20. Mason

Mason

20

"Fuck." I flip the egg, and it pops all over the pan.

How is one of the hardest parts of cooking flipping a fucking egg?

I'll just have to make sure to give Reed one of the good ones.

Movement from the corner of my eye catches my attention as she makes her way down the hallway.

Her hair's piled on her head in a messy bun with thick pieces falling around her face. She's wearing one of her tank tops and underwear, showing off the full length of her short legs. Her cheeks are still flushed from last night, and the only reason I didn't bury myself inside her when I first opened my eyes this morning is because her stomach growled, and I couldn't stand the thought of her being hungry.

I swear this girl has me wrapped around her finger, and she doesn't even know it.

If she didn't have me before, last night sealed something inside me because it wasn't just sex. She let me inside her mind, her heart. I swear when I looked into her golden-brown eyes, there was the kind of trust that scares the crap out of me. And I was craving it.

She held my hand through everything I admitted, and she wants me despite it.

As she steps into the kitchen, three words rattle around on the tip of my tongue, but I hold them back because they'll scare the shit out of her.

"Hey there, chef." She winks, coming up beside me and resting her hands on the counter.

The way she leans forward has her back arching, which makes her round ass stick out. She's an itty-bitty thing but curvy. Perfect handfuls to grab onto that make me rock hard just thinking about it.

"You're going to make me pop another egg yolk if you keep distracting me with this thing."

Reaching over, I smack her on the ass, but she doesn't so much as flinch. If anything, her smile widens.

Reed isn't fragile. She likes it a little rough. At every nip of my teeth or hard pinch of her nipples, she just fucked me harder. It was so hot watching her take control and ride me. No fear as she chased her pleasure. The sight of her sitting on my cock is going to be burned into my brain forever.

Every day, she becomes more herself, and it's beautiful. She reclaims pieces I sense she forgot.

"Sorry." She pretends to pout, but instead of putting on pants, she drops her elbows to the counter, which just bends her over even more.

"Keep it up, and I'll find ways for you to make it up to me."

She wets her lips, and I'm tempted to shove her to her knees. I might if I didn't want to feed her breakfast so badly.

"You cut up fruit." She grabs a piece of honeydew off the fruit platter and pops it into her mouth.

"Thought you might like it." That's what this girl reduces me to—someone who knows the difference between different kinds of melons.

"I do." She steals a blueberry off the tray, standing up tall as she turns to face me. "Where did you learn how to cook?"

I chuckle as I pull the eggs off the heat and transfer them to the plate.

"My phone taught me."

Her eyebrows pinch as she looks me over.

"Here." I slide her plate to her spot at the kitchen island and sink onto the stool next to her. "I'd never really cooked until a couple of months ago."

She's chewing another piece of melon but pauses at my comment. "Really?"

"Yeah." I nod. "I pretty much lived on fast food and anything you can heat up in a microwave."

"So, what changed?"

I slide a bite of eggs into my mouth and watch her as her eyes work. Her expression pinches with confusion until realization has her eyes widening.

"You learned to cook for me?"

I shrug, popping a few blueberries in my mouth. "I just figured you'd want to eat something more than burgers and bean burritos."

"That's—" She shakes her head, and I feel bad because I didn't mean to make her feel guilty about it.

It's not like it's felt like work. If anything, every time Reed eats something I've made, it's one of my greatest accomplishments.

I'm officially pathetic.

"It's no big deal." I stab a piece of cantaloupe. "I probably needed to start eating better anyway."

She blinks, and her eyes gloss over. "I can't believe you learned to cook for me."

Reed still doesn't see she's worth it. That any man worth his nuts would be an idiot not to do everything he could think of to make her happy. It's become my goal to chip that away one piece at a time.

Dropping her gaze to her plate, she pops the egg, and it spills over the egg white. All that trouble, making sure she got the perfect one, and she pops it in an instant. I love that. Because it doesn't matter what I put into it, it was perfect for her.

She digs into her breakfast in silence, glancing at me every so often. I appreciate that she can be playful, but she can also enjoy the quiet moments. Silence doesn't feel awkward with her, and I don't feel the need to fill it.

When we're done eating, I collect both our plates and bring them to the sink where she washes them. It's so domestic I'd probably be worried I'm giving off the wrong impression if she were any other girl. But as she scrubs the egg yolk from one of the plates, I'm hating Carter even more.

He had this—he had her—and he let her go.

Worse, he hurt her.

While I'm standing here, taking anything she'll offer me. Knowing she's nowhere near ready for where my head is at, but that it doesn't erase the thoughts.

The last thing she's probably looking for is another relationship. And while I never wanted one myself, that changed the moment she started living here.

