Mask - A Stepbrother Romance (3 page)

I sighed and put my elbows on the table, listening to Dad drone on. He asked me about absolutely everything, from current girlfriends to future plans, completely avoiding the one topic that I’d been expecting and dreading all at once. I was barely answering, being more than a little childish, but this was all far too strange for me to know what the hell to say. I wasn’t sure what kind of impression I was giving Elena, but I just didn’t care. Whether my Dad seemed different or not, I still wasn’t getting involved with his new ‘family’ until I knew whether or not he’d really changed, or if this was all the bullshit act I’d initially assumed it was.

Elena excused herself to the kitchen, then returned and set a wooden board with garlic bread down on the table. She glanced at me a second later, a bright smile beaming across her face, and I found myself smiling back, even though I hadn’t planned on it. She just had such a kind and friendly face; it was difficult to ignore her.

“All right, it’s all dished up, and I think I hear Rayna’s cab outside. I’ll just go and get her.”

As she stepped out of the room, I waited for the other shoe to drop, but my father kept up the pretense of being a born-again family man. At least I thought it was a pretense—honestly, it had to be. This change was just too dramatic to be real.

“So, are you glad to be back?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“How is your…” It seemed as if he was actually going to ask how Mom was—something he’d never done before—but we were interrupted by Elena and her daughter coming back into the room.

I didn’t turn around to look at them, and I kept my eyes firmly focused on the garlic bread in front of me. I was determined to stick to my guns and to make zero effort to get close to the two women.

“So, Jace…” Elena sounded nervous now. “This is Rayna.”

Dad arched a brow at me, silently commanding me to turn around and say hi, and I rolled my eyes.

“Hi,” I said, shooting a brief glance at her. The girl had long dark hair and a rocking body, but that was about all I noticed, and even that felt like too much. I’d prefer to know nothing at all.

“Hi, Jace,” she replied quietly. “I’m Rayna.”

The hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood up. Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it still stunned me to my core. She sounded exactly like my American mystery girl from last night.

Shit, could this mean…?

Nah, of course it didn’t. It was just a coincidence that they sounded the same, and there was no way this Rayna chick was the girl from Tom’s party. American people came to England all the bloody time, and London was a huge city. Just to make sure, I looked up at the girl, expecting to see a totally unfamiliar person looking back at me, but inste
ad I felt like I’d been hit in the guts by a sledgehammer and had the wind knocked right out of me.

It
was
her—the girl from last night.

Oh, fuck. Even without the black lace mask on, I’d recognize her sparkling eyes anywhere, and I had to say, she was even more beautiful than I remembered now that she was bare-faced and standing here in the light of day.

Rayna Silva.
So that was my mystery girl’s name. It suited her; feminine, sweet, and decidedly unique. Part of me was glad that I knew it now, but the rest of me was thunderstruck.
Shit, shit, shit
. I’d almost fucked the girl who was soon to be my stepsister…and judging by the look on her face, she felt awkward as fuck. No wonder she’d taken off like a bat out of hell when she saw my face last night.

As soon as she caught my eye, I flashed her a smug smile, and a violent red blush filled her cheeks, just confirming even further what I already knew.
A-ha.
I still had it. She hadn’t left last night because she didn’t want me…she’d left because she knew I was going to be related to her soon, in a technical sense.

Rayna quickly averted her gaze from me and started eating, and I watched her carefully. I could sense the coldness emanating from her now, and she was clearly trying to pretend she had no idea who I was, but that didn’t matter. She could ignore me all she wanted—it didn’t change the fact that I had her panties in my pocket.

And I was going to have a lot of fun with that little fact…

Chapter 3

Rayna

Crap. He knows.

As soon as I saw the flicker of recognition cross Jace’s face, I knew my life was never going to be the same again—as long as I was in England, anyway. If Jace hadn’t known who I was, I could’ve slowly forgotten about the night before and let it pass. I could’ve pushed it to the back of my mind and locked it in a little memory box labeled
‘Do not open…ever.’

But no, he knew exactly who I was. It was obvious in the way that he was staring at me.

I fixed my eyes on the expensive china plate in front of me and began to stuff food into my mouth as quickly as possible in an attempt to get all of this over right away. As much as I was desperate to look up to see if Jace was still staring at me, I refused, because I couldn’t let him know I was affected by his presence. It would be far too embarrassing, especially if anyone else at the table caught on. I couldn’t let our parents suspect a single thing, because that would be horrendous, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine the humiliating problems it would cause.

“So Rayna, are you ready to move your things in here, or are you going to remain at your friend’s house for a little while longer?” Gerald asked, flashing a smile in my direction.

I stared at him, unable to comprehend anything other than Jace’s presence right now, let alone speak.

“Are you all right?” Mom asked, frowning when I didn’t reply.

“I think she’s just got a mouthful of food,” Jace said with a genial smile. He leaned forward so that only I could hear him, pretending to grab the pepper grinder as he whispered something to me. “And you nearly had a mouthful of me last night, huh?”

What?
What the hell was his problem?

