ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (292 page)

“Wrong again,” came a sarcastic voice that Lily was beginning to know all too well. She sighed in response but something inside her told her that perhaps seeing Mason again wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

“Just my luck,” she sighed, knowing that he would hear her.

Curiously she walked around to the front of the garage to find the mysterious Mason. She knew instantly when she saw him that she was not disappointed. Mason lay shirtless under a sports bike, fixing something underneath. He didn’t move when Lily walked closer and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she couldn’t take her eyes off his chest. Her fingers held the coffee cup a little too tightly as her eyes followed the line of his arm tattoos. Each thick black line circled around his muscles, following them onto his chest where a defined 6-pack could easily be seen.

“It’s hard to concentrate when you’re staring at me you know,” Mason said sarcastically, instantly causing a blush to surface on Lily’s unusually pale cheeks.

“I wasn’t staring,” Lily said, clearly flustered. Mason slid out from under the bike and his muscles rippled, Lily quickly and reluctantly diverted her eyes from his body before he would see her.

“Sure you weren’t,” Mason joked. He ran a hand through his hair as he stood up to look at her properly.

“I was just looking at your bike” Lily said quickly as Mason surveyed her. She looked at the bike quickly, feeling slightly intimidated under Masons inquisitive stare.

“You like motorbikes?” Mason said, sounding surprised. Lily paused for a second, she hadn’t really thought about it, but as she stared at the bike even she had to admit that it looked good; not quite as good as the person stood beside it but still good.

“I don’t hate them,” she said slowly as she ran her eyes over the polished black metal, trying her best not to look back at Mason.

“Have you ever been on one?” Mason asked skeptically. Lily could still feel his bright blue eyes staring at her; she wasn’t sure how she felt about it and whether or not she liked him looking at her.

“Um, no,” she admitted and from the corner of her eye she could see Mason smirking at her.

“Do you want to?” he asked causally but there was a hint of humor in his eyes. Lily turned to him now, a little shocked by his question; as soon as she laid eyes on his sexy smirk she wished she hadn’t though. Never normally a fan of tattoos as her eyes followed the lines once again she had to admit that they really looked good on him.

“Sure,” Lily said against her better judgment, she knew it was the laughter in Mason’s eyes that had convinced her to say yes, she never backed down from a challenge.

“Let’s go then,” Mason said a little hint of shock in his voice. Lily’s eyes popped open; she hadn’t expected him to say that, surely he was still fixing it. But as Mason grabbed a couple helmets from the shelf she knew that she couldn’t back down now and she had no idea what to do.

Lily walked over to the large sports bike and placed a hand on the shiny metal. Her heart hammered in her chest, she had always been told not to ride motorbikes and now she was about to. Two hands appearing on her waist made her jump; Mason gripped her slender waist firmly. Before she could figure out what was happening he lifted her into the air and placed her down on the bike. His hands lingered for a second longer and for some reason Lily didn’t seem to mind, there was something about Mason that interested her more than it should.

“You’re going to have to hold on tightly,” Mason laughed as he climbed in front of her. Lily gaped as she stared at Mason’s bare chest, she hadn’t realized she was going to have to hold onto him. 

Chapter Four

As nerves grew increasingly more prominent inside of her, Lily reached across to the small work bench and picked up one of the bike helmets. The bike beneath her rattled and she let out a startled gasp, she wasn’t used to how unstable the bike was. With a hand placed carefully on her side Mason calmed her and still the bike. His hand brought a sense of safety to Lily that she definitely hadn’t been expecting. If she had to match one word with Mason then ‘safety’ would be the furthest thing from her mind yet as he steadied her that was exactly what she felt. It confused her but the moment did not last long enough for her to over think it, soon Mason removed his hand and Lily sat bemused on the bike.

