I stuffed the condoms into my back pocket and showed him my hands. “It’s nothing. See?”
“Hmm. Okay.”
Was he really going to drop it?
“Have you eaten?” he asked. “I’m hungry. We could grab something at Eddie’s.”
My guard remained up. “I already ate since I thought you were having dinner with your family, but there’s some leftover pasta in the fridge.”
“Cool, mind if I get a plate?”
“Help yourself.” I turned as he passed, keeping my pockets out of his view. When he opened the fridge and started pulling out food, I took my chance to dart past him.
Just when I thought I was in the clear, Mason spun around and wrapped his hands around me. “Not so fast.”
“I have to go to the bathroom.” I wiggled, trying to break free as his hands glided down my ass. “Mason, stop. I’m going to pee in my pants.”
“I’ll take the risk.”
I squirmed as his fingers started slipping into my back pocket. I grabbed his arm and pushed it back then spun into my room. He was behind me in seconds, and my feet were airborne. Damn this tiny cabin.
“Put me down.” I kicked.
“In just…one…second. Got it.” He set me down as he gave the contents of my back pocket a tug. “Hmm, that’s interesting…”
My face seared, and I plopped onto my bed and buried my head in my hands. “They’re…just…”
“What in the world were you girls talking about when I showed up?”
I stood and ripped the string of condoms from his hand. “Nothing. These aren’t what you think.” I opened the drawer by my bed and dropped them inside.
Mason eyed the closed drawer. “I think they’re condoms.”
“Okay, so they are exactly what you think. But they aren’t for you.”
He raised one eyebrow.
“For me. For us.” I threw my hands up. “For anyone.” I pushed past him and walked back into the kitchen. “Isla just thought…Ugh, Isla was being Isla.”
He followed. “Why are you mad at me? I’m not the one shoving condoms at you.”
“I’m not mad at you. I just don’t want you getting any ideas.”
He smirked and tilted my chin up with his forefinger. “I don’t need to see you holding condoms to get ideas. Trust me, they were already there.”
I gasped and stepped back. “Mason, we aren’t having sex.”
“Not today.”
I crossed my arms.
“One day at a time, remember? That’s what you promised me.”
I shook my head. “You’re so incredibly frustrating sometimes.”
“Says the most frustrating girl I know.” He turned back to the food he’d pulled out and scooped some pasta into a bowl. “All I’m saying is, seeing you with condoms isn’t putting something into my head I haven’t already thought about. Whether they are for me…or someone else”—he glanced at me—“trust me, I’ve already thought about it.”
“There’s no one else, Mason.”
He placed his bowl in the microwave, pushed some buttons then leaned against the counter. “But there will be.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If not me, then who? Someone else.” He crossed his arms and shook his head. “C’mon, Felicity. You won’t stay single forever. You’ve been burned by whatever the hell happened with your ex, but one day you’ll be ready. But you’re so fucking convinced it will never be me, so I’ll go home and, one day, you’ll move on.”
But that was where he was wrong. I wasn’t convinced I’d ever want something long-term again, but if I did, a part of me knew he was exactly the kind of guy I’d want to move on with.
I stared at the ground. “One day at a time.”
“You know days add up, Felicity. They become weeks, months, even years.”
“I know. But right now I’ll work with day by day. I’ll let the math genius handle all the big numbers.”
Mason pushed off the counter and wrapped his arms around me. He pressed his lips to my forehead then said, “Works for me.”
I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed back. I didn’t want Mason to think he was replaceable. Or think that there’d be someone after him. Because if that were true, then there’d be someone after me too. And that thought really didn’t sit well. I might have said I was taking it day by day, but what he didn’t know was how much I savored him minute to minute.
Chapter 16
Mason
The next morning, we were on the road right after sunrise.
I turned down the radio and glanced at Felicity. “So if it’s cool with you, I was thinking we could meet some of my friends for lunch.”
Though it shouldn’t, it kind of made me nervous to have her meet my friends. They’d love her; that wasn’t the problem. What wasn’t to love? But meeting friends was almost like a step toward a relationship, which would imply something long-term…Would that be too much for her to handle?
“Sure. Who?”
I was thankful for the lack of hesitation in her answer.
“Brinley and her boyfriend, Ryder. Maybe her roommate, Fallon.”
“That sounds cool. I’d like to meet your friends. Hopefully, they are more accepting of me than mine were of you,” she teased.
“No worries. My friends aren’t like that. In fact, I think Brinley’s accepting of everyone. She’s the kind of person who’d take in a vicious stray, merely because it’s lost and alone, regardless of the fact that it’s dangerous.” I scoffed. “Wait until you see her boyfriend. It’ll all make sense.”
“Do you not like her boyfriend?”
I didn’t completely hate the guy…anymore. But he still wasn’t my favorite person. Admitting that to Felicity involved more backstory than necessary though. “I don’t know. He’s okay, I guess. He loves her. She loves him.” I shrugged. “There was some shit he did, but I guess he made up for it. I don’t want her getting hurt, you know?”
“You care a lot about her.” She glanced at me.
“As a friend. Yeah.”
She nodded. “Well, I look forward to meeting her…and her stray.”
