PAINE: ROSEWOOD HIGH #2

by Lorraine, Tracy

  “What’s that look for?” I didn’t realize thinking about how happy Amalie is caused my face to change, but apparently it did.

  “Nothing. Just thinking that Amalie will be with Jake. You haven’t seem them together yet, but…” I sigh, trying to find the right words. “You know when you just look at two people and know it’s it. That’s them. They’re just so... connected. It’s weird.”

  “I know exactly what you mean, baby. I was one of the last of my friends to meet the man who was to become your dad. I know how it feels to think you’re being left behind.”

  “No, that’s not it. I know I’ve got plenty of time. I’m not even eighteen yet. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.” Or hard to admit just how jealous I am of them when I once thought I had exactly the same with the boy next door.

  “Speaking of your eighteenth, young lady. The table is all booked for Friday night. Are you sure you just want it to be just the three of us? You’re more than welcome to invite some friends or—”

  I cut her off before she suggests the Paines. It’s bad enough living under the same roof, I’m not dealing with anything else. “No, just us. I’ll be seeing the girls all day Saturday, so it’s fine.”

  She eyes me curiously. When she first brought up my birthday a few weeks ago, I think she was expecting me to want a big party like Noah and invite my entire class, but honestly, I couldn’t think of anything worse than spending the night worrying about someone damaging the house or throwing up god knows where. A nice quiet weekend with my favorite people is all I need.

  One chick flick soon leads onto another, and before we know it, Dad has to come to find where his wife’s disappeared to. He makes a joke about her sneaking out of the living room to cheat on him. My stomach clenches, and although I never said the words to her, Mom reaches over and squeezes my hand in support.

  Once she’s disappeared off with Dad, I make the most of knowing Mason is out and head for the bathroom for a shower before bed. All my homework’s done, so I can hopefully get an early night so I’m ready for whatever drama is sure to come my way this week.

  The thought of having to see Noah and Tasha has my stomach turning, but not as much as having to be in the same room as Mason. My need to hurt him might just get the better of me.

  I end up tossing and turning for what feels like forever before I give up and turn my TV back on. I never had issues sleeping until all of this kicked off last weekend; now every time I close my eyes, all I can see is Mason staring at me as he told me how stupid I was, Noah as he nailed Tasha, and imagining everyone’s looks of sympathy when the truth comes out. I put my cell on silent before I made the journey home from Shane’s yesterday and I’ve stopped myself looking at it ever since. I’m pretty sure he’ll have texted, but I have no idea if he’s aware he’s been caught or if he still believes he’s getting away with it. Either way, he’s not concerned enough by my radio silence to turn up here looking for me. I take that as a sign that this is probably for the best.

  It’s sometime after midnight when my world falls into darkness. I was watching some late night chat show with some reality star I’d never heard of when there’s a click and everything goes out—the TV, the ceiling light, my night light, and the hall light. Everything.

  My chest immediately constricts as I stare into nothingness. There’s not even any moonlight filtering through the curtains.

  My hands tremble and my heart races as I sit in the middle of my bed, wrapped in my sheets, and rock, praying that everything will come back on any second.

  The seconds stretch into minutes and my panic begins to get the better of me. Realizing that sitting here in the dark is more terrifying than seeing what Noah has to say for himself, I find myself leaning over the side of my bed to find my purse. Digging around blindly inside, I wrap my fingers around my cell and pull it out, only when I go to wake it up, nothing happens. I press the power button and the only thing I get out of it is the little red flashing battery telling me that it’s dead and absolutely no help whatsoever. I did have a flashlight in my top drawer, but I took it to Dash and I can’t remember what happened to it.

  My fear increases, my breaths coming out scarily fast, but I don’t seem to drag any air back inside. Everyone else must be sleeping, and even in my panicked state, I feel ridiculous for even considering waking them. I’m almost eighteen for fuck’s sake. It’s just a little power outage, nothing’s going to ha—

  The front door slams shut and my heart jumps into my throat. I sit perfectly still, trying to hear what’s happening. I feel my pulse in every inch of my body as I wait.

  There are a few bangs before feet hit the stairs. With each step, my body flinches. I grip the sheets tightly to my chest, my nails digging into my palms despite the fabric between them.

  My door’s shut, but I still see the flash of light that appears underneath. I’m torn between running out there and confronting whatever it is that’s making light or hiding under my bed in case it’s a man who’s come to murder me under the cover of darkness.

  I’m still trying to convince myself to stay on the rational side of my imagination when it’s gone. The light goes out but there’s no noise. That is, until the click of my door has me scooting up the bed in an attempt to get away.

  The sheets raise to my mouth. Only my eyes would be showing if anyone could actually see me as I sit trembling in fear.

  The sound of another person’s breathing fills the room and I bite down on the inside of my cheeks to stop me from screaming.

  If he’s here to kill me, I hope he makes it quick, I think as footsteps get closer.

  “M-Mason, is that you?” I whisper so quietly that even if it is him, the chance of him hearing me is slim.

  Whoever it is doesn’t respond as they make their way around the bed. It’s not lost on me that they must know my room, seeing as it’s pitch black and they haven’t bumped into anything.

