When Its Least Expected (24 page)

switched to flames. A fire, something heavy and burning. Her mouth went dry. Only
inches

separated their lips. Then she closed the distance, completing the job he was now
seemingly unsure of doing.

Her heart fluttered. This kiss was soft, tentative, until he responded with fervor.
The next thing she knew, she was on the ground beneath him, the soft blanket rubbing
against the bare, sensitized spots on the back of her legs. She squirmed, raising
a leg over his calf, begging for a release inside of her that she didn’t understand.
Her hands tugged at his hair as the simple thank you kiss turned to something that
would set them both into flames soon if they weren’t careful.

Mason’s mouth, torturous and frenzied, hurried down her chin and neck. He was out
for

blood with those kisses, and she tilted her chin back, ready to serve up a vein. She
shivered. The October breeze did nothing to cool her down. It was just her body responding
to his.

She wanted it all with him and was even ready to say screw the dance too, but he pulled

away, his breath coming out in similar gasps like hers. Her heart plummeted; her eyes
were still closed. She was afraid of what she’d see if she opened them.

Why-oh-why had he stopped?

No words were spoken as he leveled his forehead with hers. One of his hands was

pressed to the ground next to her. The other one seemed to have a mind of its own
as it traveled up the side of her leg, under her dress onto her outer thigh. She arched
into him, grinning wickedly. Yes! This was what she wanted, this escape from reality.
He could take her there.

She’d let him without a second thought.

“Harley…” Mason sighed against her cheek. His voice was raspy and shaking. She

finally opened her eyes only to see his shut as he leaned back, taking her with him
into a sitting position.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Way too disappointed then she probably should have been,

Harley moved with him, straightening her dress and pulling the straps back up onto
her

shoulders. She messed with her curls but found them perfectly plastered. Abigail was
apparently a hairspray freak.

“This is not at all what I had in mind here for tonight. It’s not that I don’t want
to, but I brought you here because I wanted to tell you something,” he was nervous.
She could tell by the way his hands seemed to tremble as he ran one after the other
over his mouth.

“Shit, I should have known,” her voice rose at end, the panic in it was unavoidable.
She

pushed him away and stood. This was it. He was
telling
her goodbye, wasn’t he? The asshole, he could have at least waited until the dance
was over!

“Harley, wait,” he stood behind her, his arm snaked around her chest as he pulled
her

back against him.

“Get off of me, Mason,” she struggled, pushing at his arms and hands. She was

determined to get away before any tears could make an appearance.

“Why are you freaking out?”

She pulled out his grip finally, only to turn and face him. The cooling wind blew

menacingly across her bare arms as she held them across her chest. Vigorously, she
rubbed her elbows with her hands. Then her nose started to run again, and it was all
she could do not to lose her emotional crap right then and there.

“Just do it already. Tell me you don’t want me. Tell me to leave. Tell me that a

relationship between us will never work. Tell me, God dammit, because I can’t take
the pain of losing someone else I care about in my life again…” her voice was loud,
her hands were shaking.

Her heart was on fire, and dammit all to hell she couldn’t stop the sobs.

The look in his eyes wasn’t sympathetic, nor was it a pitying look. It was downright

humorous, and she was flaming pissed. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her
into an unexpected hug. In response, she cringed. What was he doing? Was he officially
off his rocker nuts? Yes, that was it. Mason had officially left for crazy town, and
he was apparently going to take her with him.

“Do you think I would have done all this just to walk away?” he growled laughter in
her

ear. Her body stiffened until he pulled. He brushed the back of his hand down her
cheek. Sanity won out over insanity, and she started to really think about the situation
at hand here.

Okay, yeah, so maybe this wasn’t a kick you to the curb kind of moment. If it wasn’t,

though, then what exactly was it? She bit her lip. She was an all-out emotional maniac,
wasn’t she anymore?

