Read Online Off Limits: A Stepbrother MMA Romance by Callie Harper - Free Book Online

the hell out of me by keeping monk-like hours like mine,
lights out at 10 p.m., alarm off at 6 a.m.
    Surveying me with
skepticism, Tuck asked, “Where are you heading out to? A Quaker
meeting house?”
    “What?”
    “You’re wearing a
tent.” He gestured with his huge hand to my dress.
    “This is not a tent!
It’s a maxi dress.” I looked down and, OK, it kind of was a tent,
but it was super comfortable.
    “Two of you could fit
into that thing.”
    “Why do you care?”
    We stared each other
down, standing close in the hallway. He had a cut up along his
cheekbone under a small butterfly bandage. I wondered how he’d
gotten it. It didn’t look like a nick from shaving. It looked
bigger, a gash but healing well. I suppressed the urge to reach up
and touch his face and ask if he was OK. I shouldn’t care if he was
OK. I hated him.
    “I’m just saying.”
He shrugged a massive shoulder. “If you’re trying to impress one
of those tree-huggers you’re working with—”
    “We’re not hugging
trees. It’s a Marine Mammal Center.” I wished I could stop rising
to his bait, but I felt powerless to resist. He completely got under
my skin. And I couldn’t stop looking at his, wondering about the
tattoos that played across his muscles. I wanted to trace them with
my finger.
    “Like I said,” he
continued, “if you’re trying to get with one of those super cool
guys you’re working with—”
    “I’m not trying to
get with any of them! You’re such a Neanderthal.”
    “Ooh, big word.”
    “Sorry to confuse
you.”
    “I’m not the one
confused.”
    We stood there
practically panting, neither of us backing down. He had a band
tattooed around his bicep and perfectly defined pecs like a
sculpture, only he wasn’t made of marble. I could feel heat
radiating off of his massive chest. I didn’t think I’d ever stood
that close to a man that powerful.
    “I’m guessing it’s
going to be another early night for you.” He tilted his head to the
side, one of those cocky eyebrows lifted slightly.
    “You’ve been going
to bed early, too.” Everything he said made me so jumpy and
defensive.
    “You’re paying
attention to when I go to bed?”
    I exhaled in
frustration. Why did he always insist on teasing me? I’d grown up
an only child, maybe this was a normal
older-brother-pestering-his-younger-sister dynamic. It didn’t feel
like that, though. I figured in the typical scenario I wouldn’t
notice how low his athletic shorts rode down his lean hips. Any lower
and things would get X-rated. Part of me wanted them to slip.
    He was so huge, I had
to wonder if he was huge all over. I had to admit, I was curious. I
wasn’t exactly an expert in penises. OK, direct experience with two
if you had to know. One in the dark in my hand, one with the light on
and, yes, still just in my hand. No mouth. No anything else.
    I was still a virgin.
You wouldn’t think being a virgin at 20 would be that big a deal,
but I sure felt out of it at school. Most everyone around me seemed
to think casual, alcohol-soaked hook ups with all kinds of sloppy sex
were just a normal part of college life. Honestly, I didn’t judge.
I wasn’t the moralizing holier-than-thou kid giving them the evil
eye when they did their walk of shame the next morning. If I had to
be totally honest, I was a little jealous. I wished I could not care,
wished I could be free and not think about any consequences. But I’d
seen shit go wrong with my mother far too many times to be able to do
that. So, I kept my cards close to my chest. And wore tents.
    “You don’t like any
of the guys at work?” Tuck pressed on.
    “I like them fine.”
Why was he asking me about this?
    “Anyone special?” I
wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face. That and get away from
him. Each second in his presence seemed to slow my brain functions,
my senses increasingly aware of nothing but him, his nearness, his
maleness.
    “Yes,” I flung
back, suddenly feeling