ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (211 page)

“Where does your mother stay?” I asked, hoping to god she wasn’t in the room next door. I just couldn’t imagine getting intimate with Warren when his mother was listening.

“She also lives in a cottage. The one at the back, so she has privacy too.”

I took a deep breath and blew it out again, nodding.

“Let me show you around,” Warren said. I was tired. I was scared. All I wanted to do was sleep. I hadn’t slept at all on the place and I felt uncomfortable. Almost like when you wore high heels all day and your feet got sore, the balls of your feet aching with your weight and the muscle tired and strained. Except I would never be able to take them off and sink into the comfort of bare feet. This was my life now.

When lunch rolled round a group of twenty people filtered into the kitchen. They ranged from middle-aged couples to parents with children to bachelors. They all smiled at me and nodded.

“So nice of you to join us,” one man with brown hair and a gray moustache said to me. “You’ll love the herding. We’re going on a round-up after lunch!”

“What’s a round-up?” I asked.

“We have to get the cows from the bottom pastures up the top one so we can separate the cows from the heifers,” Warren said. He’d sat down next to me. “You’re welcome to come along if you like. I have a horse you can ride.”

A horse? Cows? I shook my head. “I think I’ll stay behind,” I said.

“It’ll be worth your money,” the man said again.

“Oh no, I’m not—“

I was interrupted by Margot bringing in a giant tray. She put in on the table and took off the plastic dome that kept the flies out. It was stacked with a pile of steaks the size of a folded newspaper.

“What’s that?” I asked, failing to keep the alarm out of my voice.

“Oh, that’s our finest beef. We cultivate our own food, don’t you know?” Margot said. I glanced down at the meat at again and fought the urge to curl up my lips to match the disgust I felt.

“What else is there?” I asked, looked around the table. Margot produced a plate stacked with warm rolls and a small plate of salad that was about half the amount I usually ate.

Everyone reached over the table and grabbed a huge piece of meat. It filled up their plates so they put their rolls on top. No one touched the salad.

“Don’t be shy, dear,” Margot said, nodding at the meat.

“I uh…”

“Edith is vegetarian,” Warren said for me. Margot’s face fell.

“What do you eat, then?” she asked.

“I’ll take some salad,” I said and reached for the bowl.

“Oh…” Margot sounded genuinely disappointed.

By the time lunch was over the group filtered out through the door again, and I was left alone in the kitchen. I took a warm roll and folded it in a napkin to take to my room. I hadn’t had nearly enough to eat. Usually for lunch I had a plate of roasted vegetables and a variety of cheeses that I picked up from the local deli. I had no idea how far the nearest shop would be, and I doubted they sold anything I could really eat.

I walked to the room. Warren would be busy the whole afternoon. I’d hoped we could spend some time together, but it looked like he wasn’t going to have a moment free. I lay down on the bed and unfolded the napkin. The roll was cold by now, bit it looked like Margot had baked it herself.

“How do you like it here so far?” Margot was suddenly in the doorway. I pushed the roll under the pillow. I felt like I was at school eating when it wasn’t break-time. “Do you have everything you need?”

“I’m fine, thank you. I thought I would rest a bit. It’s been a long trip.”

“Of course, and this must be such a change. Poor dear.”

Well, she was right about that. I nodded.

“I have just the thing to cheer you up,” Margot said and walked over to the closet. Hadn’t she ever heard about personal privacy? That was the closet where I’d just unpacked all my stuff. I didn’t feel comfortable with her going through it.

She reached up to a top shelf that was stacked with shoe boxes and photo albums, and pulled out a large, dusty book.

“This here is Warren’s entire childhood,” she said and sat down on the bed again, flipping open the book which turned out to be a giant photo album. I groaned inwardly. All I’d wanted was some peace and quiet, to nibble on my roll and then fall asleep so I wouldn’t feel like a bus had run me over. So I wouldn’t remember that I was a thousand miles away from home.

By the time the sun sunk below the horizon I was just about ready to punch someone. I hadn’t had one moment of peace since we’d left my apartment yesterday. Margot, the tourists, supper that consisted of more meat and talking, coffee on the porch. It was all too much.

When the bedroom door finally closed, I sank down on the bed.

“I can’t do this,” I said to Warren. “I tried, I really did. But these people just never stop. And I’m starving and there’s nothing in this house that I can eat.”

“It’s just the first day, honey. It will get better.”

He walked to the bed and sat down next to me. The mattress dipped under his weight, leaning me into him. “I know this is rough for you.”

“You have no idea,” I breathed, dropping my head into my hands. My hair made a curtain around my face and I wished it was enough to shut out the world. Warren’s large hands came down gently on my shoulders and with strong fingers he kneaded into the muscle. It was pain and pleasure all at the same time has he worked out the knots.

“I know this is hard,” he said. “And you have no idea what this means to me, that you came home with me. I’ve been wanting to share my world with you for so long.”

“Is every day going to be like this?” I asked. His silence was an answer in itself.

“We just need to find a space for you where you fit in.”

I nodded, but tears stung my eyes and my throat was tight. I swallowed hard.

Warren’s lips came down on the back of my neck and he dropped small kissed all over my neck and shoulders. His hands trailed down my back, rubbing across the width of it, and the tension was replaced by an ache that nothing could fix, not even home. Only Warren could fill the void that opened up in me now.

As if reading my mind he reached around, turning me toward him and kissing me full on the mouth. He was warm and tasted and sweet and manly. He was a lot of man, muscled, large, but was gentle with me. His hands traced the rise and fall of my body, and his own body slid over mine to complete it. I could feel his individual muscles pressing against me, his hard body complimenting the soft feminine curves of mine.

