Rock Bay 2 - Letting Go (22 page)

“Mase, I’m ready. I want to feel you,” Drew finally said, breathless and clawing at the sheets.

Mason lifted his head and crawled up Drew’s body, fingers still embedded. “Yeah?”
“Please.”
That one word was enough for Mason. He gently withdrew his fingers and reached for the drawer with the condoms. It was hard to roll one on, shaky as his hand had suddenly become, but he did, and then he slicked himself up with the most economical motions he could muster. Then he leaned over to kiss Drew again as he slowly,
slowly
sank inch by inch into Drew’s body.
“Oh, whoa,” Drew breathed. “It’s so… intense.”

“Yeah. Just breathe. You’ll get used to it, babe.” Mason pushed Drew’s newly grown out bangs from his eyes and kissed his forehead and the tip of his nose before making his way to Drew’s lips.

“Okay. I think I’m ready.”

Mason started to move, slow and steady, picking up the pace when he could tell that Drew was loving it. He soaked in the moans, the sexy

head tossing, the way that Drew’s warm green eyes stared into his, all blurry and blissed out. And when Drew came? Fuck, that was hot. It was always a gorgeous sight, Drew losing himself to passion, but when it was Mason giving it to him, Mason totally in control of Drew’s pleasure, it was all that much sweeter. Mason didn’t let himself go until Drew was a shivering, happy pile beneath him. Then Mason closed his eyes and came harder than he’d come in a long time. He sure as hell hoped that Drew liked being on the bottom, because he couldn’t wait to try it that way again. He wanted to try everything with Drew.

It was one of those moments when he hoped nothing would ever change.

 

Chapter Seventeen

 

“
H
EY
, Mase, can I talk to you for a minute?” Amy looked concerned. She motioned him behind the nurses’ station wall and into the coffee area that was partially sheltered from the rest of the bustle of the hospital.

“What’s up, babe?” he asked with a smile. It seemed like he was always smiling lately. Hard not to when everything was going so well—when he was starting to think he might actually be in a real relationship that wasn’t full of the bullshit of his last one.

“I got a notice today, as your direct supervisor. A complaint has been filed against you.”

Mason was speechless. He racked his brain trying to think of something,
anything
, that he’d done wrong. Sure, everyone made mistakes, but complaint-worthy ones? “What is it?” he finally asked. No matter how many times he went over the past few weeks, he didn’t think he’d done anything that bad.

“Listen, I’m not really supposed to tell you the details….”
“Seriously?”
That bad?
“Then why did you bring me back here?”

“Because I’m going to tell you anyway. Just, you didn’t hear this from me if you decide to dispute it. Okay? I don’t want to lose my job.”

Mason made a shuffling motion with his hand. “Of course. I’d never rat you out. What is it?”

“The complaint was filed by a previous coworker. He, um, said you made inappropriate advances toward him, and he felt unable to deal with them because of his position of authority among the staff.”

“Inappropriate advances? Do you mean Dr. Stevenson?” The head of the ER where he’d interned had been sixty if he was a day, and he’d been more the fatherly type to Mason. There had been zero sexual tension between them.

“No, it was a Dr. Powell, I believe. Do you remember him?”

Motherfucking of course. Todd.
“Dr. Powell is my fucking ex, Todd. The one that had me avoiding dating before I met Drew.”

Amy’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.
Asshole.
I should’ve known he’d try to pull something like this if I didn’t take him back.”
“So this is all some power play?”
“Something like that. What’ll happen to the complaint?”

Amy shrugged. “Sexual harassment is a pretty serious workplace charge. I believe you, and I’d back you to the board of directors if necessary, but if you wanted to get a job in a different hospital, it might be a challenge with that in your file. You probably need to fight it.”

