CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MASON
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I close the door behind Lexi and walk to my desk. Mostly to stop myself from wringing her neck.
And kissing her.
Troy has had a permanent smirk on his face watching this debacle unfold and, if I were him, I would too.
But I’m not him, and I don’t find any of it amusing.
Does Sebastian know anything about this?
Emily is becoming well-known for getting involved in things that are outside her wheelhouse. I didn’t want to offend her, but she doesn’t have a company to hire anyone.
What exactly does she think Lexi will be doing?
A personal assistant role?
I’m not privy to the financial agreement she and Sebastian have—it’s none of my business—but I doubt he thinks his wife needs a PA.
And if she did, Lexi is hardly the right person. She’s an excellent PA, but they’re best friends.
Clearly, it’s bullshit.
The two of them are up to something.
I might’ve fired her after we talked, or I may have kept her on. She can’t just quit because...
Because you don’t want her to leave.
“We have a contract.” I cross my arms.
“Which states that I’m not due sick leave for a year, and yet you paid me for yesterday.”
That’s her argument? Her entire defense?
“Please don’t go to law school,” I mumble.
“What?”
“Never mind. Lexi, we have a contract. You can’t just quit and leave. You need to give four weeks’ notice.”
I don’t know why I’m pushing this. I should let her walk. It solves all my problems.
Well, except the one in my pants.
Let me clarify that. I do not have a sexually transmitted disease. I have a Lexi problem. My cock wants her. Hell, I want her.
I want to see her at that desk every day.
I want to turn back time and not have Harrow say the things he did.
I want to take back the stupid thing I said to her after I fucked her the first time and take her on a date and see her smiling.
I want to go back to that night on the rooftop bar and watch her beautiful long leg swinging away to the music as she sent me flirtatious glances.
Where I winked back at her and my heart swelled when she blushed, knowing her sweet cunt would be pulsing with arousal.
How clever of me to forget my active participation.
“Yes. I do realize that. I thought perhaps you might welcome me leaving. After. Clearly...” Lexi holds out her hands. “Mason, help me out here.”
She can’t say it.
I tip my head and study her.
No, that’s not it. She’s not certain Harrow told me.
I still don’t know what actually happened, but they are both being tight-lipped. Him less so, obviously. There is most definitely a gag order in place.
“You help me, Lexi. What happened at Harrow & Armstrong?” I uncross my arms and plant my hands on my hips. “Why is a man you worked for warning me against the very thing I’m concerned about?”
I’d have warned you to run, unless you want trouble following your fortune.
Her mouth falls open, cheeks burning red with...guilt? Anger?
I can’t fucking tell.
And my own guilt is tearing at me while watching her discomfort.
“I knew you’d believe him.” Lexi points at me. “I knew it. Emily said you wouldn’t, but she always sees the good in people.”
“Does she?” I ask, glaring back, starting to get angry. Instead of telling me how she’s innocent, she’s deflecting and gaslighting me.
Making me the wrong one for believing a successful businessman.
This time her mouth snaps shut.
And I realize my mistake.
I shouldn’t have said that. God why do I keep saying the wrong things to this woman?
“Fuck you,” Lexi snaps.
“You did that.”
Jesus Christ, Mason Kingsley, stop goddamn talking.
Lexi takes a step back.
Then another and spins around.
Goddamn it.
My hands fall from my hips, and I’m rounding my desk before I can stop myself. I make it to the door a split second before she does.
“Stop,” I demand.
“Let me go,” she cries.
I plant my back against the door and grab her. Tears are pooling in her eyes, and my chest tightens, hating the pain I’m seeing.
“Tell me what happened. Tell me so I can understand,” I rasp, desperate to understand what the hell went on back in England.
She shakes her head, pushing against my chest.
“Lexi. Tell me!”
I want to hear that she’s innocent. I need to hear her say it.
Taking her chin, I lift her face. Then, before I can stop myself, my mouth is on hers, and she’s in my arms.
Nuclear heat slams inside me as our tongues ravish one another, filled with passion and fury. The kiss is chaotic as she obeys my command.
