here.”
“Really?” Jasmine sounded curious. “What was it?”
“Him jacking off.” She snorted. “Dumb idiot. That’s going viral. Douche will be haunted by that for years.”
“You’re so mean to your little brother. You should be nicer to him.”
“And you should be meaner to your sister. She treats you like dirt, Jaz.”
“Seriously, guys!” Kate yelled out. “Help me find her clothes or it’ll be over for all of us.”
“For the last effing time,” Natalie barked back. “What are you talking about?”
“Her clothes.” I could hear the venom dripping from her voice. I enjoyed it. “They’re gone.”
“So’s the doll thing.”
“What?”
“The doll thing.”
I shook my head. Parker had no idea what she was pointing out.
Kate spat out again, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The doll,” Parker yelled back. “It was here. So were her clothes.”
“I put her clothes on the floor. Where’d you put the mannequin?”
“Here. I just told you. Listen.”
“The mannequin was supposed to go DOWNSTAIRS,” Kate screamed again. “They took it. They took it all. Oh my god. Oh my god. I’m going to kill someone.”
“What are you talking about?” Natalie’s voice rose in alarm. “They? You think that cunt came in here?”
“Mason and Logan. Are you a complete idiot? She told them. Shit. Fuck.” Kate went through a slew of curse words. “They came in here and took them.”
“Oh crap.”
“Exactly.”
“You think they did anything else?” Parker questioned, a small twinge of fear crept into her tone.
Kate laughed now. “Probably.” It came out sounding like she was being strangled. “We’re screwed. She told Mason. He’s going to screw us.”
“Calm down,” Natalie clipped out. “Let’s calm down and think about this. We’re not screwed yet.”
“We are. We sooo are. He’s going to do something horrible to us. I know it. We’re so screwed.”
“No, we’re not. He has no idea what we were going to do—”
“Yes, he did,” Kate continued yell. “It’s why he came here in the first place. I can’t believe that bitch told him.”
“I would, if I was her,” Jasmine commented. “I mean, come on. We’re mean. You can’t blame the girl.”
“Whose side are you on?” Kate and Natalie said at the same time.
There was silence before she replied, “Yours. My friends.”
“Then act like it.”
“So what?” Natalie spoke up again. “We’ll be fine. They took her clothes back. Whoop de doo. We can still hurt her. We do have other things planned.”
“I know.” I could imagine Kate now. She was biting the inside of her cheek, thinking over everything that we could’ve done to her house. She sighed. “Shit. Fine. Come on. Let’s go to Tate’s and put the camcorder in place and then go to Cake’s garage for the other stuff.”
“Wait,” Parker stopped them, “so we’re not putting those pictures on the internet?”
“We can’t,” Kate snapped at her, her voice heavy with sarcasm. “We don’t have the mannequin, and we don’t have her clothes. We have nothing else on her.”
“Can’t we just use someone else’s clothes and put her name on it?”
“Not without the fucking doll, and using her clothes is the whole point. It’s the added insult that it’s her real clothes. Unless one of you guys want to dress up and let us take pictures of you?”
There was silence in the room.
Kate bit out a harsh laugh. “I didn’t think so.”
“Let’s use other pictures and put her face on it?”
“Using her real clothes is the whole point. Did you get anything from Nate’s house before they moved out?”
“No. Mason locked their bedroom during the parties, and I couldn’t find anything else in the house.”
“Of course he does. They have huge parties.”
“Whatever. Let’s move on. We’ll do the thing that we were planning to do next week, this week instead.”
“Are you sure that’s smart? You just said that we’re screwed. Mason knows and now we don’t have the pictures.”
I pressed my ear closer against the wall. Their voices faded when Kate commented, “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to beat her ass one way or another.”
Their car doors closed. I turned and headed into the woods to where my Escalade was parked. When I got into my car, Logan put his phone away and looked up. “You learn anything?”
“Nothing we didn’t know except that we have to put her down.”
Logan nodded and lifted his fist in the air. I met it with mine. As I reversed the car, I asked, “Can you text Sam for me? Tell her we’re fine, but we won’t get back till late.”
“Already did it.”
I threw my brother a frown, but Logan wasn’t paying attention. He went back to texting on his phone.