  “Mason?” I snap a little louder, my fear getting the better of me.

  Oh my god, oh my god, I chant to myself when the bed dips.

  His familiar scent fills my nose as he gets closer, but I don’t release the breath I’m holding. Nor do I relax. I’m still frozen in fear and waiting to see what he’s going to do.

  His hot breath sweeps over my face. The faint scent of whiskey fills my nose, but it’s not enough for him to be drunk, I don’t think. A shiver runs down my spine when his lips brush against my ear. Then softly he whispers words that take me back to another night when we were cloaked in darkness.

  “I’ll keep you safe. I’ll always keep you safe.”

  A whimper falls from my lips. I hate to admit it, but having him here with me allows me to breathe since the lights went out.

  He sits up and I hear rustling before the sheets are tugged from around me.

  “M-Mason, w-what are you doing?”

  “Shhhh.”

  My heart races, but suddenly it’s for an entirely different reason as I’m pulled down the bed so I’m lying on my back in only my silk cami and short set. Mason pushes my thighs apart with his hand, and the second they part, he settles himself between. The roughness of his jeans brushes the sensitive skin inside my thighs and my core tightens at the sensation.

  What the hell is he doing?

  The mattress dips again as he falls on top of me, his hands resting on either side of my shoulders. My breathing is incredibly loud in the silence of my bedroom, and it gives away everything that I’m feeling right now.

  Everything about this moment is so wrong, but being here in the dark with him hovering above me, I can’t help but want everything from him. Everything that was ripped away from us all those years ago.

  I. Want. It. All.

  He dips down, his lips brushing against the soft skin of my neck. My back arches at the contact, and my thighs pin him in place.

  This is wrong, a little voice screams in my head, but I push her aside and focus on the electricity racing around my body. I flex my fingers, fee
ling it all the way to the tips as he continues to kiss me.

  “Mason,” I moan when the heat of his tongue runs across my collarbone.

  Lifting my hands to find him, they connect with the hot skin of his back. I guess that explains the rustling of fabric before he climbed between my legs.

  I run my palms up his bare skin and don’t miss his entire body freeze and his breath catch at my contact. It’s nice to know he’s as affected by this as I am.

  He comes back to himself barely a second later, his lips descending toward the lace that lines my cami. My nipples pebble at the thought of him revealing them, and my cheeks heat. It doesn’t matter that it’s totally dark and he can probably only just make out the outlines of my body like I can him. The thought of being exposed to him still has butterflies erupting in my belly.

  “Mason... w-what—” His finger slips one strap from my shoulder and he pulls it low enough that the soft fabric skims over my nipple. I can’t help but arch a little at the sensation, my body begging for more.

  “Stop overthinking. Just feel. Just forget.”

  “Oh god,” I whimper, powerless to do anything but what he just instructed as the scorching heat of his tongue licks around my breast before zeroing in on my sensitive peak and sucking it deep into his mouth. A bolt of lust shoots straight down between my legs, and I fight to squeeze them together to get some friction.

  “All in good time.”

  My other strap follows the same path as the first, and he’s soon giving my other breast the same treatment. I writhe beneath him, desperate for more, for everything.

  Crazy thoughts start filling my head, despite my attempt to do as he said and forget.

  Am I willing to give myself over to the boy who’s hated me for the past four years?

  Is this the reason I held off with Noah?

  Was it always meant to be Mason despite what’s happened between us?

  By the time he starts kissing down my belly, I only just about hold myself back from pushing him lower. I may not have done this before, but I know damn well what I need, and if last night against his bedroom wall taught me anything, it’s that I need him between my legs right fucking now.

  Not even a second later, his fingers wrap around the waistband of my shorts and he tugs them and my wet panties down my thighs.

  Instead of telling him no, like I probably should, I lift my hips to assist him with his mission.

  My cheeks burn so much that I feel it on my neck as he crawls down the bed, lying on his front so he’s in line with my core.

  Holy shit, this is happening.

  He blows a stream of air across me and I damn near fall apart from that alone. I moan, rolling my hips, needing some kind of friction to put an end to this delicious torture. Of all the horrible things he’s done to me over the past few years, holding out on me right now might be the worst. If he were to stop and walk out right now, I’m not sure I could be held accountable for my actions.

  Just as I start to believe that’s actually going to happen, his fingertips dig into my thighs as he reaches forward and runs his tongue up the length of me. He moans like I’m the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted before moving closer and flattening his tongue against my clit.

  I cry out, totally forgetting where we are and who I could wake up. Grabbing the pillow beside me, I cover my mouth as he starts to increase the tempo. He licks, sucks, bites, and teases my entrance with both his tongue and fingers. He builds me up until the tension in my body is at breaking point before slowing his movements down and allowing it to subside.

  “Mason, please, please.” My cries for more are muffled by the pillow still covering my mouth, so I have no idea if he can hear me or not. If he can, he sure doesn’t listen. Why am I not surprised?

  His fingers thrust deep and he curls them inside me as he goes to town on my clit. I scream and allow myself to fall at his skilled touch.

