Mine - A Stepbrother Romance (15 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ARIZONA

Mason and I had the house to ourselves again a few days later, but the close call with Layla had put a dampener on our crazy sex sessions, even when we knew we were alone. The risk had seemed all hot and forbidden for those first few weeks, but now we were both getting quite worried about what would happen if we were found out. I had no idea how Roy would react, and considering that we’d only just started to develop our father-daughter relationship, I didn’t want to ruin that by having him discover my wild affair with my stepbrother.

Right now, we were lounging around in the Jacuzzi that sat near the outside pool. Mason reached over to the edge to grab a beer, and once again I gazed at his tattoo and found myself wondering what it meant. Screw it. There was only one way to find out.

“What’s this?” I asked, gently running my thumb over it as he settled back into the warm bubbling water.

He hesitated, and by the look in his eyes I could tell that I’d struck a nerve. “It’s a tattoo,” he said, as if that weren’t obvious.

“I can see that,” I said. “I was just wondering what it meant.”

He took a long swig of his beer and then looked at me, an unfamiliar emotion clouding his eyes. “You really wanna hear about all my shit?” he asked.

“Of course,” I replied. “Besides, you’ve had to listen to all my crap for the last few weeks. I feel like I owe you.”

He sighed. “Fair enough. All right. I know what you’re thinking. You think Sammy was an old girlfriend or something, right?”

I didn’t reply, and he gave me a rueful smile. “It’s okay. That’s what everyone thinks. But it’s not like that. Sammy was my best friend when I was a kid. He lived just down the road from us, and my mother was close friends with his mother.”

“Oh,” I said. My stomach felt uneasy. On the one hand, I felt a strange sense of relief knowing that he wasn’t hung up on some ex, but on the other hand I knew that something bad must have happened to his friend if his name was permanently inked onto Mason’s arm.

“What happened?” I ventured a moment later. He was staring off into space.

“It’s okay,” I added hastily. “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine.”

“No, I’ll tell you. I want you to know me, but I don’t want you thinking that I’m some pussy little bitch.”

“I’d never think that,” I replied.

He took another long swig of beer and then began to speak.

“Well, like I said, we were best friends. We hung out all the time from the second we met. Anyway, my mother and his mother decided to have some yacht party one summer. I can’t really remember exactly how it happened, but Sammy went over the edge. He couldn’t swim, and by the time someone jumped in to try and save him, he was gone. Face-down in the water for too long.”

“Oh god. I’m so sorry,” I said, my forehead crinkling with horror as he told his story.

“The worst part was just having to stand there and watch. All I wanted to do was jump in and grab him, but I was only eight. I couldn’t swim properly, let alone rescue someone from drowning, and one of the adults was holding me back. I know they were doing it to keep me safe, but all I remember is this crazy sense of being totally out control. I hate feeling out of control. Always have.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. Oh, you poor thing,” I said, squeezing his hand.

He was silent for a moment and then continued. “I haven’t been on any kind of boat since. I just can’t. Even thinking about being out on the open water brings it all back. I sound like a total fucking pussy, don’t I?”

I slid over to him and wrapped my arms around him. “Mason, it’s okay to be afraid of some things. That’s totally understandable. What happened to your friend…it’s awful. And you were so young.”

“Yeah. I guess. My mother always told me it was pathetic.”

“Pathetic? How?”

“She tried to make me take sailing lessons as a teenager and got really pissed at me when I refused. Said I needed to get the fuck over it.”

“That’s horrible. But maybe she was just trying to help in her own way? Like, maybe she thought it would actually help for you to conquer your fears if you took those lessons.”

He shook his head and scoffed. “No. She just knew sailing was an activity that fitted into her world, and she wanted to make sure her son was ‘appropriate’ to be seen and associated with her. Of course she couldn’t stand it when I turned out the way I did instead.”

“I’m sorry. The more I hear about her, the more I can’t believe how heartless she can be,” I replied.

He leaned over and kissed me, and it wasn’t the usual rough, passionate embrace. It was soft and tender, and I let him wrap his arms around me before he pulled away slightly and murmured into my ear. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I asked.

“For listening. It’s hard to talk about. When you’re a man, everyone expects you to be tough all the time.”

In that moment, I knew for sure that what we had was more than just a hot and heavy fling. Tina had always told me that the key to knowing if a guy was really serious about you was how he behaved when the sex dried up a little. We hadn’t had sex in a couple of days now out of our concern over being found out, and instead of doing a disappearing act, Mason had been happy to hang out with me and reveal his personal demons to me. In doing so, he’d let me know that he was vulnerable, just like any other person. Just like me.

I felt closer to him than ever before, and it was clear now. I wasn’t falling in love with him anymore. I already had.

I was in love with my stepbrother.

***

The following Friday at midday, I was at work as usual. I had approximately fifty trillion emails to reply to, and I put my head in my hands and sighed.

“Hey, Arizona. We’re all heading out to lunch at Domenico’s,” one of the other office workers said, idling by my desk. “You wanna come?”

“I would, but I have so much stuff to do here,” I replied with a rueful smile. “Looks like my lunch will be a granola bar from the vending machines.”

She winked. “I’ll bring you back a doggie bag. They have the best arancini in the universe.”

“Thanks,” I said with a smile.

I turned my attention back to my computer and pressed on with my work, and a familiar tune sounded on it forty-five minutes later. It was a Skype call, and assuming it was Tina, I looked at it. Nope. It was Mason.

“Hey,” I said, clicking on the answer button and watching his sexy body pop up on the screen. Oh god. He was shirtless.

“What are you up to?” he asked.

