City of Sin (15 page)

"I'm going to steal her away now," Mason said and wrapped
his arm around my back again.

I almost jumped when he touched me.

"It's always a pleasure," Mason said to Penny.

"Always," Penny said. "It was really nice to
meet you, Bee. And get Mason to give you my number." She looked back over
at Mason. "Next time you come over, you're bringing her."

"I think I can arrange that," Mason said.

"It was nice to meet you, Bee," James said and
stuck his hand out to me. "Like Penny said, you're welcome to our home
anytime."

I shook it.
How does Mason have such nice friends?
James and Penny seemed so normal. Everything I knew about Mason was anything
but normal.

Mason

I steered Bee away from James and Penny. "You seemed to
hit it off with Penny. Were you reminiscing about the University of New
Castle?"

"A little. Are you not speaking to your parents?"

I pulled away from her slightly, but kept my hand on her hip.
Damn it, Penny.
"We had different opinions on how my future was
going to play out."

"How are we here, Mason? How do you afford all these
nice things?"

I pulled her onto the dance floor and grabbed her waist.
"What do you mean? I have a good job."

"I know you have a good job. But all this?" She
looked around the room. "And you're saving up to start your own ad agency
on top of everything else."

"Yeah. I am. So what?"

"What money did you buy this dress with?"

"My money?" What the hell was she getting at? I
grabbed her hand, spun her, and then pulled her in even closer than before.

"Could you only afford this because of people who paid
you for...services?"

I laughed. She had to be kidding. Of course that's how I
bought her that dress. And I wasn't sure why she was upset about it. She looked
fucking fantastic. But I'd tell her what she needed to hear.

"Okay," I said. "No, I'm not talking to my
parents. But they're the only reason why we're here right now. They gave me the
tickets." It was true. My parents donated money every year under Matt and
my names. That's the only reason I had tickets. I didn't originally tell her
that because she seemed to be eating up this good guy nonsense. It was a good
charity. And I was glad it was under my name. I needed the good karma.
"What, are you only with me for my inheritance?"

Her face blushed. "No. Of course not. I just wanted to
make sure Patrick didn't buy me this dress."

Oh.
So that's what she was upset about. She knew I
took money from her ex. But Patrick hadn't given me nearly enough money to pay
for what she was wearing. And that was an awfully pessimistic way of looking at
it in the first place. "Would it make you feel better if I told you I
still got money from my old man?" I didn't. But she didn't need to know
that. What little money I did have left from him was dwindling fast.

"No. I don't know. Yes?" She looked so flustered.
But she kept her hands clasped behind my neck. She wasn't trying to run out on
me again.

"Bee." I touched the side of her face. "I
bought you this dress. Because I really like you. And I wanted to come here
tonight with you. I don't want to talk about my parents or Patrick. I want to
focus on us. Because I'm really loving
us
."

"I'm really loving us too."

Of course you are.
"And since you're a gold
digger, you'll be happy to know that one day I will inherit millions from my
parents." As of right now, I wouldn't. I was sure they'd come around once
I started my own successful company though. "But at that point, I'll
already have millions of my own." At least that was the truth. Because I'd
do anything to make it happen. Except for following Matt's advice. I wouldn't
use Bee for information. That was where I had to draw the line.

"I'm not a gold digger, Mason."

"I know. At least, I hope you like me for more than my
money." I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"I like you for a lot of reasons," she said.

"You do, huh?"

"I'm here, aren't I?"

Shit.
She remembered last night perfectly. What else
had I said?

"Ladies and gentleman." There was a stage off to
the right of the dance floor and the president of St. Sabela's Children's
Hospital had just taken the microphone. "As you all know, without all of
your generous donations, we would not be able to continue the groundbreaking
research that gives children the chance to be children. The gift that you have
endowed is impossible to put into words. So I'm not going to bore you with a
long speech."

Everyone laughed.

"Without further ado, it is with great pleasure that I
announce that dinner is served. Here's to a fun night."

There was a loud smattering of applause.

"Shall we?" I said. "Or are you planning on
sprinting out the door?"

"I think I'd rather stay."

"I was hoping that would be your answer." I
reluctantly let go of Bee's waist. I liked the feeling of her hips beneath my
hands.

She looked up at me with her beautiful brown eyes as she
unwound her hands from the back of my neck. I grabbed her hand and lead her
over to table three. Matt was already sitting there, staring at us. I knew he
was about to embarrass me, but I was still excited to introduce Bee to him. It
had been a long time since I had introduced a girl to someone in my family.

"By the way, you're about to meet my brother."

She smiled. "Which one is he?"

