Julie turned with a slowness that made her wonder if someone had put her entire life on slow motion. Her limbs creaked, protesting the action. She had to will her legs to remain firmly beneath her while she fought to face one of her greatest nightmares.
Mason heaved unsteadily to his feet, using the wall as leverage, and turned furious blue eyes on her. “Are you out of your damn mind, lady?”
He stumbled awkwardly to the light switches next to the alarm panel and smacked them on with a frustrated sweep of his hand. Light flared on overhead, drenching everyone in its sharp glow.
Julie winced, but it had nothing to do with being blinded.
He’d gotten wider around the shoulders and the width of his chest, and his dark hair was longer, more unruly, but he was still six feet of rugged beauty. Even with the scowl knotting his brows together, his features were perfect, clean cut and chiseled. His eyes were an impossible blue and his lips looked like they would feel like velvet. Julie had spent far too many nights dreaming of feeling that mouth on hers, until that mouth had broken her heart.
Memories of that night four years ago were what jarred her back to the present and the very big problem looming before her.
Julie fingers tightened around Dustin. “Get back upstairs. Now, Dustin!” she snapped when he remained defiant.
Shooting her a look of loathing, Dustin stomped back upstairs—literally. He slammed his feet on every step all the way to the top. There was a pause, followed by the resounding bang of his door slamming shut. Julie would have groaned if she hadn’t been caught in the resonating pulse of power that always washed off Mason. He was like a magnet, imposing and compelling. Even when they had been kids, he had a way of making people listen and do what he wanted just by walking into a room. And, as much as she hated to admit it, she had been one of them.
Mason seemed too preoccupied with keeping upright to properly look her in the face. There were also tears in his eyes. But even then, she wasn’t sure if he would recognize her. The last time they had been in the same room, she had been fifteen, a mousy thing with a mouth full of metal. And while he had never been cruel, at least never to her, he hadn’t stood up for her either that night.
As the barbs embedded around her heart burrowed just a little deeper, Julie gritted her teeth against the memory. She reminded herself that was years ago and she had moved on. Mason Brody couldn’t hurt her anymore, and yet, just the sight of him hurt.
Oblivious to the turmoil he was causing her, Mason reached down and adjusted the bulge between his legs. His face twisted in a grimace of pain that almost made her feel bad. Almost.
“It’s after two in the morning,” she said, fighting to keep her voice even as she broke the silence. “What are you doing here and why are you creeping around?”
He huffed indigently. “Did it really sound like we were creeping anywhere? I think we were making enough noise to wake half the town.”
He was still not looking at her. He seemed focused on unsnapping the fastens of his jeans and drawing away the cotton material of his boxers to peer down at his crotch.
“Why are you here?” she demanded, hating the way her body was tilting itself forward just a notch to also get a glimpse.
“My dad owns half of this place!” he snapped back. “So if anyone should be asking questions, I think it should be me.” He elevated his weight from one leg to the other again. Then gave his left leg a shake and winced. “Jesus Christ you lunatic! Didn’t anyone ever tell you, you never hit a guy there? I’d like to have kids one day.”
Julie narrowed her eyes. “You attacked me. I was defending myself and my charges from a pack of criminals for all I knew.”
He visibly bristle at the implication of being a criminal. His hands fumbled as he fought refastened his pants.
“Well, you know what, lady—”
“Okay, wait!” The guy who had caught the length of her bat in the stomach leaped forward, hands up. “Let’s all calm down.” He turned to Julie. “There’s clearly been some kind of misunderstanding here. Why don’t we move this into the kitchen and discuss it like adults?”
While he asked the question openly, his gaze was on Mason, who was still having trouble doing up his pants without rubbing the stiff material against his private parts.
“Fine,” Julie said.
Seemingly satisfied that there wouldn’t be any bloodshed, the guy forcibly dragged his friends into the kitchen.
