It wasn’t until after fifth period when Logan showed up at my locker. “What was going on with those girls this morning?”
It was amazing. Logan Kade appeared at my locker and most everyone stopped to watch us. I sighed as I exchanged one book for the next one. I’d have to get used to the pull he held over everyone.
I shrugged. “It was nothing.”
“That didn’t look like nothing.”
“Stop, Logan,” I warned. “I have to take care of them. You can’t do this for me.”
He rolled his eyes, cursing under his breath at the same time. “We’re going to have to step in. It’s inevitable. Kate’s a bitch.”
“Logan.”
“You know it, Sam. Stop fighting us and let us help you. You’re going to have to at some point.” A final warning was in his gaze before he took off.
As he did, all heads turned to follow him. As he went one way, Mason passed him coming towards me. The heads turned and followed him instead.
As I waited, watching him come to me, people parted for Mason. He didn’t seem to notice it. His gaze was on me, but I couldn’t stop from watching how people reacted to him. Logan too. They knew when Mason or Logan were around. Even if they didn’t see them, they still moved out of the way. It was beginning to dawn on me how big their near-celebrity status was at this school. Everything they did, people knew. Everything they said, people heard. This shouldn’t have been a surprise anymore, but it was. It was different at their school. It was more than I had experienced before.
As he drew closer, his intensity softened and he gave me a grin. I saw the love in his eyes and it warmed me. Hell, he was becoming like oxygen. I needed him.
“Hey.”
“Hey, yourself,” he murmured, bending down to give me a soft kiss.
I closed my eyes as the usual ache started in me again.
The whispers started around us. They grew to a low buzz, and I started to turn around, but Mason grabbed my chin. His eyes were once again the only thing I saw—everything else started to melt away. He stepped closer, his hand grew gentle on my face, and his thumb started to rub over my cheek. “What happened with Kate earlier?”
“Nothing.” The Kade brothers were consistent. “It’s my fight, Mason. Let me fight it.”
“Sam, come on.”
I felt him now. His arms brushed against me. His stomach flattened and tightened, grazing through my shirt, and his familiar heat started to pull me in. He didn’t have his arms around me, but I still felt sheltered by him.
This was what Mason did. His charisma was so intoxicating, and I couldn’t blame anyone from wanting what I had. I reached up to his face now, feeling the small dip underneath his lips, before it formed his chin, I couldn’t look away from him. Even now, my fingers ached to explore more, to feel his lips, to trace them and then cup the side of his face.
“Hey,” he murmured, stepping even closer. He was almost pressed against me. My fingers fell from his face and down his chest. It felt like a cement wall underneath my touch. My hand fell to his jeans. It caught there and I curled my fingers around one of his loops. Then, feeling desire swirling inside of me, I bit my lip and pushed one of my fingers in the waistband of his jeans.
Whatever he was about to say was forgotten.
“Sam,” he groaned as he turned us so that my back was against the locker. He was against me now. As my finger tucked further down, I felt him harden. The power I had over him was intoxicating. It wasn’t just him. My head fell back against the metal locker, but I didn’t feel it. Everything else fell away. It was only him and me. Nothing else mattered.
My desire for him rose, and I fought against letting it take me over.
My eyelids flitted closed and I felt him bend down. His chest rubbed against mine now and then I gasped when his lips found the corner of mine. He stayed there, sucking lightly, as his other hand slid down to my hip and pulled me tighter against him.
“I feel pregnant just watching you two.”
Breaking apart, Heather was standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, and the corners of her lips curved down. She looked ready to vomit. “Honestly, come up for air every now and then. The masses look ready to riot.”
She jerked her head down the hallway, where Kate and the rest of the Tommy Princesses were.
I sighed, pushing Mason away. “That’s her locker?”
Heather leaned against my neighbor’s locker. “No, that’s Natalie’s. She and Jasmine are only juniors. Kate and Parker are seniors. Good riddance too. I’m ready for their entire group to ship out.”
Still watching Kate and the glower she was sending our way, I shook my head. “She looks ready to kill me.”
“You and me both. I’m not doing what she wanted.”
Mason frowned as he deliberately turned his back to Kate, blocking her view. “She wanted you to do something?”
“She told me to stop being friends with Sam.” Heather shrugged, but I caught the small look of alarm in her eyes. It flared for only a second. “She gave me the warning this morning and Tate, of all people, tried to help me.”
The interest Mason held fell flat now. He straightened from the locker as he ground out, “Don’t believe anything she says.”
“Well, I’m going to believe Kate.” Heather peeked around him, eyeing her warily. “I wonder what she’s going to do.”
“Nothing.” Not if I had anything to do about it. I was getting more and more irritated with Mason’s ex-on-and-off-again hook-up. She hadn’t even been a full-fledged girlfriend. She’d been used only as a scratcher when he had an itch. “I’m not going to let her.”