TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

14

Chapter 14

Jace

Everything remained the same for the next few days, although my guard was up high. When I wasn't at work at the finance firm, I was watching my Dad's every move, just waiting for him to slip up and reveal what the hell was going on around here, but he seemed to be onto me. He was acting even more like the dedicated family man than ever before, which I was finding really off-putting, because it was all so damn fake.

I just had to wait for his mask to slip again, like it had the other day.

I tried to speak to Rayna about it, but it just made her upset at the reminder of Dad's asshole-ish 'working class' comments, so I was forced to let it drop. I assumed she thought my Dad's weird reaction was really down to seeing me holding my Mom's book, and the unrequited love that she was convinced was still there, but I wasn't totally sold on that theory. Dad was up to something else shady, and one way or another, I was going to find out what it was.

I was prepared to let it go for one night, though, because we had finally arrived at Halloween and the night of Tom's party. Gone were any feelings of unease; I was just excited at the prospect of seeing Rayna let her hair down for a night of silly fun.

I had my Maverick costume on, and as I sat in the kitchen waiting for Rayna to arrive, I tried to imagine what she could possibly be wearing. I'd asked her a couple of times, but she'd completely shot me down, saying that I'd have to wait. I was certain it would be something cool, and no matter what it was, she'd look amazing. It would kill me to have to watch all the other guys checking her out, though, knowing full well that there was nothing I could do about it.

It fucking sucked that I couldn't touch her or hold her in public like I so desperately wanted to, but lately I'd been thinking-just because we couldn't do it in public didn't mean we couldn't in private. What the hell was so wrong about two hormonal young people being attracted to each other and wanting to be with each other? Fuck the platonic friendship attempt...just fuck it. I was going to tell Rayna how I really felt tonight, and maybe-just maybe-she'd stop feeling so guilty about her own feelings, and we'd be able to go back to where we were that night in my room; filled with lust and barely able to stop ourselves from ripping each other's clothes off.

I heard her lilting voice call out from the hallway a moment later. "Are you ready?"

I stood up. "Yeah, get out here and show me this surprise of yours!"

"Ta-da!" She stepped into the room a moment later, wearing a totally awesome but also completely geeky Battlestar Galactica Cylon costume, complete with chrome-tinted body armor and a helmet.

"Oh my god....you nerd," I said, chuckling as I took it all in. "I can barely even tell it's you under there!"

"Yep," she said, her voice sounding slightly metallic under the helmet. "You were totally expecting some sort of sexy surprise instead, weren't you? Like one of those flimsy Playboy bunny costumes."

"Nope," I said with a grin, although I certainly wouldn't have minded a sexy surprise. I was glad I wouldn't have to worry about her flashing a lot of skin in some sort of skimpy outfit, though-that meant there'd be less guys perving on her.

I loved how confident she was in herself; there weren't many girls out there who were okay with dressing up in a decidedly un-sexy costume on Halloween. Somehow, that actually served to make Rayna sexier, and my heart thudded hard in my chest as I suppressed the urge to sweep her up in my arms, throw her over my shoulder and then tear the costume right off her after throwing her on the nearest bed.

I needed to get out of the house now, because being this close to Rayna while we were alone was making my head spin. "Come on, let's go, the car is outside."