Julie waited until they were a good, safe distance before darting to where the bat had fallen and hefting it up. After casting a glance up the stairs to make sure the children weren’t hovering somewhere along the top landing, she stepped cautiously into the next room.
The trio was huddled around the island, heads bent close as they whispered rapidly. They looked up when she edged into view, and if looks could kill, she would have been across the floor with her insides torn out. But as it were, she took the time to examine her opponents and was surprised when she recognized the third guy sneering at her from around a wade of crimson soaked tissue.
Shaun Ryan, her least favorite of Mason’s group of childhood friends, stood trying to stifle the flow of blood from his nostrils. He, she realized, must have been the one to get the butt of her bat in the face. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel too bad about that. Her only regret was that she hadn’t hit him a few more times to make up for what a monumental asshole he was. It would have certainly served him right. Unfortunately, she had also let him live, which meant she would need to sleep with one eye open. Shaun was not the sort to forgive, or forget, and his temper was legendary, not to mention it wasn’t beneath him to strike a woman if the rumors were anything to go by.
Letting her gaze move past him, Julie eyed the newcomer to the group. The guy was small and gangly and nothing like the usual bad asses she was accustomed to seeing around Mason. He wore freshly pressed khakis and a plaid button up that was actually buttoned all the way to the throat. His sandy brown hair was combed flat and to the side and he had loafers on his feet. If anything, he reminded her of someone who belonged on the other side of a chessboard, not trampling around with a pair of guys who looked like a whole lot of trouble.
Gradually, and with great deal of hesitance, Julie moved her attention to the remaining figure.
Mason.
He was staring at her now with something akin to recognition that tightened her stomach muscles. His mouth was gaping ever so slightly in a silent gasp.
She quickly looked away. Her free hand lifted and she found the butterfly pendent tucked beneath her collar. She slid the silver piece anxiously back and forth on its chain, a nervous gesture she’d had since her grandmother had given her the necklace on Julie’s ninth birthday.
“Julie?”
The expression on Mason’s face could only be described as absolute astonishment. Like someone had sucker punched him between the ribs and taken off, leaving him dazed and winded. But there was something else in his eyes, something bright and wondrous.
“Hello,” she said with as much poise as she could muster.
Mason’s lips parted, but not in speech. He seemed completely incapable of anything more than simply gawking at her, taking in her curls that had escaped the confines of her braid and the rumpled state of the t-shirt she wore. When his gaze traveled to her bare legs and all the way down to her bare toes, Julie couldn’t help feeling exposed and embarrassed. It took all her willpower not to tug at the hem of her top. But it didn’t matter, because his eyes were back on her face, searching and tracing with an urgency one would show a gleaming pool after trekking through the desert for a week. He never so much as blinked, like he was afraid she might vanish from sight if he did.
Heat rose through her in tendrils that started at her base of her stomach and worked its way up slowly to her face. She shivered. Her tongue darted nervously over her dry lips and she felt her heart give a wild kick in her chest when he sucked in a sharp breath.
“Jesus!” Shaun blurted, breaking the
electric tension weaving seamlessly around the room. “What the hell happened to you?”
Julie had learned long ago to never let anything that Shaun said affect her and yet those six words were like a double edged blade being thrust deep between her ribs. It took all her willpower not to look down at herself for some horrible deformity she hadn’t realized she’d grown in the last four years. But that was what Shaun was good at, slashing at a person’s confidence.
“It’s called growing up,” she answered hotly. “Something I see you have yet to accomplish.” She set the bat down gingerly on the counter between them and focused on the third guy who seemed like the safest bet. “Why are you here?”
Brown eyes scooted between Julie and Mason, like he wasn’t sure he was allowed to answer, but he spoke anyway. “Well...” he began slowly, almost hesitantly. “It’s summer, so...”
Mason cut in when his friend seemed to run out of things to say. “I told Maureen, and my parents, we would be using the cabin for a couple of weeks before heading back to work.”
