CHAPTER TEN
Mason
Our surroundings fade away until all I can see is Jenna, the rise and fall of her chest, her deep brown gaze penetrating mine, her lips parted. My breath catches. She’s captivating and I can’t look away. I can’t be the first to break our stare.
Water ripples as she shifts, bringing her closer. It’s so subtle that if I wasn’t hyperaware of her every move, I may not have noticed it. Tension wraps around us like a suffocating hug, and as though feeling it, Jenna shivers, forcing me to bite back a groan.
The energy cracks between us, and my entire body tingles as I watch her. Locked under her spell. “Jen—”
Her foot touches my leg and I jolt, a pain shooting through my elbow as I knock the edge of the pool, hitting the shot glass as I do. It drops into the water, and I watch it sink beneath the surface, my restraint following after, my resolve drowning in the darkness. “Fuck it.”
Jenna gasps as I close the distance between us, cupping her face and slamming my mouth to hers. She freezes for a beat before grabbing my waist, her moves desperate as she pulls me closer, our bodies flush, her lips pressed to mine.
Releasing her face, I grip under her ass and lift her in my arms, groaning when she wraps her legs around me, her arms circling my neck.
My lips part and she swipes her tongue between them, the taste of vanilla combined with her flooding my mouth. Our tongues clash with an explorative force and I’m lost in her touch. But when she quivers against me, I freeze, slowing my movements until a sigh escapes her.
The change in pace brings a tenderness to the kiss that sends a ripple through my chest, and I struggle to ignore the tightness that follows.
Curling my hand into her hair, I tug on the strands and she hisses under her breath, her fervour increasing, bringing us back to the tempo I need.
She twists in my arms, her back arching, her centre rubbing along my length, and I vibrate with need. My blood pools south, my skin burning everywhere she touches.
I’m losing my goddamn mind and I want more.
Testing the waters, I rock my hips, grinding my cock against her pussy, my palm twitching under her ass, itching to push her bikini to the side. Just an inch. Enough to sink my fingers inside her. To feel her walls sucking me in.
My length throbs, and Jenna moans against my mouth. “Do it,” she whispers. “I need you to touch me.”
“Fuuck,” I grunt from the back of my throat, adding “mind reader” to the list of her dangerous traits.
Spinning her around, I hold her against the edge and cup her neck, angling her face to deepen the kiss, sucking her lip until she whimpers softly. “Please.”
She squirms with need as I kiss a path across her cheek, nibbling my way down her throat, sucking her flesh as my palm settles between her legs.
A rushed breath escapes her and her head falls back, her breasts lifting above the water. When her nipples pebble from the fresh night air, I flatten my tongue over a bud, loving when her body shakes.
She’s fucking beautiful in this moment—in all the fucking moments—and I’m screwed.
Curling my finger against her bikini bottom, I tease her pussy as I nibble on her breast, and she cries out in need, releasing her hold on me.
I’m about to change position when she grabs my cock over my shorts, wrapping her fingers around my length, her eyes locked on mine. “Fuck, you’re big.”
“Jesus. Christ.” I buck against her hand, my balls tightening from her touch. A single touch. “God, that feels good. You feel incredible.”
She wriggles around, her lips meeting my ear as she bites my lobe, whispering the words I need more than anything else. “I want it all.”
Fuuuck. I want that too.
My ringtone blares from the deck beside us, the shrill sound ripping me out of the moment. I rear back at the same time Jenna pulls away, her breathing ragged, her eyes darting to my phone.
And my mind goes to Jack.
A guttural groan flies from my chest, and my heart pounds with a force I can’t control. “What the fuck are we doing? You’re Jack’s. He’s—”
“Excuse me.” Jenna recoils into the wall behind her, hitting me with an expression full of rage. “I’m no one’s goddamn property, least of all Jack’s.”
I cringe. Least of all mine. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“Actually, I don’t. You’re going to have to spell it out.”
“Why are you here, Jenna?” I grate, my rage now mimicking hers. “Why’d you fly halfway around the world to see him?”