So I appreciate these little moments when she's willing to share them with me. At some point, she'll realize she's traded one fucked up man for another. And even if our faults are nothing alike, she's not going to want to fix someone again.

"You've got a lot on your mind at eight-thirty in the morning." She adds more soap to the sponge, filling the sink with bubbles.

I drag my hair back. "Long day at the shop. Just planning it out."

The last thing I need is for her to sense my insecurity. I'm not the kind of guy who questions what women think about him. If I show her that side, she's going to really think I'm pathetic.

"Mm-hmm." She smiles but doesn't call me out on my shit.

Tucking her hair behind her ear, a trail of soapy bubbles transfer to her cheek, and a bead of water tumbles to her shoulder.

"Now who's being distracting?" She glances over at me, her gaze pausing on the bulge forming in my sweatpants.

There's no use trying to hide it, one drop of water dripping down her skin, and I'm imagining it being other things.

"I think the dishes are clean enough."

Grabbing her by the hips, I spin her from the sink and pick her up, setting her on the kitchen island.

"Mason, I'm getting water everywhere," she shrieks, dragging her wet hands down my chest.

"Yep. Don't care." I grab the hair at the back of her head and pull her lips to me.

I silence her arguments as her honeydew-flavored tongue dances with mine. Her fingers roam my stomach, slowly drawing a path to my sweatpants. And when she dips her hand under the band, she finds my cock hard and aching. Her fingers wrap around it, and I sink my teeth into her lower lip.

"You're about to make me even less of a gentleman." I groan as she holds me tighter. "Keep that up, and I'm not going to care if you're still sore."

"I am still sore." She shoves my sweats down, releasing my cock. "Fuck me anyway."

This girl.

One of us is going to break the other, I just haven't decided who is going to be the one to do it.

She pumps my cock in her hand, pulling her panties to the side and rubbing the head through her heat.

Her free hand grabs my jaw, and she kisses me again.

"Condom," I murmur against her mouth as she lifts her hips and sinks the tip of me into her.

"If you want."

"Don't you?" I break the kiss to look down at her.

"I have an IUD. And we both just got tested."

She's right. I took her because she was too embarrassed to ask her brother, but she needed to go. Carter was a cheating asshole, and she had to make sure there was nothing she needed to deal with. But she was anxious about it, so I got checked alongside her to help ease her nerves.

Maybe in the back of my mind, it wasn't just for her sake. It was for this moment. The hope that someday I'd be dragging my cock through her bare pussy like she's doing right now.

I just didn't expect her to be down for it.

"You sure?" I ask again because as much as I think she wants me to just take control in the bedroom, this is something she should have a say in.

Reed answers me by positioning me against her and gripping my jaw tighter. "Fuck me, Mason."

I try to respond but it comes out a groan as I sink into her. I've never fucked a girl without wrapping my shit up, and having Reed bare on my cock is nearly enough for me to blow my load on the first thrust.

Releasing her hair so she can lay back on the counter, I stand tall and pull back, watching my cock slowly glide out of her before thrusting forward again. She's too tight for her to take me in one thrust, so I have to slowly work my way in. Rocking my hips and watching every inch her pussy swallows.

When I finally bottom out, she rests her head back on the counter and moans.

That moan—the fact that I made her come when she presented it like a challenge. All I want to do is make her feel good every single day until she walks out of my life and takes the light in it with her.

"How do you do that?" Her hands fly into her hair as I hit her deep.

"It's called having a big cock." I thrust in again, smirking as she looks up at me.

But when she opens her mouth to shoot off a sassy comeback, I angle my hips and pulse in again, stealing it from her lips. Her lashes flutter, and she loses her breath.

"Mason." Her hands plant over where I'm gripping her thighs.

My name from her mouth is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. And she calls it again and again as I lose myself inside her.

With one hand, I play with her clit, and her pussy is a vice.

"Mason." She calls my name as she digs her fingers into her creamy thighs.

I pound into her again and again. She writes a song with her screams, and it slices my heart free from my chest.

She's divine.

Hot as fuck.

Stealing my sanity.

Reaching up, I pinch her nipple through her tank top, and her entire body reacts. Her mouth falls open, and her back arches as her climax hits.

Her pussy squeezes me so tight; I have no choice but to fall over the ledge with her. I'm pumping into her harder, watching her tits jiggle in her tank top as I fill her with my release. There's nothing between us as she tightens around me.

We're catching our breaths as I pause, holding her thighs wide while I pull out. And I can't take my eyes off her as my cum drips out—as she feels like mine.

If I have to let this girl go, it's going to ruin me for good. So I guess I'll have to figure out how to keep her instead.