

“Because you didn’t want to get ice cream to begin with,” she shrugged as she forcefully collected his cone and took some.

Her eyes widened pleasantly, “It’s so nice!” she yelled. “Come, it’s better than mine,” she said with a frown.

She took another scoop, followed by another, then another.

At this point, it was obvious that Nathan wasn’t getting back his Biscoff ice cream.

Adria could swear that he was cursing under his breath, and she couldn’t hide a chuckle.

“Here, take mine,” she said to him as she handed him her cone.

“I’m not heartless,” he snapped.

Adria raised her hand in defeat.

“I didn’t say you were.”

Chloe’s cold voice came from the corner; it was almost as if they forgot she was there. They didn’t even notice she didn’t get even one scoop of the ice cream in her mouth.

They were busy bickering like kids.

Funny what ice cream does to even adults.

“So you two got the same flavor, huh? Is it a step-sibling thing that you guys do now?” she suddenly snapped.

Well, Adria saw it coming.

But she didn’t expect her to be so calm about it—it made it feel scary.

“I’m sorry, I was the one—” I started to explain before I’d get my hair pulled. Chloe just seems like the type.

“It’s just ice cream flavor,” Nathan said, totally interrupting me.

Just?

He calls her favorite flavor just?

Adria rolled her eyes and went back to enjoying her ice cream. He was such a jerk.

“Right,” she said flatly as she looked at hers.

Adria couldn’t believe she was about to ask her this, but she did anyway.

“Do you want mine? It’s really good. You should try it,” Adria said to her as she offered her own cone.

For some reason, that made Nathan extremely mad, and he wasn’t even hiding it.

“No thank you!” he said to Adria harshly before Chloe could even answer.

What did she do?

Did this guy just find fault in whatever she did, even when she was genuinely trying to be nice?

The look on Chloe’s face was even more annoying. She looked like she was finally happy Adria got called out.

Adria took in a deep breath and nodded, then gave a half-witted smile.

Lily wasn’t happy either. She looked up at her brother without saying a word, but he ignored her too.

Taking ice cream never felt so uncomfortable and annoying. But she would scale through.

Let it be in the records that she tried, and it was thrown right back at her face.

She was done being nice to him.

“If it isn’t Ria. Hey, princess,” Adria heard a familiar voice behind her, and she turned to see it was Jordan.

She jumped out of her seat in happiness.

“Hey! Jordan!” she called back as she stood up to greet him, carefully trying to avoid staining him with her now-dripping ice cream.

“How come everyone knows this spot except me?” Adria whined, and Jordan laughed.

“Jace just brought me here, and I was already picturing bringing you here,” he said to her, then his eyes darted to the three seated at the table.

The younger girl was so invested in her Biscoff that he was sure she didn’t notice him.

“I’m sure you were the one that made her try Biscoff,” he said, chuckling.

It was cute how she couldn’t even raise her gaze.

“Yeah right,” Adria said, laughing.

Jordan noticed Chloe, whose eyes were fixed on Nathan, and Nathan’s gaze never left Jordan and Adria.

He remembered him. He was the guy that was beside her the day he went to pick her up from school.

The handsome guy who looked at Adria like she was his queen and he would do anything for her.

They weren’t dating, no. But they could.

Adria liked him just fine, and it was obvious he hadn’t asked her out yet.

His scrutinizing gaze came off as a glare, and Jordan wondered if he should be worried for himself.

He still tried, though. “Hey man,” Jordan greeted, and Adria wished he hadn’t.

But she was too slow.

Nathan didn’t shake his hand back; he just looked at him with a flat expression.

Adria scowled at him. “Don’t think about it,” she said, turning to Jordan.

Jordan nodded.

“You look pretty,” he said to Adria, and a slight blush appeared on her cheek.
She remembered when she had a full-blown crush on Jordan in grade 8. She would automatically become a tomato whenever he said hi.
Now look at them—she managed just fine.
“Thank you,” she said to him. “Oh, I see Jace and Seven,” she said with a pleasant laugh.
“You want to go say hi?” he asked her.
She gave it a thought. Lily seemed to be doing just fine. Nathan would be happy if she just disappeared, and Chloe literally hated her.
“Hey Lily, I’ll just be down there when you need me, okay?” Adria called out, and Lily smiled up at her and nodded.
She smiled back, pushed her arm into Jordan’s, and began to retreat.
“No one taught you manners?” Nathan’s voice suddenly rang out.
Oh, he has a voice? Adria suddenly wondered.
Jordan looked at him. “Are we good?” he asked calmly.
In fact, Jordan answering itself was something she wasn’t accustomed to. Normally, he would just ignore.
“I don’t know, are we?” Nathan retorted.
“What do you want? Huh? You hate my presence, I’m helping you get rid of it, and it’s still a problem? Leave my friends alone,” Adria snapped as she pulled Jordan away with her to the table across.
Nathan’s jaw tightened as he glared at their backs.
Adria couldn’t care less. She was pissed but tried to hide it with laughter as she reached her friends.
They all stood up to hug her one by one.
And Nathan watched.
His anger kept on growing.
She was so f*****g hot-headed. She never listened.
Just like him, he realized.
And he hated it.
He hated that he couldn’t bring her to bend to his will.
Everyone bent to his will and he loved it. But maybe that was what made her interesting, right?
It was her fierceness that got him interested in her.
And every single damn time, he wanted to get under her skin—just to see how she would react.
He couldn’t tear his gaze from her, not when she was laughing like that.
He had never seen her laugh like that, not since they met as “step siblings.”
But now she was laughing hard, and each time leaning into that guy.
Were they more than friends?
Friends with benefits maybe? Nathan almost chuckled at the look in the guy’s eyes. Jordan.
He adored her.
His heart would get shattered. Nathan was almost sure about that.
He watched them closely and didn’t even try to hide that he was watching them. It was either she was pretending not to notice or she was completely engrossed in whatever they were talking about.
She brought her cone to her lips and licked from it.
Her tongue darted out to catch a drop of ice cream at the corner of her mouth, but the way she did it—lazy and deliberate—felt anything but innocent.
He knew she wasn’t innocent. He knew his stepsister was far from innocent. And he wanted to see the real her. The one no one else knew…
His gaze dropped to her lips before he caught himself and looked away.
He looked away—too fast.
Like he hadn’t just spent a second too long watching her tongue glide across her lip.
It was just ice cream.
Just a normal, stupid moment. And yet, something twisted low in his stomach, tight and familiar.
He cleared his throat and reached for his own ice cream, which Lily had left for him to melt.
He looked down at it. He didn’t want it.
He didn’t want to look back up either. He shouldn’t.
His girlfriend was sitting right in front of him, and he was looking over her head to look at his stepsister, who was also a brat.
That thought didn’t stop him. He looked up at her again, and this time her gaze was already on him.
But she didn’t look away. She flicked her hair behind her ears as she listened to whatever Jordan was saying with a smile on her face.
She held his gaze until he felt the need to look away. Just before he did—catching on to what Chloe was saying—he could have sworn he saw a smirk appear on her lips.
Was she learning to play back with fire?