ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (168 page)

Rachel waited for the aftermath but as the seconds passed nothing came. Hesitantly she pulled herself up from the sheets and looked at her husband, initially unsure of exactly what would be waiting for her. Her eyes connected with Jared’s and the smallest of gasps shuddered from her lips; where she had been expecting anger she saw something, something so much darker.

Jared stared back at her, never once letting his eyes drop; the heat that had begun to fade surged anew and Rachel felt her body shiver at the reclaimed tension that raked through it. “Spice comes in different forms,” her husband whispered.

The words did not have long to settle between them before Rachel found herself crushed back against the bed. Jared weighed heavily on her, his body pressed hard against her own small squirming frame. His lips caught hers and lust flooded the hot sweet claim that he put on the lips of his wife. Again he claimed her, his mouth just a ghost of firmness that lingered on her tingling lips as he placed kiss after kiss across her jaw, down her throat and over her chest.

Rachel’s body pushed out against her husbands, trying in all the heat to find a release for the pleasure that was rebuilding inside her overly frustrated body. He didn’t relent though, he kept firm, his hands now trailing after the kisses until each and every part of her was shivering with the utter bliss of his needing caress. Her legs wrapped around his waist and the firmness that lay barely contained by his trousers crashed against her and a moan of pleasure burst unrestrainedly free from her shaking lips.  

Hands raked Jared’s hair as he pulled away from his wife, his heart beating rapidly and his trousers stretched tight. Without wasting a second he tore the shirt off his moaning wife and tossed it aside, a mess of fabric and buttons. His lips found her breasts and teasingly he pulled at the deliciousness that was her responsive and sensitive nipples. She squirmed beneath him and the feeling of her against him so sexually only made him pull harder and make the moans louder; each sound caused a surge of heat to pound through his already sensually battered body.

She pulled him closer, crashing his lips back down on hers as his scent continued to linger on her skin, the pleasure he had caused still raked through her body in a never ending assault of building pleasure. Breathless Jared pulled away but only long enough to find the soft spot below her ear that made her moan louder. “We can do so much better,” he whispered darkly his wife’s ear.

Rachel froze at the words, her whole body stilled under her husband’s touch. Jared spared no time and quickly the ruined remains of his trousers joined his wife’s scrap of shirt in the corner of the room. His hands traveled the length of her thighs but he did not move slowly his hands moved with the hunger and need in his own aching body; he needed her, he had needed her for so long now. His fingers pulled her skirt away with ease as her legs opened for him, urging him forwards.

Unable to contain his desire he trailed his fingers over his wife’s panties, lacy and wet with her shared need. Rachel groaned at his touch, so rough and hungry that she could hardly keep her desire in check. Even with the slightest of touches against her arousal she felt her body react with all the burning lust that had built over the past day, she was ready to let herself break free. “Jared… please…now,” she cried as he pulled her panties to the side and brushed the softness that was her clit. She screamed out into the darkened room as pleasure flooded through her, almost sending her hurtling over the edge.

“Now!” she shouted, pushing her hips against her husband’s hand.

Jared parted her legs further with his knee as he gathered his wife’s wrists into his hand and pushed them back above her head. Her body stretched, her back arched and she struggled against the hold needing to be closer, to feel him. His boxers fell to the floor and then he was there, pressing hard against her, his tip teasing the wetness that lay so temptingly close. Bright blue eyes caught dark brown ones and a look of need, love and desire passed between them.

The second Rachel bit down on her lip he pushed inside of her waiting arousal. A sensual moan echoed through the room as Rachel felt her pleasure escalate to heights she could not control, he needed her and she needed him. Her hips pushed out burying Jared inside of her sex feeling each and every part of her pleasure ridden arousal respond. Light filled her vision as he moved faster and faster building his own heat to match hers.

It was so hungry and so lust filled neither could hold on; hands trailed through Jared’s hair, finger’s brushed against Rachel’s erect nipples and as Jared claimed his wife in a way that was wholly new they both came shattering down, the days’ worth of frustration, the night of sexual words and hidden meanings crashed through them in a wave of pleasure that was more intense, more heated and so much blissful than either could ever have imagined.

