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  “Oh shit, Scarlett. What are you trying to do to me?” He growled the words at me as his hands slowly began moving from the inside of my knees up to my core. All of the liquid in my body rushed to the apex between my legs when his fingers found their ultimate destination.

  “Mason, oh God…” I threw my head back at his first caress and moaned loudly. He leaned into my neck and kissed me under my ear at the same time he slipped one finger into me.

  “Mmm hmm… I like the sound of that,” he said, not moving his mouth from my skin. He quickly added another finger to the first and began moving them in and out of me. Abruptly he withdrew his hand from me and dropped to his knees. The t-shirt was now bunched around my waist so that my lower half was completely exposed, and his eyes were fixed on my wet, pulsating sex. Without wasting another second, he leaned in and made a teasing swipe at my swollen nub with his tongue. He tried to torment me by pulling away, but I was too quick. Somehow I managed to stay perched on the edge of the countertop and grab the back of his head with my hands, guiding his mouth back towards my ache. He chuckled at my shamelessness, but happily obliged my silent request. After quickly bringing me to an orgasm with his talented mouth and hands, he slid me off the granite surface and turned me around so that my back was to him.

  “Hold on here,” he instructed me as he put my hands on the counter where my legs had just been. I was bent over, my back arched and ass sticking up in the air as if I was presenting myself to him. I didn’t hear him pull his pants down or grab a condom, but moments later I heard the ripping of the package followed by the tip of his erection nudging me. His strong hands grabbed my hip bones like they were handles and in one swift motion, he impaled himself inside of me.

  “Oh God!” I cried out. I was extremely sore from the night before and my body still wasn’t used to Mason filling me up.

  “Are you okay? Do you want me to stop?” he asked, leaning down and kissing my shoulder gently. I looked over my shoulder at him and his hungry, hooded eyes stared back at me. I loved how much he wanted me; it turned me on incredibly.

  “No, don’t stop. Please don’t stop,” I answered and wiggled my ass against him. He said something under his breath that sounded like “Oh fuck me,” but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have time to think about it again because he, still grasping tightly onto my hip bones, began his relentless pounding. It didn’t take me long to come again and I felt he hands grab me even tighter, if that was possible, as he followed me into ecstasy.

  He wrapped his arms around my waist and laid himself down onto my back. I was still using the countertop as a brace, and his additional, unexpected weight caused me to lose my grip and we both fell to the floor. Sprawled out, half-dressed, on the kitchen floor, our gazes caught and we both began to laugh hysterically. Mason managed to discard the condom and pull his pants up from around his ankles. Sitting up with his back leaning against the cabinets, he pulled me unto his lap and snuggled into the side of my face.

  “I was going to bring you breakfast in bed, but it appears you brought the bed to breakfast,” he joked while kissing my cheek. “Now come on, let’s eat before all of the food gets cold.”

  Mason and I cleaned up in the bathroom, washing our hands and brushing our teeth, before grabbing our plates and settling down at the table. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t even been back in town for twenty four hours, and I had already had sex with him twice and spent my first night in his bed instead of mine. We enjoyed a pleasant breakfast talking about recent movies and music; both of us avoided “the conversation” at all costs. It was like we were just going to pretend that nothing had happened since the day he left to go to the music festival in Dallas last December. Evie didn’t die, Ash didn’t completely destroy and trample on my heart and soul, and I didn’t leave Mason in the middle of the night after giving him my virginity and telling him I loved him. I glanced down at the outside of my left calf and saw the butterfly that was permanently tattooed on my skin. It was my daily reminder that it all did in fact happen. My daily reminder of Ash Walker.

  I quickly pulled my eyes away from my tattoo and back to my plate, hopeful that he didn’t catch me looking at it. I knew he must know that it was somehow related to Ash since Ash had the same design on his forearm and had apparently become a regular at the warehouse. I didn’t want Mason to worry about any lingering feelings I had for Ash, even though I couldn’t honestly say I was completely over Ash. I wasn’t sure if I ever would be- the magical connection I had felt with him was something that I had only believed existed in fictional stories, I couldn’t allow myself to ever be with him. He had nearly destroyed my already broken self once before and I’d be damned if I let him do it again.

