by Ivy Smoak
"Go, now."
"Ma'am are you sure..."
"Please! Just go!"
Mason reached for the door handle just as the taxi driver stepped on the gas. Mason slapped the window with his palm.
"Bee!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
As soon as the taxi pulled away from the curb, I regretted it. I was still wet from Mason's naughty words. Was he really as good as he said he was? I turned around and looked out the back window. Mason was standing in the middle of the street, staring at the taxi as I drove away.
Chapter 19
Bee
My phone was buzzing in my pocket. Marie was calling me. I let it go to voicemail. I was so mad at her. If I talked to her now, I'd just say something I regretted. There was already one missed call from Kendra. My rescue call. I should have taken it. I felt so dirty. Of all the guys in New York, why had Marie set me up with Mason Caldwell?
The taxi pulled to a stop outside my apartment building. I paid the driver and stepped onto the sidewalk. I ran into my building, up the stairs, and into my apartment.
I began to pull my clothes out of my closet and throw them into a box. Fuck New York. Fuck Mr. Ellington. Fuck Patrick. And fuck Mason Caldwell. Enough was enough. I had given it my best shot. Now I just needed to get out of New York. There was nothing left for me here.
When I got to the back of my closet I stopped. My wedding dress was hanging there. I pulled it out and placed it on top of the box. Patrick and I were supposed to get married in the fall. The bridal store had called a few weeks after Patrick and I had split up. The alterations were already done, and they wouldn't take it back. I should have been married right now. To the boy that I fell in love with freshman year.
Instead, I was alone in a dingy apartment and I had just sucked Mason Caldwell's dirty cock. I sat down in front of the box and started to cry. How could this have happened? Where had I gone wrong?
***
I slowly opened my eyes. Someone was knocking on my door. I had fallen asleep on the floor. Ow. My whole body ached. It looked like I had blown my nose on the train of my wedding dress. Great. I yawned and got up.
Whoever was outside my door knocked again. I looked out the peephole. It was Kendra. She looked really upset. Shit. I never called her back. She probably thought I had been abducted. I opened up the door.
"Oh my God, you're alive." She threw her arms around me.
"Hi, Kendra."
"You're alive." Now she sounded mad. She let go of me and pushed my shoulder. "Do you know how worried I was? I've only called you a million times! I thought you were dead in a ditch." She stared at me.
I was still wearing her dress. I looked down. It was wrinkled and slightly stretched out.
She looked past me at the box of clothes on the floor. "We'll talk about my dress later. What are you doing?" She gestured toward the box.
"I'm moving, Kendra. I'm done."
"The date was that bad?"
I sat down on the edge of my bed. I felt my face blush. "I actually had a really good time. Until I figured out who he was."
"What do you mean?" She sat down next to me.
"It was something that Patrick said to me."
"What? I thought you were done thinking about Patrick? Please don't revert back just because of one bad date."
"I'm not. I..." I let my voice trail off. "There's more to the story of Patrick cheating on me. I didn't tell you everything."
"Okay?"
I swallowed hard. This was so embarrassing. I hadn't told anyone that Patrick had cheated on me with more than one woman. I still wasn't even sure how many other women he had slept with while we were together. And I really didn't want to know. "When I confronted Patrick, he told me that he was just doing what was expected of him. That women were like an employee perk or something."
"That's a pretty lame excuse. Men are disgusting."
"He used to go to these, like, underground clubs or something? I don't know. I don't really want to talk about that part. But he said that it was the boss' son that had taken him to all those sleazy places. Almost like an introduction to the city or something ridiculous like that. Patrick said that his boss' son could get you anything you wanted." I scrunched up my face. "Like any weird sexual fantasy you had, he could find the person to help make it happen."
"I don't understand why this has anything to do with Mason."
"The founder of MAC International is Max Caldwell. I think Mason is his son."
"Wait, seriously?" Kendra laughed. "That's a pretty far leap."
