11. Bridget

ELEVEN

Bridget

My entire body trembles as I push the door to the room closed again.

I don't know why I'm doing it. I should leave and come up with an excuse to get out of this entire party and go back to my mother's house.

But I don't.

Turning around, Mason is just a few feet away, and his stare lasers into me.

I've never been in his room before, and I didn't plan on ever being here, for that matter. But I'm here now, and I can't bring myself to leave.

"I…what is it?"

Mason regards me, his eyes traveling up and down the length of my body. I have to stifle a shiver, but as it is, I know my hands are shaking.

"Bridget, I…" His words drift away, and he shakes his head. "How are you liking the party?"

It's a stupid question, and we both know it. Still, I can see it for what it is—a move to slow this down—and I'm all too happy to play along.

"It's good. There are quite a few people down there, though. Just got a little overwhelming."

Nodding, Mason looks down at the floor before idly sipping his drink.

"There sure is. Can't say I'm used to it."

A bit of the tension in my spine relaxes as I realize how uncomfortable Mason looks. He just doesn't want to be alone in here moping while the party's going on. That's all.

At least, that's what I tell myself.

I think about all the people from Hudson's work taking up space in Mason's house. I think about how he could land any one of the beautiful women downstairs.

"You know," my voice is small, "you could go back down and find yourself a date. There are more than a few women who've been tripping all over themselves because of you."

He shakes his head. "No, thanks. I'm not interested in that."

"Oh." I falter, but that need to fill the silence with something is too strong. "So, not much for dating then, huh? How'd you meet Mia's mom then?"

Mason visibly stiffens, and when he looks up from his drink, his eyes are distant…sad.

"It was an accident."

In any other situation, I might laugh. Not now. The heartbreak is plain on Mason's face, and my chest squeezes.

Shit, I never should have said anything.

"Jess had dropped her ice cream." Mason isn't looking at anything in particular; his mind caught up in memory. "I was in the park for a run. I saw it fall onto the sidewalk and offered to buy her a new one."

He sips his drink again, and I can't bring myself to speak.

"She said yes. It…it, umm, moved pretty fast after that. She was always taking life by the horns, steering it where she wanted it to go. I proposed because she'd dropped enough hints. Hell, if I hadn't…it was that or break up."

I feel like an intruder, every bit of me crying out silently to get out of here. It's like reading someone's diary with them in the room.

It's too much.

"You'd been gone for about a year, so…" Mason shrugs, finally meeting my eyes, and the sorrow there cuts through me like a jagged blade. "Before I knew it, Jess was pregnant. But, umm…"

"She passed," I offer, trying to help get him through the worst of this.

"Yeah. Complications from the C-section."

"I'm so sorry, Mason." He blinks, staring directly at me, and that crack in my chest grows a little further.

I feel like I did this to him. If I'd made the right decision all those years ago—but it's too late for that.

It's too dangerous. What I need to do is get out of here, but with Mason staring at me like that, I'm rooted to the spot.

"Look, umm…" I shake myself, forcing my body to move again. "I'll give you some privacy. Some space."

Mason scoffs, and the sound is more bitter than I'd expect.

"Space?" He glances down at his glass, downing half of what remains. "You really think space from you is going to work? You moved across the country, Bridget. And I was still here."

His eyes come up to meet mine. "Waiting."

"I…"

But there are no words. My brain is spinning, shifting through questions and declarations and shooting them all down before they can break out.

This is not how I expected this night to go, but if I'm honest with myself, I should have seen the flood coming.

The signs were there. We've been dancing around each other ever since I started watching Mia, and now…

Mason's conflicted expression is laced with agony and frustration. And it's my fault. I'm the one who agreed to do this.

I never should have started watching Mia. I'm intruding on his life, and the last thing I want in the world is to cause this man pain.

Despite the crushing reality of our situation, I can't stop myself from caring about him. It's like breathing—compulsory and unstoppable.

"Why did you leave, Bridget? Why were you gone for years? Why did you come back?"

The questions are justified, and they've been hanging between us unspoken since my arrival.

And I still don't know what to say, especially not to Mason.

"I…Mason, I didn't…" My eyes burn, and I feel like I can't take a full breath. "I shouldn't have left. It was the wrong move, and I see that now. But…our lives aren't what they were."

He eyes me, his stare penetrating to the deepest layers of my psyche. The tension is so thick, and I abruptly realize that Mason is closer—so much closer.

"Wrong move, huh?"

Mason nods his head slowly, lifting his scotch up to his lips and downing the remainder of the glass.

Before I can say anything, he runs a hand through his hair and sets his glass down on the bed. When he meets my eyes again, Mason is striding across the few feet that separate us until he is right in front of me.