  “Are you going to the warehouse with me tonight, Angel? Jobu’s Rum is playing,” his voice pulled me from my depressing thoughts. “I’ve got to go up there early but I figured you could hang out and watch TV in the studio apartment there until it got busy.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked meekly. “I mean I just showed up yesterday after… well, after everything and I don’t expect you to just forgive me and insert me back into your life.”

  “Isn’t that what you want?” he asked with a confused look on his face.

  “Well, yeah, but what I want and what happens in real life aren’t always the same thing.” I tucked my hair behind my ears and took a deep breath. I looked into his eyes and said, “Mason, we’re going to have to talk about it at some point. It doesn’t have to be right now, but the longer we go pretending that nothing happened, the more this fresh start is built on a lie.”

  “I love you and that isn’t a lie,” he interjected. “And you said you love me, and I don’t think that’s a lie either.”

  “You know as well as I do that isn’t enough to make a relationship work, Mase,” I replied softly. He pushed away from the table abruptly and took our plates to the sink.

  “Why not, Scarlett?” He asked looking over the bar at me. I had tucked my knees up against my body, his shirt was stretched over my legs to my ankles. “Look, what happened is what happened. We were seeing each other, getting to know each other pretty well; I was starting to fall for you, I’m pretty sure you had feelings for me too. Something really shitty happened, you came here for me to comfort and console you, and I did. Sure, I didn’t know the pain you were in, but I did what I did because I cared about you. You freaked out with everything and ran away. Obviously, you’ve gotten your shit together, figured out whatever you needed to figure out, and you’ve come back to move on with your life. You said you were sorry last night, I’m sorry too. You said you loved me, I said I loved you. Who knows where this is going to lead, but right here, right now, this is what we both want. So why do we need to make the past any more than it is? Leave it there; focus on right now. End of story.”

  “But aren’t you mad at me? Upset with me? Want to know why I did what I did?”

  “I was mad at first, but once I found out what happened, it all made sense.” He walked back over to the kitchen table and sat in the chair next to mine. He pulled me to him so that we were facing each other and he was holding my hands.

  “I couldn’t make you come back, Angel. You needed to do that on your own time. So I gave you space… you know whatever that damn saying is… ‘If you love something, let it go, and if it’s meant to be, it’ll come back’ or some shit like that.” I couldn’t help but smile at his attempt to use a love quote; he never ceased to surprise me.

  “You came back,” he said matter-of-factly. “Any anger or resentment I ever had towards you was erased the minute I saw you last night. I knew then I was still crazy in love with you…” He leaned forward and brushed his lips lightly across mine. The tingle from his touch ran from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. “And I think we’ve done more than enough to prove that we still have amazing chemistry.”

  All of his points were valid and made perfect sense. Maybe I did need to try and focus on moving forward a little more, and maybe Mas
on was the perfect person to help me do that. All I could do was try.

  “You’re right. Let’s enjoy right now,” I smiled at him and his gray eyes lit up. He glanced behind me at the clock on the wall.

  “I’ve got a little more than an hour to enjoy right now before I have to get ready, so get your ass back in my bed,” he said pulling me out of the chair and crushing his lips against mine. He angled me in the direction of his bedroom and swatted my ass. Giggling, I scurried along, taking off his shirt before burying myself in the sheets.

  MASON

  Before following Scarlett to my room, I grabbed my cell off the bar and tapped out a quick text to my boys instructing them not to mention our upcoming move in front of Scarlett. I wasn’t sure when the right time to tell her was, but I wasn’t ready yet. I didn’t want her pulling away from me before she had a chance to see how good we could be together. Then maybe, just maybe, she would want to come with me. I wasn’t going to ask her; I couldn’t ask her to make that decision so soon after returning, but if she asked to come with me, I’d be ecstatic.

