ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (194 page)

The man before her was tall, about six-foot three inches. He had sandy-blond hair and scruff decorating his chin that looked two days old. He wore a blue flannel shirt with the top few buttons undone and a pair of light blue jeans with brown cowboy boots. He wore a simple white baseball cap with some obscure logo on it. If she were honest with herself, she was almost disappointed that he wasn’t wearing a cowboy hat; it would have completed the rugged, western ranch-hand look that he otherwise had going for him.

“So, I take it you must be Amanda and Carl,” the man said, with just a bit of a southern lilt to his voice.

“We are indeed,” Carl said from the back of the car where he had been getting Amanda’s suitcases from the trunk. “Nice to meet you,” he said, grabbing the man’s hand and shaking it.

Amanda rolled her eyes in amusement as each man let the handshake go on for an awkward length of time, trying to get the last squeeze in as a show of dominance. So apparently the big bad Alpha himself had come to greet them.

“It’s nice to meet you as well,” Amanda said, grabbing the back of Carl’s shirt and tugging him away from the slightly taller man.

“Amanda, a pleasure to meet you,” he said, turning to Amanda and grabbing her hand, but, instead of shaking it he brought it up to his lips to give its back a lingering kiss. “I’m Buck.”

Amanda snickered. “Buck? Really? Nice one.”

The man in front of her was silent and Carl had begun to change color to an odd shade of red that contrasted with his hair. Amanda’s eyes widened.

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry!” she said, placing both hands over her mouth as she gasped, “I just, I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of a name like that. Except, I guess in cheap western pornos I rent by mistake; they’re so cheesy.”

Buck smirked. “You mean, as opposed to the rest of the high class, top-quality, regular pornos out there, right?”

Amanda flushed, shrugging a bit to appear nonchalant. “Not that I would know, I mean, it’s not like I watch porn.”

Buck’s smirk widened. “Of course not.”

“Not that there would be anything wrong with it if I did. I mean, it’s perfectly alright for the modern woman to watch porn; nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Okay just stop now, just stop,” Carl said from behind her, his eyebrows practically disappearing in the red flush his face had taken on.

“I can tell you’re an interesting one,” Buck said, taking the two suitcases from Carl’s hand as he grinned widely at Amanda. “I think I’m going to really enjoy getting to know you.”

Carl snorted. “You don’t know the half of it; Amanda is certainly a character.”

Amanda nudged him in the side, hard, earning a pained, muffled grunt.

“So, want to show us around this monstrosity of a house that I’ll be residing in?” Amanda asked, changing the subject.

Buck flashed her a wide smile, making her stomach do a small flip. “Yes ma’am, follow me.”

“So, how much do I get for taking your unruly woman off of your hands? The contract you wrote up said I’d get a thousand, but after finding out about her unfortunate porn addiction, I think we can raise it to two.”

Amanda stopped in the doorway, wide eyes looking at Carl in indignation with her mouth hanging open.

“You asshole!” she said, smacking Carl on the shoulder, hard. “In the words of my favorite princess, ‘I am not a prize to be won’. But in this instance, I’m not the prize because you’re literally
selling
me into being someone’s mate. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kick you all the way back to the pack house, cover you in honey, and leave you for the beehive you refused to deal with in the tree by the garage!” she yelled, having half a mind to slap both men, grab the keys from Carl, and drive off without him, leaving the two to think about what they’ve done.

“Oh my God, oh my God that’s not what happened!” Carl said, avoiding another swing Amanda aimed at him and skirting to the other side of Buck, slapping him on the arm. “Why would you say that? She’s on edge enough as it is.”

“Geez, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you brought me a dame that couldn’t take a joke,” Buck said.

“A dame?” Amanda asked, still indignant and taking a threatening step towards the man, causing Buck to take a simultaneous step back. “Okay mister, let’s get one thing straight, even if it’s a part of your so-called ‘country charm’ you will under no circumstance call me a dame. And who jokes like that? I don’t know you, I know nothing about you, so of course I didn’t take it to be a joke, okay?” Amanda finished, chest heaving with the exertion of yelling.

