ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (217 page)

Jenna cried. She cried about her mom, about the fact that she was alone now, with no one left to cling to. She cried because Bruce was gone, too, and in a way she mourned his loss more because unlike her mother’s it was so unexpected. She cried because Tara was so damn beautiful it hurt, and why would a man like Bruce not look at her? She cried because she had nothing else left in her.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he finally said, after he’d let her cry for a while. “I know it hurts. But we all have to move on someday. Your mother is with your father now. It’s time for her to find her happiness again.”

Jenna nodded. Her mother had been through hell after her father’s death. What Murphy was saying was right. She was happy again. She would see her father, and they could be together again, wherever they’d gone.

“It’s just me alone, left behind now,” she managed to say. She wiped her tears with the back of her palm and looked up at Murphy. “Will you help me?”

Murphy gave her a gentle smile and nodded.

They had the funeral the same day. There was no reason in Williamsburg to postpone it for weeks. There were no facilities to keep the body on ice, and there was no investigation that needed to be done as to how she had died.

The funeral was short and sweet. They marched the body to the other side of the valley where the crosses of other funerals stood. Three men dug the grave and the women of the church sung hymns that just made Jenna cry even more. Finally, when the preacher had said a few words and the ground was back in the whole on top of the wooden box they’d buried her mother in, the villagers trickled away one by one until Jenna was left alone at the grave.

She stood, looking at the cross and the mound of fresh earth. Her mother was buried next to her father, and it was as it should have been.

Someone cleared a throat behind her, and Jenna turned. Bruce stood a couple of feet away, and he looked like he felt he was intruding.

Jenna looked at him. He was tall and broad, and he looked strong and healthy as always. She noticed how handsome he was, how rugged and manly. And how unreachable he was now. Nothing about him had changed, and it still felt like there was a wall between them now.

“I’m very sorry,” Bruce broke the silence first. “I know what this must mean to you.”

“Thank you,” Jenna said and turned away from him, back to the grave. He took it as an invitation to join her. When he stood next to her she was aware of how close he was, and fought the urge to take a step away.

“I want you to know that if there’s anything I can do…” he started. He paused to take a breath, and Jenna took the opportunity to interrupt.

“Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate the gesture, but unfortunately you and I both know you’re making a promise you can’t keep.”

Her voice was harder than she thought she could make it, given how she felt, and he looked surprised. She was never hard with him. He looked at her like he didn’t understand, and that upset her.

“Your girlfriend made it quite clear last night that I wasn’t to come near you again. I don’t much care for her, Bruce, but I don’t feel like being humiliated in public again. I’ve lost enough.”

The last sentence had slipped out. She hadn’t meant to paint his relationship with Tara as a loss to her.

“I understand that you’re going through a hard time. But my relationship with Tara doesn’t change the fact that I still care for you, and I know what it’s like to lose someone.”

Bruce took her last statement as the loss of her mother alone. It made Jenna feel better about it. But his words were wrong, and that made them hurt that much more.

“I’m sorry, Bruce. We both know that’s not as true as you’d like it to be. You may care for me but that will be limited. As it should be, keeping Tara happy is your goal now.”

Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but the tears were so close Jenna was scared she would cry in front of him. And that wouldn’t do. So she shook her head.

“I can’t do this. It’s been a long day, Bruce. Don’t make it longer.” She turned her back on him and walked away. She could feel his eyes burning into her back until she disappeared into the trees, and even then she felt like he was following her. But when she stopped and turned around she was alone in the trees.

The hair on her arms stood on end. The atmosphere between the trees was palpable, like something was there, watching her. A shiver ran down her spine and she hurried on. She had to get away from the trees, away from the feeling of foreboding. Away from the sorrow that the weekend has brought with it.

She walked back to the Inn. There were customers sitting around now, but it wasn’t as busy as it would get later. Murphy looked up when he saw her and nodded. She walked to the bar.

“I wanted to thank you for your help,” Jenna said. “It’s been a hard day and you’ve just made it easier for me to deal with it.”

“Of course, sweetheart,” he said. “It hurts me that I’ve helped you bury both your parents.”

Jenna nodded and sat down on a stool.

“What are you going to do now?” Murphy asked. She shrugged.

“I don’t know. There isn’t much left here for me. I could leave if I want. Find a new home, a place where I could belong. Where I could have a family again that I could call my own.”

Murphy nodded, picked up a glass and started polishing.

“You could do that,” he said, looking at his glass. “But that would mean leaving the only place you’ve ever called home. You belong here, sweetheart, don’t you know?” He glanced at her. “Don’t let a pretty face scare you off.”

Jenna snapped her head up at Murphy. He looked at her for a moment.

“Oh, I’ve seen how it’s been around these parts. Hearts break over lost people, whether they live or die, all the time. You just need to decide if you’re going to be defined by someone else, or if the value of your life is going to make them so regretful of losing you they’re living the hell intended for you instead.”

Jenna smiled. A small smile, with little happiness behind it, but it was a smile.

“Thank you, Murphy,” she said. She slid off the barstool and walked out the Inn. Because, of course he was right. This was home. And she was here long before Bruce, or Tara, or half the other people she’d come to love.

Jenna walked the winding road through the cabins until she came to the last one. She knocked on the door and waited. She was just about to turn and walk away when the door opened and Bruce appeared. He looked confused and bleary, his voice thick with sleep.

“Jenna?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were sleeping.” She looked up at the sun. It was well into the afternoon. But it was a Saturday, and her mood darkened when she realized he must have had a long night.

