Chapter 7 ATHENA
ATHENA
“It’s nice to have you to myself,” Mason murmured as we walked barefoot along the morning shoreline, waves crashing around us. The rising sun painted the sea in gold and peach, fragile light bleeding through the last of the night.
He’d woken me with soft kisses, coaxing me into stealing the beach before the world woke. I told myself I agreed because I owed him time. The truth? I just wanted air. The house was suffocating. Haunted.
The beach was beautiful in its silence. The sand is still cool. And Mason was beside me — the boy who used to feel like home. So why did I feel so far away?
His hand in mine no longer warmed me the way it used to.
That innocent, fluttering joy I always felt when he touched me was gone, replaced with something colder, bitter.
The image of him with her had burned itself into my brain, her body tucked into his like it had always belonged there.
And him? Acting like none of it happened.
“You’re quiet this morning,” Mason said, squeezing my fingers. “Everything okay, baby?”
There it was. Baby. As if the nickname could glue back the cracks.
“I didn’t sleep well,” I lied, quickly. He nodded, satisfied, and we kept walking. “You didn’t tell me how your night went,” I said casually, keeping my gaze forward. “Anything interesting happen at the bar?”
It was a test. A chance for him to come clean, but he didn’t take it.
“Nothing much,” he said. “It was boring without you.”
Boring. The video said otherwise. I swallowed the lump rising in my throat.
“I’m going out for a bit tonight,” I changed the subject, too fast. “I have to meet with my father’s men. He’s breathing down their necks again. We need to make sure our stories are straight.”
Mason frowned, his thumb rubbing circles into my hand.
“Why can’t Ace go?” he asked. “I don’t like the idea of you going out alone at night.”
“They’ll send a car. It’s fine,” I replied. Another lie. A half-truth at best.
Yes, I would meet Father’s men. But only as a cover.
I wanted my necklace back, but more than that… I wanted to see him. Mason’s voice pulled me from my spiral.
“We were supposed to go to the festival tonight.’’
“I’ll make it up to you,” I said softly, but I didn’t feel guilty.
“We’re barely seeing each other,” he snapped. I stopped walking. “You keep avoiding us.’’
“Not us, Mason. You.”
I let go of his hand, and the moment I did, the chill hit me. We stood in the sand, waves curling around our ankles, and for the first time ever, we felt like strangers.
“Maybe I wouldn’t avoid you if you didn’t keep finding new girls to occupy yourself with.’’
He blinked, stunned. As if the truth had slapped him. “Athena, it’s not—”
“Not what it seems?” I finished for him, laughing without humor. “Don’t, please.”
He opened his mouth, but I didn’t let him speak.
“I know we’re not together, and I know I can’t give you what you need right now. But I don’t kiss anyone else. I don’t touch anyone else. I chose you, Mason. And you — you chose everyone else.”
Silence stretched between us. His expression fractured.
“You know that’s not what this is,” he whispered, voice barely there.
“I don’t know anything anymore,” I snapped. “Except that I’m not enough for you.”
It hurt. It hurt more than I thought it would, to say those words out loud. They’d been rotting inside me like a secret, but saying them didn’t feel freeing. It felt like bleeding.
“I just… I need some space,” I said quietly. “It’s still just you, Mason. But I need time.”
He looked like I’d punched the air out of his lungs. He didn’t move, or reach for me. Didn’t say don’t go.
He let me walk away, and with every step I took, my chest ached worse, because I knew he wouldn’t follow.
Mason was always a gentleman. He gave me the space I asked for, but maybe what I really wanted was someone who would refuse.
Someone who’d say screw space, and come crashing after me like a storm.
Instead, the only thing that chased me was the sound of the waves - cold and relentless.
—
I spent the whole day with Isadora and Seraphina on the beach, doing my best to pretend the argument with Mason never happened. I refuse to let it ruin what’s supposed to be my first and maybe last vacation where I can do whatever I want.
Mason didn’t try to fix things. He let it slide, probably hoping it would vanish on its own. Maybe it would, just not now.
Isadora and Seraphina pouted when I told them I would skip the festival.
“You’re missing out,” they said. But crowds were never my thing.
But neither is sitting alone in the dark, waiting for a man I don’t even know. Someone who turns my stomach upside-down every time I think about him.
I looked down at my phone. I scanned the garden, waiting for him to emerge from the shadows like he always does.
I felt ridiculous. I’ve been here thirty minutes, because I finished with my father’s men early.
Imagining their surprise when I told them I’d wait in the dark garden alone.