I laughed. “I think she’s looking forward to meeting you too. But just a heads-up, if Fallon’s there, ignore everything she says.”
“Like what would she say?”
“What wouldn’t she say? That girl was born without a filter. Brinley seems to think she’s hilarious.”
“Another one of her strays?”
I chuckled. That was one way to describe Fallon. “Actually, yeah. Kind of.”
“So does that make you a stray too?”
“Hmm, I actually think, once upon a time, Brinley was my stray.”
“Is that why you don’t like the boyfriend? Maybe you’re having trouble letting her go?”
Was that my problem all along? Ryder hadn’t just taken my place, he’d also transformed Brinley in a way I never could. Sure, I’d watched out for her. Took care of her. Maybe to the point of sheltering her. But with Ryder she had everything I’d given her and self-confidence. “You know, I think you’re right. But the thing is, she’s not a stray anymore.”
“Time to set her free?”
“Yeah. Way overdue.”
“You aren’t like…looking for a replacement stray, are you?”
I glanced at her and smiled. As if she could ever be anything close to a stray. I slid my hand over the console and held hers. “Actually, there is this new girl. But she’s no stray. She already has one too many people looking out for her. And honestly, I don’t think she likes it. See, the problem is I think she actually wants to break free.” I shrugged. “But what do I know? I’m still trying to figure her out. Just kind of hoping she’ll let me come along for the ride.”
She leaned back and stared out the window. “Maybe that’s what she needs…someone along for the ride.”
That was all I wanted. But I stayed quiet, scared to say the wrong thing.
She g
ently squeezed my hand. And that was all the acknowledgment I needed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of her smile as I said, “Who knows? Maybe the ride starts now.”
Or hell, maybe we’d already been on it. I wasn’t really sure how anyone knew when something big was about to happen. I think it was more like one of those moments that, in retrospect, could be pinpointed as the start of something. But the more time I spent with Felicity, the more I suspected that all my wrong turns had been leading to this. It might have been a winding road, but I appreciated the final destination that much more. And whether or not I’d convinced her of it yet, I planned to make her the last stop.
—
We arrived at my new apartment complex a little after ten. It only took half an hour to sign some paperwork and get the keys, so we had time to kill before lunch.
“Want to see it?” I asked.
“Sure.” She smiled.
I held her hand as we walked to building five, took a flight of stairs up to the second floor then found my apartment.
“Brinley actually lives a few buildings down.” I motioned over my shoulder as I stuck the key in and wiggled the knob.
“Oh.” She looked around.
Why did I say that? Sure, Brinley was my best friend, but did I have to bring her up every five seconds? I doubted Brinley spent all her time with Ryder talking about me, and I sure as hell wouldn’t want Felicity going on about some other guy even if he was just a friend. And the fact that Brinley lived here really was just a coincidence. I didn’t want Felicity thinking I chose this place because of her.
“These apartments are all college students. This whole block is, actually. There are four complexes centered around that park over there. Because of that, the demand is pretty high. I was lucky to have a friend looking for a roommate. The guy he’d planned to move in with isn’t coming back to school this year. He needed to find a new roommate fast, and I wanted out of the dorms, so it all worked out.”
“That’s cool.” She smiled and didn’t look upset.
Maybe I was reading too much into things due to my own guilt over the feelings I’d thought I’d had for Brinley. But I knew now more than ever that Brinley had been right when she said I was in love with the thought of her. Not her. It would have been easy to fall into a relationship with someone who was already my best friend, but maybe real relationships took work. And maybe that desire to make it work was ultimately why it would.
I opened the door and stepped inside. The apartment was fully furnished so it looked ready to live in, but not lived in, since there were no personal touches.
“After living in that little boat cabin, this will feel like a mansion,” she said.
I laughed. “Hell, after a dorm, it is.”
Felicity walked around, checking out the kitchen, the living room, then made her way down the hall.
“My room is at the end.”
“This one?” She pointed to the door on the left, and I nodded as she opened it.
I walked to the room and found her standing in the center. She stared at the bed, the nightstand then turned to the bathroom and closet. But something looked off, and I suspected she was overthinking again. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She forced a smile. “This is really nice.”
I wished she’d open up more. If something was bothering her, we could talk about it. But like always, those walls were up and I only knew of one way to get them down.
I wandered over to the nightstand next to the bed and opened the top drawer. “Well, that’s a disappointment.”
“What’s wrong?” She peered into the empty drawer.
“Unlike your place, it doesn’t come fully stocked with condoms.”
The smile I’d been after broke free. “Oh my God. Quit talking about it.” She playfully punched my shoulder and I laughed.
With my arms around her waist, I pulled her down onto the stripped mattress and tucked her into my arm.
She tossed her leg over my hip and pressed her palm against my chest as I ran my fingers through her hair.
“What is that?” I asked, patting her skirt.
“My phone.”
“It’s digging into my junk.”
She laughed. “Sorry.” She reached into some hidden pocket and pulled it out. She swiped her finger across the screen and held it up. “Smile.” Then she snapped a picture and opened it for us to see. “Look, unlike the one you tried to take last week, half your face isn’t missing.”
