ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (293 page)

Lily leant impossibly closer and as she did the once firmness beneath her rocked dangerously. She had no time to stop or even prepare as their lips parted and the bike they had been sat on fell to the ground. Together they fell heavy onto the forest floor and a cry of pain broke from Lily’s lips as the bike crashed down on her. The sweetness that had filled her only moments before were now left long forgotten.

Chapter Six

“Are you kidding me?” Mason shouted angrily as he looked down at the tangled mess of Lily and his bike on the ground. Through her startled brown eyes and her mess of blonde hair Lily looked up at him as he paced the dirt, clearly fuming at the state of his bike.

“Fine I’ll just help myself up then,” she shouted at him. Struggling under the weight of the bike she fought to free herself as Mason looked on, no longer as angry as before and instead his furious expression had been replaced by humor.

“It’s your stupid bike, the least you could do is get it off me,” Lily said as she scowled at Mason. The things she had felt only seconds before meant nothing now as she took in his sarcasm, he really was a jerk she thought with angry that could easily rival his.

“You knocked it over, get yourself up,” Mason said harshly as his shoes scuffed at the dirt under his feet.

“Fine, have it your way!” Lily shouted. With all the strength she could muster in her aching arms she lifted the bike off her and pushed it down so it fell heavy on the ground. She looked on in humor as a few pieces flew off and landed a couple of meters away.

“You really are kidding me right?” Mason said and to Lily his earlier anger seemed like nothing in comparison to the fury that now burned in his eyes.

“I warned you,” Lily said casually as she pulled herself off of the ground and dusted off her shorts. As she noticed the painfully bleeding graze on her leg she wished she had worn her jeans from yesterday instead of keeping on the short shorts from her luggage.

Mason stormed over to where Lily now stood examining the cut on her leg. As his body shook with anger he stopped just a little away from her, not daring to get closer than he needed to. Slowly Lily looked up into his eyes and the anger that she saw stunned even her. He was as close now almost as they had been on the bike but while then the intensity had been to levels she had only ever imagined before now only the smallest hint of that remained. As she stared into his vibrant eyes she could see that there was so much burying the feelings he had let surface a short time ago.

“Why?” he questioned her and for a second she was unsure exactly what he was referring to. She thought back to the kiss it had been so passionate but she had a feeling that was something he did not want to discuss and at this moment neither really did she.

“It was an accident,” Lily whispered and she knew that despite the topic being taboo that she was answering both why they had kissed and why the bike had fallen over.

Mason backed away from her and throwing his helmet to the ground he ran his hands through his short brown hair. With a loud sigh he let them drop roughly to his side before looking back at her. She should have known that this kind of anger should have been expected yet here she was with the stranger she shared a house with, unsure of exactly what to do to make everything ok again.

“Will it run?” Lily asked slowly, hoping that her honestly curious question would not make matters worse but before the questioned had even fully left her lips she knew she couldn’t have been more wrong.

“For you sake I hope it will,” Mason spat back at her as he paced the ground not daring to stare at his bike for too long, it was obvious to Lily that he cared about the bike more than he cared to admit and for some strange reason that made her warm to him. Normally Lily would have backed away from the harshness of his voice but as she looked into his eyes she knew that in a way he had not meant it, in a way he was just taking out his pain on her and for now she decided she would let me.

Slowly Lily stood up and under the wary glare of Mason she walked over to the bike. She bent down and without any hesitation she wrapped her fingers around the handle bars and tried to pull it up towards her. It was heavier than she had expected and while she had only managed to pull it a couple of centimeters off the ground it still slowly started to slip from her grip. Giving Mason a look of urgency she was beyond pleased when he jogged over to her and gave her a hand in pulling the bike from the ground.

Lily backed away as Mason took the full weight of the bike and kicked out the stand to support it. Beyond a couple scratches she couldn’t see any problem with it but then it was not her eye that could tell and as Mason circled the bike again and again she grew increasingly more worried. To calm her renewed nerves she wandered over to the small hedges and patches of dirt where the broken bike pieces had fallen. By the time Lily had walked back over to Mason her arms were full to the brim with bike trimmings and Mason was climbing carefully onto the bike, his helmet now back in place.

As she struggled with the various pointy pieces of bike she stared up at Mason as he kicked the bike into life and the same thunderous roar Lily had heard before broke her eardrums once again. “Please don’t leave me here,” Lily said in a whispered voice. Lily watched as in an instant everything drained from Mason’s face and the most heartfelt laughter she had ever heard came thundering from his lips. Every single time his eyes closed and reopened to see her stood there yet another wave of laughter erupted from his mouth.