“Okay, yes, it is ‘country charm’,” Buck clarified in response to Amanda’s tirade on the word ‘dame’, “but okay, I won’t use it again, especially in relation to you.”

Amanda nodded, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow in a clear signal for Buck to continue with his apology.

He sighed, putting his arms to his side and looking at the ground for a moment before bringing his deep blue eyes up to look into Amanda’s.

“I’m sorry, it may have been a joke, but it was offensive and not funny.”

Amanda nodded, but said nothing as she looked at Buck for more.

He let out an even deeper sigh, lips quirking up into a small half-smile as he said, “And I’m sorry I said you had a porn addiction, I know that you don’t and if you did, it would be a very serious addiction. And, if you weren’t addicted but did enjoy your occasional skin flick, there would be nothing wrong with that, lots of women do that, and it’s great. Alright, how was that?” Buck asked.

“Acceptable,” Amanda said plainly, pushing past the two men to enter into the house.

She froze as a throat cleared in the doorway, doing an about-face to see Carl looking at her expectantly. She rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, alright. Carl, I’m sorry for hitting you. But in my defense, that does sound like something you would do, so . . . But, um, yeah, I’m sorry.”

“Alright, now that we’ve gotten all the terrible jokes and awkward, but certainly heartfelt, apologies out of the way, may I take your bags to your room and give you and Carl some privacy to say goodbye to one another?”

“Thanks man,” Carl said, patting him on the shoulder as Buck grabbed the other suitcase and began carrying them up the stairs.

Amanda and Carl waited until Buck disappeared around a wind in the spiral staircase and made it to the second floor landing. Although he was a werewolf, and therefore could most certainly hear them if he wanted to with his improved hearing, the illusion of privacy was still very much appreciated.

“Well, what, is this the part where we have a teary, emotional goodbye full of hugging and refusing to let go?” Amanda said, aiming to sound humorous but actually sounding rather sad.

“Hey, you know you can call me, or anyone else in the house anytime if you need us. And I mean it, if you really want me to, I will come up here every single day to check that things are going alright.”

Amanda smiled; the majority of the anger and frustration that had been directed at Carl earlier on the car ride to Montana had dissipated. She blinked, her eyes brimming with tears as she thought of just how big of a change she was going to face.

Her pack was her family, and now she was leaving them behind. And she had no idea when she would get the chance to see them again.

“Oh no, hey, hey, please don’t cry on me,” Carl said, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. “Don’t cry, please Amanda, we’ll write letters, everyone will write letters, we can even hold inter-pack picnics.”

“Really?” Amanda asked, voice just a bit wet from the tears.

Carl shrugged. “Yes, really; it’ll take some planning, but we can do it.”

“Oh my gosh, yes, that would be awesome!” Amanda said excitedly, embarrassedly wiping a tear from her eye and another that had fallen on her cheek. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop making you uncomfortable with my woman tears, but you better pick up the phone when I call or I’ll just show up one day at the house and drag you all here for a visit myself. And you know I would do it too.”

“Trust me I do,” Carl said, shaking his head and grinning, “I remember the time I left without you once from a party; I will never forget that incident.”

Amanda smiled. “Good, see that you don’t. Now come here,” she said, holding out her arms towards him for a hug.

Carl smiled, walking towards her and wrapping her in a warm bear hug, squeezing her tightly before lifting her up and off the ground.

“Put me down you goof,” Amanda laughed, breathing a sigh of relief as she was finally put down.

“Alright, so I guess I’ll get going, and I’ll call you later?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Amanda smiled, following him towards the door and waiting in the doorway as he walked down the driveway to the car. Amanda waved him off as he drove back the way they had come in, his absurdly loud folk music blasting through the car’s open window.

