Page 36 of Mason

I didn’t want to break this quiet, this impossible moment where she let her guard down enough to sleep against me—to trust me, even after everything that’s happened.

Shelby shifts again, a sleepy sigh escaping her lips, and that’s when I feel it.

The sharp awareness of her softness pressing against me. The dull, aching need that’s been coiling tighter all night, ignored, shoved aside in favor of protecting her, keeping her safe, making sure she wasn’t drowning in the horrors of last night.

But fuck, my body doesn’t give a damn about the moral high ground.

She stirs, her eyelashes fluttering against her cheek, and then her eyes blink open—still heavy with sleep, still unfocused.

And then she feels it.

The tension in my body. The hard length beneath her head.

I watch the realization creep across her face. The way her throat bobs, the way she tenses, fighting the urge to either bolt or close her eyes and pretend she’s still asleep.

Her gaze flickers up to mine.

Embarrassment colors her expression, and she makes a feeble attempt to shift away.

I catch her wrist before she can.

A slow, lazy grin tugs at my lips.

“Morning, princess.”

She swallows, her pulse ticking in her throat. “Mason?—”

I lift a brow, feigning innocence. “Something wrong?”

Her cheeks darken. “I—um—I should probably?—”

“Move?” I murmur, still grinning, despite the fact that I’m aching.

She nods, her breath uneven, her body still stiff with indecision.

I let my fingers skim over the delicate bones of her wrist. I can’t take my eyes off her.

I’ve never had a woman in my lap before. Never had one grace the walls of this house, touch my space, slip so easily into my world without me even realizing it was happening.

The closest I ever came to something resembling a relationship was Mia’s mother.

Elizabeth.

Tommy’s wife.

Our relationship was unconventional, private, built on trust and understanding. A three-way thing, never spoken about beyond the three of us. Tommy, Lizzie, and me, circling each other like magnets.

She gave us three beautiful girls—two his, one mine.

Mia. My daughter.

She never knew. None of them did. I was justUncle Mason, the guy who hovered close, who loved her like his own because shewasmine, even if she didn’t know it. And Tommy and Lizzie let me be there, let me take on that role, let me have her in my life in whatever way I could.

I haven’t seen her since I got out of jail.

That was supposed to be my first stop after leaving Shelby’s house. I was going to go to her. But instead, I found myself circling back, only to land in the middle of a fucking hurricane—a dead cop on Shelby’s floor, a problem so big it swallowed every other priority I had.

I shake the thought off. I’ll deal with it later. Right now, there’s something else demanding my attention.

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