I reach out to touch him.
His eyes tighten as I place my hands around his waist and squeeze. “Why are we here?”
“We all need reminding,” Mason says.
“Reminding?”
“Of why we’re here.” Mason’s breath fans across my face. He leans in and captures my lips with his. His mouth is hot and unyielding as he kisses me, and I remain still as a statue. When one hand moves to cup the back of my neck, and the other moves down to knead my ass, desire courses through me.
He releases the back of my neck and drops his hand to the small of my back.
Every touch and kiss makes every inch of me stand at attention.
His other hand moves to my waist, and he digs his nails there, eliciting a soft moan. I sigh as my fingers move to his shoulders, and I grip them to keep from falling, but I know it’s too late.
I’ve been hurtling toward the edge for a while, and I’m not sure I want to be saved.
Free-falling feels so good.
A voice in the back of my head screams at me to stop, to spare Noah from having to see all this on display, but I can’t listen. Mason nips on my lower lip, my mouth parts, and he plunges his tongue into my mouth. He’s trying to claim me, punish me, own me, but I don’t care.
I want more.
Ineedmore.
Mason shifts, and we move together until my back hits the wall. My hands move from his shoulders to his hair, and I wind my fingers through the thick strands. Mason growls softly, and itsends another bolt of desire through me. One finger trails a path down my chest and stops at the waistband of my jeans.
As soon as he cups me over the thin fabric, it’s like a bucket of ice-cold water has been dumped on me.
My eyes fly open, and I squirm against him.
Mason lowers his hands.
“Why…” I trail off, my voice hoarse and thick with desire. “Why did you do that?”
Mason shrugs and goes back to Noah, who is leaning away with a pained expression.
“Mason,” I murmur to his retreating back. “You don’t have to do any of this.”
Mason stills, but he still won’t look at me when he talks. “Sometimes, it’s like you don’t know me.”
I move closer and reach for his hand. “I do know who you are, underneath all this.”
Mason shakes off my hand, and his jaw tightens. “All of this, as you put it, is a part of me. You need to learn to accept it.”
“I know.”
Mason finally looks at me then, and it feels like we’re standing on opposite ends of a chasm, growing wider and wider. “Do you?”
I nod.
“Why were you outside today?”
I ball my hands into fists. “I already told—”
Mason holds a hand up and scowls. “Don’t insult my intelligence, Pigeon. You and I both know that wasn’t why.”
I consider my next words carefully. “You’re going to have to trust that I was trying to help.”
