ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (167 page)

“I figured you would be able to smell me,” Jared said with a shrug.

“Well you do smell pretty bad but I wasn’t expecting you to be here,” Rachel said with a small grin.

“Hey!” Jared shouted in mock offence, “I don’t smell bad,” he muttered under his breath.

Rachel’s eyebrows rose as she stared at her husband and just how childish he could really be. “What are you doing here anyway?” she questioned curiously.

Jared looked guiltily down at the floor, his own cheeks now turning a ruby shade of red. “I got fired,” he said all at once, almost too fast for Rachel to actually make sense of.

“You what?!” she shouted, forgetting that she was here for exactly the same reason.

“I got fired,” Jared said again but equally as quickly.

“Please tell me you didn’t hit anyone?” Rachel questioned quickly.

Jared looked up now and a smile broke out across his lips. “That’s the first thing you jump to ‘please tell me you didn’t hit anyone’,” he laughed, mimicking his wife’s panicked voice.

“I still remember the last time,” Rachel groaned with a slight wince.

Jared rubbed his knuckles with a wistful smile on his face. “Yeah, so do I,” she said sounding a lot happier than his wife.

“So?” Rachel urged, suddenly intrigued to find out why he had gotten himself fired.

“I accused my boss of sleeping with the secretary,” Jared muttered, very quickly dropping his eyes back to the floor.

“You’re joking right?” Rachel gasped. As the admittance settled she had to fight to contain the laughter, it couldn’t have been anymore ironic if he had tried.

“Well yeah, it was all good humored,” Jared groaned, running his hands through his short brown hair.

“If it was good humored then why did he fire you?” Rachel questioned suspiciously. She knew his boss, or ex-boss as it now was, and while he probably wouldn’t have taken the topic too well she doubted he would fire Jared for it.

“I threw my laptop at the wall,” Jared said quietly, still not meeting Rachel’s eyes.

“Why?” she asked a little too quickly.

“He wanted to look at it and well you know it had the story on it,” Jared mumbled, hating to admit that part.

“You read it without me?” Rachel shouted loudly, annoyance and anger making their way to the surface.

“Out of everything that’s what you’re most angry about?” Jared responded with a filled-filled laugh.

Rachel’s cheeks flushed but she refused to look away from him, angry beyond even her belief that he could have read it without her, “So did you?” she asked, trying as best as she could to control her temper.

“Of course not,” Jared said with a soft smile.

Rachel met his smile and the tension in the room eased significantly. In turn both broke out in laughter at how ridiculous the situation was. “And what about you, why are you home? Wait you didn’t hit anyone did you?” Jared asked once the last echoes of laughter had disappeared.

“I may have walked out and no I didn’t hit anyone; well not exactly anyway,” she admitted, biting her lips softly to suppress any further laughter.

“So we’re both jobless, minus three laptops and could potentially be charged with assault?” Jared asked.

“What do you mean ‘assault’?” Rachel responded skeptically.

“The laptop may have skimmed his head just a little,” Jared said with a shrug.

“Then yes,” Rachel stated, “We are pretty screwed,” she added with a laugh of her own.

“You wanted spice,” Jared smirked.

“Speaking of spice,” Rachel whispered softly and in an instant the atmosphere shifted; they both knew it was for the better.

Chapter Six

When the walk upstairs had turned into a race neither Jared nor Rachel was sure but as Rachel elbowed Jared out of the way for the third time and he went tumbling back down the stairs she let out a victory cheer. Hot on her heels Jared came thundering up behind her, giving her just enough time to circle into the bedroom before he caught her completely. With a loud thump and a loud shout of pain she flew onto the bed with Jared falling on top of her. In a mess of arms and legs, nether knowing which belonged to whom they scrambled for the least broken of the laptops that still sat handily on the bedside table.

“Jared!” Rachel groaned as a scrambling leg collided with her chin.

“Don’t blame me, you don’t play fair!” Jared exclaimed as he fought for the laptop.

“I barely hit you, it’s not my fault you fall easily,” she moaned, sticking her tongue out despite knowing he couldn’t actually see it.

“Don’t stick your tongue out at me,” Jared laughed.

“How did you know?” Rachel questioned, pausing her pursuit of the laptop for a split second.

Jared took the moment of hesitance to his advance and snapped the laptop up from the bedside table. “I’m psychic,” he chuckled as he flipped the broken laptop open with just enough care not to completely break it in half.

Rachel made to take it from Jared’s grasp but a firm hand caught her unaware. Jared gripped her wrist and twisted to face her, finally untangling the mess of limbs. His normally dark chocolate brown eyes darkened further as he stared intently at his wife. He pushed her down on the bed, forgetting the laptop in his haste. His body crushed down on hers, pressing her firmly into the soft bed covers.

Rachel’s blue eyes met his and the heat that had faded on her return to the house erupted inside of her in an instant. She caught her lip, biting down on the tender skin and twisting it between her teeth. Jared’s eyes darted to her mouth, his own parting slightly as the heat coursing through his wife spread easily to his large muscled body. “You my dear have become incredibly feisty,” he whispered darkly as his lips edged ever closer to hers.

“Would you have me any other way?” she teased. Freeing her hands from the weight of Jared’s heavily beating chest she trailed her fingers across his face and the rough days stubble that lined his jaw. His eyes closed as she worked her way into his hair, intertwining her fingers with his short brown locks. A low animalistic moan fell from his lips as her nails pushed back his hair and ultimately pulled him forwards to meet her.

His eyes opened quickly as her lips teased at his lips brushing them just enough for them to part against the sensual touch. Her sweet scent engulfed them as she gripped him tightly, her hands now working their way down his back and under his thin shirt. Her fingers brushed his exposed back, toying with the shirt that covered him. Another moan, this time hungrier than the last parted his lips even further until his mouth pressed against hers and he claimed her in one blissfully desire ridden kiss.