“I change my mind, leave me here,” Lily said with a pout and she picked out the strangest looking piece of plastic from her arms and held it up, “I’m sure I can barter my way back home with these bike pieces, this thingy,” she said waving the piece around, “Is sure to get me at last half way from wherever it is that we are,”. In astonishment Mason stared at her and a fresh wave of laughter filled the forest, from both of them this time.

“Get on before I really do leave you behind,” Mason said between his rolling laughter. Without having to be told twice Lily awkwardly climbed onto the back on the bike, all the while being sure not to a drop a single piece of the invaluable pieces just in case he changed his mind. In the short time Lily had known Mason she would definitely not put it past him to change his mind because as much as she hated it he was becoming an expert at changing her own.

Chapter Seven

The ride back from the forest was a stark comparison to that of the ride there and for most of the journey Lily found herself trying not to impale Mason with the pointy plastic and metal that she held precariously in her arms. Each new bump and mound in the ground that had previously been exhilarating was now part of an arduous task to keep both her and Mason alive. She wasn’t entirely sure why she was risking her life for some pieces of plastic but for some strange reason she felt compelled not to let them go.

“Please tell me there is a good reason why you are holding onto that plastic junk?” Mason shouted as they finally cleared the forest and drove onto the street, visibly slower now on the return than before.

“Don’t you need them?” Lily asked in confusion. She looked down at bundle and while she could not for the life of her tell what they were parts to she hoped that Mason could and that he might be able to re-attach them.

“Quite frankly I have no idea what it is that you’re holding and I’m pretty sure only around half of them used to be attached to this bike,” Mason said with a laugh.

Lucy looked down at her arms again and laughed. “You know what I think you may be right, I think there is half a plastic bottle in here by the look of it,” Lily admitted with a blush. As she looked closer at the pile she was even more convinced that the strange red piece that didn’t match any color on the bike was actually a bottle cap.

“Well you can’t drop them now,” Mason said seriously as he turned into the first of the roads that Lily recognized, “But please do try not to kill me, you would have a lot of explaining to do if your dad found me partially impaled with a bottle cap,” Mason said and Lily could tell he was grinning. As she sat, half clung to his now muddy but bare chest, she could imagine how his eyes looked when he smiled a true smile. At the thought her body heated up in a similar way to how it had when they had kissed in the forest and her face flushed brighter at the image.

“Back safe and sound, well almost,” Mason chuckled as he pulled into the garage. As Mason jumped off the bike, relieved Lily opened her arms and let the junk free without thinking; a loud grinding noise filled the small garage as one of the pieces slowly scrapped down the side of the bike.

Slamming her hand to her mouth in shock Lily turned instantly to Mason, fearful at what his reaction may be. As his body stilled she knew he had heard the painful noise; slowly without turning Mason lifted the helmet off his head. Lily’s mouth dropped open again but this time it wasn’t down to the noise; as Mason looked at her with his newly ruffed hair she could not believe the heat that pounded through her entire body. He looked so hot that she thought for a second that she might be dreaming and as a look of humor danced through his eyes instead of one of anger she was even more convinced.

“Please just tell me one thing; what is it that my bike has done to you to make you hate it so much?” he said and behind the serious façade his eyes were filled with a casual humor that just made Lily smile.

“Now that is a secret,” she whispered as she climbed off the wreck of a bike and took her own helmet off. She doubted she looked anywhere near as good as Mason looked right now; in fact she was pretty sure that she looked down right terrible. Yet however convinced she may have been as Mason’s eyes scanned her body she did not see the disgust she expected but instead she saw the same expression that she had seen in the forest.

“You can’t keep secret’s around me,” Mason said seriously and he stalked towards her now.  Lily stilled for a second and she was unsure of whether to stay or to walk towards the approaching Mason; with no easy decision she decided instead to run.

Sending Mason a teasing look she ran as fast as she could past him and towards the house. She looked back as she reached the door to see his more than stunned expression and then he was gaining on her and quickly. With a scream that held no fear she pulled open the door and bolted up the stairs towards her new room. Again without thinking she flew through the door and head first into the pile of jumbled boxes that lay just behind it.

“Now that is something I never thought I would see,” Mason said as he walked through the door. Dazed Lily looked up at the fuzzy image of him and once again he did something she never would have expected, he held his hand out for her. She was unsure at first as she stared blankly at the hand just in front of her.

