ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (166 page)

“Stupid erotica,” he grumbled under his breath, flicking his stapler a little too roughly and making a rather large and definitely noticeable dent in the office wall. 

Hastily he tried to cover the suspicious hole before anyone noticed; knowing his office they would probably notice before he had chance to cover it up completely.  He didn’t have much time before his alone time came to an abrupt end. “Stupid what?” the new voice made Jared jump, something he was definitely not used to doing.

“Uh…” Jared started with no idea how to finish the sentence that go far consisted of a noise rather than an actually word.

Jared spun around in his seat to face the intruder that had wandered into his small office space. His eyes bulged a little as they landed on the office secretary staring curiously back at him.

The secretary knew he was watching her, she always knew. She fought the urge to go to him, to show him what she wanted; it burnt inside of her, her desires were fiery and uncontrollable but the source was oh so temptingly close.

Jared froze, aware that he was being stared at but with no capacity to actually do anything about it. He was supposed to be speaking, he knew that much but he had no idea what in the world to say. Flash back after flash back demanded his attention, twisting his vision of the secretary until he was pretty sure his mouth had popped open.

“You know you’re strange right?” she commented as casually as if it was part of a normal conversation.

“Yes,” Jared choked, unable to actually register what she had said properly.

“Well you know what they say, the first stage to getting help is admitting you have a problem,” the woman said in an almost sing-song voice.

Jared stayed silent and the secretary started to look a little more concerned. He knew he had a problem but it was definitely not one he was going to share anytime soon. The secretary shrugged off the unwelcome feeling of concern as quickly as it had come and surveyed the odd man who was staring strangely at her, he was handsome but whatever was going on in his head she wanted little to do with it. “You can read right?” she asked slowly, hoping he would actually answer coherently this time.

Jared face flushed a bright red, definitely not a good look for a werewolf. “No,” he shot out defensively before realizing that he probably looked like he had completely lost it.

“Right…” the secretary said, drawing the word out longer than necessary, “well I’ll leave this with you anyway, it’s the companies newsletter,” she said gently, placing a piece of paper down on the table before backing quickly away.

With his head in his hands Jared rubbed his eyes wearily; if only they had finished the story then he knew he wouldn’t be in this state. A thought occurred to him, one he really wished he hadn’t had. Slowly he switched on his laptop, loading up the same page he had been reading less than two hours ago. It didn’t take him long to find the story, in fact it was so quick he barely had time to really think the idea through.

Jared stared at the screen, indecision raking through him, he should wait and he knew it.  It had been his idea to wait and it had been a stupid idea, he understood that now. He wanted his wife by his side; he wanted to feel the sweet sexual tension that shivered across her body as things heated up. She had cradled against his chest, her heart beating roughly with each new twist of the plot and each new confession.

A pencil-shaped hole joined that of the staplers in the wall and Jared slammed his laptop shut, thankfully with enough restraint not to break it. He stared at the new holes in his wall and opened the laptop again before quickly closing it. He had been at work for less than half an hour now and he had been shutting and opening his laptop for far too much of that time.

With a sigh he strained his neck over his cubicle walls and watched the secretary wander around the room handing out newsletters to everyone she passed. She wasn’t attractive, at least not to him, but it seemed that he wasn’t the object of her affections. He watched on intently, his head protruding over the cubicle walls as she wandered past the boss’s office unnecessarily for the third time, each time there was a not so subtle glance into the room.

He waited with bated breath as finally, after the sixth time she walked past the boss looked back at her. His eyes traveled as she walked and all the while the secretary was very much aware the boss was looking, she wanted him to look. With a badly suppressed laugh Jared sank back down into his chair, highly amused by the little office display that he had somehow missed for so long. Perhaps, he pondered, the day wouldn’t be too bad after all.

Chapter Four

By the time the lunch hour had rolled around Rachel was finding it extremely hard to focus on anything, including the work she had been supposed to finish and submit hours ago. To her, the nine to five job she had held for more years than she dared to think about had never been so dull or repetitive. The work she was doing was the same thing she had done a thousand times before yet now with her mind firmly elsewhere she was starting to realize there were much better things she could be doing, reading being at the top of her list.

She had hoped that Jared would break first, she had waited for a text from him all morning and now as the day progressed it was seeming less and less likely, just like the prospect of the heat between her legs dying down or at the very least becoming bearable. It was always Jared who broke first and out of pride she had dared not text him, she knew she would never hear the end of it if she did. It had taken all of her willpower not to snap at those who attempted to interrupt her endless streams of daydreams and the lesser welcome of the two, inappropriate flash backs.

Staring at the work that was little more than half way done, for the first time in her life she considered just abandoning work, perhaps all together. She had thought she liked her job but as the office day went by in the same way as normal she was starting to doubt it. In a moment of weakness she had opened the page she had closed only a few hours previously and that same page had been open all day, calling to her, pleading to her to finish reading. She knew the office would be no place to finish it, she could only imagine what her co-workers would think if they walked in on her.

On cue with her thought yet another person wandered into the small separate office where she had been holed up for most of the day. “Rachel?” the woman called from the door. Against her better judgment she ignored the call and stared blankly at her laptop, pressing a few random keys if only to make her actually seem busy.

“I know you can hear me,” the person said again, inviting herself into the room this time.

Suppressing a sigh of annoyance and squeezing her legs tightly together Rachel looked up at the intruder with a tight lipped smile. “Hello Beth,” she greeted the woman as politely as possible.