"Mason seemed...I don't know. It was him. You should have heard the way he talked. He said his hobby was fucking women. He was a tool. And it's his fault that Patrick cheated on me."
"Bee, that's ridiculous. I bet he isn't even Max Caldwell's son. Caldwell is a common name. And so is Mason." She pulled out her phone and opened up Google. A few seconds later she frowned. "Okay, well maybe he does have a son named Mason. Is this him?" She put her phone in my face.
"Yeah, that's him."
"Wow, he's so sexy. Damn. Why doesn't Marie ever set me up with anyone?"
"Kendra, he's a dick."
"Well Max Caldwell has another son. Matthew. Maybe he's the one that helped entertain Max's new hires?" She showed me a picture of Matthew. He didn't look much like his brother. He was handsome, but in a more sophisticated way. I couldn't really explain it, but he looked tight-laced. He didn't look like he frequented underground clubs and had connections with all sorts of weird loose women.
"No. It's Mason. It's definitely Mason. He talked like he had sex all the time. And he was...experienced."
"Shit, did you have sex with him?"
"No. Not exactly."
"What does that mean?"
"It doesn't matter. He's a man whore. And I'm moving."
"Come on. Let's go talk to Marie. I'm sure she can clear this up for you. Besides, if he is Max Caldwell's son, then he's loaded. And you shouldn't write him off so easily. You could use a few nice things."
"Kendra! Don't be gross. I don't want his money. I don't want anything to do with a guy like that. He's worse than Patrick."
She looked around my apartment. "Why is it again that you won't move in with me? We could split the rent and my apartment is a lot nicer than this."
She had asked me a few times to move in with her. It was another step that I wasn't quite ready to make. My last good memories of Patrick were in this apartment. It was like changing my relationship status on Facebook. It just seemed so final. I didn't want to have a conversation about moving right now. Besides, if I was moving anywhere, it was back to Wilmington.
"I'm not ready."
"But you're ready to move back to Wilmington? Come on, let's go. And change out of my dress." She picked up a pair of jeans and tossed them at me.
Chapter 20
Bee
Kendra held down the button on the call box. "Marie, it's Kendra and Bee!" When no answer came through the speaker system, she pressed the button again. "You have a lot of explaining to do, Marie! Wake up!"
"I doubt she knew." I said. "She even told me that Mason and Patrick didn't know each other."
"Still. She set you up with the guy that taught Patrick how to be a cheating piece of shit. And thought he was a good match for you. If you ask me, that's pretty fucked up."
Marie was probably asleep. This was ridiculous. All I really wanted was to be curled up in bed, pretending last night had never happened. I shook my head. How will I ever forget his touch? The way Mason had possessed me had made me feel so alive, so amped up. I needed to calm down and get some more sleep. I need to dream of him. I shook my head. He was disgusting.
The door buzzed. Kendra ran over, grabbed the handle, and held the door open for me. As soon as we stepped onto the elevator, Kendra crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"You know, I could have set you up with someone," she said. "Someone who isn't worse than Patrick."
"Maybe next time."
She sighed as we got off the elevator. We stopped in front of Marie and Carter's door and Kendra knocked loudly. A second later Marie opened it.
"Bee, Kendra, what are you guys doing here?" Marie asked groggily. Her hair was matted on one side and she was wearing a silk robe. But I was too agitated to care that I had woken her. Seeing her made me upset all over again.
"You didn't tell me that you were setting me up with Mason Caldwell!"
"What are you talking about? I did. I told you his name, Bee. What are you doing here?" Marie repeated and rubbed her eyes.
"Mason Caldwell?! How could you, Marie?" I walked past her and into her apartment. I sat down on the couch and put my face in my hands.
"Oh my God, he stood you up? Carter! Carter get out of bed right this instant! I can't believe Mason would do this, Bee. I told him how important you were to me. Carter promised this wouldn't happen." She tilted her head toward her bedroom. "Damn it, Carter! Get out of bed!"
