Page 7 of Boundaries

He quirked an eyebrow, “Is that your attempt to threaten me, little girl?”

“No. I’m just giving you a heads up,” I back peddled, not liking how he rose to the bait. As I said, his temper was usually on a hair trigger.

Mason didn’t allow my retreat, “Let me guess. You’re going to let Boyd’s tyres down? I would advise against that. He’s had his Audi for around a week now and if he suddenly gets a flat, he’ll know it’s you and please take it from me. My brother’s type of retaliation would probably be something moronic. It would totally fuck over your ‘may not be nice’ threat, put it that way. Your childish pranks belong in the past,” Mason cautioned.

I almost stamped my foot which would have mirrored exactly what he’d just said. Instead, I shoved my hands into the pockets of my denim cut-offs.

He observed the movement and the message in his eyes changed as he blatantly scrutinised my bare legs. It made me want to push my thighs together, I suddenly felt exposed.

I attempted to pull the leg of one of my shorts down, a lame effort to cover myself and he smirked.

He really was a son of a bitch and I wanted to scratch his face and draw blood. I wondered fleetingly what colour that would be, green?

His appraisal made me feel self-conscious. And that was an unusual occurrence for me. I knew I was considered hot stuff; a bit on the slim side, but I had curves in all the right places, long chocolate-brown hair, a cute turned-up nose, good lips and the greenest eyes ever. My sister called them cat eyes. My skin was also flawless to the point where I didn’t really need makeup and I had a beauty spot in the exact same place as Marilyn. There were loads of girls in the village that were jealous of me.

I was a Taylor-Joy and the Taylor-Joy girls were considered the prettiest sisters in our part of Norfolk. We were all blessed with beauty.

Chrissy was the youngest and currently living life vicariously, having just finished her exams at High School. I just hoped she wasn’t living-it-up with Boyd McKenna in tow. The thought sank like lead in my stomach.

Jenna was the eldest Taylor-Joy, at twenty-one and she truly was what an angel in human form would look like. Stunning. She was quite small, but if she had been taller, she would have been a runway model, I was sure of it. She could still have been signed up for photogenic work. I had taken hundreds of pictures of her with my cameras over the years, but she was shy. She’d been horrified when I had suggested she send her picture to one of the modelling agencies in London.

Jenna possessed pale white blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, like the Indian Ocean during the summer. Her skin was also flawless, creamy, and pale without blemish; you just didn’t see girls like her in Norfolk.

Although temporarily separated, she was still married to Mason’s brother Nixon. He was like a storm cloud that rode roughshod over everything she did.

As I alluded to earlier, the McKenna men were a breed of their own.

With Jenna, it wasn’t just her looks. She was perfect in every way, from the outside all the way through to her sweet core. She had no hidden agendas but currently, she was delicate, her level of vulnerability unnerving. Like Achilles though, every perfect specimen had to have a weakness. The name of that weakness; Nixon McKenna.

Nixon had broken her heart. Unfortunately, he still owned every cracked inch of it.

“Look, let’s speak to them together, both of us. Make them see sense. It’s not like it can go anywhere. Do you want history to repeat itself?” I was of course referring to the car crash that was our siblings’ marriage.

Mason shifted his hip off the truck and uncurled himself to his full height, taking a step forward. He now towered over me and I raised my head to keep my beady eyes on him. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.

“I couldn’t really give a shit to be honest. So, you can forget about tag-teaming it,” Mason replied in a curt voice. He was now tired of our conversation. It never took him long; patience and this man didn’t share the same stratosphere.

“You will give a shit when we’re faced with the Nixon and Jenna Show Part Two,” I flipped out there. “McKenna boys and Taylor-Joy girls, just don’t fit together.”

There was a strange look on his face, something I hadn’t seen before. At least not directed at me. I didn’t like it, it was unnerving. My boyfriend Alex wouldn’t appreciate a look like that either.

He and Mason were the same age at twenty-four, and that’s where their similarity ended. Alex was of medium height and thin, with a sense of humour. Mason was tall and muscular, with zero sense of humour. Like day and night really. My point was, if it ever got physical between them, Mason would wipe the floor with Alex.

“For fuck’s sake, Amy, you’ve gone from a suspected kiss to marrying them off. Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”

“No, I don’t. I had a hunch about Jenna and Nixon years ago and now look. I’m certainly not sitting back and letting another shitstorm like that enter our lives. Not whilst there is still breath left in my body.” I knew my words were dramatic but so what. I needed to get this guy to see sense.

At the word body, his eyes roamed lazily over my features. It was like Mason was suddenly hungry and I was the juiciest piece of steak.

I hated to admit it, but I suddenly felt a bit giddy. Oh, save me from predatory McKenna men.

This one wasn’t usually that bad. It was only recently that he’d started down the sexual innuendo route. Boyd had been showering me with pervy comments for years and I’d seen Seth, the youngest, watching me when he thought I wasn’t looking. The eldest McKenna usually didn’t make eye contact with me, and I was thankful for that. Him being with my sister. Nixon was the most intimidating of the bunch.

My unwanted brother-in-law, was a bastard of the first kind. A large, moody, controlling alpha male. Like the types, you read about in the dark Young Adult romance books I read. He so didn’t belong lording it over my sweet Jenna. He’d had his eye on her for years, had swooped in there, done the damage and then fucked off back into the army.

He was now on tour in Helmand. Hopefully, there was a landmine out there with his name on it. And of course, I was joking. I didn’t want the guy dead; just nowhere near my sister.

“What if I’m right and things get serious?” I pointed out with a flick of my head.

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