Thanks to Ace’s payment, they didn’t ask further.
People laugh and chat along the street outside, but in the absolute darkness, time feels suspended. My phone beeped and I jumped. It was Mason. My heart dropped before I even saw the message.
‘‘I’m sorry baby. I don’t like us fighting. Can we talk when we get back?’’
‘‘Okay’’
I left the chat the moment I saw the little dots, showing me he was typing. I don’t see the point of him texting me now. He had the whole day to talk with me, but he didn’t. I scrolled mindlessly through my phone, pretending I wasn’t waiting. Then I felt him.
His scent crept in first—smoky, clean, expensive. I didn’t have to look up, I knew it was him. His black shoes gleamed faintly under the garden lights.
I looked up and there he was. Tall, quiet, devastating in the simplest clothes I’d ever seen him wear. No tailored suit, no buttoned collar. Just grey joggers, a white tee that stretched across his biceps, and that same messy hair that never looked anything but deliberate.
Our eyes locked, and my stomach twisted. He didn’t smile, just gave a quiet nod like this was some boardroom meeting.
“You came,” he said, and it sounded like surprise.
I lifted my chin. “How else would I get my necklace back?”
“I thought maybe you wanted to see me.” he smirked.
I stood up quickly, realizing how close I was to him, too close. He laughed low in his throat like I amused him.
“You said I could win my necklace back,” I snapped. “Tell me the rules.”
“Why the rush?” he asked, sinking lazily onto the bench like he owned it. “Maybe I want to get to know you first, dollface.”
“Then tell me your name.” I folded my arms across my chest.
“Why spoil the fun?” his grin was wicked.
“Are you a criminal?” I asked. “Is that why you won’t tell me?”
“I’m not afraid to tell you my name.” But he didn’t. Of course, he didn’t. I kept pushing.
“Normal people exchange names before conversations. You know mine which is scary, by the way.”
“Why so surprised I know who you are, Athena? Isn’t your family like a royal that likes to rub it into people’s faces?” he just watched me, eyes glittering. The insult hit sharper than I expected.
“That’s a rude thing to say.”
“But true.”
“It’s not.”
“If you say so, dollface.” He tilted his head, eyes burning with amusement. “We all know you’re Daddy’s golden princess.”
I stiffened, and I hated that. Hated how easy it was for him to push my buttons with nothing but a smile and the right word.
“If you’re going to waste my time, I’ll just leave,” I said, daring him to stop me, but he didn’t.
He stayed exactly where he was, tapping his fingers on the bench, cool and unconcerned.
Meanwhile, people passed just feet away, laughing, oblivious.
I could walk away, but I didn’t. Finally, he spoke.
“You want your necklace back?”
I nodded.
“Then come sit on my lap.”
My heart stopped.
“…What? You can’t be serious.”
“Deadly.”
Not a flicker of shame crossed his face, not even a twitch. The audacity was maddening. He stared at me as if this were the most natural, casual request in the world.
“What?” I snapped, stepping back. I needed to escape his pull, but his gaze held me firm, spreading out on that bench like he was eyeing his next meal. Oh, God. “That’s not a game!”
“It is to me,” he interrupted, his voice low and sharp. ‘‘ You want your necklace back, you pay the price.”
I couldn’t help the heat that flared in my cheeks, burning whether from anger or something else, something wild and dangerous.
“I’m not doing that, asshole.”
The words flew out faster than I wanted, but the truth was that some messed-up part of me wanted to throw caution to the wind and do exactly what he said, consequences be damned.
“You don’t just tell a random girl to sit on your lap,” I said, trying to sound firm.
“Why not?” He blinked at me like I was speaking another language.
“Because you don’t even have to know me.”
He shifted on the bench, legs crossed, those grey pants hugging him just right.
“I don’t need to,” he said. “Do it, and it’s yours. Simple.”
“I don’t know if this works on other girls, but it’s crazy.”
He shrugged, like he wasn’t the one making the insane request. “I don’t usually invite girls to sit on my lap. You’re the first.”
Liar.
I sighed, knowing this wasn’t going to change. His face said it all: Do it or walk away.
I wanted that necklace back, but was I ready to pay the price?
He was frightening, no doubt about it. But why did my body betray me?
I’ve never been like this. I’m a girl who plays by the rules, who runs from danger and lets my family handle it.
So why was I drawn to the danger sitting right in front of me?
Why did the thought of sitting on his lap send a flush of heat creeping over my skin?
With Mason, it was different. Comfortable and familiar. But this man stirred something darker, something raw and reckless deep inside.