Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
Nina
They were all in on it: Charlie, Elliot, Lance, Scarlet and the girls. Was I the only one who didn’t know? I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed. As much as I want to get away with everyone, what I wanted and needed was a girls’ trip.
Mase hasn’t stopped smirking at me the entire flight—and it’s a long one. Spain turned out to be a decoy and we are currently on our way to Bora Bora on the company’s private plane.
He thinks he’s hilarious, and he kind of is. He got me on my knees with his sulking, and it didn’t take a lot. I give myself a mental slap for being so stupid. As if he would be so chilled with me leaving him for a week.
“You’re glaring,” Elliot mutters in my ear.
He steps around me and drops into the empty seat next to me.
“Why does he have to look so smug? And why was I the only one who didn’t know? It’s Lucy’s birthday. She is the one who should have been surprised.” I’m moany and ungrateful, but I hate that they didn’t tell me.
“You would have come along if he asked?”
“Probably not, but still.”
“He’s trying to make it up to you; go with it.”
“Things would be so much easier if he didn’t have money.”
Elliot pops a brow at me. “Do you really believe that?”
I shrug, looking towards the girls who are standing at the bar. Lance is making them all cocktails.
“I don’t know. I just wish I didn’t feel like everything is in aid of something. He throws money at anything that doesn’t go his way.”
“Wouldn’t you? If you had enough money, would you not make sure the people around you were safe and secure?”
Is that how Mason sees it? Is that his only goal? Deep down in my gut I know he is a good person.
It’s why I’m still here.
“I suppose it depends who you have to step on to get that security.”
“You have to be ruthless in this game, Pix. You’d be surprised how many people only attach themselves to him for his money. I’ve had it my entire life, my parents, too.” His eyes move from Mason to the bar, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s Lucy who has drawn his attention.
She has her head thrown back, laughing freely. Her denim shorts sit high on her hips, and a black bralette scarcely covers her chest. She looks hot.
“Why pink?” he remarks.
I drop my head back to the seat and laugh lightly. “She’s just trying something new. You don’t like it?”
He draws his head back to look at me. “It’s different.”
“I’m watching you, Montgomery.” I grin.
“Hey, you know nothing is going to happen there.”
“Why not? You’d be like… Barbie and Ken. You’re kinda perfect for each other.”
“Luce is the girl you marry. She’s not the type of girl you pick up on the weekend. I’m too young to get married, and she isn’t my type. At all.”
“Okay! There is so much wrong with what you just said. Firstly.” I hold up one finger.
“You’re the same age as Mase, right? When is the right time to settle down?
” I release a second finger. “Secondly, what is your type? If that’s not it.
” I eye Lucy and her long, tanned legs. “Thirdly.” I snap my fingers, bringing his eyes back to me.
Yeah, he likes what he sees. “The type of girl you pick up on the weekend? That was me, asshole. I was that girl. And because of you and your promise…”
He grins wide. “You’re not like the girls Mason used to pick up. Trust me. I didn’t even remember that promise until I met you.”
“Why did you pick me?” I ask, my fingernails digging into the armrest.
It’s not something I’ve ever thought about before, but now he’s mentioned it, I feel almost desperate to know why.
He starts checking off his fingers like I’d just done. “Hot. Not a psycho.” He shrugs, and we both laugh.
I don’t know why I expected anything else.
“Move it, Montgomery,” Mason demands, looking down at us curiously.
Elliot gives me a wink as he moves past me and over to the bar, where he throws his arm around Megan. I watch as Lucy’s eyes follow him. “Something is going on with those two.”
“Who?” Mason asks, draping his arm over my shoulder and bringing his lips to rest against my hair.
“Elliot and Luce.”
“No,” he says, sounding so sure. “Luce isn’t Elliot’s type.”
“Why?”
Elliot said the same thing, which is frustrating. Call it women’s intuition, but there’s definitely something there.
Mason sits square in his seat, stretching out his legs. “She just isn’t.”
“Well, I can see it with them. I’m calling it.”
He sits up in his seat and pulls me onto his lap so I’m straddling him. “Let’s make this interesting.” I look around at our friends, but none of them are watching us. “How long?”
“How long what?” All I can think about is how long his cock is right now, pushed up against me.
“Get your head out the gutter. Lucy and Elliot.” He rearranges me on his lap, lining himself up perfectly. It’s just the right amount of friction.
“Mase,” I warn.
“How. Long?” He draws out the words as if he knows what they’re doing to me.