“Are you ready for the tour of, well, your room?” came Buck’s voice from behind her, making Amanda jump.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Buck chuckled, leaning up against the opposite wall and crossing his arms. “I mean, I don’t really see the point of giving you a tour of the house, and instead I can just show you to your room. I figure you’ll mosey your way on through the rest of the house in your own time.”

“Mosey?” Amanda asked, disbelieving of the fact that people still spoke like that, particularly people near her own age.

“Yes, mosey,” Buck frowned, “it means-”

“No, no, I know what it means,” Amanda interrupted, chuckling, “I’m just surprised to hear that word. It’s the type of word that I expect to hear in western movies and from the nice older gentleman at the minimart I go to who wears a cowboy hat.”

Buck laughed, “Well, I guess I could technically refer to myself as an older gentleman, I mean, I’m technically sixty, and I own at least three different cowboy hats, so I think I’m decently qualified to use the term mosey.”

Amanda nodded, smiling. “Well then I guess you are, old man; come on, show me to my room.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, grabbing her hand and leading her up the stairs.

Amanda’s eyes widened, glancing down at their carelessly clasped hands and then at Buck, who was instead looking towards the top of the stairs, seemingly unaware of the significance of the contact.

“So, I didn’t want to be overly presumptuous and move your things into my room, so you have the room adjacent to mine. I hope that’s okay.”

“Well,” Amanda said, “considering I had about zero choice in this matter, it is already very presumptuous, but thank you, I appreciate the gesture.”

“Look,” Buck began, leaning against the closed door to her room, “I want you to know that I plan to do this right. I want to take things as slow as you want and court you well. I plan to treat you like the queen you are, and I want to get to know you. I know this situation isn’t exactly ideal, but I think it can work, and grow into something great.”

Amanda nodded, offering a small smile. “Thank you. I mean, yeah, it’s not ideal, but I don’t want to be all difficult about a situation that I can’t change. You seem like a nice guy, and I would like to get to know you too. Thank you for the separate room. Do you think I could go inside and unpack, and we can talk later maybe?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course. I wanted to take you out to dinner this first night, you know, before you meet everyone in the pack, so you don’t feel too overwhelmed and whatnot; is that alright?”

“Um, sure,” Amanda said, crossing her arms over her chest and shifting a bit. She tried to appear nonchalant so as not to let him know she was as nervous as she really was. “What should I wear?”

Buck’s eyes scanned her briefly, not in a prying way or a means of checking her out, but just in an objective, indifferent sort of manner. “Nothing too fancy I guess, wear whatever makes you comfortable. But, you look nice.”

Amanda blushed, glancing down at her blue sundress and white sandals. “Thank you,” she murmured, “What time is dinner?”

“I was thinking maybe an hour from now,” Buck grinned, “The food here is great, I think you’ll like it, and I can show you around a bit; how’s that sound?”

“That sounds great.” Amanda smiled softly.

“Great,” Buck said, moving from his position against the door, “Well, your room’s been cleaned, the sheets changed and everything else. No one’s stayed in there for years so you don’t have to worry about, I don’t know, random stains and suspicious marks like you’d get at some sketchy motel. I hope you like it.”

“I’m sure I will,” Amanda said, opening the door and disappearing inside the room. She leaned up against the closed door when she shut it, closing her eyes and listening until she was sure that Buck had gone downstairs before sliding down the door and sitting on the hardwood floor, placing her head on her crossed arms.

She took a deep breath, attempting to calm her racing heart. For some reason, as nice as he was, Buck made her nervous. Not in a bad way, but in the funny way that made her stomach do little flips and her face flush for no reason.

Finally, she looked up, her eyes widening as she took in the room. The place was huge. It had a large, queen-size bed in its center with large spiral posts and a canopy above it, and it was covered in lush blue and turquoise pillows. The walls were a light shade of blue and the hardwood floor was dark oak that shined from having been newly polished. The room had a walk-in closet that could certainly house more than the few outfits Amanda had brought in her suitcases, as well as an attached bathroom with a large shower and tub. If this was her room, she could only imagine what Buck’s room, the master bedroom, looked like.