"The one that's almost as handsome as me."

"I call you handsome one time, and now you're all
conceited about it."

I laughed and stopped next to Matt's seat. "Bee, this is
my brother, Matt."

"It's nice to finally meet the girl that my brother is
so infatuated with."

I would have been pissed at him, but Bee seemed to be pleased
by what he said. Maybe Matt wouldn't try to ruin this for me.

"You're just as pretty as the pictures," Matt said
and put his hand out for Bee.

"Pictures?" Bee glanced at me.

"Yeah. You do realize that my brother is stalking you,
right?"

What the fuck, Matt?

Bee laughed.

Apparently she thought Matt was joking. Which was good.
Because I was borderline stalking her.

"Is he a serial killer too?" Bee asked. "He
kinda has that serial killer vibe to him."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I said.

"Nope, he's not a serial killer. Just a stalker,"
Matt said. "That dress looks amazing on you by the way. Much better than
on the mannequin."

"Thanks." Bee's cheeks looked rosy as she glanced
up at me again. "You two go shopping together? That's cute."

"Cute? I wouldn't classify us as cute." This girl
was getting the wrong impression of me. I needed to turn this thing around. I
pulled her seat out for her and put my hand on the small of her back.

"Thank you," she said and sat down. I pushed her
chair in and sat down in between her and Matt.

"So you work at Kruger Advertising?" Matt said.
"Tell us all about that."

Shut the fuck up.
He was fishing for information that
I didn't want. He was going to ruin this whole thing for me. And I was so
close. I was hours away from claiming her pussy. Matt was not going to screw
this up for me.

"There isn't much to tell," she said. "I'm
trying to work my way up, but right now I'm just a secretary. It's not exactly
exciting work."

"I'm sure that's not true. Secretaries are the heart of
the company. What account is your team currently working on?"

"Oh. Um." She frowned slightly, but then smiled, dismissing
whatever reservations she had. "It's this body wash account. The marketing
idea Kruger Advertising came up with is actually really dumb. They're
partnering up with some news segment in Florida. I mean, don't tell anyone I
said that." Her face turned slightly red again.

"What news segment?" Matt asked.

I kicked him under the table.

"Fuck," Matt said, and grabbed his shin under the
table. He shot me a nasty look.

"Are you okay?" Bee asked.

"Yeah." Matt let go of his leg. "I'm just
super hungry. Where the hell is that food they promised?"

Bee picked up the glass of wine in front of her and took a
sip. She looked uncomfortable. I had this whole night planned out. Wine her,
dine her, and then make her get on her knees and beg for my cock. Nothing was
going to distract me from the end game. I put my hand on her knee and slowly
traced my palm up her thigh. I heard her gulp. I was starting to wish I had
bought her a shorter dress.

Bee

Mason had kept his hand on my thigh the whole time I was
eating. And it was very distracting. The food was delicious, but all I could
think about was his hand. I wanted to be alone with him. But I didn't know how
to bring it up. When I had tried to invite him up to my place last night, he
had rejected me. Maybe the dress and the makeup would make him say yes. I
couldn't stop thinking about our first date. I wanted to pick up where we had
left off. And every day it didn't happen, I wanted it more and more.

He was starting to get a 5 o'clock shadow. He had loosened
his tie slightly so that he looked a little more casual despite his tux. I ran
my thumb across my ring finger. I was definitely ready to move on. And despite
all the things I didn't know, I found myself falling for Mason. Penny was
right. Sometimes you just knew. And I knew I wanted Mason. I just hoped he
wanted more than just sex. Tonight was kind of the reassurance I needed. He had
introduced me to his brother and one of his best friends. If he just wanted a
one night stand, I wouldn't be here right now.

Mason stood up and put his hand out for me. "May I have
this dance?"

I smiled up at him. "Of course." I put my hand in
his and he pulled me to my feet.

It was a fast paced song. I laughed as he crossed one of his
feet over the other and spun around.

"Are you laughing at my sweet dance moves?"

I laughed again as he did another move that had to be
straight out of the handbook for dorky dancing. "I didn't realize you were
a terrible dancer."

He laughed and grabbed my hand. "Luckily I'm with you so
no one even notices me."

"I'm sure that isn't true."

The song switched to a slow paced one. He pulled me to his
chest and placed his hands right above my ass.

"It's definitely true. You're the most beautiful girl
here, Bee."

The way he was looking at me made my heart beat quicken.
Kiss
me!
Instead of answering my silent plea, he just stared down at me. I was
very aware of his hands on my back. They seemed to slide a fraction of an inch
lower. He slowly raised his left eyebrow.