“You know you’re supposed to take it right,” Mason said with a laugh and memories of last night came flooding back to Lily, it seemed he hadn’t changed that much.

Lily took the hand with a pout and stuck her tongue out at him, she knew it was an immature move but she hardly cared now. “So the bad boy has a heart?” Lily teased as Mason carefully pulled her from the boxes.

“The bad boy also has a very short temper,” Mason said dangerously but he did not let go of her hand.

Lily looked down at their intertwined hands and a smile crept onto her stunned face. “Kind of like a naughty puppy?” she questioned with a fake innocent look.

Roughly Mason pulled her forwards so she crashed hard into his chest. “An angry puppy maybe,” she said with a scowl.

“Or a cute one,” Lily mused and she reached up and ruffed his hair in a very similar way to what she would have done if he was a puppy.

“Did you honestly just call me cute?” Mason said and his eyebrows rose in curiosity.

“Perhaps,” Lily teased. She dropped her hand from his hair as the hand that had held her own snaked around her back instead.

“I’m honestly not sure if that is an insult or not,” Mason chuckled as he pulled Lily’s slender body even closer to his own; with his leg he kicked the door shut behind them.

“Oh it was definitely an insult,” Lily said and she did something she would never have expected to do, she smirked at him.

“Now that is something only I am allowed to do,” Mason said sternly as he looked at Lily’s lips. As she watched Mason watching her she slowly bit down on her lip and saw his bright blue eyes widen.

“You don’t make the rules,” she whispered as she slowly released her lips.

“And who said that?”  Mason laughed darkly. Before Lily could realize what was happening Mason shoved her backwards towards the wall.

Her back slammed down hard against the pale wall and suddenly his lips were on hers once more. He held her firmly as she fought back with her lips, sharing his ferocity and her passion. Her body heated as he explored every last part of her mouth and her head fogged as once again he pulled away leaving her completely breathless. Her heart was hammering now as he placed his forehead down roughly on hers and leant into her...

MASON: BOOK 2

By Elisa Elliot

Chapter One

The summer had been a long one, full of scorching hot days and cool starry nights. The summer that had started with one of the biggest surprises of Lily’s life was slowly drawing to a close but that didn’t mean that she didn’t plan to make the most of every day that remained. The days had stretched on endlessly but they still passed by quickly and Lily knew her time with Mason was going to come to an end, not that either of them dared speak about it. It had been a different kind of summer, one full of discrete kisses and lost moments of passion that flew under the radar of everyone around them but none the less it was special, a summer that would not soon be forgotten.

“Tell me something about you,” Mason said softly, running a hand through Lily’s long blonde hair. She twisted in his lap so she could face him and as always his bright blue eyes urged a smile to form at her lips.

“You already know everything,” she whispered, reaching up to his face and brushing his messy brown hair from his eyes. It had grown at an extraordinary rate over the summer; the once short wayward hair was now much longer but still just as messy as ever.

Mason smiled back at Lily, a rare moment of softness for however close they had grown, as Lily knew well, Mason was still Mason; arrogant, sarcastic and more often than not a complete jerk. “I can’t know everything,” Mason stated, a small smirk forming at his lips as Lily’s face screwed up in concentration. She had shared most things with him over the long weeks.

“There might be one thing,” she said as red slowly made its way to her cheeks forming the smallest of blushes.

Mason’s brow rose as he stared curiously at her, she had never managed not to surprise him. If she had managed one thing it was to keep him on his feet. “Go on,” Mason urged as impatiently as ever.

Lily watched his eyes sparkle mischievously, wishing that she had never mentioned anything. She kicked her legs out on the dried muddy ground, scuffing her trainers through the mud that had been subjected to the month long dry-spell. “Actually, it doesn’t matter,” she whispered, biting her lip as her blush steadily grew darker.

With a smirk Mason leant towards her, meeting her chocolate brown eyes for just a moment before capturing her lips softly. He pried her lips apart roughly now, claiming her sweet sensitive lips for himself. He waited just long enough for a gentle moan to come tumbling free before pulling away. Slowly Lily’s eyes fluttered back open and with a deep sigh she glared up at him. “You don’t play fair,” she hissed yet her tongue still traced the tingling line where his lips had been just moments before, tasting the sweetness that still lingered.

Mason chuckled softly, meeting Lily’s eyes and refusing to look away. “I never play fair,” he said casually but Lily knew it was true; Mason played by his own rules, he always had.

“Fine I’ll tell you but on one condition,” she said teasingly, biting her lip a little in the hope it might just play in her favor.