In an instant she was pressed against him, the weight of his body removed from hers, she pushed him backwards, straddling his waist while her lips stayed firmly on his, teasing him with her sweetness. His wandering hands found their way to her slender waist and he pulled his wife into his lap completely. She groaned as she pressed her chest hard into his, taking control of the kiss now as her hands raked back through his hair.

With a low groan and a breathless gasp he pulled away from his wife and his messy hair fell awkwardly over his eyes. A light chuckle parted Rachel’s lips as she pushed away the wayward hair and placed a tender playful kiss on the tip of her husband’s nose. Heat claimed the pair as Rachel wrapped her legs around Jared’s waist and sat facing him in his lap. Their eyes met as they stared at each other, as blue met brown the two smiled playfully.

“Now, where were we?” Jared chuckled as he pulled the laptop into their laps and turned it awkwardly so they could both just about see the screen.

Flushed and still a little breathless Rachel found the point in the story they had stopped reading only this morning. “About here I think,” she said with a smile as the familiarity of the story and the imitate situation they had left the characters in came flooding back to her.

Jared’s face screwed up a little as he read the first few sentences of the book that had been on his mind all day. “Are you sure, I swear it was getting a little steamier,” he said with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.

“Of course you would,” Rachel laughed lightly at her husband.

“Darling, the steamier the better,” he said darkly.

Rachel’s heart fluttered at his words and the lust that his voice contained. Heat surged readily through her body now, racing from the building need in her sex and causing shivers to claim her body. “I would be lying if I didn’t agree,” she whispered in a low voice that made Jared’s eyes darken impossibly further.

He caught her by the waist pulling her closer than he had ever dared to before. Her soft tender body collapsed against his chest, the willing moan that burst from her lips was a surprise even to him; the soft tempting sound made his body respond with a hunger that he didn’t know he possessed. She leant towards him and the smallest slip of courage had her press her succulent lips to his own waiting ones.

“Do you think they are going to do it?” Jared asked earning a groan from Rachel.

“What do you think?” she said as her hand batted his arm in the hope it would made him be quiet.

“I think they will,” Jared pondered, “and by the looks of it it’ll be pretty soon,” he spoke his thoughts out loud.

“They won’t it you don’t stop talking,” Rachel whined impatiently.

“I don’t think they really care what I do, they seem to be a little bit busy” Jared responded, a tinge of humor in his words.

With a sigh Rachel pulled her eyes away from the laptop and glared at her innocent looking husband. “I’ll banish you from the room,” she threatened.

“I’d like to see you try,” Jared retorted with snort.

“Just you wait,” Rachel hissed but they both knew it wasn’t a threat anymore; it was more like a promise.

Chapter Seven

His hand traced the line of her thigh; her skin was so temptingly soft and welcoming that each caress caused his body to ache for her. Her legs parted to his sensual touch as a slight shiver raced through her body. He moved slowly; it was so painfully slowly for her that every single nerve in her body was at the receiving end of a barrage of teasing pleasure. She wanted to move forwards, to step into his touch and urge his hand higher, force his fingers to move faster but she bayed to his command, obeyed his need for control.

Hot breath caught at her neck as her face was pushed to the side and in a heartbeat his lips were pulling at the overly-sensitive skin. Her heart beat rapidly, her skin flushed red and a moan so low it was barely audible slipped free from her lips. The space was confined and the heat was suffocating between the two panting bodies but neither minded as the small moans flowed freely into the space and the scent of their lust engulfed the two…

“Ok I think that’s it,” Rachel said quickly and before Jared could react she slammed the laptop shut ending the story prematurely.

Jared’s eyes bulged as he stared between his wife and the laptop, he had been mid-sentence, he could feel the ending coming and his body craved to read it. “Have you completely lost it?” he exclaimed loudly, staring at his wife in utter confusion.

“Nope, good book, maybe we’ll read another sometime,” she answered briskly.

Rachel refused to meet her husband’s eye, she could tell her was looking for some kind of explanation but she definitely wasn’t going to give one, she knew she couldn’t disappoint him like that. Jared dove for the laptop but Rachel was a second faster, holding it just outside his reach. “Rachel, I was in the middle of a sentence let me finish please,” he begged as he tried to reach past Rachel and grab the laptop.

“Trust me Jared, you really don’t want to,” she sighed, her own disappointment was overwhelming, she couldn’t face his as well.

“And trust me, I want to,” Jared shouted.

“Fine,” Rachel relented and handed him the laptop, “but I warned you.”

Rachel climbed out of her husband’s lap as he flicked the laptop back open and instead collapsed down on the bed. The heat that had claimed her body for so long was fading and without finding its release it was almost painful. With her hopes slashed she laid back and waited for her husband to come to the realization that not all stories had a good ending.

…desperate bodies. His hand caught the place she wanted it the most, his fingers brushed the dampened cotton of her panties. He felt her body tighten under his experienced touch and in turn his own body shuddered with pleasure. The loud moan that burst from her lips made his firmness ache with need.

“This is what you want?” he whispered softly into her ear, his lips caressing her as he spoke.

His fingers pressed harder on her panties and it was all the answer he needed. Then they had sex and both were equally as content.

The end.

It only took Rachel a mental count to twenty before she watched the laptop go sailing across the room and this time she was sure it was not going to survive the impact, not when it now consisted of a couple hundred pieces. “Whoever wrote that is going to suffer and I mean really suffer!” Jared shouted and a small smile twisted at Rachel’s lips as she watched her husband’s reaction almost convincing herself it was worth letting him read it just to watch him fume.