Falling for the Brother

Panic overwhelmed her at the thought. Bruce would hate it if she allowed the testing. He’d feel threatened and blame her. Not completely without merit. She was the one who’d slept with his older brother. And if she told Mason that there’d been no definitive proof regarding Brianna’s paternity, she’d be partially at fault for any action Mason might take as a result.

Ready to say she was done for the night, she glanced at the man who was now into his second set of butterflies.

She never shortchanged her cardio.

“No, there’s been no testing done.” On the treadmill in front of the mirror, her back to him, she started a slow jog.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MASON LIFTED HIS ARMS. Focused on his form. You didn’t dick around when you were dealing with hundred-pound weights.

Nothing had changed.

He wasn’t a father. He just wasn’t not one. Been that way for over four years. He lived with it.

Seeing those drawings, the toys, the books—the kid had to be reading at the third-grade level—he knew more about his niece. That was all.

But his gut wasn’t buying it.

There was a reason he’d been content to stay away from Bruce and Harper and Brianna. He couldn’t and wouldn’t try to claim his brother’s family, steal it away from him.

And he couldn’t trust himself to ignore his need to find out if he was a father. The father of a very special little girl. He already knew how dangerous being around Harper was to him.

Moving on from curl to shoulder push-ups he counted. Welcomed the sweat dripping down his back. And tried not to watch Harper run. He couldn’t clearly make out the shape of her breasts under the tent she was wearing, but he knew how they fit his palms. Knew how responsive her nipples had been to his touch.

He could imagine…

No! He couldn’t imagine. Harper was as off-limits now as she’d always been. Even more so as he investigated his brother for elder abuse. People might suspect that he was out to get his brother. Anyone who thought he wanted to prove that Bruce had hurt Gram was 1000 percent wrong.

Bruce was the kid brother he’d always watched out for. It would be a mammoth blow if Mason was the one to bring him down. And he dreaded coming up with those findings, but knew that if he did, Bruce would be forced to see the truth. To accept the consequences, get help. Gram would be safe again. And there’d still be hope of a future for their family.

But there’d be absolutely no chance of ever having any kind of relationship with his brother if he took Harper, too. Because that was how Bruce would see it if Mason got involved with her.

Not that he was saying she’d have him. But he had a pretty good idea that he could tempt her into…something.

Nothing. He couldn’t tempt her at all.

And there’d be no more talk about testing with Brianna, either. Bruce was a responsible father. He loved the little girl, who, by all counts, was doing very well. Growing up healthy and happy.

Mason knew his place. He’d accepted that he was paying for the mistake he’d made in allowing himself to have sex with the woman his brother loved. And where Brianna was concerned, he was out.

Putting down the weights, he moved to the all-in-one machine. He looped his feet under the steady bars, lay back with his head toward the floor and did a hundred sit-ups, followed by leg lifts.

He’d just walked over to the opposite side of the circular machine, ready to add weights to the arm presses, when Harper finished her run.

Even with her sweat-soaked hair, the woman was gorgeous. So beautiful that when she smiled at him, he was instantly hard again.

“You done with leg lifts?” she asked.

Plopping down onto the arm-press bench, he nodded. Adjusted himself.

And thanked the Lord that she moved on to leg lifts—around the circle from him. Anything he might see would only be in the mirror and he wasn’t looking there. He wasn’t sure how much more temptation he could withstand without embarrassing himself.

“I heard today that you were a browbeaten wife.” He’d meant to lead into it slowly, with words that were a little less…descriptive.

Harper’s chuckle sounded completely natural. “Who told you that?” she asked lightly.

“One of the people I questioned.”