Page 2 of Forever Your Touch (Manwhore #4)

CHAPTER TWO

Josephine Maxwell stood at the kitchen table folding laundry.

She needed to get this done so she could go buy her books at the campus bookstore.

Getting them on the Saturday before classes started wasn’t ideal, but it couldn’t be helped.

She and Ray had only moved here earlier this week.

She’d come and registered and all that weeks ago, but they’d put off moving until the last minute.

No, that wasn’t quite true. She’d put off telling her family she was moving from California to New York to be with Ray.

Jo knew how her family felt about Ray, especially Keith, but she wouldn’t let their hang-ups stop her from being happy.

Ray could be an ass sometimes, but he could also be the sweetest man when it came to her.

She loved him. And if her family couldn’t get behind that, well, that just sucked for them.

“Jo, have you seen my favorite shirt?” Ray stuck his head in the kitchen, frowning at the mess of unfolded clothes on the table.

“Yeah, I just got it out of the dryer.” She fished it out of the pile and tossed it to him.

He sniffed it. “What’d you wash this in? It stinks.”

“It’s the detergent you bought.” He didn’t look pleased, but there was nothing to be done about it now.

“Go get some new stuff today and rewash this shit.” He threw the shirt back at her and strolled into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee.

Jo took a moment to let her gaze sweep over him.

Ray wasn’t tall, not even six feet, but that was okay.

Jo herself was only five-two. His brown hair showed blond highlights where the sun hit it in front of the window over the sink.

Brown eyes met hers over the rim of his cup.

She looked over his body. Ray wasn’t ripped, and he didn’t have a six-pack, but she didn’t care about that.

He was your average, normal guy. She liked normal.

Ray walked over and sat down, taking her hand. “You happy, Jo? I know moving here was a big deal for you.”

“I am.” She twined her fingers with his.

“Good.” He leaned over and kissed her then settled back in the chair. “Mom wants us to come to dinner tonight.”

His parents were the one sour spot in this whole move.

They didn’t like her. When they moved here last year, she’d been afraid Ray would as well and leave her behind.

Instead, he’d asked her to come with him.

He’d told her she could enroll at NYU. He didn’t want her to quit school for him.

It was the reason they’d waited, originally, but when May came and went, she found it harder to tell her mom and dad she was leaving, so they’d waited some more.

August rolled around, and there was no more putting it off.

“I gotta go get my books today. It’s the last day the campus bookstore is open before classes on Monday.”

“That’s fine. Just make sure you’re home before five. I promised Mom we’d be there by five thirty. It’ll be good to eat some decent food.”

Jo bit back the snarky comment on the tip of her tongue. She couldn’t cook. He knew this before he asked her to move in with him. So why did he like to make little digs about it? It wasn’t as if she wasn’t trying to learn.

“Can I use the car?” She started putting all the laundry back in the baskets. No use folding it if she was gonna have to rewash it.

“No. I need it.”

Jo frowned. “You going out?”

“Maybe later.” He shrugged and stood, taking his cup and putting it in the sink.

She pushed down her irritation. She’d bet good money he wouldn’t leave the house today, but it was his car and not hers. There wasn’t a lot she could say.

The sound of someone knocking at the door interrupted her irritable thoughts. “Your mom coming by this morning?”

He shook his head. “Mom wouldn’t knock.”

Right. His parents had keys to the house since they were paying the rent on it until Ray got settled. Jo didn’t like them having keys. What if his parents decided to come over and interrupted them having sex? Not something she looked forward to, but she was betting it was gonna happen.

Ray went to answer the door, and she finished cleaning up the table. If she called a cab now, she’d be able to get there and back before five. It was only a little after two. They didn’t live that far from campus.

“Who the hell are you?”

The anger in Ray’s tone sent shivers of alarm racing up her spine, and she sprinted to see what was going on.

She stumbled, barely stopping herself from falling.

Stupid klutzy feet. The sound of a chuckle pulled her attention back to the situation at hand.

A guy stood in the doorway, a mischievous smile gracing his lips.

He was tall, well over six feet, so he towered over Ray.

Black hair glinted blue in the sunlight, and his coal black gaze swept past Ray and landed on her.

She knew exactly who this was. She’d seen him in enough photos on her brother’s Instagram.

