ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (291 page)

I take his hand and lead it to the edge of my dress, guiding it underneath the soft material until it’s resting on my inner thigh. He takes the hint, letting his hand move up on its own while his other hand moves to the small of my back, creeping up until he reaches the window of my dress before he slips his hand under to get to work on the clasp of my bra.

I moan as his left hand gets to work. I’ve missed this. The feeling of Mason melting in my arms as I caress and stroke every part of his body. I arch my neck, and he gently bites it in an all too familiar show of dominance. I groan, a hand comes up to tangle in my hair as he pulls me closer. One of my hands makes it back down his chest only to linger at the button of his jeans. Agonizingly slowly I undo the button before teasingly unzipping the zipper one prong at a time.

Finally, his pants get a little less tight and he takes a moment to sigh in relief before he promptly chokes on his tongue as I take him in my hand. I chuckle, tightening my grip and making my hands pause as I try to regain my already strained self-control. I try to take a deep breath, but I already know this encounter won’t be a long one.

I go to push his jeans further down his legs to get more room to work with when we suddenly hear the sound of a car locking and several pairs of footsteps and voices coming towards us. We freeze, eyes widening as we realize how close we are as we spring into action.

Mason frantically grab his jacket and shirt, while I try to work to hold my bra together as I hop off the edge of the car. I take the keys out of the pocket of his dangling pants and unlock the car. Quickly Mason pulls me into the back seat, and like teenagers we scooch down so as not to be seen by the passing group of people.

I giggle, gasping as Mason suddenly nibbles on the spot right behind my ear.

“Come on,” I whisper, looping my arms around his waist and pressing my chest flush against his back. “Let’s get this fire started properly. Take me to your den.”

Mason smirks; he can’t believe how differently this night has gone than what I planned. But, he helps me get adjusted on the back seat of his car and I pull him in close.

I can’t help thinking that this is the best thing that’s happened to me in a while. It’s going to be a long, long night.

"You're mine," he growls huskily into my neck. "And I'm not letting you go this time."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," I whisper back as we melt into the backseat.

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By Elisa Elliot

Chapter One

It was already dark and late into the evening when Lily finally reached her childhood home. The drive had been incredibly long and had taken her most of the day, not that she minded too much. She had always loved to drive and her ancient Beetle had coped with the long stretches of motorway well. She hadn’t expected it to be this late though, she had promised her dad that she would be home for dinner and it had been too long since she had seen him last. It had been a tough decision to stay at college for a few extra days but she had no other choice, as head of the college math team she had to prepare for the competition that was coming up in a few weeks when she got back to college.

Lily had been reluctant at first to come home at all during the break but she knew her dad would be upset if she hadn’t. He had excitedly told her that he had a surprise waiting and her dad’s surprises where notorious bad. She definitely didn’t inherit his erratic nature, not even a little. If he was excited over something then it was probably going to be big and that didn’t always mean that it was going to be good. She had wondered what it was over the last few weeks but he had been evasive, telling her that it would be better in person. If Lily was one thing then it was curious, she had been like that ever since she was a child.

“It might not be so bad,” Lily said to herself as she climbed out of her old car and into the cold evening air.

After being used to the warm weather at college it was more than a shock to her to be back in the cold. Taking her bags out of the car she carefully locked the door and walked towards the house, she knew her dad would probably be still awake and waiting up for her, old habits didn’t go away easily. Pulling her coat tighter around her slim body, Lily walked up the garden path, instantly surprised to see all the lights in the house on, that wasn’t like her dad. Her brow furrowed and she rushed up to the front door, pulling out her key and unlocking it.

“Dad?” she called loudly as she hurried into the warmth of the house. Loosening her grip on her coat she dropped her bags by the door.

“Dad, I’m home,” she called again; a little more worried now when he hadn’t answered her previous call. Lily wandered through the hall and into the living room but her dad was still missing from his armchair by the window.

“He’s out,” a strange male voice shouted from the kitchen, making her jump. Lily’s heart pounded, she had never heard the voice before and as far as she knew her dad lived alone. Lily hesitated for a moment, unsure as to whether she should investigate the noise or if she should call the police. She reached for the phone in her pocket and gripped it tightly.

“Who’s there?” she called. She praying that he would have a good reason for being in the house and she hoped that perhaps he was a lodger or even a friend of her dads, but he sounded far too young for that.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” the man answered in a cocky voice. Lily’s eyebrows furrowed at his rudeness, but realized that if he was a burglar, or worse, that he would probably have made a move by now.

