ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (216 page)

He froze for a moment. This was the last thing he expected. Her lips were hot on his, hot but gentle. He didn’t move, and finally she let go of him and broke the kiss.

“Sorry,” Jenna breathed and wiped her mouth. Bruce lifted his fingers to his lips where she had been a few seconds ago. “I just… I know it’s probably too late. I just wanted you to know.”

Bruce’s head spun. His body felt like a million small explosions danced on his skin.

“I’m sorry,” Jenna said again when he didn’t answer. He shook his head, finally dropped his head, and cleared his throat.

“I’m barging in on you because I wanted to tell you that she’s coming to Williamsburg tomorrow night,” Bruce said. He watched as Jenna’s face drained of color.

“Oh my god,” she said, raising her hand to her mouth.

“Yeah… I just wanted to show Tara what it was like where I lived. Thought it might be good for her to meet the people I see every day.” Bruce’s sentence tapered off toward the end. How was he supposed to explain this? It was all a lie.

Jenna’s eyes had changed to a dark, almost evergreen, and her cheeks were flaming. She reddened the longer he looked at her.

“I’m such an idiot,” she said, so soft it was almost just a breath. But he heard her, and he wanted to make it right. But how could he? He was taken now. And Jenna had told him too late.

“I have to get going. I’m going to be late for work,” he said. She nodded without saying anything, and he backed out of the door. She didn’t make eye-contact even though he wanted her to. Somehow this felt like goodbye. When she shut the door, he turned and walked away.

It wasn’t just that Jenna was too late. It had been five years. But even if she’d told him from the start, made a move to kiss him when he’d just arrived, he wouldn’t have been able to be with her. He would have treated her just the same as he’d been treating her until now. Because the fact was that he wasn’t just a man. Magic was a part of his life. Power and hierarchy and a battle that humans knew nothing about was a part of his daily life. He was a bear, and he couldn’t tell her. She would die for his secret, and she was too precious to him to risk telling her what he really was.

So he had to grin and bear tomorrow night, introducing Tara to the woman he’d held close to his heart for five years, and he was going to have to accept the fact that he would never be with her.

Tara came down from the mountain before sunset. She looked good. Bruce didn’t know where she’d gotten the clothes, but she looked modern. Modern and curvy and beautiful.

She wore dark blue jeans, a red top that made her ebony hair look almost black as night, and her blue eyes looked like ice. When she smiled it wasn’t a warm, friendly smile. It didn’t reach her eyes, and it reminded him who she was. A cold person, doing this for the sake of politics, not the warm woman she was pretending to be.

He received her at the foot of the mountain, and she walked to him and smiled. Her animalistic pointed teeth were gone, flat like any human’s. When she stepped closer to him he could fee her power, hot and heavy and he knew that her illusion of reality was just that – an illusion.

She stepped up to him, and hovered his lips just over his. Her power prickled on his skin. He waited for the connection, for her to push her lips down on his. But she didn’t. Instead he jerked her head back and her eyes changed. The color bled out of her eyes until they were so light they were almost white, and her pupils were pinpricks of black swimming in the middle. Her leopard eyes.

Bruce saw the animal slide behind those eyes, felt it crouch beneath her skin.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. He was suddenly weary. As a bear he was bigger and stronger than she was, physically, but her power was second to none.

“You’ve been with someone,” Tara said. Bruce started shaking his head, but caught himself. She would be able to smell a lie.

“I smell her on your skin,” Tara said again. “A human.”

Bruce fought the urge to roll his eyes.

“It was a misunderstanding,” he said. “Nothing happened and it’s sorted out.”

Tara narrowed her eyes at him, but she bought it. It was the truth, after all. She could smell it on him. She nodded slightly. When she turned so that they could make their way to the Inn, Bruce steeled himself for a night he would probably regret. It had already started.

The Inn was busy as always. The place was packed with Friday night regulars, and it was loud and inviting. The music was turned up and the chatter and laughter of people sharing lives they all already knew with each other was like a vibration in the air.

Bruce stepped inside first. He held Tara’s hand. This wasn’t a case of leadership, it was a case of protection. He was still acting as her second even though he was in front. If something waited for them he would take the first blow.

And he did it gladly. It was in his nature. Doing it the other way round to play the gentleman for a woman he disliked more than he was attracted to would have gone against his grain as a bear. As a human he might have sent her into the fray first.

Some of his friends looks up when he walked in and they cheered and lifted their beers. They’d been drinking since much earlier. On Friday’s they got off before sunset.

“Brucie!” Murphy called out in a sing-song voice. “About time you rolled on by, this beer right here had no idea what to do with itself.”

He held up a pint. But then Tara stepped through the door, and the place fell quiet. Everyone stared. The atmosphere was thicker than the smoke that hung in the air, and faces everywhere were turned to Tara. The only thing still going was that radio, and it felt like suddenly it was turned up so much louder.

“Well, this is just lovely,” Tara said and her voice was cheerful and bright. Different from the commanding voice she used when she was addressing the Family. Different from the demanding voice she’d been using on Bruce.

“This is Tara,” Bruce said, speaking into the silence. He felt her power push against him from behind. This had better work or there would be a hell to pay. He would have to leave his people if it meant they suspected something.

Somewhere in the back someone wolf-whistled. Tara giggled like Bruce had never heard before.

“Now boys, I came with someone,” she said and wrapped her hand around Bruce’s arm. When there was still no reply she put on an even thicker accent. “Can a girl from Rhodestown get a drink? Or does Williamsburg’s fellas really just live from the water from the mountain spring?” She pushed her hip out to the side and planted a hand on it.

“I’ve heard rumors, you know.”

Murphy pushed the pint of beer he’d held up to Bruce toward her.