I rip up her dress and find her panties, shoving my hand inside them.
“Mase,” she groans.
“Tell me.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you fucking don’t.” I take her mouth again and slide my fingers through her pink folds until I find her entrance.
Then push inside.
She gasps into my mouth.
“You want this. You want my dick inside your naughty cunt.”
Lexi groans.
“Say it,”
Arching against my hand, her breasts press into my body, and my cock throbs painfully.
I flip us, pushing her against the wall, and rip my cock out of my pants.
“Everything okay in there?” Emily calls out.
Lexi’s eyes widen, but I don’t stop.
“Shh,” I whisper, lifting her leg and pushing my cock inside her.
“Lexi?”
“Oh, fuck,” Lexi whimpers, her eyes drifting shut.
“Answer her,” I thrust again, holding her body so I have the perfect access.
Slam.
“Yup,” she calls out to Emily.
“Okay, I’m just going to make a call then I’m meet you out...”
Her voice disappears, and our attention returns to the friction between our bodies. The way her pussy sucks me inside her. The heat, the moist sounds of our bodies connecting.
“Good girl.” I slam a hand on the wall and feel my biceps stretch against my shirt as I consume her mouth again.
My dick swells, my anger driving me to take everything from her.
She’s leaving.
She’s lying.
I hate that I still want her.
Focusing on her swollen lips, I let out a growl and increase my thrusts.
“Consider. Your. Contract. Canceled.” I grunt as my orgasm blasts down my shaft.
Lexi grips my shoulders, her nails digging into my arms as she shudders violently.
Our eyes locked.
Passion, fury and regret are all mixed into one.
As my heart rate slows, no more words are left to be said, and her eyes start to gloss, I close mine. Then drop her to the floor, pull out, and step away.
Lexi lifts a hand to her mouth and tugs her dress down.
Then she pushes past me, and I let her go.
I hate you.
If she didn’t then, she does now.
I knew you’d believe him.
She’s right, I do believe him. But I also have doubts, and what does that say about me as a professional man who has lived through losing one of his best friends to a woman who can’t be trusted?
Despite all of that, despite all the warnings and red fucking flags, I still want Lexi Grant.
But the damage is done.
For both of us.
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“DID YOU KNOW about what the two of them were planning?” I ask Sebastian as we stand in line to get sushi a few hours later.
Harrow and his team are returning this afternoon to finalize and sign the contract, and all I’ve been thinking about is Lexi.
To be fair, Ezra is on top of this and going to get a huge bonus this year.
“No,” he replies, then orders for us both.
I grab napkins and a handful of sauces, then walk over to the table where Colt is sitting and waiting for us while smirking at his phone.
“What’s going on with him these days?”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian shoots me a concerned glance. “I’m worried. He doesn’t usually smile this much.”
I snort.
“You got a pen pal or something there, buddy?” I ask, sitting down.
Colt’s eyes shoot up, and his smile vanishes. “What?”
I nod at the phone. “Want to share the joke?”
He pockets his phone. “No. Let’s eat. What did you need us for?”
Dick.
“Friendship. Do you have time in your texting schedule to fit me in? If not, then why did you bother coming?”
That didn’t come out right.
“What’s going on?” he asks instead of telling me I’m sounding like a little sensitive bitch.
Because I am.
I know I am.
I’m not usually this abrupt with people, but the way I left things with Lexi was not good. I want to call her and see if she is okay, but the reality is everything about her has triggered me from the start.
Our reactions to Jack’s murder were all different.
They know I carry a heavy burden from defending Sandy and their relationship, then having to accept she was the person who killed him. Even if the authorities haven’t.
You should have fucking seen, that’s why.
“It appears Lexi got herself in some trouble back home in the UK,” Sebastian shares.
So, he knows.
“What sort of trouble?” Colt asks, glancing between us as Seb shrugs.
“I don’t know. That’s the problem. A client recognized her, and I’ve done enough digging to discover she used to work for him—”
“You didn’t—” Colt starts.