He undressed me slowly, like it was an activity all in itself, and when I lay in the middle of the bed, naked, he looked at me like he’d never seen me naked before. His eyes roamed my body, taking in my breasts, my stomach, my thighs, and where it all came together in a V of womanhood. I always felt insecure, like I should be trimmer, fitter, prettier. But when he looked at me like that, it made me feel like there wasn’t a part of me that didn’t scream out perfection.

“I love you,” he said, crawling over me until his body covered me. He kissed me again, and his hips ground against mine. He was rock solid and his hunger for me was plain, pushing up against my thigh, leaving a trail of slick lust behind.

I opened my legs and he found me like a homing missile. When he pushed into me he pushed a moan out of me like a sigh, the length of him filling me up and my insides stretched and yielded, accommodating him.

My hands were on his back, and when he started rocking against me, pushing in and pulling out, my nails bit encouragement into his skin. For the first time since before the full moon I felt normal again, complete, and this was something I knew and understood. His body was like an anchor that bound me to reality, and his movement and searing heat inside of me erased everything that hurt in this world.

It didn’t take long before he pushed me to the limits and I fell into the white abyss that always overpowered the orgasms he brought on. I lost complete control and fell, and he was there to catch me.

When he released inside of me, filling me up, finding every inch of me and claiming it as his own again, as he did every time, I shuddered along with his body. Maybe I could do this. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. I just needed time.

He slipped out of me and rolled off, pulling me with him until my skin was against his again, slick with sweat. We fell asleep with his body curled around mine like a question mark, our fingers intertwined and his breathing in time with mine.

Warren was everything, and if I couldn’t fall asleep with my body molded to his every night, I would shrivel and die.

Chapter 3

The next week was hell. Every day was pretty much the same as the day before. There were people everywhere, and I never got a chance to just be alone – not once. If it wasn’t tourists and guests that were in and around the house, it was Margot passing the time they guests were out ranching, with me.

When I pretended to be sick, she made such a fuss and checked up on me so many times, I just dropped the act.

Finally the guests went home. There would be a two-day break where  the ranch staff – which apparently included the people living on it, too – cleaned up before the next group arrived.

“Sweetheart, do you want to get away for a bit?” Warren asked me, finding me in one of the cottages where I was vacuuming a carpet.

“What?”

The idea sounded too good to be true.

“Come out with me. We’ll just disappear for a bit, get away from the hustle and bustle.”

I switched off the vacuum cleaner and left it right there. When I reached Warren I wrapped myself around him, breathing in the smell of him.

“You have no idea how much I need this,” I said. I was losing my mind. Warren kissed my hair and took my hand, leading me out of the cottage and down to the stables.

“Where are we going?” I asked. The stables weren’t my idea of a romantic getaway, but then again, nothing around this place was a getaway at all.

“I thought we could take a ride down to the lake and eat something.” When we were in the stable he produced a bag he’d already packed for us. When I went over the contents I realized he’d gotten food I can actually eat. There wasn’t a single piece of meat inside. I melted. He was an angel sent from heaven when I was literally just about to die.

He grinned when he saw the look on my face.

“Come on,” he said, walking deeper into the stable among the horse stalls. “This is Honeycomb. She’s tame and she’ll take good care of you.” He rubbed the nose of a mare with a golden coat and wheat-colored mane. She whinnied, nuzzling him.

“You mean ride as in ride horses?” I asked. They were beautiful creatures, to be sure. But I always liked them better on a postcard. Warren nodded looking proud of himself.

“Honey… I don’t really ride,” I said. I hadn’t been out with the guests once despite their wailing and urging that I should join them. Horses and dirt and pretty much farm-life in general just wasn’t my thing.

“Honeycomb has taken a lot of novices. You’ll be perfectly fine,” he said. A stable hand prepared the horses for us while I watched, dreading every second as it dragged me closer to the moment I would have to get onto that beast. Warren disappeared and a moment later he led his own horse out into the sun. When the light fell on the horse’s coat it flamed, a red-brown that rippled over strong hindquarters.

“He’s beautiful,” I said. Warren had told me all about Blaze, and the horse lived up to his name.

“Come on, hop on. This is going to be great.”

I scrambled onto the horse looking less elegant than I’d hoped, and we set off. It turned out my horse followed anyone in front of her, and Warren did the riding while I clutched to the saddle and hung on, praying we wouldn’t go far.

The ride took a lot longer than I’d ever been willing to be on a horse, but finally we reached the lake.

It was a spread of water created by a basin that formed where the one foot of the mountain toed the other. The rain kept it filled in summer, the snow did that in winter.

“It’s a natural phenomenon,” Warren said. The rolling fields around the lake were all green and lush, and the mountains that stretched up to the heavens on both sides were capped with snow.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed.

“Kind of makes you wonder what you saw in the big city, doesn’t it?” Warren asked. No, it didn’t actually, but I wasn’t going to admit that to him. He spread a blanket on the grass and opened up the bag he’d packed. He produced carrot sticks, cucumber strips, cherry tomatoes and humus dip. Vegetable rolls made of zucchini and peppers, and blue cheese and brie.

“Where did you find all of this?” I asked.

“I drove all the way to Butte when you were sick the other day. I thought you could do with someone edible.”

We ate and it was like drinking water after you’d been wandering through the desert. I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed real food. I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed the taste of home.

My throat was suddenly tight and my chest hurt. A lump rose in my throat and I swallowed hard, trying to focus on something else before I started crying. I wanted to go home, and as nice as Warren was, as much as he was trying, I just couldn’t see this as a place I could spend the rest of my life.