He turns on his heel. “Take it as you wish.”
With that, he strides over to his limo, bangs its door shut so hard it will need repair, and with a screech of tires, he’s gone.
Chapter 33
Sophia
Idon’t recall how I get back into the mansion.
Mind in complete disarray, I shamble over to visit Donatello and April—the hope being that their grazing might soothe my mind.
Bad idea. They’re humping, which painfully reminds me of my favorite activity involving Mason.
“Is everything okay?” Dr. Kelpcon asks.
Wow. How bad must I look that the good doctor is able to focus on me instead of her favorite charges mid-coitus?
“I’m fine.” The lie of the century. “I’m going to go inside.”
I do that, then pace the mansion like a captive, my mind replaying the entirety of the cruise and the most recent encounter with Mason on a torturous loop.
“I thought there was something between us,” he’d said. “Something real. Something special.”
At the time that he said those words, I wasn’t fully listening, but now it’s all I can think about because they feel so true.
What happened between us felt like more than just a guy trying to get something from me.
It felt like something real.
Felt like love… at least for me.
But that’s the problem. I thought I loved Rupert too, and look what happened.
In hindsight, I don’t think what I felt for Rupert was love. It was simply that I was craving love after Mom’s betrayal, and I stupidly thought he might provide it. At most, what Rupert and I had was a friendship with some infatuation on my end.
With Mason, it’s entirely different. It has been from the first moment we met. Maybe that’s why I felt so hostile toward him. It wasn’t just the brief conversation I overheard. It was him. I felt the threat to my heart, and I put up my shields. Shields that didn’t hold.
Despite all the care I took to nurture my defenses, Mason managed to penetrate them—and I should’ve known he could.
He is so fucking good at penetration in general.
I halt in my tracks.
Did I just admit to myself that I love Mason?
Yes. I did. Because I do, despite the fact that he threatened Abigail’s job.
No. Not despite that. I simply don’t believe that he would do that.
But what if he does?
I should at least warn Abigail of the possibility.
Taking my phone out, I try calling her, but then I realize it’s still in airplane mode.
Crap.
As soon as I disable said mode, a flood of missed calls, texts, and emails arrives—mostly from Mason in regard to my sudden departure from the cruise.