Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
CASEY
A rmina had always felt like home to me. I loved everything about the city from the ocean air that smelled of salt to the way the waves pounded against the shore to the feel of the sand between my toes and the way the sun always touched my skin with a warmth that was gentle on my soul. But that had changed the day I’d left Mason, leaving a part of myself there that I couldn’t seem to find again. He was on my mind constantly and no matter what I did, there was no cleansing it of him.
“You’re no fun tonight, Casey,” Angie whined. Angela Donelli was the daughter of Vince Donelli—spoiled, rich, beautiful, and sexy. I tolerated the competition when I went out with her because I was just as sexy, and for every two men who swarmed to her, I had my own to choose from. “That man was hot, and you waved him away like he was nothing.”
“Have at him,” I said, taking a sip of my drink. I was milking my drinks tonight, afraid that drinking too much would corrupt my rational thinking. The memory of the last time I’d gotten drunk was fresh in my mind, as was the way Mason had taken care of me. I didn’t have him here to protect me or hold my hair back, and the thought left a strange longing in my heart.
Angie forced my drink in my hand. “I brought you out to have some fun. Now that your overprotective brother is gone, you can return to your normal slutty self and take your pick of the hotties here. I have my eye on that one,” she motioned to a tall blonde man with greedy blue eyes, “and you can have any of the other twenty men who have hit on you since we got here.”
But I didn’t want those other men. I only wanted one and as much as I told myself he wasn’t mine, that it was only one night, I couldn’t convince myself to believe the lie.
“What is wrong with you, Casey?” She had her hands on her hips, her long blonde hair flipped over her shoulder, her brown eyes expecting my explanation.
“Nothing, I’m just not in the mood. I guess I miss Tyson,” I lied too easily.
“That controlling prick? He’s an ass?—”
“He’s my brother, Angie,” I warned. They didn’t like each other, and both made the animosity clear when they were stuck in the same room together.
“I know, but he’s still overprotective and overbearing.”
“And he’s two thousand miles away.”
“Good,” she huffed. “While you sit in this corner and pout about your brother, I’m gonna let that sexy specimen of a man have his way with me.”
She pulled herself from the couch and teetered over to the guy, her flirty confidence earning a deviant smile from him. Billy came over and sat next to me. He was one of the regular guards Donelli assigned to me. There were four other men watching us, one moving closer to Angie, his keen eyes watching the interaction.
“She never learns, does she?” Billy said.
“Nope. You think this one will deal with the pat down and interrogation just to get a piece of her?”
“She’s got high standards, Casey. That one is the mayor’s son. We already vetted him the minute he started eyeing her. Now, if she’d gone for the one to the left of him, the one who won’t stop staring at her even though another man’s hand is already on her ass, well, that would have been another story.”
“What’s his deal?” I asked, giving up on my drink and plopping it onto the table in front of us.
“He’s got a habit of taking advantage of women, especially younger ones, which is why I’m surprised he’s even considering Angie. She’s too old for him.”
I turned and looked at Billy, my mouth hanging open. “Too old? She’s twenty-five.”
“Yeah, he likes them illegally young.”
“Eww, that’s just gross.” Angie looked like she was still in college, so I could see the confusion in her age. “Don’t you guys do something about men like that? You know, keep the streets clean of the scum?”
He chuckled. “Boss wants us to track him now that he’s back in the open. He went underground after he got paroled. If he makes the wrong move, we’ll make sure he never resurfaces again.”
If it was one thing I’d learned from my brother and from working with the Donelli family, it was that women and children stayed safe. The only women who were ever victims of the family were ones who turned against them. And men who hunted women quickly became prey.
“Why aren’t you out there tonight? We’re usually vetting the men who flock to you, too.”
I shrugged. “Not in the mood tonight, I guess.”
“That’s not a bad thing. You and Angie party too much, Case. Don’t let the boss know I said that.”
“Your secret is safe with me.” It was the truth. We partied a lot, and I hooked up as often as Angie did. She was the only friend I had in Armina, and while she was intolerable at times, spoiled and opinionated, she was still fun to go out with.
“Have you ever been in love, Billy?” I asked, knowing it was the alcohol loosening my hold on my thoughts.
“Yeah, once or twice.”
“Not the normal puppy love, you cry for a few days then move on post break-up kind of love. The soul shattering kind where you know there is no one else who will ever satisfy you the way this person does. Who fills your heart, body, and soul and makes you realize you were never complete before?”
