Chapter 10
PARKER
Ican’t keep my eyes off Mason. His cheeks warm under my watchful gaze, but he doesn’t falter in his caretaking.
Once he’s finished drying me off, he carefully dresses me in the new clothes I brought with us.
But he stays naked as he helps me into the bed, which gives me a delightful view of his firm could bounce quarters off this ass butt when he digs through his drawers to find pajamas for himself.
I’m a little disappointed once his miles of gorgeous skin are gone, but any lingering disappointment disappears when Mason joins me under the covers.
The warmth of him and his proximity lull me toward an afternoon nap.
He pets my hair like he did earlier, forcing relaxation upon me.
We smell like each other, like bodywash, and I can still taste a hint of him on my tongue.
I want to keep him on my tongue forever.
“I really like you,” I whisper, losing my filter as sleep comes for me.
“I really like you too, Parker, more than you’ll ever know,” Mason says with a smile in his voice.
I hum in contentment and snuggle down farther into the bed. My ribs don’t hurt anymore because of the medicine. I’m warm from Mason’s dizzying closeness. Wakefulness never stood a chance with that combination.
When I return to the living, Mason is still there, slipping his fingers through my now slightly damp hair.
I groan and lean into his touch, earning me a chuckle from Mason.
Blinking my eyes open, I smile a dopey smile up at him, and his lips quirk into a smirk in return.
Everything just feels easier when I’m with Mason.
Touch or no touch, he calms something inside me that I never even knew needed calming.
“It’s only been an hour,” Mason teases.
I stretch a little, noting that my ribs are less painful, and more just achy. Tilting my head toward him, I’m rewarded with a little scratch of my scalp.
“Must’ve been all I needed.” I squint an eye to look at his hip, finding his phone in his hand. “What’re you doing?”
Mason flushes a beautiful shade of crimson. “I was listening to that Dungeons and Dragons podcast I love. They just released a new episode, and you were zonked out, so I figured it was a good time.”
I roll over onto my back so that Mason’s front is tucked perfectly against my side.
Letting my hand gently rest on his thigh, I brush my thumb over the soft material of his tattered and worn sweatpants.
To touch him like this, without worry about triggering him from being outside, is a dream come true.
So is just sharing a bed with him. But what we’d shared in the shower had been beyond comparison to any sexual encounter I’ve ever had.
I don’t know what my label is, and it doesn’t really matter to me.
All that matters is that my body feels right when I’m with Mason.
“Can you explain D&D to me?”
Mason looks pensive. “If you’ll do something in return.”
My heart starts to race. “Oh?”
“Yeah…” Mason leans forward, lips an inch from mine.
My breath catches in my lungs and my cock takes notice, starting to harden in my pants.
“If you’ll”—Mason dances his fingers down my face, over my chin, then lets them land on my bottom lip—“tell me”—when I part my lips to lick the pads of his fingers, he gasps, then grins in mischief—“what your favorite book is?”
“What?”
Mason kisses me softly. “What’s your favorite book?”
“The Three Musketeers.”
Mason snorts. “Bullshit. Tell me the real book.”
“Okay, well, it’s kind of stupid, but when I was a kid, I read this series about boys who get sucked into this fairy world. It wasn’t what you’d expect, there was a lot of danger, and the fairies were not always nice. Anyway… I really loved that series.”
“Really?” Mason asks in wonder.
I squint up at him. “Yes.”
“That’s so fucking cute.”
And then Mason’s kissing me softly, the still damp strands of his hair brushing over my forehead. I reach up to caress his jaw, hesitant at first, but then I firm my touch when Mason lets out a soft, pleased sigh. I love the feel of his slight stubble beneath my fingers.
“Explain the D&D stuff to me,” I whisper against Mason’s slack mouth.
“All right.” But Mason sounds like he’d rather spend all day kissing me.
“Just imagine the most fantastical video game ever, but it’s real life.
All these people get together with these games they plan, elaborate stories and scenarios, then they act them out with monsters and magicians. It’s just fun.”
“Kinda sexy listening to you nerd out.”
Mason rolls his eyes. “Sure.”
I grip his chin and turn him toward me. “It is sexy. Everything about you is sexy.”
“Why do you wear contacts on missions?” Mason asks, deftly swerving to change the topic.
“I’m almost legally blind. Robin wanted me to get corrective eye surgery, but Jacob printed out all these horror stories about people having serious side effects that terrified me, so now I just use contacts.
