by Amelia Wilde
“I should take care of this,” he whispered, pulling away and moving into the bathroom.
Lark lay spent on the bed, eyes glued to Mason as he left the room and came back barely a minute later.
He turned the corner and froze, smiling as his eyes met hers. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were ogling me.”
“Ogling is such a dirty word,” Lark drawled, feeling lazy and delicious and so satisfied that if she were a cat she knew she’d be purring. “Admiring is a better one.”
Mason stood with his hands on his hips, obviously not a bit troubled by his own nakedness. “Let me know when you’re done,” he said, executing an end-of-runway turn that should have been hysterical, but wasn’t because he was that perfect.
“I’ve never seen anything like you,” Lark said. “I mean, I knew you were gorgeous, but I had no idea.” She motioned with one lazy hand up and down, including all of Mason’s delectable body. “I’m not sure I’m worthy.”
Mason smile faded. “You’re more than worthy. You’re amazing,” he said, crawling up on the bed to lie beside her, curling his arm around her waist and pulling her close. “You are everything I ever wanted, more than I deserve, and that was the best damned sex I’ve ever had.”
Lark curled into him with a sigh. “Me too.”
“Then I guess we should stick with each other from here on out,” he said, kissing her forehead. “It just makes sense, you know?”
Lark looked up at him, meeting his hopeful gaze. Suddenly, the jolt of fear she’d felt when he talked about buying her a rock for her ring finger seemed ridiculous. Newly rediscovered, unexpected, or not, what she and Mason had was the real thing, the realest thing she’d ever felt—in bed or out of it—and she wasn’t about to pretend she didn’t want this to be forever.
“It is the only thing that makes sense,” she said, shifting in his arms until they were face to face. “The only thing that will ever make sense.”
Mason’s expression softened, and Lark knew he understood what she meant when he said, “Maybe, by this time next year, we won’t need condoms anymore.”
“I don’t think we will,” Lark said with a smile. “Because I think I’m going to want to have your baby as soon as is reasonably possible.”
Mason let out a long, relieved breath. “I am so glad to hear you say that.” He hugged her closer, arms shaking the slightest bit, letting Lark know that this moment meant as much to him as it did to her. “I can’t wait to start a family with you. Our family.”
“Me either,” Lark said, fighting the urge to cry, and losing.
“Don’t cry,” Mason said, wiping the tears from her face with his thumb. “You’re going to make me cry, and I’ll lose all the manly points I gained by making you come twice during our first time together.”
Lark laughed and rolled her eyes. “Manly points.”
“Yes, manly points. One for each orgasm,” he said, squeezing her hip in a way that was both comforting and arousing at the same time. “I’m collecting them. I’m aiming for five by the end of the night.”
“Five?” Lark lifted one brow. “That’s a lofty goal.”
“What can I say, I’m a lofty guy,” he said, hand wandering up to cup her breast in his warm palm. “Who is really, really into your body.”
Lark sighed, but twisted away before Mason could take things any further. She rolled over and slipped off the bed, heading for her purse.
“Where are you going?” Mason asked, sounding so bereft Lark couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m just going to call Aria and let her know I won’t be home tonight,” Lark said, rummaging through her purse. “I don’t want her or Melody to worry.”
“I thought you told them you might be staying at your apartment tonight.”
Lark peeked over her shoulder, blushing when she saw Mason sprawled at the end of the bed, staring at her bare bottom with a rapt expression. “Were you eavesdropping?”
Mason grinned, but didn’t shift his gaze. “I couldn’t help overhearing while I was lingering close enough to the door to overhear.”
Lark laughed. “Quit looking at my butt, you’re distracting me.”
“No,” Mason said, eyes remaining exactly where they were. “I’ve never seen this view before. I’m memorizing it.”
Lark sighed and turned back to her purse, finally emptying it out onto the desk.
There was still no sign of her phone.
“I must have left it in the cup holder in the car,” she said.
“Do you want me to run down and get it?” Mason asked. “I could throw my clothes on and be down and back in a few.”
Lark turned back to him, arms crossed beneath her bare breasts, feeling much less self-conscious in front of Mason than she’d assumed she’d be. “Clothes back on,” she said, with a pout. “That doesn’t sound like very much fun.”
Mason grinned. “No, I didn’t think so either, but I was trying to be nice.”
“You are nice,” Lark said. “But you’re nicest when you’re naked and willing.”
Mason’s grin turned into a delighted smile. “When it comes to you, I’m always willing.” He lay back on the pillows with his arms crossed behind his head, the stirring between his legs supporting his claim.
“Good,” Lark said, padding toward him on tiptoe, eying his nude form with obvious appreciation. “Because this time I think I’d like to be on top.”
Mason’s eyes grew hooded. “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea.”
And it was. And later, as they lay exhausted in bed, still twined together, breathing in perfect sync, Lark let herself imagine waking up this way every morning for the rest of her life. She held the dream close as she drifted off to sleep in Mason’s arms, promising herself that if he didn’t pop the question in the next few weeks, then she would do it herself.
