Chapter 4
Chapter Four
CASEY
I poured myself another shot of scotch before I returned to my room, drink in hand and alone. Not that I’d thought I would have company. But damn, I wished I did. I’d had a crush on Mason when I was a kid. He was older, cute, and tall, with eyes that could see into your soul. But now…now he was every type of man I loved in one package. And that package was enough to drive me mad.
I changed into the soft nightie I’d brought, wondering what Mason’s large hands would feel like pushing it up my body. He was right. I’d been easy, throwing myself at him, but my attraction to him caught me off guard and I told him the truth—I was never shy about telling a man I wanted him. I’d been shy in my younger years and learned quickly that it was the confident, sexy women who got what they wanted. And I always got what I wanted.
But Mason Brinks was someone I couldn’t have. He was Tyson’s best friend, and I didn’t want to come between that. Being out of the same room as Mason cleared my head, and I could see how naughty I’d been. I couldn’t do that to Tyson, no matter how desperately I wanted to. Nor could I put Mason in that position. They were like brothers, and Tyson wouldn’t forgive him if he touched me. He was too overprotective, and he would expect Mason to be the same with me. It was bad enough I had to keep my party life in Armina from him. If he knew half the things I did with men, he would have brought me back to Treemont years ago and locked me down. And then there was Riley. I was here for her, not for sex with her brother. I wasn’t so sure she would mind, but I needed to stop.
Crawling into bed, I promised myself I would keep my cravings under control, something I didn’t know if I could easily do. The way Mason’s hand had tugged my hair told me exactly what kind of lover he would be. I was self-assured, a demanding presence, but the type of men who ran in my circle were the powerful types, built to kill, not afraid to play dirty or hard. And I could tell from how Mason slammed me to his chest, his grip in my hair tightening that Mason was as controlling and aggressive in the bedroom as he was in life.
The thought sent my heart pounding, and I flopped down on the soft pillows, cursing myself for letting my mind wander back to him. I needed to keep Riley in my forethought. I was only here a few days. There was no way to avoid Mason during that time, but I could tone it down and stop my flirting. The question was, did I want to?
I smacked my phone as my alarm buzzed, chastising myself for not changing it. This province was two hours ahead of mine, and I should not have been up this early. The morning sun filtered through the light curtains, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. Especially when Mason popped back into my mind.
“Dammit,” I groused, rising.
Throwing the curtains open, I took in the snow that covered the ground. I’d forgotten how beautiful snow was. It made me want to run out and play in it like I had when I was a child. I hopped in the shower, taking time to fix my hair and check my appearance before I left my room. This time, I made sure to cover my skin, choosing a long-sleeved shirt of a soft pink that fell just to the rim of my jeans. My figure was still prominent, my breasts pushing above the neckline to provide the perfect cleavage, but it was more conservative than most things I owned.
Ty had shown me where Riley’s room was, so I stopped by and checked on her first. Peeking my head in, I couldn’t believe the shape she was in. This was not my friend; this was the ghost of that person. She was unkempt, her hair matted and dirty, her clothes hanging on her because she’d lost weight. My heart broke, and I knew when her eyes turned to me, there was no recovering from this. Those green eyes that had once held the same life as her brother’s did, a beautiful emerald that was hard to turn from, were dull and lifeless. There was a twinkle of life when she realized it was me and not Mason, but that faded quickly.
I talked with her, eyeing the rock that Greyson had sent her. My friend had broken the most ruthless boss in the provinces and from the looks of it, he had broken her. I vaguely wondered what Mason would do if she accepted Greyson’s proposal. If she returned to him. When I asked her if she still loved him, I knew she would go back to him. I’d known Riley since we were children. Knew her well enough to see that this kind of love wasn’t the kind you gave up on. And like I told her before I left, Greyson had risked everything to come see her and Tides didn’t take risks. It was something that made him the most feared boss, the one all the others wanted to be. He held the power in this entire province, no matter what Mason or any other family in the province thought.
I closed the door, hearing her grossed out response to my mention of Mason’s sex-appeal, and hoping my chat with her would wake her up. Maybe having Riley around would distract me from Mason. I doubted it and as I padded through the house, finding my way to the kitchen, I discovered that wouldn’t be an easy feat. Mason was leaning against an island that took up the entire kitchen, the black marble shining in the sunlight from the large windows that lined the room.
“You know for someone who lives on the edge of constant threat, you’d think you would have fewer windows in your house,” I teased, ignoring how hot he looked with his damp black hair, his white button down partly unbuttoned, the sleeves rolled up again.
He took a sip of his coffee, peering over the ridge at me. “It’s the living on the edge part that encouraged me to add them.”
His gaze was intense, warming my entire body, and I was finding it difficult to breathe.
“I see you found something more covering,” Tyson said, walking into the room.
He headed straight to the coffeemaker, fixing himself a cup while Mason and I continued to stare at each other. I couldn’t tear my eyes from Mason, feeling the heat in them as if he was touching every part of me. He gave me a sexy smirk before his eyes dropped to my cleavage, his jaw clenching. Grabbing the paper, he turned from me just as Tyson brought his cup to the table and sat.
