19. Mason
MASON
Zoey: I’m freaking out.
Tate: Why?
Nino: Shocker.
Amelia: Oh boy.
The family text chat has become busier the closer we get to Zoey’s big day. She had no fewer than three freak-outs a day this week. I’ll be so damn happy when this weekend is behind us and Zoey starts acting more like herself.
Brax: Who do we have to beat up?
I roll my eyes. Of course, my brother instantly jumps to conclusions.
Zoey: They found my dress!
Thank God.
Zoey: I’m going to get my final fitting right now, and they promise it’ll be ready tomorrow.
Nothing like cutting it close, but at least it’s the one of her dreams. My cousin deserves everything to be perfect for her big day.
A message from Lizzy flashes on my screen.
Lizzy: I’m two hours out.
My heart pounds a little faster as I read her words. Today’s the day everything changes. Lizzy’s officially moving here and in with me.
I’m nervous as hell, but my excitement about all the possibilities outweighs everything.
Me: I’ll be waiting.
I already am, but she doesn’t need to know that. I go back to the family chat, needing to catch up. I missed more than a few messages in the brief minute I was away, and it is best to ignore them and pick up where they are now.
Tate: The bar is looking great.
Nino: I’m heading over now.
Amelia: It’s about time.
Me: Do you need me?
Brax: No. Stay there and wait for Lizzy.
Lulu: All out-of-town guests have arrived.
Zoey: I’m so excited to see everyone.
That makes two of us. It’s always nice to see the other side of the family. There are more of them than there are of us, and we’re damn near not able to fit inside the bar anymore.
Nino: What time is the rehearsal?
Zoey: Church at 6 and dinner at 7.
Tate: Get your shit together, Nino.
Nino: Shut it, Tate. Where’s the dinner?
Lulu: At the bar, dumbass.
Nino: Testy, testy.
Nino’s in rare form and liable to be eaten alive by the women in the family if he keeps up the attitude throughout the weekend.
Me: We’ll be there by six.
Today will be rushed. Lizzy will arrive, barely be able to unpack anything before we have to get to the church to rehearse for the big day tomorrow. We won’t have a moment to breathe until the wedding is over.
For the next two hours, I move things around, trying to find room for Lizzy to put her stuff. Luckily, I don’t have much shit, which leaves plenty of room for hers.
She texts me when she is a few blocks away, and I go downstairs to wait for her.
My palms are sweating as nerves take over. I always play it cool like I’m not worried about shit, but if she’s not happy and eventually wants to move out, it’ll feel like a failure.
Lizzy pulls up in her rental SUV, which is packed to the top and almost bursting at the seams. She waves at me with the biggest smile on her face, instantly making all my anxiety over everything vanish.
I round the front of her car to open her door. She slides out, looking as beautiful as ever, even after a six-plus-hour car ride.
“I’ve missed you,” I tell her, pulling her into a hug. I bury my face in her hair, inhaling the scent of lavender I’ve grown to love.
“Missed you too,” she whispers back, hugging me tightly.
I don’t want to let her go. I want to stay in this bubble of limitless possibilities, but we can’t.
“We have a little over an hour until we have to leave,” I tell her.
She pulls back, her eyes wide. “Shit. Really?”
I nod. “We can’t miss the church part since we’re in the wedding party.”
“We’ve got to get moving,” she says, suddenly in a panic.
I tick my head toward the doorway. “I brought a cart. We can get everything in one shot.”
“Thank God,” she breathes, clutching her chest. “We can do this.” She nods, but not at me. It’s a silent affirmation to herself.
“I got you, babe.”
“I need thirty minutes to get ready.”
“I’ll grab your suitcase for you, and you can go upstairs and get ready while I unpack the car and park it around the corner.”
“You’d do that?”
“Uh, yeah, babe. It’s bare minimum.”
“It is?” she asks.
“Fuck yeah.”
“I thought it was more like princess treatment.”
I shake my head, hating every douchebag she’s ever dated. “Give me your keys. We’ll have this talk later.”
“What talk?” she asks as she places her keys in my hand.
“Expectations,” I say as I head to the other end of the SUV and open the back. “You deserve to be treated like a princess every day.”
“If you say so.”
“I do,” I grunt out as I haul her very large and extremely heavy suitcase out of the back. The wheels hit the pavement with a loud thud. “Jesus, is there a dead body in here?”
Lizzy chuckles, waving me off. “You should’ve seen me getting it in there.”