“Can you hold your liquor?” he asked, looking her up and down. She did look small. She had a narrow frame and with her hair all blown out and pretty clothes she didn’t look half as wild as Bruce knew she could be.

“Oh, I can hold whatever you can give me,” she said and winked at Murphy. Somehow that broke the atmosphere. They laughed. Men nearby clapped Bruce on the back. Some women glared at her and her easy ways with men.

And then, at the very back, Bruce saw Jenna. Her eyes were on Tara, not on him, and they were filled with envy. Not jealousy, envy. She wished she had what Tara had.

Bruce sighed. If Jenna only knew how beautiful her own honesty and purity of heart was.

Tara had walked over to the bar and grabbed that pint. She lifted it to her mouth like a seasoned drinker and took a sip. Bruce knew she could go all night. Were-creatures couldn’t get drunk. Their quick repair systems and natural immunity against human ills meant that alcohol just didn’t have an effect. She could sit her drinking all night. So could he.

He just didn’t know if he could stomach it.

Jenna walked up to him and he wanted her to rather stay put. He shook his head ever so slightly, hoping she would get the hint. If she saw it she thought nothing of it. Instead she stood right in front of Bruce.

“You haven’t introduced me to your lady friend,” she said loud enough to be heard over the music. Bruce opened his mouth to answer, but Tara was suddenly next to him, and both hands were free.

“This is her, isn’t it?” she said, and the laughter was out of her voice.

Jenna frowned slightly, a question in her eyes, and looked at her.

“I’m Jenna,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you. The women around town have been wondering for years who was finally going to tie this free spirit down.”

It was a sweet opening line. Maybe jealousy was in there, but it was generous. Bruce wanted to hug Jenna and thank her for being nice about it. But Tara stepped closer to Jenna, close enough that they were almost chest on chest. She was taller than Jenna, but not by much. But her air was intimidating, and Jenna swallowed. She didn’t step back.

She should have.

“Tara, honey,” Bruce said, but Tara shot him a look that surpassed humanity. It was an animalistic stare that would have gone accompanied with a snarl if they’d been alone. He snapped his mouth shut and waited.

Her eyes hadn’t changed their color yet, but he could see the animal slide behind him when she looked at him, and he was scared for Jenna.

“Listen here, country girl,” she sneered. Her voice was so low only Jenna and preternatural creatures were sharper hearing could keep up with the conversation. Bruce’s skin broke out in goose bumps. Tara’s voice crawled over his skin like tiny ants and he could smell Jenna’s fear in the air.

Jenna could pick up on these things. Even though she didn’t know what she was feeling. Bruce knew she could.

“It’s written all over you, how you pine and swoon for this man. You better keep you seedy paws off him, or you’ll regret the day he came into this town. You’ll have to reckon with me, and I promise you, you’re not going to like it.”

Jenna swallowed hard and nodded with quick movements. Then she glanced at Bruce one more time, and turned away. It was a bad idea to show a predator your back, especially with the amount of fear radiating from her. Tara could see it as a running target and fall for the chase. But she behaved like any respectable woman from Rhodestown would and turned to me with a smile.

“Darling, you’re not going to let me drink alone, are you?”

Somehow the others had missed what had happened, but Murphy made a snorting sound now and someone else piped up from the back.

“Bruce can outdrink anyone here,” it came.

“Well,” Tara said and a smile played over her lips that made her look mysterious and coy instead of the monster she was just a moment ago. “We’ll have to see about that.”

Chapter 4

The town was still asleep. When Friday nights started off like they did the night before, Saturday mornings were dead. Jenna was sure she was the only person up. She got up and got dressed, and walked across the road to her mom’s cabin to check on her.

When she knocked on the door, there was no answer. She pushed it open, and walked inside. The cabin was dark and quiet. Her mother, even though she was ill, was usually up early.

Jenna walked to her bedroom, and froze in the doorstep. Her mother lay on her back, eyes closed, the book she’d been reading fallen to the side. Her mother wasn’t sleeping.

Somewhere early in the night, while Jenna had cried about a lost love, she’d passed away. Jenna sat down on the edge of her mother’s bed and felt like her heart was going to break. First it was Bruce, and now this. The only two people she’d ever really loved, gone on the same night.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and she didn’t know who to turn to. Bruce was the person she would have run to with this. He was the person she would have called to help her sort out the body and arrange a funeral. But the chances that he was still asleep were good. They were even better that he wasn’t alone in his bed.

The idea hurt just as much as her mother’s death, and her chest tightened. It was hard to breath, and she finger combed her hair out of her face. She felt trapped and she tried to lighten it up, but the cabin was suddenly small. The town was small. Her world had suddenly shrunken to such a small place that her own existence was the only one that was left.

She walked to the Inn. It was open as it always was. Where Murphy found the time to sleep was a mystery often talked about. The Inn was just always open, and he was just always behind the bar polishing his glasses and ready with a beer tap to wash away anyone’s sorrows.

When she walked in through the door, Murphy looked up and smiled.

“There you are,” he said. “I was wondering where you disappeared to last night. You missed a hell of a party.”

“I’m sure,” Jenna said, but her voice sounded far off and small. She didn’t even want to think what had gone down the night before.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Murphy asked. He frowned at her, eyes concerned. Jenna closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. She tried to steady herself so that she didn’t cry, and then broke down in tears anyway.

“My mother passed away last night,” she said and when she opened her eyes Murphy had come around the bar. He stood in front of her, and then he stretched out his meaty arms and wrapped them around her, pulling her against his belly. She’d known him since she was a child. Everyone had.

Murphy was like the village’s grandfather. No matter how many people had left of passed away, Murphy had always been there.