“You see, Harley, there’s this girl I know, and she’s, well, she’s pretty amazing.
She’s

everything I never knew that I wanted in my life.” He paused as a slow, sweet smile
crossed his lips. Her nerves rattled even more but for a different reason this time.
“But the problem is that I’m not sure if she wants me in the same way that I do her.”

Harley’s voice cracked, “Has, um,
said girl
told you how she feels about you?” He

continued to stare down at her. His eyes were almost piercing. Her chest swelled,
her pulse throbbed. She wanted to look away. It was too much emotion in one moment,
but at the same

time she was pulled further in – hook, line, and double-weighted sinker.

“She hasn’t told me right out that she likes me, but I know that she definitely likes
to kiss me and that she also lets me hold her hand,” he lifted her palm to his lips,
brushing a gentle kiss to her fingers. She blinked, trying to fully focus on what
was happening. One second ago she was sure he was going to screw her over, but now…

“So I’m assuming she has to like me too.”

“Well maybe this
girl
is scared,” she looked shyly down at their now interlocked fingers.

“For instance, she doesn’t want said
boy
to be there for her one day and then decide it’s time to up and move away to somewhere
like California the next.” Harley cringed at her confession. But she had to know the
truth. It was all or nothing with Mason. If he truly wanted to be with her, than the
words needed to be spoken.

His jaw clenched; she just barely make out the change under the lantern’s light. His

expression went from playful to broody in two seconds flat. He sighed, “Oh, little
beast…” He ran a hand through his hair, the locks stood on end in delicious disarray.
She fought against the urge to reach up and fix it herself. He pulled back from her
though, before she had a chance. The distance was killer but necessary.

Harley kept her game face on – shoulders back, lips straight, eyes wide open. She
was

ready…

“I honestly don’t know what my future holds as of right now, but what I do know is
that I

want you in my life because you have come to mean more to me than any other girl I’ve
ever

been with before.” His breath was shaky against her face just like her own hands were
at her sides. Harley was struggling to keep herself still, but it was getting damn
near impossible to do so the more he spoke.

“I want to
be
with you, Harley. I want you … as my girlfriend. Would you … do that for me … please?”

Oh God, he was begging. Harley couldn’t resist a begging, hotter than Hades, Mason.

She was too weak. His hold over her had grown too powerful. Still, she had to at least
try and play it cool. “Well, I’ll tell you what,” she paused, staring up into his
eyes, barely making out the blue in them. She wanted to jump in his arms, wrap her
legs around his waist, and say adios to the dance. She had other plans for them, and
they didn’t include a room full of other people. “We can try this relationship thing
with each other if you promise to tell me the truth all the time, especially on something
as important as moving away. You got it, surfer boy?” Oh he got it

alright; his grin said it all.

“So, does that mean you and I are…” he licked his lips. His smile had grown so

big, so sweet that she wanted to wrap it up and store it in a box right next to her
heart. “I’m telling you what, little beast. If that’s the case then…” Mason spun on
his heels and sprinted away from her, his arms pumping through the air as he hollered
a
woo-hoo
towards the sky.

Harley giggled, covering her mouth, shaking her head as the crazy boy went running
away from her.

He jumped up on the monkey bars, throwing his suit coat onto the mulch covered ground

below. He was crazy – absolutely, one hundred percent, off his rocker, nuts! And Harley
was completely falling for him.

She should have been freaking out, but weirdly for once she wasn’t. She was at peace

with the idea of the two of them making their little relationship official. Things
in her life might actually have started to fall into place.

How was that even possible for a jinx like her?

Mason wound up on top the red bars, standing with his legs on either side, his arms

outstretched towards the sky. “Take that, you old man! I finally went and got myself
a

girlfriend!”

The wild boy was confessing to the sky like he was sinning, and Harley held her hand

over her stomach, attempting to keep her belly laughs down to a minimum. An occasional
giggle slipped out though when he did little fist pumps here or little karate-chops
there. Otherwise she just stood there in utter amazement.

