Page 18 of Boundaries

“It has nothing to do with them. As you know, I couldn’t give a shit about that drama. I leave my brother to it. I don’t interfere in his shit and don’t give a flying fuck about his love life. Yours, however, I do.” My heartbeat lurched in my chest and I had to take a breath to calm myself before replying. Mason McKenna was so unpredictable and why the hell was he suddenly focusing on my love life?

“So, what’s the warning?” I managed to utter.

His voice dipped to a sensual whisper.

“When you’re with Alex tonight, why don’t you let him take charge for a change? You never know, you might enjoy it?”

I grimaced, not totally understanding what he meant by that. “I don’t know what you mean?” I stuttered back, feeling flustered.

“I mean in bed. Let him dominate you. Let him lead, take control.”

Boom! His words lit a torch inside me and heat gushed from my belly to my chest.

“I don’t think this is a conversation I want to be having with you, Mason. My sex life is none of your business.” I hated how my voice cracked at the end of that sentence.

Mason pushed his head against the back of the seat and stared down his slightly hooked nose at me. “You do have one then?”

I darted a nervous look toward the door.

“Yes,” I panted.

“With Alex?”

I nodded the lie, “Yes.”

His mouth curled into a sneer. “Now I know you’re lying.”

“You’re wrong and I think you should go, Alex will be back in a minute,” I blurted, feeling like a duck out of water.

Mason lifted one of those perfect black eyebrows before he stated. “So, you’re telling me, Alex has fucked you?”

He was so aggressively crude and I felt dumbfounded. Mason was behaving so odd again.

I ran my hands down my hair again, everything suddenly felt so, wrong. “You’re out of order Mason and I’m leaving,” I almost stuttered. I could feel tears at the back of my eyes. The guy was six years older than me at the end of the day, and I suddenly felt like an unsophisticated little girl.

He shot me a disappointed smile and I took that as my signal to leave. As I lifted my hands off the table, Mason’s hand shot out suddenly and caught my wrist as I attempted to stand.

I glared down at his fingers as they bit into my skin. This was the second time he’d touched me that day and I didn’t like it. At least my head didn’t, I wasn’t sure what my body thought it was doing. My pulse twitched under his hold and tiny pinpricks danced across the skin there.

“Let go. What do you think you’re doing?” My face flushed at the contact. His hand was huge.

He stared up into my face with an unfathomable expression. “I want the truth,” he declared, his voice dripping with determination, and command.

“I don’t have to tell you a thing and let go of my wrist or I’ll scream,” I had to sit down again and I dashed an alarmed look around the pub. It was dead, there wasn’t even anyone at the bar. Where the hell was Alex? And what the heck was happening to my body? I felt hot again, the contact between us seemed charged almost.

“As much as I’d love to make you scream Amy, you’ll keep your pretty mouth shut.”

Pretty? What the fuck? Did I hear correctly or was I drunk?

I batted off my confusion, who gave a shit at the end of the day. “You’re a brutal pig,” I spluttered, tugging on that hold of steel. His touch was unnerving and I didn’t know how to respond to that sensation that was snaking up my arm.

“A refreshing change from a dog. Answer the question and I’ll let go.”

He’d won. I didn’t know what to do so I replied. “No. We aren’t sleeping together. We’ve only been seeing each other for a few weeks. Are you happy now?”

And the answer to that was yes, from his expression, again fucking odd. “That’s what I thought and I think you’ll be waiting a hell of a long time for that day to come too.”

What the hell did that mean? OK, so Alex and I had kissed a few times and that was it, but we were taking it slow. I could see myself sleeping with him.

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