the fuzziness in my brain to clear so I can properly calculate how long we have to stay here before I can drag him off by that tie of his. Everything about him calls to me, and the insides of my thighs burn remembering how his scruff felt between them the last time it was this long.
I swallow thickly as I watch him take me in with similar intensity.
“Shit! I feel like I need a cigarette just looking at you two.” B rises from the booth so Mase can take his place.
“Not something a brother should have to see,” E complains.
“Hear, hear.” Trav thumps his fist onto the tabletop twice.
I jackknife in my seat, whipping my head around to face my brother so fast my ponytail swings around and hits me in the face. “Are you flipping kidding me with this?” I thrust an accusatory finger in E’s face then wiggle it between him and Bette. “When you two first got together, you couldn’t be more than five feet from her at all times. If you were in the same room, you were always touching.” I hold my hand out, palm facing up, waving my arm up and down. “Nothing’s changed.” E has his arm hooked over Bette’s leg that’s closest to him, his hand cupping her knee, drawing figure eights with his thumb over the denim-clad joint. Bette chuckles at his side, and E wisely chooses to keep quiet, knowing I’m right.
Honestly, I love how even six years into their relationship, they feel the need to always be touching, but I’m not going to let him get away with being a hypocrite. It goes against my nature.
Noah, Kev, and Alex find their way over to us, and although we’ve chosen one of the large rounded corner booths, they need to drag over chairs from nearby tables to fit.
We’re a mishmash of chaos. There are shouts, jokes, and FaceTime calls to wake G up and to rub it in to JT that he’s missing out. Any food that was left is consumed in seconds, and we place an order for another round with the waitress.
“If you don’t stop looking at me like that, I’m going to drag you out of here right fucking now, Skittles,” Mase whispers hotly into my ear, dragging his teeth along the outer edge.
A bolt of heat zips down my spine, and I shiver. “Like what?”
“Like you want to rip my suit off, buttons flying, so you can fuck me…hard.” He punctuates the last word by biting down on my earlobe.
Holy hell. I really need to start wearing underwear with leggings around him.
I need to swallow, twice, to clear the saliva pooling in my mouth and be able speak. “Who says I don’t want that?”
“Fuuuck, babe. You ha—”
The rest of his sentence is cut off by Brantley storming up to our table. “Mason. A word.” It’s not a request; it’s a command.
Slowly, without a care in the world, Mase shifts to face his stepfather, an arm dropping behind my back and hooking over my hip protectively.
From beneath my lashes, I surreptitiously glance in the direction of my brother to find his back ramrod straight, eyes locked onto Mase’s stepdad. This could get ugly fast.
“Now’s not the time.” Mase’s voice is hard, harder than I’ve ever heard it before.
“It certainly is if we’re going to fix this,” Brantley retorts.
The tension around the table crackles violently.
“Nothing’s broken.” The grip of his fingers on my hip turns bruising.
“The hell there isn’t.” Brantley crosses his arms over his chest. “This is your career we’re talking about.”
Mase lets out a frustrated growl, his hand running through his carefully styled hair. “You know what?” He rises from the booth, grabbing my hand and pulling me along with him. “We’ll see you guys in the morning,” he says to our friends and family, ignoring his stepdad completely.
“Mason,” Brantley shouts, but Mase never slows his long strides. His steps are angry, and I have to jog to keep up or risk of being pulled behind him like Just Married decorations on a limo.
The way he punches the button for the elevator like it personally offends him makes me think he’s imagining it’s Brantley’s face. This side of him, the barely restrained protective caveman is what has me scared of how he’ll react when he finds out he’s not the only one who made a life-changing decision.
Knowing this is why I can’t yell at him for deciding what he did without talking to me about