by Stella Rhys
“Anyway, it’s kind of funny right?” Whitney asked. “Pretty soon you’ll be the only girl who’s been used and dumped by both Leo brothers. Impressive, honestly, but also kind of fucking tragic, if you ask me.” Clucking with mock sympathy, Whitney giggled to herself. Then she grabbed a bottle of water and waltzed back out just as Noah came in trashed. Holding a bottle of tequila, he barely registered brushing past Whitney on the way in. But he did stop and notice me, frowning curiously.
“Couldn’t find the bathroom?”
I ignored him. “Can I have some of that?”
He looked down at his half-empty bottle. “Thought you only drank wine.”
I clenched my jaw. “Nope. Wanna pour me a shot?”
His eyes were barely open at this point but he managed a grin and nodded toward the counter. “Why the fuck not? Show me what you got, Simms.”
So one after another, he poured me shots. And one after another, they burned the memories away.
Chapter Ten
If she weren’t wasted herself, Sofia would’ve murdered Noah. But since she was in fact quite wasted, she joined us in the penthouse with an exuberant whoop, knocking back her first round as I did my third. I closed my eyes, shuddering at the liquid scorching my throat and leaving a trail of fire as it trickled down to my chest.
“Are you happy?” Sofia whispered to me in that kid-like voice that came out when she was truly drunk. “Tell me you’re happy.”
I laughed. “Quite the opposite, but it’s okay.”
“What? Why?” she gasped with genuine puppy eyes. “You have everything right now! You have that necklace and Mason and me and…” She trailed off, oblivious to so much I wished I could just tell her the truth right now – that Mason and I weren’t real. Nowhere close. The necklace was purchased half out of the need to legitimize our image and half out of curiosity to fuck me. He was still a prick of a human being yet tragically, he was still much better than his brother, my ex-fiancé who had apparently been secretly bitter and hiding resentment for my lack of libido during the worst time of my life – a time that again, could have been avoided if I could just get that one night back.
But you’re an idiot, an idiot, I sang in my head, my chest hot and my head spinning as I let Sofia take my hand and spin me around in a silly dance, our fingers entwined and our heels clacking all over the floor. The room was a carousel around me as I laughed, and when she accidentally let go of me, I yelped only to find myself slamming right into a hard body with strong arms that caught me before I could hit the ground.
“What’s going on?” I looked up at my catcher. Mason. Of course. His hard eyes were glued to Noah, who was still pouring shots at the counter. He flicked his stare to Sofia for a second before looking down at me, his look one of concern mixed with anger. “You said you didn’t have a tolerance left, Taylor. How much did you just drink?”
“Not a lot,” I said defensively.
“But enough!” Sofia cackled. Mason shot her a look but his attention snapped back to me when I wrestled out of his grip. Catching my hand, he pulled me back to him.
“Get her coat for me, Noah,” he said. “We’re going home.”
“Why?” I challenged. “I don’t want to go home, and I certainly don’t want to go home with you.”
“If this is something about your misinterpretation of what I said outside, we can easily clear it up but before we do that, you should probably drink some water and I should probably get you home,” I muttered.
“Misinterpretation?” I ignored the rest of what he said. “I’m not sure exactly how someone can misinterpret the words ‘fuck me or fuck off.’”
“Was that what I said?” Mason glowered, ignoring Sofia’s tipsy plea to be nice.
“Just about.”
Mason lowered his voice. “Look, I don’t know what’s got you acting particularly fucking difficult but if it has anything to do with Whitney or something she might’ve said when she came in here, you should just fucking let it go. She’s petty and immature and she should be nobody to you.”
She’s far from nobody, but you’d know that if you cared to ask. “Alright, Mason, let’s just drop it, okay? Whatever happens to me or has happened to me is none of your business and you’ve made that clear,” I muttered just as Sofia inserted herself between us.
“Hey, hey, hey. Come on, guys. I don’t know what’s going on but I sense that we all need to just breathe and cool down a bit, right?”
