by Holly Renee
“You think you know me well enough to pick my food?” I rested my chin in my hand.
“I think so.” He nodded his head but looked unsure.
“How about a bet?”
His eyes flew to mine. “What kind of bet?”
“If it’s not what I would have ordered off the menu, then you have to do whatever I say. If you get it right, I have to do what you say.”
He stuck his hand out toward me. “Deal.”
“We haven’t even told each other the consequences of losing yet.”
“So? Isn’t life more fun that way?”
I went to slide my hand into his, but he pulled away.
“But you have to write your answer down on that napkin. I don’t trust you not to cheat.”
“Fine.” I chuckled then he shook my hand.
When our food finally arrived at our table, I cringed at the bar-b-que pork quesadilla, and Mason’s smile told me that he knew he had won without having to even read the napkin.
“Hand it over.” He wiggled his fingers in front of me, reaching for the napkin.
“This is unfair.” I tossed the napkin across the table before I picked up a piece of my quesadilla and took a bite. A delicious bite.
Mason just smiled as he unraveled the wad of napkin then he tucked it into his pocket.
“What? No gloating?” I took another bite of my food.
“Despite what you think, Staci. I’m actually a decent guy. I would never gloat.”
“That just means my consequence is going to be bad.”
His smile turned practically evil.
“What the hell are you going to make me do, Mason?”
“Patience, little one.” He mocked me. “You’ll see soon enough.”
We finished eating our food with me mostly narrowing my eyes at him and him grinning like he had won the damn lottery. But it wasn’t until Mason paid for our food and led me toward the very back of the restaurant that I became truly worried about what he was going to make me do.
“There is no way in hell.” I slammed to a stop as soon as I saw it.
“Oh, yes. There is. You lost, sweetheart.” He rubbed his hands together, and I looked around at all the people who were eating their food, yet looking up at us with interest.
I stared at the mechanical bull that looked three times my size before blowing out a deep breath.
“What kind of restaurant has a mechanical bull in the middle of the damn dining room?” I looked back at the way we came. If you didn’t walk around the wall that was separating that part of the restaurant from this one, you would never know it was here. “How did you even know this was here?”
He shrugged his shoulders before leaning against the railing that blocked off the bull from the rest of the restaurant. “Servers are chatty when they think you’re cute.”
I rolled my eyes and turned back toward the bull. Out of all the crazy shit I had done in my life, I had never ridden a mechanical bull. Especially not in a restaurant that was full of strangers to watch me.
The bull moved an inch and I cringed. A hand slapped my ass as I took a step toward it, and I looked over my shoulder at Mason.
“Go get ‘em, cowgirl.” He winked at me, and even though I could kill him for making me do this, I also felt desperate to press my mouth against his.
I climbed up onto the bull which was an effort, and I gripped the handle in front of me before I looked at the guy who was about to throw me from the damn thing.
“You can only use one hand, cheater,” Mason yelled across the restaurant, and I mean yelled. Anyone who wasn’t watching me before turned their attention toward me.
But I did what he said and took one hand off the handle and flipped him the bird right before the bull started moving.
Mason
I couldn’t control my laughter as the mechanical bull bucked beneath her. She looked so damn determined up there. Determined to hang on or to kill me once she got off, I wasn’t sure.
But fuck, she looked sexy as hell.
Her body rolled with each buck of the bull, her knees dug into its sides, and her hand was held up in the air. And my dick was instantly hard.
Hell, I was hard almost every second I was around her.
When she climbed on to the back of my bike, I almost groaned. When her body pressed up against mine, I had to close my eyes.
But I was willing to do whatever it took to get her to trust me. To trust me to be more than just her friend.
I wouldn’t survive this friendship with Staci. I already knew it.
It would either go the way I wanted it to or I would get hurt.
But for the first time, I knew that the girl was worth getting hurt over.
I looked around and saw every other man’s eyes on her, and instantly, I regretted my decision to make her ride that bull. They watched as her hips rolled back and forth. They stared as her chest shook with the force of the movement of the bull. I took a step toward the stand to tell the guy that it was time for it to be over, but then a smile broke across her face.
Not that damn fake smile that she so often used, but a real one, and it lit up her face.
She threw her head back and laughed as the bull started bucking harder. She started sliding to the left, but she was holding on for dear life. Her knees dug into the sides, and she gripped the handle harder.
The bull bucked several more times before she was finally slung off and onto the cushioned mat below. Her hair was covering her face and she just laid there in a fit of giggles.
After a few seconds, she finally stood and looked around at all the eyes that were watching her before she met mine. Then she leaned down and took a bow.
I joined the clapping and cheering that surrounded her, and when she jumped off the mat, I was right there to catch her.
“Today has been so much fun.” She smiled up at me, and I knew, I fucking knew in that moment, that I would do whatever it took to keep putting that look on her face.
“The day isn’t over yet.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her back out to my motorcycle.
