Hard to Love You (14 page)

“I’m going to kiss you.” Mason told me. “If you don’t want me to you have to tell me now.”

I don’t answer because I want Mason. I’ve wanted to kiss him again since the first time all those years ago.

He leaned in and kissed me on the lips, then gently nips at my bottom lip. My stomach clinched and my palms started to sweat. I licked the seam of Mason’s lips; wanting access. I pulled myself closer to him but there wasn’t any room between us now. Mason grabbed the back of my right thigh and pulled it so it was resting on the side of his hip. Then he did the same thing to my left thigh, and I was now straddling him. When our tongues collided the kiss turned desperate. Our teeth crashed together. I grabbed the back of Mason’s head and gripped his hair. He wrapped his arms around my waist and before I even knew what was happening I was pinned underneath him.

My panties were wet, I was so turned on. I’d never felt like that before. I slid my legs around Mason’s waist, anchoring him to me. Mason’s right hand was running up and down my body while his left arm was holding him up. He reached the end of my shirt and slid his hand up. His fingers touched my stomach and my hips lifted up. I needed to relieve some of the pressure between my legs. Mason groaned into my mouth and pushed down with his hips. I moaned this time. Mason broke the kiss as he lifted his upper body so that he could push my shirt up. Since I was going to bed, I hadn’t bothered to put a bra back on. His fingers brushed against the bottom of my left breast and I sucked in a deep breath. No one had ever touched me there before and I wasn’t sure what to expect with Mason.

My nipple was already pebbled so as his hand slid over it, it puckered even more. “Damn Hails.” Mason said. He dipped his head down and pulled my left nipple into his mouth. It felt amazing and I never wanted him to stop. He lightly bit down and my back arched in an attempt to get closer. “You like that?”

“Mmmhmm.” Mason repeated the same movements on the other side while I ran my finger nails up and down his back.

He kissed a path to my lips. He was thrusting exactly where I needed him the most but then started to roll off of me. I started to panic, thinking he was going to pull away since things started getting hot and heavy between us.

“Relax.” Mason whispered.

“I just don’t want you to pull away. I need you Mason.” And it was true, I needed Mason more than I ever thought possible. Mason made me feel safe; made me feel loved, special.

He kissed me again as he pulled my shirt down. His fingertips dipped into the waist band of the shorts I had on.

“Has anyone ever touched you here, Hails?” Mason asked.

The butterflies were so bad in my stomach that I started shaking. My heart was racing. I wasn’t sure I was able to talk so I shook my head no.

He started to remove his fingers but I stopped him. “Please Mase.” I begged. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was begging for because I’d never felt like this with anyone.

“I shouldn’t, Hailey.”

“Says who?” I asked.

Mason chuckled.

My cheeks burned.

“Mason, if you don’t touch me I’m not sure what I’m going to do but it’s not going to be pretty.”

He laughed a deep belly laugh.

“Relax. I’ll take care of you.”

Mason caressed his hand down between my legs and started rubbing in just the right spot. I wanted to clamp my legs shut but I wasn’t sure I could. He started sucking and nipping at my neck. The pull in my lower stomach was so strong I felt like I was about to blast off. His fingers started to slow down and then eventually stop. He didn’t remove his hands but he looked deep into my eyes. Mason slipped a finger inside me but he didn’t move it, he was letting me get used to the feeling. Once I felt comfortable and couldn’t take it anymore I pushed my hips up, silently telling him to move his finger. He pulled almost all the way out then slid it back in until his knuckles pressed up against my clit. I cried out from the feeling. He pumped in and out a few more times.

“Come Hailey.” Mason told me as he crashed his lips down to mine just before I felt the first wave crash over me. I felt like I was floating from the intense release that Mason brought on. Then another crash came but this one was a little colder. As I came back down from my high, Mason was laughing. I felt a mortified by what had just happened. All these things were floating around in my head. Did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to touch Mason? Was it supposed to feel as good as it did? I tried sitting up so I could run back into the house when I was suddenly hit with another crash of something cold. Then I realized what Mason was laughing at. We were so caught up in each other that we didn’t realize that the tide was as close as it was.

Unexpectedly, I’m brought back to reality feeling over heated. I notice that I am now sitting between someone’s legs. I’m sure that someone is Mason. A wave comes so close that I have to bring my legs up to my chest to keep it from touching me. Doing this pushes me a little closer into Mason. His strong arms wrap around me and I tense. It feels so good but at the same time feels so wrong.

“Relax.” Mason whispers.

I’m trying to relax, I really am but I can’t stop the sudden memory flashes of Lily’s lipstick smeared across her face. What if she had just given Mason a blow job in the bathroom and I caught them? That would explain the deer in headlights expression he had.

Mason lifts my body with ease and sits me on his left leg so that I am half facing him. “You look beautiful, like the princess you really are. I’m sorry Hailey, so sorry.”

I let myself live in the moment, I need to feel Mason. I wrap my arms around his neck and squeeze tight. He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me so I’m flush up against his upper body. I hear him take a deep breath then feel it on me as he lets it out.

“God I’m so sorry.” He says into my neck.

I sit back so I can look into Mason’s beautiful, stormy eyes. “I need you to tell me what happened, Mason. You can fix all this but I just need the truth. My heart tells me you didn’t do anything with her but I can’t stop what I saw.”

Mason rests his forehead against mine. “I will Hailey, I promise. I will tell you everything, just give me a few days to get to the bottom of it first.”

“A few days Mase, that’s it. A few.” Mason lets out a long, minty breath.