Mason eyebrows rose as he looked down at Lily in amusement. “I don’t think…” he reached down and placed both hands under her arms, “that you’re in any position to be giving conditions,” he laughed and instantly his fingers found Lily’s most sensitive and ticklish spot.

With uncontrollable and unwanted laugher she dove from his lap sending him flying backwards in the process. Still struggling to breathe she glared back at him, it wasn’t the first time he had done it; she could still remember the first time and as he causally pulled himself up to smirk at her it looked as though that amusement hadn’t faded in the slightest. “You know I was going to tell you anyway!” she shouted, rubbing the sore spot he had caught with his hand.

Mason shrugged, sending Lily a cheeky wink before settling back down leaning on his hand. “It’s more fun this way,” he said with a slight laugh.

“For you maybe,” Lily whined, coming back over to where he sat on the grass. Mason instantly opened his arms for her and she sank back down into his lap, the place where she had spent most of the day.

“Aw you liked it really,” Mason whispered, pressing his lips down on her ear lobe. She leant into the soft tingling sensation as Mason teased the spot he knew she liked the most.

“Mm,” Lily moaned as she pressed herself harder into Mason’s chest, feeling as always the muscles that lay barely concealed by his thin black shirt.

“So are you going to tell me or are we going to sit here until it gets completely dark?” Mason questioned between the small kisses he was trailing down the crook of Lily’s neck.

“Stay here,” Lily murmured and while it was what she wanted she knew that they couldn’t.

Mason gently coaxed her chin up to meet his lips, pressing a soft kiss down on her tender skin. “Tell me,” he whispered, his lips brushing her lips.

“I’m on the math team,” Lily admitted, too distracted by his lips now to care much about anything.

Mason pulled away slightly, giving him enough room to stare into her chocolate brown eyes. “I don’t believe you,” he snickered, pressing his lips down on hers once more.

Lily returned his soft kiss wrapping her hands around his neck awkwardly to prolong the sweetness. “I’m the head of the math team,” she whispered against his soft touch.

Mason paused, his lips hovering mere millimeters away from Lily’s own parted mouth. “I always knew it,” he sighed with a small smile.

Lily pulled away now, glaring up at where Mason sat innocently looking at her. ”Knew what?” she questioned curiously.

Mason chuckled at her intrigue, pulling her forwards and back into the warmth of his arms. “That you were a nerd,” he said as straight faced as possible.

Leaping from his newly tightened embrace Lily glared down at him, she always knew he was a jerk but he didn’t have to prove it so often. “You’re one of a kind, you know that? And not in the good way either,” she shouted at him.

Mason jumped up with ease and strolled over to her. “I never said it was a bad thing, I happen to have a thing for nerds,” he said with a smirk.

Shaking her head in amusement Lily wrapped her arms back around him and placed a playful kiss on his nose. “And it looks like I have a thing for jerks,” she said as she shifted her lips to the place she wanted them most. Mason kissed her back with a lust-filled passion that never seemed to fade when she was near; Lily was his and his alone.

Chapter Two

The end of the summer brought one thing that Lily never thought she would love quite as much as she did, bike rides in the sun-set. It was a new experience for her, with the days shortening she had found that she could coax Mason into staying out long enough for the ride home to be drenched with the dying light of the sun, it truly was a thing to marvel at. They always went to the same spot, deep in the countryside, the very same spot where they had first kissed, she would have it no other way.

Lily wrapped herself around Mason’s leather-clad chest, holding on as tightly as she dared to, he had mentioned more than once about her so called ‘death grip’. She still smiled at the little talks he had had with her, especially on the few occasions he had taken his sports bike off-road. Still there was nothing more that Lily loved than her times on the back of the bike, Mason or no Mason she was beginning to understand the ultimate thrill that was riding a motorbike.

It was later than normal when Lily and Mason left the small clearing that had become their second home over the summer. The ride was as it always was, fast, thrilling and completely breath-taking, even when the country views shifted into that of the town she had grown up in, it was still something of beauty. Mason’s sweet musky scent engulfed her throughout the entire ride, tainted with worn leather it was somewhat addictive to Lily and she knew it. If it was up to her she knew that she would never let him take off his old but incredibly hot leather jacket.

Sooner than Lily had wanted they pulled up outside of their house, when it had become ‘theirs’ she wasn’t sure, all she knew was that she couldn’t imagine what it would be like without him. “Back to normality,” Mason commented as he helped Lily off the polished black bike that had quickly become her favorite.