I had no idea what they did, but Mason smelled like smoke when he passed through our room to the bathroom. The shower turned on a second later. Getting out of bed and padding barefoot behind him, he was already under the spray when I got there. His clothes were in a pile on the floor so I put them into the laundry bin. Then I leaned against the counter, and our eyes met through the glass door. He didn’t smile or say hello. He stared at me, and I stared back as he continued bathing. Lifting his arms, the water cascaded over his shoulders and down his chest. I could see every inch of him, not that any of it was a surprise anymore, but the hunger was there. Always there.
He smirked, still watching me. I licked my lips.
The wait for him took forever. I was burning up by the time he turned the water off and stepped out. The towels were behind me and he reached past me, leaning into me at the same time. His chest touched mine and he paused. His arm was stretched behind me, but as I turned to meet his gaze, he was looking right at me. Just there. Within reach. I closed my eyes and inhaled when his breath coated my skin. It was a caress of its own. Then a throaty murmur escaped me, “Mason …”
He pulled away and dried himself off.
My eyelids opened, but I was caught and held by his gaze again.
My chest lifted as I inhaled another deep breath. My breasts grew heavy under my thin top. They wanted his touch. Without a bra, he could see their reaction. It took one more second as he finished drying off before he dropped the towel again and stepped close to me.
His hands found my hips.
My eyes closed. My head went down.
Home. Finally.
“Sam,” he murmured from an inch away. His lips were there, right there for me to taste.
“What?” I could barely talk.
“She won’t hurt you.” His hand lifted.
When it touched my neck, my heart jumped into my throat, and my blood began pumping.
He moved it around my neck and cupped the back of my head. I was held, anchored in his hand. It was strong, so sure. My heart was racing now and my chest was heaving up and down. I was struggling to breathe. The knot in me started to loosen. It always did when he made me feel like this. Safe. Then a lump formed in my throat, and I had to bite down on my lip. I would either become a sobbing mess or I’d throw myself at him. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted.
He decided for me.
Mason pulled me into his chest. His arms wrapped around me, and I felt his head bend down. He rested his forehead on my shoulder, so I did the same. My hands lifted to his hips, but then with a sob, I wrapped them around his waist.
I’d been so damn worried.
He was safe. They were both safe. My heart kept pounding as the relief washed over me, replacing the desire from moments ago.
Then I peeled myself from him, just enough so I could get answers. “What did you guys do?”
“Nothing bad.”
/> “Mason.”
He flashed me a grin, took my hand in his and led me to the bedroom. I checked the door and saw it was locked, but then he bent down and lifted me in his arms. I was upright in his arms as he walked us the remaining few steps to the bed. He placed me onto it so that I remained standing while his hands kept me upright. They gripped my hips, and he tipped his head back. A soft smile gracing his features.
My hand lifted on its own volition and went through his wet hair. He closed his eyes, and I could tell he savored the small caress. My fingers grabbed a fistful of his hair and I pulled with enough force so he’d open them. When he did, I asked again, “What did you guys do?”
A slow grin appeared, and his arms tightened around my legs. That was all the warning I got before he flipped me in the air and caught me again. One hand cradled between my shoulders, and the other gripped my ass. He lowered me to the bed and then climbed on top of me in one fluid movement. It was as if he didn’t even move and he was above me, holding himself up with his arms and legs.
His eyes roamed over me as he answered, “We went to Kate’s.” He dropped a small kiss on my throat. “Everything was still there, so we took it.” Another kiss an inch higher. “Then I stuck around and watched the fireworks.” The hand on my hip slid around my waist.
My heart started pounding again, and I held my breath.
The hand moved down and pushed underneath my shorts. There was no restriction. They were made of soft fabric and clung to me. As his fingers moved even further down, he slid two fingers deep into me. He moved further up until he was directly above me. His lips were so close to mine again. Watching mine, he murmured, “Kate almost spilled her plans, but her friends were too stupid to let her.”
“And then?”
His fingers began moving. Oh god. He pressed another kiss to the underside of my chin.
My heart spiked, and a burst of pleasure rushed over me. I was tempted to say, “To hell with the questioning” and pull him down to me, but I couldn’t. This was important. “And then?” I asked again, almost panting now.