“Tell me what happened with Rinala and Thompson,” he said to Mason. They were family names, but ones I didn’t know well. Their territories sat north of Mason’s, on the outer edge of the province.
Mason took another sip of his coffee, and I forced my legs to move. Turning my back to them, the air returned to my lungs. I found some bread and toasted it as they talked.
“They’re worried,” Mason said.
“They should be.”
There was a moment of silence before Mason spoke. “I’m not entirely sure that’s true. Clint Randall was an anomaly.”
“Are you shitting me? Fuck, Mason, wake up,” Tyson argued. “He was a warning. He infiltrated us and…well, you know the rest. He’s the first step. The Bad Omens will return and we’re the target.”
“But why?” I asked as I spread some jam on my toast. I turned, licking a spot of jam from my finger. Mason had turned toward me, his eyes following my finger before they looked away.
“Because they’re nasty rats who like taking families down,” Tyson said.
“I know that, dipshit. Why Mason? Why not another family? Why not Tides?”
I came around and sat next to Tyson, doing my best to avoid being close to Mason. This was for the best. Keeping my distance so I wasn’t a temptation for him, and he wasn’t a temptation for me.
“It’s a good point,” Mason replied.
“You’re powerful, Mace,” Tyson said. “A threat to other families.”
“Sure, but Tides is more powerful than I am. And I have a truce with the others in the province and many across the country. Look at Donelli. Casey’s been keeping that alliance secure and with it comes a peace with the others in that province who align with him.”
“Tides holds the most power in the province. Shit, maybe even of all the families,” I said, taking a bite and seeing Mason’s eyes follow the swipe of my tongue over my lips. I was trying my best not to be sexy and flirty, but it wasn’t working. He was just as enamored with me as I was with him. This was bad.
Tyson brought his elbows onto the table hard, making me jump and look away.
“We’re missing something. And I bet Tides knows what it is,” he said.
“Well, we’re not getting any answers from him. And I’m not calling him. That ball is in Riley’s court and I’m not interfering.”
I sat back. “She’ll go back to him,” I said, watching the way Mason’s eyes hardened at my words. “She loves him too much and from the fact that he braved coming here to talk to her and the size of that ring, he loves her just as much.” His jaw clenched, his eyes darkening. “It’s not the worst thing that could happen, Mason.”
“Seriously?” Tyson said. “He’s the enemy boss. We do not get along with Greyson Tides.”
Wiping a bit of jam from my plate, I licked it from my finger, avoiding Mason’s eyes but feeling the way they burned into me. “Well, you’ll have to, and it might work to your advantage. Tides is a force, and no one will mess with him. No one but you two idiots. If Riley marries him, he has to work with you. He’ll have no choice and with him on your side, the Bad Omens will back off. I guarantee he knows the reason they didn’t target him, and you’ll have the answer when Riley goes back to Bridgeville.”
“Fuck,” Mason muttered. I peeked back at him, catching him running his hand through his hair.
“You have a brief reprieve, which might be just enough time for that alliance to form,” I continued. “Clint Randall is dead and I’m sure they know Tides was the executioner. They’ll back off. Randall had to have told them about Riley and their affair.” Mason’s jaw tensed further. “They’ll sit back and watch, knowing you have your guard up now and that Greyson does as well. I don’t know him, but from everything I’ve heard, he’s cold and ruthless. Men like that don’t wallow in their pain. He’s burying his pain below his work, which means he’s even more untouchable now. The Bad Omens play a slow game. They’ll wait to see how this plays out and for things to calm. In the meantime, they may even turn their attention to another family.”
Mason studied me, his head tilted. “How the fuck did you get so smart?”
“I can play the game with the best of them, Mason. Tyson taught me well. Riley would have been the same if you had relaxed and let her in like Ty did.”
His lips pursed.
“She’s got a point, Mason. Casey’s been training with me since before she moved away. I told you I wasn’t letting my sister out of this province without that advantage.” He gave me a proud smile, and I returned it.
Mason looked out at the snow, and I could see his mind thinking things through. “So, if this gives us a reprieve, we take the advantage,” he said, ignoring our comments on Riley. “Fortify our holdings, put the men on extra guard, and lock down any loose ends. I want everything close to home from now on. No new hires, no new deals until we find out what Tides knows.”
Tyson stood. “Got it. I’ll head over to the development site?—”
“No, head to the other businesses. Make sure the guys know to be extra diligent, especially if any non-regulars show. I’ll visit the site. You can meet me over there later and update me.”
“Got it.” He pulled his phone out and walked away as he instructed the person on the other end to meet him at the club.
I knew Mason had his dealings divested through his territory, which was large compared to others. He not only owned the city but all the surrounding towns and far into the countryside where his home sat. The club was only one business, and he and Tyson had been working on some real estate projects lately. A lot of his investments were in real estate, and I was guessing the site was a new one.
