CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Everything transgressed from hug into kiss so seamlessly, I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Mason sank his hands into my hair and held my head steady as his lips worshiped mine. After I shifted my face just enough to align our lips better, he moaned out a needy sound. His mouth wasn’t demanding but begging, and I couldn’t handle letting him beg. So I opened up, and we deepened the moment.

I couldn’t stop kissing him. Our mouths took on the intimate dance of getting to know each other, learning each hidden crevice and sensitive nook. One wet embrace bled into another, until we both had to come up for air. And even then, we held each other, our cheeks pressed firmly together as our hands skated over clothes until they found their way under them.

His chest was sleek and warm, so taut under my fingers. I needed to know every muscle and freckle he had. Catching the bottom of his shirt, I pulled it up. He lifted his arms to help me, and a second later, he was shirtless.

I sucked in a breath, just staring. “You are so…beautiful.”

He reached out and pulled me back to him. “Not nearly as beautiful as you.”

My fingers became addicted to touching him. He felt so good.

Mason pressed his mouth to my closed eyelids, my cheeks, my forehead, my chin. As he began down my neck, I slid my hands around to the base of his spine. Pressing my palms flat against heated flesh, I lowered them, dipping into the back waistband of his jeans.

He sucked in a breath and clutched my face with one palm. His other hand shifted up the inside of my shirt to my bra, and under the cup. Arching against him, I—

A ringing from his front pocket startled me into yelping. I tugged my fingers from his pants and jerked back.

Mason’s jaw went tense. He closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. Slowly, he slid his hand out from under my shirt. His gaze flickered up to watch my face as he made sure the backs of his fingers trailed along my abdomen before they left me. Only then did he yank his phone from his pocket. When he looked at the screen, his face drained of color.

I knew it was over then. Whatever farce of a relationship we’d just started had shattered. Because he had a client on the line.

Turning his back to me, Mason pressed the phone to his ear. He didn’t answer, but his caller must’ve known he was on the line because I heard a muted female voice saying something to him. A second later, he spun toward the nearest window and jerked the blinds down, nearly yanking them from the wall in his rush.

“Whatever,” he hissed and disconnected before he flung his phone onto the counter as if it was contaminated. “Damn it.” He kicked the wall and ran his hand through his hair.

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to hear the truth aloud, even though I already knew.

“We had an eavesdropper,” he said, his voice low and barely controlled with a wrath that surprised me.

When he glanced toward the closed window blinds, it struck me.

Oh, God.

I set my hand over my mouth. “Mrs. Garrison?”

He nodded. “Apparently, she didn’t like seeing us kiss.”

Ripping my fingers from my lips, I balled them into a fist. “Then maybe she shouldn’t have ~watched~.”

Mason bent down and snagged up his shirt. “I have to go. I got the royal summons from the wicked bitch herself.” As he yanked the cloth back over his head, making his sexy tousled hair look even sexier, I wilted.

It was hard to believe I’d just had my hands in that hair. And now he was going to let another woman put her hands in it.

Shaking my head, I denied that this moment was happening. “You’re not really going over there, are you?”

“I ~have~ to, Reese. She owns this house. She owns my mother, and Sarah, and me. I have to see what she wants.”

Well, that wasn’t hard to guess. The cougar pimp wanted ~him~.

“She may own this house, but she doesn’t own you, or your family. You do ~not~ have to go over there.”

“I’m just going to see what she wants. That’s all.” When he glanced at me, his expression turned vulnerable and uncertain. “Will you be here when I get back?”

My mouth fell open. “Are you on crack? Hell, no, I won’t be here! You ~know~ what she wants, Mason. She wants you naked in her bed. If she’d wanted anything else, she would’ve told you over the phone, or better yet, she wouldn’t have interrupted our kiss at all.”

From the stubborn look on his face, I knew I hadn’t convinced him to stay. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes. I won’t even go inside her house.”

I turned away. “Fine. Whatever. Go over there. Fuck her. I don’t care. I’m out of here.”

I swiped my purse off the table and marched toward the back door.

“Reese.” He lunged after me and wrapped his arms around me from behind. His chest was so warm, and so Mason, I almost melted on the spot. “Don’t leave like this. Please don’t leave like this. I promise you, I will not sleep with her. I don’t care what she tries to hang over my head. I just want to tell her to leave me alone.”

Shaking my head, I snorted out a sound of disbelief. “And you could have told her to leave you alone over the phone too.”

His arms tightened around me. “Reese. Please.”

I closed my eyes and pulled up every ounce of willpower I had inside me. “You might not have charged me a fee, but kissing you is too big of a price for me. I didn’t sign up for this. Now let me go.”

He sobbed out a choked sound against my back but loosened his arms. I squirmed free of the rest of his hold and stumbled toward the door, shoving my way outside.

