12
~Lucy~
Naked on my back, just my thin pale-blue sheet draped across my sweat-soaked, prone body, I fought to catch my breath. I turned my head, watching Mason make his way back to the bed. He’d just tossed yet another condom in the trash can over by my desk. God, he was magnificent. I couldn’t look away. Those broad, linebacker-like shoulders that gave way to a set of rigid pectorals. I finally understood what women meant by the term washboard abs. They were hard too. Just like his biceps and his leg muscles. Mason was a real man, though. Meaning, his muscles actually worked, unlike those guys who spent so much time at the gym sculpting their bodies just to look good. Mason worked out and kept in shape to survive. To have the stamina, the brute strength and agility to beat back an opponent, should it come down to that.
He seemed so oversized for my room, not just physically, but his overpowering presence as a whole. It was strange, but I liked it. I wanted that sensation to wrap tightly around me and never let go.
My eyes dipped to his dick, somehow still hard, and slapping against his stomach as he walked back to me. I looked away quickly, before he caught me. There was no way I could risk it. I was exhausted.
He slapped his finger to the button on my iPod, ending the song on repeat that I’d had playing. I Remember You by Skid Row. “Nobody knows about that. Clear?” he said, wagging his finger at me.
I gave a salute. “Got it.” I shifted my weight in bed. “So, what happened to all that crap you spouted off to me about you never making love to a cheesy love song playing in the background, huh?” I teased.
“I made an exception for you. Besides, that song, those lyrics… they hold special meaning to us.”
“Aww. You’re such a sweetheart.”
“Like I said, just for you.”
We smiled at one another, just staring for a long while, taking in the weight of his words. There really was so much between us. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was so dear, so special to me.
“I’m done, Mason,” I blurted out as he climbed back in beside me, before he had the chance to touch me and fire me up all over again. It really didn’t take much.
He chuckled. “Four times your limit, Pixie?”
“How is it not yours? Actually, it’s five, counting the bike treat.”
“It’s called super-human stamina, Luce.”
The next thing I knew, he was reaching out and dragging me on top of him. He tugged the sheet up to cover my nakedness. Such a sweet gesture. As both his arms wrapped around my back, holding me to him, I looked down into bright eyes and a sly smile.
“Uh uh,” I warned.
“Relax. I’ll show you mercy, if that’s what you really want.”
“Is that a letdown?”
He laughed, actually fucking laughed.
“What?” I demanded, getting agitated when he didn’t elaborate.
“I’m just fucking with you. I’m beat too. I was actually planning on asking you if you wanted to go to dinner with me.”
“You bastard.” My immediate reaction was to punch him, but he had such a tight hold around me that I had no hope of breaking free. Damn him! Instead, I just chuckled. And then his words hit home. “Dinner? Like… a date?”
“Yeah.” He beamed at me. “Like a date, Pixie.”
“Our first?”
“That would be true.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know yet. Hopefully, someplace where they serve a truckload of food per person, cuz I’m ravenously hungry and thirsty, to boot. I’m sure you are too. A sex marathon will do that.”
I kissed his nipple. “I’d love to.”
He buried his face in my hair and squeezed me to him, making me giggle.
“Let me get us some water at least,” I said, pulling back.
He released me, allowing me to get up, and I made my way over to my bedroom door, snatching my lilac, silk kimono off the hook and slipping it on. “Won’t be long.”
“I take it you don’t want me out there?”
“Once was enough,” I answered as diplomatically as possible. “I want to try to keep the peace between the two of you, Mason. Please work with me, okay?”
He gave a half-hearted nod, grumbling something under his breath, before offering, “All right, you got it, little darlin’.”
“Thank you,” I said, quickly, because I knew that was a big deal for him. And it was all for my benefit. To save me from feeling uncomfortable. Otherwise, he would have laid into Abi without holding back. As it was, when we’d arrived, he hadn’t hidden how pissed he currently was at her with the looks he’d fired her way, or via a couple of brutal comments he’d thrown at her, which she’d been all too quick to reciprocate. I’d had to step in swiftly to diffuse the mother of all fights and literally push Mason into my room to separate them.
But now he’d just agreed to stand down. For me.
It was a huge weight off me.
Urgh. I really wished I’d never agreed to go with her to that college party. There wouldn’t be any discourse between Abi and Mason then. Things wouldn’t be verging on beyond repair between her and Liam either. Although, it had proven to be the catalyst that had finally pushed Mason and I together. Would that have happened without the craziness of that party and all its fallout? Jeez… that’s kind of selfish thinking, isn’t it? Considering the awful consequences that it had for my roommate and for Mason’s club brother? Wow, get a grip, Lucy!
