Page 74 of Boundaries

It was a hard, almost angry kiss and my mouth parted as his tongue lanced inside, stoking, feeding off me. Heat pooled between my legs and I thrust my lower body against him, feeling him growing against my belly. I so wanted him inside me again.

We were liked two starved people, his kiss was aggressive and demanding and although he didn’t hurt me, I wanted him to. Knew there would be pleasure in the pain. My hands were in his hair and I pushed my mouth against him, matching that level of passion as our tongues literally danced with each other.

And then it stopped, Mason released me and stepped back. A mixture of emotions passing over his face and my mouth opened but no words developed.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home.”

As we gathered our stuff and walked back across the water toward my house, there was silence, almost as if we were both reflecting on something. Our future perhaps or maybe how this would end.

I wasn’t sure what was going on, I felt confused, angry, and hurt.

Mason’s expression had been wiped clean as he pecked my mouth as we came to the bottom of my porch. The brush of his lips against mine was impersonal, cold almost. There was a beat of silence as he looked down into my eyes before turning and setting off back to Lamb Hill.

I watched him walk away, a band of agony wrapped around my throat, stopping my true feelings from pouring out.

This wasn’t just fun to me; this was so much more than that.

After all this time fighting him and myself, I was now at that stage where I had no control over anything.

I was in love with a boy that didn’t return those feelings and never would, and to make matters worse, he was a McKenna and an enemy of my family.

Swallowing down my agony, a thought came to me. No matter what happened, I wouldn’t let him win. I would carry on with my own life as if this thing between us had never happened and if Mason wanted me, he would have to come to me. I was done being that mixture between the girl chasing the boy and the one lurking in the shadows behind her sister.

It was time to play dirty, something the McKenna boys were extremely good at. Well, they had taught me a thing or two over the years.

Anger bloomed in my chest. Over the last few weeks, I’d learned a few moves of my own and I for one, was looking forward to proving that more than anything, I was no man’s mistake.

Fourteen

With Jenna at Nixon’s more permanently, the house was quiet.

My parents were still away and Mattie spent most of his time in the annex above the garages or at Alex’s. After our night out, Chrissy and Betty were now joined at the hip and had been going into town regularly. The two boys they had met in the club was the most likely reason. I felt left out but didn’t say anything, not directly anyway. There must have been a hint of how I was feeling in my last message as I received an interesting reply. You should come out tonight and meet us at the club. Adam will be there; he was asking about you. Betty’s text said.

It was Friday and I hadn’t seen Mason all week. He’d sent a couple of texts here and there, but nothing major and the radio silence was killing me. I certainly didn’t want to be the one messaging all the time, especially if he was trying to blow me off slowly. My heart felt like someone had stomped all over it at the thought.

Mason’s excuse for his sudden unavailability was that Mitchell was home and needed extra care. There was also a large order of cattle which needed delivering to a city farm just outside London. I knew it wasn’t a lie as Nixon had mentioned it to Jenna but it still annoyed me. Couldn’t he have invited me to go on the trip or something, isn’t that what a boyfriend would do? I batted off that wishful thinking, whatever Mason, and I had going on, it wasn’t as normal as that.

I thought back to the card Adam gave me which had been shredded by Mason. If only things had been different and I had started things up with the accountant, maybe I’d be in a regular relationship now.

As I digested that thought, I realised that that was part of the problem. I didn’t want regular. I wanted wild, unpredictable, and outrageously out of control. I wanted Mason.

My limbs were aching from mucking out King’s stable. He was new to Kipling’s and had been purchased to replace Tiny who had now been collected by Nixon on behalf of Mitchell.

King was a purebred stallion and had impressive genes, so Mrs Lonsdale had said. They would breed him with a couple of high-end broodmares so they could expand their bloodline of horses. I’d taken several pictures of him on my Nikon, he was such a beauty.

After Mason’s revelation that I hadn’t been responsible for Mabel’s death, I’d mounted Star a couple of times. I hadn’t ridden her properly, but getting on the horse was the first step. The next time I’d walk her around the yard. Mrs Lonsdale was pleased that I had decided to give riding another go. As I’d sat upon Star, she’d questioned my level of experience and said how I looked like I belonged up there. Mrs Lonsdale also said that she could offer me more work with the guests who came to learn how to ride. To be honest, the offer restoked my passion for riding, as spending my days doing that instead of shovelling horse shit was a win-win, in my opinion.

Alex and I ran into each other at work quite regularly and gone was the awkwardness. He and Mattie were going strong and I was happy for them.

My phone beeped again.

Well? Are you coming? Betty’s message said.

I gave it another thought. Maybe I should go and text Mason, and wind him up again. I wrinkled my nose at how pathetic a second attempt to make him jealous would be. After everything that had happened between us, we were above all that game-playing shit now, weren’t we?

I’ll pass, I think. But I’ll see you tomorrow in Swaffham for the village fair.

The ‘Betty is typing icon’ appeared and I rolled my eyes, suddenly feeling impatient.

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