I didn’t look back once. I know, my willpower even startled me. When I got behind the steering wheel of my car and started the engine, I didn’t look up at his house. I simply put the gear into drive and pulled away from the curb.

I got a block and a half down the street before my hands started to shake. Gritting my teeth, I pulled to the curb and called myself every vile name in the book. Then I killed the engine and yanked the door open to stumble out into the warm evening. I sprinted all the way back to his house, my chest heaving, unable to stay away.

Hey, I never claimed to be a wise, rational person.

Yeah, okay, this probably topped my impulsive list. Going back there was the cherry on the double fudge icing of my stupid cake.

I was stupid, stupid, stupid. ~I know~!

But I had to see if he was really going to go to her. I just had to.

Keeping close to the shadows, I stole into his back yard. I almost threw up when I saw his back door open.

A Mason-shaped figure darted to the gate separating his yard from hers.

I couldn’t believe it. He ~was~ going to her. After everything he’d just confessed to me—

“Can you make this little talk quick?” Mason snapped. “My sister is home alone.”

I tiptoed closer to the gate and kept just out of sight.

“Well, it looks like you’re already worked up and ready to go,” the evil voice of Patricia Garrison cooed back. “So, don’t worry. I doubt it’ll take us long at all.”

“~It’s~ not going to happen.” Mason’s voice was hard and unforgiving. “And do you mind never spying on me again? Your rude-creepy vibe just went through the roof.”

“I thought you said the little babysitter was just your friend.”

“And I thought I said it was none of your ~damn~ business. That part’s still true.”

“Tsk, tsk. There’s no reason to be insolent, Mason.”

“Jesus, why do you care if I get a girlfriend or not? What do you care if I have sex with every female in Florida? You’re the one who sent me to other women in the first place.”

“But, darling, sex is not the problem. Everything would’ve been perfectly fine if you’d only screwed her and moved on. It’s you falling in love with her that’s the problem. Because once you fall in love, you’ll want to be all monogamous or some such horseshit. I know you, you will. And judging by the way you look at her, you already have. But I can’t allow it. I can’t allow some silly little twit cheerleader of a girl to play havoc on ~my~ extracurricular activities. I’m not finished with you yet.”

“Well, I assumed you were. You brought your fiancé over to Sarah’s party and paraded him around in front of my mother like you were taunting her for not having her own man. You don’t ~need~ me anymore.”

“Mason, Mason, Mason, you poor deluded boy. You couldn’t be further from the truth. Ted is a dear, sweet man. Rich, charming, handsome. In fact, I will love being married to him.”

“Then you probably shouldn’t cheat on him.”

“But, sweetie. I won’t be able to help it. He just doesn’t do it for me in the bedroom. Not the way I’ve trained you to. I need you more than you realize.”

“Well, that’s too bad, because I’m never touching you again. We haven’t been behind on our rent in over a year.”

“Well…with inflation and the economy the way it is, I’m afraid I might have to raise your rent.”

“I don’t care. We’ll pay it. Whatever it is. And if it gets too ridiculous, we’ll just ~move~. You have no hold over me whatsoever.”

From the shadows, I fisted my hand and pumped it into the air, silently cheering him on. ~You go, Lowe! Keep it up~.

“Is that so?” Mrs. Garrison gave a small, amused laugh. “And what if I called a certain police officer I know to tell him about an illegal prostitution scandal going on over at the country club?”

Mason’s return chuckle was low and hard. “Go ahead, Patricia. I don’t give a damn. I’ve already stopped taking clients anyway. No one is going to arrest me for speculation and since I’m finished, no one can catch me in the act.”

“Wow, you think you have it all figured out, don’t you?”

“Yeah, for once, I do. Now when are ~you~ going to get it through your thick head that it’s over? I will ~never~ have sex with you again. There’s nothing you can say or do to get me to walk back into your house.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Really. Because I was just about to tell you I know your girlfriend’s little secret.”

~Say what?~

My skin went ice cold as I crept closer to the gate, peeking through the cracks to see Mason’s stiff back as he faced the half-opened back door, unintentionally blocking his landlady from my view.

He sounded suspicious and leery when he demanded, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Nothing, really. I mean, I’m sure she’s told you all about Teresa Margaret Nolan. Hasn’t she?”

“Oh, my God.” I slapped my hands over my mouth to muffle my shock.

~She knew~.

How in God’s name did she ~know~?

“Who?” Mason asked, sounding clueless.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. This wasn’t happening. He wasn’t finding out the truth from ~her~.

“Oh, Mason.” Mrs. Garrison tsked, sounding wickedly delighted. “Didn’t she ever tell you her ~real~ name? That concerns me. It doesn’t sound as if there’s enough trust and honesty in your sweet little monogamous relationship if the girl hasn’t even told you she legally changed her name to Reese Alison Randall just a few short months ago. I mean, not that I blame her. If my ex-boyfriend tried to kill me and promised he’d finish the job the next time he saw me, well, I’d probably run halfway across the country and change my name too.”