Jenna sucks in a breath, her eyes wide as she quips back, “That’s none of your goddamn business.”
“You made it my business when you…” I trail off because she didn’t do anything. It was all me. I’m the one that made a move. I’m the one that can’t keep my eyes off her, my hands off her. She may have tempted me, but I’m the one that lost control.
I’ve never been that guy. Only I can’t seem to stay the fuck away from her.
She’s off-limits. Whether she knows it or not.
“What the hell did I do to make it your business? I—”
“Sorry,” I interrupt, reaching out then thinking better of it, letting my hand drop with a splash between us. “I didn’t mean that either, but this can’t happen. It shouldn’t have happened.”
With Jenna’s back to the light, the halo effect makes it hard to see her features, but it’s easy to sense she’s about to argue. “Jenna, I—”
“It’s okay.” She sighs, the edge to her voice softening. “It was just a kiss. No big deal.”
A sour taste fills the back of my throat but I nod through it. “Just a kiss.”
“Glad we agree.” She smiles but it’s no more real than the lie that just passed through my lips, and I hate that it’s better this way.
Without another word, she swims toward the ladder and curls her hands around the bar, shaking as she climbs out of the pool. I watch her, unmoving, my stomach knotted with regret.
“I’m going to bed.” She grabs her towel from the lounge chair, her tone void of emotion as she stands tall.
My phone rings again and Jenna stares down at it as she walks past, letting droplets of water fall to the screen. “It’s not even him.” She scoffs, and I swear her lip curls in disgust as she turns toward the door. “It’s Becca.”
Fuck. My eyes slam shut as I flinch. “That’s not—”
“I don’t care.”
“I care,” I call out after her, pulling myself out of the water, knocking the vodka over, ignoring the remnants as it spills onto the deck. “She’s a friend. It’s a joke.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Jenna waves me off like it’s nothing, though I’m not stupid; I already know her better than that.
“Jenna—”
“Fuck off.”
Yep. She’s pissed. But I goddamn deserve it.
Of all the fucking people who could be calling me right now, it had to be Becca.
She set her photo as a close-up of her chest, her tits practically spilling out of her bikini.
Joking that it might prompt me to think about sex every once in a while.
Hoping I’d go and get laid. Apparently, I’m an irritable motherfucker when I’m abstaining.
Not that I do it on purpose. I don’t prioritize my sex life.
My hand works fine and sex has never been memorable for me. It’s always just been a need.
In this case, the joke is on Becca because her photo fucking backfired. If she hadn't called, I’d be having sex right now. I wanted it.
Gotta love friends.
Despite being summer, the chill of the night air follows me inside, and I’ve just made it to the landing when Jenna’s door slams down the hall, making me shiver for a different reason. I throw my head back and groan, not bothering to hide the sound as frustration consumes me.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I can’t decide what’s more messed up…the fact that I kissed her or the fact that I pulled away.
I’m not usually a big drinker, but with the vodka no longer disrupting my brain, I have too much sense to think. And I don’t need that right now.
A quick change and a phone call later, I’m running downstairs to meet Kai, jumping in his car to head God knows where, but immediately feeling better.
Because at the very least, now I can breathe.
Asoft pounding rouses me ahead of my alarm, and it’s not until I sit up that I realize it’s my head. Fucking Kai. My groan rumbles in the back of my throat, and I cough as even that pains me.
Give the guy an inch and he’ll take a fucking mile. Or in Kai’s case, tell him I want to drink and he gets me fucking plastered.
After checking the time, I drop back to the pillow and smile, sinking deep into the cloudy comfort. I could stay here all day. If it wasn’t the one day a year that I actually set a morning alarm.
Speaking of…it feels like no time has passed when it blares in my ear and I groan again, forcing myself to get up.
Hitting go on my latest playlist, an image of Jenna plays on my mind. It hasn’t left since she walked away. Her taste still lingers on my tongue. No matter how hard I try, I can’t shake her.
When I’m done getting ready, I pull up my messages to Kai and type random letters, distracting myself as I walk past Jenna’s door.