Shaking off the strange feelings Lily carefully put the helmet on, being sure to buckle it correctly, despite the sensation Mason had caused the nerves were still pulsing through her. As soon as she had fastened the simple helmet Mason turned to her and she could so easily see the humor in expression. He was trying not to laugh as he surveyed how ridiculous Lily looked in the helmet and she knew it. If she had been confident enough to release her firm grip on the bike she knew she would have hit him in the arm. After trying and failing to hide his laugher Mason grabbed his own helmet and put it on quickly with an expertise that Lily was shocked to find that she was impressed with.

The bike started up beneath her and Lily let out a scream that was quickly muffled by her own hand. “I hope you’re not going to scream the entire way, it’ll be rather distracting,” Mason said with a laugh and Lily’s face flushed red in response.

“Of course not,” Lily shouted over the loud thunder of the bike’s engine. She vowed then, to herself that no matter what happened she would not let a single noise break free from her lips.

“Good because it’s going to be a bumpy ride, I’d hold on if I was you,” Mason shouted.

Quickly without thinking about it Lily wrapped her arms around Mason’s muscled torso and the bike kicked into life. She barely had time to tighten her hold as it surged forwards with a speed she had not been expecting. To the sound of Mason’s relentless laugher the bike flew out of the garage and into the, thankfully, empty street. Lily pushed her mouth tightly shut in an attempt to halt the screams that so desperately wanted to come out. At that moment she had never been so grateful for the control that she had, she knew that if she made a noise she would never in her life time live it down. 

As the bike raced on down the street dodging and weaving through the traffic it was the warmth of her hands on Mason’s body that distracted her. His body was warmer than she could ever have believed and as her arms wrapped around it she felt comforted. For the all the likely sources of comfort that there was in the world again she hadn’t expected it to have come from the heavily tattooed and sarcastic Mason. She knew that while his personality was going to take some getting used to it was his body that would be the biggest challenge; as her fingers dug harder and harder into his muscles and their speed increased she knew her heart was beating faster for reasons other than just the thrill of the ride.

“I do like my chest and if you continue to dig your nails into it I am going to have to blame the scars on you,” Mason shouted as he slowed to a stop at the traffic lights.

Lily breathed in deeply, instantly feeling guilty. “I’m sorry!” she shouted over the engine that seemed slightly quieter now the bike had been set free, “You did say to hold on tightly though!” she laughed.

“I didn’t think you would mistake tight for ‘hard enough to actually imbed your nails inside me’!” Mason snickered sarcastically. Before Lily could think of a response the lights changed to amber and the bike flew forwards again leaving her struggling to regain her hold on Mason.

Terrified that she would fly off the back of the bike she slammed her body against his, holding on for dear life. Her act was met with heavy and loud laughter from Mason, the noise came so freely from him that his whole body vibrated against Lily’s chest. Frowning at his misplaced humor Lily tried to release her hold but as she slowly slipped backwards on the seat again she tightened it with more force that before. She had no idea if she was hurting him or not but as the bike sped on she realized that she liked the feeling of her body pressed against his, a feeling that she knew she shouldn’t enjoy as much as she did.

Chapter Five

Minutes passed by and with each one Lily’s hammering heart calmed a little more; before long she began to relax and enjoy the ride. It was the freedom that it brought that she loved the most, flying down the streets with enough speed to make everything a blur around her. While she prayed that it wasn’t a blur for Mason she was more than enjoying the lack of knowing exactly where they were going. Up until now she had recognized the streets as ones she had played on as a child but now the ones that passed her by were foreign.

Lily released her hold on Mason and while it had been slightly reluctantly she made up for it by placing her head against the muscles in his back. It had been almost instinctive for her to put her head against him and she was trying her best not to over think what it meant. After a few minutes had passed and she had grown more comfortable she decided that she would keep it there, knowing that Mason hadn’t complained just made it slightly easier. She hoped as she held herself close to him and while he gave her a new found freedom that he wasn’t as bad as she had previously imagined.

