ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (240 page)

When he slipped out of me he rolled to the side and draped his arm over my chest. I turned my head and looked at him.

“I’ve missed you,” I said.

“Never again, baby,” he answered and I knew what he meant. We couldn’t let things slide the way they had. Even if I didn’t have – didn’t
want –
someone else, we couldn’t get back into the rut where we lived past each other. Being with him like this now made me feel alive. It made me feel connected to him the way we’d been when we’d met. This was the way I’d felt, why I’d wanted to get married to him. Because he was my other half, and he completed me. I’d gotten too used to getting along with my other leg, my other arm, my other eye. Being with him like this again now was like I could finally move again. Breathe again.

He leaned up on his elbow.

“So, you write stories about people having sex,” he said. Putting it that way sounded harsh, and I hesitated before I nodded. But it was true. That was exactly what I did. It wasn’t like I’d had a traumatic childhood, and something twisted gave me a dirty mind and the uncanny ability to describe intimacy in details. There was nothing in me that justified the kink I had. I just was.

I was scared this altered Chris’s opinion of me. But he smiled, a glint in his eye.

“Why don’t you show me some of the things you make your characters do?” he said, and then grinned like a teenager that had just come across a stash of porn magazines under his friend’s bed.

I smiled, getting on top of him, and showed him.

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BY SICILY DUVAL

Rain Cash stared at the man skeptically.  She might have taken him more seriously if he hadn’t shot dark tobacco juice into a Mountain Dew bottle every ten to fifteen seconds.  She may have even been able to ignore the spitting if he hadn’t also fiddled with the pen on the faded counter top with dirty hands that had grease under every fingernail.  It was the woes of being a mechanic she supposed. 

“Are you sure?  I mean, I thought 64 would take me all the way into Greenbrier Springs.”

“No, Ma'am.”  He said patiently.  Crystal blue eyes watched her from around premature wrinkles and heavy brows.  He had the look of someone that’s used to squinting into the sun.  His eyes kind of hovered in a tense pose, just in case the sun came glaring through the tiny gas station. 

Rain sighed and pushed her black hair away from her shoulder impatiently, her silver bracelets clinking together.  The man watched with a wary fascination. 

“So, you’re saying to get off 64 at Staunton and follow 250?” 

The man nodded. 

Rain turned and looked around the tiny store.  It really was meant to just be a mechanic’s shop, but someone had thought it through a tiny bit and figured that many people would be traveling between Waynesboro and the even larger city of Staunton and might need gas or a moon pie.  Little did they know that soon the conglomerates would descend and virtually wipe out such a small gas station with only two pumps and one soda cooler. 

Rain grabbed a small bag of barbeque Fritos from among the small chip selection and a diet coke.  She nearly laughed out loud at the absurdity of eating corn chips and caring enough about calories to drink a diet coke.  But she had weighed in at a not too bad but not too good 150 at her last doctor’s visit, and every little bit helped.

The man squinted at the old fashioned register and slowly typed in the prices.  Rain glanced over the counter to see if the sun was glaring from between the keys. 

“It’ll be two fifty seven.” 

At least his prices were good.

Rain got back in her car and stared through the windshield at the leaden sky.  The air carried a crisp wet smell.  She hadn’t checked the forecast before leaving and now hoped the sky and air didn’t mean snow.  The thermometer on her dash told her the air outside was still above freezing.

She hated this.  She hated driving period.  If it wasn’t a mission of pure love and necessity, she would still be in Orange, curled up with a book, enjoying her vacation.  She shook her head. 
Vacation
.  She was working fast food at the age of twenty-eight.  Seemed as if she had been on vacation for a long time now.

Rain smacked the steering wheel and grimaced.  Stupid Dante.  She had just known he was going to be the answer to her prayers.  Tall, lanky, skin nearly the color of night, with eyes that were a startling light brown.  Oh he was beautiful…and full of lies and deceptions and all manner of cruelties, but Rain loved him; at least she thought she did and that was the reason for the journey that would end in the wilds of West Virginia.  She started the engine and put the car in gear thinking wilds wasn’t a fair term considering she was headed to Creekside in Greenbrier Springs, and it was supposedly a luxurious resort.  At least Dante promised it would be, but Dante’s promises didn’t carry much weight any longer.

