Chapter 21
Help a guy out. Please
Instead of landing on my two feet like I’d pictured myself doing—and like I should have done, thanks to my athletic abilities—I faceplanted on the lawn once I jumped over the wooden fence.
Classy. Pushing my body up, I struggled to my feet, glad to see I was still in one piece.
On shaky legs, I dusted myself off and rotated my right shoulder to check for any damage.
I exhaled in relief and neared the side of Shepards’ house on my tiptoes, praying I was as silent as I believed myself to be.
The clouds parted, and under the light of the thin sliver of moon, I craned my neck back to guess the height of Melinda’s bedroom window.
It appeared much higher right now, thanks to my brain being unable to process much information clearly.
Holding on to the gutter, I climbed onto the roof of the small woodshed, shrugged off my jacket, and tossed it to the ground.
I was burning hot, the cold air doing nothing to cool me down.
My jacket was in the way, and I needed a full range of motion if I expected to make it to the second-floor window.
Slipping the tips of my shoes in the trellis lining the side of the house, I climbed the wall.
Even with a half-functioning brain, I could tell this was a bad idea, but I was Mason Pierce, and I never did anything half-assed.
I wasn’t about to start now. My T-shirt got stuck on something, and I pulled the fabric to free it.
Even the sound of tearing cotton didn’t distract me from my mission.
Melinda deserved an explanation, and I would give it to her.
At the cost of my life…or at least, my shirt.
I continued my ascend. The trellis cracked under my weight, and I held my breath, imagining myself free falling, as it shattered underneath me, and breaking my neck when I landed on the ground.
I peered down and blinked. Was I that high, or was my mind playing tricks on me?
I could take a hit on the field and run thirty yards with guys three times my size after me, but this, opening my heart to a girl was a first for me.
And climbing a wall that I wasn’t sure I could trust to get to her room in the middle of the night was another first.
I secured my forearms on the windowsill, the tip of my left shoe wedged on the ledge a few feet away, and knocked on the glass panel. From where I was balanced, I couldn’t see a thing on the other side. The curtains had been drawn, and no light shone through the opening.
Was Melinda even back home? Did Sandra drive her here after they left the party earlier, or did she drive her somewhere else?
I rested my forehead against the cool glass, not sure how to climb down if she wasn’t in her bedroom.
Clouds blocked the moonbeams, and now I was here, underdressed, in the dark, with no clue what to do.
I tried to fish my phone out of my back pocket to call my brother.
He would have a blast helping me off here.
Hopefully, he could save my ass without Mr. Shepard noticing.
If he did, I would forever be forbidden to near his daughter again.
My night was going from awful to horrendous way too quickly for my liking.
My device wasn’t there. I cringed. I had placed it in my jacket pocket earlier.
I knocked on the window once more.
The glow of a night-light appeared through the gap in the curtains. I squinted, trying to spy through the slit, but couldn’t see anything. “Pleassse, don’t let it be Mr. Shepard. Pleassse, whoever is listening to meee, don’t let it be Mr. Shepard on the other side.”
I held my breath, a weird acidic taste coating my throat.
Time stilled as I stayed suspended on the side of the house. My muscles burned, and the grip of my shoes on the ledge below wasn’t so strong anymore. My legs shook. Soon I would crash and shatter into fragments of bones.
Gathering every last piece of my ego, I tapped on the glass again.
I almost bawled my eyes out when Melinda’s figure appeared on the other side of the glass.
It took her a second to notice me. I offered her my best apologetic half-smile.
Her hair was damp and loose on her shoulders, and she was wearing a tight pale-pink top that did nothing to conceal the outline of her nipples that grew harder the longer she stared at me.
Because I had no fuck left to give tonight, I trailed my eyes down her toned legs, only covered by a tiny pair of black night shorts, and gulped.
Melinda opened the window and folded her arms over her chest, pushing her tits up, the swell peeking from the neckline doing weird things to my body. At least, my dick wasn’t as intoxicated as I was.
Melinda did nothing to help me out of my neck-breaking precarious position, watching me with a frown. “Mase? Care to explain what you’re doing here at one in the morning?”
I coughed to ease the tightness around my vocal cords. “I’m heeere to make amends… and to explaaain myself.”
She snorted. “Make amends. Yeah, right. You owe me nothing. I thought we… Never mind.”
“You thought whhhat?” I was hanging on to every word coming out of her mouth while hanging on for dear life, my grip loosening with every ticking second.
