ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (248 page)

“It’s very pretty.  I especially like the tiny nativity.” 

“Yeah, it was a steal.” 

Forrest was beginning to realize that Rain was a thrifty spender.  He liked it. 

“I better get some sleep.  Tomorrow is sure to be a long day.”

“Yeah.”  Forrest replied absently.  He felt a burning in his loins and an ache in his head.  He wanted Rain with such a tidal wave intensity, that he thought the only solution would be to roll around in the snow. 

Rain stood on tip toe and kissed his cheek lightly.  As she lowered herself and tried to move away, Forrest grabbed her wrist.  She looked up at him expectantly.

“What is it?”

“I want…”  His voice was husky and he lowered his eyes.  “I want to make love to you.” 

Rain touched his face, and he leaned into her palm with closed eyes. 

“I don’t want to just be a temporary fixture in your cabin, Forrest.”

His eyes opened, and she was struck once again with the way he seemed to emit light from within his head. 

“I don’t want that either.” 

“What do you want?”

“I want you.  All of you.  All the time.”  He felt his voice breaking. 

Rain took his hand by the finger tips and led him to his bedroom door.  Leonidas tried to follow, but Forrest slammed the door in his face.  One small whine could be heard from the other side before the dog padded away.  The room was completely dark, but neither of them needed the light. 

Rain felt her shirt come over her head and Forrest barely struggled with the bra clasp in the back.  He ran his hands down her arms, barely touching her skin, as he guided the bra from her arms.  Rain sucked in air as his hands grabbed both breasts and squeezed lightly.  She let her head fall back as he crouched in front of her, a hand on either hip, and laid his hot mouth over each nipple in turn.  With a flick of his tongue he had her nipples hard within seconds.  She felt his hands guide her leggings and under ware off.  His movements were slow and steady, gentle in every way. 

He picked her up and laid her onto the bed and she heard the rustle of his own clothes being removed.  The room was chilly and she hurried under the comforter, holding it back for him, whether he could see the gesture or not. 

Forrest slid in beside her and Rain immediately reached her hands for him.  The kisses they had shared before were nothing compared to the scorching ones they had that night.  Forrest explored every space of her mouth, while pushing his erection towards her.  Rain touched him and gasped at the sheer size. 

Forrest didn’t want to wait any longer.  If he had his way, Rain would be in his bed from here on out.  There would be time to slow down later.  He rolled her onto her back and touched her lightly between the legs.  When his fingertips came away wet, he knew she was ready.  He mounted her, wishing she could see him as he could see her.  His night vision as a human was nothing compared to what it was as a bear, but he knew he could see her far better than she could see him. 

He pushed into her slowly and with much care to not hurt her.  She needed to get her used to his size before he plunged any deeper.  Her mouth opened slightly, and she cried out, but he knew it wasn’t from pain.  The sound and the way she gripped at his lower back, opening her legs wider to him, tore down all reserve that he had left.  He let himself go and plunged into her all the way.  Her strangled cry was music to his ears.   

Rain awoke to a familiar voice talking to her again.  She opened one eye and found Trevor playing with her hand, as he had days before.  He wore a peaceful smile. 

“Hello, Rain.”

Rain was embarrassed to be naked in bed with Forrest while Trevor held her hand. 

“It’s alright.  I understand.  It’s not like you’re cheating on me.”

“What can I do, Trevor?”

“Be happy.” 

“What about you?”

“I can rest easy now.”

The pressure on her hand released and he began to fade.  A choking sound came from her throat, because she knew she would never see him again. 

“I loved you!”  She cried after him. 

“I know, and I loved you.  I’m sorry for what I did.  Be happy now.” 

Trevor’s image wavered and then was gone like mist burning away in the morning sun
. 

Rain opened her eyes all the way and wiped the stray tear from her face.  Forrest was sleeping peacefully with an arm draped across her stomach.  She moved the arm and went to the bathroom, smiling at how sore she was when walking.  It would be hell at the store later, but well worth it.  She couldn’t remember ever having more than one orgasm.  Forrest had coaxed them from her body easily. 

She took a shower and went into the kitchen to fix breakfast.  It would be a pleasant surprise for Forrest to not have to do it.  Galadriel met her in the hallway and made a tiny baying noise. 

“Shhh!  Don’t wake Dad!” 

Forrest emerged later, shirtless with his hair sticking out in odd angles, a big grin on his face, 

“You made breakfast?”

“Yes, and I only burned the toast a little.”

He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him.  “I don’t care.”  He mumbled into her neck. 

“Hold on now!”  She laughed.  “We need to eat so you can feed the horses.” 

“Ok.”  He reluctantly pulled away from her. 

A light knock sounded at the front door.  Forrest looked at Rain, but she could only shrug, hoping it wasn’t the cat man. 

