Struck By You: Players (8 page)

     “You never mentioned you were coming,” I said.

“I wasn’t sure I was going to, but things seem to be under control there, so I figured I’ll get out and enjoy life for a bit. Plus I got live feed of the bar,” he said, showing me his phone.

“I’m so glad you’re here, I was dreading the next few hours. Now I have someone to chat with, and maybe a dance or two?”

He held my chin gently. “You know, I would do whatever you ask of me, gorgeous,” he whispered and smiled. He let go of my chin and walked away.

Had I had my way, I would have slept with him a long time ago, but Paul was looking for something else. He wanted a wife, not a one-night stand.

After dinner and speeches, the dancing started. Paul wasted no time and asked me to dance with him. We were the first ones out on the dance floor, and shortly after, many others followed. As we danced the second song, I caught a glimpse of Mason standing near the dance floor speaking to a woman but he had his eyes on me. So I looked away and rested my head on Paul’s shoulder.

     “You look gorgeous tonight,” Paul whispered.

      “Thank you handsome,” I said, looking up at him again and smiled. He stared at me as the music played and as soon as the third song started, Mason was standing there. Paul looked at him and stopped.

“May I cut in?” asked Mason.

“It’s your call Riley. I have no issues taking this punk outside, but it is your dad’s party.”

I looked into Mason’s eyes – they were dark and almost remorseful.

     “Paul, would you please excuse us?” I asked him and I could tell he was not happy with my decision.

Mason wore a black Armani tux tailored perfectly to him. He looked much bigger before me now. Not sure if it was the tuxedo or his cologne, but I was struck by him. He gently wrapped his arm around my waist puling me toward him, holding my hand and leading me with impeccable precision.

“I told you to stay away from me,” I exhaled.

“I know, I wasn’t going to come but I had to see you,” he said looking into my eyes.

“Really? And where’s your brother, how come he’s not pouncing on me, isn’t it his turn?”

He pulled me closer and talked softly into my ear. “He knows nothing about us. He thinks I didn’t close the deal with you, so he’s trying to show me up. I wanted to explain that to you at the bar right before you slapped me.”

“I know bullshit when I hear it, Mason,” I whispered back.

“Riley it’s the honest truth, and I didn’t come here to talk about my brother, I came here to see you,” he said looking into my eyes.

We continued dancing in silence staring at each other until the song was over.

     “Can we go somewhere and talk?” he whispered in my ear.

     “I…I don’t know” I said, my knees feeling weak.

He looked around the room and walked me towards the bathrooms. He looked around for a private spot and found an entrance to another hall next to ours that was empty. He closed the door behind him and paced around with his hands in his pockets. “I wanted to see you, I’ve been going mental since…” he said, stopping himself.

“Then why did you leave?”

“I felt like I was leading you on onto something that I know I can’t do,” he began. “I am who I am Riley – I can’t be in a relationship.”

 I started laughing. “A relationship?” I said. “Whatever gave you the idea I wanted a relationship?”

He got closer to me and his eyes went dark. He lifted my chin and kissed my neck. “You look beautiful tonight,” he whispered.

“Don’t think for a minute I will let you off that easily,” I said.

He caressed my chin with his lips and gave me his white neckerchief from his tux pocket. “Take off the lipstick,” he ordered. I looked into his eyes with defiance and smiled wickedly. He put his arm around my back and pulled me closer to him. I swallowed. He had his lips locked with mine as soon as I wiped the second time.  He took my arms and put them against the wall as he kissed whatever wasn’t covered by my dress. He then reached under my slit, caressing the inside of my thighs, and I was already soaking wet for him. He moaned slightly when he pulled my panties to the side to rub my clit. He stopped kissing me and looked into my eyes as he penetrated me with his fingers. I was trying my hardest not to be loud but still couldn’t hold back my whimpers. I broke free of his hold and pulled him toward me.

“I want that big cock inside me,” I whispered in his ear.

“Take it somewhere else!” we heard a man yell. We both froze and started laughing. He took his hand out of my dress and kissed the side of my jaw.

“I have a room in the hotel, you nasty little girl,” he whispered and suddenly nothing else mattered; not the party, my dad, Paul, I wanted nothing else but to be with him.

He took my hand and we walked fast through the crowd, somehow got into an empty elevator, and he started kissing me hard again as he pressed the button to the seventh floor. Not sure how but seconds later, we were inside his room. The door had barely closed when he had me against the wall, pulled my dress up, ripped my panties off, lifted me up, wrapped my legs around him and was inside me, letting out a loud moan. He was engorged and it hurt, but felt perfect at the same time. It didn’t take long for us to climax. He stared into my eyes until it was about to happen then kissed me as he released inside me. He came hard, nearly losing his balance and me with it but held it together. He buried his face on my neck as he tried to catch his breath. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered.

“You’re an asshole,” I said pushing him away. “What the fuck is it with you? You don’t want a relationship but you tell me you miss me. You make no sense,” I yelled.

“I know, Riley,” he said pounding his head on the wall.

 “Should I just leave now and spare you the sneaking away?”

He shook his head and sighed.

I removed my dress and sat on the bed with my bra on but pantyless. He took his tux and everything that went along with it off as well and sat next to me.

I sighed. “Look, I don’t want this either, whatever it is we have, but obviously we can’t ignore it, so I think we should have some sort of understanding,” I said.

“Understanding?”

“We get along as friends and obviously in the bedroom,” I said. “So let’s just be that,” I suggested.

“What are you talking about?”

