Mask - A Stepbrother Romance Read online

  “Are you sure?” I asked, embarrassed at how childish I was being. Next I’d probably be asking to have a night-light installed in my room.

  “Of course,” he said. “And I’ll protect you from any other ghosts or monsters that might come in,” he added with a wink.

  “Ha. You’re so funny,” I said, voice tinged with sarcasm.

  He grinned. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist.”

  A half-smile curled my lips up at the corners. “Well…thanks for letting me have your bed. I know you think I’m an idiot, but the idea of sleeping alone right now really sucks,” I admitted.

  “I don’t think you’re an idiot. I think you just had a weird experience, and until we’ve come up with a rational explanation for it, it’s only natural that you might be a bit freaked out.”

  “I guess. I still feel dumb, though,” I said before stifling a yawn. “Anyway, goodnight.”

  “Night.”

  Before I got the opportunity to lie down, Jace pulled me in for a deep and comforting hug, and I leaned into him, allowing my body to rest against his. I inhaled his familiar musky scent, which dragged my thoughts right back to the night of the party.

  His lips on mine…

  His hands roaming over every inch of my curves…

  His hard body pressed up against mine…

  A tingling sensation started to form in the pit of my stomach, and I squirmed as wetness exploded between my legs. This was no innocent hug between two people who were about to be related. It felt as if we were back in that room with the massive four-poster bed, masks still covering our identities and hands still exploring each other’s bodies with wild abandon.

  I wanted desperately to be back there before the masks came off, only this time I’d keep my mouth shut and allow our hot and heavy encounter to continue. If I hadn’t known it was wrong that night, I might very well have let Jace take me then and there, and while he was embracing me in this way, I wished that he had, just so I’d know what it felt like.

  Just so I’d know how good it could get.

  Jace started to rub my back, and he pulled me in closer, our bodies meshing together perfectly. I could feel his hardness pressing up against me, and wild shivers went down my spine as I pictured him thrusting inside me. God, I wanted that so badly…

  With only this thought in my mind now, and everything else completely forgotten, I leaned back and pressed my lips firmly against his.

  Chapter 8

  Jace

  I hadn’t been able to resist.

  I had to hug Rayna before she went to sleep—she looked so tired and worried. I convinced myself that I was doing it as a brotherly act, but I knew it was a bad idea; knew I probably wouldn’t be able to stop my cock from stiffening as she pressed up against me in the hug. When she suddenly kissed me, I was powerless to stop her….not that I wanted her to stop.

  Hell no.

  We kissed hard and fast, and her hands began to work their way up my body, slowly tugging my T-shirt over my head. She broke away from my lips as I helped her get the shirt all the way off, and there was a hungry look in her eyes, one that was desperate to devour me. Seeing her need this just as much as I did turned me on more than anything else ever had, and I pressed my lips back to hers.

  I’d seen a similar look on girls before—usually they were gagging for it by the time we got down and dirty—but it’d never affected me as much as this. Deep down I knew it was because my feelings for Rayna already ran much deeper than anything I’d ever experienced before, but I wasn’t quite ready to admit that to myself just yet. This was far more than just a lust-filled hookup, but if I accepted that, then I knew I was heading right into trouble…and trouble was what I was trying to avoid.

  That wasn’t going to stop it from happening right here in my bedroom, though. I usually kept my torrid sex life as far away from my home life as possible, because I didn’t like people judging me for my stuff; I almost always took the girls back to their houses or did it somewhere more public—cars, bathrooms, even cold alleyways. However, Rayna made me feel awesome about my taste in things, and she didn’t judge me at all. I almost felt as if she belonged here already…and to be fair, she kinda did. After all, this was her home now, right here in the manor with me and the rest of the family. Somehow that thought made this entire experience even hotter; the forbidden nature igniting a brightly-burning fire within me.

  She moaned against my mouth, and I pulled away for a second. “Tell me to stop,” I murmured against her lips, my hand cupping her ass cheeks. “Tell me this is a bad idea, and I’ll stop.”

  “No. Don’t stop,” she said, flashing me a bold stare. I grinned. That was exactly what I wanted to hear.

  I broke away from her and slid out of my pants, and Rayna bit her lower lip as I stood before her in only my boxers. I could tell she was nervous by her slightly-trembling hands, but the lusty look in her eyes made it clear she was ready. I hurriedly stripped off her top and pajama pants, leaving her in only her panties, and I sat down on the end of the bed and pulled her onto my lap.

  “God…you’re so fucking beautiful,” I said, taking a second to look her over.

  She really was. She was perfect in every way; every curve, every inch…all of her.

  She straddled me and lowered her lips to mine again, and the tips of my fingers roamed over her soft skin, caressing every sensational curve before cupping her breasts and pinching her nipples with one hand. She gasped, and I grinned and used my free hand to steady her on top of me.

  “You sure about this?” I asked, voice gravelly with need.

  “I’m sure,” she replied, not taking her eyes off me for a second.

  In one quick movement I threw her onto the bed, eliciting another surprised gasp from her. My hands went to her shoulders and coasted down over her perfect figure, and her warm breath caressed me as I gently nipped at her earlobes. She moaned loudly, and with that, I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers again, kissing her with an animal-like urgency, and she parted her lips, allowing me to deepen the kiss and explore her mouth with my tongue.

