“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mason poured a couple of glasses of whiskey for us.

 

“I’m fine,” I told him. “Thanks for your concern, though.” I expected him to be mad, but so far he’d only seemed concerned for my well-being. He had to know the reason I was over there. He had to know what I was up to, and he had to be infuriated. Why wasn’t he angrier?

 

“So I guess your boss isn’t too happy about all this,” he said, handing me my glass of whiskey as he walked by. I followed him into the living room.

 

“I don’t think those guys were with my boss,” I told him, keeping Skull’s name out of it on the off chance he didn’t know who was trying to hijack his business yet.

 

He sat down on the white couch facing his TV. There were three couches in the living room, forming three sides of a square. I sat on the one closest to the kitchen. I didn’t think I needed to try to get too cozy with Mason at the moment.

 

“If they weren’t sent by your boss, then who were they?” he asked, looking at his glass.

 

“I honestly don’t know, Mason. I didn’t get a chance to ask too many questions before you guys showed up and took two of them out. Hell, only one of them spoke to me, and he’s lying dead in the grass,” I said, laughing, though it wasn’t funny. I’d been pissed off at first that they’d followed me to meet with Skull, but I was also terrified to think of what might have happened if they hadn’t followed me.

 

“Well, I’m sorry we saved you,” he snapped.

 

“That’s not what I’m saying, Mason,” I said, laughing harder. “No, I guess part of what I’m saying is thank you. The other part is they weren’t very talkative.”

 

“You’re welcome, Clara,” he said.

 

He took a long drink from his glass, downing what was left of his whiskey. He held the glass in front of his face for a moment before saying anything else. “Why were you there in the first place? Alec tells me you snuck out through the bathroom after conning him into getting you more toilet paper,” Mason said, still not looking at me.

 

This interrogation was far worse than the one I’d received in the basement back at HQ. This one included disappointment and disapproval. I had let Mason down, and if I weren’t careful in how I answered, I could lose him completely.

 

“I got a call from one of my contacts,” I told him. “They told me they had some intel on my boss. We agreed to meet. I was going to negotiate a price for their silence,” I told him.

 

“You’ll tell me that, but you still won’t tell me your boss’s name,” Mason observed, nodding. “You should have told us about it. We could have gone with you. We could have protected you better.”

 

“Well, either way, I don’t think they’ll be talking any time soon,” I said, chuckling, trying to lighten the mood.

 

“I guess not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried something again,” he said.

 

“Shit.” The word escaped my mouth.

 

“What?” Mason looked at me, and I saw something in his beautiful green eyes that I hadn’t seen there yet. He was afraid. He was worried. What was he afraid of?

 

“My boss is going to think I’m working for you now,” I told him, sitting back on the couch, allowing my revelation to sink in. I downed the rest of my whiskey. I needed the burn.

 

“About that,” Mason said, getting up with his empty glass. He took mine, too, and walked into the kitchen to fix us both more whiskey.

 

“About that what?” I asked while he was in the kitchen, tilting my head back to try to see him.

 

“I don’t think you should work for him anymore,” he told me, coming back into the living room with our drinks. He handed me the glass, and I paused to look at it in my hand before drinking any.

 

He’d poured more than usual, filling the glass completely.

 

“What do you mean?” I asked carefully. I wasn’t comfortable having this conversation with him yet, but at least I knew he was thinking along the same lines I was. Skull might have been a father figure, but I couldn’t see myself staying under his employment forever. At some point, I knew—I had always known—I would need to branch out and find my own work.

 

“I mean, I think you should consider leaving him. After this is said and done, it won’t be easy for you to go back to him, and anyone would be stupid to pass up the opportunity to employ you,” Mason told me, taking another sip of his whiskey.

 

“Are you proposing, Mason?” I asked him, seizing the opportunity to tease him again.

 

“Maybe I am,” he said. He sat forward on the couch, leaning over the coffee table with his whiskey in hand.

 

“Well, do you have anything to offer to sweeten the pot?” I asked, sitting forward over the table to let my low-cut shirt hang down so he could get a view down it.

 

Mason looked at me with his deep green eyes and put his glass down on the table. He took my hand and stood up without saying a word. I quickly took a sip of my whiskey and set the glass down on the table next to his before getting up to let him lead me into the bedroom.

 

I couldn’t contain my desire for him any longer. Seeing where he was taking me, my body began to ache for him. I felt my core growing hotter, wetter for him. My legs felt like jelly, made weak by my desire for this man. And I was about to fulfill that desire. I was about to have him.

 

He pulled me into his room and turned to kiss me once we were past his door. Our lips met and lingered together while he pulled my shirt up. We broke apart while he slipped the shirt over my head. He kissed me again on my neck. Then, he kissed my shoulder while he unclasped the front of my bra and pulled the cups away from me to put me in his gentle, strong hands.