I shook my head and gulped, trying to ignore him. “Sorry, Gerald. I was just a bit spaced out for a sec. Anyway, I think I’ll just stay with Liana for a while lon—”

“No, you’ve gotta move in here so we can all be a real family,” Jace interrupted, smug smile still fixed on his handsome face. I stared at him with horror, silently asking ‘
why?
’ with my eyes. Surely he must find this at least somewhat awkward, and yet he was insisting I move into the manor. What the hell was he playing at? If he thought he was going to get a repeat of last night’s show, he was sorely mistaken. Now that I knew who he was, there was no way I was ever going to touch him again, let alone anything else.

“I think Jace is right,” Mom said. “Gerald and I are all settled in together now, and you’ve had enough time to hang out with Liana. Besides, you can see her anytime. You need to be here with us, so we can get used to being a family.”

“I…um…” My voice trailed off as I tried to think of an excuse—any excuse—to not move in, but my mind was blank. I didn’t really have a choice. I had to be here for my Mom, and I didn’t want to make things awkward for her new relationship by refusing to participate in our new family, so I had to say yes.

I finally nodded and forced a smile. “Sure,” I said. “I’ll get my stuff from Liana’s place soon.”

“Wonderful,” Gerald boomed as Mom gave me a relieved smile.

I dropped my gaze back to my plate, but I could feel Jace’s eyes practically burning a hole in me. What a creep. Why couldn’t he just let me eat in peace?

My mind drifted back to last night, and I remembered the way he’d touched me…the way he’d kissed me…the way he’d made me feel…no, I had to stop thinking about it. What was done was done, and we couldn’t take it back, but that didn’t mean it had to stay on my mind. The further back I could push the incident in my head, the better.

“…oh, and one thing I need to mention to you two kids is the fourth floor.” I could hear Gerald talking again now, and I had no idea just how long my mind had been elsewhere, but it must’ve been a while, because everyone else had almost finished eating.

I glanced up and smiled quickly, just to let Gerald know that I was actually listening to him, and he continued. “It’s being renovated, but the workers are currently on a hiatus. Something to do with some big union strike at their company. Anyway, it’s just a mess up there, and thick with dust seeing as the workers haven’t been up there for a couple of months now. It’s pretty dangerous while it’s only half-finished, so it’s best to keep out. The main stairwell that leads up there is right next to where your new room will be, Rayna—in the east wing of the third floor. Anyway, it’ll all be okay once it’s done, but for now I ask that you both just keep away from the fourth floor.”

“Sure,” I said. I couldn’t help but wonder just how big this damn house was.

“Okay.” I watched Gerald slide back in his chair, scraping it along the ground. “Elena, we need to go and meet the wedding caterer at three o’clock, and we also need to see my lawyer about getting all those cars transferred over to your name.”

“What cars?” I asked.

Gerald looked over at me with wide eyes, like he’d already forgotten I was here within the last five seconds. “I…er…it’s nothing, dear,” he said hurriedly. “I’m just giving your mother one of the sports cars from my collection, that’s all. Something to drive around in, right, darling?”

Mom nodded, and I arched an eyebrow. Gerald was sure acting weird about his cars, but then again, I hadn’t been around many rich people before. Maybe they were all this weird about their stuff.

Gerald turned back to Mom. “So did you want to head out now? Thank you for lunch, by the way. It was divine.”

“Yes, that sounds lovely,” she replied. “Let me just clear the table and get the dishes done first.”

Gerald waved his hand. “Nonsense. Leave that to the maids.”

“All right. Let me just touch up my lipstick and grab my coat.”

I snapped my head up, my body suddenly flooding with panic. They couldn’t go out and leave me and Jace alone in the manor—what the hell was I meant to do? I didn’t even know exactly where my new room was yet, so it wasn’t like I could escape to it.

As if he could read my mind, Jace smirked in my general direction, then turned his attention to his father. “I’ll show Rayna to her new room while you’re out and help her get settled in. I’m sure she’ll need some help taking her clothes off….taking her clothes
out,
I mean, of her suitcases and such.”

“Thanks, son. That’s very nice of you,” Gerald replied.

I narrowed my eyes. Jace hadn’t misspoken just then. He was just trying to get a rise out of me by talking about taking my clothes off, the prick. Why the hell was he making things so damn awkward between us?

Also, when the hell had my Mom become such a Stepford wife? I’d never seen her so keen to wear lipstick and do housework before. I’d always known her as a free spirit; the kind of woman that other mothers referred to as a ‘hippie’. She’d gotten pregnant with me at twenty-two, despite her very traditional parent’s wishes for her to be married to some Harvard-educated lawyer and put off having children till she was thirty-five, and after my father had left her for her best friend—something she rarely spoke of—she’d focused only on me. For as long as I’d been alive, she’d never gotten into another serious relationship, claiming she didn’t want to be tied down, and that was what made all of this so bizarre. She was almost too smitten with Gerald, wanting to be perfect for him, and I wondered how long the charade would last before she finally snapped and started to act like her usual self.