  I’d still need to handle the Bentley situation, but she could either understand it and accept Angel or take a fucking hike. Our hookups were meaningless fucks, she filled a void that no longer needed to be filled. Her only job now was to manage Jobu’s Rum. God, I was so glad she was back in Austin. How awful would it have been if she’d been at the bar when Scarlett came back? I cringed just thinking about it. I had six weeks to address that situation before she was due to come back in town.

  “Mase? Are you coming?” Scarlett’s sweet voice called out. Mase… I loved hearing that come out of her mouth.

  “Yeah, just a second. I was putting some of the food away,” I answered. I opened and closed the refrigerator door to make it sound like I had been doing what I said and then went to join her in my bed. I needed to remind her as many times as possible why we needed to be together.

  CHAPTER THREE ~

  OLD FRIENDS, NEW BEGINNINGS

  Hero/ Heroine ~ Boys Like Girls

  All At Once ~ The Fray

  SCARLETT

  After Mason had showered and changed, he took me to my place to grab some clothes and toiletries. I needed to check in with my new roommate, Tessa, anyway. I hadn’t said much to her the day before when I had arrived late in the evening. I had basically put my stuff up in my room, showered, gotten dressed, and left for the night. I wasn’t sure how this whole stranger roommate thing worked. Were we supposed to tell each other when we were going to be there or not? Evie and I had known each other’s’ whereabouts every moment of every day, but that was different.

  Tessa came out of her room when she heard us come into the apartment. The sight of Mason scared her a bit at first; she jumped back a foot when she saw him. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I don’t think she was expecting a six-foot-something, tattooed and pierced, hottie to be standing in the living room.

  “Hey Tessa,” I greeted her warmly.

  “Hiya, Scarlett,” she said to me, but her eyes were locked on Mason. I couldn’t blame her. His presence demanded the attention of any female that shared a room with him. Once you got past his massive size and the ink that covered his arms and neck, you saw just how gorgeous his face was and God help anyone that got lost in those eyes

  “This is Mason. He’s my, uh…” I looked up at him, wondering what I was supposed to refer to him as. Thankfully he saved the pending awkward silence.

  “I’m Mason, Scarlett’s boyfriend. It’s nice to meet you, Tessa,” he said as he reached his hand out to shake hers. Her pale face turned a bright shade of pink as she shook his hand.

  “Likewise,” she squeaked. Then, turning to me, she said, “Hey, I’m going to stay with a friend tonight so don’t wait up, okay?”

  Before I had a chance to respond, Mason answered her, “Yeah, no problem. Actually, Scarlett is gonna stay at my apartment until Monday. Classes start Tuesday, right?” He looked over at me for confirmation. I nodded to answer the question, but was still in shock over his announcement. It wasn’t that I minded staying with him, but he hadn’t even asked me if I was okay with it.

  Sensing my mild irritation with him, he walked up behind me and slipped his arms around my waist. He leaned down to kiss my neck, “We’ve got lost time to make up for. Don’t we, Angel?” It was my turn to blush and instead of embarrassing myself by trying to talk, I just nodded again. Feeling his body up against mine, even fully clothed, caused me to tingle all over and lose my train of thought.

  “Come on; let’s get your bag together. Marcus is going to kick my ass if I’m much later, especially after I bailed on him last night.” His voice pulled me back to reality, and I looked up at Tessa who was still just standing and staring at us.

  “Okay, I’ll be fast,” I said as I spun around and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. I turned to Tessa, “I guess I’ll be back on Monday. We can go over our schedules then and go grocery shopping if you want.”

  “Sounds good. See you both later,” she replied before disappearing back into her room.

  I decided to take a nap when we got to the warehouse while Mason did whatever it was he did to help Marcus. He woke me up a little after eight o’clock when he brought in a pizza and sat it on the table.

  “Hey there, sleepyhead. I brought you something to eat,” he said as he sat down on the bed next to me, kissing my forehead.

  “Mmmm… it smells good. But I’m too comfortable. I don’t want to get out of bed,” I murmured.

  “No problem.” He got up, grabbed the pizza box, and brought it back to the bed, where he sat it down next to me. “Now, eat up and get dressed. I’ll be waiting for you out there.” One last kiss and he was out the door.