"No, Marie, that's not it," Kendra said and sat down next to me.
Carter stumbled out of their bedroom, yawning. "Oh, hey, Bee. Hey, Kendra. Geez, it's a little early, isn't it?"
"Bee, what happened? What did he do?" Marie said.
"It's not what he did. We actually had an okay time." I felt myself blushing. This was ridiculous. "He's an asshole, Marie."
I heard a buzzing noise and Carter pulled his cell phone out of his robe pocket. "Geez, I have a ton of missed calls." He put the phone to his ear. "Hey, man, what's up?" He paused. "Oh, no need. Bee's actually right here."
I glared at him. Marie started to shake her head back and forth and wave her arms.
Carter put the phone down and held his hand over the receiver. "I already told him you were here. Sorry, Bee."
"I don't want to talk to him," I said.
Carter looked over at Marie, but she just glared back at him. He lifted the phone back up to his ear. "Mason, she doesn't want to talk to you right now."
"Damn it, Carter! You weren't supposed to tell him that!" I shrieked.
"What was I supposed to say? You are here, and you don't want to talk to him. Don't look at me that way, Marie."
"It's fine, I'll talk to him."
Carter walked over and handed me the phone. "I'm going back to bed."
I looked down at Carter's phone in my hand.
"Were going to give you some privacy," Marie said and grabbed Kendra's arm. Kendra followed her into the kitchen. It wasn't that much privacy. The kitchen was open to the family room.
I sighed and put the phone to my ear. "Hello, Mason."
"Bee, what the hell?"
"What the hell yourself, Mason."
"Stay where you are. I'm coming to get you."
"Don't you dare." Who does this guy think he is?
"I do dare."
"Mason, I can't see you again."
"And why not?"
"Because you're Mason Caldwell. Which means that your father is Max Caldwell."
"What does this have to do with my father?"
I swallowed hard. "My ex-fiancé worked for him."
"Stay where you are."
"Just tell me, Mason. Did you introduce my fiancé to a bunch of sleazy women?"
"You don't understand. Just let me explain..."
"Go to hell, Mason."
"Bee, if you would..."
"Bridget. Only my friends call me Bee." I hung up the phone.
Chapter 21
Mason
What the fuck? No one ever hung up on me. I shoved my phone back into my pocket. This isn't good. If her ex-fiancé worked for my dad, then I had definitely met him. Shit.
I put my hand in the air to signal a nearby taxi. The cab pulled to a stop in front of me. I climbed in and gave him Carter's address. No girl had ever blue balled me. I had already made up my mind to have her, and have her I would. Bee was mine. I'd have her today and anything I had done wouldn't matter. She wouldn't care after I gave her the best night of her life. I was getting hard all over again just thinking about her tight ass and those luscious red lips.
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the seat. Who the hell is her ex? I tried to go through all the men that reported to my father. None of them seemed like Bee's type. They all acted like a bunch of pussies. A girl like that shouldn't have been with one of them anyway. As far as I was concerned, I had done her a favor. She should be thanking me.
But she knew. She knew who I was. Whoever that little shit was had told her all about me. And she probably thought it was my fault that he had cheated on her.
I punched the back of the passenger's seat.
"Watch it!" the cabbie yelled at me.
I leaned back in my seat. What am I going to tell her? Temptation and opportunity were different than action. But she didn't want to hear that. It depended on what she already knew about me. I could skirt around the truth. It was one of my specialties. I stared out my window at the passing buildings. We were getting close.
Chapter 22
Bee
Marie and Kendra were staring at me.
I turned away from them and looked down at Carter's phone. He had eight missed calls from Mason. I put the phone down on the coffee table. Why did Mason even care about clearing the air with me? He was a rich, eligible, sexy bachelor. He could have any woman that he wanted. Just not me. I tried to think about what Patrick had said. Company perks he had called them. Disgusting.
"Bee, I had no idea." Marie sat down across from me. "If I had known, I obviously wouldn't have set you up with him."