She’d waited long enough for this kind of happiness; she was ready to get started on ever after with the man she loved.
22
Date Six
Lark knew something was wrong as soon as she checked her text messages.
She knew something was really wrong when she called Aria on the way out of the city, and her sister refused to tell her what was happening over the phone.
“Just come home,” Aria said. “We can talk about it when you get here.”
“But I won’t be home for at least an hour. We spent the night in Atlanta,” Lark said, heart racing with worry. “I’m going to drive myself crazy by then. Are Mom and Dad okay?”
“Mom and Dad are fine.”
“What about the baby? And Melody? Are they—”
“Everyone’s okay. Or at least no one is hurt. It’s…something else.” She lowered her voice. “Something I think we’re better off discussing in person. Without Mason around.”
Lark paused, a foul feeling rising in her chest. “Why without Mason?” she asked, not caring if Mason heard. “Mason and I are together now, Aria. Anything you can say to me, you can say to him.”
Aria sighed, a long, sad sigh that did nothing to calm Lark’s nerves. “Just…come home, okay? I’ll be waiting when you get here. Melody took Felicity out to Brian’s place to feed the ducks and pet the horses, so we should have the house to ourselves.”
“All right.” Lark hung up without saying goodbye, too frustrated for good phone manners.
“What was that about?” Mason asked as he pulled out onto the highway, aiming them back toward Summerville.
Lark shook her head. “I don’t know. Aria said she has bad news, but she won’t tell me what it is over the phone.”
“Or with me around,” Mason added, clearly having overheard.
Lark reached out and took his free hand in hers. “You heard what I had to say about that. It’s you and me, and she’s going to have to get used to it.”
Mason gave her fingers a light squeeze. “Don’t worry. Whatever it is, I’ll help. We’ll get through it.”
Together, didn’t need to be
said aloud. Lark could feel it in the air between them, a fact of life as undeniable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.
From the second she opened her eyes to find Mason watching her sleep with a smile on his face, Lark had felt the change in their relationship. There was no more doubt, no more fear, only a deep gratitude and a beautiful peace and a feeling of…lightness that was their love lifting them up and carrying them along, making every step, every breath, easier than it had been before.
They were truly Mason and Lark again, but even more deeply connected than they’d been before. Now that they knew what it was like to lose each other, they were both determined to hold tighter, love harder, and never put their future together at risk again. She was sure of it.
Lark remained sure all the way home to Summerville, and held tight to Mason’s hand as Aria led them to the picnic table behind the house where a blue folder was waiting on top of the freshly stained wood.
It was a harmless looking thing, that folder, but Lark’s pulse raced anyway. Aria hadn’t been in the best mood lately, but she was never one to create drama where there wasn’t any. If she thought Lark was going to be upset about the contents of the folder, then she was probably right.
“Since you wanted to look at it with Mason, I brought it out here,” Aria said, motioning to the folder, refusing to meet Lark’s eyes. She hadn’t looked up from the ground since she met Lark at the door. “I’ll go inside and give you two some privacy.”
“Aria, can’t you just tell me what’s going on?” Lark asked, not wanting her sister to leave for some strange reason. She had been angry at Aria on the way home, but now she just wanted as many people who loved her around as possible.
Aria paused by the back door, casting a sad look at Lark over her shoulder. “I think it’s better that you and Mason do this alone.”
And then she was gone and there was nothing left to do but cross to the picnic table and pick up the folder. So Lark did, her hands shaking as she flipped it open and pulled out a bunch of papers stapled together at the upper left hand corner.
“What is it?” Mason asked from across the table.
Lark shook her head as she skimmed the first page of the document. “I don’t know. It looks like a contract.” She flipped another page. “A rental agreement or something.”
“What?” Mason asked, sounding as confused as she felt. “A rental agreement for what?”
“I don’t…” Lark reached the last page and her words trailed away.
It was a rental agreement for an apartment in New York City. Signed by five men, one of whom was Mason Stewart. She recognized his crooked, scrawled signature immediately.
For a second, Lark thought the document was something he’d signed recently, and her stomach hardened into a knot around the egg and cheese sandwich she’d eaten on the way home. But then she looked at the date next to Mason’s name, and her muscles relaxed with a spasm of relief.
It was an old agreement, dated August tenth, four years ago.
August tenth…
Lark’s stomach clenched all over again. Mason had proposed to her on August fifteenth. Five days after he’d signed an agreement to live with four other boys in New York City. Five days after he’d decided to leave her and maybe never come back.
“What is it?” Mason asked, suddenly at her side though she didn’t remember him circling around the table. “What’s wrong?”
Lark pushed the folder and rental agreement clumsily into his hands and moved away, stumbling a few feet across the patio. Mason followed her, but she lifted one hand, motioning for him to stay back, feeling like she might shatter if he touched her.
“Lark, what’s going on?” Mason asked in a deep, concerned voice. “You’re scaring me.”
“Look at it,” Lark whispered, fighting to speak past the misery tightening her chest.
