Behind The Mask (4 page)

Once he was gone, the relentless inquisition began.

Brice was on edge as he glanced at the grandfather clock sitting on the opposite side of the living room, checking the time. Where was she? Didn’t she know he’d worry? She was a techie little nerd, she knew how to use a cellphone.

A sexy little nerd
, a voice chimed in and his dick sprung alive at the thought of her in that Harley Quinn costume. She didn’t think he’d seen her, but he had. Today’s costume was sexy in an entirely different way than the Poison Ivy costume was. It had kept him in a semi-hard state most of the evening, until he was granted release.

Grabbing the remote, he put the television on mute and then grabbed his mobile phone from the coffee table. He started to type her a message when the sound of the front door opening and closing caught his attention. Sitting up on the sofa, he peered over the back, waiting for her to walk past the room.

Moments later she appeared, moving briskly, no doubt attempting to make it to the stairs before he could call out to her. She wasn’t getting off that lucky.

“Hey, Trina!”

Her body froze and she slowly turned to face him, removing her jester hood as she turned and shaking out her hair. “Yea.” She kept her eyes downcast.

“I’m wearing clothes. You can look at me.”

Her eyes lifted and she smiled, a rosy hue colouring her cheeks. “After last night, a girl can never be too sure.”

“Cute. Where’ve you been?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

He pointed to the grandfather clock. “It’s 1 a.m. Where’ve you been?”

She laughed and gave her head a shake, her crimson hair swaying behind her. “Last night you were making fun of me for being home early and now you’re lecturing me because I’m late?

Some nights you never even come home, Brice! Double standards much?”

“Why have you been avoiding me all day?”

Planting her hands on her hips, she rolled her eyes at him. “Gee, I don’t know. Maybe because I saw you naked last night and it was sort of awkward.”

He stood and made his way around the sofa, toward her. It was killing him not to pull her into his arms. In the matter of two days, he went from barely noticing her to wanting her more than he’d ever wanted any woman before.

“I wouldn’t avoid
you
if you wanted to roam the house naked.” He graced her with a lopsided smile, hoping to engage her in a teasing banter.

“You’re impossible, Brice.” She turned and stormed off.

Not finished with her, Brice sprinted after her, racing up the staircase and meeting her at the landing. “Would it be so bad to get to know each other better?”

“Why after two years of being teased for being nerdy would I want to get to know you better, Brice?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t feel it.” He was taking a chance throwing his attraction toward her out there, but he needed her attention.

Her eyes narrowed at him, but her nervous nibbling on her lower lip gave her away. “Just because I’ve seen your penis doesn’t mean I’m going to be falling over myself to be with you.

Unlike those brainless cheerleaders you like to date I do have some integrity.”

She spun around to walk away from him, but he wasn’t having it. Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her into him, slipping a hand behind her neck, and lowered his lips to hers.

A soft, surprised squeak came from her and her eyes widened as his lips claimed hers. She resisted – at first – refusing to allow him to deepen the kiss, but as he pulled her tight she began to collapse into him. An arousing sigh emerged from her lips as she returned his kiss, slipping her arms around his neck and pressing herself flush against him.

God, she felt so right in his arms, and so responsive, her body taunting as she rubbed against him. How could he have been so blind and not seen her from the first day they met? He’d been an idiot of the worst kind and he was going to make it up to her.

Pulling his lips from hers, he began kissing his way along her jaw and down the side of her neck. A soft, sweet moan escaped her, sounding like sweet music to his ears. He reached between them and grasped the zip to her shirt, but her body froze and her hand shot up and grasped his wrist as she pulled back.

“We can’t.” She pulled out of his embrace. “We can’t.”

She attempted to flee, but he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back to him.

“Why? So our parents are married. So what?”

He thought she was going to fight him again and attempt to pull away, but instead she stepped into him, wrapped her arms around his waist and lowered her forehead to his shoulder.

Gathering her into his arms he held her, taking as much comfort from her as she was from him.

