The Young & the Sinner: An Age-Gap Romance (The Entangled Past Series)

by V. T. Do

  “I just don’t want to think anymore.” I whispered desperately.

  He hesitated for a single moment, and I held my breath, feeling like I was drowning.

  But then I felt his lips on mine, and I was so relieved, I could sob. It felt like I had just taken my first breath after being under water for so long.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in closer to me. Closer and closer, and still, it wasn’t close enough.

  We were on our sides when he kissed me, but then he gently pushed me on my back, and his upper body was on top of mine as he continued to kiss me, softly, reverently.

  I opened my mouth to deepen the kiss, and Mason groaned, the noise causing a vibration between both of our lips that I felt all the way down between my legs.

  I ached for him.

  I needed him more than I needed my next breath, and I wanted more.

  I grabbed the hair by his neck and pulled and felt him come alive beneath my fingertips.

  Mason’s hands moved down my body, exploring every crevice, every curve he came in contact with, leaving a trail of goosebumps in his wake. Then he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in even closer.

  For the longest time, it was just him and me and nothing else in this world mattered anymore. I spent so long trying to make my problems feel insignificant, I was pretty damn tired. But Mason was able to obliterate all of that with a simple touch.

  His hands moved under my shirt, and then he grasped my breasts in his hand, weighing the globes before massaging them.

  I gasped from the sensation, and Mason pinched my nipples between his fingers, tugging.

  “Mason.”

  He kissed me to silence me. When I moved my hands up to touch him, he snatched them gently in one of his big hands and pulled them up over my head. I tried to move them, but Mason’s hold was firm, and I knew he wanted me to keep my hands up there.

  Like this, I was under his mercy. His control.

  I didn’t have to think, because Mason was doing it for me. I relaxed a little and let out a soft moan when he deepened the kiss.

  This was so much better than our first kiss. It was everything, and I didn’t want it to end.

  He made everything feel better.

  Tears fell down the side of my cheeks, and when he felt it, he pulled away quickly.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  I nodded, and smiled, even though he couldn’t see. “I’m sorry. It’s just, everything is better with you.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long while, then I felt him nod.

  Giving me one last kiss, he moved off my body and back to his side of the bed. Then, he wrapped his arms around my body and pulled me to the protective cocoon of his. Exhaustion from the day finally won out, and I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

  32

  Mason

  I didn’t sleep the entire night I was in her room.

  I alternated between watching her sleep and feeling her chest move with every breath she took. I watched the peacefulness on her face, something I was sure had avoided her for months now.

  There was just something off about her during dinner last night. I didn’t know what was going on inside her head, only that there was this devastating heartbreak in her eyes that I wanted to fix.

  She didn’t come to me last night like she usually did. Obviously she wanted to be alone, and I should have left her alone. So far, our nights together have been at her instigation. I supposed it made it easier to tell myself we weren’t doing anything wrong because she needed me to hold onto her at night to keep all the monsters at bay, and I was doing just that.

  And when she didn’t need me to hold her anymore, I should have been able to let her go.

  But I went to her last night. I slept in her bed—a bed I had no business being in—and to make matter worse, I kissed her. Kissed her how I wanted to since our very first kiss.

  I moved my fingers up to my lips. I could still feel her there, hours later.

  I should have held onto my self-control.

  But she had sounded so sad when she asked me to kiss her, and I didn’t have the heart or strength to tell her no.

  The way she had responded to me…

  Jesus, it was like she was made for me.

  I couldn’t get enough of her. Which was exactly why I needed to stay away.

  Carefully extracting my arm out from under her, I climbed out of her bed.

  The sun hasn’t risen yet, but dawn was definitely breaking, letting in enough light for me to take in her delicate features.

  I wanted to crawl back into bed and hold her close.

  But I didn’t.

  Instead, I leaned down and kissed her forehead. She wrinkled her nose a little in the most adorable way, but she didn’t wake.

  And when it felt like I couldn’t possibly walk away from her, I did just that, just to prove to myself that I could.

  I hardly ever spend any time in the break room at work. Mostly because I liked to get my coffee from this small coffee cart just outside the building, and when I do eat lunch, I have my assistant order something for me down the street.

  But today, I needed at least four cups of coffee just to get me through the morning, and I was only on cup number three. Logan caught me in the break room just as I was refilling my cup.

  “Long night?” he asked with a smirk.

  I doubt he fully understood just how long my night was. And I didn’t spend it the way he obviously thought.

  “Didn’t sleep,” I said, taking a small sip of the coffee. I almost checked my watch for the time. I didn’t want to talk with Logan about anything, not with the way I was feeling. I leaned against the counter and watched him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  He adjusted the cuffs of his dark blue dress shirt. He’d long ago gotten rid of his blazer, his muscles budging beneath his shirt. I imagine he only did that because we just hired three twenty-something interns. “I was just wondering when you were going to bring her around.”

  “Bring who?” Gage asked, joining us in the break room. I let out a low groan. This was not what I needed right now.

