Authors: Elisa Elliot
ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (277 page)
His fingers slowly pulled out of me, leaving in their wake a trail of shivers that threatened to send my body over the edge, but he would not allow that. As always David saved my most consuming of pleasure for himself; he dared not let me reach utter bliss without him present to feel every last breath-taking piece.
I ached to be full again, to feel the contentment, the satisfaction of knowing that we were one.
His eyes met mine, the chocolate brown melting my desperation and replacing it instead with a promise, a promise of pleasure to come. He gripped my sparsely clad body tightly; his lips pressed down on mine and as sweetness danced at my lips he completely filled me. It was in an instant, an instant of pure raw nerve destroying bliss that he claimed me as his.
I tightened around his shaft, feeling the thickness of his excitement so perfectly press against my spot. Screams there was no need to muffle came thick and fast as he moved inside of me, slowly pulling in and out as he felt my tightness. It was hard, so painfully hard to hold on, my nails dug roughly into his shoulders as his lips claimed mine again and again.
I wanted to make it last, to let the pleasure build and build but I was already falling, I had already succumbed to his touch, his passion and his devotion. “I love you Evie,” he whispered softly into my ear as he bit down on my lobe. His love was enough, it would always be enough.
Together we fell, intertwined with the other through more than just our bodies and the pleasure was immediate, all-consuming and unreservedly complete. My body shook, my heart hammered and my breathing peaked. My fingers found the rough fabric of his shirt and hung on for dear life as wave after wave assaulted my body. Together we fought through the bliss, feeling every pulse that shuddered through our veins. The spark of electricity was slow to fade, the sensations dragging through my exhausted body did not disappear quickly; the assault left me shaking but utterly content.
“I love you too David,” I whispered as my head crashed against his shoulder. I had always loved him, I knew that now, through it all it had always been David, my David.
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Chapter One
If there was an exact list of things that categorized a bad start to the day then I had definitely checked them all off. Dawn had barely broken and while most people still lay sleeping peacefully in their beds my day had already begun and it hadn’t exactly begun well. For the first time in my life I actually wished I had indulged in an extra few hours in bed. As it was the ranch didn’t run itself and with the cattle to feed and a fence to fix, I was growing increasingly more annoyed at the hold up. As my dad handed me yet another cup of coffee it seemed as though that he was more intent than ever at putting me behind with my work.
I took the coffee less than gratefully, knowing that with each second that was wasted we were losing daylight, something that on the ranch was near unforgivable. “I don’t see why things have to change though,” I said and it wasn’t the first time I had said it even at the early hour.
My dad sat back down in the seat across from me, his face was weary and I could tell he wanted to be here just about as much as I did. “You know things can’t keep on like this Katie,” he sighed. Normally I would be able to accept the reason in his words but right now I didn’t want to, this was my Montana ranch and I would do anything to keep it that way.
“I don’t see what use he will be,” I almost whined, I couldn’t understand why my dad couldn’t see that his idea would be more of a hindrance than any actually help.
“He’s the only option we have Katie and he seems like he wants to learn the family business,” my dad said, his words held a note of desperation now.
He was right in a way, the ranch needed help, as much as I tried I just couldn’t do everything myself. “We could hire somebody, somebody trained,” I suggested. I knew already that it was a fruitless effort, there was no money to hire someone else and with my dad out of action the free labor was something we did truly need.
My dad shook his head slowly and I already felt bad for pushing the conversation the way I had. “Katie you know as much as I do that that isn’t an option. Ben is your step-brother now Katie, give him a chance at least,” my dad pleaded, it wasn’t like him to plead and as much as I didn’t want it to, it was working.
“He’s a city boy that’s what he is,” I grumbled under my breath. I had never met Ben but I sure had heard about him and in great detail much to my growing annoyance.
“Katie,” my dad scolded, my cheeks flushed as I realized he had heard me, how was it that at twenty two years old my dad still managed to scold me?
“Fine,” I relented, “but if he messes up it’s not my problem,” I finished and with a sigh I pulled myself up from the kitchen table, more than half an hour late now for the cattle feeding.
“I knew you would be ok with it,” my dad said with a smile. I suppressed a groan, ok was definitely not the right word; mortified would probably be a more appropriate fit.
“Sure,” I groaned but even my sarcastic tone could do little to dent my dad’s resolve that I was in fact ok with it all.
“He’ll be here around midday,” he said casually.
Internally I laughed; the man was already skipping the hardest part of the day it seemed. “I’ll set up the spare room,” I sighed, just another thing to add to my already hectic work load.