“You know you were supposed to finish that work hours ago?” Beth scolded lightly as she hovered over the laptop in front of Rachel, eying the poorly written document. She was far too close for Rachel’s liking and so much so that she could smell the drowning scent of the woman’s sickly sweet perfume.

Rachel let out a sigh of relief, thankful she had actually shut the page with the taboo story. She was pretty certain that the straight-laced Beth would have a lot to say about it and nothing about it being good. “You know you’re supposed to be at lunch?” Rachel shot back, startling the woman with her tone.

It was so easy to shock the woman; Rachel dared a smile at the thought of what it would be like if she showed her the true self that lay beneath her human skin. “No need to be rude,” the woman said a little too sulkily for Rachel’s liking.

“No need to pry,” Rachel said with amusement, she had wanted to tell the woman off for years, the office snoop was not exactly good company when all she wanted to do was get home.

“Can’t you just be nice?” Beth said and as Rachel looked up she realized the woman was pouting. A smile twisted at her lips as she thought of her husband pouting, oh how she wished he was here.

“Can’t you just go away?” Rachel laughed; it was so unlike her but so freeing at the same time.

“And here I thought you were like everyone else, when actually you’re just a…” Beth began only to be stopped by a wave of Rachel hand and a humorless laugh.

“I’d stop if I was you,” Rachel said, her voice darker now as the wolf inside threatened to take over completely.

Beth’s back stiffened as she glared at Rachel but there was fear behind her attempt at courage and Rachel could easily see it. “Do you even value your job, I could have you fired you know?” Beth said spitefully but Rachel only laughed.

Bringing herself up to her full height Rachel towered over the small woman and in a moment of what she knew was completely madness threw a handful of documents in her face. As the papers fluttered messily to the floor Beth stared back at her, completely stunned by the rebellious act. “I didn’t like this job anyway,” Rachel said causally as she calmly shut the top to her laptop smiling overly sweetly at the woman who had been her breaking point.

“I was just joking, please Rachel, you can’t leave,” Beth said quickly trying to cover up her own mess.

“Just watch me,” Rachel said loudly and with a laugh that contained only a little guilt she stormed out of the office, laptop and story tucked firmly under her arm.

“Well that was new,” Rachel murmured to herself as she strode past the various people in the office who were blatantly staring at her “I knew it would spice things up but this was definitely unexpected,” she finished her thought with a loud laugh that drew even more eyes to her exit.

The thrill of quitting her job and breaking free from the chains of a nine to five followed Rachel all the way to her car until she realized that while she was free Jared would be stuck at work for another five hours and the laptop was just as off-limits now as it was before. With a groan Rachel threw herself into the car knowing all the while that the five hours might just be the longest of her life.

Chapter Five

Having spent all her holidays with the pack and with werewolves never getting sick it was something of a novelty for Rachel to pull up outside her house in the middle of a work day. Even the incessantly nosy neighbor peering out of her living room windows couldn’t knock her out of her good mood now that she was home and free of the nine to five shackles. It was only a matter of hours before Jared would meet her and then she knew they could finally finish what they had started. It had been a painful start but she hoped it would definitely be a much better end

Clutching her laptop, knowing that it would be easier to read off than the half destroyed one, she almost skipped up the garden path. It was only when she got half way that she realized something was wrong; there was a scent in the house that shouldn’t be there, one that made her skin prickle with alarm. Her grip on the laptop tightened and she could feel it crumble under her rough touch. Ignoring the damage that was likely now inflicted on it she cautiously walked up the path, keeping her guard about her at all times.

It wasn’t like something to be off about the house, it was so clearly marked as hers and Jared’s, any other werewolf could smell it a dozen miles off yet there it was, the scent definitely belonged to her own kind. She sped up; slamming her key into the door and prying it open as quickly as she could. The open door only made the scent stronger and despite the fear coursing through her she strode into the house, daring not let any of it show to whoever it was who had invaded her territory.

“I know you’re here,” Rachel shouted out into the seemingly empty house. She waited, her breathing hitched as the house remained as silent as it had been seconds before.

“Good!” Jared shouted loudly. Rachel spun on her heels to glare at her husband who was unashamedly staring cheekily back at her.

Newly destroyed laptop in hand she hit him across the arm, a scowl on her face. “What are you doing here?” she shouted angrily as Jared caught her hand and gently pried the laptop from her now loosened grip.

Jared stared down at the crumbled remains of the laptop and chuckled lightly before tossing it behind him. “Didn’t you sense me?” he asked curiously, they had never had a problem sensing each other before.

Rachel followed the path of the laptop with her eyes, a frown now creasing her lips. “You didn’t have to throw it,” she muttered as she mourned the loss of her once faithful laptop.

“Throw what?” Jared asked, sounding confused as he eyes his wife a little suspiciously.

“The laptop,” Rachel answered impatiently.

“Honey, now we both know it was beyond repair,” Jared joked with a grin that made Rachel’s own lips loosen.

“It could have been saved,” she muttered under her breath.

Jared stared wide eyes at his wife, his lips twisted into a wide smile of utter amusement. “Your hand print was indented in it!” he exclaimed.

“And whose fault is that?” she retorted childishly, sticking out her tongue in the process.

Jared paused pretending to think about the question. “Yours?” he grinned.

Rachel’s face flushed a bright shade of red as she surveyed the dark brown eyes of her overly amused husband. “You surprised me,” she said, diverting her blue eyes to the floor and away from the humor in Jared’s.