Forrest went to the door, and Rain froze when she heard a familiar lilting voice ask for her.  She turned to see Dante step into the cabin. 

“Hello, Rain.”  He said quietly.  “I came to take you home.”

She couldn’t even believe what she was seeing and hearing.  “Why?”

He shrugged.  His tailored full length camel colored coat swirled slightly around his ankles. 

“You called me, remember?”

“Yeah.”  Rain snapped, slamming a spatula onto the counter.  “Nearly a week ago!”

He smiled carefully.  “I was busy.”

“I bet.”  She caught Forrest’s eye and was grateful he hadn’t tried to give them privacy.  “Look, I don’t need your help.  Have a nice day.”  She said, and turned her back to him.

“I do love you.”

“No, you don’t.”  Rain shot out, and turned back to him with crossed arms. 

Forrest stepped in front of Dante and Dante raised his hands palms forward to the middle of his chest. 

“Alright, Rain.  I won’t bother you again.  I drove a long way, but…”  He allowed his words to taper off and looked at Rain one last time before disappearing out the front door. 

“Of all the nerve…” 

“That was some crazy random stuff!”  Forrest exclaimed.

“Tell me about it.  I’m Sorry.”

“Don’t be.  He’s gone.  It’s Christmas Eve.”  He disappeared into his bedroom and returned a moment later with the gift he had for her.  It was a day early, but he couldn’t wait for Christmas morning.  He wanted her to have her gift right then.

Rain looked at the little box in his hand, then up at him with.  Her stone colored eyes were unreadable. 

“Please open it.  Merry Christmas.”  Forrest said quietly. 

Rain took the box with shaking hands and opened the velvet lid.  Inside was a silver ring shaped into an infinity symbol.  A tiny diamond sat in the center where the silver stands of metal overlapped. 

“It’s beautiful.” 

“I don’t want you to go back to Orange, Rain, unless it’s to pack.” 

She raised her eyes and felt the sting of tears. 

“I don’t want to go back either.” 

Forrest took the ring from the box and placed it on her bare ring finger.  Rain stared down at it in awe.  Someone finally wanted her with no strings attached.  Forrest wanted her for just her. 

“I want you as my mate. Mate for life. I love you.”  He whispered. 

“I love you too.”  She smiled as a tear, joyous and fat, rolled down her cheek. 

Leonidas leaned into her legs and looked happily up at them with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and Galadriel pushed her way between them yelling her
ahh
sound.  There was nothing to do but laugh.                      

TO GO BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS-->
CLICK HERE

A Vampire's Embrace

BY SKYE TATE  

The gravel crunched under my quick footsteps as I ran across the residential campus and through the Academy’s main gate. The lights cast shadows across the grass. It was an hour after sundown. I was really late.

Vampires can be quick if they want to, we could move at amazing speeds. But it didn’t help my cause. Of course, it would have been quicker to dematerialize to class, but the Academy and surrounding buildings had metal in their walls to stop us from doing that. Vampires couldn’t dematerialize through metal. We would be able to skip class too easily if we could disappear at will.

“Crap, crap, crap,” I muttered to myself, slipping in through the glass doors and praying Ms. Donovan wouldn’t see me. I tried to stick to the shadows.

“You’re late, Miss Frost,” she said without looking up from her screen. Her white hair was tucked in a neat bun in her neck, and her long red nails clacked against the keys.

Darnit.

“Nothing can get past you,” I said, leaning on the counter with my elbows. The secretary station was right at the building’s front door. Sometimes I thought they’d done that on purpose.

“Don’t you ever get up for coffee or something? Bathroom break? I never seem to get by you.”

“I don’t get up until after you barge in through those doors, dear.” She smiled, flashing the tips of her fangs. Even at their old age vampires were a site to behold. I don’t think we ever grew out of being scary. “I’ll get one as soon as you’re settled.”

I groaned. “You shouldn’t make the effort for me.”

“And you shouldn’t be late all the time. It’s your fourth time this week, and there’s still tomorrow left before the weekend.”

“I just couldn’t get here on time.”

“You stay on campus!”

I sighed. Ms. Donovan looked at me from the corner of her eye and scribbled something on a note for me.

“Give this to Harris. You’ll skip out on demerits for now, at least.”

I jumped up and gave her a kiss on the cheek over the counter. She chuckled and shook her head. 

“You’re a star,” I said and ran down the hall.

I stopped in front of Mr. Harris’s classroom and read the note. It said I’d been called into the office, and was to be excused for being late. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. If I looked like I’d been running Harris wouldn’t buy it. He was a pain in the butt. Teaching math did that to the teachers around here.