“Yeah, go jump in the pool or something,” Noah said, knocking back another shot. It was a sarcastic suggestion but Sofia gasped as I blinked the tequila burn from my eyes, surprised by the fact that – fuck it, I wanted to do exactly that. I wanted to dive into crystal clear water and just wash this grimy, nasty feeling away. I wanted to sink till I hit rock bottom, found my fresh start and burst back above the surface a brand new woman no longer haunted by Aaron or Whitney or any other demons of my past.
“You can barely stand, let alone swim right now.” Mason pulled me tight with a look of controlled anger on his face. “Listen to me, Taylor. I want to take you home and make sure you’re fine. I want that more than anything right now, okay? So will you fucking let me?”
I stared into his eyes, struck by how earnest he could sound despite the profanity. But then I reminded myself to stop letting him charm me and trick me and fuck my mind up more than it could probably afford anymore.
And before I knew it, I was hand in hand with a whooping Sofia. She was jovial and exuberant and everything I wanted to be as our heeled feet made their way to the edge of the pool. Mason trailed behind us. I could hear him coming, already regretting his decision to let go of me. His footsteps were faster, more urgent than ours, but we had the head start and the tequila-inspired tunnel vision. We wanted water and that was what we were going to get.
“Taylor!”
Mason’s voice was incensed behind me but it was too late because my feet had left the ground. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut, and I heard the collective cheer of the crowd around us before the incredible splash. Then there was total blissful silence. My skin stung and my eyes closed as I floated, my arms out at my sides. I felt Sofia’s fingertips brushing against mine. I tickled them back. I pretended for as long as I was submerged that I was nothing but happy, and I didn’t actually live a life of mostly embarrassment and suffocating regret. I wanted to imagine a different childhood too, but there was a crescendo of voices that grew from above, and I felt the lack of air expanding my chest and creeping up my throat till my lips broke wide open, letting water flood in a second before I burst back to the surface with a gasp.
“Oh my God!” Sofia burst into breathless laughter as her hands found mine. Fingers entwined and heads bobbing above water, our eyes found Mason as he stared down at just me. “Oh shit, he took his shoes off,” Sofia whispered with a giggle as I realized that Mason had been a second from coming in after me. Maybe I looked drunk enough to forget how to swim. Maybe he thought diamonds melted in chlorine. Whatever it was, I was surprised, blinking water from my lashes, letting the tension build between us as I continued staring up at him.
When it was finally time to get out, it was Noah who grabbed our hands and pulled us back onto ground. I ignored the heat of Mason’s stare from where he sat now, giving no attention to the grins and nudges of other guys who were now watching me and Sofia walk around like dual winners of the wettest T-shirt contest on Earth.
“You’re in trouble now,” Sofia sang, covering her mouth. “And I’m only laughing because that’s my bad habit when I’m drunk and nerv – oop!” Toppling in her heels, she took me down with her. I gasped but snorted hard once I hit the ground on my ass, finally lost in my stupor, my mind almost as blank as I wanted to be. A dozen guys were rushing forward to help us up now, and I knew the kindness had every bit to do with my soaking cleavage but I didn’t care. I let them help us up and catch me when I gasped again, processing the pain in the ankle I’d twisted during my fall.
&nb
sp; But then I heard footsteps and the second Mason’s voice said, “I’ve got it,” the other hands fell away and before I knew what was happening, I was being lifted off the floor. Playful whistles followed Mason as he scooped me up and took me away from the pool, carrying me like a feather despite my soaking wet everything. Gross. I felt the squishiness in my thigh-high boots and longed immediately to strip them off my legs. Luckily, Noah was already leading us to the guest rooms to get cleaned up and changed.
Downstairs, despite Sofia’s insistence that she change in the same room as me, Noah dragged her to a separate one, making her giggle by saying, “The grown-ups need to talk.” Then he exchanged a look with Mason before leaving him alone in a room with me.
The second the door closed behind us, I found myself feeling painfully sober.
