Chapter 11 #2
He looked around a little more, probably for a cigarette butt, but found nothing.
“The ash alone won’t have anything useful, but now we know someone was back here, at your window.
” He turned and shone the light out into the woods, but despite the powerful beam, there was no sign of movement, nothing unusual.
We made our way back to the front of the house, and he checked the bushes and flowers there, then he walked around the driveway and checked all over the porch, but apparently didn’t find anything else he thought was evidence.
I unlocked my door but I was uneasy. I knew for certain that the knock hadn’t been a mistake, and it wasn’t a ghost. Ghosts don’t smoke.
Mason followed me inside and locked the door behind us, securing the deadbolt and chain lock too. He unchambered the round in the gun, and placed it against the wall by the couch. “Are all your windows locked? And the back door?”
I nodded. “Yes. All of them.”
He sighed. “Well, it took me nine minutes to get here from my parents’ house. It would take the police even longer because the call would have to go through dispatch. I don’t like that, Elijah. I don’t like that at all.”
I frowned. “Well, I’m sorry you don’t like the house I chose.”
He ignored my comment. “Can you stay with your mom in town until everything dies down? At least until they catch whoever killed your ex? That way you wouldn’t be alone, and you’d be much closer to the police, to my parents’ house, and your friends.”
“Okay, first off, I wouldn’t put my mom in danger like that if there really was someone after me.
Do you want to make her another target or something?
And secondly, no, I can’t anyway. She moved into a studio apartment a while back to save money, and there isn’t room for me.
I love my house. You know that. I like living out here.
And these assholes aren’t going to scare me away from it. ”
Anger, or at the very least annoyance flashed through his eyes.
He made a frustrated sound. “You’re miles out of town, alone in the woods, and you’re obviously unarmed.
Your ex has already been targeted, and two redneck assholes, who may be a completely separate problem, have made it their priority to fuck with you.
It wouldn’t be scaring you away, it would be you being smart. ”
I stood my ground. “Fuck you, are you calling me stupid?”
He snarled, “If the shoe fits . . .”
I wasn’t hot for him anymore. Or if I was, it was overpowered by rage.
I got right up in his space and poked my finger at his chest. “Fuck you, Mason! How dare you come into my home and call me stupid. I bought this house. I fixed what was wrong. I made it like new, and I did it all on my own. I chose everything because I loved it. It’s mine.
I like the solitude and the woods and I always have. You know that.”
“And it’s bit you in the ass more than once,” he growled, grabbing my wrist to hold my hand back.
“Don’t think I haven’t heard about your hospital trip.
Don’t think anyone is stupid, Elijah. Even Chris told me he knew it was Brandon.
And you were alone with him in the fucking woods you love so much! ”
I hesitated, because I hadn’t been aware he knew all that.
Fucking Chris. It didn’t matter anymore, though, I guessed.
Brandon was gone. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I practically yelled.
“Like being in town would have made a difference! It wouldn’t have changed a thing.
It didn’t only happen in the woods. Brandon was a dick.
Everyone knew. I know they did, because I’m not stupid either.
They watched him get mad at me at the bar more than once.
They watched him grab my arm and drag me out.
No one stopped it, no one stepped in, they just watched it happen.
No one gave a fuck. Being in the woods isn’t what bit me in the ass.
We were both guys, so some didn’t think it mattered, and to others, we were just a couple of queers and they didn’t give a fuck what happened to either of us.
Brandon never told anyone he was gay, but they all knew he was parking his dick in my garage every night. ”
Mason’s face darkened, but it wasn’t anger so much as . . . possessiveness that took over. I wasn’t deterred.
“So don’t you dare come in here after all these years acting like you know me and you know everything about me.
You don’t. It doesn’t matter anyway. It doesn’t fucking matter where I go or what I do.
It’s coming for me. I see it all the time.
I’ve seen it play out in so many ways, but running, hiding, yelling, none of it helps.