I opened the door, stepping inside, and I braced myself for a tongue lashing. Harris never let us off easy. Today, though, I opened the door to a class riveted to Mr. Harris for a change. And with good reason. He was introducing a new kid.

And the new kid was a stunner. I looked him up and down. He had a strong build, unlike a lot of the guys my age, and he was calm and confident. He had the air of an aristocrat. But that wasn’t what had everyone’s attention. He had a mop of brown hair, artfully messy, and deep blue eyes. It was a shocker.

Vampires usually had light hair, from dark-blond to almost white. The more elite they were, the lighter their hair. I was the darkest in our class, and I had a rich honey-blond myself.  I guess because we were night crawlers we had to have some kind of quality that didn’t betray our complete darkness. But this kid? His dark hair and broody eyes went completely against his aristocratic attitude, and they were going to be a topic of conversation all week.

“Miss Frost,” Harris said, irritated. “You’re late. What a surprise.” There was a ripple of murmurs through the classroom.

“I have a note this time…” I said, holding it up. The new kid looked at me, his blue  eyes liquid, and it felt like he was staring right into my soul. I forced myself to look away. Aristocrat or not, in a challenge like that I wasn’t ready to fight for dominance.

Harris sighed and held out his hand. I crossed over to him quickly and handed over the note. He glanced at it.

“Well, for what that’s worth,” he said and waved me away.

I hurried over to my seat and sat down, leaning over to Beth right away. Beth and I have been friends since the first day of school. She was my eyes and ears when I was late, and she could keep a secret like no other senior in school. She was middle class around here, with long, soft light-blond hair and the rare gray eyes, and a smile that softened every blow.

“Who’s the new kid?” I asked.

“His name is Christian Dean. He’s transferred from Texas, of all places.”

“What?”

“I know right, vampires in Texas? With the sun and small town vibes I didn’t know vampires existed that far out. I think that’s why he looks so different.”

“Different… he’s the hottest thing this school has seen since freshman year when Graham joined classes,” I said, sizing him up again. It wasn’t hit looks that packed a punch as much as it was his attitude. He had an I-don’t–care attitude that made him far more attractive than the planes of his face or his dreamy eyes.

“Weird time to be transferring, last year and all.”

Beth shrugged. “I bet we’ll hear the news at lunch,” she said. “If we’re lucky one of the gossips will sit down with us.”

Harris pointed him to an empty desk at the back of the class. He shuffled down our row and between me and Beth. When he passed me his eyes found mine, and I felt a tingling at the back of my skull. It was both enticing and unsettling. Different than I’d ever felt before, even with the most dominant aristocrats.

I shivered.

Midnight was lunch, and everyone in the cafeteria had their attention on Christian. He stood in the lunch line, waiting for his food like any other student that’d been here all along. I admired his ability to stay strong under the attention. Christian had a very healthy dose of self-esteem.

I bit into an apple. Vampires needed blood to survive, and a healthy dose every other week or so kept us going strong. But we needed normal food too. Beth put her tray down next to mine and peeled the top off a yogurt.

“They’re going crazy. You would think it’s another royal,” Beth said. She was referring to when Graham Kirilov joined the school. That had been in freshman year, and everyone had stared just the same. Graham was Boris Kirilov’s son. Boris was an aristocrat involved in politics and he had a lot of influence. He was also one of Worthington Elite Academy’s benefactors, and he had a big say around here.

Why was I, a mere civilian, here among the elite aristocrats and occasional royal? Because my parents had worked for Boris Kirilov when they were still alive. After they’d passed away, he’d taken it upon himself to take care of me, and what better place to send an out-of-place civilian than an Elite Academy? My class mates never let me forget, but I was grateful. Graham didn’t really speak to me, of course. He was home-schooled for a long time while I came to the elementary side of the Academy. Most of the students here didn’t know that we were connected. I preferred it that way.

“Mind if I join you?” Christian asked, suddenly next to us. I hadn’t been paying attention to him. We’d hoped for a gossip – instead we were getting the real deal.

Beth blushed but that tingle crept up the back of my neck and lodged itself again at the bottom of my skull. I held his gaze for only a second before I looked down and nodded.

The vampire social hierarchy was a lot more primal than anyone cared to admit. If a dominant vampire stared someone down, the latter averted their eyes unless they were up for a challenge. And usually they submissive ones weren’t up for it. I had what it took to be a dominant, a lot of arrogance and a splash of stupidity. But I didn’t have the money, which usually accompanied the dominant gene, and I didn’t like to cause ripples at school, not so early into the year.

“Christian,” he said, holding out his hand. I took it and squeezed slightly. His skin was warmer than the standard vampire’s. Usually we had pretty cold blood. Another reason we were on a nocturnal schedule – the sun wasn’t only bad for our skin. It made our blood boil. Literally.

