Mason’s voice was incensed behind me but it was too late because my feet had left the ground. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut, and I heard the collective cheer of the crowd around us before the incredible splash. Then there was total blissful silence. My skin stung and my eyes closed as I floated, my arms out at my sides. I felt Sofia’s fingertips brushing against mine. I tickled them back. I pretended for as long as I was submerged that I was nothing but happy, and I didn’t actually live a life of mostly embarrassment and suffocating regret. I wanted to imagine a different childhood too, but there was a crescendo of voices that grew from above, and I felt the lack of air expanding my chest and creeping up my throat till my lips broke wide open, letting water flood in a second before I burst back to the surface with a gasp.
“Oh my God!” Sofia burst into breathless laughter as her hands found mine. Fingers entwined and heads bobbing above water, our eyes found Mason as he stared down at just me. “Oh shit, he took his shoes off,” Sofia whispered with a giggle as I realized that Mason had been a second from coming in after me. Maybe I looked drunk enough to forget how to swim. Maybe he thought diamonds melted in chlorine. Whatever it was, I was surprised, blinking water from my lashes, letting the tension build between us as I continued staring up at him.
When it was finally time to get out, it was Noah who grabbed our hands and pulled us back onto ground. I ignored the heat of Mason’s stare from where he sat now, giving no attention to the grins and nudges of other guys who were now watching me and Sofia walk around like dual winners of the wettest T-shirt contest on Earth.
“You’re in trouble now,” Sofia sang, covering her mouth. “And I’m only laughing because that’s my bad habit when I’m drunk and nerv – oop!” Toppling in her heels, she took me down with her. I gasped but snorted hard once I hit the ground on my ass, finally lost in my stupor, my mind almost as blank as I wanted to be. A dozen guys were rushing forward to help us up now, and I knew the kindness had every bit to do with my soaking cleavage but I didn’t care. I let them help us up and catch me when I gasped again, processing the pain in the ankle I’d twisted during my fall.
&nb
sp; But then I heard footsteps and the second Mason’s voice said, “I’ve got it,” the other hands fell away and before I knew what was happening, I was being lifted off the floor. Playful whistles followed Mason as he scooped me up and took me away from the pool, carrying me like a feather despite my soaking wet everything. Gross. I felt the squishiness in my thigh-high boots and longed immediately to strip them off my legs. Luckily, Noah was already leading us to the guest rooms to get cleaned up and changed.
Downstairs, despite Sofia’s insistence that she change in the same room as me, Noah dragged her to a separate one, making her giggle by saying, “The grown-ups need to talk.” Then he exchanged a look with Mason before leaving him alone in a room with me.
The second the door closed behind us, I found myself feeling painfully sober.
I was alone with Mason. Soaking wet, pissed and alone with the six feet and two inches of hard fury standing silently before me. My throat tightened as I took him in, looking like a warrior. His shoulders broadened and his muscles strained against his V-neck with every breath he took in. He set me right on fire with his stare, his steely eyes starting at the tips of my boots before dragging up my legs inch by inch. I could see his fury mix with desire as his gaze traveled up my stomach to my chest, settling on the diamond still sitting peacefully on my chest as if nothing even happened. Reaching between my breasts, I touched the stone.
“Why did you even buy it for me?” The question came out suddenly, without me realizing. It hung in the air as Mason gave himself another second to stare at my wet skin.
“To make you feel good.”
“What kind of good?”
“The kind that reminds you that you should never feel disposable. Or used.”
I swallowed at the rasp in his voice. I knew what I wanted to ask next but I wasn’t sure if I had the guts. There was another long, thick silence before I mustered up the courage. “Are you just trying to fuck me?”
Mason paused. “Is that why you think I bought the diamond?”
“Yes.”
Eyes glinting, a sneer curled his lips. “Of course,” he muttered bitterly. “You’re as irrational as you are fucking impossible to please.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He ignored me. “Take your dress off. You’ll get sick.”
“Turn around,” I said impatiently. When he did, I glared at the sculpted V of his back, furious as I peeled my dress off my body. “Tell me what the hell you meant.”
From the back, I could see him running his hand over his jaw. “What do you think, Taylor?” There was gravel and disdain in his voice. “You don’t see rationally when it comes to me. You never have. No matter what I do, I’m the bad guy, but aside from the fact that I have a dick and like sex, I’m actually kind of fucking lost on what I ever did to you.”
I stared at the back of his head, my jumble of angry thoughts and bottled memories piecing into an answer. “‘Put yourself out of your misery,’” I hissed, shoving the ring of soaked cotton down my waist and off my hips. “I heard you say it to Aaron at his birthday party, Mase. Two years ago. He was miserable, he just got passed up for a promotion at work and he pulled you aside. I was around the corner when you told him he could be fucking any woman he wanted if he just ended it with me. If he just put himself out of his misery.” Fresh tears stung my eyes and my voice was shaking but I forced myself to go on. “And guess what? He asked for a break the next week and during that break, he came an inch from cheating on me with Whitney Decker, a girl who is one of a million reasons I wish I could rewind my life to before that fucking break because everything was fine before it happened and then after, everything was shit. Everything was pain and regret and confusion – is that explanation enough for you?” I demanded furiously, my emotions on such a high that I didn’t flinch when Mason turned around. I didn’t move as I stood there in a soaked bra and panties, my dress puddled at my heeled feet, because his blazing eyes were nowhere on my body – they locked intensely on my stare as it challenged him to somehow explain himself.
“For Christ’s sake, Taylor, it wasn’t unprompted.”
“What wasn’t?”
“What you heard that night. I said it only because Aaron was bitching to me for weeks by that point about how he made a mistake. How settling down so fast made him realize how much pussy was still out there. He was the only person standing in his way of being single but if he wanted to fuck things up, I told him to go fucking ahead. To get it over with if he really wanted to get rid of the best thing he had going. And I’m guessing those were the crucial words you didn’t hear that night. All that said I didn’t cause your damned break, Taylor. I didn’t cause all the problems that happened during your break and whatever they were, I didn’t cause the ones that happened after so maybe it’s time to stop using me as a fucking scapegoat,” Mason hissed, taking a heavy step forward. “And while we’re getting things straight here, let me tell you again that I didn’t buy that necklace to get you in bed. I’m not trying to fuck you. Don’t get me wrong, I want to. I’ve wanted to for a long goddamned while and I’ve pictured you in bed more times than you want to imagine but trust me, if I was trying to fuck you, Taylor, you’d know it,” Mason growled, the heat of his words coating my skin. “Now are there any other assumptions you’ve made about me that you’d like disputed or are we fucking done here?”
I wet my lips, the air in the room feeling too thick to breathe.
Shit.
Shit, hell, fuck.
I should’ve known. I really should’ve. Considering I was hardly surprised to hear it now, I should have at least suspected that Aaron was the bigger monster all along. The whole time, the man I forced myself to believe was so perfect was actually still talking to Whitney when he said he wasn’t. He was complaining about me during the worst pain of my life and apparently, he had never stopped wondering about all the “pussy that was still out there.” But I let myself stay blind because I thought I needed him then. I thought I owed him, so I held on.
And all for this.