“I will tell you everything and I will never do this to us again. I’m tired of all this, Hailey.” Mason tells me before he lifts me so that he can stand up. He brushes the sand off his ass and then helps me up. While I wipe the sand off the back of my legs and Mason grabs my shoes. He grabs my hand with his and then we walk back up to the reception.

Mason stops me before I take a step up to the deck, “Tell your band boy I’m coming after my girl.” He says with a smirk on his face.

I smile the first real smile all day long. “You make it so hard to love you, Mason Cahill.” I tell him as I shake my head.

“I know, but I don’t mean it too.” He says.

I let go of his hand and start walking away so I can find Cole and my mom.

“Hailey!” Mason yells.

I look back and raise my eyebrows, surprised by his sudden outburst.

Mason looks around, noticing the attention that he caused by yelling my name. When his eyes land back on me, he mouths, “I love you.”

It takes me a second to figure out how to respond so I do what he does to me when he is up on the mound when he’s pitching. I wink twice at him.

He seems happy with that response. I turn around and Cole and Mom are standing there, waiting for me at the table.

“Ready to get out of here?” I ask them.

“Yeah I’m exhausted.” Mom says.

“Let me go say goodbye to MacKenzie and Hunter and we can go.”

“Um, that’s going to be a little hard. They already left.” Cole tells me.

I laugh and shake my head, of course they would cut out of their wedding early.

“Well I guess I’ll see them at breakfast tomorrow then.”

Cooper and I had to get up at the crack of dawn this morning because we have a game this afternoon. Luckily I don’t have to pitch again until Wednesday so I have it pretty easy today. I’m a little hung over since I drank more than I should have at the wedding last night. We pulled up to the Lakewood Stadium with about ten minutes to spare, which is a lot better than I had been doing lately. I’m trying to turn my shit around and stop pissing coach off. I’m done throwing myself a pity party.

Warm-ups are finishing up. Cooper is excited for today’s game against Greensboro. Zack O’Neil is pitching today. Zack has one hell of an arm on him. He threw a slider at Chris, our catcher, and it was fucking perfect.

I have plans for tonight after the game so I am impatiently waiting for it to be over. It feels like the innings are never going to end. I’m kind of glad I’m not pitching today; my head isn’t quite in the game. All I can think about is the way Hailey felt in arms last night. I try to pay attention to the guys and the game but my mind keeps wandering back to when I first got my street bike and took Hailey for a ride on it.

MacKenzie was throwing a sweet sixteenth birthday party for Hailey, the same weekend I was buying my Suzuki GSXR. I had saved all my hard earned money that I got from working with my uncle over the summers and on the weekends. I, along with Hunter and Cooper, took our road test for our motorcycle licenses a few weeks ago so everything was set. MacKenzie made me promise before I left that I would be back before the party started. She was growing used to the idea of Hailey and I being really good friends. Hailey liked that I protected her, just as I always did with MacKenzie. I just wished I could also protect her from her screwed up family.

Cooper, Hunter and I all headed out to the Suzuki dealership early that afternoon so we would be back in time for the party. Once I laid my eyes on my bike I knew I had to have it. I fell in love. It was a Suzuki GSXR 750, all black and chrome, fast and loud, just the way I wanted it. I test drove it and everything felt perfect, I was sold. Only then did I realize my problem; there was no way we were making it back to the party in time. Once we were at the dealership, Hunter and Cooper had to get bikes too. That wasn’t part of the plan so technically it wasn’t my fault we were late.

Finally, after we got all had our finance paperwork done Hunter decided to leave his truck there so he could ride his bike to the party with us. We would just come back to pick up the truck later that night. Cooper decided he wanted to take the long way home and that was a huge mistake. Route 295 was jammed bumper to bumper with traffic, all lanes stopped. We were between exits so it wasn’t like we could turn off and loop back around to go home. When they finally opened the highway, after they’d cleaned up a vehicle fire, we were two hours late to the party. We all parked the bikes up on the sidewalk since the driveway was full. I was unsnapping my helmet when I caught the front door fling open. MacKenzie stood there with her hand on her hip.

“Really?” She asked when the three of us walked up.

“Sorry Kenz, we got held up with the paperwork and then hit traffic.” I said as I slipped past her into the house.

The house was packed with all MacKenzie and Hailey’s friends. I scanned around for Hailey but didn’t see her anywhere. I knew she had to be somewhere since this was her party after all.

“You get clean up duty, jerks.” MacKenzie said as she stomped past us into the sitting room.

Hunter, Cooper and I went into the kitchen to grab a few slices of pizza. Dad and Mom were there and started grilling us about why we were so late. Mom was worried sick that something happened because none of us were answering our cell phones. Mom had begged me not to get a bike before we left and now that Cooper and I both had one I saw the panic flash in her eyes. I assured her we would be careful. Dad wrapped his arms around her and told her that we were nineteen now and old enough to start making our own decisions. She knew he was right but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t worry about it.

I left Cooper and Hunter in the kitchen talking to Mom and Dad and went in search of Hailey. I knew she would be pissed but I’d just have to make it up to her. Maybe a ride on the bike would do the trick. I walked into the sitting room and found her sitting on Tyler Walter’s lap. That guy was a piece of shit and only after one thing, a piece of ass. I’ve heard about how he treats the girls he’s with and he deserved an ass beating for that. The only reason he didn’t get one was because he was under age and I didn’t need to be put in jail for hitting a minor. I’ve warned both MacKenzie and Hailey to steer clear from him, obviously they didn’t listen now that Cooper and I aren’t around as much.

I walked over and glared down at the both of them. Hailey had her arms wrapped around Tyler’s neck and he had his right hand resting high on the top of Hailey’s left thigh.

“Hailey,” I said through my teeth. I clenched my jaw a few times as she slowly pulled back and looked up at me.