Free Mask - A Stepbrother Romance by Caitlin Daire

went out?” I asked. I already knew that he had a wild history, so that news wasn’t exactly going to bother me. “You know, sometimes I used to go out and act stupidly with my friends too. You should’ve seen the number of cocktails we got through on Spring Break a few months ago.”
    “Yeah?” he replied with a grin. “I can just imagine you on Girls Gone Wild.”
    A warm blush crept over my cheeks. Did that mean he was picturing me dancing on tables and flashing my breasts at random guys? I’d never gone that far with my vacation antics.
    “Very funny, Jace,” I mumbled. For some reason, his comment had also made me imagine all the girls he was used to hanging around at parties—the girls who liked to get wild and flash their bodies for the cameras. He’d probably had sex with hundreds of them, considering how hot and desirable he was, and the thought drove me insane.
    Sensing that he might’ve gone too far, Jace changed the subject. “Would you like a cup of tea? It’s supposed to be good for shock, and you looked pretty damn shocked out there.”
    I couldn’t help but smile at this. “I swear you English people use tea as the answer to everything. We hardly ever drink it in America. I mean, some people do, but coffee is way more popular.”
    “Yeah, but you’re not there now, are you?” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “You’re here.”
    “True. Well, if you’re offering, then yes, I’d love some tea,” I said. “Thanks.”
    “Sure. I’ll be back in a moment. Try not to get attacked by any poltergeists.”
    “Not funny!” I said, but a smile was still creeping over my face anyway.
    As he left the room, I took the opportunity to have a better look around. I wasn’t exactly snooping, it was more like investigating. I was trying to get a fuller picture of who Jace really was, and it was damn near impossible because he kept on surprising me.
    My eyes kept fixating on the massive bookshelf sitting on one side of the room. From the looks of it, he was an avid reader across almost every major genre, which once again seemed so out of character for the guy I’d heard so much about. Seeing this other side to him made me wonder if we actually had a lot more in common than first met the eye. We both liked things that made us a little different to most other people our age. We both liked old-school music and reading, and from the look of his film collection, we both liked cheesy eighties movies as well.
    I quickly turned away from the shelf as I heard Jace walking back up the stairs a few minutes later. For some reason, books felt more personal than music, and I didn’t want to look like I’d been going through them, so instead I sat on the bed and pretended to look at my fingernails.
    As Jace stepped back through the door, confused emotions began to swirl around in my mind. If I’d hoped that finding out more about Jace would put me off him, then I’d been terribly wrong, because everything I learned about him just made the feelings that I was trying desperately to ignore stronger and stronger.
    I could feel my body heating up as my core throbbed with need, and I watched him set the cup of tea down on one of the bedside tables before stretching and yawning. As he stretched his arms above his head, his T-shirt lifted slightly, and I could barely even choke out the words ‘thanks for the drink’ as my gaze went straight to his hard muscles. God…we’d only had one brief hookup the other night, and he was already like a drug that I couldn’t quit.
    As I picked up the teacup, I tried my best to push my feelings aside for what felt like the hundredth time, and I reminded myself how my Mom would react if she knew how I was lusting over the guy who was about to be her stepson.
    But then my eyes connected with Jace’s again, and all of that just flew right out of the window…
    “Do your tattoos mean something?” I blurted out, desperately trying to find a safe topic to talk about. I wasn’t