Mason Daniel had officially gone and rocked her world.

Mason couldn’t stop smiling as he stared over at his gorgeous, newly defined girlfriend.

Her eyes seemed to dance in the shadow of the dashboard light as she stared back.
Her skin felt so damn good under his thumb, under his fingers. He wanted to pull over
his car, kiss her till dawn, and tell the whole entire world to go to hell.

Harley should have been running, and he should have been too. Now all that thought
did

was terrify him! He couldn’t leave now, could he? It’d kill him, but his dreams …
they still meant so much to him. The last thing he would ever be able to do was forget
about them.

“Mase,” she stammered. Her eyes downturned towards his scheming hand that was dying

to move further up her leg. “Can I ask you something?” She questioned as he skidded
to a stop in his driveway.

“Yeah, little beast, of course you can!” He reached out to grab her hand, lacing their

fingers together. She was so delectable, and his hands were starving to touch her
skin.

“Well, um, have you ever actually
had
a girlfriend before, I mean before me that is?” She looked so shy, so insecure that
he thought about lying to her, but didn’t he promise to keep his lies to a minimum?

“No. I haven’t actually had a girlfriend before. You’re, uh, my first.” She relaxed,
but he couldn’t let her completely, not when he had to set the record straight with
the truth. “But I’ve
been
with girls before.
Lots
of them actually.”

Her lips pursed together, but she didn’t snap at least. Instead, she looked almost
knowing.

Boy, she really
hadn’t
thought highly of him, had she?

Good girl…

“
Well then, what exactly made you want to start?”

“
You
changed my mind, Harley,” he tipped her chin up with his finger until their eyes
held. “Didn’t you hear
anything
I said to you at the park?” The truth was that Mason didn’t know the answer to that
exactly either. Maybe it was because she just so happened to be the only girl who’d
gotten under his skin.

Her intense eyes went back to focusing on the dark night sky while her hand messed
with

the lone diamond hanging from her neck. He ran the back of his hand down her shoulder,
and she shuddered under his touch. No skin had ever felt so good underneath his fingers
before.

She was so distant though. Selfishly, he wanted her undivided attention, but apparently

her head had other plans.

“Did I say something wrong?” She looked over at him abruptly, shaking her head.

“No. You said everything right actually. You kind of always do, and that’s the part
that

freaks me out.”

“Don’t be scared,” he brushed his hand over her leg again in an attempt to soothe
her. He

wanted to cure her and take hold of her pain and dump it into the ocean like he had
tried to do in the past. That way she’d never have to feel it again. “I care about
you, and I want to do right by you too. That’s why I am trying to be honest here.”

Reaching for his cell in the console of his car, Mason continued to hold on to Harley’s

hand as he dialed his sister’s number. “Let’s just forget about the logistics of our
relationship and focus on being happy together, okay?”

Damn, when did you become Mr. Sensible?

Harley nodded, but her eyes still appeared unsure. Apparently he still had a lot of
walls to break down.

The ride to the dance was quiet. Harley had moved to the backseat next to Maisy while

Aric rode up front. The guy couldn’t be trusted being so close to his sister. He was
sixteen.

Mason knew what sixteen year olds wanted. This guy wasn’t going to be getting any
of those

wants fulfilled with his sister either.

Walking into the school gym, Mason grabbed Harley’s hand, interlocking their fingers
as

he pulled her close. He couldn’t get enough of her touch and probably never would.
School

dances were not his thing, but being there with Harley felt right. Good.

“Dance with me, Mason,” Harley demanded, low and sexily in his ear as they walked
into

the stale smelling gym. He glanced over at her, his own devilish smile playing out
on his lips.

He couldn’t tell her no even though he danced like a hunchbacked old man. Still, the

temptation of holding Harley in his arms pulled tightly against his body as they grinded
to the beat of the music was too hard to pass up. He could do slow dances at least,
and lucky for him, that’s exactly what the music had changed to.