“Fuck.” There wasn’t much else to say. Todd had managed to screw with him even when Mason thought they were long done. Todd was probably thinking he’d still found a way to control Mason, even if it was from afar. Sadly, he was right. Mason was safe for the time being, but if Amy ever left the hospital and someone checked his record, he could be in serious trouble. And he could forget getting a job somewhere else unless he disputed Todd’s charges. Getting into it with Todd sounded like the ninth level of hell, but if it was what he had to do, then so be it.

Amy told Mason to get a lawyer, but he had other plans.

 

“
H
EY
, where’s Mason?”

Logan had just let Drew into their apartment. He was picking Mason up for dinner and maybe a sleepover. He didn’t like it anymore when Mason didn’t sleep over. It felt wrong to have his big old bed to himself. Drew thought about how quickly he’d gotten used to having a boyfriend. It was nice, as long as Mason didn’t decide he’d had enough of the old guy. Just the tiny thing of Mason not being home to meet him was enough to make Drew’s stomach flip. Yeah, call it insecurity or whatever, but there it was.

“Oh, he just popped down to the store to buy a few things. He expected to be back before you got here.”

And just like that, Drew felt much better. He felt stupid for making his own damn stomach drop like it had. Mason hadn’t done a single thing. Except he was acting a little odd earlier.

“Is something up with him?” Drew asked. “He sounded different on the phone when I talked to him. Tense.”

Logan shrugged. He was clearly uncomfortable. “He’s going through some stuff with his ex. It’s a little ugly, but I should let him tell you.”

“Ex? Are they getting back together?” Logan made a face. “No, no, no.
God, no.

He’s never mentioned Todd to you?”
“Not really. I knew he had an ex, but I got the
feeling he didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Listen, I’m going to tell you some things, and
I might be the worst friend ever, but I think Mase
needs someone on his side.”
“Of course I’m on his side,” Drew answered.
He would always be there for Mason when he
needed something.
“It’s just that, he never says what he wants, he
just reacts. I’m sure you’ve learned that.”

Drew thought about that first awful date, when Mason was clearly reacting to something that had happened with this Todd guy. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

“So I’m going to tell you a little bit about what went on. Maybe it’ll help. When we first went to college, Mase was premed. He’s wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember.”

“I didn’t know that,” Drew said.
“Yeah, but anyway, he didn’t get the scholarship he’d been hoping for, and his parents

didn’t have the money to pay for all that school, so he dropped out and went to nursing school. He says now that it’s what he wants, and he’s happy, but I’m not sure. It’s so hard to tell with Mase. Even for me.

“When he was doing his internship at Harborview, they stuck him in with this superrich, dreamy surgeon guy. Of course, Mase fell for the douche’s bullshit. Pretty soon, I never saw him because none of his real friends were good enough for Dr. Dreamboat.”

“So he was with someone who was controlling?”
That would explain the blowup over the food….

“Yeah. He was controlling and a total snob. I’m not saying you are anything like this guy, I just want you to know where Mase’s coming from.”

“I get it. Controlling asshole.” Drew did get it. He’d had more than his fair share of those in his life. But what had been going on lately?

“Ye—” Logan cut off when the front door opened.

“Hey, guys,” Mason said with a smile. Drew jumped up and took one of the shopping bags from him before leaning over and dropping a short kiss on his lips. “Thanks, babe. Wanna stick that on the kitchen counter?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll be ready in a few minutes. Just let me change, okay?” Mason skip-walked into his room and shut the door behind him.

“I didn’t tell you any of that,” Logan whispered. “Okay?”
“Of course not,” Drew agreed.
Mason was quiet during dinner, when usually he was the one chattering along while Drew listened and made comments here and there. He didn’t even work up a decent amount of enthusiasm for his enchiladas, when he usually got really excited about whatever dish he’d ordered.

“Is your dinner good?” Drew finally asked.

Mason looked up, surprised, and smiled. “Oh, yeah, of course. It’s great. Do you want to try some?”

“Sure.” By the time he was done chewing, Drew had decided he needed to ask Mason what was wrong, in hopes that Mason would trust him enough to finally tell. “What’s up, babe? You’ve seemed really quiet today.”