Mason Kincaid. Of course Keith would send him here.

He needed eyes on her. As much as she loved her brother’s overprotective streak, she wished he’d lay off.

There was no need for Mason to come check up on her.

“I’m Jo’s FIBB.”

“Her what?” Ray frowned.

“Fill-in big brother,” Mason explained. “Hey, Josephine.”

No one called her that. Not even her mother. She hated it.

Jo came farther into the room, mindful of her feet. It would be just her luck to fall face first and embarrass herself. “What are you doing here, Mason?”

Ray’s head snapped back toward her. “You know this guy?”

“He’s Keith’s best friend.”

“Fucking Keith,” Ray muttered.

“Watch it.” Mason’s playful smile disappeared. “I’d be real careful what you say about Keith.”

Ray glared, but Jo cut him off before he said something stupid. “Again, what are you doing here, Mason?”

His smile reappeared, and it sent a little wave of butterflies through her stomach. “Promised your brother I’d come check on you.”

“As you can see, I’m fine.”

“That you are.” There was definite appreciation in those eyes when he looked her over from head to toe. Did he not see her boyfriend standing right in front of him?

“Well, you can go report back to my brother now.”

“Oh, I will.” He flashed her another smile.

“You can go now.”

He laughed, and the sound did something to her. Those butterflies took flight. “Nope, darlin’. I’m your FIBB, which means I’m Keith while he’s not here. You’re stuck with me.”

“I don’t want to be stuck with you.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Devilry played in those black eyes. “I’m a keeper. You’ll never know what you did without me before the week is out.”

Ray growled. “Listen here…”

Mason ignored him. “Keith said you had to get your books today. I’m headed to the bookstore now. Why don’t you let me give you a lift?”

That would solve her problem of a ride and maybe give her a chance to warn him to butt out. Her brother probably told him his opinion of Ray, and Mason would be just as overbearing as Keith because of it.

“She’s not going…”

“Fine, you can give me a lift.”

Ray’s glare was hot enough to singe the hair from her head, but she paid it no mind.

“Just let me grab my bag.”

Ray followed her out of the room. “What the hell, Jo?”

“Look, I need to set him straight. I don’t want or need a watchdog, much to my brother’s dismay. I won’t be gone long. Promise.”

He frowned. “I don’t like this, not one little bit.”

Jo leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Don’t worry. He’s just another bratty brother.”

“He is not your brother,” Ray all but snarled.

God’s truth, there.

“He might as well be since he’s gone and declared himself as such.” She shook her head at the sheer nonsense of that—FIBB, indeed. “The sooner I go, the sooner I get back.”

“Fine.” Ray looked like he wanted to argue, but for once, he didn’t.

Jo ran into the bedroom to grab her phone and purse before hurrying back to where Mason waited on the front porch.

Mason watched her come back into the living room, Ray following close behind.

He’d nearly had a heart attack when he saw her.

He knew her. Why the fuck didn’t Keith tell him his little sister was Mason’s favorite YouTuber?

He talked about her gaming channel all the damn time.

Fucker. He was going to beat his ass first chance he got.

God, she was tiny. Barely five feet if she was an inch. Wild blonde hair framed eyes so blue they made the summer sky envious. She was gorgeous.

The kiss she planted on Ray made him want to rip her away from him. Chill , he told himself. She’s Keith’s little sister . He’d asked Mason to look out for her, not try to get her into his bed. But damn, for such a little thing, she had a body that could cause more than a few stiff dicks.

“Let’s go.” She swept past him, clearly pissed off, and pulled the door closed behind her. He couldn’t resist inhaling as she went. The woman smelled like strawberries, his favorite fruit.

Her foot caught on the top step, and she pitched forward. Mason leaped to catch her before she face-planted. She sputtered out a mumbled “thank you” as she pulled away from him and hurried toward the drive.

He chuckled when she stopped at his beat-up pickup with a dubious expression.

It didn’t look like much, but it ran like a dream and got him from point A to point B.

Dimitri’s wife, Becca, had helped him fix the old girl right after they all moved to New York last year.

His other sister-in-law, Lily, had helped too.

It was a little off-putting to know the women in his family knew more about auto mechanics then he did, but hey.

He was an easygoing guy. He went with the flow.