“That’s deep. I can’t say I’ve been there.”
“It’s not a good place to be,” I mumbled.
“Why not? Sounds like it’s a fantastic place to be.”
I remained quiet, thinking about how numb I was to everything without Mason, how just those few days with him had left me completely out of control and craving to be near him again.
“It’s not. It hurts too much,” I finally replied, rising from my seat. “Take me home, please.”
He said nothing further, and I knew he wouldn’t share our conversation. He was a good guy, one I was glad the family had assigned to me these past few years.
Billy motioned for my other guard to follow and escorted me home. I sent a text to Angie to let her know I’d left, although I knew she wouldn’t even look. She was likely in one of the private rooms riding the mayor’s son by now.
I stared out the window, watching the lights pass by, hating how my chest carried an ache that wouldn’t subside and wondering if it ever would.
Days passed agonizingly slow, like peeling wallpaper from the walls of a dilapidated home. No matter how many passed, the ache didn’t disappear, but only seemed to grow. I thought of texting or calling Mason. I had his number. Tyson had given it to me years ago, in case I couldn’t reach him. But every time I thought about it, I worried it was the wrong thing to do. He hadn’t called me. Maybe he’d moved on, his heart not carrying the same never-ending emptiness that mine held.
What if he was trying to forget me and talking to me would only worsen things? And there was a chance that if I did text him, Tyson would see it. I was certain he’d kept my brother in the dark, just as I had. Otherwise, Tyson would have called chewing me out by now.
Riley called me a few weeks later to tell me she was returning to Greyson in a few days.
“I get to pick the bridesmaid’s dresses,” I teased her.
“Bridesmaid’s?” she asked.
“You’re saying yes, right?”
“I am but Casey, I’ve been away two months. He may have moved on?—”
“Stop it. That man is still pining over you, just like you are him. He didn’t risk Mason’s wrath by coming to Treemont just for a fling.”
“Maybe,” she said, sounding nervous.
“Ri, I’m serious. He killed for you. That kind of man does not fall out of love that fast…if ever.” My words hit too close to home, reminding me of Mason, the pain in my chest growing tenfold.
“I’ll see in a few days.”
“Are the guys going with you?”
“What?” She sounded terrified. “Are you mad? There’s no way I’d take either of them with me. Especially Mason. He’s liable to get overprotective and shoot Greyson.” I had to chuckle because it was the truth. It was the same thing Tyson would do. “No, I’m going alone. I’ve already talked it through with them and we have a plan in place.”
“Okay, but be careful. There are ramblings of the Bad Omens out here. It’s not good. Everyone is on edge.”
“Are you okay, Case?” she asked.
“I am. I’ve got guards and I never get to go anywhere alone. It’s a wonder they don’t have them stationed in my apartment. Thankfully, they don’t.”
“You sure you don’t want to come home? I’ll need help planning this wedding.”
The ache in my heart filled momentarily with her words. “From me?”
“You’re the closest friend I have.”
“Of course I’ll help you. Just let me know when and I’ll drop everything to be there.”
“You’ll have to see Mason,” she said in a whisper.
My heart stopped, my hands growing clammy, my stomach in knots. “I know, it’ll be fine.” I chewed my lip, not wanting to hear her answer to my next question. “How is he?”
She stayed quiet for a moment and my mind filled in so many answers that I had myself in a worried frenzy by the time she answered. “Burying himself in work, hiding behind that hard exterior he wears. I think he misses you. I’ve never seen him so flustered, especially around Tyson.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. What happened between you two, Case?”
“You know what happened!” I hissed, my cheeks blushing even though I was the only one in the room.
“I know that! It still grosses me out, though!”
I laughed, telling her it was okay.
“I meant besides the sex.” The way she said sex sounded like she was holding a rotting corpse far from her body while her other hand held her nose shut.
“I…I don’t know.” But I did. It was the unspoken word that we’d avoided the day I left.
“Do you love my brother?” Leave it to Riley to get right to the point.
Sighing, I answered honestly, admitting what I’d been trying to hide from since the day I’d walked away, never looking back because I knew he hadn’t. “I think so.”
“You think so?”
“Fuck, Riley. Yes. Yes, I love him. And I hate it because he’s all I can think about. It’s consuming and no matter what I do, I can’t climb back out of the hole I’ve been stuck in since I left.”