  Heat from her mouth began to trickle into mine, and my groin flooded with a pulsing warmth that only added to the burning desire I already felt deep inside. The kiss seemed to last forever, and my mind clouded as my tongue glided past her lips to entwine with hers. I knew this was wrong; of course I did.

  But fuck, nothing had ever felt so right.

  I blocked out the thoughts telling me this was wrong and pulled away from the kiss, gazing down at Rayna. She wanted me to fuck her—I knew she did, it was written all over her damn face—but I wasn’t going to. Not yet, anyway. I needed to make her come, to make her lose herself before I could. I wanted to see her face contorted in ecstasy, I wanted to learn what got her going, and I was desperate to see her fall apart at my touch.

  I moved my mouth down her body, and I could smell the sweet desire radiating off her. At first, she looked like she wasn’t quite sure what I was doing, but as soon as she clicked, she tossed her head back and tightly gripped the sheets beneath her. Her curvy body writhing on my bed was the sexiest fucking thing I’d ever seen in my entire life.

  I eventually reached her lower belly and began flicking my tongue over her soft skin, just teasing her. Her arched back and bucking body was clearly desperate to be played with, but I wanted to make her beg for it first.

  “Oh, god,” she moaned. “Oh fuck, Jace.”

  With that, I pulled her panties down and slid them over her ankles, and she lay before me, completely naked and quivering with anticipation. She gasped again as I moved my body further down between her thighs, lapping at her delicate skin and inhaling deeply. I could see her pussy glistening with slick desire, and I could feel the heat emanating from her center. It wouldn’t be long before she started begging, and as if on cue, she gave me exactly what I needed.

  Moaning, she raised her head and watched me over the curves of her breasts and belly. “Jace…please…I need you.”
<
br />   I feigned a confused expression, teasing her even more. “Need me to what?”

  “You know what…so do it!” she said.

  I grinned and moved my mouth over her folds, tasting her juices and running my tongue up and down in long, fluid motions, and I groaned with delight as Rayna reached down and stroked my hair in encouragement, threading her fingers through to hold my head steady. Christ, she was demanding when she was horny.

  I fucking loved that about her.

  My tongue soon located the sensitive, throbbing nub of her clit, and I licked and gently sucked over and around it. Rayna’s body began to shake even more, and I drew my head back a second later and stared up at her. Her eyes seemingly bored right into my soul, and then I leaned back down. Once again my tongue raked across her most sensitive spot, making her writhe and moan as she thrust her hips. My swirling tongue was relentless as it lapped over her swollen pussy, and seconds later I carefully slid a thick finger inside her, letting out a deep groan of approval as I felt just how wet and ready she was for me.

  “Oh…Jace.” She began to pant hard, as if she was struggling to breathe through all of the pleasure, and I knew she was about to come.

  I kept licking and gently nibbling at her clit, keeping my head at an angle so that I could look up at her at the same time, just so I could see her losing it. She was going wild and loving every damn second of it, and I needed to see that because it made me hornier than anything.

  “Oh…shit.” Suddenly something seemed to snap within her, just as I was making the decision to fuck her until she came over and over again. I was desperate to know what her tight pussy felt like around my cock, but it looked like I was never going to get the chance, because she squeezed her legs tighter and sat up to push me backwards.

  “Shit…no, no, no. Jace, we can’t. We just…we can’t. I’m sorry.”

  It seemed that she was getting one of those awful stabs of conscience I’d been getting earlier.

  “We can,” I said. “Our parents aren’t even married yet. You’re not really my stepsister.”

  “I know, but I just can’t do this to my Mom, no matter how much we want to. If she ever found out…” She scrambled around for her clothes and started putting them back on, much to my disappointment. “I have to go back to my own room.”

  The moment was officially over, cut short just like our last heated encounter, but at least I knew why this time.

  “Okay. Yeah, I get it,” I replied, nodding even though I didn’t really get it.

  She thought us being with each other was a mistake, and she thought she was doing the right thing by stopping, but something was telling me that the opposite was actually true. The real mistake was preventing such a wonderful moment and stopping a budding relationship like the one we had. We’d barely known each other for more than a day or so, and yet I could already tell there was something between us; something real.

  Something incredible.

  “This can’t happen again. I’m sorry,” Rayna repeated, unable to meet my eyes. Then she rushed to my door and looked over her shoulder, giving my room one last lingering look before opening the door and disappearing into the cold, dark hallway.

  Well, at least our failed hookup had managed to cure her fear of the alleged ghost in the hall, right?

  Chapter 9

  Rayna

  Leaving Jace’s room that night was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. I’d wanted so badly to stay…and yet I hadn’t.

  The next few weeks passed in a blur, without even a mention of what had happened. Jace and I went out of our way to avoid eye contact with one another whenever we had family breakfasts or dinners, not because we didn’t like each other, but because we both knew what would happen if we let ourselves be alone again….and that couldn’t happen. I’d known that when we’d been kissing and stripping each other, and yet I’d still let it get that far—I’d literally been on the verge of a powerful orgasm when my conscience had finally forced me out of there, and believe me, nothing had ever been more difficult. Now I knew exactly how it felt when guys said they had blue balls.