Without so much as a single word, Mason wraps his strong hand around the back of my neck, yanking me up against his chest.

"Mason, I?—"

But I can't speak, my words silenced by his lips crashing into mine.

My eyes flare wide from the shock, and I freeze in his arms like I've been electrocuted. Still, in just a heartbeat, I melt into the feeling of Mason holding me to him, claiming my lips so wholly.

The tension in my brain snaps, and I fling my arms up around his neck. I've been desperate to kiss Mason for, well, for years, and that need boils over like magma.

God, he tastes like fucking heaven.

Whiskey dresses his tongue, but also that unique magic that is one hundred percent pure Mason.

My heart pounds furiously against my ribcage, and my core warms as he pulls arousal out of me like nothing and no one before.

Mason's firm hand on my neck holds me pressed to his chest as the other snakes around my back toward my hips.

He smoothes my body against his before gripping my ass in a tight squeeze.

A tiny moan slips free, absorbed by our kisses, and then Mason's tongue darts between my lips.

Heat flares in my cheeks and down my spine, my entire being hungry for everything this incredible man is willing to give me.

Hoisting up the silky fabric of my dress right at the slit over my leg, Mason explores my mouth, his tongue as eager as his fingers.

My pussy is clamping around nothing as Mason touches more of my skin, walking me backward to the wall right next to the bedroom door.

Hitting it with a soft thud, Mason pins me in place, grabbing both of my hands and then holding them to the wall over my head with one hand.

Holy shit. This is pretty damn fast. Do I want ? —

And then his lips are on my neck, and my thoughts short-circuit. Jumping into the sack with someone has never been my thing, but right now?

I want nothing more in the universe then to finally give in to the fire between us.

"Little Songbird."

The words send my arousal up even higher, the reminder of when we were so much closer making my heart swell and break all at once.

"Mason," I mumble.

And then his lips are traveling down my neck toward my breast, and nothing else in the world matters.

Knock, knock, knock.

The vibrations tunneling through the bedroom door reach me on the wall right next to it, and I freeze.

I meet Mason's wide eyes, his panic a mirror of my own, and then he puts a finger to his lips, urging me to stay quiet.

Giving him a quick nod, I clamp my hand over my mouth.

Mason steps back, reaching for the door but not opening it all the way. The thin barrier of just a few inches is all that stands between me and whoever is on the other side.

"Hey, Mason."

Oh, you've got to be kidding me? Hudson!

"Have you seen Bridget? I seem to have lost her somewhere, and I just wanted to make sure she's okay."

The concern rakes through me like a thousand papercuts, and the frenzied beat of my heart hits so hard it threatens to send me into cardiac arrest.

"No," Mason says easily enough, "I haven't. I needed to take a break from the party, so I came up here. Maybe she's doing the same. Have you checked outside?"

I hear shuffling, and my muscles squeeze down, trying to lock in place so that I don't make a single sound.

"I did, but maybe I just missed her. Thanks, man. You coming down soon?"

Watching Mason from behind the door, I see him nod with a mostly convincing smile.

"Yeah, I'll be down in just a minute."

"Sounds good. I'll see you down there."

With that, Hudson leaves, and Mason shuts the door. I sag against the wall, releasing my held breath as my eyes flutter closed.

I can still feel my blood rushing through my ears, the low sound bellowing as I try to form some semblance of a thought.

"You should probably go."

Mason's voice startles me out of my post-panic exhaustion, and I look up at him with my eyebrows raised to my hairline.

I want him to say more. I want him to say that he didn't regret what we just did and that this could be something.

But he doesn't.

And worse, I know he shouldn't .

There is too much at stake, too many complications that could ruin not just his everyday routine but his entire fucking life.

I won't do that to him.

"You said it was the wrong move." My eyes shoot up to his, my heart in my throat again. "But you never came back to fix it."

"Mason," my voice is quiet, the grief making it thick and choked, "I didn't…I wanted to."

"Then what was it, Bridget," Mason responds. "It's been five years of trying to forget you, of throwing myself into something just so that it wouldn't hurt so fucking bad anymore. But I can't get you out. You're in too deep—a part of my goddamn blood—lacing through me every day. "

"Mason, I…"

But I can't speak. Jai could very well be here already. Pain and terror and loss swirl through me so intensely I can hardly breathe.

I cannot risk Mason or Mia. If Jai found them and hurt them…

The bite of Mason's expression burns into me, and I can't stand there another moment.

Rushing out of the room, my heart racing as my mind twirls about trying to process what just happened, the tears finally break free.

Looks like I need that fresh air after all.