"I know." I looked down at my lap. "He said he was coming over. I can't see him."
"I'll take care of him," Kendra said.
"You never really told me that much about what happened with Patrick. I didn't even know that his boss' son was taking him to strip clubs," Marie said.
"Well it's awkward to talk about. And it wasn't really strip clubs. Patrick made it seem like his boss' son was showing him around the city with the other new hires. And that he had all these weird connections. I didn't realize he was going to underground clubs and stuff. I thought he was seeing the top of the empire state building. But when I eventually realized, Patrick made it seem like you could just tell Mason your fantasy and he'd figure out a way to make it happen. Like he knew every person with weird fetishes in the whole city."
"Gross."
"Yeah."
"I don't get it though. Mason seems like such a nice guy at work. And he makes a decent salary. I don't know why he'd be doing that. It doesn't make any sense. Maybe his father is just a bad guy? Or maybe it's Max's other son?"
"It's definitely Mason. And I don't know why he did it, but he did. They're both disgusting."
"You can't really blame him for the things that Patrick did though. Just because he introduced Patrick to other women doesn't mean he made him cheat on you."
"That's a fine line."
"Maybe you should hear him out."
"I don't want anything to do with guys like him."
Kendra cleared her throat.
Marie glanced at Kendra and that back at me. "I need to tell you something, but you have to promise you won't get mad at me."
"What?"
"You promise you won't be mad?"
"I'm not going to get mad at you. Just tell me."
"Mason is known as a bit of a playboy. I just thought he might help you get over Patrick and I didn't think..."
"You knew what kind of guy he was?"
"I didn't know about the underground clubs or any of that. I didn't even know he knew Patrick."
"But you knew he was a womanizing asshole?"
"He always seems so nice at work. I thought maybe they were just rumors. And you did have a good time. You blushed when you were talking about him."
"How could you, Marie?"
"I was just trying to help you get over Patrick. You need to move on. You've been moping around for months. It's not healthy."
"But you picked the wors
t possible guy."
"I picked a handsome, successful..."
"Oh, come on, Marie," Kendra cut in. "Give it a rest. You screwed up."
"I know." Marie turned back to me and grabbed my hand. "I just wanted you to know where I was coming from. But I'm so, so sorry, Bee."
The buzzer sounded through the apartment.
"I can't see him again," I said. "Kendra, can you..."
"Yup. I've got you." She left the apartment.
Chapter 23
Mason
A tall woman with skin the color of hot chocolate came out of the building. She stared at me with her deep brown eyes. I instantly felt a little less cold. I turned back to the speaker system and pressed the number for Carter's apartment again. Bee had crawled under my skin. And right now, she was the only girl I could think about. I wasn't used to feeling like this. She liked making me wait. I never waited for anyone. I needed to fuck her and move on.
The woman tapped me on the shoulder.
Fuck, not right now. "What can I do for you, sugar?"
"Sugar? Wow. Innovative."
I laughed. "Can I help you? I'm kind of in the middle of something right now."
"The pictures don't do you justice. I'm Kendra."
"Pictures?"
"You're Max Caldwell's son right? The infamous Mason Caldwell? I've heard a lot about you."
I looked down at her. I didn't have time to play games right now. "What exactly are you referring to?"
"Your side business? See, I have certain needs. And I was hoping you could help me out?"
I didn't want to talk business right now. "My services aren't free, sugar." I pressed the button on the call box again. "Fuck, is this thing even working?"
"God, it's true? You're disgusting."
"What?" I turned around and looked at the woman again. "Oh, fuck, are you friends with Bee or something? Did she send you down here to talk to me? Just let me up to see her."
"It killed her when she found out her fiancé was cheating on her. And you helped that happen." She poked me in the middle of my chest.
"I don't even know who her ex-fiancé is. All I know is that I need to talk to Bee. In private. So what do I need to do to make that happen? I can get you whatever you want. Just name it."