Staci
I watched the dark grey clouds hover over us as we continued our ride through the mountains, and I leaned in to talk in Mason’s ear over the loud rumble of the motorcycle.
“Is it supposed to rain?”
Mason’s gaze darted up to the sky before quickly returning to the road, and I huffed as he shrugged his shoulders. He had told me it was supposed to be a pretty day.
I looked back up to the sky just as a raindrop hit my cheek.
We were nowhere near home. Hell, I had no clue where we even were, but I knew it was going to be a long drive to get home.
Mason took a sharp curve to the left and more raindrops fell from the sky.
“Mason,” I yelled at him, and the bike seemed to speed up just a touch.
There was basically nothing on the road we had been riding on for the last hour or so. I had seen a couple of gas stations and one restaurant along the way and that was it. I didn’t know where he was planning on taking us, but I did know that our options were slim.
We rode for a few more minutes, the rain coming down in sheets now, my clothes completely soaked, before Mason finally pulled into an old gas station that looked like it had probably been abandoned over ten years ago.
The paint was chipped off the side of the building, the inside dark and absent of life, but there was still a roof that extended out over the long-forgotten gas pumps. We pulled under it before Mason killed the engine.
His foot kicked down the kickstand, and I pulled off my helmet before wiping the rain from my face.
“So much for a pretty day.” I wrung out my braid and let the water drip down my body.
“A little rain never hurt anyone.” Mason grinned before shaking out his hair.
Little drops of rain flew off of him, and his t-shirt clung to his chest and back. He lifted the shirt over his head to wring out the water, and I had to look away. I walked to the edge of t
he gas station and looked up and down the road that seemed to be reserved for only other motorcycles.
That was all that we had practically seen all day, but now there were none in sight. Probably hiding out from the rain like us.
I turned back to Mason, and he was leaning against the seat of his motorcycle watching me.
“How long do you think we’ll need to wait it out?” I pulled my backpack from behind my back and grabbed my bottle of water.
“It’s hard to tell.” He looked up at the sky. “At least a little while I would say.”
I held out my water to him, and he took it out of my hand before pressing it to his lips.
It was his lips. It was his eyes. Fuck, I didn’t know what it was, but I couldn’t stop. Once the thought ran through my mind, I couldn’t fight it. Instead, I stepped in between his knees, and I stared at his damning mouth before I leaned into him and pressed my lips against his.
My water bottle hit the ground as Mason let it fall from his fingertips, but I barely even noticed the water that flew all over us. I was too busy focusing on the way Mason pressed his fingers into my hair, the way he gripped it roughly like he had been waiting for this moment for far too long. He tilted my head back, taking full control of the kiss, taking complete control of me.
He didn’t give me a moment to regret my decision. Instead, he gripped my ass in his hands and lifted me in the air. He spun me back toward the bike and sat me down in the spot he had been in only moments before as he leaned into me.
His kiss was rushed and dangerous, far too careless to be anything other than pure need, and I ate up every second of it. When he pushed me further, I gave in. All fight had disappeared from me, and I had no intention of stopping.
His mouth moved over my jaw, dipping down my neck, devouring my skin. I reached out for his belt buckle, but he quickly pushed my hands away and kept kissing me.
He kissed me until I felt drunk just on the touch of his lips.
I looked down at his erection, reaching for him again, but his hand in my hair pulled back sharply. I groaned at the bite of pain and pleasure then ran through me when his teeth sank down into my shoulder.
Then he was gone.
I blinked my eyes open and whimpered when I saw him dropping to his knees in front of me.
His fingers quickly popped the button of my jeans, and I stood slightly as he shimmied them down my legs along with my panties. He made quick work of pulling them from my body.
It went through my mind at that moment that we were completely exposed, completely visible if anyone was to drive by, but that thought only lasted a second before I decided that I didn’t care.
He pushed me back until my ass was once again sitting on his bike then his fingers slowly made their way up my legs. I was panting when his hands reached my inner thighs, and I wasn’t expecting the way his fingers roughly pushed against the skin of my thighs. They fell completely open before him.
He looked up at me. He fucking watched me for every second of his descent toward my center, and I thought I was going to die by the time I felt his breath rush out against my skin.
“Whose pussy is this?” His words shocked me but had my body arching toward him involuntarily.
“Yours.” I moaned and looked up at the roof that was still being pelted with rain.
“Look at me.” His demand was firm, and I brought my eyes back to his. “Tell me.”
I swallowed. I had never felt nervous during sex. I had never felt so high-strung, but with Mason everything was different.
“My pussy is yours,” I whispered.
His answering smirk was dangerous and addictive, and I barely managed to take another breath before he jerked my right leg over his shoulder and dove into my flesh.
He wasn’t in the mood to take his time or tease me. He devoured me. His tongue flicked against my clit piercing before he slowly sucked it into his mouth. I threw my head back, almost forgetting that I was sitting on top of his motorcycle, but he didn’t seem to care.