“I don’t know.” I try to form a coherent thought. Luce told me she isn’t interested. It’s just a feeling I get with those two. “A year?”
“A year? Shit, I’ve got this in the bag.” He grins. “So, if in one year nothing has happened between them…” He eyes me warily, unsure. “You have to marry me.”
“What?” I go statue-still. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Completely.” He leans in, kissing my neck.
“No.”
“No?” He pulls away, putting distance between us.
“Absolutely not. Christ, I don’t even think I want to get married, let alone within the next decade.”
His eyes flick around my face, and then he swallows, his hands lingering on my thighs.
“Fuck,” he sniggers. “I should set you up with fucking Montgomery.” He lifts me and places me back in my seat, then turns to look out the window.
Is he sulking?
“Mase? Sorry, that came out wrong.”
“It’s fine. Forget I said anything.”
“You’re mad at me.”
He looks back at me, his eyes softening some before his arm lifts for me to slip under. “No, not at you. Forget I said anything, okay?”
I slide into him, wrapping my arms around his waist. If he isn’t mad at me, then who?
We landed an hour ago, and if I wasn’t sure before, I’m certain of it now.
Mason is sulking.
We pull up to the villa, and the girls bounce in the seat next to me in excitement.
I should feel the same, and I do, but I’m also trying to figure out what to say to Mason to make him understand my reasons.
Marriage isn’t something I’ve allowed myself to think about before now.
It came out of the blue, and I can’t help my gut reaction.
I mean, he sold my studio a little over a month ago.
At this point in our relationship, marriage doesn’t feel like the goal.
Trust. That’s my goal.
The girls rush through the door and start squealing in excitement. I squint, shielding the sun from my eyes as I smile up at Mason. He has his arm thrown over my shoulder, and I push up onto my toes to give him a dusting kiss.
“Thank you,” I tell him.
I leave him with the boys and follow the girls into the house.
The villa is breathtaking. It’s set on a private island with only two other homes inhabiting it—one of them being the Montgomerys’. It sits on the edge of the cliff and looks out across the infinite ocean. It’s like something from Lucy’s Pinterest board, only real.
It’s like a shack, but around fifty thousand times bigger and made up of wood and glass panels.
Lucy and Megan are standing in the living room I’ve just walked into. Their faces are just as awestruck as I imagine my own to be.
Wooden beams line the room, which opens up into a state-of-the-art kitchen. Megan takes my hand and pulls me away just as I head in that direction.
“Let’s pick rooms!” she squeals.
“How many are there?” Lucy starts to count the doors as we walk down the corridor and up the steps. This part of the house is set on two levels, and I spin, looking back down the hall where the ceiling opens up, letting the sun beam through four glass panels. This place is insane.
“Six,” Scarlet states, walking up behind us from a different direction with the boys. “Some of us will have to share.”
I try to look around her to see where they came from.
“You’ll have to bunk with me, princess.” Elliot throws his arm over Lucy’s shoulder, but she shrugs him off.
“Uh, no.” She looks offended, and I scoff at her. No sane women would kick Elliot Montgomery out of bed. “Megs, Scar? Looks like we’re rearranging rooms,” she tells them, arching a brow and giving them a look that says ‘go the fuck along with it’.
“Add ‘and drinking cocktails’ and I’m down for whatever,” Megan says, already in full relaxation mode.
“You got it, girl.” Lucy winks.
“What’s the plan?” Scar turns, looking at her brother to take charge. “Are we going out tonight or eating here?”
“We can eat here tonight. Get settled, dinner is at eight.” His hand snakes around my waist, and I purse my lips as I look to Luce. “If you need anything. Any of you. Don’t come knocking.”
They all chuckle as he pulls me backwards and through a bedroom door.
“Ma—”
I squeal as he lifts me off my feet and chucks me onto the bed with ease. His top is pulled off over his head, and he’s on me in a matter of seconds. “Don’t speak,” he tells me, hiking my legs up around his waist.
These moments with him are my favourite. We don’t need words because they only complicate the easiness that’s between us. The way we fit, it’s perfect. But the words we utter sometimes have a way of bending the corners, making us jagged pieces of the same puzzle.
I want to iron out the creases and make them fit. I just don’t want a marriage proposal, not yet, and maybe not a year from now either.
Mase
No.
That’s what she told me. No.
Marriage isn’t something I was interested in before Nina. It was never something I contemplated because I had never met someone who I wanted to share my life with.
Now I have, and she doesn’t want it.