 “Fuck buddies Mason – we hang out, we fuck, we go about our lives. You can see and sleep with whoever and so can I.”

He sat there thinking about my proposition. “No questions?”

“No, none. We meet, we fuck, done,” I replied. ”And we don’t discuss the other people we’re with. I don’t need to know and neither do you,” I added.

He looked at me and smiled. He started playing with my anklet and ran his hand up my leg, gently over my knee and inside my thighs again. He kissed me and removed my bra. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered.

 “We can’t stay up here all night. A lot of people saw us tonight. We need make an appearance,” I said.

“You mean Paul?” he said almost accusingly.

I shrugged.

He smiled. “Didn’t dawn on me till tonight, but he has it bad for you.”

“I know.”

“Have you slept with him?” he asked, kissing my shoulder.

“None of your business.”

“I think you have,” he said, inserting his fingers inside me while he caressed my jaw with his lips.

     “Jealous?”

He moved away from me slightly and his smile faded.

“No questions,” I whispered. “Come here” I said pulling him toward me and kissing him.

An hour later we were downstairs at the party. We parted ways and I went back to my table. My sister was sitting alone and waved at me when she saw me coming.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

     “Uh, I saw a friend in the lobby and got to talking, lost track of time.”

“Don’t lie to me,” she smiled.

     “I’m not lying.”

“I clearly saw a guy taking you by the hand across the dance floor and out those doors,” she began. “Another way to put it is you left with Mason Hayes, a client of the spa and one the most prominent womanizers in the city,” she said.

“We’re friends Serena, that’s all.”

“Friends? His brother offered Paul a grand to buy you out for the night, and these are friends of yours?” she scolded.

     “I’m not friends with his brother Serena, just with Mason, and he’s not as bad as Paul makes him out to be. We are friends, that’s all.”

She looked at me suspiciously and took a sip of her wine. Suddenly a familiar song came on and my sister smiled wide. “That’s our jam sis, let’s go dance,” she said pulling me off the chair and onto the dance floor.

My sister and I were both tall, both naturally blonde. She wore a long dark burgundy dress with a low-cut back, and at age thirty with two kids, her body was perfect.

We started dancing and singing and being our silly selves. Paul and Eric joined us a few seconds later.  I closed my eyes while I was dancing and unknowingly strayed away from the group. Suddenly I had someone grab my waist from behind and started dancing with me. I looked and it was the taller version of Mason, his brother.  I pulled away and kept dancing but he came back and put his hands on my hips this time.

     “Enough,” I said, taking them away.

“I’m just dancing with you,” he said. “And you have a hot ass, gorgeous,” he whispered in my ear, grabbing a hold of me again. “I have a room in the hotel. Why don’t we come up and I can show just how hot you are?” he continued.

“Fuck off,” I said taking his hands away firmly again.

     He started laughing. “I can see you’re going to be difficult and why my brother failed miserably,” he said, taking a swig of his beer.

     I smiled. “Who says he failed?” I said and turned around to face the other way and kept dancing.

     “Then let’s keep it in the family, the three of us, what do you say?” he began. “I know you’re a freak, you don’t fool me,” he said grabbing my ass.

     “Get your hands of me!” I yelled.

“Tanner, I warned you” yelled Paul.
     “Go away old man, this does not concern you,” said Tanner. By this point we had a crowd circling us.
     “When it comes to her it does, punk,” said Paul.

“And what are you going to do about it, hit me? We own you, motherfucker,” said Tanner putting his index finger on Paul’s chest.

 “Tanner!” Mason’s voice boomed, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. He pushed his brother away from Paul so hard his brother lost his balance and fell on his ass.

He helped his brother get back up and as soon as he did, Tanner came back toward Paul. Mason grabbed him from behind, but he turned around and punched Mason in the stomach, then turned around and made a beeline for Paul again. Mason got back up, ran toward Tanner and pushed him and when Tanner turned around, he punched his brother on the face. Tanner went down immediately.

“I’m sorry Paul, he’s had a bit too much to drink tonight” he said looking at Paul. He was in pain and out of breath.

“I will talk to Carl about this,” warned Paul.

Mason shifted his gaze toward me and quickly looked away. He helped Tanner get back up and took him off the dance floor.
     The limo dropped me off close to one in the morning. As soon as I stepped out of the car, I saw Mason standing next to his car with his hands in his pockets, looking impeccable in his tux.

I walked up to him and ran my fingers through his hair and kissed him.

“Are you okay?” he asked looking into my eyes.

 “I am now,” I exhaled. He opened his car door for me and took me to his place.

Chapter 10
Mason

    
I
could tell she hated my place as soon as we walked in. Everything I owned was black, grey or metal. I had oversize abstract paintings and I wasn’t as neat as she was. I had clothes lying everywhere which I would have put away if I had planned this right. Luckily my place was clean, as on Fridays my cleaning lady came by.

“It’s big,” she said looking around. And indeed it was. It was the penthouse suite, 2400 square feet, with two bedrooms and an office. Certainly way too big for a bachelor.

“You bring women here?” she asked in horror.

I laughed. “Sometimes.”

“And they don’t run for the hills?”

“They don’t spend enough time here to appreciate the monstrosity of it all,” I said taking her coat off.

“The fireplace is nice,” she said walking up to it. “Does it work? Or is it just for show?”

     I grabbed a remote from the coffee table and turned it on for her. She smiled, her blue eyes twinkling with the reflection of the fire.

     “Are you working this weekend?”

She shook her head. “Not till Monday, bright and early.”

“Can you stay?”