“Please tell me you didn’t go to Blackwell to seek King out?” I ask with desperation, hoping I’m jumping to crazy conclusions.
Except with the way he drops his gaze to the left, no longer able to make eye contact with me, my suspicions are confirmed.
I’m going to kill JT.
“Fuck.” I kick a bucket, sending it flying into the wall. “I should have known when you and JT were being all buddy-buddy in Florida.”
Continuing with the cheering for cheerleaders campaign, Mase and the guys joined us when we attended the UCA College Cheerleading Nationals the weekend after the football team won their own.
Here I thought it was a good thing, thought it was proof Mase was over whatever lingering jealousy he felt toward my best friend, but what he was really doing was pumping him for information.
I know he—along with everyone else—thinks I shouldn’t have let Liam get off as easily as he did, but doesn’t he realize I did it for him? Doesn’t he know asking about how and why Carter King is considered “powerful” in a town at barely twenty-two years old can’t lead to anything good?
“Mason.” I clutch at his shirt, tugging until he finally brings his green gaze back to me. “Please, please let this go. Don’t go searching for your own form of vigilante justice. Liam’s not worth it.”
Though I can feel him vibrating with restrained anger, the way he cups my face is exceedingly gentle.
“He needs to pay for what he did to you.” His voice is gruff.
“I’m not denying it, but it can’t be at your hands.” It’s my turn to cup his face, bringing it down until his forehead rests on mine and we’re breathing each other in. Breath for breath. Heartbeat for heartbeat. “If you go after him this way, he wins. He gets what he was looking for. Please don’t let him, Mason.”
I understand that he wants to put a hurt on Liam, but the possible blowback wouldn’t be worth it.
He releases a warm puff of air right into my face, his fingers tightening until my scalp burns from my hair being tugged at the roots. “I hate it when you call me Mason.”
For the first time in minutes, I feel like smiling, and the corners of my mouth start to tip up. “I know.” I lightly run my fingertips down the shells of his ears, causing him to hum in the back of his throat. “But it’s the only way I know to get you to take me seriously.”
“I love you so much, baby.”
I don’t care how many times he tells me this; the warm feeling in my chest that happens as a result will never get old. I slide my left hand down the side of his face and tap the ring I wear for him to his lips.
“And it’s because I love you back that I need you to let this go. Let karma handle Liam Parker.” My nose twitches. “I hear she’s a bitch.”
“You’re such a smartass.”
The last of the panic I was feeling bleeds away as we fall into this old rhythm.
“Don’t act like it’s not one of your favorite things about me.” I rise up on my toes and cover his mouth with mine, getting lost in our kiss like I always do.
“My rainbow-haired sass queen,” he says against my lips before taking my ass in hand and lifting to press me to the wall.
My hands bump against the backward rim of his hat as I hold on for dear life. Through the thin material of my leggings, his erection easily finds where I’m most needy for him, grinding against my clit.
I slip my hands under the hem of his T-shirt, bringing it along with me as I trace over the contours of his delicious lat muscles, about to suggest we play the college version of 7 minutes in heaven when the door to the closet opens and bright light from the hallway illuminates us in all our debauchery.
Our mouths separate with an audible pop, and there waiting for us to get our shit together is an amused-looking Nurse Vicki and a not-at-all-surprised-to-find-us-in-such-a-precarious-position Em.
“Do you think you could put your Grey’s Anatomy reenactment on pause so we can go?” Em asks, and I know she’s going to tease me about this every time we watch the show for the rest of our lives.
This is not at all how I pictured my night going.
#Chapter55
While Kay and I were working through our differences in