Page 10 of Possession

Mason

Seriously you’re just going to ignore me???

God dammit Mase! Answer the phone

I’m not going to play this game with you. If you wanted to go pout to Ollie for a few days you couldve at least let me know.

A couple of hours ago, one last text had come through. Mason stared at that one for the longest time, his heart aching.

Please let me know you’re okay.

He knew that if he responded, Vinnie would use it as the opening that it was and try and call him again. Maybe even try and FaceTime. And he was just too tired for that. Tired of their yearlong fight. Tired of feeling like his wants and needs didn’t matter. Tired of feeling like he needed to apologize for how much money he made.

Just… tired.

He tossed his phone aside and groaned, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. He should just try and go to sleep. Tomorrow, he’d have to figure out what the hell he was doing and where he was going to stay. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off the sexy President.

He flipped onto his side, tugging the extra pillow into his chest, just as someone knocked at the door. Assuming it was Ollie checking on him again, he flicked on the light and opened it fully without checking to see and came face-to-face with Tomas.

“Oh. Um.” Mason glanced down at his mostly naked body. Considering what he did for a living, he wasn’t exactly ashamed of the way he looked, so he couldn’t quite understand why his face was heating with embarrassment as Tomas ran his gaze slowly down his body all the way to his red-painted toenails and then back up.

“Expecting someone else?” Tomas asked, an edge to his voice.

Frowning, Mason shook his head and took a step back. “Just Ollie. I thought maybe he was going to pester me into talking some more. Um… Did you want to come in?”

Tomas scratched at his cheek, the softscritch, scritchof his beard sending a shiver down Mason’s spine. He wasn’t exactly sure how old the man was, but he had to at least be in his forties. His dark hair and beard were both mixed liberally with gray, his golden skin starting to show wear in the worry lines across his forehead and crow’s feet next to his serious, dark eyes.

“Just for a minute,” Tomas finally said and took two steps into the room and then shut the door behind him.

The bedrooms on the second floor of the clubhouse weren’t large, but they weren’t super small either. Plus, the room Mason was using was basically empty, and yet the second he was closed in, his head craning back to look into Tomas’s face, it felt likethe man was filling the entire space, surrounding Mason with his warmth, woody scent, and concern.

Tomas glanced around, his eyes lingering on the bed before coming back to Mason’s. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything before I headed home.”

Mason could think of quite a few things that he needed—including but not limited to getting fucked until he couldn’t remember his own name, let alone the wreckage of his life—but he wasn’t sure any of them were things Tomas would be willing to give him.

He put on his best smile and said, “No, but thank you for checking. Ollie got me some sheets and let me use the shower. Now, I’m just going to try and get some sleep. It was a long drive.”

Tomas nodded, running his tongue over his teeth. “The noise from downstairs won’t bother you too much to sleep?”

“Nah, I’ll put a podcast on, and once I’m out, I’m like waking the dead.”

The barest hint of a smile twitched at the corner of Tomas’s mouth. “Give me your phone.”

Mason raised his brows but turned, put one knee on the bed, and stretched across it to reach where he’d left his phone wedged between the bed and the wall. There was a noise behind him, like maybe a cut-off curse, and he sank his teeth into his bottom lip.

He knew what his ass looked like in this pair of underwear. The lacy edges went halfway up his cheeks, giving a hint at what was between them. He took his time straightening, letting Tomas look as much as he wanted. He was sad, not dead.

His pulse sped up as he turned and found heated eyes locked on him.

“You’re a troublemaker just like Ollie, aren’t you?” Tomas said, waiting for Mason to unlock his phone before taking it from him.

“No one is quite like Ollie,” Mason said, smiling softly as he thought about how his friend could go from showing off the red marks on his bare skin from his wax play session with his daddy to cradling Mason’s hands in his own and promising him everything would be okay. “And I wouldn’t call myself a troublemaker, no.”

Tomas typed something into his phone and then handed it back, eyebrow raised. “Oh yeah? What would you call yourself?”

He rubbed his lips together and stared up at the ceiling, really thinking about it. There were a lot of answers he could give to that question, ranging from lies to flirting.

But something about Tomas’s almost stern demeanor had him deciding to go with honesty.

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