Rain bit her lip in anxious frustration as she took the exit off of 64 onto Rt. 250.  A flurry of snow was happening right before her eyes and judging from the dusting on the ground the further west she went, it had been going on for a little while.  She had no idea what to expect as she neared the Allegheny Mountains.  Didn’t it snow more in the mountains? 

She checked the digital clock.  3:45. She wouldn’t reach the resort until dark, if then.  She drove on, contemplating what she would say to Dante and how he would react.  Aloof at first for sure; always aloof at first, it was rule number one in the “complicated” relationship status.  Her mind eventually drifted to Trevor.  Pale faced, long haired, Trevor; a musical genius who never quite learned how to just handle life.  Trevor who worried and went to extremes.  Trevor who took a 9mm handgun and ended all of his worries.  Trevor… Rain had married him at nineteen and buried him at twenty four.  She shook her head to dismiss the thoughts.  She wouldn’t allow herself down that black rabbit hole again.  Not ever again, if she could help it. 

When Rain saw the sign for Huttonsville West Virginia, she also saw that she had a decision to make.  Bear off and continue on 250 or bear off onto Rt. 15.  The man at the gas station had said 250 would take her straight in, yet 250 no longer seemed right.  She needed to head west not north.  Maybe he had just been confused.  She pointed her car westward and headed onto Rt. 15, praying it was right.  Darkness had already fallen. 

“Webster Springs?”  Rain whispered. 

The man and woman dressed in identical blue smocks glanced at each other.  They turned their heads back to her.  The man spoke again first. 

“You wanted to go to Greenbrier Springs you say?”  He was incredulous.  Rain knew from the simple nuance and widening of his eyes that she was in real trouble.  She nodded.  There it was again, the slight alarm. 

“Well…”  He drug the word out.  “You’ll need to get on Rt.20 and follow that down.”  He ran a hand across his messy hair. 

“Honey, you need to just stay here tonight.  You’ve got a good two hours more ahead of you, and this storm is going to be bad.”  The woman turned on her best motherly expression which Rain was sure she used like a weapon on her own children. 

“Two more hours…”  Rain blinked twice.  She opened her wallet and pulled out a ten and a five.  “Fifteen on pump four, please.”  She said numbly, and pushed her way out of the gas station.  When she reached her car, she opened the passenger door and dug her cell phone from her purse.  She scrolled through her contacts to Dante’s number and pressed send.  She couldn’t even afford a smart phone with one of those built in GPS’s.  She had a slide phone with a tiny screen.  Dante’s smooth baritone voice came on the line telling her he wasn’t available.  Damn him. 

Rain pumped her gas and drove away in the now steadily falling snow.  Webster Springs.  She was nowhere near her destination.  The icing on the cake came when Rain saw flashing blue and red lights.  A stocky policeman was redirecting traffic because of a bad head on collision.  Rain slid up to the policeman waving who was waving a flashlight. 

“I need to get to Greenbrier Springs.”  She didn’t like the way her voice wavered. 

“Take the detour, ma'am, and follow it to Hollow’s point.  Make a left and it will dump you back out on 20.” 

Rain sighed and pressed the button to bring her window back up.  Snow swirled in front of her car and she soon lost sight of the taillights in front of her.  It was probably a local who knew the roads like the back of their hand. 

Hollow’s Point turned out to be a tiny cluster of rickety buildings at a four way stop sign.  The policeman hadn’t told her any other directions, so she took the left like he had said. 

The snow fell in an unrelenting furry of white.  She tried her high beams, cursing out loud as her visibility went to zero.  It was one of the first things she learned as a new driver: never attempt your high beams in fog or heavy snow, it just reflects the light backwards. 

The road wound like a snake and she hadn’t even passed one car on the other side.  She was the only fool out trying to drive in a blizzard.  Movement caught her eye and she leaned forward, gripping the steering wheel tightly.  She squinted against the wall of snow.  A deer appeared like an apparition, her head turned and ears up.  Rain screamed and slammed on the brakes, but she felt the sickening thud anyway.  Her head snapped forward then back, pain shooting down her spine.  She jerked the wheel hard to the left and felt a smaller thud as the car fishtailed and swerved.  Another scream ripped from her throat and she covered her face with her arms as a tree came into view.  The sickening crunch and breaking of glass was the last things she heard as the air bag deployed and smacked her hard in the face and chest. 

