LUST - A Bad Boy Romance

by Lacey Legend

  He stepped inside and went to her bedside, shaking her shoulders. She didn’t stir. He shook her harder and her body bounced on the bed, but still she didn’t react. Suddenly Mason felt sick and he shook her harder, calling out her name.

  “Adam, call 9-1-1!”

  Mason desperately felt her paper-thin wrists trying to find a pulse but there was nothing but cold in her veins.

  *

  “Did you hear the gossip going on down in shanty town?” Kelsey’s friend Beth was helping her as Kelsey began packing her things in her parents’ home into brown labeled boxes. After knowing Mason, Kelsey always flinched when anyone called that part of town the disgusting nickname that Beth had just used, but since no one knew about her affair she just had to accept it.

  “No, I didn’t hear anything.” To be honest, she didn’t really care what the gossip was at the moment. She was having her own problems, like packing her belongings in preparation for moving in with Alan. Everyone had agreed that she should move in before the baby came so that they could acclimate themselves before they became parents.

  Everyone except Kelsey, that was. Life was moving so fast it was making her head spin and she felt that she just was along for the ride. She didn’t feel like any of this was happening to her and often she would lay awake at night thinking about what might have happened if she had just told Mason the truth while she had him in the pool house.

  While she lay awake fantasizing about that, she always dreamed he never left. That she hadn’t felt used and empty because of his icy stare. That maybe, just maybe, they would have found a way to have the baby together instead of having to marry Alan and make the baby his.

  Every day she woke up and listed all of the things that she enjoyed about Alan and all of his great qualities. And she had to admit that she had quite the list of all the ways he was a great guy and the list was even growing. But there was just something missing, something that wasn’t there when they kissed or when he tried to hold her hand.

  He was suitable and smart and caring, but the spark and passion that she was craving was noticeably absent. She even tried reasoning with herself that the only reason it felt like it was missing was because she;d such passion with Mason that it had consumed her body, but even telling herself that didn’t make her feel better.

  She wanted to slow down time or maybe even change her life decisions. But she couldn’t, life was moving, her choices were made, and there was nothing she could do about any of it. She had her reputation, her parents’ reputation, and the life of her baby to look out for. So if she had to sacrifice a little passion for the good of everyone, that’s what she would do.

  “Hello! Didn’t you hear what I said?” Beth was waving her hand in front of Kelsey’s face attempting to get her to snap back to reality.

  “Oh, sorry. What did you say?”

  “I said Mason came back to town. He had run away with his little brother and got dragged back by the police for kidnapping.”

  How had Kelsey not heard her before? As soon as she said Mason’s name her heart was racing like crazy, but she swallowed the lump in her throat in an attempt to find the words she needed.

  “Wow. That’s crazy. Kidnapping, huh?” She hoped she was pulling off a good enough acting job, but she had a feeling that she was falling short.

  “Yeah, that’s not even the craziest part. Once he got there, he found his mother dead in her bed.”

  Now Kelsey’s eyes went wide and she knew that she wasn’t hiding much of anything but she really didn’t care.

  “Dead? From what?”

  Beth shrugged as if someone’s mother dying was no big deal at all. She hated that she was being so callous toward his mother, but then again why shouldn’t she be? To her it was all gossip, to Kelsey it was Mason and he had to be hurting.

  “Rumor has it that she was a wild alcoholic and her heart just finally gave out.”

  Kelsey couldn’t believe it—she felt horrible. She wanted to run and find Mason and put her arms around him. She couldn’t imagine how he’d be feeling. She knew that he wasn’t exactly fond of his mother’s actions and she knew that more than once he said some harsh words.

  But she could also see that it wasn’t out of hate or anger, it was because her choices were breaking his heart and he wanted to take care of Adam so badly. But to have to come home and find her in her own bed, dead, was just about the worst torture anyone could imagine.

  “You okay? You look ashen and like you’re going to cry.” Beth was watching her carefully, trying to decide exactly why this would bother her so much.

  Kelsey put on the best mask she could muster and shrugged. “Pregnancy emotions I guess.”

  It worked because Beth squealed and patted her round belly. She could pretty much blame anything on the pregnancy and her friends would get excited. It was the perfect excuse for everything in her life and her friends went along with it. It was almost as if they thought having a baby was going to be like getting a dog, not the life-changing event that was about to happen.

  “Listen, I’m super exhausted from the packing. Could we call it quits for the day? I think I need a nap.”

  “Of course!” Beth shot up and they exchanged goodbyes.

  Kelsey pretended to flop onto her bed in exhaustion as Beth closed her bedroom door behind her. She waited until she heard the engine of the car fire up before she jumped out of the bed and rushed to her closet. She had to go see Mason, she had to make sure he was okay, and she needed to be in something cute while she did it.

  After she found an outfit that didn’t make her look completely ridiculous and fat like she felt, she climbed into her car and started making the drive to his house. She had never been there, but before she left, she checked her father’s payroll and found his information. Typing the address into her phone, she followed the directions unit came to his street.