I allowed my horrified eyes to skate around the room until they met Jace’s, completely shaking all thoughts of my Mom’s odd behavior right out of my mind. He was still staring at me as if our situation was the funniest thing in the world; as if he had no reservations whatsoever about us being left alone. This sent a burst of rage coursing through my veins. How dare he find this funny? None of this was even slightly amusing.

In fact…

Something had just occurred to me. This was entirely his fault! His mask covered half his face last night, meaning that I was unlikely to recognize him until he took it off, whereas my face was almost completely exposed in my flimsy lace mask. There was no way he didn’t know who I was; Gerald was bound to have shown him my photograph before Mom and I moved over here. So he’d kissed me, felt me up, turned me on and stripped me, all while knowing we were going to have to live together as brother and sister.

What kind of sick game was he playing?

Suddenly I didn’t want to hide away. I wanted to have it out with him. There was so much that I needed to say, and I was going to do it as soon as our parents left, while I was still feeling so damn pissed. He had it coming, and I had no intention of holding back.

“Will you be all right with Jace showing you around?” My mother fixed me with an intense gaze, almost as if she could tell that something was wrong. “We won’t be too long. I can help you unpack as well, once we’re done.”

“I’ll be fine, Mom,” I said. “Take your time.”

“All right. Don’t get up to too much mischief, kids!” she replied.

“We’ll try not to, but I can’t make any promises,” Jace said. Gerald and Mom chuckled, not realizing that Jace probably wasn’t kidding, and I rolled my eyes.

I stared directly at him as I heard our parent’s fading footfall in the hallway a moment later. He grinned at me again and began to speak, but I jumped in immediately, not allowing him to continue with whatever bullshit line he wanted to give me.

“What the hell kind of game are you playing at?” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “How could you do what you did, while
knowing
? Did you think it’d be funny or something? Because let me tell you, it’s not funny at all.”

“What are you—?”

I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “Don’t play dumb. You
knew
. You knew exactly who I was, and you knew I was about to be your stepsister. So you tried to seduce me when you saw me last night, and now you’re making all these sleazy comments just to be a dick and make things awkward for me. God knows why, but that’s clearly what’s happening.”

He cocked a brow. “Ever heard the saying ‘it takes two to tango’? Because I didn’t
try
to seduce you last night…you were all over me from the minute I started talking to you.”

My cheeks flushed with warmth. “That’s beside the point.”

His lips twitched, as if he still found this whole debacle to be entirely amusing. “Well, you’re completely wrong, anyway. I didn’t know who you were; I hadn’t even seen a picture of you. I haven’t been here with my father for a long time. Until last week, I was living at my mother’s place in Edinburgh.”

“I thought you said were from Manchester when we talked at the party,” I said, narrowing my eyes.

“Actually, if you recall our conversation properly, I said I
used
to go to uni in Manchester, up until a year ago. I dropped out of my course, and I’ve been up in Scotland with my Mom ever since. I definitely haven’t been here at my Dad’s, looking at photos of you. Today is the first day I’ve come back to the house and spoken to Dad properly.”

“Sure. How convenient.”

“No….
this
is convenient. For me, anyway.”

I watched him reach into his pocket and tug something out. As he opened up his hand, showing me what it was, I felt my heart drop into my stomach. I’d recognize that pink lace anywhere—it was my panties from last night. I’d completely forgotten them as I’d run out of the bedroom at the party house, and he’d obviously picked them up and brought them here to torture me.

“Oh my god…give that back!” I said, trying to snatch the panties from his hand.

As I did so, he yanked them back and shoved them in his pocket again. “As I was saying, it’s pretty convenient for me that you left these last night,” he said, looking smugger than a cat in a bowl of cream. “Because I’m not going to give them back until you’ve learned to behave. And if you don’t behave, I can always show them to our parents and tell them what happened between us…”

I scoffed. Was he twelve? “Go ahead and show them. I’ll just say you stole the panties from my drawer or something, and that you made up the rest of the story.”

I could also say they simply weren’t my panties, but my Mom would recognize them from whenever she’d hung out our washing back home. They were pink lace, but they had a distinctive keyhole cut-out near the top with a purple bow, and she’d always remarked on what cute undies they were.

He pulled out his cell phone and held it up. “What if I call them right now and make them come back? They’ve only just left, so they aren’t too far away…and how could I have possibly gotten my hands on your underwear drawer in the last five minutes when your stuff hasn’t even arrived from your friend’s house yet? I think they’ll believe my side of the story over yours, and you wouldn’t want Mommy dearest to find out what her only daughter’s been up to, would you? Hooking up with her new stepbrother…naughty, naughty.”

I folded my arms. “You aren’t actually my stepbrother yet, and you wouldn’t actually call them.”

“Wouldn’t I?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “You’re not being very friendly to me, so maybe I
should
call them. But if you start being nice to me, I’ll be nice to you in return.”

My heart began to thump loudly in my chest as angry adrenaline coursed through my veins. “Sure you will,” I said sarcastically. “God, I can’t believe I thought you were hot last night. You’re just an ass.”