“Well, that explains a lot. Damn, you two were just supposed to have sex, not fall in love. No wonder he’s so off-kilter.”
“Wait, what are you saying, Ri?”
I waited, my heart pounding erratically.
“I think Mason is in love with you, Case.”
Hearing it sent a flush of warmth through my chest, then tingling through the rest of my body. “You do?”
“I know love, Case. Trust me, I know how much it hurts and how good it feels. And I know what it’s like to have it be all-consuming. That’s why I’m going back to Greyson.”
I picked at a loose thread on my shorts. “What do I do, Ri?”
“I don’t know. Come home?”
I looked out my balcony window at the beach in the distance. Could I leave this place? I loved it like I now realized I loved Mason. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
“I know. Just think about it. I need to go. Your brother is dragging me to that titty bar they own again. When I see the way Tyson acts around those women, it makes me wish I didn’t know that aspect of the business.”
“Does Mason act that way?” I had a feeling after hearing him scold Tyson the first night I was there, that he didn’t, that he was the more grounded of the two.
“Ha, no. My brother made it a point to explain that he doesn’t mingle with his employees or anyone associated with their business affairs. It’s risky, and Mason doesn’t take risks.”
We said our goodbyes, my mind whirling with thoughts of Mason and the idea that he was just as devastated without me as I was without him. Riley’s mention of Mason not taking risks reminded me that he had taken a risk. Me. And it was one that could cost him everything.
The conversation stuck with me, my heart soaring each time I allowed myself to think that Mason loved me, that we could have something together. Then it would plummet again when I thought of the obstacles, namely my brother.
I was sitting in the office Donelli had for me at his mansion when his son, Tony, came in. Tony was full of himself and constantly hit on me. I had no intention of even considering fucking him, no matter how hot he was with his head of thick blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He was so similar to Angie that they could have been mistaken for twins, even though he was five years older.
“Looking sexy as usual today, princess,” he said in that smooth tone he had. He’d nicknamed me princess a few months after I started working for his father, and it always made me wonder if it was a name that came with commands in the bedroom.
“You say that every day, Tony. What do you want?” I said, not bothering to look up from my spreadsheet. I was far from sexy today. A pencil poked out from my head where I’d used it to secure my hair after I couldn’t find a hair tie in my bag. Ripped shorts accompanied a tank top that was a size too big. And my black flip-flops with the kittens on them topped the look off. The only thing that looked sexy on me was my manicure.
I usually tried to look the part of the put together accountant for the Donelli family, but I’d been in a funk this week and hadn’t bothered to do my laundry.
“My father wants to see you. You and I are eating lunch with him.”
Shit. I couldn’t see Vince Donelli looking like I’d spent the morning on the beach. “Damn, is Angie here?”
“Yeah, she’s out sunbathing by the pool. Why?”
“When does your father expect me?”
“In twenty minutes.”
I got up, muttering thanks, and dashed from the room, ignoring his call for an explanation. I was halfway down the hall when I rounded the corner and smashed into a solid chest. Hands came out to steady me, hands that held a familiarity to them that I didn’t want to admit. I looked up, meeting Mason’s green eyes, my chest heaving painfully until I found my words.
“Mason?” His name was barely audible, a breath of life that lit my soul.
He gave me a crooked grin. “I was just coming to find you.”
“You were?”
He released my arms, his fingers grazing my bare skin.
“That’s quite a look, Case. Sexy, but in a disheveled way.”
I bit my lip.
“What are you doing here?” I said, trying to regain my ability to function.
“Brinks,” Tony said, coming around the corner.
“Tony,” he acknowledged back with a respectful nod.
“Good to see you, old man.”
Mason raised his brow. He wasn’t that much older than Tony, so I knew Mason was biting back an insult. “Likewise. I hear we’re having lunch together.”
“Yeah, my father has some things he wants to discuss with us.” He threw me a wink, then sauntered away. “Twenty minutes, princess. I’ll let Angie know you need help finding something more appropriate for lunch with my father and to make sure it’s something that lets me see those sexy tits.”
He didn’t turn back to see the way Mason’s jaw ticked or the knuckles that were clenched so tight I could hear them popping.
“Mason, I?—”
He glanced over at his man and the one Donelli must have assigned to watch him before grabbing me by the arm and dragging me down the hall to my office. The dark fury in his eyes spoke volumes as he threw me in and slammed the door shut. He was on me before I could react, shoving me against the wall and pinning me.