  “This girl he’s obviously seeing,” Logan answered with a smirk.

  My heart thudded in my chest, even if what he said couldn’t be farther from the truth. “Why do you think I’m seeing someone?”

  “Are you kidding me?” It was Gage who said this. “You’ve been distracted, you don’t hang out with us after work anymore. And I can’t remember the last time you picked up a woman and took her home.”

  “I told you, I’m staying with my brother for the time being. It’s not like I can take some strange woman to his home.”

  “Sure, you can. I doubt he would mind. It’s not like he’s not doing the very same thing.”

  Of course he would say that, because he didn’t know Max.

  Max hadn’t taken any of his one-night stands home in years. Not since Olivia caught his latest conquest leaving the house. He didn’t want to set that kind of example for her.

  And he would probably kill me if I took anyone back to his house. Not that I would, or that I even wanted to.

  Especially since Olivia spent most of her nights in my bed.

  I looked down at my coffee cup, swirling the dark brown liquid around. “I told you about my brother’s living situation, didn’t I?”

  “The girl living with him, you mean?” Logan asked. I nodded, even if Olivia was more than just the girl living with him. She was everything to him, and she was quickly becoming everything to me.

  I shut down that thought as soon as it entered. I had no right to claim her.

  “What about her? Isn’t she off to college?”

  I raised an eyebrow in question. I supposed that would be the most likely assumption. That she would leave home for college. I knew Lizzie was living in the dorm her first year. But Olivia didn’t want to be away from Max. She was dependent on him, more than what was considered normal, but I didn’t se
e anything wrong with her wanting to live at home.

  “She’s attending the University of Chicago.”

  Logan made an approving noise. “Smart girl.”

  Logan and I went to the University of Chicago for our undergrads. But unlike me, Logan stayed in Illinois for law school. We all knew how rigorous the programs were. Hell, our school’s unofficial motto was “Where the fun comes to die.” It told us what kind of students attended the school, but I could still remember some of my wildest night there.

  I smiled. “She’s still at home.”

  Logan’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? Why?”

  I didn’t say anything to that. Olivia’s reasons for wanting to stay at home was nobody’s business. I didn’t need Logan’s quick judgement. He knew what went down over the summer. It was Gage and him defending my case for beating the shit out of Lorenzo. And I would have killed the little bastard if given the chance.

  “So as you can see, it would be a bit problematic to bring anyone home.”

  Logan frowned. “Olivia is what? Eighteen? Can’t you remember when we were her age? She probably wouldn’t be bothered by all of that.”

  I scowled, not liking him putting her in the same category as us. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

  He raised his hands up. “Sorry. Jeez. I didn’t mean to offend.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t be putting Max’s ward in the same category as you. We both know what a slut you are,” Gage said, as he mock-punched Logan on the shoulder. Though he said it in a joking manner, his eyes glinted with something dark. I didn’t know what that look meant.

  Even though I was closer to Gage than anyone else at work, I didn’t know him as well as I knew Logan. I knew there were some things about him that he didn’t want to share, and I didn’t pry. It wasn’t like I was going around advertising about what had happened to me.

  Out of the three of us, Gage was the shortest one, but he was in no way short. Coming in at six-foot-two, at least, he was built like a professional linebacker. With light green eyes and shoulder-length blond hair, he would be considered charming if his default expression wasn’t always a scowl.

  “I didn’t know you were so protective of her,” Logan said, a half-smile on his face.

  I didn’t say anything to that. The truth was, I felt very protective of her, and it was nothing like the way Max felt about her. I knew it. Our stolen kiss yesterday proved just that. And I didn’t like to think of Olivia being just like me when I was her age.

  I was very promiscuous in my late teens and early twenties. And for a barely nineteen-year-old kid who was away from home for the first time… I probably went a little overboard with the partying, and the alcohol, and the sex.

  I grimaced at the thought of Olivia having the same experiences.

  She had always seemed too innocent for that kind of thing. It might make me sound like a bastard for saying so, but I loved how inexperienced she was.

  I loved that shy innocence still in her eyes, especially when she looked at me.

  It was the kind of innocence a man like me would kill to keep. And I didn’t want to be the one to take that away.

  Because I knew of her infatuation with me.

  It would be so easy to get her into my bed and keep her there.

  I both wanted that and didn’t want it at all.

  It was thoughts like this that made me feel like the worst kind of monster.

  Logan took me in, his eyes inquisitive. I didn’t miss the look he shared with Gage. I resisted the urge to squirm. I didn’t need him to look too closely into my feelings for Olivia. Not when I still haven’t quite figured them out yet.

  I took a long sip of my now lukewarm coffee.

  “We’re going out tonight. You should come,” Logan said.

  I tsked. “On a Monday night?”

  “What are we, sixteen? Do you have a curfew I don’t know about?”

  I almost rolled my eyes. “I don’t know. I have a lot of work to do tonight. I’m sure you do, too.”

  He scoffed. “That’s never stopped you before. I remember a time when we went out partying all night and attended our eight o’clock class the next day.”