The thought was not long lived as Mason flew the bike to the side with no warning and unsuspecting of what he was doing Lily screamed loudly. The sound was welcomed by Mason with an equally as loud laughter. He pushed the bike even faster to Lily’s disbelief and with a short but terrifying leap into the air the bike was no longer on the road. Through trees and over large mounds of dirt the bike truly came to life. After the shock had registered and Lily had pulled herself back from the brink of a heart attack she found herself screaming with the dangerous thrill rather than with a fear of the unknown.

It wasn’t long before Lily realized that Mason took each dirt mound with excellent precision gaining the most amount of air time with each jump. The bike twisted and flipped under his control and not once did she feel that they might crash or were even close to crashing. For the second time in less than an hour she felt a strange sense of safety with him. To her the sensation felt good, unexpected but very good. Much to Lily’s disappointment after what felt like only the third or fourth time of them flying through the air, but in fact was the thirtieth, the bike slowed to a stop and Mason switched off the engine.

“Why are we stopping so soon?” Lily almost whined and Mason’s eyebrows rose sarcastically at the sound of her voice.

“A little sad are we?” he teased but his eyes softened. Lily stared into his eyes as he faced her on the bike and felt her mind go blank, she really had never seen a blue more intense than the shade of Mason’s eyes. They almost put her brown eyes to shame she thought.

Silence fell around them, disturbed only by the sound of birds chirping somewhere in the trees that surrounded them. “Maybe,” Lily finally admitted with a purposeful pout that made Mason smile. While she knew she shouldn’t think it, Lily liked the way Mason’s smile twisted his lips; it was gentler than his smirk, much more inviting.

“If I carry on now we won’t have enough in the tank to get us home,” Mason explained softly and his voice didn’t falter, none of the sarcasm returned.

“Us home,” Lily repeated in a whispered voice. It felt odd for her to think the words, let alone say them aloud. Until now, after the drama of the night before, she had not considered it to be their home. She felt guilty now for thinking him to be an intruder, he had of course lived there while she had been away and he would continue to do so after she left again.

“It’s strange isn’t it,” Mason said equally as quietly and Lily could tell he was thinking the same as her. For Mason she had probably been the intruder, it had just been him before she had arrived.

“But then we are strangers,” Lily said as though it had just occurred to her. She was sat alone in the forest on the motorbike of a stranger with only him to keep her company; the concept would have been extremely funny to her only hours ago.

“Strangers who share a house,” Mason said with a laugh but it was not his seemingly normal sarcastic one, it was more that he honestly found it funny instead of teasing her.

Lily paused in thought as Mason’s words registered with her. “I don’t hate the idea,” she admitted finally.

Mason looked her in to her eyes and nodded but a small hint of laughter pulled at his lips. “I do,” he said and a smirk plastered across his previously friendly smile.

No longer afraid of the bike toppling over on her Lily reached out to hit Mason on the arm. He was too quick for her though and before she could touch his bronzed skin he had grabbed her arm and twisted his whole body around to face her. The anger in his face at her move quickly melted away as their eyes met and they stared at each other. He still held her arm though and as heat pounded through her body she was more than aware of the fact.

Lily searched Mason’s eyes desperately but with no real knowledge of what it was exactly that she was looking for. She simply looked into the depth of the blue as he stared back equally as intently at the brown in hers. Mason’s grip on her arm slowly loosened and she felt herself moving towards him, leaning into his body. Mason watched her as her breathing deepened and her body stilled, just a mere fraction of a centimeter away from his own. Lily could feel every breath that caressed her skin and the gentle breeze that brushed against her lips.

Her heartbeat quickened and as her eyes stayed locked on his and the bright blue darkened she felt his lips on hers. The feeling instantly took her breath away and as Mason moved his mouth against hers her head fogged. A second passed before she reacted and she did so with an intensity that shocked even her. Mason dropped her wrist now and instead wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. She kissed him back with the same fiery passion he had shared with her and a moan of pleasure crept from her lips.