“No,” Mason said, his voice trembling with uncertainty.

Tears filled my lashes. I wiped at them desperately, my heart breaking because he was learning the truth like this. ~I~ was supposed to be the one to tell him.

“You think I’m making this up?” His pimp laughed. “He cut her. With a knife. It was actually life threatening; she was in the hospital for over a week. I’m sure you’ve seen the scar. It’s somewhere on her neck, I believe.”

Mason’s thick silence killed me. A second later, he croaked, “Oh, God. What happened?”

Mrs. Garrison made a sympathetic sound. “Your girl has quite the taste in boys, let me tell you. It was nasty. Nasty business indeed. I guess they were high school sweethearts, and all was well with that until he started to get a little too controlling for her taste. The first time she tried to break up with him, her sophomore year, he dislocated her jaw. The second time, during her senior year, he broke her arm…after pushing her down a flight of stairs.”

More tears trickled down my cheeks. But how in God’s name did this woman know so much about me? Where had she gotten her information?

“That’s when she finally decided enough was enough. But he still refused to take no for an answer. He stalked her and harassed her for months after she dumped him until he broke into her parents’ house to kill her. And he nearly succeeded.”

“Jesus,” Mason rasped.

“Miss Teresa missed her high school graduation because she was in the hospital. And her naughty boyfriend got out on bail almost immediately. So she skipped town with a new name. And since the case against him was dropped, Mr. Jeremy Walden has been completely pardoned. Ergo, he started looking for her. Her parents’ home was broken into last week. I’ll give you three guesses who I think did it.”

Mason’s voice wavered as he asked, “Did he find anything?”

The landlady hummed. “It’s hard to say, though I will tell you, that boy will do anything, ~anything~, to get his Reese’s Pieces back.”

The name Jeremy had always called me made me gag. I clutched my stomach and closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe through my mouth until the nausea subsided.

“Just think, Mason. If he almost killed her when he was in love with her and wanted to ~rekindle~ their relationship, just think what he’ll do this time, now that he wants revenge. Wouldn’t it be awful—simply horrible—if someone accidently ~leaked~ her whereabouts?”

I swayed and would’ve gone down if I hadn’t clutched the gate latch for support.

“You wouldn’t,” Mason warned.

“Of course I wouldn’t, sweetheart.” Mrs. Garrison’s insulted voice sounded fake.

I dug my nails into the metal handle, wanting to reach out and physically hurt her.

“I would never do anything to upset you. Not when you’re going to give me what I want.” Her tone changed from cajoling to severe in an instant. “Right?”

“No!” I cried out, shoving my way into her backyard.

“Reese?” Mason spun around and caught my elbow. Pulling me close, he wrapped his arms around me tight. “Christ. What’re you doing here?”

I clung to him, my tears soaking his shirt. “You said yourself. My curiosity has no filter. I had to know if you were really going to go to her.”

“Damn it,” he muttered even as his hands turned gentle and he held me against him, petting my hair. “How much did you hear?”

“All of it. And you can’t sleep with her. You told her no. That should be enough. She’s blackmailing you. What she’s doing is…it’s demented. It’s a violation of you in the most personal, private, vile way imaginable. I refuse to just stand here and let you fall for this, especially because of me.”

He didn’t answer, simply held me close as I trembled and sobbed against him. When he cupped my face and drew far enough away to look into my eyes, a bad feeling crept up my spine.

He looked…resigned. “Is it true?”

Another tear slipped down my cheek. I should’ve told him she’d made everything up. But I couldn’t lie to him. Not ever again.

“Yes.” I sniffed as more tears fell. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you sooner, but—”

“Shh. It’s okay. It’s all right.” He kissed my forehead. Then his fingers chased a teardrop down my jaw before skimming around to the back of my neck so he could touch my scar. A choked sob left his throat. “I swear, Reese. I’ll never let him find you. He won’t ever hurt you again.”

Then he dropped his hand from me and took a step back. The sorrow and pain in his eyes told me goodbye. Forever.

“Mason.” I reached for him.

He whirled away and marched toward Mrs. Garrison’s back door. She rested her half-dressed body against the doorjamb, and when he strode past her, his shoulder cracked against hers, knocking her off balance, before he disappeared inside.

“Perfect timing, Teresa,” Mrs. Garrison purred as she straightened herself. “I love it when he’s riled up…all wild and untamed, and extra aggressive. There’s just something so ~sensual~ about that boy when his passion has been unleashed.” She shivered and let out a dreamy sigh. “Thank you.” Then she too turned away and shut the door.

I stood there, staring at her house, trembling from head to toe.

Vibrating with outrage, I wanted to explode. I wanted to scream. I wanted to race inside and drag him back out, away from that evil, evil woman.

But he’d made his decision.

He’d chosen her.

And he’d done it for me.