“Adelaide,” I said. “Friend’s call me Adi or just Dee.”

“I’m Beth,” Beth said, claiming her space in the conversation. Christian flashed a charming smile at her that showed pearly white fangs and she blushed crimson.

“So, a lot of talk around town,” he said, gesturing the cafeteria.

“Mostly about you,” I pointed out. He shrugged.

“New kids will always be a hot topic. I’ve had enough experience of that.”

“We heard you were from Texas,” Beth said.

“Seattle, actually. The weather’s better up there. But my family was transferred to Texas for a while before we headed this side. My dad works at the Blood Bank.”

Blood Bank? Not exactly aristocrat material, unless it was something classified. With Christian’s dark hair was impossible to guess where he belonged on the social pyramid.

“Do you have any brothers or sisters that joined us, too?” I asked.

Christian’s face darkened and his smile dropped.

“I had a sister, but she passed away some time ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. Vampires didn’t breed easily, which was why most families only had one child. Losing a child, or a sibling, was devastating in any case. To vampires, it could mean the end of a bloodline.

“Tell me why everyone is getting ready for tomorrow,” he said, smiling again but his eyes remained dark. They left me cold.

“Oh, Mr. Kirilov is coming to address the school. He kicks off every year with a Social ceremony.”

“Boris Kirilov? The Noble?”

“Yes, he’s the school’s main sponsor,” Beth said. “And everyone loves him. He cares. That’s his son, Graham, over there.”

She pointed and Christian frowned.

“The kid with the white hair?” he asked.

“Yeah, he’s the one. So royal he has no time for pigmentation.” Beth and I both giggled.

“Yours looks different than the rest,” he said, nodding at my own hair.

My hand traveled up to my hair involuntarily and I twirled a piece around my finger. I kept it in a short A-symmetric bob with a fringe that fell into my eyes. Most of the vampire girls wore their hair long and tied back. I didn’t want to be one of them. Besides, it suited my face and it made my eyes stand out.

“Yeah, well I’m not exactly an aristocrat,” I answered.

“Oh?”

“They sponsor me to be here,” I said with a cocky grin and stuck out my tongue.

“Didn’t your parents want you to attend?”

Beth looked down at her tray, pushing the food around with her fork.

“Something like that,” I said, careful to keep the ice out of my voice. I didn’t want to tell him the truth. I didn’t like talking about it. Shape shifters killed my parents in a civil war of sorts. Shifters were unhappy about almost everything and they were violent protestors. Many aristocrats and even civilians suffered under their attacks when the politicians were the ones passing decrees.

“Well, it’s good to know I’m not the only one that’s different around here,” Christian said and smiled at me. It wasn’t arrogant like what looked to be his signature smile. Instead it was soft and gentle. Genuine. A different kind of tremor shook my body and came to rest at the pit of my stomach. I smiled back, and this time his gaze didn’t declare dominance.

2

Everything was ready for the ceremony. Mr. Cole, the principle, was running around barking the last orders. Even the ever-serene Ms. Donovan pranced around on her high heels, ticking off lists and pointing with her manicured fingers.

A message over the intercom ordered all students back to home room. They filtered out and the teachers huddled in the back of the hall for a last meeting before Kirilov arrived. I was just about to turn and leave when movement caught my eye. At first I couldn’t place what it had been, but then I spotted an eagle sitting on one of the beams overhead.

An eagle? Here? And at night? It made no sense. Birds, sure sometimes. Bats, often, as ironic as it was at a vampire school. But no eagles. It noiselessly flew towards the stage and disappeared. I looked over my shoulder to where the teachers stood, but they were occupied, so I climbed the stairs to the stage and stepped behind the curtain.

I looked around. Nothing was out of place. Everything looked normal. A sound above me made me look up just in time to see a shadow shrink from large to bird form, and then disappear through the back window.

“You have to believe me. I’m sure there was a walker in here, messing with something on stage.”

I stood in Principle Cole’s office. I’d made such a noise when I came running from the stage he’d agreed to hear me out right away. Now he looked at me with a skeptical stare.

“Adelaide, this school is protected. We have magic wielding vampires guarding the gates. No shifter is going to get into this school.”

“It wasn’t a shifter,” I said again. “It was a walker.”

Walkers, or skin-walkers, were another one of our enemies. Shape shifters were a problem because of their violent and deceitful nature. They could take any shape, and it was difficult to spot them. It was rumored the feeling that accompanied them gave them away, but they could tone even that down. They couldn’t be trusted and they usually had ulterior motives. Walkers could change form into an animal, but they had only one of each. If they could be identified, they could be captured, They were a physical threat to vampires who couldn’t defend themselves that well during the day. They were wild though, and hardly ever seen in the city.