He gripped my other leg in his hand and lifted it over his opposite shoulder before he pushed a finger inside me.
My fingers dug into the leather of his seat, my ass precariously on the edge, and I rode his face as he fucked me with his fingers.
It wasn’t until I was screaming out his name that Mason finally stood from his knees. But he was far from done with me.
I stood on shaky legs as he turned me around until I faced the motorcycle, and a chill ran up my spine when I heard his zipper. His lips pressed against my neck and his hand kneaded my breast through my thin t-shirt.
“Mason,” I breathed out his name.
“Put your hands on the bike, Staci. Don’t move them unless I tell you to.”
I trembled in his arms, but I did exactly as he had instructed. My ass was pressed firmly against him, and I swore as his hand ran over my ass before dipping between my legs. He gently teased my still pulsing clit with his fingers, and it was seconds before I felt like I was going to come again.
I felt him then, lining himself up with me, and he gripped my ass in his hands before he slowly pushed into me.
I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out as he pulled out of me then back in at an achingly slow pace. Over and over until I felt mad with lust.
I reached my hand behind me, trying to pull him closer to me, begging for more, for harder, but he was the one in control. He stilled inside of me as his hand came down against my ass, hard.
“What did I say, Staci?” he growled from behind me.
I whimpered and pushed back against him, my body begging him to move. He slapped my ass again, and my pussy tightened around him.
“You like that?” he whispered into my ear before his teeth sank into the sensitive skin.
“Yes,” I moaned.
He nipped at my ear one last time before he leaned back away from me and gripped my hips firmly in his hands.
“Please, Mason,” I begged him.
His control snapped then, and his bike felt like it was going to fall over from the force of his thrusts. My hands trembled against the seat as he slammed into me again and again. His hands bit into my skin, his need for me palpable in every touch.
I cried out when his fingers thrummed against my clit. My body shook, my orgasm consuming me. It stripped me of my ability to think straight. I wasn’t thinking when my hand slipped. I wasn’t thinking when Mason caught me in his arms without missing a beat, and I sure as hell wasn’t thinking when the words I love you bounced through my mind.
My body tensed, everything went rigid, but Mason refused to allow me to pull away from him. Instead, he held me against him, his arms clinging to me as he thrust into me again and again, and when I finally cried out his name, I had never felt so scared in my life.
Mason
I had no damn clue what had happened.
One minute she was falling apart in my arms. The next I felt like she was a million miles away.
I had been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Was it too much? Was it too soon?
None of it made sense. She had made the move.
I had no intention of pushing her further. Not yet. It wasn’t part of my plan. I was still working on getting her to like me. I needed her to want to be with me before we were intimate again, but now everything was completely fucked up.
The entire ride home her body was stiff behind mine. Gone was the girl who felt carefree and happy behind me. The one who had leaned into me as she leaned her head back in the wind. The one who had wrapped her arms around me and squealed when I revved my engine.
She was gone.
Instead, I was left with the Staci that everyone else saw.
The one I was starting not to like.
I pulled up outside her apartment and took a deep breath as I cut the engine. She didn’t say a word as she slung a leg over my bike and got off without even giving me a chance to help her. She pulled her helmet from her head, her face completely hidden
from my view, and when she finally turned back to me, that fake ass smile was back on her face.
But it wasn’t until she pulled her phone from her pocket that I saw the girl I knew, the girl I was falling in love with, disappear.
“Thank you for the ride. I had a great time.” She held my helmet out toward me, but I didn’t grab it. Instead, I just stared at her. I stared at her and tried like hell to figure out what I could do. What I had done.
“What’s wrong?” I finally asked as I pulled my own helmet from my head and ran my fingers through my hair.
“Nothing’s wrong. Why would you think that?” Her hand was on her hip, and she had such a fake confidence about her. A look that said I didn’t stand a chance against her, but I guess in reality I never did.
I motioned toward her with my hand, and I saw something flicker in her eyes. “Something is wrong. I know you.”
“You don’t know me.” Her voice was low, and my body jerked back an inch at her words.
“I don’t know you?” I questioned as I stood from my bike and she backed up an inch. “I think I know you pretty fucking well.”
“You don’t.” She reached around me and set her helmet on the seat of my bike. “You only know what you want to know, Mason. But I’m not that girl. I’m fucked up.” She stared into my eyes. “I’m not good at things like this.” She motioned her hands between the two of us. “It’s best we just end whatever the hell this is, now.”
I let her words sink into me and panic like I had never felt before filled me. Panic to cling to her, to beg her to take back her words.
“I know that you eat ice cream like it’s its own food group.”
She rolled her eyes at my insignificant fact.
“I know that when you start to feel sad, you only listen to Ed Sheeran and you mouth the words to the songs even when you’re tattooing. I know that you are a fiercely loyal friend, and my sister is damn lucky to have you.”
I took a small step toward her and she turned her head to look away from me.