  An hour later I was fed, showered, and changed into a pink sundress and flip flops, always my shoe of choice. As I made my way down the back hallway from the mini-apartment to the bar, I recognized the voice coming from the other side of the door as Noah’s. Noah meant Mina and Max! I couldn’t wait to see all of my old friends. I stopped to say hello to Marcus as I walked by the office. I was beginning to think that he lived in that chair He gave me a friendly smile and waved hello as he continued his phone conversation. He was starting to warm up a bit.

  I opened the door to the main bar area, and I was stunned to see how many people were there. Holy shit, the place was packed. My eyes followed my ears and they landed on Noah standing center stage, grasping the microphone, singing directly at Mina who was sitting by herself at 32 Leaves’ usual table. I then looked over to find Max and smiled at the sight of his messy brown hair and youthful face. Memories of him and Evie passed through my head, but instead of getting sad, my smile grew. Every moment Evie spent with Max she was happy, and I knew he was too. I looked over to where Mason should be sitting, but found him walking towards me with a huge grin across his face. He looked his usual yummy self, wearing a green and white t-shirt, faded blue jeans, and white Chucks.

  “You look beautiful, Angel,” he said as he leaned down and sweetly kissed my lips. “Come on, let’s get you a drink.”

  He grabbed my hand and led me through the crowd to his table. As we weaved in and out of the people, I couldn't help but feel the stares of the other girls in the room. I’m sure they were wondering what in the hell made me so special that he would choose to be with me… hell, I was wondering the same thing!

  We reached the group of tables and several familiar faces greeted me with a smile. Cruz, Mason’s long time best friend, hopped off his bar stool and pulled me into a big bear hug.

  “I’m so glad you’re back, Scarlett,” he said as he released me from his grasp. “You have no idea how much of a whiny bitch Rat has been the past eight months. We were about to kick him out of the band.”

  “Fuck you man,” Mason retorted with a scowl on his face. “I started the damn band.”

  The rest of the table laughed at the exchange between the two, but I hated knowing that I had caused him pain and unhappiness.
I stood on my tippy toes and kissed the crease between his eyes, forcing him to relax. He pulled me to his body, and I reveled in his masculine scent.

  “Scarlett MacGregor, get your ass over here right now,” a female voice called out behind me. I spun out of Mason’s arms to investigate who was talking to me and saw Mina standing several feet away with her arms stretched out towards me.

  “Mina! Oh my God, it’s so good to see you!” I exclaimed as I walked towards her. We hugged and jumped up and down in delight like giddy school girls.

  “I’m so glad you’re back. I‘ve missed you so much. You better not ever leave again. I have so much to tell you. Are you back at Rice? Where are you living?” Her sentences all ran together.

  I couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiasm. It was as wild and spunky as the unruly blonde curls that framed her face. “Slow down sweetie. Your questions are going to give me whiplash,” I joked.

  She looked up at Mason who had walked over to us. He slid his arm around my waist and leaned down to kiss my cheek. “Hi Mina,” he greeted her with one of his panty-dropping smiles. “We’re up after 32 Leaves, Angel, so I’m gonna go set up with the guys. Why don’t you go over to Mina’s table with her so you don’t have to sit here alone? I’ll meet you back here when we finish up.”

  I glanced over at the table and saw that the only people left were people who I didn’t know. “That’s a great idea. Mina and I have tons to talk about. Plus, I want to catch up with Max and Noah too.”

  He kissed me deeply before walking off to join his band mates, and I turned back to Mina. “Well, I guess that’s one question I don’t need to ask,” she waggled her eyebrows suggestively at me.

  “Oh, stop! You’re a nut!” I rolled my eyes teasingly at her.

  We made our way across the room to where she was sitting. As we walked by, she looked up at Noah who was still singing on stage. He lifted his eyebrows at her in recognition and then did the same to me when he saw me following her. I waved and looked over at Max, hoping he was paying attention, but his eyes were closed, deep into the song he was playing.