Page 18 of Stepbrothered by the Mountain Man

“Stop doing that or you’re going to feel a lot more than just my fingers digging into you.” His voice is thick and low in my ear. Practically a growl. “I’ve let you have your tantrum. Now it’s time to be a good girl and listen.”

A lot more?

Good girl?

I still at his words, my eyes growing wide and my pussy wet. Levi had never talked, touched, or manhandled me like this before.

“Look at me.”

At his command, my eyes snap to his involuntarily and I bite my lip to keep from gasping at the sight of him.

The moonlight’s casting a silvery glow on his golden hair that’s hanging like a curtain around his handsome face. The ends tickle my cheek just like his minty breath because he’s so damn close. Too close.

I swallow, hyperawareness washing over me again as I feel every inch of him pressed against me. As I notice all the space that he takes up. My legs ache from stretching so wide to accommodate him between them and yet it’s the best discomforting comfort I’ve ever felt.

“Good,” he squeezes my hip again, softer this time. “I know you hate me right now and I know I’m the last person you want to see, but I can’t let us go to bed angry. And yes, bed. A real bed,” he says, eyeing my makeshift one. “Because you’re coming back to my bed with me.”

“N—”

“I wasn’t asking a question. I’m telling you what is going to happen,” he says, and I snap my lips shut in shock.

What was happening?

The deep intonation of his voice and the sharpness of his words almost cause me to whimper as a buzz of electricity shoots through my clit.

“Now, let me explain myself.” He runs a hand through his locs and the subtle movement causes his scent of cedar and fir to drift through my nostrils and cloud my brain even more. Maybe that’s why I was reading too much into his words. I always did when he was this close.

What other logical explanation was there?

“The reason I bought the property was threefold. Obviously, I wanted to help out with the renovations, but I bought that specific property because there was another buyer and Beau was desperate. Like you, the buyer went to the registry and discovered that Beau was the owner. He told them it wasn’t for sale, but like all the other clients, they begged to see it. The other two lots are incredible, but not as amazing as that one.”

No property is as amazing as that one.

“He turned them down because he did take your feelings into consideration, but then they offered him thirty percent over asking.”

I let out a breath. Thirty percent? That was a lot of money.

“He could’ve told me...”

“I’m sure he would’ve, but I ambushed him first. I cornered him because there was no way in hell I’d let him unknowingly sign that contract with you, which he would’ve done had I not told him. It had nothing to do with being a Woods, but I do understand why you feel shut out.”

He does?

“You’re right that we don’t consult you as much as we should, My. But it’s not because you’re a lesser member of the family. It’s because we all baby you—”

“I’m not a kid anymore, Levi,” I huff, shifting in irritation and he pins my hips down again, this time with his. Even with the majority of his weight on his elbows, he’s like a fucking tank on me. One I’d gladly get crushed beneath despite my irritation with him. Despite me not understanding what the hell was happening.

I can’t tell if it’s the hard zipper of his denim jeans or something more that presses against my clit. Either way, I have an intense desire to roll my hips against him.

“I know you’re not a kid.” He shifts against me and this time I’m certain that what I feel is much more than a zipper.

“Levi?” It comes out like a strangled, throaty whisper.

His eyes travel from mine to my lips, to my throat that bobs as I swallow under his scrutiny. His Adam’s apple mimics the same motion but he doesn’t answer my unasked question.

“We all just want to protect you.”

“Protecting me and shutting me out are two different things. I just want to be included.”

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