“I’m just tired,” he started, then appeared to reconsider. “Actually, I had a run-in with my ex again.”

“He came here? I thought you told him to stay away.”

“No, he didn’t come here. That would’ve been better, honestly. He’s screwing with me because he hates to lose.”

Drew didn’t have a good feeling about what was going to come next. “What did he do?”

Mason huffed into his dinner. “He put a note on my personnel file. I’m now officially written up for sexually harassing my own boyfriend.
Ex
boyfriend. I don’t have a clue what I saw in that asshole.”

“Babe, what do you want me to do?” “Nothing.” Mason gave him a small smile. “I think I can actually deal with this one myself.”

D
REW
was working in his office the next day, or at least pretending to work. His head was in a million other places. Mason’s controlling ex, his dwindling local business, the way he couldn’t stop smiling even with all of that crap happening in the background. It had been hard to say good-bye to Mason that morning, even if they both had to go to work. All he wanted to do was lie in his bed with Mason and talk and kiss and touch. It was too bad that the real—

Drew’s thoughts were interrupted by his phone.

“Hello?”
“Drew? This is Jessica from the nail salon. Listen, it’s not working out with my neighbor doing my payroll.”
I thought it was your niece….

“Anyway, would you mind adding me back onto your client roster?”

Drew knew exactly who was responsible for the call.
Thank you, Mom.
“No, it’s fine, Jessica. I did pick up a new client or two, but I can still make room for you.”

An hour later, the dentist seemed to have come to the same realization about doing his own payroll in house. And the grocery store had rethought using an out-of-town accountant. Things were starting to look up. That was, until he ran smack into Brock on the sidewalk on his way to the grocery store to pick up a salad and an iced tea for lunch.

“Hello, Brock,” Drew said. He might as well say something since his face was nearly buried in Brock’s beefy neck.

 

“Out of my way, faggot.” Brock shoved at Drew’s shoulder.

“Seriously? We’ve known each other for twenty years. Longer. How can who I’m dating really change things
that
much? What about Tally? You idolized him.”

“I don’t deal with fags,” Brock sneered. “And neither do my friends.”

Drew rolled his eyes and started to step around Brock. There was no winning, and he was in too good of a mood to fight. “Have a nice day, Brock.” He went to cross the street toward the grocery store side of Old Main.

“Hey, I know what your mother’s been doing. It’s not going to work. I’ll make sure you go down.”

Drew sputtered. “
Why?
Why do you care if my business fails, why do you care if I’m sleeping with a guy? What the hell does any of it have to do with you?”

“You’re a fucking queer, and that shit doesn’t belong in this town. Even your asshole father agrees with me on this one.”

My father?
Drew refused to believe his dad was honestly in league with Brock.

“Leave me alone, Brock. You and I don’t have to have anything to do with each other.”
“We won’t as soon as you and your fairy friends are gone.”
He shoved Drew into the street. Thankfully it was empty, but Drew jogged across it anyway, as far away from Brock as he could get. It was a threat. He knew it. Empty? Perhaps, but Drew started to think that the only way to deal with Brock would be to give him exactly what he wanted and get out of town.

M
ASON
clutched his phone. He was getting angrier with every second, but he was determined to sound calm.
“Todd, you know damn well I didn’t harass

you. You came on to me. What the hell do you want to make all of this go away?”

 

“Move back up here and go to med school and live with me.”

Mason choked. “That’s all? Just move in with you and let you control my life? I don’t think so.”
“Then you can just be the nurse with the pathetic hard-on for the successful surgeon who got a little too handsy for my comfort.”
“
Todd
. That’s illegal, and you’re fucking with my career. C’mon. What else do you want? I’m not moving back to Seattle.”
Todd was quiet for a long time. “So you’d rather stay in Buttcrack, Nowhere, with an allegation of sexual harassment on your record than get back together with me?” he finally asked.