Nothing.
I carried on down the hall to the living room and paused at the threshold.
Mase was sitting on the couch, a glass in his hand, half full with what looked like whisky. It was hot tonight and he’d taken off his shirt, bare chest glistening, in only a pair of jeans.
“What do you want, Trixie?”
I curled my fingers into tight fists. “To explain…to apologize.”
His gaze pinned me to the spot and electricity crackled between us.
I took a step closer. “Nothing happened. We talked, we had one dance, I…I thought maybe if I met someone else…that I’d be able to forget you, that I’d stop feeling the way I do about you.” My heart was pounding so fast now, I felt dizzy.
His fingers tightened around his glass. “And did it work?”
“No. All night, all week…god, since the night we shared in that motel room, all I’ve been able to think about is you, Mason.”
His eyes were dark and hot, wild, and we stared at each other for long seconds, the silence stretching out, the tension growing, filling the room, so dense, my skin tingled. “Mase…”
“I wanted to tear his hands off, Trixie. I wanted to beat the shit out of that guy for daring to touch what’s mine.”
I froze, even as every nerve ending sparked to life and heat washed through me. “Yours?”
He picked up a piece of paper that was sitting beside him on the couch and held it up. “Your kitten. That’s how you signed this note, Trixie. You said it yourself.”
Oh my god. “You kept it?”
“It was all I had left after you walked out of that shitty little room, and all I was allowing myself to have of you now. And as fucked up as it is, I’ve never stopped thinking of you as mine. You’ve been mine since the night you gave yourself to me, haven’t you, Trixie?”
“Yes.” There was no point pretending otherwise. We both knew it was the truth. I was his. Despite my protests, despite trying to do the right thing. It had been true even while neither of us could act on it.
His entire body tightened and something shifted in his gaze. “So how were you planning on apologizing, kitten?”
I didn’t even have to think about it. I moved toward him like I was attached to a string and he was pulling me in. His thighs were spread, and I stood between them and held his gaze—then I dropped to my knees.
His mouth thinned, and he gripped his glass so tight I was surprised it didn’t shatter. “You think sucking my dick will stop this out-of-control feeling inside me, Trixie?” he rasped. “The fucking jealousy, and anger, and fear that I was going to lose you to that guy? Because despite what I feel, you can do whatever the fuck you want and I have no say in that, right? My feelings don’t mean shit because we both know I should leave you the hell alone. I’m no damn good for you.”
I gripped his thighs and squeezed. “You’re wrong,” I rasped, emotion nearly choking me. “And I am yours, Mason. I’ve been yours since that first night.”
His nostrils flared. “Trixie.”
“I want you…so badly. Staying away from you, I can’t do it anymore.” I didn’t even try to hide the pleading in my voice because that’s exactly what I was doing. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, I don’t care…I just know I need this, I need you, right now, in this moment.”
His eyes glowed with a fierce hunger that made me tremble. I was so desperate for him, and fear filled me that he might tell me to go.
But then he took my chin in his hand and stared into my eyes. “Then take my cock out, kitten…time to show me how sorry you are.”
Chapter Ten
Trixie
I stared up at Mase, my pulse racing, nerve endings sparking all over my body and aching for him so bad my hands shook. I reached for the zipper of his jeans. “I didn’t get to do this last time. I wanted to, badly. You took control, though, didn’t you? And you spent all night making me feel good.”
He licked his lips, watching me under thick black lashes. “Yeah, I did, and you loved it. You want me to do it again, don’t you, kitten?”
Yeah, he’d seen right through my thinly veiled plea. “Yes.”
His chest expanded, but he didn’t move, and those gorgeous eyes stayed locked on me. “You saying you’re mine to play with, mine to touch, mine to fuck when and how I want?”
I sucked in a desperate breath, unable to hold back my shiver. He didn’t miss that either. “Yes,” I said again.
I’d been holding myself together most of my life, because sometimes, growing up, I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. As fun as my gran was, following happiness, chasing it, wasn’t always the easy route. Living without restraint or rules or a guaranteed income wasn’t always easy. Being a kid and being forced to be the responsible one when necessary had been hard and scary.
And when Gran went into the nursing home, I’d been all alone for the first time in my life. Things hadn’t been easy.
Honestly, nothing had ever been easy—having a mother who’d broken my heart repeatedly and a brother who was constantly letting me down just like she had made it difficult to trust. And falling for a man who’d only been using me until someone better came along hadn’t been a walk in the park either.
I needed one thing to be easy. Despite all the reasons Mase and I shouldn’t be together, being with him like this, handing control to him… It was easy.
It felt right.
In this…I needed to be able to let go, to relinquish control to someone else, to not worry about everything, just for a little while.
Mase studied me and the muscle in his jaw jumped. “Just so you know, I say