At the last second, I fail, glancing up to find her door open, and I falter. With her bed made, the vacant room has my stomach sinking. Did she leave? My eyes bounce to Jack’s room to find it equally bare, and a burning sensation wells in my chest. Are they together?
Were their doors open when I got home? Were—
Fuck. What am I doing?
Cursing myself, I shake off my thoughts and jog down the stairs, until hushed voices from the TV pull me up short.
Jenna’s sprawled on the couch like she owns the place, and a relieved smile graces my lips, until I remember it shouldn’t.
It would be significantly easier to ignore her if I didn’t find her goddamn intoxicating.
She moans and it’s anything but sexual, yet I’m taken back to her dripping body pressed against mine, her quiet mewls as I was grinding into her.
“Why the hell is it so freaking hard to find something to watch over here?” Jenna mumbles under her breath, loud enough to pull me back to the present. I follow her gaze to the TV, and it only takes a few flashes of red and green to know why she’s complaining.
And the urge to heal her takes over me.
Without thinking, I stalk over and grab the remote from her hand, switching the TV off and tossing the remote out of her reach.
“What’d you do that for?” She gapes, her expression morphing from confusion to anger right before my eyes.
“Two reasons.” I hold up two fingers, and she scoffs. “One, you’re flicking through network television, not our streaming services, and you’re never going to find anything good. Two, we’re going out.”
“Who?”
“You. And. Me.” I point a finger her way then direct it back to my chest, opting for the asshole approach over something more sincere. She’s not the type to go for the latter. Not yet, anyway.
Jenna laughs manically, her expression wild as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“Why? Are you pissed off at me? I thought you didn’t care.”
Fury mars her features and I almost give in, but I can’t deny that I like pushing her buttons, especially when it leads to a spark of fire igniting in her eyes. “What do you want, Mason?”
“I’ve got a job to do and you’re coming with me.”
“Why would I do that? I’m Jack’s.” His name seductively rolls off her tongue, and I physically wince, unable to hide it.
Jenna smirks triumphantly, but her verbal dig tells me that I’ve got her and I can’t stop a little sneer of my own.
“Jack’s not here, is he?” I take a guess that I’m right, since he’s spent the last eight years avoiding this day, and even if he didn’t, he’s never up this early. “On top of that, you’re in a country you’ve never been to and instead of exploring, you’re watching TV.”
“It’s barely nine. I’ve got most of the day.”
“So, you have a better offer?” I stare at her in challenge, refusing to give in now that I’m close, an idea coming to mind.
She stands and juts a hip, clearly hoping her defiant stance will sway me to let it go. Instead, I almost laugh because she’s not going to win. I can be a stubborn motherfucker when I want to be. And at this moment, I’ve never wanted anything more.
“We’re going.” I spin on the spot, walking back into the hall. “Come on. We can’t be late.”
“I’m not—”
‘You’re coming. Hurry up.”
Jenna huffs adorably, and I bite back a smile as I continue on my way, only pausing when she calls out.
“Can you at least tell me if I need to change?” I turn to face her, my eyes raking over her body, slowly drinking her in. Not that I need to. I noticed what she was wearing the second I walked in the room, and I hate to admit, she looks damn good in everything.
Today she’s wearing ripped black jeans and a Guns N’ Roses band tee knotted at the front, showing off a sliver of her alluring skin.
The outfit’s perfect for what I have planned, but she doesn’t need to know that.
“You’re good,” I tell her instead, my voice neutral, hiding the fact that I’m still thinking about the way her skin sizzled under my touch.
“Oh-kay. Thanks. But is it appropriate?”
“Mostly.” I shrug.
“Mostly? What the hell does that mean?” She frowns and I stifle a laugh.
“Get your ass outside. I’ll meet you in a minute.”
Her angry gaze burns a hole in the back of my head and I internally cringe. There’s a good chance she might hate me for this, though something tells me she won’t. And if it changes her mood toward Christmas, I’m willing to take that risk.