I can’t avoid it, Mason, so I might as well be happy until it comes. And this house makes me happy.”
He paused, my wrist still in his iron grip. “What’s coming for you?”
My shoulders slumped, all the fight leaving me suddenly. “Death, Mason. Death is. Soon. I see it almost every night. I’ve been warned, but I can’t stop it. I don’t know when or where or who, but I know they’re after me too.”
He let go of my wrist, and suddenly the bodyguard from earlier was back. He sounded upset, though, because he knew better than anyone that my visions were always true. “No. Fuck that. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You can’t stop it,” I sighed.
He grabbed my arms and yanked me toward him. “Yes. I can. And I will.”
His lips crashed into mine just like on Saturday night, except a little less violently.
Aw, fuck. I melted into the kiss, into his body.
Was I really that powerless against him?
Was it because I’d had a crush on him for so long, or because I was still pissed at him?
Maybe I could see a little bit of the Mason I used to know, somewhere in there, no longer hiding behind popularity and asshole friends.
Whatever the reason, he already had me wrapped around his finger and he seemed to know it.
I was aware that I was an idiot to let my guard down, especially with someone who’d hurt me so badly.
I knew what he was capable of, but here we were.
He was still kissing me, but he was walking me backwards, toward my bedroom.
I didn’t put up a fight. God, I was so weak, especially for him.
I’d always been a sucker for the wrong kind of man, but never like I was with Mason.
He was on a whole other level. I knew he had it in him to give me what I needed, but I doubted it would turn out any better than the others.
The back of my legs hit the bed and I paused.
When I didn’t immediately move to climb onto my bed, he shoved me down.
I landed on my back, but immediately started to sit up.
“What the fuck, Mason, you can’t just push—” But then his lips were on mine again, silencing me.
He climbed over me on the bed, and the fact that he hadn’t paused to let me question my decisions made me hard as fuck.
That definitely meant something was wrong with me.
“Go ahead, tell me to stop,” he whispered, pulling back to look at me.
But I didn’t. His hand trailed down my body and gripped my dick through the pajama pants I was wearing.
I honestly couldn’t remember how to care if there was something broken in my brain.
I moaned into his mouth and he sat up, pulling me up with him and yanking my shirt over my head.
He pushed me back down, still hovering over me, but reached over to open my nightstand drawer.
I thought he was looking for a condom or lube, but I felt a blush creep into my cheeks as he stared at the dildo in there, the one he’d smirked about on Saturday night.
He hummed. He fucking hummed, then said, “I think we should let your friend join in.”
I balked immediately. Brandon hadn’t even known I had it, let alone used it on me or watched me use it.
He’d been my longest relationship, and no one else had seen it either.
I refused to tell most of my hookups where I lived, but the few who’d been here hadn’t opened that drawer.
It was something I used when I was desperate, which was fairly often because of my poor taste in men, but always alone.
I started trying to talk my way out of it as I sat up and tried to push the drawer closed, pulling away from Mason as I did so. It was when I reached for my shirt that he suddenly reacted. “No, no, no you don’t,” he said, grabbing my hands in that steel grip he had.
“Mason, I don’t think . . . we shouldn’t . . . let go. I think I’m going to just . . .”
Faster than I could comprehend, I was flat on my back and my wrists were above my head. He had them in one hand and I heard a clank and a click, and I was fucking handcuffed to my headboard.
I gaped at him. “What the hell, Mason? Why the fuck do you even have handcuffs? Did you think you were going to find someone and arrest them? You aren’t even a damn cop here.
” I was panicking a little bit, realizing I’d completely lost control of the situation and thinking about the reason he was here in the first place.
“You can’t fucking do this, you ass! Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie?
You’ll hear a noise, go to investigate, they’ll get you somehow, and then I’m here, handcuffed to my fucking bed and at their mercy. ” Suddenly the dildo was in my mouth.