Page 33 of Possession

There was something in his eyes, a question, like maybe he didn’t understand what was going on either, but he was more than okay with it.

“That’s a great question,” Mason said, his tone frostier than he’d intended. “How do you two know each other?”

“We don’t know each other,” Vinnie said quickly, shaking his head.

Only because Mason had known him his entire life did he realize that Vinnie was embarrassed. There was the tiniest flush in his cheeks and a small twist to his mouth, but the giveaway was his hands, his fingers twitching as he fought the instinct to cover his face to hide.

“We know each other a little,” Tomas argued, his smile widening to a shit-eating grin when Vinnie scowled at him.

Six stepped forward, frowning at Ollie for swearing before turning to Tomas and lifting his chin. “You alright?”

Tomas nodded. “Fine. Nothing some ice and time won’t fix.”

Six didn’t say anything, but he turned and moved across the clubhouse, sending a look to the rest of the crowd still gathered around that sent them scurrying away as well. Ollie didn’t move, his hands crossed over his chest as he stared expectantly between Vinnie and Tomas until his daddy’s deep voice called for him from across the room.

“Ollie.”

Sighing unhappily, Ollie dropped his arms, gave Mason and Vinnie a look that said,I’ll be getting all the tea very soon, and then hurried after Six.

Tomas eyed the two of them for a moment before tossing the disposable ice pack into a nearby trash can and pointing toward the back of the room where his office was. “Let’s go talk.”

He led the way, expecting them both to follow without question. Mason was three steps away before Vinnie grabbed his wrist, pulling him to a halt. He looked back, furrowing his brows in question.

“I didn’t know he belonged to this club,” Vinnie said in a hushed tone. “I didn’t know that you knew him.”

“Okay. Did you guys sleep together at some point that I’m not aware of?”

That was against their rules, but maybe Vinnie didn’t think their rules applied anymore? Maybe he didn’t consider them a couple anymore.

“What? No,” Vinnie said, moving forward until they were only a few inches apart, his hand sliding down to clasp Mason’s reassuringly. “No, I just meant… Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

It did matter, he wanted to scream. Everything mattered. Vinnie kept saying that, kept brushing aside his own thoughts, his own feelings, and hiding himself from Mason, but afterhaving space for nearly a month, he was beginning to realize Vinnie wasn’t just hiding from him. Mason was pretty sure he was hiding from himself.

“Boys,” Tomas called in a no-nonsense voice, and Mason couldn’t help it. He sank his teeth into his bottom lip and grinned at Vinnie.

“Don’t, Mase,” Vinnie said. “I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”

“Too late,” Mason whispered, then turned and sped off to where Tomas had disappeared, dragging Vinnie behind him.

As soon as they were in Tomas’s office, he shut the door, but he didn’t move farther into the room, not sure exactly what Tomas had in mind. The club’s President was perched on the edge of his desk, long legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed and hands planted on either side of him on the desktop. He was watching the two of them closely, studying them, his eyes dropping to their clasped hands and then traveling back up, moving between their faces.

He pointed to the two chairs in front of him, and Mason noticed they were closer together than they had been the couple of times he’d been in the office and a little farther from the desk. He tugged Vinnie over with him and sank into a seat. Vinnie sighed and flopped into the other one.

Mason watched Tomas, eager to see how he would handle Vinnie when he was being a brat.

He didn’t react.

Mason wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

“I should have known it was you,” Tomas said, eyes locked on Vinnie, who was looking away from him, hands clenched on the arms of his chair.

Vinnie scoffed. “How could you possibly have known it was me?”

“I’ve been hearing about your gorgeous face and sky-high cheekbones from Ollie for a damn year.”

That got Vinnie’s attention, his eyes jerking upward and locking on Tomas. Mason watched him, pleased when he saw that Vinnie wasn’t as unaffected by Tomas as he was pretending to be.

“Yeah, well, I probably should have guessed who you were too.”

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