Both hung on to the other, neither willing to be the first to let go as the last of the purest sensations shuddered through their battered bodies and ended with the softest of moans, the last sound of  pleasure. “That was…” Rachel whispered as she clung to Jared, pulling her body into his waiting arms, spent but completely and utterly satisfied.

“Spicy?” Jared said with a small laugh, one that showed his exhaustion but also his intense happiness.

“Yes, it was spicy,” Rachel chuckled as she nestled herself into her husband’s familiar arms.

“Perhaps it worked after all,” Jared said with a smile as he rested his head against his wife’s.

“It always helps when you create your own ending,” Rachel laughed as a wave of exhaustion passed over her and the events of the last twenty four hours caught up with her.

“Then I promise you this, my dear; whatever the story is and however the plot plays out, the ending will always be ours,” Jared whispered softly to his wife as he felt her drift off to sleep in his arms and it was a promise he very much intended to keep.

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BONUS

MY ALPHA RANGER WOLF (book 1)

BY SICILY DUVAL

Chapter 1

Allegra

Spotting your husband when about five hundred of them spill onto the concrete square is hard. They all look the same in uniform, walk with the same precision, and have the same look of death on their faces. But when Reid stepped out of the bus, I saw him right away. His skin was darker than when I’d last seen him – he’d spent a lot of time in the sun somewhere – and his shock of blond hair was still visible even under the army cap.

The loading area was filled with wives and children, waiting for the final piece to their family to come home. Every time a soldier spotted his family he drew to them like a magnet, and then the picture was complete. Homecoming was as warm and rewarding as deployment was cold and painful.

When his green eyes fell on me electricity jolted through my body the way it always did when he looked at me. Skype didn’t do him justice. It was never the same as being with him in real life, and I wondered how I’d gotten through the last nine months without him.

He walked toward me, and he moved with a fluid grace that the other soldiers didn’t have. He carried his bag easily, and dropped in on the floor next to me, planting his lips on mine. I felt the hum of his power surge through my body. I’d forgotten how much I loved it. Reid oozed raw power and sexuality, and he made me feel small and delicate against his taut, muscular frame. He wasn’t just one of the best soldiers on the force. He was also a werewolf.

The government accepted Preternatural creatures into society now on one condition. They had to do a public service. I knew it was because it made it easier to keep an eye on them, but it was also because they had skills the country just couldn’t do without.

Vampires were secret agents now because they could play mind games and make themselves virtually undetectable. Gremlins mass produced weaponry because magic and metal just worked together in their hands. And werewolves were in the army because they were strong, healed at lightning speeds and they had sharper senses.

“I missed you,” Reid said into my hair when he broke the kiss and hugged me instead. I wrapped my arms around his hard body and closed my eyes, shutting everyone out but Reid and me. The greeting was positive. I was optimistic. Sometimes when Reid came home he was miserable, and our first meeting cast a cloud of darkness over us that made it hard for me to smile through it.

Every time the soldiers come home I don’t know what to expect. They go through so much, a lot of it that the wives that stay behind don’t know about, and they often struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. We always smile anyway, and keep it positive. We owe them that. But it’s hard, and it’s just so much better when he comes home with a smile.

I waved at Charlene. John, one of Reid’s squad, had just found her. I spend a lot of time with Charlene when the men were gone. Reid and John weren’t just close, they were pack. John was a wolf too, and that meant that Charlene was one of the only other women at the base I could relate to.

Reid put his bag in the trunk and climbed into the car. I slid into the passenger seat next to him and he backed the car out of the parking spot and pulled into the road. I looked at him and he looked back, smiling. The smile was a little vacant, in his eyes I could see he was somewhere else, seeing other things.

“I was thinking of making pot pie for supper tonight,” I said, trying small talk.

“Sounds good,” Reid said and indicated to turn. I hesitated a moment when he didn’t add anything.

“The business is going well,” I said again. “I’ve gotten five new clients in the last month. There are a few new wives at the base that we’re trying to draw in.”