“I don’t want to be your rebound girl of the week, Brice.”

He pulled back from her, but kept her in the protective circle of his arms. “You’re not that to me, honey. Why would you say that?”

She laughed, but it was a hollow laugh. “What else would I be to you? I’ve been trying to get your attention from the day we met and all you’ve ever done was treat me like some nuisance little sister. Why change now? Because you saw me in a costume?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not interested in some quick lay.”

He grinned. “What if I promised it wouldn’t be quick?”

Her eyes shot daggers at him and a low displeased growl emerged from her.

Okay, we’re not ready for jokes yet.

His tightened his grip on her, afraid she was about to pull away again. “I’m kidding. Just kidding. Calm down. Let’s talk.”

~*~*~*~*~

It felt good in his arms – familiar. And her body responded to Brice, demanding she get closer to him. Even his scent drew her in. All so wonderful and familiar. The last couple of days felt so surreal, she went from having no men interested in her to two beautifully built, sexy men intent on her.

“It feels like a spur of the moment thing to me.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “All of a sudden you want me? Do you even know me?”

His brow knit as he brushed a lock of hair from her face. “Of course I do. I’ve lived with you for two years now.”

“You’ve tolerated me for two years.”

“You’re so quiet and to yourself, Trina. You’re not the easiest person to get to know and quite frankly if you were interested in me I’d never have known it. But I saw a spark in you yesterday, one I hadn’t seen before. It was more than the costume. You actually stood up to me and it was really fucking sexy.”

“So you change your mind because I get a backbone and all of a sudden I’m supposed to feel grateful you want me?”

He sighed, raking a hand through his hair in frustration. “Why do you always have to overthink everything, Trina?”

“I’m –” She stepped out of his arms and stared at him.

He cocked his head to the side and eyed her. “What? Say it.”

Same dark eyes. Same build. Could Brice be her Batman? She shook her head. Couldn’t be.

They were similar, but their voices were distinctly different and the thought of Brice at what he loved to call a nerd convention was laughable. Which reminded her of a glaring problem between them – they were two different people. Two different worlds.

“We don’t have a damned thing in common. Other than –” She motioned between him and herself. “Other than…”

He cocked a brow up at her. “An intense sexual attraction?”

She couldn’t help but laugh at him. “Don’t you ever give up?”

“Not usually.” He attempted to pull her back into his arms, but she put a hand out, stopping him.

“Brice, please. Be serious. I don’t do frat parties. You don’t do comic book conventions.

You date cheerleaders and I date…” she shrugged, once more embarrassed since her list of boyfriends amounted to a few guys she had absolutely zero attraction for and she’d only accepted dates with because she didn’t want to be the only girl who’d never had a boyfriend.

“So what?”

“Besides –” she kept her eyes glued to the floor between their feet. “– I kinda met someone at the convention.”

“I see. Who is it?”

Oh, this is awkward
. “I don’t know.”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean. We were in costume. But there was something between us.” She took a couple of steps back from him, raising her eyes so she could meet his confused gaze. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t wait for his reply, instead she rushed off to her room, closing and locking the door behind her, grateful he didn’t chase after her and question her further on her mystery man.

The last thing she wanted to see right now was his scowl of disapproval if she were to expand on her answer to him.

Her heart was pounding rapidly in her chest as she leaned back against her door and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor. She let her head fall back and closed her eyes, listening to Brice’s movements in the hallway. He walked to her bedroom and paused, she suspected trying to decide whether he should knock or not. She waited on bated breath for him to decide. When he continued on his path down the hall to his own bedroom she let out a ragged breath, a part of her disappointed. Why didn’t he fight for her? If he wanted her bad enough wouldn’t he have pled his case? Or maybe he decided that she was just a silly girl chasing after mysterious guys in costume and too juvenile for him.

Maybe it was for the best. How could it work between them anyhow? Her brother and her boyfriend. It was too weird, regardless of whether he was technically a blood relation or not.

