Page 33 of Born Reckless
The sound of a door opening pulls my eyes to the side, and I watch as Mason steps out of his bedroom in a swimsuit. With a smile, he steps into the water and wades his way toward me.
He grabs my hips, and my entire body feels alive as he pulls me to him, and I wrap my legs around his waist. But we just stare at each other, my blue eyes searching his blue eyes.
“What are we doing, Mason?” I ask. My voice comes out quiet and just a little bit rough. I don’t want to say the words, but they’re so pressing, I can’t help it.
He studies my eyes, and he doesn’t ask what I mean. He knows exactly what I’m asking. “We’re doing what we want,” he answers simply.
I reach a hand up, placing it against the side of his neck. I brush my thumb over his cheek. “We both know we have no future.”
Mason’s grip tightens on me just a little bit, but it’s not just sexual. There’s something protective about it. “I like being with you, Juliet,” he says quietly. “With you, the pressure is off. And it’s real.”
His gaze shifts over my shoulder and his eyes go out of focus. “Do you know how many women have thrown themselves at me over the past few years? They know who I am. They know what I will become. And they know that the family legacy falls on my shoulders.”
His gaze returns to me and something in it softens. “You’re not fake, Juliet. You’re not trying to get anything out of me.”
My heart breaks for him just a little. Mason Godfrey is a good man. The thought of anyone throwing themselves at him in hopes that he would say,yes, you will bear my heirs… It makes me want to claw some eyes out.
He doesn’t deserve that.
Mason traces his fingers up my arm. His fingertips brush along my jawline. And then he brushes his thumb over my lips. “I know this can’t get too serious. But you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”
I swallow once, and I feel that complicated spider’s web of emotions inside of me grow more solid.
You can’t fall in love with him, Juliet.
You can’t.
I don’t say anything. I wrap my arms behind his neck, hugging my entire body to him. And there’s something familiar about the desperate way he hugs me back. He tucks his face into the crook of my neck, and neither of us says anything at all.
Who said anything about love?
Guess I’m about to find out just how strong my willpower is.
“Elena’s back,”Mason says one morning, ten days after I’d arrived in Chicago. I stand in his doorway, watching him closely as he buttons up his shirt. I bite my lower lip, my eyes shamelessly drinking in every inch of him. He looks up, a smug smile pulling on his mouth when he sees my reaction. But there is no time right now. If we don’t leave now, we’ll be late for a meeting. “The Night Council is meeting tonight.”
With that, my focus immediately shifts. I even stand straight, as if I need to prepare myself for the next sentence out of his mouth.
“You ready to meet the other council members?” he asks as he pulls on a suit jacket. “You’re half of what’s on the agenda for tonight.”
“Me?” I ask. There’s something thick and lumpy in my throat. “Why?”
“The rest of the council is worried about the circumstances under which you were let into the city,” Mason says as he walks out of his bedroom, past me. “But they want to meet you. Especially that doctor you’ll be working with. And considering Elena and I are vouching for you, they’re curious why.”
“This kind of sounds like a second interrogation,” I say as I walk after him into the kitchen. Nerves set my stomach sour.
“Maybe a little bit,” he says with a smile as he grabs two muffins from the counter. He tosses one to me and I catch it. “But mostly they’re just curious.”
I’m actually glad for the distraction. With that information, my brain is focused solely on this meeting, instead of the nearly impossible task of not looking at Mason like we want to devour each other. Elena is back, and I know I can’t be that good at hiding what’s going on between us.
But with another vetting looming over my head? Mason’s body and smile are the furthest things from my mind.
I stand as witness to two meetings involving both Mason and Elena. Tabitha stands beside me, her face stoic and flat. She doesn’t say a word. Not that I’d be able to understand her.
I wonder when Elena learned Russian.
Three o’clock. Six o’clock. At seven, we all return to Elena’s penthouse, and we all have a slightly awkward dinner without much real conversation happening.
And finally, at nine o’clock, the four of us head down the elevator and climb into the limo waiting for us outside.