“Are you fucking Tony Donelli?” he sneered.
I laughed, the thought that he was jealous of Tony too funny not to.
Grasping my waist, he snarled, “You find that funny, princess ?”
“I’m not fucking Tony. Nor have I ever fucked him. He’s been trying to get in my pants for years and calling me princess for just as long.”
He relaxed, but only slightly, his grip on my waist loosening as he ran his hand down my ass. “Has anyone touched you since you left?” There was an underlying plea to his question.
“No.”
“No? Not a single hand on this body?” His hand slipped under my shirt, moving below my bra. I moaned at his touch, having missed it for too long.
“No, just my own,” I teased.
His grimace turned to a coy grin, sexy and irresistible.
“And who were you thinking about while you were touching yourself, sweetheart?”
I sighed, relaxing into his touch. “You.”
My answer triggered something in him, and he pulled me to him, kissing me ravenously, his kisses demanding and unrelenting.
“Mason,” I mumbled, not wanting him to stop, but knowing I was running out of time.
I pushed him back, seeing the hurt in his eyes. Needing to reassure him, I grasped the lapels of his jacket and asked, “And has any other woman touched this body since I left?”
His grin was adorable, a moment when his guard was down. “Not a single one. But I can’t say these hands haven’t stroked my cock a few times while I imagined filling your mouth as I came.”
Heat spread through my lower body, and I inadvertently crossed my legs. He pushed me back. “You wanna come, sweetheart?”
Did I ever, but my time was limited, and I needed to change. “Yes, but I have to go get ready for lunch. This isn’t appropriate for Donelli.”
“I’ll keep Donelli occupied. Don’t worry about him. You just worry about how you’re going to keep from screaming when you’re coming around my fingers.”
His words soaked me, and I lost any thought of fighting as he unhooked the button on my jean shorts and pushed his fingers into me. I threw my head back, but his other hand forced my neck still. “Look at me when I’m breaking you, Case.”
He rubbed his thumb up my neck as his fingers drove into me, then back out to tease my clit. The heat in my body was rampant, flames licking at me with the intensity of his stare as he watched me fall apart. He ran his hand down my neck and over my chest, pushing my shirt up and pulling my breast free from my bra. All the while, his fingers continued to plow into me.
“That’s it, Case. Break for me. Show me who owns you.”
His words sent me over the cliff, my orgasm hitting with such force that I bit my lip to restrain my cry, feeling the skin break.
“You’re so beautiful when you come,” he muttered, leaning in and licking the blood from my lower lip. His fingers left me, but the convulsing between my thighs was still steady, increasing as he sucked his fingers into his mouth and groaned. Dropping them to my waist, he pulled me against his erection, saying, “See what you do to me, sweetheart? You have me so hard, I’m gonna think of nothing but sinking into you the rest of the day.”
“Whose fault is that?” I asked, stroking my fingers over it.
He grunted, snatching my hand away and pinning it over my head. “Don’t play with me, sweetheart. I may just fuck you here and let you sit through that meal with my cum leaking from you.”
“And I may just like that,” I played.
He dragged my bottom lip between his teeth, then scraped his cheek over mine, saying, “I missed you, Case.”
My heart soared, and I noticed how full it felt with him here. The thought of him leaving was terrifying because I didn’t want that emptiness to return.
His tongue traced my neck before he pushed away from me. Rolling his neck, he adjusted himself, his eyes hooded once again. “Do what you need to do, and I’ll stall Donelli. But if that asshole calls you princess again, I’ll kill him.”
“You can’t kill him. Nobody knows this is going on…whatever this is.”
His brow creased. “Whatever this is?”
I drew in a sharp inhale, hearing the hurt in his voice. “What is this, Mason?”
He shoved me against the wall again, stealing my breath with the intensity of his eyes. “This is me owning you, Casey. Don’t ever question that.”
“Is that all it is?” I asked, needing to know.
His eyes softened, his fingers brushing my cheek and pushing a loose curl back. He didn’t answer until he’d moved away from me, adjusting his suit jacket and taking the door handle in his hands.
He glanced over at me, saying, “No, that’s not all,” before he left, leaving my heart pounding with a mixed sense of hope and disappointment as I listened to his footfalls echo down the hall.