  She had to admit, crossing over the line from one area of town to another made her nervous. She knew she was sticking out like crazy in her expensive car and clothes, but it wasn’t as if she owned anything else. Heads turned as she slowly crept by house after house looking for his address. When she found it, she couldn’t help but shudder a little.

  It was so small and rundown, with paint peeling and large weeds sprouting up all around the yard. She hated feeling like a spoiled brat, but she also could completely understand why Mason had wanted to get Adam away from there so badly. But he shouldn’t have broken her the way he did while he was trying to help. She had to argue with herself, she could be mad at him for leaving her for the rest of her life, but in that moment she was going to have to be kind.

  The plan was to give her condolences and leave. That was it, two minutes in and out. Nothing more needed to be said. Of course he was probably going to ask about her belly and what would she say to that? She could admit the truth, or she could lie and say it really was Alan’s.

  The likelihood that he would ever see the baby and find out was small if she lied. She was just tossing the thoughts around when she saw him walking around the side of the house from the backyard. The moment she saw him, shirtless and muscles straining while he carried paint cans and a ladder, her heart almost stopped beating.

  So many months later and she could feel him making her sizzle from all the way inside of her car. He didn’t notice her at first and continued to carry all of his items to a spot in the front that she hadn’t noticed when she had driven up. There was one patch of the house that was getting a fresh coat of white paint.

  “I’ve got the brushes!” Kelsey heard the little voice before she saw the small body running up from the same place that Mason had been walking from.

  “Thanks buddy!” he called back.

  It was when he turned back around again that he saw her. Their eyes met and he froze in place. Shaking more than she thought she would be, she climbed out of her car. Had she thought things through, she might have pulled out of the driveway and left before he’d even known she was there. But instead s
he had stood there, mesmerized, watching his body move. Mason put everything down onto the lawn and his brother ran up to him proudly showing off the paint brushes.

  But Mason couldn’t take his eyes off of hers, that was until his slid down her body and then his eyes grew wide with surprise.

  “Hey buddy, why don’t you go in and get a snack okay? We’ll keep painting a little later.”

  Kelsey merely glanced at the little boy to see him looking back and forth between the two of them before he shrugged and did what Mason had asked. Just as quickly as her eyes had looked away they were back on Mason and trying desperately hard to stay trained on his eyes and not his half-naked, glistening body. She didn’t want him to start asking questions just yet, so she jumped into the purpose before he could say another word.

  “I just came by to say I heard about your mom and I’m really sorry.”

  Mason nodded, but the words didn’t seem to be getting through to him. He was still looking from her face to her belly. Nervously she rubbed at the bump, unsure of what to say next. It felt like an eternity and he still hadn’t said a word to her.

  “I’m so sorry to have bothered you. I probably should have just called or something instead of just popping in. I’m sure you’ve had enough people coming over. I am sorry though, Mason, truly.”

  Her face was burning as she tried so hard to find the right words. But he just watched her with the shock still evident in his face. Kelsey couldn’t stand it another second and she turned around, prepared to waddle as fast as her pregnant body could handle.

  But before she could get more than a step from him his hand was gripping her arm and that sizzle she’d felt in the car was now searing her skin in the most amazing and familiar way. In that one instant she felt more for him than every kiss combined from Alan.

  “You’re pregnant.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement, a demand to know.

  She had to break from him, he was burning her and she couldn’t take it.

  Ripping her arm away, she answered him. “Yes, I am.”

  She watched as he swallowed hard and she knew what the next question would be.

  “How far along?”

  This was her moment, she could lie and walk away and he’d never know the difference. Or, she could tell him the truth and it could maybe make all the difference in the world.

  Chapter9

  She didn’t need to say a word. Kelsey’s truths were always written on her face. He knew in the moment that her eyes flitted to the ground that it was his.

  “It’s mine isn’t it?”

  She looked up at him with her dark eyes full of tears. “Yes, she is.”

  She. It was a girl. He was going to have a baby girl and he didn’t even know. The entire world began to spin as he realized what had happened on that night so many months ago.

  “That was what you wanted to talk to me about wasn’t it?”

  Looking away again, Kelsey nodded. But when she looked back at him he no longer saw the soft tears, but hard anger.

  “But you left. You used me and you left and I never even got the chance to tell you.”

  He could hear the tears in her voice but it was hard to tell if they were from anger or heartbreak.

  “I’m sorry.” He tried to pull her into his arms, but she pushed away.

  “It’s too late.” She flashed her ring in his face and his stomach hit the ground. How could she be engaged? It had been so fast! Unless the entire time she was with him she had been with another guy. Now it was Mason’s turn to feel angry.

  “Wow, I guess you didn’t waste any time moving on, huh? Have a little fun with the poor boy, rebel from your parents a little bit, and then go back to your rich little existence.”

  He could see that his words had stung her, but not enough.

  “Well, you can be sure you’re not keeping me from this baby.”

  That got her good as her eyes went wide.

  “Listen, you left, so I moved on. You can’t just come back into my life and think you get a say in everything.”