I sleep with them in far too often.” I blink sleepily up at Mason, just enjoying touching him for as long as he’ll let me. “Do you like the glasses?”
Mason flushes again. Interesting. “Yeah, I like the glasses.”
Noted.
We lie in bed for a while, until Mason finishes his podcast. For dinner we wander downstairs to heat up more pastina while chatting about random things like how Mason takes his eggs, the fact I taught myself to play guitar, and why Alice in Wonderland is so scary.
By the time nightfall arrives, I’m tired all over again.
And when we curl up in bed, this time Mason is a firm line along my side, and everything feels just a little easier than it did only a few weeks ago now that he’s in my grips.
Finally, after the prescribed amount of days of bed rest—of letting Mason dote over me—I’m cleared to return to active duty. Mason joins me at the house on the fifth day and Dante slow claps when I walk in. I tip an invisible hat at him with a triumphant grin.
“The prodigal son returns,” Hayden says with a teasing drawl.
“You love me, boss.”
Hayden lifts one perfect eyebrow. “Do I?”
Suddenly, I’m not sure. “I think so?”
Hayden just hums and returns to the laptop that’s precariously balanced on his thighs.
Dante appears in front of me with an open bag of chips and a grin. “You want some sour cream and onion chips?”
I reach out to grab some with a scowl. “You owe me this since you didn’t check on me once.”
“Reid reported back,” Dante says out of the corner of his mouth. “Plus, you hate being babied.”
“It’s like the worst thing about you,” Jacob agrees.
“I feel ganged up on. This is no longer a safe space.” I turn to leave but Mason stops me. He nods toward the sofa, and I take a seat with a resigned sigh. “Do we at least have a mission coming up?”
Hayden hums again. “Tomorrow night.”
“Can Mason come?” Everyone turns to look at me, including Mason. “I’d feel better if he was there. I don’t like leaving him unprotected, you know, since I’m staying with him for the purpose of protecting him.”
The twinkle in Mason’s eyes makes me want to blow our cover right now, say fuck it and tell everyone, but we’d agreed to wait until the air settles.
Basically, wait until Reid is most receptive to the news since his opinion of me is currently a little less than lackluster.
I lean back in my usual spot on the sofa, watching like a hawk as Mason carefully perches himself on the edge of the wingback chair Reid usually likes to inhabit.
But Reid is currently sprawled on the floor on his stomach, aimlessly doodling in his sketchbook.
“What are you drawing?” Hayden asks, curiously leaning over to sneak a peek.
“Parker bleeding out,” Reid answers without missing a beat.
Dante leans over and smacks Reid’s ass. “Hey.”
“Doing that does not in any way make me want to be nice, just for your information.”
The smile on Dante’s face is otherworldly.
Reid goes back to drawing as if he didn’t just toss a grenade at him.
The room is quiet as Hayden types away. The only disruption is Jacob when he wanders into the room, tugging a shirt over his head and looking very annoyed at the sight of a full living room.
“What the fuck? When was a tribunal called.”
“When I sent a text message to the group chat saying a tribunal was called to discuss the mission tomorrow night.” Hayden lifts his gaze to skewer my twin with a gut-twisting scowl. “Why are you just now getting dressed? You’ve been home all day.”
Jacob shrugs. “I was lounging in my room naked.”
Hayden’s jaw tightens, the muscle popping so hard it looks like it could snap, but he stays quiet, just returning to furiously typing on his laptop.
Mason turns his curious gaze to me and I just shrug.
They’ve been this way for as long as I can remember, and at this point I’ve given up trying to apply reason to their behavior.
Jacob tosses his big body onto the sofa beside me with a wink and a grin. He grabs the remote from the ottoman, then turns the television on with no care in the world, as if we aren’t all sitting here waiting to discuss tomorrow night.
“Are you deliberately egging Hayden on?” I ask quietly for only Jacob to hear.
Jacob purses his lips, then makes a clicking noise with his tongue that has Hayden turning around to glare at him.
He just makes a kissy face until Hayden goes back to his laptop, but I can see the hunch of Hayden’s shoulders, the flush that rises on his cheeks and works its way down his neck. My brother is a major asshole.
I grab the remote from Jacob’s hand with a scowl of my own. “Lay off.”
Jacob grabs the remote back. “Fuck off.”
“Hey!”
“I’ve got it handled,” Jacob says darkly.