Her mind was jumbled with thoughts of her stepbrother and her mystery Batman as she stood and made her way over to her closet. Her original intention was to sport an anime costume, but after the past couple of days and the feelings jumbled around within her there was only one person she could possibly be.

Trina finished buttoning the white tapered blouse. The blouse was just sheer enough that she could faintly see the outline of her white, lace push-up bra underneath. Grabbing a fake press badge that stated she was Vicki Vale, she pinned it above her left breast. Vicki Vale was a character who was both Batman and Bruce Wayne’s love interest throughout the comic series and she felt it was fitting.

Vicki was an elegantly sexy character and as Trina peered at herself in the mirror she thought she succeeded in pulling it off. She patted down the front of her short, grey skirt. Maybe Brice was right, she could be beautiful if she wanted to be, but instead she allowed her looks to be hidden under layers of bulky clothing and a defense of shy, standoffish behavior. Maybe it was time to make some changes in her life and break out of the cocoon she’d wrapped herself into over the years. She briefly wondered why she’d allowed herself to become who she was, but that was a question she’d have to search her brain for at another time. Tonight was set aside for more pleasurable endeavours.

“Trina, there’s someone here to see you,” her stepbrother’s voice called up to her from the bottom floor.

Today had been another day of avoiding Brice, and he seemed to be content in allowing her to stay away from him. It was both a relief and disappointing. If he really was interested in her beyond a quick lay from a virgin wouldn’t he have pursued her harder?

Well, fuck him
.

“Fine, I’ll be right down.” She could have sworn she’d agreed to meet Beth and Gwen at the convention, but perhaps not. The previous night had been trying both mentally and emotionally; she admitted she really couldn’t remember much of what happened the previous evening after her encounter with the fake Caped Crusader.

Grabbing a pair of black pumps she rushed from her room and bounded down the staircase.

At the bottom of the stairs she lifted her gaze and her mouth dropped, her eyes widening in surprise.

“You look amazing, Trina.” A smile spread across Batman’s lips as his eyes slowly drank in every inch of her.

“W-what are you doing here?” She couldn’t believe her eyes. Him. Here. In her house.

“How did you know where I live?” A part of her wanted to go to him, but surprise kept her rooted to the spot. Where was Brice anyhow? She would have expected to see him standing against the living room door jamb sizing up the competition. Again, she found herself wondering if his interest was genuine or not.

She was leaning toward not… unless…

“I told you. I know more about you than you think.”

She slowly made her way down the hallway to stand before him. “When is my birthday?”

“April 15th, three days ago.”

“What are my parents’ names?”

His grin widened as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Your mother is Maggie and stepfather is Glen. Your real father is Peter, but you haven’t seen or heard from him since you were a child. I’m sorry about that, by the way. He’s an ass and doesn’t deserve to know someone as extraordinary as you anyhow.”

“How do you know these things?” she whispered, not really meaning to say the words out loud. “It’s almost creepy.”

He chuckled, amusement in his eyes. “I pay more attention than you know.”

Her eyes narrowed; he sounded different from last night. In fact, she knew the voice; she knew it very well.

“You?” With hesitation she reached out, grabbed the bottom of the mask and pulled up. This time he didn’t attempt to stop her. “It’s been you all along.” It was a statement more than a question.

So much began to make sense as she pulled the mask off and dropped it to the floor, revealing her stepbrother’s handsome face. The familiarity, the attraction, her trusting some strange man with her body, something she’d normally never do. The pieces began to fall into place.

He nodded.

“Why?” She lowered her hands to his chest. She watched her fingers trace the contours of the rubber chest piece. Her head was spinning as she tried to make sense of it all. “Where did you get the costume?”

“The costume was from a Halloween party I went to last year. At first, I went to make sure you didn’t get into trouble wearing that costume. I figured you were asking for trouble. Even nerdy men are still men, so I decided to keep an eye on you.”

She frowned. “But why lead me on? Why not tell me who you were from the start?”