I swallowed hard. Did he want me to ask him? It seemed like
he said he wanted to take things slow out of respect for me. He was just being
nice. But I didn't want him to be nice anymore. I wanted him to be like how he
was that first night. I wanted him to say what was on his mind.

"What do you want, Bee?" He ran the tip of his nose
down the length of mine. But his lips avoided mine again. "Tell me what
you want."

I wanted unspeakable things. And I was too embarrassed to ask
him. "What do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious? I want you." He leaned down and
placed a soft kiss against my lips.

I grabbed the back of his head and immediately deepened the
kiss. I had missed the taste of him. And the tingly feeling he gave my body. I
loved the way he kissed me. It made me feel like I was floating. I was vaguely
aware of the fact that his hands had slid down onto my ass. But I didn't care.
I loved his hands as much as his tongue. I ran my fingers through his hair and
made out with him in the middle of the dance floor. Just like I had always
dreamed about doing during high school dances when no one even asked me as
their date. And I didn't care that people could see us.

He seemed to pull back far too soon. "It's impossible to
control myself around you." He squeezed my ass before moving his hands
back up.

"I don't want you to control yourself around me
anymore."

He seemed to study my face for a second. "How about I
give you that tour of my place?"

"Okay." Showing me his place was just a nice way of
asking for sex, right? I hoped so. I wasn't sure how much longer I could wait.
I was done taking things slow. It was time to move into the fast lane and press
my foot down on the gas.

He grabbed my hand and led me off the dance floor. "I'm
going to go get our coats. I'll be right back." He dropped my hand and
walked toward the doors. God was he sexy. I folded my arms across my chest as I
watched him walk away.

"You always looked beautiful in those earrings."

The blood in my body seemed to freeze. I'd recognize his
voice anywhere.
Patrick.
I turned around. I hadn't seen him in person in
a few months. His hair was different. He looked good. He certainly seemed to be
handling the breakup better than me, at least before I met Mason. But then
again, Patrick wasn't the one who's heart had been broken. He had done the
breaking.

I blinked hard. For some reason, seeing him made me want to
cry. All those memories of us seemed to flood back. It was like ripping off a
Band-Aid too soon. Maybe my wound wasn't healed yet. But he wasn't the same
person that I loved. I didn't even know him anymore. It was like looking at
someone I loved and looking at a complete stranger at the same time. And I
didn't know what to say to him. I wasn't going to thank him for a compliment,
that was for sure. I didn't want to speak to him at all.

"You look amazing, Bee."

"Thanks."
Damn it! He doesn't deserve my thanks!

"Do you want to dance?"

"No. I'm here with someone."

"Oh."

"What about you?" I didn't really want to know the
answer. But at the same time I did.

"Yeah." He looked over his shoulder. "My
girlfriend just went to the restroom."

Girlfriend?
"That's great. I'm happy for
you." I wasn't happy for him. Is that why he had come over here? To tell
me he was dating someone else? My chest was starting to hurt. This dress was
too tight. It was growing hard to breathe. I wanted to walk away but my feet
seemed stuck in place. There were so many things I still wanted to say to him.

He gave me a small smile. "I still miss you. I think I
always will."

"Don't, Patrick."
Why is he doing this to me?

"I'm just telling you the truth."

"I didn't realize you were capable of telling the
truth."

"Bee..."

"You don't get to say that you miss me, Patrick. That's
not fair. You're the one that messed this up. You don't get to miss me now. Not
when you didn't like being with me when we were together."

He stared at me. "You know that's not true. I loved you.
You know that."

Loved.
Past tense. "You should probably get back
to your girlfriend. Or are you just talking to me because you're hoping you can
cheat on her too?"

Patrick laughed. "I just wanted to see how you were
doing."

"I'm good. No, I'm great. I've never been happier."
I was having trouble holding back my tears now. I blinked faster.

"I'm glad that you're happy."

"Are you?"

"Of course I am. I still care about you."

Fuck you!
"If you cared about me, you wouldn't
have betrayed me."

"I didn't betray you. I made a mistake."

"A mistake is something you make once, Patrick. It's not
something you make dozens of times."

"I told you I was sorry. I don't understand why you
won't forgive me."

"Because I loved you. Your betrayal hurt so much because
I loved you so much."

"I know. But I'm not doing that anymore. I just don't
understand why you wouldn't give me a second chance."

"Because it was more than one time. You had a million
chances to tell me the truth. We were engaged, Patrick. If I hadn't found out,
you would still be doing it. And we'd be married."

"That's not..." He sighed. "I would have
stopped. I have stopped."