Julie narrowed her eyes. “Uh huh ... so why didn’t Maureen tell me you would be arriving?”
Mason exchanged glances with his friends before responding to her question. “When has Maureen ever been reliable?”
As excuses went, it was a good one. No one could deny that Maureen was notorious for forgetting important things, mainly concerning her children.
“Are you seriously going to phone the police?” Mason demanded when Julie skirted around the counter.
“No,” she said calmly while picking up the receiver and dialing the number. “I’m calling Maureen.”
“It’s two in the morning!” he retorted with slight outrage that sounded more insulted than anything else.
Julie narrowed her eyes. “I am perfectly aware of the time. But I also know that you’re not moving from that spot until I get answers.”
She tucked the handset between her ear and shoulder and listened as it rang. All the while, she studied the trio watching her back with more than a twang of distrust.
Maureen picked up on the fifth ring, her tone hoarse from sleep, but alert. “Julie? What is it?”
“I’m sorry to bother you at this hour, but there’s been an incident,” Julie said, keeping her tone calm and professional. But even with her attempts, Maureen went into instant panic.
“Incident? What happened? Where are the children?”
“The children are fine,” she said slowly, kicking herself for not starting with that. “They’re upstairs. The incident I’m calling about is that we had an unexpected visitor—”
Mason charged across the room before she could finish speaking and motioned she give the phone over. Ignoring him, Julie started turning her body away from his, when he plucked the receiver straight out of her hand.
“Hey!”
Silencing her with a single harsh glare, Mason shoved the phone to his ear.
“Hey Auntie M, it’s me.” He stomped away from Julie. “Yeah, we just arrived. No, the drive was fine, but we ran into some problems when we arrived. Yes, I know Julie...” Cool, blue eyes shot to Julie and narrowed. “Sweetheart, isn’t the word I would use. Uh huh. Yeah. Okay, I will. Goodnight.” He moved back to Julie, phone held out. “She wants to talk to you.”
She snatched the phone back from him with a little more force than was necessary and almost lost her grip on the plastic. She fumbled with it before stuffing it to her ear.
“Yes?”
“I am so sorry, Julie,” Maureen said at once. “I feel so horrible. What with everything that’s been happening around here I completely forgot that Mason asked to use the cabin for the week. You know Mason, don’t you?”
“Yes, I know Mason,” Julie muttered already dreading what was about to come next.
“He’s really a wonderful boy.”
Julie eyed Mason dryly and without blinking. “Wonderful, isn’t the word I would use.”
Her mimic of his earlier statement slitted his eyes, and she smirked.
“It’s my fault. I should have told you. You don’t mind, do you?”
Julie stiffened as the conversation took a drastically bad turn. “Mind what?”
“Well...” Maureen hesitated. “If Mason stayed the week. You would be doing me such a huge favor. It’s not that I don’t trust you, because, of course, I do, but it’s so isolated over there and, well, I worry. Having another person there would really help ease my mind. Plus, it’s my fault I forgot that Mason had asked to use the cabin months ago. I would feel horrible if he couldn’t because of my horrible memory.”
“But I don’t—”
“It’s fine!” Maureen insisted as though she were suggesting they paint their nails coral pink instead of cotton candy pink. “Mason is just amazing with the kids. They simply adore him.”
Hating and dreading the idea with every fiber of her being, Julie gritted her teeth with enough force to make them creak. It was a wonder Maureen couldn’t hear it.
“And what about his friends?”
“Well, you know Shaun, right? And Luis has been Mason’s roommate for two or three years, so I’m sure he’s trustworthy. Mason is an incredible judge of character.”
Julie turned away from the eyes watching her. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We don’t have enough supplies—”
“We brought our own things,” Mason interrupted her, unabashed that he was clearly eavesdropping on her every word.