“Normality isn’t always bad,” Lily said casually as she dropped her helmet to her side and followed Mason as he pushed the bike into the garage.

Mason screwed his nose up, he had never been one for ‘normal’ and they both knew it. It had surprised Lily that he had stuck around this long; it was unlikely to her that the tattooed bad boy that was her Mason would find a home in the small town. “Speak for yourself,” Mason laughed humorlessly. Perhaps, Lily thought, Mason wasn’t quite as ‘at home’ as he let on most of the time.

“You don’t see yourself settling down someday?” Lily questioned quietly. She was entering uncharted territory and she knew it, the summer was the summer that was what they knew, the future was something entirely different.

Mason froze mid-step, his body visibly tensing. Lily had over stepped the thin dusty line they had drawn in the mud but there was no going back now. She breathed deeply; steadying the nerves that had quickly began to grow in the pit of her stomach. “Mason, I don’t mean now really I don’t. I just thought that one day you might want to, I don’t know, have a family,” she whispered.

She hadn’t meant with her but now that she was thinking about it she couldn’t picture him with anyone else, anyone that would see him like she did. She knew instantly that the line hadn’t just been overstepped for him but for her as well. “Mason,” she breathed when he remained silent, refusing to turn to face her.

The door to the garage clattered open and suddenly they weren’t alone anymore, they weren’t Lily and Mason like they had been all day; they were, in an instant, back to being step-siblings. “There you two are!” Lily’s dad exclaimed as he jogged into the tiny garage that had recently not only been Mason’s safe-haven but Lily’s as well.

As the tension filled mood in the room shifted Mason relaxed slightly, no longer the focus of the conversation he dreaded the most. “Hello Mr. Carter,” he said in his infamous, at least to Lily, fake happy voice.

“Mason, it’s David, I’ve told you that. Any way your mum and I have something to tell you two,” he said excitedly.

Lily stayed quiet, the aftermath of what had just happened still confusing her. Thankfully Mason took the lead sparing her from having to find something to say. “Of course David, lead the way,” Mason said a little too cheerily.

Walking back to Lily, Mason placed a hand on her back urging her forwards; the touch was not gentle or passionate like most touches they shared, it was solely professional, cold and to Lily almost heart-breaking. Regardless she walked forwards, shaking off Mason’s hand as soon as her dad’s back was turned and putting a few steps between them.

The three of them walked into the kitchen together and nobody other than Lily and Mason themselves seemed to notice the cold atmosphere, for that Lily was grateful. “We’re going on holiday!” Lily’s step-mother greeted them the second they walked into the kitchen.

Lily’s mouth dropped open in shock, she couldn’t speak for anyone else in the room but she herself was stunned.  “We?” she stuttered, her eyes only for Karon now.

The woman in front of her, the one she hadn’t quite gotten around to getting to know yet looked a little guilty. “Ah, well, when I say ‘we’ I mean me and your dad,” she said quietly, a ruby red blush marking her cheeks.

Her dad stepped forwards, looking equally as embarrassed as her step-mum. “Sorry Lily, I was hoping it would come out easier,” he said, glaring at Karon who shrank a little.

“When?” Mason said quickly, speaking up for the first time.

Karon looked a little more excited now and Lily groaned internally, she knew this was not going to be good. “Tomorrow, we got a deal, half price,” Karon exclaimed, her guilt seemingly disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.

“How long?” Lily questioned, knowing already she didn’t want the answer.

“A week,” her dad said quietly, looking down at the floor.

“I go back to college in eight days,” Lily shot back. She had said the words she had tried to avoid for weeks, she was going to leave in eight days; she was going to leave Mason.

“I know Lily and I’m sorry,” he said sadly.

The room went quiet, the tension was thick and they could all sense it. Lily’s dad stepped forwards, closing much of the space between himself and Lily. “We both thought that, well since you and Mason where getting on so well, that you would like to play house for a little while in the time that we’re away. You can get used to living by yourselves and all that,” her dad said softly.

The tension in the room finally became suffocating and without a word Mason turned on his heels and strode out of the room. “Mason,” Lily breathed as she watched him leave with little hope that there would ever be a way back from this.

Chapter Three

Lily wandered the empty rooms of her home alone; Mason was not for the first time nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared countless times this summer already and Lily knew that it probably wouldn’t be the last time either. The habit was not something she was fond of, it was almost a hot and cold relationship except they barely argued, he was just there one day and gone the next. He never stayed away for too long but it seemed that this time he actually had a reason to disappear. She was half expecting to spend the rest of the week alone and the idea was not a good one.