  Mason was fuming with everything that was happening. But he couldn’t decide if he was fuming with her or himself. If he hadn’t been so quick-tempered he wouldn’t have broken things off with her in the first place. But why hadn’t she told him? She should have interrupted or called after him or done anything but just sit there and let him walk out when she knew she was pregnant. He couldn’t believe she was pregnant and even more so that she had decided to get married.

  “I do get a say when it comes to my baby. Although I’m sure you’re going to let whoever you’re engaged to play the father in your little kingdom aren’t you?”

  Kelsey’s eyes narrowed in anger as she stared back at him. “Alan is an excellent man who decided to step up and be a father and a future husband when you ran out.”

  “Well it wasn’t as if you gave me a choice in the matter about being a father,” he countered.

  She smirked and shook her head. “No, but you did have a choice with me.”

  Turning away she went back to her car and Mason watched as she got in and drove away without even looking back. Words that were too harsh to say flew through his mind as he watched her tail lights fade away. She should have told him about the baby, he had no doubt about that, and he wasn’t going to shake the anger away from himself that easily. But she was also engaged? That was almost the bigger pill to swallow. He couldn’t believe that in just a few months she had decided to marry someone else.

  Mason shook his head and went back inside, his fists clenched into tight balls. He felt like such a fool, thinking about her and pining after her for so long, even feeling guilty that he had left her the way he had.

  Clearly it hadn’t taken her long to get over him, if she had even ever cared for him in the first place. In his anger he doubted that she did. All he could think was that she’d wanted a little fun with a guy from the wrong side of town, a guy with a reputation that would put a little thrill in her life, and once she was done, that was the end of it all.

  Had that been the real reason that she hadn’t told him that night that she was pregnant? Because she didn’t want him to know that she was pregnant so that she could be with a more suitable guy?

  His entire body was quaking with anger as these thoughts surrounded him and darkened his mind. Well, if there was one thing he wasn’t going to let her do after she had made all of the other decisions for him was to not let him be a part of his daughter’s life.

  He was going to make sure he was in every part of it that he could be, no matter what Princess or her new prince thought. The baby was his and he wasn’t going to lose her. He’d lost enough recently.

  “Who was that Mason?”

  Adam was sitting at the kitchen table eating cookies with no sense of the world crashing down, again, around Mason. His shoulders were starting to feel heavy from everything he was carrying on them. Not only had he become a father to Adam, or would officially be when the papers were made legal, but now he was going to have a daughter too, a house to take care of, his mother was gone, and Kelsey had become a completely different person.

  Suddenly the weight became too heavy for him to carry and he plopped down next to Adam in the creaking kitchen chair. Adam didn’t say a word, only slid him the plate of store bought cookies. Mason glanced at him and a small smile crept on his face.

  “I have some news for you,” Mason told him. “You’re going to be an uncle.”

  “I am?” Adam was excited even though Mason was sure he didn’t exactly know what that meant.

  “Yup, that means that I’m going to have a baby girl so I need your help so we can get this house all ready for her. Can you do that with me?”

  “Yes!” Now Adam got the picture a little bit better. He was happy they were fixing the house up anyway, giving the boys something to do other than think about what was missing, but now they really had a purpose. They needed to make this house suitable for the new little one that was coming into his life,
even if Kelsey didn’t want him there.

  *

  When Kelsey arrived home, she was no longer fuming with anger at seeing him but instead felt tears pricking behind her eyes. She had been doing so well moving on from him, well at least, she thought she had been. What in the world had she been thinking driving to see him? She could have just sent a card or something, but instead she had decided to face him. Why?

  Had she wanted him to know she was pregnant?

  Had she wanted to flash her ring in his face?

  Or had it been the simple fact that she’d longed to see him?

  So many nights were spent dreaming of him and their nights together. Even their arguments had made their way into her dreams. She knew deep down seeing him was something that she’d craved, but she should have held off.

  She should have stayed away from him, just like she should have from the moment she laid eyes on him. But she hadn’t listened to her own good reasoning then and look where she wound up? Pregnant and broken hearted.

  Maybe if she’d listened to herself this last time she wouldn’t still be feeling the burn of where he’d touched her. She wouldn’t see the richness of his eyes and she wouldn’t have been longing to see him smile. Even more so she wouldn’t be longing to taste those lips again.

  “Hello sweetie, how was your day?”

  Her mother came into the kitchen where Kelsey was perched at the counter attempting to take deep breaths.

  “What’s the matter?” Her eyes were wide with concern as all the tears Kelsey had been holding inside came streaming down her cheeks leaving wet trails of pain.

  “I… I saw him…” Kelsey could hardly get the words out of her mouth in between her sobs.

  Immediately her mother’s calming arms were around her as she tried to understand what had gotten her daughter so upset.

  “Who did you see?”

  Kelsey didn’t even want to say his name for she knew it would be bitter on her tongue. Instead she looked down at her belly and held it tightly.

  “Oh dear.” Her mother hugged her tighter for only a second. Mother hugging mother hugging mother, trying to protect each daughter from the pain of the outside world. But while Kelsey clung to her daughter, her own mother quickly let go of her.