Page 9 of Forbidden Cravings

His eyes lit, lust passing through them, and he moved against me, pressing me into the counter. He was so hard I could feel it pushing into my stomach. He was huge, and I bit my lip, trying to silence thoughts of how he really would break me if this ever turned into something.

Putting both hands on the counter so that he me boxed in, he said, “You need to stop this, Casey.”

“Why?” I asked.

He gritted his teeth. “Because you’re…” He dropped his head, his mouth so close to my ear that currents flicked through me like sparks igniting a wildfire. “Untouchable.”

I bit my lip as disappointment smothered the fire in me. The struggle he was having gave me pause and reminded me that I really needed to stop this. He was torn, his loyalty to my brother ran deep, and I was hurting him, even if his denial of his craving for me was hurting him just as badly. I knew my brother, knew how overprotective he was, and knew if Mason touched me like I wanted him to that Tyson would see it as a betrayal. He trusted Mason to treat me the same as Tyson treated Riley. But we weren’t the same. Riley had grown up with Tyson. He was as close to her as Mason, and he saw her through the same lens he saw me through—another little sister. Mason and I hadn’t seen each other in so long that bond had never formed. Which left us both at a crossroads, trying to deny the instant attraction that was drawing us to each other.

“Okay, I’ll stop,” I said, suddenly feeling bad for having pushed him. I’d never wanted a man as desperately as I wanted Mason, but I didn’t want to hurt him, nor did I want to hurt my brother.

He didn’t move, and I could hear the strained breaths coming from him. He wanted me as desperately as I wanted him, but I wouldn’t test him anymore. His green eyes searched mine before they narrowed. “If you don’t…” My heart beat wildly, waiting for his next words. “I can promise you my hands will wind so tightly in your hair as I fuck you that you won’t know whether to scream or come.”

He pushed away, leaving my knees so weak they had turned to jelly. A small mewl slipped from my mouth when it opened. The devilish grin he gave me before he adjusted himself and walked away almost toppled me.

“That wasn’t fair,” I muttered.

He rolled his neck but didn’t turn back. “You started this, Case. Trust me, you don’t want to tease me.”

“Fuck, yes I do after that.”

His laugh echoed through the room as he left me there, trying to calm the quake between my legs. If I’d wanted him before, I craved him like a drug now. But I wouldn’t push. I couldn’t do that to him. He was fighting it too much, and I knew he wouldn’t hurt my brother. I didn’t want to hurt Tyson, either. Riley didn’t have me concerned. She didn’t have the aggressive, possessive streak in her that my brother had. It was Ty I worried about. But I was leaving in a few days and thousands of miles would separate us, giving my hormones time to settle. I just needed to avoid Mason until then, which would be difficult to do living in the same place. And even then, I wasn’t certain he hadn’t already ruined me for any other man just with the sheer thought of what he’d do to me.

Chapter Five

MASON

Casey was like a drug I couldn’t stop craving and it was driving me mad. There was no question I wanted her, and I had a feeling she would destroy me so that no other woman would ever come close to her. She may already have. I couldn’t get her out of my head. That question she’d asked had put thoughts in my mind that shouldn’t have been there. Dirty thoughts I couldn’t erase.

I swiped my hand down my face, trying to clear them from my mind before I opened my car door and headed over to the site manager, who was talking with the foreman. Snow covered the foundation of the high rise that was the newest of my real estate holdings. It sat at the end of the city, where I was refurbishing the run-down establishments to broaden my hold on the city and the prosperity of it. When the businesses were doing well, I did well. There wasn’t a piece of Everdin I didn’t own, just as with Treemont. I owned it all. My holdings were more vast and more diversified than even Tides’ were. It had taken me years to gain my hold on Everdin, but I was calculating, taking risks those who had been in the business longer than I had no longer took. It had started when I wasin high school, taking Tyson along with me, and he’d been my wingman through it all.

That was the reason I couldn’t give in to my desire for Casey, no matter how her presence was wearing down my resolve. Hearing her talk shop, the intelligent way she evaluated the situation with the Bad Omens and with Tides had gotten me hard. It was almost as sexy as her body. Brains and attitude were sure-fire ways to bring me to my knees and Casey had both. But she was Tyson’s sister, and that fact was like a blaring red flag that wouldn’t cease waving in my face, even if it slipped to the periphery every time I was near her. It would destroy Tyson if I touched her. He expected me to protect her and treat her just like he did Riley, as if she were my own sister. But where he saw Riley that way, I didn’t have that same connection or the same emotion toward Casey. There had been too much distance between us for too long, leaving room for the attraction that sat like a stain between us that we couldn’t remove.

I trudged through the snow, seeing the unhappy looks on the men’s faces. Leo and Finch followed me. My men were always with me even if I sometimes forgot they were there, and those two were the ones who backed me up any time I was out of the house. Unless Tyson and I went out on a job ourselves like the night we drove from Creekwood to Bridgeville to get Riley. Those times were rare, and being without backup had made my nerves that night even higher than they already were.

“We had to stop yesterday when the snow began to fall,” Mike, the project manager, explained. “It’s too cold to melt, so we’re dead in the water until it warms back up.”

“How far does that set us back?” I asked.

“We buffered time for weather into our projections, Mason. This won’t hurt the timeline unless we get hit with too much of it.”

“Good.” I scanned the area, noting how far they’d gotten, before I walked away to inspect the work. I didn’t take shortcuts and spared no expense to ensure anything I owned was above par. My renters and buyers expected nothing less from me and it had earned me a reputation as the one to come to when people needed things done. I was a perfectionist.

“Walk with me, Mike,” I said, jerking my neck, so he knew to follow.

“What’s up, Boss?”

“I need you and the boys on high alert. You question everything and everyone. Nothing happens that you don’t know and that you don’t report back to me. Understand?”

He scrunched his brows. “Everything all right?”

“I think so, but after the fiasco with Clint Randall, I’m not taking any chances. The Bad Omens have me on their radar, and I want them to see that I’m not one to fuck with.”

“No, you’re not.” He rubbed his chin. “What about Tides?”

“That’s another story. One I’ll have to deal with, but let me worry about that. Stay vigilant. I want men on the site, even if there’s no work being done.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

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