“Doesn’t matter now. Forget it. You shouldn’t be here. It’s late, and I’m pretty sure”—she looked down—“you’re five seconds away from falling down a two-story window and breaking your neck.”
“I’m druuunk.”
“Yes, you are.”
“It was stupppid. Help…help a guyyy out. Pleassse.”
She stepped back. “And why would I do that?”
“I screwwwed up. Huh, I-I didn’t. Sarah and I were just watching some football games on her phonnne. Her brottther. He…he plays for CWU. I was curious abouuut their team.”
“Why would you be curious about Crestwood University? Didn’t you commit to Alabama last year?”
“Nooo. Don’t believe everything you hear.” My foot slid from the top of the ledge. “Helppp me inside and I’ll tell youuu everything you wanna know. Don’t let me diiie.” I winced when I risked a glance down, now that the moon was peeking from between the clouds and I could see better in the dark.
Melinda opened the window wider and tugged at my arms until I was half in, bent at the waist, my feet dangling outside and my head and torso kissing her bedroom floor. “This is ridiculous. You could have fallen and killed yourself.”
“Thannnks,” I slurred once I stood on my feet. I felt lightheaded, thanks to the booze still swirling in my veins, but I didn’t feel as drunk with Melinda standing before me, her breaths hastening as my eyes zeroed in on her chest once more.
“Stop ogling me.” She pointed to the door. “You should go.”
I pushed my hands into my pockets and nodded.
“Yeah.” All the words I had rehearsed in my head since I started climbing her house vanished.
I had no idea what I should tell her now.
I took two steps to the right, ready to forfeit my mission when her small hand reached for my wrist, and she stopped me.
“What is this?” Melinda lifted my T-shirt, exposing the side of my stomach. Her fingers were cold as they traced my flesh. A shiver skated the length of my back. She leaned forward before bringing her eyes back to mine. “Mase, you’ve hurt yourself.”
I shrugged. “It’s probably nothing. Just a scratttch.”
“You’re bleeding. It’s not nothing. Let me look at it, okay?” Her fingertips lingered on my taut skin, sending a ton of mixed signals to my body.
“Don’t worrry. Tomorrow it…it won’t show.”
“You need to clean it.”
“I’m finnne.”
She let go of my shirt. “Stop saying it. You’re not invincible.” Her eyes drifted toward the window I’d just climbed through. “Not that you got the memo tonight, but… Anyway, let me do this for you.” She stepped closer, eating the small distance between our bodies.
Heat spread through me.
“Please.”
I leaned forward, my lips so close to her ear I could lick the shell if I poked my tongue out. “Okay.”
She trembled against me.
“I neeed to tell you something. I’m not suuure I’m drunk on boooze anymore.”
The Earth stopped its rotation. Everything stilled between us.
The orange-blossom fragrance of her shampoo was all I could smell. The pulse of my heart throbbed in my ears.
I drew the line of her nose with mine. Melinda gasped, and I pulled her closer, my hands locked around her waist. This was not how I imagined our first kiss to be. Me, drunk and messed up. She, barely dressed, in her bedroom, with her parents sleeping down the hall.
Her lips parted on a moan when I kissed the corner of her mouth.
The lower part of my body grew rigid.
My lips lingered on her jaw, the column of her neck, the exposed skin over her breastbone.
Her fingernails dug into my ribcage as if she needed to grip me to anchor herself to this moment.
I was about to steal a kiss when I recalled I was drunk and it would be wrong to take advantage of her when I wasn’t fully myself.
“Mase.”
“Mel.”
We breathed each other in.
My hands found her face and I dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I won’t kisss you like this. Gosh, I waaant to, believe me. There’s no one else. I swear. Everything youuu witnessed tonight wasn’t what it…what it appeared to be. It’s just a biggg misunderstanding.”
“It hurt.” She paused, taking a deep inhale. “To see you with them.”
I pressed my forehead to hers. “I know. I never meant to hurt youuu. Never. You gotta trust meee.”
“I’m trying to. You never gave me a reason not to, but—”
“But what?”
“You have a rep with girls. I’m not like any of them.”
“I’ll never askkk you to be.”
“They’re prettier and have more experience than I do.”
“Bullshittt. Never compare yourself to anyone else, Mel, because the truth is… They-they all wish they were youuu.”
“Yeah. Only because we spend time together.”
“Are you kidding me right nowww? They wanna be youuu because youuu’re perfect. Smart, beautiful, talented. It has nothing to do with meee.”
“You wish.”
“Mel…”
“It’s okay. I’m me, and it’s enough…or I hope it is.”
“Mel.”