 

He squeezed my bare skin with his firm, smooth hands, catching my nipples between his fingers and pinching them enough to draw a moan out of my throat and force me to arch my back.

 

“Yes, Mason. I want you to take me. Make me yours,” I told him.

 

He turned me around and pushed me back onto the bed. I landed on the silky, smooth sheets and the soft mattress. His bed welcomed my body and caressed me with its soft, gentle touch.

 

He stood over me and dropped off his vest. He pulled his shirt over his head and immediately worked his pants loose and let his jeans and boxers drop to the floor. I stared in admiration at his body. Every inch of him was perfectly sculpted from pure muscle. He had a couple of tribal tattoos that wrapped around his shoulders, but nothing like what some of his other members had. I could still see the perfectly untouched contours of his chest and his stomach.

 

He reached down with his strong, rippling arms and grabbed my jeans. He peeled them off of me and dropped them to the floor, followed by the lacy panties he’d bought me. I closed my legs, playfully hiding myself from him.

 

I wasn’t a virgin by any means, but sex had always been a tool for me. It was a way for me to get what I wanted out of someone. There had been plenty of times when I’d used it to get out of trouble or to get information. Originally, even with Mason, it was supposed to just be a tool. It wasn’t supposed to be anything else.

 

But I wanted Mason. I really, truly, honestly wanted Mason. I wanted that massive cock between his legs to thrust deep inside of me, to fill me with his masculinity and his manhood, and I didn’t know how to handle that desire.

 

No, I wasn’t a virgin, but I was still venturing into uncharted territory when I spread my legs for him.

 

He gently stroked my wet lips with one of his thick fingers, parting me and spreading my juices around to help him get inside. He kissed the bare skin above my delicate slit. He kissed again a little higher. He kissed all the way up my flat stomach. His lips wrapped around one of my hardening nipples, and he sucked me into his mouth, flicking me with his tongue, while he rested the head of his manhood at my entrance.

 

I grabbed the back of his head and held him against my breast.

 

“Yes, Mason. Oh God, Mason.” I arched my back as he pushed himself against me, spreading my lips open to receive him.

 

He filled me perfectly, stretching me to wrap my muscles and flesh around his throbbing shaft as it slid back and forth through my lips deep into the wet core of my desire. I spread my legs wider to give him better access deeper into me.

 

His muscles brushed against my body as he drove himself deeper and deeper into me.

 

I wrapped my arms around him and held him against me as I rocked my hips against his with each thrust. Every time he pushed into me, I moved so his head hit my g-spot. “Fuck!” I cried out, pressing myself hard against him.

 

“You feel so fucking good, baby,” he panted above me.

 

I grabbed his face and kissed him frantically as he rammed himself into me harder and faster.

 

I could feel him growing harder inside of me with each thrust, and I knew he was close to orgasm. I could feel it growing deep inside of him. I wrapped my legs around him and held him against me while I worked him with my clenching muscles and rolling hips.

 

“Come for me, Mason,” I whispered in his ear while I worked myself against him, driving myself closer and closer to orgasm against his firm, thick cock. I pulled back slowly, relishing in the feel of his hardened flesh dragging against the walls of my entrance.

 

My body shuddered suddenly, and I felt myself exploding with white hot pleasure. I tilted my head back and cried out as my hips shook, my insides quivered, and my muscles clamped down on him.

 

“Fuck,” he groaned, sliding back away from me, pulling his massive erection out of me.

 

He cupped a hand behind my head and pulled me to him. I knew what I was about to get, so I grabbed his hips and pulled him to my mouth, taking him all the way down to the base his shaft at once, pulling on him with my tongue until his warm, salty flavor erupted in my mouth.

 

I drank from him like it was the fountain of youth. I wrapped my fingers around him and worked his base while my lips and tongue worked up to the tip of his head. His shaft jerked in my hand and in my mouth as he emptied himself down my throat.

 

I’d never wanted it more in my life than I did right then. I wasn’t working anymore. I was enjoying the first man who truly made me feel safe in his presence. I felt safe enough to submit to him and let him take my mouth the way he’d taken my sex.

 

He pumped himself deep into my mouth, until I felt his head pushing into the entrance of my throat. I sucked and stroked every last drop of him onto my tongue and pulled him out of my mouth to stroke him against my chest while I kissed up his stomach to his chest, circling a nipple with my tongue before sucking on the tight, hard skin. I let go of his shaft while I kissed up to his firm shoulders.

 

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me down onto the bed where we lay, embracing each other, as the evening light faded from outside his thin white curtains and turned over to the darkness of night behind the glowing lights of the city surrounding us.

 

He surrounded me, and I buried my head in his chest. I listened to his breathing and his pulse. For the first time, I wasn’t up and out the door. I wasn’t trying to get anything out of anyone. I just wanted Mason to stay like he was, holding me and keeping the rest of our awful lives at bay for just a little longer.