Free Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance by Aubrey Irons Page A

softly-lit hallway full of stone tables from who knows what ancient culture, it’s just her and me.
     
    “Marines, actually.”
     
    “Okay, even more-so then. Why? I didn’t think big-deal politician’s kids went to war.”
     
    “They don’t, which is why I did.” 
     
    “What, just to act out?”
     
    I shrug. “Honestly, a little.” She looks at me in surprise and I grin. “I mean, I’d be lying if that wasn’t at least part of it. I was eighteen fucking years old and had a chip on my shoulder after the way things shook out with my mom dying and my dad working so much, and just said fuck it. There was a war on T.V. all the time, and I was tired of going to the same old parties with the same old douchebags talking about ‘what should be done.’ So I went out decided to be part of the solution and not just bitch about it.”
     
    “You think fighting is the solution?” she says, turning to raise a brow at me.
     
    “I know sitting around jerking off about it and not doing anything isn’t .”
     
    We turn into one of the side rooms, full of more stone carving and totems and parts of ancient walls that are important enough to be in the Smithsonian, even if I don’t get it.  I’m out of my damn element here, but Maddie’s not, and watching her is making me grin as she takes this stuff in with this awed expression on her face. Element or not, and even though she’s moving so slowly from piece to piece, and reading every single on one of those damned cards next to each one, I’m not in the slightest bit bored watching her.
     
    Of course, “watching her” also entails sneaking peeks at that perfect ass of hers in those tight, formal black pants. Let’s be real, the stuff on the wall isn’t the only work of art in here.
     
    Maddie moves on into the next room, and I follow, still trying to keep a handle on the roaring of my own damn libido.  This room is much darker and much more sparse on the pieces of stone since this is the wing still under construction. 
     
    We’re both peering in the dim, almost darkness of the room as we move through on to the next better lit room on the other side, when Maddie suddenly gasps as her foot catches on something. She goes tumbling forward, and I jump on pure instinct, jerking towards her in the darkness and catching her in my arms.
     
    And it’s like time just fucking freezes in that moment.
     
    Everything else in the world drops away, and I’m just frozen like that, holding her in my arms. I can feel her hands tightly gripping the lapels of my jacket, her face inches from mine, and the sound of her gasp filling my ears. 
     
    Fuck , that does it.
     
    It’s the sound, really. Beyond the feel of her body against mine, or her hands clutching me, it’s that fucking gasp that does it. And I don’t even realize until I hear it that it’s a sound I’ve been dying to hear again. It’s not even anything sexual this time, but it’s like getting a fix I’ve been fiending for. That little gasp of hot air teasing again my ear as I catch her brings back everything from that night. That slightly innocent but anything but look in her eyes through the mask, the catch of her breath through those pouty lips.
     
    And just like that, I’m rock hard, with her body pressed right against me.
     
    She gasps again, but this time it's a low, halting sound. I can see her eyes flash up into mine in the dim light filtering in from the next room; can see her soft bottom lip suck between her teeth in that way she does that makes me want to bury my cock in her right here and now. 
     
    “What are we doing?” she whispers.
     
    “I thought we were looking at art,” I growl, my voice tight.
     
    “There’s no art in here.”
     
    “No other agents either,” I say softly, unable to tear my eyes away from that lip. 
     
    My hands slide down to her hip, and her eyes dart across mine. “Hunter, what are you-”
     
    “I told you, just showing you what you wanted to