“Actually…” my dad started and I could tell he was reluctant to go on; the smile had all but disappeared from his face.
“Yes?” I questioned, already knowing that if he didn’t want to say it then I was very unlikely to actually want to hear it.
“His mum and I promised him the guesthouse since well you know he’ll be here a while,” he said and as soon as the words were out of his mouth he turned away from me.
My mouth dropped open, my day had, with just those few words, got a thousand times worse. “No,” I stated almost in disbelief.
“Katie look, he won’t be here forever but just for now it will make things easier,” my dad said quickly, trying it seemed to dissolve the argument that was about to come into full force.
“The guesthouse is mine, I’ve been working on it for months!” I shouted. I was beyond furious now; the guesthouse was going to be my escape from the ranch house, after my dad’s new wife had moved in I had made it my goal to get the guesthouse ready for myself.
“It looks great Katie, as soon as Ben is gone it’ll be all yours,” my dad sighed and in turn so did I.
Wearily I ran my hands through my long blonde hair and twisted it up into a simple tie, I was torn, keep fighting or actually get to work. With a groan I relented, the latter won as it always did, work came first. With one last less than happy look at my guilty looking dad I twisted on my heels and walked out the door. A normal morning had turned into my own personal hell on earth in less than an hour and of course there was nothing I could do about it.
Chapter Two
My morning went by as it normally did, however angry or shocked I was I didn’t let it impact what I was doing. I had learnt long ago that the animals picked up on the smallest of bad emotions and to save myself the extra hours of work I had kept it bottled up. A long mornings worth of anger had been stored and even I feared who exactly it might get set lose on, I wasn’t one for letting things go, not that easily anyway. The only difference to my day now was that instead of finishing the fence I found myself wandering back to the main house at midday. My dad had likely gone into town and that left the greeting of our new and definitely unwelcome house guest up to me.
Having no time to change and dressed in my old work jeans and mud splatter red check shirt I walked the mile back from where I had been working on the fence. Part of me hoped that perhaps the man, Ben, had changed his mind and that he would stay in the city. It was the other part of me though that knew however unwanted the source may be, an extra pair of hands would go a long way to getting some of things around the ranch fixed. On the dot of midday I arrived at the small guest house, my guest house, to my surprise though I wasn’t the first one there. A shiny black sports car was parked in the small driveway and amusingly there was at least half a dozen large suitcases piled by the side of it.
With a laugh I strode towards the car that couldn’t have done a better job at not fitting in. It was the second I saw him though that the smile was washed off my face and in that instant my worst fears came true. A man, somewhere in his late twenties, was pulling even more bags from the back of the car but it wasn’t that that bothered me, it was the man himself. Pale and smaller than any man I had ever seen it looked as though he had never done a single day of manual labor in his entire life. I couldn’t judge him as him, no I didn’t know the man but instead I could judge whether he was fit for the job and with my own eyes I could tell that he definitely wasn’t, not by a long shot.
Apprehensively I walked towards the man who was struggling to pull the last bag out of the car and with a sigh I took it from his almost shaking hands and dropped in on the floor with the rest. The man turned to me, his pale green eyes clearly thankful for the help; just my luck he was supposed to be helping me, not the other way around. “Ben?” I questioned with a forced smile.
The man looked taken aback for a second before a small smile finally settled on his face. He looked me up and down, his eyes lingering on me in way that made me feel beyond uncomfortable. “No,” he said, his smile growing. Much to my own amusement I actually let out a sigh of relief.
I watched as the man shut the trunk of the car and as he turned back to me a shiver ran down my spine, I did not like the way he was looking at me. “Ben’s inside, talking to a man, your dad?” he said, his eyes still lingering.
“Yeah, thanks,” I muttered and without a second glance at the man I turned away, hoping that I would never see him again.
As quickly as I could I walked back to the main house, thankful that the small man hadn’t followed me. The anger was starting to drain away now and I actually found myself growing increasingly curious at what Ben would be like; if I was lucky he wouldn’t be anything like the man I had just met. “Dad?” I called as I walked in through the open door.
“Katie? I thought you were out fixing the fence,” my dad shouted back quickly, there was shock in his voice. I could understand the shock he felt; it wasn’t like me to leave a job half finished.
“I came to welcome our new visitor,” I said, putting emphasis on the one important word ‘visitor’, for deep down that’s all I hoped he would be doing, visiting.
I followed my dad’s voice through the house and into the kitchen where sure enough he was stood, leaning heavily against the kitchen counter and staring at the back of a man. My eyes moved off my dad and to the man who was beside him, relief washed through me in an instant; already this man seemed to be the polar opposite of the man I had met before. “Katie I would like to introduce you to Ben,” my dad said in a strangely formal way.