“I understand that you don’t know Mason very well—” She was wrong. Julie knew Mason. Maybe a little too well. “—but I really need you to handle this situation, okay? Mason’s a good kid and I think he’ll be a great help to you with the kids. It’s only for a week.”
Julie sighed. “I don’t like it, Maureen.”
Maureen was quiet for so long Julie wondered if they’d been disconnected. She started to pull the receiver away from her ear to check when the other woman finally spoke up.
“Please don’t do this right now, Julie. I have too much to worry about without having to deal with this on top of everything else. You’re both adults and it’s a big house. I doubt you’ll even see each other.”
But I see him now! Julie wanted to snap.
“Julie, please.”
Pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand and gripping the phone with the other, Julie growled deep in her throat. “Fine! But only a week.”
Maureen exhaled loudly, the sound filled with relief. “Thank you, sweetie. I really owe you one.”
Julie was tempted to tell her she owed her several, but never got the chance. Maureen had hung up.
Julie replaced the receiver with a stiff crack and turned to face the three watching her with a varying mixture of annoyance, curiosity, and smug arrogance. The latter had her bristling and straightening her shoulders.
“One week,” she told the trio firmly. “Today is Monday, so you will be gone by Friday.” Carefully, she clasped her hands together to keep from hitting something. “Lock the doors and alarm the house before going to bed. Goodnight.”
“Whoa! Whoa!” Shaun shifted his impressive frame to block her path when she tried to make her grand exit.
“Shaun...” Mason’s tone was quiet, but filled with warning.
Shaun seemed to ignore him as he bore holes into Julie. He looked a whole lot more menacing with blood smearing his face and running down his chin to stain his already red skater shirt. His brown eyes were watery and bloodshot from pain and the skin around both eyes was red, swollen and tender looking. And maybe it was just the play of light and shadows, but his features were almost demonic.
“That’s all you have to say for yourself?”
Julie arched a brow with as much arrogance as she could muster and replied coolly, “Was there something else?”
“Yes!” he exclaimed, practically throwing his arms up in outrage. “How about an apology?”
Julie narrowed her eyes and cocked her head a notch to the left. “Not necessary, but
I appreciate the thought.”
Luis and Mason smothered what could only be snickers behind feigned bouts of coughing. Shaun, on the other hand, was less inclined to find her cute, or amusing.
“Not us. You!” he barked.
She had known exactly what he meant, but seeing the barely suppressed rage bubbling across his face filled her with a surge of giddy delight that was impossible to ignore, or deny herself.
“Apologize? For protecting the children in my care?” She scoffed. “I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean you don’t think so? You broke my nose, you stupid—”
All humor melted from Julie’s face as quickly as ice cream melted in the angry July sun. Her shoulders tensed even as her fingers remained relaxed and unfurled at her sides. To an onlooker, she would appear mildly perturbed, maybe even a little bored. But there was a hot twist of scalding fury seeping through her that seemed to grow hotter and brighter the longer she stared into those cold, mean eyes.
“I wouldn’t.”
The voice was hers, but even she had no knowledge of speaking the words. Yet they snapped through the room with all the warning they were meant to. It seemed to be enough to pull Shaun short in whatever insult he was about to hurl at her.
Julie felt her eyes narrow, not in anger, but deliberation, like she was trying to determine whether or not the world really needed him to reproduce someday.
“Really?” Shaun’s wide-eyed surprise liquefied into one of cutting amusement. “What are you going to do about it without your stupid bat?”
There were a lot of things she could have told him, like how she had won every kickboxing tournament for the last eight years, or maybe how she even taught it in her spare time. But she opted against it. She had nothing to prove to him. If anything, she already had.
“Okay, put the tape measure away, Shaun.” Mason stepped around the counter and moved sinuously towards the pair. His gaze was on Julie, but he continued to talk to Shaun. “I think we can all agree that this isn’t how any of us wanted this week to go, but we’re here and we have no choice, except to make the best of it.”
Kissing Trouble Page 3