That’s good, honey,” Reid said. I didn’t know if he’d heard a word I’d said. I sold beauty products from home. It was easier that way to keep a career going if we needed to move suddenly. It happened from time to time. We were a group of women at the base that all had husbands that were away often, and we sold to and bought from each other and created support groups. I saw it as our duty to pull in the new wives, the ones that wouldn’t understand what it was like. That didn’t know yet, and needed a shoulder to cry on after the first deployment.

Ask any of the military wives, and they’ll tell you that it’s not easy. The first few months are always the worst, shooting up to an ecstatic high about the base and the benefits of a military life, right down to the depressing low of deployment and the realization that you have to experience a lot key events alone. Like birthdays and Christmas.

I’d gotten used to this life fairly quickly. It had helped that Charlene had gotten a hold of me before the wedding and told me what to expect. Still, missing Reid’s birthday, or missing a Christmas together still hurt sometimes. What I still found the hardest were the times that Reid came home, but he never really came home. And I was starting to get the idea that his cheerful greeting had been a little misleading. He’d tried, bless him, he’d tried for me. But he wasn’t home. Not yet.

His head was somewhere on the battle field, and he was on autopilot.

He walked into the house, not holding the door for me or letting me walk first. I let it slide. Patience was the key to a good relationship, Charlene had told me. Reid dumped his bag in the bedroom and sat down in front of the television.

“I’m going to be in the kitchen,” I announced. I started making the food. I’d prepared meat and vegetables the day before for this, but still needed to make the crust. I’d hoped Reid would follow me, sit by  me and talk to me the way we used to in the beginning, but he didn’t. When the pie was in the oven I walked back to the living room. It was deadly quiet. When I popped my head around the doorpost I saw Reid sitting on the couch, staring at a switched-off television.

“Are you alright?” I asked, and Reid jerked, his head snapping round to look at me. His eyes were so bright they were almost glowing, and they looked wild. His beast slid behind them.

“Hey, it’s just me,” I said in a gentle voice and walked into the room so he could see my full body. With his hearing he should have heard me coming. It was impossible to sneak up on a werewolf. Hell, he should have been able to hear me breathe in the kitchen. Instead he’d gotten a fright, like he hadn’t been aware of my presence in the house at all.

“Fine,” he finally answered, and the life came back into his eyes, like a light-bulb that had been dimmed and he’d turned it back up again. He smiled at me, but his hands were balled in fists on his thighs, and the muscles in his back were bundled and tight.

“Food’s almost ready,” I said, walking to him. I sat down next to him on the couch, a few inches away so that we were touching. He could close the gap if he wanted to. I was leaving it up to him – I didn’t want to smother him or force him into something he wasn’t ready for. God knew what he’d seen on the battle field this time.

I took a deep breath and blew it out again. And then another. He didn’t close the gap.

“I think I’m going to head out,” Reid suddenly said. I frowned, looking at his face. It was carefully blank, and I couldn’t read what he was thinking at all.

“Out? But you just got home.”

“I know. I just need some air, stretch my legs. I’ll be home in time for supper.” He stood up and left me sitting alone on the couch. I felt the absence of his heat next to me. At the door he looked at me again, and his eyes didn’t belong to him anymore. They were almost fluorescent and the wolf was looking out at me.

“You’re beautiful,” Reid said. The way he said it made me feel like he thought I was delicious instead. I shuddered when he closed the door behind him, and got up to check on the food.

I expected him to be back in less than half an hour. When the pie was ready I took it out of the oven and dished up for both of us – a normal portion for me, and one as big as the bowl would take for him. And he’d have seconds and thirds until the pie was finished. Soldiers needed a lot of food. Werewolves needed more.

When it rolled on to an hour, the food sat cold and congealed on the table and there was still no sign of Reid. I knew that he needed to get out of the house to get rid of the pent up energy. That wolf of his just wanted out sometimes, and I preferred if he ran it out in the woods rather than change at home. I’d seen him change before, he’d insisted I know what exactly I was getting married to, and even though I loved him despite his… flaws, I didn’t really want to see it again. Not I if I could help it.

But still, an hour seemed like pushing it to me. I’d been mentally adjusting myself to sharing space with someone again. Suddenly being alone was terrible. Another hour later, and Reid finally walked through the door. I’d reheated and eaten my food, and put his in the fridge.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

“I told you,” he said, blinking at me.