"That's great. I'm happy for you and your new
girlfriend. Hopefully that'll work out better for you."

He ran his hand through his hair. "We're not even
serious. It's not like she's you."

"Well, sorry." I hated him. I hated him for saying
he missed me and pretending he cared about how I was doing.

"I miss you," he said again. "I miss what we
had."

I wiped underneath my eye where a tear had finally escaped.
"What we had wasn't real."

"That's not true. You know that's not true."

"You really should get back to your girlfriend."

"Let's get out of here," he said, ignoring my
comment. "Maybe we can walk through Central Park and talk? I know how much
you love that."

I wanted to slap him. He never offered to go to Central Park
with me when we were actually together. "No. I told you, I'm here with
someone. We've already talked about all of this. It is what it is. We don't
have anything else to talk about."

"I think we do. You don't seem fine, Bee. And I'm not
fine either. You're all that I think about. You're my other half."

"Give me a break. You're so full of shit."

He grabbed my wrist. "Let's just go somewhere quiet to
talk. You can see my new place..."

"You have a girlfriend. What is wrong with you?" I
pulled my wrist out of his grip.

"Fine, I'll go break up with her first. Would that make
you feel better?"

"No. It would make me feel better if you stopped talking
to me. I don't want to be having this conversation. I don't want anything to do
with you."

"Come on, Bee. I still think we can work this out."

"We can't."

"You keep saying that. But you're not really telling me
why."

"Do you remember when we first moved here? And how
nervous I was? It was so different from what I was used to."

"Yeah. I do."

"And remember what you said to me? You said that when
you were with me, you felt like you were home. That meant the world to me. And
then you promised me that the city wouldn't get in our way. You promised."

"And I said I was sorry. I'm different now."

"I know. I'm very aware of that. Because the guy I fell
in love with promised me he wasn't going to run off. He said he loved me with
everything that he was. And he said he'd never leave me." I was crying
now. I hated remembering how sweet he was. Because I didn't understand how that
person had disappeared. It felt good to finally get that off my chest. It
wasn't just about the cheating. It was about breaking his promises. That almost
stung more. I might have been able to forgive the cheating. But I couldn't
forget his broken promises.

"I didn't leave you, Bee. You kicked me out."

"Because you cheated on me. And when I found out, I
realized that your promises were all empty. And I don't trust you. I'll never
trust you again."

"Bee?" I felt Mason's hand touch the small of my
back. "Is everything okay over here?"

I rubbed my eyes with my palms to remove my tears. "Yes.
Patrick was just leaving."

"You've got to be kidding me," Patrick said as he
glared at Mason.

"Nice to see you again," Mason said and nodded at
Patrick.

Patrick turned back to me. "You're seriously not giving
me a second chance, but you're sleeping with a guy like him?"

"That's none of your business," I said.

"You think I'm bad? Do you have any idea who this guy
is? What he does?"

"I know that he's nice to me. And that he likes spending
time with me. Which is a lot more than I can say about you."

"You're so gullible, Bee. This guy is a piece of shit.
He's just using you. And if you're okay with that, then you've changed
too."

Using me? Using me for what?
Sex?
I looked up
at Mason. He looked so mad. Was he hiding something else from me?

"You're mad at me for what I did. But that's all he
does," Patrick said. "He's the one you should be mad at. Not me.
Don't you see that? He's the one that ruined us."

"How about you step back, man," Mason said.

"Make me." Patrick grabbed my wrist again.
"Let me take you home."

"Don't touch me, Patrick." I pulled my arm away
from him. "I'm not going anywhere with you. You can't blame what happened
between us on Mason."

"Come on." Patrick grabbed my wrist again.
"You have to trust me on this."

Mason shoved his chest. "She asked you not to touch
her."

"Mason." I put my hand on his arm. I didn't want
them to fight. God, this whole thing was ridiculous. People were starting to
stare at us.

"What, like she's yours to touch?" Patrick said.

"Yeah. She is mine. So fuck off." Mason sounded so
mad.

"You think that guys like him date girls like you?"
Patrick laughed. "He doesn't even date. He's a womanizing asshole. Don't
you see that?"

Girls like me?
The only person that could make me feel
worse about myself than I could was Patrick. His insults had always hurt me the
most. I thought maybe it would be easier to hear now that I wasn't in love with
him. But it still hurt. Lots of people were staring at us now. Mason had
invited me to this extravagant thing. And Patrick was right. I didn't belong
here. I was embarrassing Mason and myself.

I opened my mouth to say something, but there was nothing
left to say. I just needed to get out of there. I turned around and ran toward
the exit.