“Working like crazy,” I replied. “Although I’m getting these emails sent out faster than I thought I would. I missed out on going out for lunch with the others because I thought I wouldn’t have time.”

“Do you have time for me?” he asked, a lascivious gleam in his eyes.

“Always,” I replied. “Well…ten minutes, maybe. Close enough to always.”

“Good. Now, I think it’s kind of unfair that I’m sitting here shirtless, and yet your webcam tells me you’ve got a top on. We need to even out the playing field.”

“Mason,” I said, my eyebrows shooting up. “You know I’m at work. Anyone could hear you!”

“Didn’t you say everyone went out for food?”

I craned my neck over the top of my cubicle a moment later. Almost everyone was still out to lunch, save for a few of the receptionists down the other end who’d needed to stay behind to answer phones.

“Yeah, they’re still out,” I replied. “But be quiet. Some people are here at the other end.”

“Okay,” he said, lowering his voice. “Now unbutton your top.”

I shot him a warning look, and he chuckled. “Come on. You’re working like a dog. Take a quick break. Do it for me. We’ve barely touched each other in five days now. I’m going crazy.”

I shook my head but couldn’t help a smile quirking up on my lips, and I undid the top two buttons on my blouse. “There. That’s all you’re getting.”

“Tease.”

I settled back into my chair, crossing one leg over the other and waiting for his next order. He leaned forward and smirked, and my heart began to beat a little faster. Getting caught at home might be one thing to worry about, but we were really pushing it with this. Imagine the entire office walking in on me having some sort of Skype sex with Mason! Yet another crazy story to keep away from the grandkids…

“I want you to touch yourself,” he said, voice dripping with lust.

My breath hitched. My panties were instantly wet and sticking to me, reminding me just how eager I was to feel his touch, or at least pretend to feel it while I was here without him. I quietly unzipped my black pants and slid one hand down inside my lacy panties, and I let a deluge of images flood my brain as I felt the wetness growing there.
His lips and hot breath on my earlobes and neck. His strong arms holding me. His hard cock driving into me.

“Are you doing it?” he asked a second later.

“Yes,” I replied, tilting the webcam down a bit so he could see everything.

I could see that he was slowly stroking himself just off the screen, and I wished that he would tilt his own webcam down so I could see his cock. His thick, hard and utterly perfect cock. God, I was obsessed with it. I’d gone from staunch virgin to sex maniac within the space of just a few weeks.

“Good. Look at me,” he said. “I’m right there with you. Keep rubbing your clit in circles, harder and harder. Imagine it’s me.”

“Uh-huh,” I said breathlessly, watching his eyes darken with lust as he watched me.

“Slide one finger inside.”

I followed his orders, gasping as I felt my tight walls close around the invading digit, and he grinned on my screen. “Two fingers now. Pretend it’s my cock. I’m right there, pressing inside you, nice and rough. Just how you like it. Keep rubbing your clit with your other hand.”

I imagined it was him stroking me and probing me, and I kept my eyes glued on the monitor as my heart rate doubled. The back of my neck was damp with perspiration as I moved my hands back and forth.

“Good girl,” he said, his voice husky. “When I tell you to come, you need to come. But not until I say so. Got it?”

“Yes,” I gasped out, already feeling myself teetering close to the edge. I slowed down my movements, not wanting to disappoint him by coming before he told me to. God, it was almost impossible. I so desperately wanted to explode, and he flashed me his famous smirk.

“Not yet, baby.”

“Oh god,” I groaned a moment later. “Please…I want to come.”

My breath sounded hoarse and desperate, like that of an animal. My coworkers would be returning from lunch any moment now, and I couldn’t think of anything worse than having to stop right now, not when I was so close to the edge.

“Now,” he said, his voice firm and hard as he issued the command. “Come for me.”

My abdomen clenched, throbbing and writhing. Closing my eyes and still pretending it was Mason between my legs, I came on my hand in gasps, each shorter than the last. “Oh…oh…oh god!”

The elevator doors pinged nearby, and I snapped to attention and swore. “Shit! Someone’s coming!”

Of course. Right when I was in the middle of climaxing, I had to get disturbed. I suppose that’s what happens when you masturbate at work, huh? I ended the Skype call and zipped my pants up, and then I looked up to see Victoria striding towards me. Hopefully I didn’t look too hot and bothered.

“Your blouse is undone at the top,” she said, standing by the entrance to my cubicle and casting a suspicious glance at me.

I looked down and feigned surprise. “Oh, damn. The buttons keep popping open because of my boobs.”

“I have the same problem sometimes. Double sided tape works. Give that a try.”

“I will. Thanks,” I said, forcing a sweet smile and once again wondering why she was being friendly to me. It had been several weeks since our little run-in here at the office, and she’d been oddly nice to me ever since.

“Anyway, I just came to see if you had a moment. I wanted to talk to you about something,” she said with her usual no-nonsense air.

“Yeah?”

“I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you and spoke to you when you first arrived. I should never have said those things to you or acted like that towards you.”

“Oh,” I said, not quite knowing how else to respond. This was certainly a surprise.

“I suppose…I was just reacting badly to how much everything was changing. I’ve worked for Roy for so long, and almost every waking moment has been dedicated to him. I guess I’ve come to respect him as a sort of father figure, and when you arrived I just went a little nuts. I was worried he suddenly wouldn’t need me anymore, and this job has been my life for a long time now. But it’s no excuse.”

“Um. Well, I kind of know what you mean,” I said. “It is really hard when things in your life change so fast. Take it from me. A couple of months ago I was still a penniless waitress.”

We both chuckled for a second, and then she took a step closer and held her hand out. “Really, though. I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me. I’ve been feeling awful about this for weeks now. Maybe we could try to be friends?”