I took one last look back at Mason, flashed him a smile and then stepped on out into the living room of the apartment, careful to close the door behind me, as I went.
Scanning the area and listening intently, it didn’t take me long to determine that Abi wasn’t in the apartment. She had to be downstairs then, working in the coffee shop. I was off today. As luck would have it, Mason appeared to be in the same situation with the club, giving us time together. It was odd for him, because the club didn’t normally work like that. Members weren’t granted days off, per se. And Mason was usually on-call 24/7. Odd.
I made my way into the kitchen to grab the water Mason and I so desperately needed after spending the last couple of hours in my room sweating it out of our systems through non-stop, animalistic, no-holds-barred fucking. It was a good thing I’d gone alone, because barely a minute had passed and I was already missing his touch. No, it was more than that. It was more like a craving. I was sure if we’d stayed wrapped in one another’s arms in my bed, we would’ve been going hard at it once again.
Yanking open the fridge, I pulled two bottles of water out of the side door and gave it a soft kick closed. The chill and the refreshing condensation from the bottles against my overheated skin felt heavenly. And they were only pressed to my palms in that moment. I loosened my robe a tad and rolled one of the bottles down along my neck, to either shoulder, dipping lower to my chest. I couldn’t help moaning at the cooling relief. Ah, amazing.
A throat cleared behind me, jolting me from my reverie. Shit!
I only just managed to maintain my grip on the bottle. Hastily, I pulled it from my robe and quickly fixed myself, before spinning around.
I felt my cheeks heating with embarrassment by the time I laid eyes on the person who’d witnessed my private moment.
Abi stood there leaning against the kitchen counter, eyeing me with amusement. “Hey.”
“I… uh… I was overheated. The water bottles were nice and cool. It wasn’t what it looked like, I swear,” I babbled.
She laughed and held up her hand. “Totally get it. No worries. Relax, babe.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Chill.”
I blew out a breath. “Thank God.”
“So, you and biker boy are finally taking an intermission. I’ve gotta give him his due… he’s got some crazy stamina.”
I couldn’t stop the girlish giggle that came out of me. “God, yes, he does.”
She grinned. “I’m happy for you.”
I cocked a skeptical eyebrow.
“For you,” she clarified. “Not for his moody ass.”
I rolled my eyes. “Abi.”
She blew out a breath and pushed off the counter with both hands. “All right. I know he was just freaked about that night, because you ended up in danger. Liam made sure I knew every detail of what happened.”
“I was fine.” I cringed. “I’m sorry you got laid into.”
“No. I was out of control.” She fluffed out her long, red hair and went on, “I never would’ve dragged you there, or gone myself if I’d known about the threat though.”
Threat? “What are you talking about?”
“You know, the one Liam had been going on about when he came back here to ream me out? He wanted me to come back to the clubhouse with him. But I’m not the family of a club member and I wouldn’t accept his claim on me, as he called it. So, he had to settle for stationing one of his guys outside our place for the night, instead of putting me on lockdown at the clubhouse, like Mason had done with you.”
“What?” I fumed.
“You didn’t know?”
I brushed past her. “I… uh… I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Lu Lu, do you need me?” she called after me, worriedly.
All I could manage was a shake of my head. My thoughts were elsewhere now.
How could he do this to me? Keep all of that from me?
I’d really thought he was different from my brother, yet he’d acted exactly like him… and without me knowing… behind my back. It was actually so much worse!
I threw open my bedroom door, giving it a violent kick shut behind me, ready to lay into Mason, when the sight right before my eyes brought me up short.
He was hunched over a bunch of my half-packed boxes, clutching his gray t-shirt, his head jerked my way with a fierce, pissed expression on his face.
“What the fuck is all this?” he demanded with a wild gesture at the boxes with his free hand.
He was mad at me? Seriously?
“You told me the first night I was here that they were supplies for your jewelry business. But you’ve got personal items in here. Clothing. Books. Toiletries.” His eyes narrowed. “Are you taking off?”
“It’s complicated. I’m not getting into that right now. Not until you explain what the hell you think you were playing at locking me down in the clubhouse without even telling me!”
His face paled. Guilty as charged then.
“How could you?”
“It’s complicated,” he gritted out, throwing my own words back at me.
I shook my head with disbelief. “You’re just like him.” Hurt poured from my words.
“You know that’s not true.”
“Do I? You pulled exactly what he would’ve pulled.”
