You could always lie to me.”

His words echoed in my head.

His fingers grazed against mine under the water. I knew what he wanted, and God, I wanted to lie to him. Every ounce of my body was begging me to, but deep down I knew that crossing that line with Mason would be a mistake.

There was nothing in the world that I wanted more in that moment than him, but he was already getting closer than I typically ever let any other guy.

And that scared the shit out of me.

This thing with Mason was just a game—a fun night, a quick fuck.

Why did he have to ask about Oklahoma?

Of all the different questions I had expected to come out of Mason’s mouth, he managed to find the one topic that could gut me. The one topic that I refused to think about even to myself.

Because I didn’t talk about home.

I didn’t talk about the girl I was there.

Because I had left everything about that girl behind. I couldn’t even remember her. The girl who left a trail of tiny fucking pieces of her heart as she ran out of that state before she could change her mind.

Before she ran back to the man who had been crushing her for years.

Just thinking about it made me shudder and made me remember why I had become the woman I now was.

“Just lie to me, Staci.” Mason’s voice broke through to me, and I stared at him, my entire body begging me to give in, but I was too smart. I had learned my lesson a long ass time ago, and no matter how badly I wanted him, he wasn’t worth the risk.

He wasn’t worth my heart.

I pulled my fingers away from him and put some distance between us. I couldn’t think when he was that close to me. I couldn’t fight him off.

“Mason Connor, are you trying to steal a kiss?”

He grinned, the moonlight glittering across his face, and he looked like a wolf that wanted to eat me alive.

“I’m just following the rules of the game, babe.” He reached up onto the dock and pulled down the bottle of whiskey before handing it to me. I watched him as I placed the bottle to my lips and let the warm liquor burn my throat. I felt intoxicated just on the taste, and I knew I had to get out of there.

“What do you want to do now?” I handed him back the bottle, and he slammed it against the dock before making his way closer to me. “What are you doing, Mason?” I swam backward, my back hitting the dock, the wood biting against my skin.

“You only get one question, Staci.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” I pointed out.

“Right. I really need a drink right now.” He continued moving toward me and my breath raced out to match his pace.

“You just put the bottle on the dock,” I said, completely confused, as he reached me, his arm wrapped around my back.

“Well, it looks like I fucking lied.”

His deep rattling breath echoed against my cheek, and he gripped my wet hair in his fingers. Then he lowered his mouth to mine, and my heart thundered in my chest. The word stop was on the edge of my lips, but I couldn’t get it out. I couldn’t do anything as I felt his lips touch mine. It was feather-light, barely a whisper of a kiss, and it was so unexpectedly gentle that my body betrayed me as it arched into him seeking more.

His callused fingers trailed down the arch of my back, and a shiver of pleasure ran through my body.

I wanted more.

It was all I could think about.

All thoughts of self-preservation flew out the window. I didn’t care what happened. I just needed him.

I leaned into his kiss, and he retracted an inch.

I huffed out in frustration, and he laughed before he nipped my bottom lip in between his teeth.

I groaned and pushed my body closer to his, and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as I tried to pull his mouth closer to mine. But his hand in my hair tightened and my legs creeped around his waist. He dropped an infuriatingly gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth before his lips trailed a path down my neck.

His teeth nipped at my skin before he traced the delicious ache with his tongue.

I gripped my own hand in his hair and tried to bring his face back to mine, but Mason didn’t let the bite of pain I knew I was causing deter him in the slightest. It only seemed to fuel him, and it drove me fucking crazy.

He used the lake water that trailed down my skin as a map. His tongue followed the rivets as they ran down my skin. He caught the water between his lips before he sucked it off my skin like he was dying of thirst.

My legs tightened around him, my body involuntarily begging him for more, and his hand gripped my thigh holding my center just a breath away from him as his teeth lightly sank down around my collarbone.

“Mason,” I cried out his name as I gripped my fingers tighter into his hair.

But he just ate up my cries and continued his torture.

A sweet fucking torture, and I felt too vulnerable.

A vulnerability I didn’t allow. A vulnerability that I was incredibly careful to never show, but Mason refused to let me hide.

He refused to let me do anything but hang on to him and take in the pleasure that he was allowing me to have.

And it was infuriating.

I groaned in frustration at having no control or from the fact that he was somehow making me not care. That he was somehow making me want more of whatever he was willing to give me.

Then with an unexpected roughness that made me mad with lust, he sucked on the skin just behind my ear and let his ragged breathing dance against my skin.

The urge to tell him how badly I needed him was on the edge of my lips, but I was silenced when he peppered three excruciatingly gentle kisses against my skin then pulled away from me.

I blinked my eyes open slowly, the moonlight hitting me only moments before the fire in his eyes.

A fire that I knew was staring straight back at him.

I waited for him with my heart thundering in my chest. I waited for his next move, for his next touch, but I didn’t expect his hand to graze against my cheek before he pushed some stray hairs out of my face.

He pulled my arm from around his shoulder before he took my hand in his.

“Let’s go.” His voice was rough and laced with want.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I unwrapped my legs from around his body.

He stared into my eyes for a moment too long to ever be casual. “I want to show you something.”

So, I let him guide me out of the water, and for the first time in as long as I could remember, I let him take the lead.