Page 33 of Primal

“It’s salty,” he said as his fingers stroked Poppy’s left cheek.

“You’ll get used to it.”

A moment of quiet lingered as we watched our girl come down from her high, and Mason and I shared a knowing glance, silently acknowledging the promise between us. This was the first time we were both with her at the same time, and I could see in his eyes he enjoyed it as much as I did.

That meant the future possibilities were endless.

Chapter18

Poppy

That night, I started going through my sketchbook. Mason had set it on a dishrack with a fan pointed toward it all day, and it seemed mostly dry now. Still, I didn’t have much hope when he gave it to me earlier.

Sitting on the living room couch, I took a deep breath and opened it slowly.

To my surprise, the first sketch was mostly intact. The edges of the paper were discolored and wavy from getting wet, but the leather cover of the sketchbook seemed to have done a good job of protecting the papers for the most part.

I was lucky and so thankful Mason rushed out in to the rain to get it for me before it got completely saturated. I flipped through page after page, my eyes tearing up as I realized they were all still there. I was sure I’d lost them all, and it meant the world to me I still had my designs.

I couldn’t believe Joey did that. How in the hell was I in a relationship with such a jerk for so long? He knew how important these designs were to me. Even if he didn’t think I’d ever pull off designing my own line, heknewhow much this mattered to me, and he tried to destroy it.

I hoped I never saw his cheating ass ever again.

“So, how bad is it?” Mason asked, walking in from the kitchen with a steaming mug in his hand.

I smiled at him, blinking the tears of happiness from my eyes. “It’s salvageable. It’s all here. I can’t believe it.”

Mason moved to sit next to me, placing the mug in front of me on the coffee table. I looked down and saw marshmallows.

“Hot chocolate?”

He nodded. “I know you have a sweet tooth. Thought you might like some.”

I picked it up and brought it to my lips, pausing to raise an eyebrow at him. “This isn’t going to knock me out, will it?”

Mason chuckled. “Not unless you want me to add a couple of drops of this.” He pulled a small vial of liquid from his pocket. “It’s a sedative I brought along for the kink camp.”

“Do a lot of people like to be knocked out? Is that a kink?”

“Not exactly. But fucking someone while they’re asleep is a kink some of us have.”

“I’m guessing you like that?”

He grinned. “I like a lot of things.”

I was about to ask him what other things he liked when the sound of an owl hooting distracted me. I glanced outside, even though it was dark out now, and there wasn’t much to be seen.

For the first time days, the rain had finally let up, and Dad had gone around opening all of the windows. We had a nice cool breeze going through the cabin now, and it had cooled things down considerably.

“Can I see your designs?” Mason asked, and I nodded, flipping back to the front of the sketchbook and showing him. Just like my dad, Mason showed a genuine interest in my designs. He asked questions and made comments on each one. No rushing me. No criticizing my “silly dream,” as Joey called it.

“I had no idea you were so talented,” he said after I showed him my last design. “I’m so proud of you.”

His words meant a lot, but they also made me think about our lives outside of here. Mason was my stepfather, and as much as I’d tried not to let myself think too much about that, I knew we were in a little bubble here, away from the rest of the world.

“What happens after this?” I asked, sipping my hot chocolate. “Won’t things be weird?”

“No,” he said, looking completely at ease as he leaned back on the couch. “We’ll just act like this never happened.”

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