Forrest had never seen a snow storm build with the intensity that this one had in such short order.  Sure, they were calling for snow, but this was developing into something different.  They had said six to ten inches.  Nothing unusual there for December; but six inches was on the ground at least an hour ago, and the forecaster on the radio had changed his tune to a hefty fifteen to twenty inches.  The storm was now an official blizzard. 

Forrest rode through Hollow Point and reached across the seat of his pickup to run his hands through the thick fur of Leonidas.  Leonidas turned his soft brown eyes to him and panted lightly.  He had been Forrest’s best friend for close to a decade.  The German Shepard was beginning to show his age, especially on the brutally cold days, but he still had spring in his step, and could still chase down a deer as good as any two year hound. 

Leonidas turned his snout back to the windshield ears perked, and whined softly.  His front legs took turns moving on the seat. 

“What’s wrong, boy?”  Forrest asked softly.  “See a deer out there?”

Forrest slammed on the brakes, automatically flinging his arm across Leonidas, just like any good parent.  He stared at the sight before him.  A doe lay dead in the road and her baby was lying dead on the other side, near the rear bumper of a dark car.  The car was tilted slightly downward, the only thing stopping it from the long plummet into the hollow was an Oak and a small piece of the guard rail that remained.  He had been on John Baines for over six months to get that guard rail at the top of the list for road repairs. 

He couldn’t see movement from within the car, but there was a definite shape slumped over the steering wheel.  He put his work gloves on and opened the driver’s door.  Leonidas stood and tried to follow. 

“Not right now, buddy.” 

Forrest walked slowly to the car, the snow sticking to his parka.  He shone a flashlight into the driver’s side window and saw the long wavy hair of a woman.  He couldn’t tell if she was breathing.  With a sigh he opened the door and stepped back slightly as the car creaked and shifted an inch or two.  He took one glove off and pushed her hair back from her face. Blood was still dripping from an ugly gnash in her forehead, and her skin was cool to the touch.  He tentatively touched her neck, just below her jaw bone, and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a steady pulse. 

Forrest pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tried to dial 911.  There wasn’t a signal at all.  He shoved the phone back in his pocket and began the task of getting the woman from the car.  He had no idea what her injuries were, but from the touch of her skin, she had already been in the cold too long.  He gently unbuckled her and went back to the truck to ready the blanket he always kept in the crew cab.  When he came back, she was still slumped over the steering wheel. 

Not good
. 
She should have stirred a little by now
.        

Forrest grabbed her under the knees and behind the shoulders, easily pulling her from the car.  When he slid her into the back of the crew cab, Leonidas tried to clamber over the back seat to sniff the woman’s head and face. 

“Easy, boy.” 

Leonidas let out a low whine. 

“Yeah, she’s banged up.” 

Forrest didn’t want to take the time to do it, but there didn’t seem an alternative; the vehicle would need to be towed and the deer moved.  He moved his vehicle up the road and backed it towards the rear of the woman’s car.  He pulled the mother deer towards his truck, the body didn’t look too damaged.  Most of the meat was most likely salvageable, but there was no time for that.  He dragged the deer to the side of the road and left it, regretfully, in the ditch.  When he went to the baby he was astonished to see that it wasn’t in fact dead.  Small puffs of air blew from its mouth and made little clouds in the air. 

“Dammit to hell.”  Forrest breathed.  He put the baby deer in the back of the truck.  If it survived the rest of the way to the cabin he would see about helping it. 

With deft and knowledgeable hands he used the wench attached to the back of his truck and hooked it the woman’s bumper.  It wasn’t ideal, and the roads were icy, but if he could at least get it to a better place, it would make the roads safer for any other drivers.  He hoped no one else would be fool enough to try and come out in the storm. 

The trip to his cabin should have taken another five minutes at most, but with the car attached to the back of his truck, it took a good fifteen.  The car kept trying to swing wide as they maneuvered the incline to his place. 

Forrest lit a fire and went back to the truck to retrieve the woman.  She still didn’t stir.  He moved his couch closer to the fireplace and placed her on it gently.  He didn’t recognize her, which probably meant she wasn’t local. 

He smoothed her hair away from the wound on her forehead.  There was ugly bruising forming on her chin and jawline.  Her neck was taking on a bluish purple look as well.  He imagined her chest would too.  He left her long enough to check on the baby deer.  It was still breathing and he reluctantly brought it inside.  Leonidas was on it at once, sniffing and growling faintly.