“And then.” His other hand moved to hold mine. Our fingers slid against each other as he linked our hands together. Then he lowered his body slowly, inch by inch, until he was resting on top of me. He fit between my legs, in just the right spot as his fingers kept thrusting in and out.
I bit my lip, trying to stop myself from moving down. My lips fell open and I gasped, but I kept it silent. I had to. My heart was beating so loud now. “Mason,” I groaned, “just tell me.”
“Tell you?”
“You like torturing me.”
A corner of his mouth curved up. The grin was cruel, but his eyes hadn’t moved from my lips. “Maybe.” They had already darkened, but they grew black now. “Maybe you torture me, too.”
I was ready to start praying for patience. “You’re beginning to piss me off.”
“Am I?” He moved his hips into me in rhythm with his fingers.
I gasped out loud. Lust and pleasure were rolling through me like a riptide on repeat, over and over again. My hands found their way to his shoulders, and my fingers dug in. Then he moved again. I was pushed further away from consciousness. Desire for him was making me blind. I lifted my heavy eyelids and looked at him. His gaze was transfixed on my lips, and he licked his own, thrusting against me at the same time.
“Mason,” I whimpered.
I felt his silent laughter; his chest tightened and jerked before he pulled away, still grinning, but it had softened on the corners. His eyes caught mine and held them. They narrowed, and I caught a spark in them, one that I recognized. He was thinking.
“Mason, tell me.”
“They’re planning something, said it was supposed to be for next week, but it’s going to happen at the end of this week instead.”
The heat from my desire lessened. It made room for a chill. “What do you think it is?”
“Honestly?” He pulled his fingers out.
I nodded, a lump was in my throat now.
“I think they’re going to hurt you. Physically.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?” He frowned and lifted his thumb to my mouth. He rubbed it over my lips, tugging the bottom down before his hand fell away. “You’re not surprised?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I mean, that’s expected. Kate’s never struck me as the real smart type.”
“Well, she is.” The lust in his eyes moved to caution. He warned me, “You have no idea what she can do. Beating you up isn’t good, but I’d be a lot less worried if I thought that’s all she was going to do.”
“She’s been texting Heather a bunch.”
His body stiffened on top of me. “Saying what?”
“She needs to stop being my friend. Heather said there were threats to her and to her family, too.”
“When did this start?”
“The first day of school. She came over and made a big show about warning Heather away. That was when Tate tried to intervene.”
“Against you?”
“No, against Kate. She told her that going up against you isn’t worth it.” I frowned. The sexual intensity was gone, and he seemed deep in thought. I reached for him, curving my hand over his shoulder to his jaw. His gaze had moved past my shoulder, but I touched his jaw. “Hey. What are you thinking?”
“That I’m starting to figure out what else Kate is doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“With Tate.”
“What?”
He was off the bed in a flash and pulled on his sweatpants. The bed had only settled when he disappeared through the door and hollered, “Logan!”
“What’s up?”
Grabbing one of Mason’s sweatshirts, I pulled it over my head and ignored how it covered my pajama shorts. It looked like I wasn’t wearing anything underneath it.
Logan smirked at me as I came to the doorway. “You cold, Sam?”
“Shut it, Logan.”
Mason asked, “Where are you going?”
Logan had showered. He was dressed in jeans and his athletic sweatshirt. Playing with his car keys in his hand, he shrugged. “Was going to head out for a few. What’s up?”
“You going to Tate’s?”
His question threw both of us. There it was again, the lie Mason never explained to me. Narrowing my eyes at him, I studied Logan at the same time. He seemed cautious now and slid his hands into his front pockets. “Maybe. Why?”
“Kate mentioned a camcorder,” Mason said. “And before that Natalie had her brother’s camcorder. They were going to use it to take pictures of the mannequin.”
“So? They have a camcorder. So do we.”
“Kate said they were heading to Tate’s at the end. Sam just told me they’ve been sending threats to Heather. They want her to stop being her friend and Tate tried to warn them off.”
Logan nodded. “She told me about that. Said it was a lost cause. Kate’s gone off the deep end.”
“So,” Mason paused and watched him. He was waiting …