Lily walked slowly and nervously forwards through the living room, her hand didn’t release its tight grip on her phone as she went. No other sound came from the kitchen now and she relaxed slightly as her normal curious nature returned to her. She crept forwards and gradually put her head around the open door. As soon as she saw the man sitting casually at her kitchen table her hands instantly scrambled for the phone in her pocket.

“Who are you?” she demanded of the man. She stared in shock at him, he was definitely not who see had expected to see.

The man had his back to her but she could see his short and slightly messy dark brown hair. Wayward strands stuck out everywhere, yet for some reason she kind of liked how it was styled. It wasn’t the strange man’s hair that alarmed her though; it was the thick black tattoos that covered his bare bronzed arms. Visibly coming from beneath his thin white shirt sleeves was an eccentric Celtic pattern. Marked in a pure black color the symbols traveled down his arms, wrapping around his large muscles. She had never seen anything like it before, it was unusual and made her even more nervous to be alone with him.

“Hello?” she questioned when the man didn’t answer her, thinking either he was hard of hearing or just incredibly rude.

The brown haired man sighed over dramatically and dropped the small piece of metal he had been working on. Annoyed he turned to face her as she looked on expectantly, still waiting for an answer. The second he laid eyes on her Lily let out a small gasp, while she hadn’t been sure what she was to expect, she definitely hadn’t expected that. The man’s eyes were an intense shade of bright blue, the color almost shone, especially in comparison to his white shirt.

“What are you doing in my house?” she questioned nervously as her eyes scanned over his strong jaw and now messy in a good way dark hair.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said sarcastically with a smirk on his face. Lily’s eyes glazed over his smirk, her mouth still slightly ajar in confusion.

“Ah I see you have met Mason,” her dad said from behind her.

Chapter Two

Lily jumped out of her skin, still stunned by the extremely attractive man in front of her and not having heard her dad walk up behind her. She stared in shock between the two men, completely confusion as to what was going on. Her eyes lingered slightly longer on Mason, the strange man; he was only slightly older than her it seemed. He gave a her a look that instantly told her he was enjoying every second of this, it made her scoff in response. He may be attractive but he was definitely not a nice guy she thought as she took in his now even cockier expression.

“Who is Mason?” she demanded.

“Well that is clearly me,” the man said, making Lily scoff again in response.

Mason stood up from the kitchen table and walked over to Lily, all the time eying her humorously. Lily couldn’t help herself as she scanned his body, taking in his tight black jeans and very thin white shirt. She could see his muscles through the thinness of his shirt and she tried her best not to focus on it. Mason stuck his hand out in front of Lily and she eyed it suspiciously, it was almost completely covered in a sticky black substance. Looking between his expectant hand and the table she noticed he had been working on what looked like a small engine.

“You know you’re supposed to shake it?” Mason commented sarcastically causing Lily to frown. All the while her dad stood smiling at them, not even attempting to explain who the man was.

“I know,” Lily blushed as she reluctantly took his oil stained hand and shook it quickly, not wanting to hold on any longer than she had to. To Lily it seemed that Mason was reluctant to let go, especially when he caught sight of her disgusted expression. She whipped her hand away from him and wiped the offending substance on her jeans, knowing that it would probably never come out of the light denim.

“Is that Lily I hear?” another strange voice shouted from the hall, a woman’s this time.

Lily watched as the woman, obviously around the same age as her dad, came wandering through the hall. The woman was a little taller than her and wore heavy make-up; it looked like she had just been out for the evening. Without even a second of hesitance she walked straight up to Lily and wrapped her arms around her, pulling her into an uncomfortable hug. Lily’s arms stuck straight out as the stranger hugged her and as she caught Mason’s eye she could see him laughing silently.

“It’s lovely to meet you” the woman said excitedly as Lily stared blankly back at her, completely in the dark as to who she was.

She looked to her dad now, a bemused expression on her face as she eyed the strange people in the room one at a time, making sure to move her eyes quickly away from the still laughing Mason. Her dad blushed and shrugged his shoulders in an attempt at an apologetic look.

“Lily, I would like you to meet my wife, Karon, and of course her son, Mason,” her dad said quickly but proudly. Lily’s mouth dropped open in shock; she couldn’t even begin to believe that he had gotten married and especially without even telling her.

“Your what?” she shouted, knowing that it came out sounding ruder than she had hoped.  She didn’t feel as bad as she normally would; she was angry at him and angry at the whole situation.