  My back arches, my hips grind against him and my nails dig into my pillow as I ride out wave after wave of pleasure. My fear about the dark forgotten, my anxiety about what tomorrow brings long gone, the only thing I feel right now is what he’s done to me. It’s an incredible feeling until I start to come down from my high and realization sets in.

  What the fuck did I just do?

  20

  Mason

  The second my tongue connects with her clit, I realize something. I’m addicted.

  If I thought tasting her off my fingers last night was mind blowing, then I don’t even know what this is.

  It wasn’t my intention to come in here, drag her down the bed and have her basically ride my face as I licked at her, but the second I stepped into the room with the noble intention of making sure she was sleeping soundly in the darkness I came home to and the sounds of her labored breathing hit my ears, I knew there wasn’t any chance that she was asleep.

  I remember all too well how scared of the dark she is, and I might be an asshole but there was no way I could be on the other side of the wall and try to ignore the fact that she’d be here terrified.

  I thought I probably owed it to her to make her feel safe. I stupidly thought that if she was awake maybe she’d just let me sit with her to keep her calm like when we were kids, but it was all shot to shit when I discovered how worked up she was.

  Her cry of pleasure is unintelligible, but I like to think it’s my name she’s screaming into the pillow. Her legs try to close around me, but I press my palms down against them and continue licking at her gently until she’s come down from her high.

  I think it’s safe to say that this is one blackout I’m not going to forget for a very long time.

  My cock strains against the fabric of my pants, desperate to find the same relief she has from the fucked up foreplay we’ve had going on recently.

  I know I don’t deserve to be here right now, but my need to try to make her feel safe was too much to bear, especially after discovering what Noah’s really been up to only last night. She needs this escape more than ever, and if I’m being totally honest, last night wasn’t enough for me. I needed this, and fuck if I don’t need more.

  She slowly stops twitching against me, the pillow falls from the face, and her fingers thread into my hair to drag me up. My heart pounds and my cock aches to find out if she’s going to continue this, if she’s going to give me everything I’ve wanted since I was a horny fourteen-year-old boy.

  I pull back, a smug smile on my face at what I just got to experience. Lifting my hand, I wipe the back of it across my mouth but it doesn’t reach the other side because a click sounds and then we’re both blinded as the bright lights of her room come back to life.

  Neither of us says anything, but our eyes immediately lock. Embarrassment, and, I hate to say it, regret fill her. Her hands fly up to cover her breasts, and I almost groan in frustration.

  “Cami.” I fight like hell to keep my eyes on hers and not allowing them to drop to her exposed body like I’m desperate to do. I’ve had my hands on almost every part of her body, I know exactly how she feels; now all I need is to see her incredibly sexy curves without the cover of clothing.

  “Get out,” she whispers, her eyes widening even further. She fights to get away, but my hands land on her hip, pinning her in place. Her chest heaves and her breaths race past her lips as her eyes search mine, trying to read me.

  “Cami, don’t—”

  “I said get out.” Her voice is stronger this time, and I start to believe that she really means it. My stomach drops with disappointment. “That was probably the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Now get the hell out of my bedroom. You’re not welcome in here.”

  “But I—” She pins me with a vicious look and my words falter. Nothing I can say right now is going to change her mind. Camila might be a lot of things, and stubborn is most definitely one of them.

  The second I begin crawling from the bed, she reaches out for the sheets and wraps them around her. Only her head pokes out the top.

  My c
ock tents the front of my pants, and when I look over, her eyes are zeroed in on the bulge. Well, what did she expect after allowing me to taste her?

  I’m pulling the door open when her soft voice fills the room. I don’t look back, I don’t dare to, because I know all I’ll want to do is climb back under those sheets with her and continue.

  “Don’t get the wrong idea about this. This is nothing, and it will not be happening again.”

  I hear her warning loud and clear, and I can’t help that it fires me up to prove her wrong.

  Camila Lopez was mine from the first moment I laid eyes on her. It was always inevitable, and it’s about time I started proving that she feels the same.

  With the weight of the world on my shoulders, and a raging hard-on, I head straight for the bathroom in the hope that jacking off in the shower might at least take the edge off.

  It’s wishful thinking, because as I stand under the cold stream of water with my length in my hand, the only thing I can think of is how tight she’d be as I slide into her. How she’d feel as she came around me.

  Tingles run down my spine and my balls draw up and I spill my seed into the shallow water at my feet. But her taste is still on my tongue, so the second I come, I’m fucking hard again.

  I had girls hanging off me at Ethan’s the past two nights. I could have easily taken one of them up to a bedroom to help clear my mind, but something stopped me. I hate to admit it, but that someone was her. Especially tonight, knowing that she was probably sitting at home still thinking about Noah and how he could betray her like that. I shouldn’t have even gone to Ethan’s. My heart ached to stay home and make sure she was okay, even if it was from the safety of my bedroom while she was next door.

  “Fuck,” I roar when I get into my bedroom with only a towel wrapped around my waist. I slam my fist into the solid wood and revel in the mind numbing pain that shoots up my arm.