Mason sighed in frustration, but he finally looked down at the papers in his hand, flipping to the back page, going still when he realized what he was holding.
“How did Aria get this?” Mason asked, his tone oddly flat.
“I don’t know,” Lark said after a moment. “Does it matter?”
“Yes, it matters,” Mason said, scowling as he snapped the folder shut and tossed it back onto the table. “A rental agreement isn’t a matter of public record. I want to know how she—”
“I don’t care!” Lark said, far louder than she intended.
She balled her hands into fists at her sides. “It doesn’t matter,” she added in a wounded voice, a voice like a big, black bruise that was going to take forever to heal. “I think you should go.”
“What?” Mason started toward her, but stopped when she took a quick step back. “Lark, please, this is crazy. There’s no reason to—”
“I’m not crazy. You lied,” Lark said, pointing an accusing finger at his chest.
“I didn’t say you were crazy, I said—”
“You lied,” Lark said again, struggling to maintain control. “You went looking for apartments in Atlanta with me, acting like we were going to move in together like we’d always planned, acting like you loved me, while behind my back you’d already signed a lease for an apartment in New York.”
“Please, Lark. Just listen. Please.” Mason lifted his hands, palms up, in a gesture that said he had nothing hide.
A gesture Lark knew was probably just another lie.
“It was four years ago,” he said. “I told you I was messed up.”
Lark shook her head. “Messed up and confused is one thing, lying to me for almost a week, proposing to me when you were planning to leave for New York the very next day is something else.”
“I didn’t plan to leave the next day,” Mason said, frustration and desperation warring in his tone. “I didn’t plan anything. I was so mixed up, I didn’t know where I was going to go, or what I was going to do.”
“You knew you weren’t going to stay here.”
“No, it wasn’t like that,” he said, driving a clawed hand through his already messy hair. “A part of me knew I wasn’t ready to give you the kind of life you wanted. That’s the part that signed the lease in New York. But the other part of me couldn’t imagine leaving you. That’s the part that went looking for apartments in Atlanta, and the part that proposed. That part couldn’t imagine going off and starting a life without you in it.”
“But you did,” Lark said. “And I had no idea there was a war going on, Mason. You seemed exactly the same.” Lark swallowed the lump rising in her throat. “I’ve been over those days before you left a thousand times, looking for clues that would have told me you were planning to go, but there was nothing.”
“Lark, please—”
“Nothing!” Lark repeated, tears filling her eyes. “Not a single sign. The only thing I could think of was that it was an impulsive, last minute decision. That you ran because you were afraid of marrying me or afraid of moving forward or…something. Just something had spooked you and you’d run without thinking.”
She took a deep breath, making herself meet Mason’s eyes before she continued. “But now I know that it wasn’t impulsive, and that you deceived me in a way I never even imagined.”
“It was four years ago,” Mason said, voice breaking. “Please, Lark…I’m not that person anymore.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Lark blinked, sending the water in her eyes rolling down her cheeks. “But how can I ever know for sure?”
Mason’s breath rushed out. “You can know because you were there with me last night in that hotel room. That was more than just sex, Lark. That was me and you, together, with nothing to hide.”
“That’s not true.” Lark crossed her arms at her chest defensively, not wanting to think about last night. “You were hiding something. That lease proves it.”
“I wasn’t hiding it,” Mason said, his frustration clear. “I’d forgotten about it.”
Lark’s eyebrows shot up. “You’d forgotten that you’d made plans to move to N
ew York and then lied to me about it for a week before—”
“No!” Mason shouted before tucking his head to his chest. “No,” he repeated, regaining control. “I just didn’t think it mattered. That’s part of the past, Lark.”
He lifted pleading eyes to hers. “I’ve already told you I regret the way I treated you back then. That lease and everything else I did are all part of the same, stupid thing. I screwed up; I know that. But I’m not going to screw up again, and that’s the truth. I’m not hiding anything from you.”
“How can I know that, Mason?” Lark asked, voice breaking. “How can I trust a single word you say?”
Mason frowned. “Because you know I’m telling the truth. You knew it last night when we were lying there talking about having kids together.”
Lark shook her head. “We talked about that before. You still left.”
“Please, Lark, it’s not the same,” he begged. “There is no doubt in my mind about what I want. I’m ready to promise my life to you. I want to start a family as soon as we can. I would marry you this afternoon if I could. Everything I’ve said from the moment I came back to town until now is the absolute truth.”
“I’m sorry, but…I can’t trust that,” Lark said, swiping the wet from her cheeks. “I can’t trust you, and without trust this… This isn’t going to work.”
Mason froze for a long, silent moment. “So that’s it? It’s over?”
Lark pressed her lips together until it hurt—refusing to cry again, at least not in front of Mason—and nodded.
“No.” Mason shook his head. “Don’t do this, Lark. This isn’t what you want, and it sure as hell isn’t what I want. If you force me out of your life, we’re both going to regret it. Forever.” He took a careful step closer. “Just…let’s work this out, okay? I know we can. I know I can make it better if you’ll give me the chance.”
Lark hesitated.
Give him a chance.