“Reference her? No, I didn’t. Yes, I know, I know. I can’t turn back time, so what the fuck do I do here?”
Colt glances between Seb and me once again.
“Ask her. Isn’t that the obvious thing to do?”
It is, and I was planning to have a solid conversation with her, except this morning didn’t go at all how I planned.
None of it.
“That was Plan B, but she turned up to work this morning with Emily soon-to-be-Remington, who announces she’s stealing my PA and hiring her herself.”
Colt chokes on his soda, spilling it down the front of his Tom Ford suit, while Sebastian shakes his head, and slides a piece of sushi in his mouth.
But doesn’t seem surprised.
“At the risk of having my nose broken, do we know who these two women really are?” I ask, and when Sebastian drops his chopsticks, I know I’ve crossed the line.
“The woman I’m marrying. The woman who is growing my child inside her. I don’t care if Emily is a double Russian spy who has a blood diamond operation.”
Now there’s a thought.
Colt and I lift our brows, share a look and turn back to our friend.
“Fine, I would care,” Sebastian concedes. “But don’t go there. Emily is more interested in community gardening than trading with cartels.”
“Well, she just stole my Lexi from me.”
“God, I’m glad I’m single.” Colt shakes his head.
“I’m not dating Lexi, she’s my PA,” I snap.
“Fucking her then.” Colt shrugs and keeps eating. “Don’t screw the crew, isn’t that how the saying goes?”
“I told him,” Sebastian says.
Is he kidding right now?
“Great advice. And you can hardly talk. Unbelievable.” I shove a piece of sushi into my mouth and chew.
“Listen, Mase, just don’t leap to conclusions. She might be innocent, so go talk to her again.” Colt holds out his chopsticks.
Pfft.
Unlikely. Lexi is more likely to spit at me than talk.
“Sandy has done enough damage. She’s the worst of the worst, but we can’t keep thinking all women are bad like her,” Colt adds.
I see his point, but.
“Fine, then what about Cassandra? Remember the heiress who spent a week with me in Italy. Someone I thought would be trustworthy given her family fortune, only to discover when I returned to the US—thankfully alone, but with plans to see her again—that her father had lost almost everything due to a gambling habit.”
“Most unfortunate,” Sebastian says in a mock British accent.
“Is that your bedroom voice to turn Em on?” Colt asks.
“Focus, both of you.”
As their laughter fades, Sebastian lifts his soda and locks his gaze with mine. “I agree they are up to something. I will interrogate my little bride tonight. Meanwhile, try not to correlate Lexi with Sandy or Cassandra.”
Or Megan.
That damn minx had been a regular at the Obsidian Club.
My favorite, so to speak. We’d talk in between pleasure, and I learned she was a solicitor working for some well-known celebrities.
Names kept private, obviously. I had never seen her as a potential wife or anyone I’d date—perhaps because of the way we met—but I liked her enough.
After six or so weeks, she walked in looking less vibrant than she normally did.
Long story short, I asked if she was okay.
She burst into tears and told me she’d learned she had cancer. Terminal. That it would be a long, slow death, and she had huge debt...
Blah, fucking blah.
It took me a couple of phone calls the next day to learn it was all bullshit. Megan—or rather Tracey Dalton—was a scam artist.
And never got a dime from me, for the record.
“Well, excuse me if I have trust issues. I seem to attract the psychos.” I wipe my mouth with the napkin and rise to my feet. “I have to run. Thanks for the...therapy session.”
“I will talk to Em tonight.”
“Tell her I hope her new business venture and PA are working out.” I roll my eyes.
Colt chuckles.
“Mason,” Sebastian says firmly, stopping my departure, and I freeze. “The wedding is not far away. I don’t want Emily to worry. Are we going to be okay?”
Fuck.
This is what I wanted to avoid.
“Of course. It’s not like Lexi got the opportunity to rob me blind or kill me. We fucked once,” I lie. “We’ll both get over it.”
I tuck my jacket under my arm, and head out.