“It’s what anybody would’ve done in the same situation, woman! You just can’t get your head around that, given what a stubborn-ass, immature brat you are about this!”
“How dare you?” I screamed, taking a threatening step towards him.
He roughly pulled his t-shirt on over his naked chest, then zipped the fly of his jeans, not at all intimidated by my aggressive move. “You need to get a fucking grip, Luce! I did what I had to do to protect you. And I didn’t tell you, cuz there was no need, as you ended up staying over with me in my bed anyway. It all worked out, so calm down.”
“Is that what all of that was? Just a manipulation to put me under lockdown?”
He stared at me like I was a foreign object he was seeing for the first time. And then pain took root, traversing over his facial features until it consumed them. “If that’s what you think, why are we doing this thing?”
“You can’t blame me for asking.”
He stepped up close and glowering down at me, told me in a low tone, “You should know me by now. Everything that happened in that bed was goddamn real.”
“Mason, I—”
He cleared his throat and pulled back quickly, looking away from me and back at the boxes. “What’s all that then? You taking off, or not?”
“I’ve been wrestling with the decision for months. There’s an opportunity a couple of towns away. A boutique.”
“Cole was the reason for you looking elsewhere to settle down?”
“Yeah.”
“This opportunity? Is it a good one?”
“Uh huh.”
“Then why the indecision? What’s holding you back?”
“My roots here. And I guess I was waiting on… you know?” I flashed him a knowing look.
He nodded, getting that I meant something happening between the two of us one day. “Ah.” He looked away again, shoving his hands in his pockets as he muttered, “Shouldn’t let that stop you.”
What the hell? Talk about a dismissal. It was like a punch in the gut.
“Fine,” I snapped. “I won’t.”
“All right. Good.”
“Yeah, good,” I seethed. “Time for you to go.”
He finally graced me with his eye contact. “Can’t do that. There’s a threat, remember? I need to stick close to you, step up protection detail.”
“No.”
“It’s not up for debate.”
“The hell, it isn’t.”
A flash of his eyes told me he’d graduated from extreme agitation to verging on losing his temper completely. He opened his mouth to speak then closed it again quickly, instead scrubbing his hand over his scruffy chin. I knew the only thing holding him back from an outright explosion was that innate white-knight complex he had with me. He’d never explode and lose it on me. I knew it in my bones. The extent of it would be comparable to him raising his voice.
“Listen,” he said, blowing out a heavy sigh. “I’m gonna tell you exactly what’s going on.”
“What?” I was shocked. He was gonna let me in on club business?
“It’s the only way you’re gonna listen and let me protect you.”
I folded my arms across my chest and mentally braced myself. “Okay.”
A high-pitched beeping cut through the tense silence filling the room. It didn’t sound like a phone ringer. It certainly wasn’t mine anyway. An alarm of some sort?
“Fuck,” Mason exclaimed, pulling his phone from the back pocket of his jeans.
I watched him scroll through it rapidly, his eyes wide when he finally settled on something. He cursed again.
“What was that noise?”
“An alert I set up years ago,” he answered distractedly, not bothering to look up from it.
A similar beeping sounded again, this one a slightly deeper tone.
“What the fuck is happening? Jesus.” He started to move then, snatching his cut off the back of my desk chair and shrugging it on. The next thing I knew, he had his phone pressed to his ear, calling somebody.
“Potential hostile activity. East and west access points. Mobilize meet ‘n’ greets ASAP. Good. Yeah, on my way to HQ now, Prez.”
He hung up and turned to me. “I need to go. There’s potential of danger, so I can’t take you with me. Stay here until I get back. We’ll talk more then.” He strode to the door. “Okay?” he called over his shoulder.
“Yeah.”
With that, he burst through the door like a bat out of hell.
What had just happened? Was it more bullshit to do with the supposed threat he’d been going on about?
I hated being kept in the dark. It was more than that. It was the role that I was always forced into when any sort of danger cropped up. The helpless damsel in distress. It was the opposite of who I was. So, it didn’t fit and I rebelled. Unfortunately, that rebellion always made me come off as a spoiled bitch, instead of the confident woman that I was going for. It was a vicious circle, really.
It had become clear to me that the only way to break out of it was to shatter it completely.
In literal terms… to leave.
To turn my back on Warlow and on them all. Even Mason.
Because, if our fight a few moments ago had shown me anything, it was that even he would never see me any other way. Never as the strong, capable woman that I was. Never as an equal, a partner. No, just like Cole, Mason saw me as a fragile thing that needed to be protected.
I eyed one of my suitcases in the corner of the room.
Things were suddenly all too clear.