“My wife, sorry I didn’t tell you before Lily, I wanted it to be a surprise,” her dad said a little apologetically but there was more excitement in his voice than anything else. Lily looked away and rolled her eyes, this was just another of her dad’s shocking surprises and a least it wasn’t the worst so far.

“That’s great!” she said in an attempt at enthusiasm, “It’s late I’m going to go to my room, she said quickly, hoping to get out of the awkwardness of the kitchen as soon as possible. Without a look at either Mason or Karon she slipped past her dad and towards the bags she had left by the door.

“About that…” her dad said nervously, “well because Mason is living here full time we had to give him the big room, we moved your stuff to the spare room though, I knew you wouldn’t mind,” he finished, bowing his head slightly.

“That’s great,” Lily fumed. She caught Mason’s eye again and while instantly taken aback by its continued brightness, she frowned at him. He returned her look with a smirk and she turned her back on him.

Lily grabbed her bags without another word and walked up to the smallest room in the house. She had had that bedroom since she was a child and couldn’t believe her dad had given it away so easily. Having only been away at college for a couple months she couldn’t understand how her dad had met someone and got married so quickly; but then she knew her dad, it wasn’t something out of character, he must have really liked the woman. Lily slumped down on her new bed amongst the jumbled boxes that held her belongings and sighed, she wished the surprise had been a puppy or a pool or anything other than what it was. As her phoned buzzed loudly in her pocket and she pulled it out quickly, smiling as she looked at the caller ID.

“Hey Hannah,” she said happily down the phone, she hoped that if there was anyone that could make this situation better then it would be her best friend.

“So what’s the surprise?” Hannah said excitedly, Lily had already told her what her dad was like, they had speculated for hours over what it might be.

“It’s not so much a surprise as a complete disaster,” Lily sighed to her friend.

“Do tell,” Hannah said quickly; she was clearly already hungry for the new gossip.

“He got married and she has a son,” Lily groaned.

“How old?” Hannah responded instantly. Lily chuckled to herself, trust her friend to want to know his age, she always had liked the guys.

“Not that it matters but he is the same age as us, I think,” she said. As she said the words images of Mason popped into her head, it seemed as though he was the same age at least.

“Is he hot?” Hannah said bluntly making Lily laugh again.

“Yes in a way, sort of,” Lily said evasively, she wasn’t really sure what she thought of him yet, all she knew was that he was a bit of a jerk.

“Have you made a move on him?” Hannah asked curiously, Lily knew that if Hannah was in her shoes then she probably would have.

“Of course not!” Lily shouted, she wasn’t like Hannah, “Isn’t he like my brother now or something?” she questioned, she still hadn’t figured it all out in her mind yet.

“I’m mean sort of, but not really. I say go for it,” Hannah said honestly.

“Of course that’s what you would say. Thanks Hannah you have been no help at all,” Lily joked and hung up the phone, tossing it onto the bed.

She thought about what Hannah had said, he was only kind of her brother, not related in anyway. There was no doubt that she was attracted to him but when it came to his bad boy personality she would rather run a million miles away from him instead of towards him.

Chapter Three

It was already early in the afternoon when Lily finally got out of bed the next day. She wasn’t used to getting up so late but the drive had taken it out of her and she knew that in a way she was putting off having to speak to her dad about everything. He had seemed so happy last night that she didn’t want to come across as against the idea of him being married, even though she hated it. She had never really wanted a bigger family, she had always liked it just being her and her dad but she knew it was never going to stay that way forever. Now though there was the problem of Mason, the too attractive and too sarcastic Mason.

Deciding that she couldn’t delay any longer Lily wandered down the stairs in search of her dad. Just like it had been the night before the living room was completely empty and the house was silent. She made her way into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee; coffee was one of her few guilty indulgences and while she normally restricted it just to the morning she couldn’t help herself today. She stared out the window in thought as her fingers aimlessly ran through her long blonde hair, trying somewhat to tame it. For the time of year it was a surprisingly nice day she thought, it wasn’t often that it was sunny in the town.

With her coffee cradled in her hands she wandered out towards the garage, hoping that she may be able to find her dad in there. While it wasn’t exactly normal for him to be there she was quickly realizing that nothing had been normal since she had arrived.

“Dad?” she called as she walked towards the small garage at the side of the house. Thankfully it was warm enough that her shorts wouldn’t be questioned, she hadn’t gotten round to pulling her normal clothes out of the boxes yet and had instead settled on wearing the thinner clothes she had brought back from college.