Claimed By My Mafia Stepbrother

Lisa’s POV. Sure the dress was much too scandalous for a sixteen year old to be wearing, but that wasn’t what was on my mind right now, what was on my mind was the image of my stepbrother’s shocked face when he actually sees me in it, maybe for once he’d finally look at me like a woman and not just throw sideways glances my way, if you could even call them glances. “I still don’t get why you’re so eager to get him to notice you,” Shonda says, her voice cutting through my daydream of being held in Xander's strong arms. I glare at her then gently fold the purple dress and drop it on my bed. “Of course you don’t understand, I’m sure you don’t know what it’s like to love someone.” “Love? You’ve only ever met him twice!” She objected, her eyes widened with disbelief and she looked at me with the expression one might have on their face when a child says something absolutely ludicrous. I scoff and look away from her. Yes, since my father married his mother we’d only even met twice, hell, saying ‘met’ was a strong word as both of those times he’d barely even glanced at me and we hadn’t said a single word to each other. It seems ludicrous and absolutely crazy that I like him, considering the fact that he is my step brother and we haven’t ever interacted, but there was something magnetic about himself, something dangerous that preceded his repulsion by miles and I could have sworn that the one time our eyes did meet, he’d felt that magnetism too. “That’s so… weird,” Shonda wrinkles her nose. “He’s your step brother for God’s sake.” I shrug. “I didn’t say I wanted to f**k him or something,” I mutter under my breath, gently, I run a hand down the soft fabric of the dress and once again all that’s in my head are the images of his eyes tracing every curve of my body that will surely be visible in this dress, I could imagine his eyes tracing the exposed length of my legs, up my hips, they’ll linger on my breasts and then… “I just want him to notice me,” I continue. “He’s twenty-one, you know,” she added again. I shrug. “I’m aware of his age.” Very aware, I knew his age, his birthday, his favourite colour, favourite places to hang out and a lot of other things that I probably shouldn’t know. “That doesn’t scare you?” She inquired. I shrug again. “Like I said, I just want to blow his mind away. I don’t want him to look at me and see a dumb, little teenager. I’m a grown woman and I’d show him tonight.” The party was already in full swing when xander arrived. As expected, most of the guests stopped what they were doing and turned to watch him walk in, obviously drawn in by that raw magnetic power as I was, only this time, his tall, handsome suit-clad form isn’t the only thing worth seeing. My heart shattered to pieces when I noticed the curvy, blond woman hanging off his arm. Her pretty face is devoid of makeup and yet it manages to be smoother than most of ours. The red dress she has on compliments the colour of her skin, it’s skintight and it makes me feel scrawny when compared to her full, luscious curves. I watch them, even when everyone else turned and continued their chattering. I watch them approach my parents, I watch her shake my father’s hand and hug my stepmother, I even creeped close enough to them to hear him introduce her as his girlfriend. I felt gutted and stupid and… I wanted to fade away into nothing. What was I thinking? “Lisa?” Shonda whispers. I don’t reply. I don’t move… I don’t even breathe… all I feel is shame and embarrassment. Suddenly, I wanted to shed this dress and just wear the green, frilly thing my father had insisted I wear. I didn’t want to be seen anymore, I wanted to hide and never be found, if that meant my embarrassment would fade completely. “I’m fine… I just…” I swallow my tears and force a bright smile on my face. “Like I said, I never really expected anything to come from it… I just wanted to…” I gently wipe a palm down my dress. The music starts then and I grin at her. “Let’s find dance partners, hm?” I didn't give her a chance to reply before trotting away in search of someone I could actually dance with and that person came in the form of a honey haired boy named Dax, the son of my father’s best friend, the boy my father was practically pushing me to marry. He grinned when he saw me and before I could make my retreat, he approached, confident and a little hesitant when he eventually stopped in front of me. “Hey there, Lisa,” his voice is cool and calm, but not as cool as xander’s, not as deep as his and it certainly doesn’t make my heart flutter. “Hey Dax… um…” I try to