“Hey, I never claimed to be a professional. That’s all you.” I kissed the top of her head. “Send me a copy.”
She texted the picture to me then placed her phone on the nightstand.
“So…” I bounced the bed under us and ran a hand over the bare mattress. “What do you think? Should I go with the silk or satin sheets?”
“Are you going to school or making a porn?”
“You say that like it can’t be one and the same.”
She swatted my chest then pushed away in an attempt to sit up.
“Where you going? I thought we could have a dress rehearsal.”
“No thanks, I’m only the understudy.” She slid her feet off the bed but no way was I letting her slip away after that comment.
I sat up and pulled her back against me. “Is that a bit of jealousy I’m detecting?” I teased.
But she shrugged me off. “It’s not jealousy; it’s reality. Anything that happens in this bed won’t be with me.”
What the hell? “You say that like it’s my fault. Like it’s my choice.”
“It’s no one’s fault, Mason. It’s just the way it is.”
“Doesn’t have to be,” I muttered.
She stared at me, lips parted slightly, eyebrows drawn together then abruptly spun away. “You ready to head to lunch?”
Fuck, no. “One more thing I need to do.” I grabbed her hand, yanking her onto the bed, then settled my body over her and kissed her.
With my hand behind her neck, I cradled her head, while the other hand grabbed her thigh, wrapping her leg around me. As I settled between her legs, the kiss deepened. I mapped her mouth with my tongue and trailed her skin with my fingertips, gliding them over her stomach, then made my way to her chest.
When it came to Felicity, I had an overwhelming desire for things to be perfect. Like I needed to prove her past had nothing on her future…or on me. So I’d taken my time with her. Learning exactly what she liked. I knew where to put my hands, how to touch her, where to touch her. And it didn’t stop there. I knew she liked when I alternated between soft and rough kisses. When my tongue flicked lightly against hers, right before I pressed my teeth into her bottom lip. Every touch, every action, every kiss was for her. But I was rewarded too, every time she released that sexy little moan of appreciation.
I pushed her skirt up, bunching it around her hips and rocked my body into her. And when her head lolled back, I traced the lines of her throat. Then she tilted her hips toward me as I repeated the motion. But what I hadn’t expected was for her to yank the button of my jeans open and start to tug them down.
I glanced at her, really not wanting to stop her, but definitely knowing we couldn’t go there either. Not now, anyway.
“Everything else stays on,” she said.
But damn if this girl wasn’t giving me way too much credit in the self-control department. Time after time we’d messed around and I’d held my shit together, never pushing for what I’d really wanted, but I’d also been careful to keep things within certain boundaries. But this, well, it tested every bit of my thinning restraint. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
“Please. I want to feel you.”
Fuck. I pressed my face into her neck and groaned. “Not nearly as bad as I want to feel you.”
She spread her legs farther and elevated her hips under me.
Screw it.
My mouth slammed into hers, and she rocked against me. Her nails dug into my back as I reached un
der her, tilting her body up and into me.
This was the furthest we’d ever pushed things, and it was the first time I wasn’t sure where the line was drawn. Hell, minus the thin layers of clothes between us, we were basically having sex and with every thrust, I wished a little more that our clothes would vanish.
“Mason,” she half whimpered, half moaned. “I need you.”
“Fuck,” I murmured. “You’re killing me.” My hand dropped to her panties, sliding under the fabric and over her skin. It was slick and wet, and my body ached as I slipped my fingers inside her. Her head went back as her hips went up.
“Mason,” she moaned again as her hand fumbled into my boxers.
I froze.
She ran her fingers over me, gliding her hand down then back up.
My breathing deepened and my whole body was rigid. I counted to ten, held my breath. Anything to prevent me from saying to hell with it and pushing my way inside her.
“Is this okay?” she asked.
Her voice was small and timid and brought me back to the reality of the situation. This was my Felicity. And no matter how bad I wanted her, it wouldn’t be like this. Rushed and regrettable. I’d thought of about a thousand ways I wanted to fuck her, but hastily definitely wasn’t one of them.
I swallowed hard then looked at her. “Yeah.”
“You sure?” She bit her lip and I know she’d misread my reaction.
I forced my body to relax and grinned at her. “Do you know how many times I’ve wondered what it’d feel like to have your hands on me? Trust me, it’s fucking perfect.”
Her lips twitched into a little smile, then she tightened her grip and the room spun.
My mouth collided with hers, but it was only moments before we were too far gone to even remember how to kiss. Our mouths were nonfunctional except for a few moans, pants and mumbled words of need and want.
I had no control over my body, and it took all my effort to focus on her when all I wanted to do was relish the feel of her fingers sliding up and down me, the slick friction of her palm, the heat of her hand as I drove into it. Fuck, it felt amazing.
And damn, if she wasn’t good at figuring me out just as I’d done her. She’d rendered me completely useless. But with every ounce of restraint I could muster, I pulled back and stared down at her. I took in the way her hair splayed across the bed, her tan cheeks pinked, her lips reddened. She opened her eyes filled with desire, longing for me, and I savored every bit of that too.
Just a Little Kiss Page 14