  I couldn’t believe that I’d allowed it to go so far again. Actually, scratch that—I could believe it. I’d been so unbelievably turned on; it was like ninety-nine percent of my brain cells just ceased to function when Jace’s mouth was on me. I’d never felt like that in my life, and I’d kept begging my conscience: please…I know this is wrong, but god, just one more second. Just one more minute. Just one more….oh, hell, give me a whole millennium of this.

  Sure, I’d had boyfriends in the past—two to be exact—and with both of those guys, I’d had a decent sex life. But that had been it; just decent. With Jace’s hands and mouth on my body, I felt like I was on top of the world, like I needed him more than life, more than air, and we hadn’t even had sex yet.

  God, how I wanted to….

  Notwithstanding my mission to avoid Jace as much as possible, I hadn’t seen that much of him in the last couple of weeks because he’d gotten a job at one of the finance companies he’d interviewed at, so he was often away during the day until six or so. The only time we really saw each other was at breakfast and dinner, which we almost always ate with our parents, so there was no chance for any awkward or embarrassing conversation, which was a small blessing.

  Honestly, though, I was actually feeling more sad than embarrassed over the whole incident. As I’d walked from his room that night, I’d told myself that I was doing the right thing, but as I lay there in my bed afterwards, desperately trying to get to sleep again, I’d felt more alone than ever before. That was when the tears had started falling…

  As soon as I’d realized just how upset I was, I’d known I needed to distract myself from all those thoughts before I ended up doing something stupid. So instead of talking to anyone about it, which would likely only serve to make things worse, I’d thrown myself into helping Mom and Gerald with the upcoming wedding preparations, and now that four weeks had passed, the wedding was only two days away.

  I’d also done my best to finally settle into my new life in England. I’d had my American driver’s license transferred over to an English one so I could officially drive here, and while I wasn’t quite used to driving on the left side of the road yet, the roads meandering around the manor estate were spacious and empty enough for me to practice on. It really was lovely out here. The city wasn’t too far away, but there was also fresh air and sprawling green fields, and I was very lucky to be staying here.

  On top of the wedding preparations, I’d also gone and visited a lot of historical and archaeological sites, just like Jace had suggested on the first night we’d met. After our short chat about heritage law, I’d found myself thinking about it more and more, and I really thought it was something I could get into. There were a few relevant classes I could take once the university term started here in six weeks, and I was looking forward to having my studies to distract myself from Jace.

  In fact, speaking of distractions and historical things, something had only just occurred to me. With all the tension surrounding me and Jace in the last few weeks, I’d completely forgotten the terrifying incident in the manor that had led to me going into Jace’s room that night.

  My so-called ghost.

  Honestly, now that so much time had passed, the whole thing felt a little ridiculous. Jace was right; it was probably just a nightmare, and I’d probably sleepwalked out into the hall. Still, I found myself wanting to ask Gerald about it, like Jace had suggested. Even if there was nothing supernatural about the manor, it’d still be interesting to hear about the history of the place.

  Right now, it was early on a Thursday morning, and Jace, Gerald, Mom and I were sitting around the breakfast table. The tension between Jace and me was still thick in the air, and I didn’t dare look at him, in case I was tempted to reach under the table and slide my hand up his leg.

  “Gerald, can I ask you something?” I said, looking over at our parents.

/>   “Hm…okay,” Gerald replied, barely even looking up from his newspaper.

  “I was just wondering about the history of this manor,” I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jace watching me as he chewed on a piece of toast. “Um…has anyone ever thought that maybe the place is haunted?”

  Gerald scoffed and looked up. “Haunted?”

  I gave him a strained smile, knowing how dumb I sounded. “Well, I got up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago—around about the time you and Mom went to visit her friend’s B&B—and I swear I saw this woman standing in the hallway right near my room. She was wearing a long white gown, and I thought…well, I know how stupid it sounds, but I honestly thought she was a ghost.”

  Mom smiled at me. “Rayna, honey, I think you might’ve been watching too many movies.”

  Gerald nodded. “Yes, you must have been sleepwalking, or simply imagined it after seeing a scary movie.”

  “Well, when I found her shrieking about it in the hall, she was definitely wide awake,” Jace said, cutting in. “There must be some other rational explanation. Some sort of moonlight mirage, perhaps.”

  I finally looked directly at him for the first time in what felt like forever, flashing him a grateful glance for stepping in. He smiled back at me, and my core tingled with desire, making me shift uncomfortably in my chair as wet heat flooded my panties.

  Gerald raised his eyebrows. “So you really think you saw something?”

  “I think so, yes. But even if I didn’t, I thought it would be cool to know about the history of this place,” I said.

  He nodded. “Well, as you know, there’s an extensive library on the second floor, in the east wing. There’s a few books in there that detail the history of this whole area, so that’d be a start. As for your alleged ghost, if you honestly think you saw a woman in here, then I might have to look into upping security around here.”

  “Security?”