Suddenly as the man turned to me I felt nervous, although I had no idea why. My mouth went dry and I clenched my hands together awkwardly before letting them swing back down at my side. “Katie, it’s wonderful to finally meet you,” he said, his voice thick in an accent that was far from familiar yet sounded so nice.
I met the man’s eyes and for the first time in my life I actually found myself speechless, of all the things I could have imagined him to be, this was far from it.
Chapter Three
My feet shuffled awkwardly on the floor as I looked up at the man who was smiling back at me. It was a strange kind of crooked smile that made his bright blue eyes sparkle in a way that caused my stomach to flutter. The man was taller than I had expected, his muscles bronzed and defined, if I was being honest it looked like he had grown up on the ranch. The only thing that didn’t fit in was the crisp white shirt, suit trousers and polished black shoes that showed he wasn’t one of us, not really.
Ben brushed the brown-blonde hair from his eyes and I felt the unwelcome flutter in my stomach again. I took a deep breath, steadying my heart that I had only just noticed was beating faster than normal. “Ben, it’s good to meet you too,” I finally breathed.
Ben smiled back at me, a bigger smile this time, one that claimed his whole face. He took a couple of steps towards me and before I could react he had my hand in his. Slowly and in a professional way I was far from used to, he shook my hand. I barely had enough time to tighten my grip before he dropped it again and took a step back. “I need to go and finish fixing the fence,” I said quickly as the warm tingles his touch had left ran steadily down my hand, unnerving me more than I thought possible with just a simple handshake.
“I’ll help you, that’s what I’m here for after all,” Ben said with a slight chuckle.
I looked at him, really looked at him and while he seemed like he was fit for the job I was still unsure. By the looks of it he was a couple years older than me, somewhere in his mid-twenties. He hadn’t grown up on a ranch though and as the few people we had hired to help over the years had learnt quickly, there are only so many things you can learn, the rest is instinct. Beneath his exterior I prayed that for all of our sakes he wasn’t a city boy at heart, for in reality we needed help and he was the sole person in the queue to help us.
“Not like that you won’t,” I shot back before I could even think over my words; it seemed that all of my anger hadn’t quite disappeared.
To my surprise Ben didn’t look shocked or even taken aback by my outburst, my dad on the other hand didn’t look too happy. “I’ll find him some more suitable clothing,” my dad said, eyeing me angrily.
Where I would normal shy back from his angry glare I simply returned it. “I figured you wouldn’t start until the morning,” I said, turning my gaze back to Ben now.
The second he caught my eyes again I felt I shiver run down my spine, it wasn’t like the one the other man had caused, no, this one was warm. “I’m not shy of some hard work,” Ben said casually, rolling his sleeves up, “I can work like this for now,” he said with another crooked smile.
My eyes trailed down to his arms where thick muscles lay coated in a subtle bronze tan. I breathed in deeply; I hadn’t expected this man, this stranger, to have any effect on me, let alone one that made so disoriented. I needed more than ever to just get away, to have a chance to register what was going on. “You need to at least change your shoes, there is no way I’m wasting time pulling you out of the mud when you ultimately get stuck,” I said quickly, hoping it might at least give me a good head start on him.
Ben looked amused, his smile shifting to one filled with curiosity. “I wouldn’t expect you too,” he said with a laugh.
It was my turn to be taken aback now and it took all I had not to just turn on my heels and get out of the situation as quickly as possible, instead I put on my best smile. “It’s a mile up the hill when you’re done,” I said.
Ben’s eyes widened a little as I said the word ‘mile’, it only lasted a second but for some reason it left me with a satisfied smile as I walked out of the house, leaving my dad and Ben alone. It was only when I crossed paths for the second time with the first man that I felt it disappear. “Do you know when Ben will be out? I need to head back to the city is all,” the man said, he was smiling sweetly despite his lingering eyes.
“Hopefully soon,” I mumbled as I walked by, answering both his question and voicing my own wish, hopefully he would be gone soon.
Whatever effect he had on me and however handsome he might be, I still didn’t want him here. There was something there, something in his eyes and crooked grin that made me uncomfortable and I knew it was for all the wrong reasons. The man was my step-brother, he was here to help with the ranch, or well at least try, the last thing I needed was for him to be staring at me, or worse, for me to be staring at him. I stopped by the stables and took a deep breath, if one thing was obvious it was that things were about to get a lot more complicated around here.