“You said you would be back before supper.”

I looked at me without answering me for a second, slid his eyes to the empty bowl in the sink. When he looked back at me again he looked guilty.

“Sorry,” he said.

I buried my face in my hands and let my face crumple, let the smile disappear. I gave myself three seconds to pull myself back together, and when I took my hands away again my face was neutral, at least. I couldn’t force a smile, but I wasn’t going to be angry or scream and shout. Instead I walked to him and wrapped my arms around his body. I pressed my head against his chest and heard the drumming of his heart.

He was alive, and that was all that mattered. It didn’t matter what mood he came home in, as long as he came home. I breathed in deeply. The smells of the forest clung to his clothes – pine needles and mud. He closed his arms around me like he had to think about it and make himself do it, but he was hugging me.

I tipped my head up and stood on my toes to kiss him. The kiss was chaste, with tight closed lips and I felt his body stiffen against mine. I tried a little harder, trying to coax him into opening his mouth. Finally he did, and I slid my tongue inside, kissing him properly.

He kissed me back, sort of, and I ran my hands up and down his back. I wanted his body. I’d missed him so much, and I wanted him to show me that I was still the person he wanted to come home to. His kissing changed from detached to urgent like a switch had been flipped, and his hands roamed my body. I sighed against him mouth. My body ached for him, and I willed his hands to find my breasts, to slide down my back and cup my ass, to explore further and deeper.

Suddenly he broke the kiss. We were still intertwined with our arms wrapped around each other, but when he looked at him his eyes were distant. He drew a finger along my jaw, and planted a kiss on my forehead. Then he let me go and walked out of the room, leaving me standing the kitchen gaping and writhing, my body screaming with the loss.

Chapter 2

Reid

Ranger life is a hard life. Not because of the training or the schedule or being away from home that much. It’s a hard life because a lot of what we do is classified information and we can’t tell our wives about it.

I’ve made it worse for myself. Not only was a I a soldier that often went on covert missions I could tell Allegra nothing about, but I was an Army Ranger in the 75th Regiment. It wasn’t like I had to keep it a secret that I was a ranger. As long as I didn’t give out information on where we were and what we were doing, I wasn’t going to step on any toes with who I was. But I was scared I was going to step on Allegra’s toes, being a Ranger.

It was bad enough that she had to accept my wolf. I am a monster, there’s nothing I can say to defend myself against that. My wolf, my beast, is a part of me. When I rage, the best rages. When the beast lusts blood, so do I. When people think of werewolves they think that my curse is only forced out once a month. Those that aren’t wolves would never understand. Curses are a full time thing.

And I didn’t want it to be even worse for Allegra. My wolf was merciless when it came to doing the right thing. And my position in the army asked the same of me in some ways. I was scared – almost certain – that she would never forgive me for it. It was one thing to be a monster. It was another to be heartless. I was scared that she wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart because she was just a human.

She was a human I love fiercely, but she was innocent. She accepted me because she didn’t know better. She’s loved me from the start, and it is that quality in her, the innocent naïve character she has, that makes me believe her that there is still some goodness left. No matter how slim.

I’d been away for nine months. It had been a long stretch, but there had been longer. We’d been in Afghanistan – I couldn’t tell her that – and I’d seen a lot of death. We were six rangers in the team. I was Tactical leader. John, but best friend, was a sniper. We had Harry on ammunitions, Charles on explosives, Carlos as medic and Abdul on communications. The latter was also our translator and interpreter. We took out the big boys. We were dropped off where no one else could go, and we were told to get behind enemy lines, which no one else could do.

We did it, because our senses were sharper. I could smell the enemy miles away if the wind was right. We healed fast, bodies pushing any bullets out. And out in the wild, we could shift and not be a danger.

Allegra was asleep. I could feel her peace seep through the house, her deep breathing filled my ears and I concentrated on her until I could feel her breathing, feel her heart beat in my own body. I wanted to touch her. I wanted to love her and hold her, be home. Instead I’d pushed her away, because I’d been scared.