He shook his head. “I was just feeling under the weather. What’s up?” he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and she could trace his individual muscles as they rippled under his skin when he moved. She forced her eyes back up to his so she wouldn’t be rude and stare.

He was the best looking guy she’d ever seen. A lot of other men also worked as lumberjacks and they didn’t have bodies like Bruce’s.

She took a deep breath and focused on what she’d come to say.

“I wanted to apologize for my behavior this morning. I know that my dislike of Tara shouldn’t affect my friendship with you. I could have been more polite about it.”

“Jen, you just lost your mother. I’m not going to hold it against you.”

Jenna nodded and her eyes trailed down to his pecks again, his abs. She stopped herself when she reached his belt and looked down at her own hands. Safer that way.

“I know that you think Tara is the woman for you, and I want you to know that even though I really can’t stand her,” she felt like an idiot for admitting it, “I will try.”

“Thank you,” Bruce said. “That really means a lot to me.”

“I’m trying for you, not for her,” Jenna added. “Because if you ask me she doesn’t fit in here. And you don’t belong with her.”

“Jenna…” Bruce said.

“I know, I  know,” she interrupted. “None of my business. Just don’t let her get all up in my face. You know that I won’t look for trouble. It’s not necessary for you to let her run me off like a dog when this is my town, and she’s the outsider.”

Bruce nodded. “Sorry about that,” he said. “She has jealousy issues.”

“I didn’t notice,” Jenna said and it was dripping was sarcasm. But Bruce smiled, and somehow that broke the tension. The atmosphere suddenly became soft and warm between them, the way it used to be. The way it had always been. It was almost like nothing had happened at all. Except for the fact that when she looked at his body again, she knew that it belonged to someone else now.

She couldn’t dream about it anymore. And that someone else had probably already had that body, and she would never be able to touch it the way she’d wanted to. She shook her head, got rid of the thoughts. It didn’t matter anyway.

If Bruce really was the man she thought he was, and Tara was the bitch she looked to be, then it wouldn’t last long, anyway. She’d known Bruce long enough to know that he didn’t put up with people’s crap for long. And Tara had a lot of it.

When she said her goodbyes and turned away from the cabin she sighed. She knew that most of that was wishful thinking rather than a hunch that it wouldn’t last. But a girl could dream. A girl could always dream.

Chapter 5

When night fell Bruce set out into the trees. The moon was getting closer to full, and he could feel its pull even though he didn’t have to answer to it. Maybe all preternatural creatures could hear the moon’s song, even though it was only the wolves and the vampires that had to obey it.

Bruce made his way through the trees again. The moonlight was so bright it made his movement easy, and the forest was alive all around him. It was as if the trees and the plants breathed, and the earth vibrated underneath his feet wherever he stepped.

He made the climb to the plateau where they would meet. He wasn’t the first to arrive.

Tara stood there, her hair hanging around her shoulder like a black cloak. When she heard Bruce arrive she turned and her eyes shone in the dark, eyes that were such a light blue they looked almost white. Her animal was very close. She must have been clinging onto her human form with her teeth.

“Bruce,” she said and her voice was a low growl rather than a human voice. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Bruce walked up to her and took her hand. He rubbed his cheek against it, a form a respect, a request not to take her temper out on him. He kissed her hand and then licked her knuckle the way he knew the wereleopards did with each other to honor their queen.

A smile played over her lips and he knew he’d pleased her. He stood up and took her into his arms. She folded her body against his and she was warm. Her body temperature would rise the closer it got to the moon, and even though she didn’t have to change on full moon either, she chose to give up her control then.

It was like being an animal was what she preferred.

Bruce was aware of her sharp teeth. They seemed more pointed than before, more like animal fangs. Tara spent a lot of time as a leopard. Too much time.

She stood on her toes and kissed him. It started off gentle, but then she became urgent, insisted his open his mouth. She licked him on his lips, and kissed him with so much passion it left him dizzy.

He was just about to lose himself in the throes of passion she was conjuring up in him, when she took his bottom lip between her teeth and bit down.

He made a sound that sounded a lot more like his bear, and he could feel the animal get angry and rear up inside him. He tasted his own blood, hot in his mouth, and there was a red smear of blood across Tara’s face.

Whatever she was trying to do a minute earlier, to draw blood she must have been pissed at him.

“What bothers you, my queen?” he said, trying to keep himself in a position of respect. But his voice came out as a low growl and the anger in him hung in the air, thick enough to touch. However much respect he was trying to show as a human, his animal wanted to challenge Tara for drawing blood.

“You’re too close to the humans,” she said and her voice was normal again. But when she spoke power washed over him and he could taste some of his own power lacing hers. His blood on her lips, the union that they had now that they were a couple, it let her tap into his reserves.

He didn’t like it. How much could she take if she really wanted to? What would that do to him, what if she decided to leave nothing for him? But he focused on her words.

“They don’t know what I am. They don’t ask questions.”

“That girl that oozes all over you, she’s too close. She wants more. She wants to know more. And if she finds out?”

Bruce felt himself harden inside, like a rock. He had to try and steel himself against her. He had to try and stop her from draining his power. She could have it only at his own will.

“She’s not a problem. She won’t find out,” Bruce said.

Tara opened her mouth to speak, but then she laughed instead. “You’re fighting this in vain, Bruce, but you’re not going to block me. I can take your power. You agreed to it when you agreed to becoming my mate. I can take what I want from you.”