“I don’t know how you did it,” I tell her as she curls her small fingers around the handle.
“Powerful thighs,” she whispers to me as she leans in.
My stomach flips as I think about those thighs wrapped around my head. “Fuck. Stop. I can’t show up at the church with a hard-on.”
Lizzy grins. “Maybe we can fit in a quickie.”
I growl. “Go. Move it. Hurry,” I tell her, loving the sound of that, but the longer we stand out here, the less of a chance of that possibility occurring.
Lizzy chuckles as she walks away, hauling the suitcase behind her as she disappears through the revolving doors.
I unpack the car like the Tetris pro I am, getting everything on the cart with no extra room to spare. Rolling it inside is a little difficult because the damn thing has to weigh nearly five hundred pounds and the wheels aren’t full of air.
“Sir, I’m sorry about the cart,” my doorman, George, says as soon as I walk into the lobby.
“No worries, George. Can you watch this while I park her car?”
“Will you be using it soon?” he asks, rising from his seat behind his large desk filled with monitors.
“We’re leaving here in an hour.”
“Leave me the keys, but it can stay there. We don’t have any big deliveries coming this afternoon.”
“Really?” I could kiss the man. He’s saving me a good fifteen minutes of driving around to find a spot on the street.
“Yes, sir.”
George has worked here since I moved in. When he’s not on duty, two men who are much younger and less helpful fill in the extra hours. I pay extra to live in a building with a doorman, but it’s worth every penny when it comes to George.
I hand over the keys. “I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing, sir. I’m happy to see Ms. Lizzy is here to stay.”
“Me too, George. Me too.”
He tips his head to me as he sets the keys down next to his keyboard. “Would you like help getting that up to your unit?”
“No. I got it. Thanks, though.”
“See you in an hour. And, Mason?”
“Yeah?”
“Keep the cart up there until you come back down.”
“I owe you bigger now,” I say to him as I push the cart through the lobby to the waiting elevator. George is saving me the precious minutes I need to sate my hunger for Lizzy before we dash off to church to practice for the big day tomorrow.
Within twenty minutes, I have the cart unpacked, with the boxes stacked up in the living room against an empty wall.
They’ll have to wait until Sunday, when we’ll have time to get her more settled.
All she needs for the next thirty-six hours are her clothes, shoes, and makeup to get through the wedding events.
The bathroom door opens when I get the last box stacked on top of the others. Lizzy pops her head out. “You ready?”
“To go?” I ask, suddenly stupid when I catch a glimpse of her naked reflection in the mirror.
Lizzy steps out, giving me a full view of her bare body. I nearly swallow my tongue at the lushness of her hips, heaviness of her breasts, and radiant flow of her creamy, flawless skin.
I stalk across the room, stripping off my clothes with each step until I’m as naked as she is. I grab her around the back of the neck, hauling her against me. I don’t say anything as I lean in, taking her mouth against mine in a hard and fast kiss.
I move us toward the couch, keeping our mouths connected as we walk. This isn’t about love. We don’t have time for me to worship her the way I want to. This is about desire, a need that burns deep inside me to have my girl after being apart for nearly a week.
“Bend over the back,” I tell her, wanting to fuck her from behind.
“Condom,” she reminds me, but I am prepared.
“Got one,” I tell her, reaching for the one I had tucked into the arm of the couch behind the pillow. I’d hoped this would happen, but even I’m not that good. I planted them in a few places, so I’d never be too far and we wouldn’t have to stop for too long.
“You’re too much,” she says.
I dip my head toward the couch, and Lizzy understands exactly what I want. She bends over the back of the couch, spreading her legs wide. But before I fuck her, I want to kiss her neck and explore her skin. My lips find the tender flesh near her ear.
“You want this?” I ask her, my voice deeper than usual.
“Yes,” she breathes.
I roll on the condom as I kiss her neck, dying to be inside her. “Fast or slow?” I ask as I skate my hand down her side, brushing her breast.
She shivers as I stroke her skin. “Fast. We don’t have long.”
I groan, wishing we could do this all night. The last thing I want to do is sit in a church and then a long-ass family dinner.
“We have forever, Mason,” she says.
The words hit me.
We do have forever.
There are no more goodbyes.
“You’re mine, Lizzy. Only mine.”
“Only yours,” she replies, her voice filled with conviction.
“Mine,” I say again as I line up my cock and thrust inside her.