  “Yes, but you and I are almost pushing thirty. I doubt we have the same stamina we did when we were twenty.”

  “Speak for yourself, old man. I haven’t had any complaints about my stamina.”

  “Yet,” Gage added. I snickered.

  Gage turned to me. “Aside from his fib about his stamina, I think Logan might be right. You should come out with us. Find someone.” He didn’t say it, but the “else” was implied. Find someone else.

  I looked away, avoiding their eyes. I should have known better than try to hide anything from someone who made their living being astute. We were all trained to see what others didn’t say.

  Shame tightened my cheeks. I knew I shouldn’t be thinking these things about Olivia, I shouldn’t have held her in my arms. Hell, I shouldn’t be doing half the things I’d been doing with a teenager.

  I should have been stronger, and now I was afraid it might be too late.

  Was I already in too deep?

  Perhaps it would be a good idea to go out. I hadn’t been out since I moved in with Max and Olivia, and it had nothing to do with my workload. I liked spending time with Olivia. I like eating dinner with her, seeing her laugh at one of her jokes, even if I sometimes didn’t get it, and I liked the way she stared at me when she thought no one was paying attention.

  But I was paying attention.

  I’d been paying attention since the very start.

  I shook out the thought and opened my mouth to answer them, when movement to my left caught my eyes. Caylee, the paralegal who had been here way before I even started, stood near the doorway. She was probably only a few years younger than me.

  Someone age-appropriate.

  Tall and blonde, with baby-blue eyes, she was the exact opposite of Olivia in every way possible. She was someone I should be interested in, yet there was nothing about her that held my attention, despite the fact that she was unbelievably sexy.

  Logan and Gage turned to where my attention was, and I caught a glint of interest in Gage’s eyes. Though I knew his fascination with her was superficial at best.

  “Hey, Mason. I have the case file on IBM you asked for. I left it with Ted.”

  I nodded. “Thanks, Caylee.”

  Her eyes lingered on me for a bit, before she offered a flirtatious smile and walked away, her hips swinging seductively.

  Three set of eyes followed the movements, and though I was looking, I couldn’t find it in me to be interested in those curves.

  “She likes you, man,” Logan said.

  I looked at Gage and he shrugged, as if to show his indifference. That was probably the case, as I didn’t think he was interested in more than a one-night screw.

  “You should ask her out,” Gage said quietly. The message was clear. She was obviously the better choice to date. Olivia was not an option, and the reasons behind that had nothing to do with her age and everything to do with the secret I was keeping from her.

  I nodded.

  I just needed to find a way to forget about the girl with big brown eyes that I could never have.

  Without another word, I walked out of there, moving in the direction I last saw Caylee.

  33

  Olivia

  Mason wasn’t avoiding me like he had done after the first time we kissed, but there was this distance between us in the days after.

  I still spent my night in his arms, and he would always hold me, but when morning came, the distance was back, and I didn’t know how to close it.

  We hadn’t kissed again, but I wanted to. And sometimes, I caught him staring at my lips like he wanted to, too, but he didn’t say or do anything about it.

  It was… frustrating.

  Was what we were doing so wrong that Mason felt guilty over every stolen moment between us? Or was I, like society said,
simply too young to know better?

  I didn’t think I was. I knew what I wanted, and I knew how I wanted it. I wanted control over my own body, especially after what happened with Lorenzo. With Mason, it felt possible. It felt like I held all the power in the palm of my hand when I made myself vulnerable to him, and I didn’t want that feeling to go away.

  I was beginning to fall for Mason in the deepest way possible, and I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to fall further and see where this went.

  Five days after our kiss, I walked downstairs to find Mason dressed up for the evening. But he wasn’t dressed up for a work event—no siree. He was dressed more casually, like for a social event. But the way he styled it told me it was more than just drinks with friends. The jerkface was going on a date.

  He wouldn’t even meet my eyes down in the living room. He had been sitting on the couch, texting someone on his phone when I came downstairs, so I took a seat at the other end of the couch.

  I wasn’t dressed up at all. It was Saturday and I had been in leggings all day.

  I felt like a slob then, and I suddenly didn’t know what I should do with my hands. I crossed my arms over my chest and tucked my hands in my armpits.

  Max came in, his eyes taking us in. He must have felt the tension as well. “Hey, is everything okay?”

  I wasn’t sure who Max was talking to, but Mason answered him. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?”

  Max shrugged. “So, where are you going tonight?”

  And even though I didn’t want to, I paid attention. I wanted to know his answer.

  “To Rocket’s,” Mason answered casually. But there was nothing casual about his posture. An uncomfortable feeling took residence in my chest, and it took me a moment or two to figure out it was because I was hurt.

  We had never even been on a date. No, we had only kissed twice, and I spent most nights in his arms, but now he was going out with someone else. That was an asshole move.

  Max nodded, completely unaware of my inner turmoil. “That’s a good place for a first date. Nice enough, casual enough.”