Bringing my dish to the sink, I turned and rested against the counter. The door closed in the distance, signaling that Tyson had left. Mason walked around the island but kept a space between us.
“You saw Riley?” he asked.
“Yeah. She’s a wreck. I’ve never seen her this bad.”
The tension in his jaw lessened, a flicker of sadness passing through his eyes.
“She’ll be okay, Mason. Just don’t expect her to stay away from him. It’s too serious, no matter what he did.”
“He hurt her,” he grumbled.
“Did he? It sounds like he wanted to in the beginning, but then he fell in love. Hard, as hard as she fell. Why else would he risk coming here? He would have to be desperate.”
I dared to walk closer to him, feeling the need to offer him comfort. Riley was his world, and he lived for his sister. I knew that even as a child.
“It’s time to let her go, Mason,” I said softly, bringing my hand to his crossed arms. The strength below them tempted me to rub my hand along his muscles, but I refrained.
His eyes searched mine and I could see the mix of emotion behind them.
“And he killed Randall for her. He saved her, protected her when you couldn’t. It’s the same thing any man would do for the woman he loved.”
“Would he?” he asked, and I could tell he was looking for me to say more, leading me on. But I’d told myself I wouldn’t flirt even if it seemed like an impossibility because I wanted to feel what Mason would do to me. I wanted him to break me. Anticipation shivered through me.
“Would you?” I stepped closer to him. His eyes darkened, and he brought his hand to my neck and surrounded it. My heart pounded in excitement as he pulled me against him, and every part of my body came alive.
“I would tear down any man who dared touch you,” he murmured. I could barely remain standing, my legs were quivering so badly, but his eyes hardened, and he shoved me away, releasing my neck. “As would your brother.”
I tried to regulate my breathing because that move had me so flustered I didn’t know what to think.
“Will you choke me like that when you finally give in to your craving for me?” I asked, needing to tease him like he’d just done to me. Tease wasn’t really what he’d done. Soaked me was more like it. I could only imagine the intensity he would bring to the bedroom. “Or will you force me to my knees while your fingers wrap around the strands of my hair?”
I shouldn’t have asked because I’d promised myself I wouldn’t torment him. But a part of me needed to hear his answer, to have him tell me that the heat that was threatening to scald me from the inside out was doing the same to him.
His eyes lit, lust passing through them, and he moved against me, pressing me into the counter. He was so hard I could feel it pushing into my stomach. He was huge, and I bit my lip, trying to silence thoughts of how he really would break me if this ever turned into something.
Putting both hands on the counter so that he me boxed in, he said, “You need to stop this, Casey.”
“Why?” I asked.
He gritted his teeth. “Because you’re…” He dropped his head, his mouth so close to my ear that currents flicked through me like sparks igniting a wildfire. “Untouchable.”
I bit my lip as disappointment smothered the fire in me. The struggle he was having gave me pause and reminded me that I really needed to stop this. He was torn, his loyalty to my brother ran deep, and I was hurting him, even if his denial of his craving for me was hurting him just as badly. I knew my brother, knew how overprotective he was, and knew if Mason touched me like I wanted him to that Tyson would see it as a betrayal. He trusted Mason to treat me the same as Tyson treated Riley. But we weren’t the same. Riley had grown up with Tyson. He was as close to her as Mason, and he saw her through the same lens he saw me through—another little sister. Mason and I hadn’t seen each other in so long that bond had never formed. Which left us both at a crossroads, trying to deny the instant attraction that was drawing us to each other.
“Okay, I’ll stop,” I said, suddenly feeling bad for having pushed him. I’d never wanted a man as desperately as I wanted Mason, but I didn’t want to hurt him, nor did I want to hurt my brother.
He didn’t move, and I could hear the strained breaths coming from him. He wanted me as desperately as I wanted him, but I wouldn’t test him anymore. His green eyes searched mine before they narrowed. “If you don’t…” My heart beat wildly, waiting for his next words. “I can promise you my hands will wind so tightly in your hair as I fuck you that you won’t know whether to scream or come.”
He pushed away, leaving my knees so weak they had turned to jelly. A small mewl slipped from my mouth when it opened. The devilish grin he gave me before he adjusted himself and walked away almost toppled me.
“That wasn’t fair,” I muttered.
He rolled his neck but didn’t turn back. “You started this, Case. Trust me, you don’t want to tease me.”
“Fuck, yes I do after that.”
His laugh echoed through the room as he left me there, trying to calm the quake between my legs. If I’d wanted him before, I craved him like a drug now. But I wouldn’t push. I couldn’t do that to him. He was fighting it too much, and I knew he wouldn’t hurt my brother. I didn’t want to hurt Tyson, either. Riley didn’t have me concerned. She didn’t have the aggressive, possessive streak in her that my brother had. It was Ty I worried about. But I was leaving in a few days and thousands of miles would separate us, giving my hormones time to settle. I just needed to avoid Mason until then, which would be difficult to do living in the same place. And even then, I wasn’t certain he hadn’t already ruined me for any other man just with the sheer thought of what he’d do to me.