I was alone with Mason. Soaking wet, pissed and alone with the six feet and two inches of hard fury standing silently before me. My throat tightened as I took him in, looking like a warrior. His shoulders broadened and his muscles strained against his V-neck with every breath he took in. He set me right on fire with his stare, his steely eyes starting at the tips of my boots before dragging up my legs inch by inch. I could see his fury mix with desire as his gaze traveled up my stomach to my chest, settling on the diamond still sitting peacefully on my chest as if nothing even happened. Reaching between my breasts, I touched the stone.
“Why did you even buy it for me?” The question came out suddenly, without me realizing. It hung in the air as Mason gave himself another second to stare at my wet skin.
“To make you feel good.”
“What kind of good?”
“The kind that reminds you that you should never feel disposable. Or used.”
I swallowed at the rasp in his voice. I knew what I wanted to ask next but I wasn’t sure if I had the guts. There was another long, thick silence before I mustered up the courage. “Are you just trying to fuck me?”
Mason paused. “Is that why you think I bought the diamond?”
“Yes.”
Eyes glinting, a sneer curled his lips. “Of course,” he muttered bitterly. “You’re as irrational as you are fucking impossible to please.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He ignored me. “Take your dress off. You’ll get sick.”
“Turn around,” I said impatiently. When he did, I glared at the sculpted V of his back, furious as I peeled my dress off my body. “Tell me what the hell you meant.”
From the back, I could see him running his hand over his jaw. “What do you think, Taylor?” There was gravel and disdain in his voice. “You don’t see rationally when it comes to me. You never have. No matter what I do, I’m the bad guy, but aside from the fact that I have a dick and like sex, I’m actually kind of fucking lost on what I ever did to you.”
I stared at the back of his head, my jumble of angry thoughts and bottled memories piecing into an answer. “‘Put yourself out of your misery,’” I hissed, shoving the ring of soaked cotton down my waist and off my hips. “I heard you say it to Aaron at his birthday party, Mase. Two years ago. He was miserable, he just got passed up for a promotion at work and he pulled you aside. I was around the corner when you told him he could be fucking any woman he wanted if he just ended it with me. If he just put himself out of his misery.” Fresh tears stung my eyes and my voice was shaking but I forced myself to go on. “And guess what? He asked for a break the next week and during that break, he came an inch from cheating on me with Whitney Decker, a girl who is one of a million reasons I wish I could rewind my life to before that fucking break because everything was fine before it happened and then after, everything was shit. Everything was pain and regret and confusion – is that explanation enough for you?” I demanded furiously, my emotions on such a high that I didn’t flinch when Mason turned around. I didn’t move as I stood there in a soaked bra and panties, my dress puddled at my heeled feet, because his blazing eyes were nowhere on my body – they locked intensely on my stare as it challenged him to somehow explain himself.
“For Christ’s sake, Taylor, it wasn’t unprompted.”
“What wasn’t?”
“What you heard that night. I said it only because Aaron was bitching to me for weeks by that point about how he made a mistake. How settling down so fast made him realize how much pussy was still out there. He was the only person standing in his way of being single but if he wanted to fuck things up, I told him to go fucking ahead. To get it over with if he really wanted to get rid of the best thing he had going. And I’m guessing those were the crucial words you didn’t hear that night. All that said I didn’t cause your damned break, Taylor. I didn’t cause all the problems that happened during your break and whatever they were, I didn’t cause the ones that happened after so maybe it’s time to stop using me as a fucking scapegoat,” Mason hissed, taking a heavy step forward. “And while we’re getting things straight here, let me tell you again that I didn’t buy that necklace to get you in bed. I’m not trying to fuck you. Don’t get me wrong, I want to. I’ve wanted to for a long goddamned while and I’ve pictured you in bed more times than you want to imagine but trust me, if I was trying to fuck you, Taylor, you’d know it,” Mason growled, the heat of his words coating my skin. “Now are there any other assumptions you’ve made about me that you’d like disputed or are we fucking done here?”
I wet my lips, the air in the room feeling too thick to breathe.
Shit.
Shit, hell, fuck.
