Gripped: A Stepbrother Romance (Bonus Story: Stepbrother Forbidden) Read Free Page A

on my hip and forearm.
    I cried out, mostly from the shock since the bushes and mushy earth softened the blow to my body.
    “Shit. Mac. Are you OK?”
    I opened my mouth to answer but only a squeak of surprise came out when strong hands hauled me up from the floor. Reid’s face, covered in sweat and twisted in concern, was close to mine.
    “Are you OK?” he repeated.
    “Yes,” I said, but it was a lie. I was far from OK. My heart hammered in my chest because of how close his body was to mine. The heat of his skin seeped through my jacket and shirt, touching me all over. I squirmed in his arms, unwilling to endure his closeness anymore. “Put me down. I can stand.”
    He set me to my feet but he didn’t let go of my upper arms.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
    I stepped away out of his touch. “That’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention either.”
    He eyed the muddy sections of my jacket and pointed at it.
    “Does anything hurt?”
    The concern in his voice and cobalt eyes for my welfare wasn’t helping matters where my feelings for him were concerned. When did he become like this? The Reid of the past would have sneered and told me to watch where I was going next time. Then he’d carried on running without a backward glance. That was the Reid I had learnt to handle. This caring one who stared at me, who looked like he was ready to pick me up and carry me all the way home in his arms whether I liked it or not was far more dangerous.
    I frowned as I brushed the clumps of mud away from my jacket. Then I flicked the strands of hair that had escaped my loose ponytail away from my face.
    “I told you I’m fine.” I fiddled with the camera, making sure everything was still in working condition. When I raised my head I found Reid eyeing the camera, a half-smile tugging at his lips.
    “You still have that?”
    My unease ebbed and pride took its place as I touched Betsy. In one of his rare moments of generosity, Reid had given her to me over ten years ago when he’d won her in a contest. She was my best friend ever since.
    “Yeah.” I smiled, patting the bulky camera hanging from the straps around my neck. “She’s taken a few knocks but she’s still serviceable.”
    Far away down the path, the man and his dog were now a dot in the distance. Right. Pictures. I threw another small smile at Reid and gestured with my thumb I was continuing on.
    “Are you heading to the lighthouse?” he asked.
    “Er…yeah.” Please don’t come, please don’t come, please don’t—
    “I’ll come with you.” He moved forward, not waiting to see if I’d follow.
    “You don’t have to.” I don’t want to be around you because I can’t trust myself with you. “You can just get back to your run.”
    He paused and threw a grin over his shoulder at me that spurred my calming heart back into a gallop.
    “No matter how hard you try you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
    I let out a huff and followed him. Boy, if he ever knew how much he was right.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
    Mackenzie
     
    “Mom always loved this trail.”
    I glanced up at Reid. After walking for a few minutes in quiet anxiety about what to say to him, I was relieved he’d finally broken the silence.
    His features were devoid of any emotion. Reid had always been the living embodiment of the phrase ‘still waters run deep.’ Not like me who practically wore her heart outside her body all the time.
    But I knew how much he loved and respected Vera. To say Reid had an unpleasant childhood was an understatement. Neither Vera nor Reid had spoken about it much, but snippets of things they’d said had revealed a past filled with hardship and abuse from Reid’s dad. Vera was all he had for a long time until Dad and I came into their lives fourteen years ago when he was thirteen and I ten.
    I smiled as I took a deep lungful of the cool air surrounding us.
    “She loved fall a lot too.”
    It was disturbing talking about Vera as though she