Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-One
Mason was strangely refreshed that Annie didn’t try to bog him down with sympathy, platitudes, or probing questions about his feelings or his complex family dynamics.
He liked a woman who was self-possessed, and despite being as damaged as she was, she was one of the strongest women he had ever met.
Hell, make that the strongest person, he had ever met.
“What?” He blinked down at her now, trying to process what she was telling him.
“Your mother...” Annie lowered her voice as she glanced around. “She knows that we’re faking! Told me so in the parlor thingy just now. She says this was all just a setup to see if you’d rise to the bait. I’m sorry, Mason, I tried to salvage things as best I could, but I don’t think...”
Annie cut herself off, though, and began to frown at him for he had begun to smile then even chuckle in a warm, easy kind of amusement.
“What’s so funny? Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Annie’s frown deepened with every word she spoke.
###
“Angel...” he slowly reached out to guide a wisp of my hair back behind my ear. It was an act of trust that I stood still and let him.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault my mother is too clever for her own good. Don’t you see? If it was rigged from the start then we’re all the fool and none of it matters anymore. I hereby release you from your fake girlfriend duties. Not to say that I’ll stop training you, I’m a gentleman, after all, and I will keep my word.” He said with mock formality.
I smiled softly, feeling a warmth begin to creep up under my flesh as I eased closer to him.
“What if I don’t want to be released?” I asked him huskily, wrapping my fingers in the front of his dinner jacket to pull him down to me.
Even in my heels, I had to go up on tiptoes to press my mouth to his.
Mason was so surprised that he let me.
###
I came to my senses a moment later and realized what I was doing.
We had just had our first kiss, in front of all these random people.
Blushing furiously, I stepped back from him, my eyes opening in time to see him open his.
He stared down at me, and to my distantly removed satisfaction, I saw that he looked about as flushed and breathless as I felt.
“I’m-I’m sorry.” I said, taking another step back from him. “I just mean, we can still salvage this. You’ll get your gym, Mason, I promised I’d help you and I will keep my word, as well. Are you implying that I’m not the lady to your gentleman?”
Mason flushed even darker now beneath his tan.
“Annie.” He said in protest, but I turned and hastened away before I could make any more of a fool out of myself.
I pressed my hand to my lips as I went.
What had I just done?
###
As I was striding blindly along, I came into a wide, deserted corridor. Deserted except for two people, arguing in low voices at the end of the hall.
I lifted my head and stopped in my tracks to see Colter Blacksteele’s back to me once more.
Mina was looking up at him, eyes wet, lips trembling.
They were clearly having a fight and I almost turned around, embarrassed. But then Colter went on his way, leaving Mina there crying on her own and I couldn’t just walk away.
###
“Hey. You alright?” I slowly approached, no doubt with a grimace on my face.
She was sniffing and wiping at the undersides of her eyes as she turned towards me. “Oh, hey. Sorry...you had to see that. We-we’ve been having problems lately.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that.” I said, feeling awkward and not sure what to do with my hands. “I’ve never been married so I wouldn’t know what you’re going through...”
“He had to leave early.” She went on, clearly distracted by her own thoughts. “He’s always doing that. Ditching me at these stupid parties and everyone feels sorry for me, oh, it’s just awful. And now you know and you feel sorry for me, too!” She began to really break down and had to hide her face in her hands.
“No I don’t!” I tried to hastily reassure her. “I was much too busy feeling sorry for myself just now, actually.”
She was inconsolable, though, so I gingerly put an arm around her, then helped her find her way into another side parlor.
This one was a little more interesting, as well as welcoming, with hunter green walls and shelves upon shelves of old, sweet smelling books. There was an ornate fireplace and many leather armchairs; all overstuffed, of course.
I helped her down into one of these chairs and soon she had recovered herself, proper east coast lady that she was.
“I-I think he’s having an affair.” She then confessed to me, and I felt myself go white.
“What? N-no, surely not!” I stammered.
“He’s just been so distant lately, so impatient with me. Even when we make love...it’s like he’s not really there with me. You know?”
I didn’t know what to say, but luckily she didn’t seem to need me to.
“I’m sorry.” She said, shaking her head and smiling awkwardly.
“I don’t mean to dump all this on you, we’ve only just met.”
“And I’d already like to call you friend.” I reached out impulsively, determined to comfort her, and clasped one of her little hands in mine.
God, she was soft and delicate; she felt so breakable, and I couldn’t imagine any man who wouldn’t want to protect her, even from himself.
Colter Blacksteele was certainly handsome, imposing, and I was getting the impression that he was both short-tempered and short-sighted.
I felt for Mina, I truly did, because I could tell how desperately in love with him she was and it reminded me of someone.
Mina squeezed my hand in gratitude and we smiled into each other’s faces. “Thanks.” She said. “I’ll be okay. I just...I love him so much, you know? I don’t wanna lose him, I couldn’t bear the thought...”
“It’s gonna be okay.” I fed her the empty words because I didn’t know what the hell else to say. “Thanks again for your help with my hair and picking out the dress...and look, if your husband is the man you seem to think he is, then hopefully he’ll wake up soon and see what he has in you. You’re a sweet, charming, intelligent, talented, beautiful young woman and you deserve to be absolutely adored like a princess.”
Mina blushed a bit at this. “Thanks, Annie. And I think I would like it very much...if we were friends.”