think up an excuse as to why I can’t dance, but it’s like he sees where my mind’s going, because he grins and extends an arm towards me. “Wanna dance?” I let out a sigh and reluctantly accepted his hand. It’s not like I had a choice anyway, saying no to him was risking his family and my family falling out, he wasn’t an awful person, unlike most of the boys from other influential families. He was respectful, polite, dignified and probably the man I’d end up marrying anyway, it was best I learned how to get along with him now and get all those irrational thoughts of xander out of my head. My face flushed when I remembered how I’d fretted over my looks before I came down here. I was sure, so sure that he’d catch one sight of me and instantly be filled with awe. “Are you alright?” Dax whispers. I nod and force a smile onto my face. “Yeah, I’m fine, just the humidity and my feet are killing me,” I force my voice to be light and chirpy, it seems to have worked because he shoots me a faint smile then sucks in a breath. “Lisa, I-'' he starts, but he’s interrupted by someone roughly dragging him back by the shoulder. My mouth dropped open when I noticed Xander standing there with a clenched jaw and a hand resting on Dax’s shoulder. Dax glared at him and roughly shrugged his grip off. My heart rate tripled when Xander’s cold eyes scanned my face briefly then dip down to glide over my dress. “Ella,” he muttered in that husky, deep voice. “Come.” That’s all he said and before I could get a word out, I’m being dragged out of the bubbling hall and down the empty hallway. The last thing I saw before I’m dragged out was Shonda's shocked face and the fury in Dax’s eyes. I can barely keep up with xander’s longer strides and I’m immensely grateful when he tugged me into a room on the other end of the corner and turned to me with perusing eyes. My heartbeat accelerated. “Is- is there something wrong?” I hate the way my voice trembled. I had hoped that in our first conversation, I would speak to him in a low, sultry voice, one that sounded mature and not clumsy and scared. “You…” That’s all he says and my brows furrowed in confusion. “Me?” I blurted. “Your dress,” he said again, and my breath hitched. He’s close, too close, I couldn’t read his face, it was as usual, blank, cold, emotionless… “My dress?” I’m beyond confused at this point, it doesn’t help that his body is caging mine against the pillar I had leaned against moments ago. His eyes slowly raked over my body from head to toe, lingering at the outline of my tiny waist and the exposed expanse of skin on my chest. His Adam Apple bobbed. My body trembled. “It’s awfully short. Aren’t you a little too young to be dressed in something like this? Like some whore.” His words bursted the bubble of anticipation and nerves surrounding me. That wasn’t what I had expected his reaction to be, and my mouth drops open at the words he just uttered. “Excuse me?” My cheeks reddened, not from embarrassment this time, but from rage, hot rage and shock at how cruelly he speaks. “You heard me. You’re only what? fifteen? And your father let you come out looking like this?” My blood was boiling with anger as I squared my jaw and tilted my head backwards. Despite being in high pumps, he still managed to tower over my five feet two frame. “How the f**k is that even your business?” I snap back. “It is my business, you became my business the moment our parents got married, don’t think you can walk around dressed like a w***e and expect me to stay quiet about it,” He hissed and I could see a vein throbbing on his forehead. I shove him off me with all my strength and take a step towards the door. “f**k you, Xander, f**k you for thinking I give a s**t about anything you have to say about me.” I turned to leave and he snorted. “Where are you going? Back to Mortimer’s son?” He’s talking about Dax, I don’t answer, but I still pause and suck in a breath. “Is he the one you dressed like this for? That filthy bastard? What the f**k are you even doing with him? Clearly, you have very low standards,” his words come out very carelessly and I feel my chest heat up even more. “Then again, if you were dressing up for him, it had better not happen again. He’s a bastard and you should stay away from him.” His words are like a slap on my face and I had to suck in a breath to keep from breaking down right there and then. “I don’t need your stupid opinions, and go f**k yourself,” I flung at him before sharply pulling the door open and walking out with tears stinging my eyes. How the hell did I get attracted to such an egotistical ass*hole?