TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

9

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?"

He nodded again. "We already have the fences and gates with their security cameras, and the alarm system in the house-plus the added benefit of being quite far out, so people wouldn't usually just try to wander onto the estate. But who knows? Perhaps some drunk woman was in the area for some reason, and she somehow managed to get in. Not sure why, as nothing has been taken, but I can't think of any other reason why you might've seen someone."

"Oh. I didn't even consider the possibility of an intruder. I just assumed..."

'That this place is safe?" he said. "I would've thought so too, considering how bloody much I pay for the security measures, but just to be sure, I'll call up my security company and have them check the feed from the cameras near the front gate. If they saw anyone unusual come onto the estate during the last few weeks, then they really should've told me, but I'll call them anyway and make sure, just so we all have some peace of mind."

"That's very thoughtful of you, darling," Mom said, squeezing his arm. "I'm sure Rayna was just having a nightmare, though."

Speaking of nightmares...with the way Jace was staring at me now, and the way my body was wantonly responding to that, it looked like I was going to be trapped in one for quite some time. All I wanted to do was touch him, but as long as our parents were together, nothing like that could happen, so I was trapped in this sexual limbo where I couldn't even think of another guy.

I pictured myself leaping across the table and onto Jace's lap, where he could kiss me, strip me, and bounce me up and down on his hard cock, and as the images flashed in my mind, I sighed quietly to myself. It was an extremely vivid fantasy...but it was one which could only exist in my head from now on.

Dammit...