I should’ve known. I really should’ve. Considering I was hardly surprised to hear it now, I should have at least suspected that Aaron was the bigger monster all along. The whole time, the man I forced myself to believe was so perfect was actually still talking to Whitney when he said he wasn’t. He was complaining about me during the worst pain of my life and apparently, he had never stopped wondering about all the “pussy that was still out there.” But I let myself stay blind because I thought I needed him then. I thought I owed him, so I held on.
And all for this.
“I’m done,” I finally said, my throat tight, my chest weighed in shame as I thought about that one conversation – that one stupid, incomplete memory that had skewed my every future impression of Mason. My mouth opened and closed as I tried to find my apology but nothing came so I simply murmured, “I’m sorry.”
But with just two words, something shifted between us. The air was breathable now but my breath was ragged as I watched Mason slowly come down from his rage – at least enough to notice my wet, heaving breasts in just a lace bra before him. An ache pulsed between my thighs as I watched desire mix with fury on his face as he stared me down.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I was wrong and I’m sure I was irrational,” I whispered, pushing my wet hair off my shoulders and meeting his eye. “But I don’t think I’m that hard to please.”
He lifted his eyes to me. “Is that right?” The huskiness of his voice prickled over my skin. I breathed out hard and with a lust I knew he heard because suddenly he moved in so close my breasts were just pressed against his hard body. “You asking me to try?” My lip quivered as he hooked a finger into my panties. “Say the word and I’ll give you every pleasure Aaron never came close to giving you. I’ll make your pussy wetter than it’s ever been in your life.”
My pulse was hammering, my breaths shaky as a result. But I forced myself to speak. “Do it.”
I’d barely answered before Mason crushed his mouth over mine, tearing down the cups of my bra and molding his hands over my breasts. He squeezed mercilessly as he swept his tongue through me, along every corner of my mouth, sparking blasts of heat throughout my shivering body. But as quickly as he kissed me, he pulled away, pinning his eyes to mine as he murmured, “Turn around for me.”
Breathless, I obliged, staring down the length of the bed as I felt Mason sink to a crouch behind me. As he unzipped my boots and peeled them off my legs, I felt his breath travel up my inner thighs. T
hat alone felt so good I could hardly stand. “Step out,” Mason murmured. Again, I did as I was told and heard my heavy heels set aside on the hardwood floor before Mason spoke again. “Bend over for me.”
My hands slid up the silk sheets as I bent over the bed, my mouth parting wider as I felt his fingers pull down my panties. I squeezed handfuls of sheets as I stepped out of my panties, feeling the air hit my most sensitive parts already throbbing with need. I was so exposed, so incredibly vulnerable and to a man I was sure I hated five minutes ago.
“You’re fucking perfect,” Mason murmured, his voice a mixture of filthy lust and pure awe. “You’re so fucking wet.”
I nodded eagerly, a desperate sound pleading from my lips. My fists pulsed around the silk as I waited for him, anticipation thrumming like flames under my skin – until slowly, slowly I felt the heat of Mason’s breath on my sex.
The first lick arched my back hard. “Oh God,” I moaned, pulling the sheets. I pulled sharper with the second lick – this one longer, wetter and more torturous than the last. “Please keep going, Mase, please don’t stop,” I begged breathlessly.
“I haven’t started,” he murmured against my pussy, his hands squeezing up the backs of my thighs, grabbing handfuls of my ass and spreading me further apart. My toes curled against the hardwood as he made me wait another second for his tongue. With a whimper, I writhed against the sheets. I could still feel his breath hot against me so I arched my back further for him, spreading my legs wider, silently begging him to lick me again.
The second I lost hope he squeezed my ass and plunged his tongue deep into my pussy.
“Mason!” I gasped, hugging silk to my breasts as he laved against me, greediness in his pace as he licked me, coaxing every drop of my arousal onto that wicked tongue. Holy fucking shit. I couldn’t believe the sensation surging my body as I lay on my stomach for Mason, giving him full control and letting him tunnel inside me so deep I could hardly breathe.
