When Its Least Expected (10 page)

All coherent thoughts were lost as a vision in black and blue leaned against the door
frame.

He stopped breathing.

Time stood still as he took in her form fitting hoody and hip hugger jeans. Man, even

dressed as a boy she looked good, too good. He lifted his eyes and noted the bright
flush of her cheeks as she stared back at him. The ringlets of hair shadowed her pale
features and didn’t do a damn thing other than suffocate him more. God, she really
did look as gorgeous as the ocean.

Frowning to himself, Mason tried but failed to get rid of the annoying thoughts that
said

run
from his head. Instead, he zeroed in on an overtly large hole in the middle of her
jeans on her right thigh. Hell to the no. It wasn’t that white mini skirt she wore
the first night he’d met her, but damn! Seeing any part of her bare skin was enough
to give a seventeen year old boy a heart attack. How in the hell was he going to keep
himself in check with this girl?

“Mason...?” her voice was questioning. He shook his head, once again focusing on her

face, but that just made the situation worse. Those eyes... A dude could seriously
be buried alive in them. Harley Anderson was stunning, and the best part was, she
had not a damn clue. She

hadn’t been touched or burned by the sun. She was natural. She was beautiful.

“It’s good to see you again, little beast.” Mason choked out, the pizza box shaking
under

his trembling fingers. He had to get a grip.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked back and forth between him, and then her brother

but she didn’t respond. David, on the other hand, was in between small bouts of laughter
and all out snorts.

“I’ll see you two love birds later,” David grinned, stealing a slice of pizza from
their box.

Mason glanced at Harley’s face, noting her glaring, narrowed eyes, but adoration was
there too.

Mason understood what that was like, to love your sibling unconditionally but still
be annoyed as hell with them. It seemed to him that he and Harley had yet another
thing in common.

Mason inched closer when they were finally alone. He licked his dry lips before giving

her his most appealing smile. Harley glanced back shyly at him under lashes, bouncing
on the soles of her shoes. Apparently she was just as nervous as he was. For some
reason, that made him smile even more.

“Crappity crap, I’m so sorry,” she gasped, hurrying towards him as if the he was on
fire.

She reached out and grabbed the two huge liters of pop he’d brought. She’d wanted
pop, and he wanted to give it to her.

“Don’t apologize, Harley. It’s pop, not an explosive bomb.” She breathed a quiet,
almost

inaudible sigh, and tuned away from him.

“I’m sorry, I just, uh,” she paused and reached down to grab the ice cream left behind
by

her brother. “I’m nervous.”

“Hey,” Mason cooed, moving in closer, well, as close as a pizza box would allow him
to

get. “Don’t be nervous, okay?” She nodded, and soon he was following her down a hall.
It took every ounce of self-restraint he had not to zone out on the way her tight
little rear moved under her jeans.

Focus dude! Just friends, remember?

He shook his head and looked at everything but Harley’s backside. Pictures along the

wall caught his eye, and he unconsciously fingered the frames with his free hand.
The ones

containing pictures of a brown haired, black eyed little girl held his gaze.

“Don’t even think about it,” she groaned from ahead as he studied one picture in

particular. He chuckled under his breath at the sight of her tucked under a bath of
bubbles. How she knew he was looking at that particular one was beyond him.

“Well,” he paused. His voice went teasing as he glanced down at the picture once more.

“You could have at least taken me out for dinner before letting me see you get naked,
little beast.

I didn’t think you were that kind of girl.” She growled, looking back over her shoulder
with absolutely zero humor on her face. Mason winked at her. Getting under her skin
was so easy.

Harley became quiet as they approached a closed door. Her hand hovered over the knob

as she nibbled at her bottom lip. “Don’t worry, little beast. I know what girls’ rooms
are like.”

He wiggled his brows at her, leaning his shoulder against the wall next to the doorframe.

“Nice,” she laughed harshly, but her shoulders finally relaxed. The tension in the

air ceased. Operation teasing was a success.

She switched on the light in her room, and Mason immediately gaped like an idiot at
the

site. It was beyond impeccable and what his mother would probably have called decadent.

Brightly lit strands of lights were strung from wall to wall, intermingled with those
stick on stars that glowed in the dark. Pictures were everywhere too. Mostly night
sky themed ones with

portraits of her friends and families intermingled.

He walked further in and set the pizza box on her bed, kicking off his shoes as he
studied

the rest of the room. It was decent sized and filled with nothing but white, wooden
furniture. A huge canopy hung over her bed, white gauzy stuff laid over each of the
four posts. Like he’d been in there a million times before, Mason plopped down on
top of her pillows at the top of her bed, throwing his hands behind his head as he
stared over at her wide eyes.

“Yeah, okay. Just make yourself at home then…” she half grinned, her hands twisting
in

the front pocket of her sweatshirt. Yeah, she was still nervous. Maybe Mason was the
first boy she’d ever had in there.

He shook his head. He didn’t need to be wondering about other who might have been
in

there before him. He had no claim over her.

“Will do,” he licked his lips and winked, staring up at her with what he knew was
his

predatory eyes. His gaze was unwavering, solid; she shivered only to turn towards
her dresser, organizing things that were already organized it seemed. Yep, she was
definitely affected by him.

“So, umm, thanks, Mason, for bringing all this stuff, by the way.” Seemingly shy,
Harley

sat down on the bed beside him. One of her trembling hands tucked a lose curl behind
her right ear. Her long, sinful looking eyelashes brushed against her cheek. An obviously
unintentional flirty smile was on her full lips. Mason was so mesmerized by the site
that he could hardly control his words as they spilled from his mouth.

“What happened to your brother, Harley? I mean, what happened to his uh … leg?”

Immediately he squeezed his eyes shut, realizing too late the stupidity of his question.
He sat up with a start. “Wait,” he put a hand up in front of his face. “I’m sorry,
little beast. You don’t have to answer that; I don’t mean to be an ass.” Her replying
smile was tense, and she fiddled with the strings on her hoodie.

“No, it’s okay actually, I figured you’d ask. I just wasn’t prepared to give you an
answer

right now.” She blew out a breath. Her hands shook as she tucked a loose strand of
hair behind her ear. “Fourteen months ago my brother was in an accident on his way
to pick
my
drunk-ass up from an out of town party,” her voice shook. Mason had a weak moment,
almost reaching out for her hand, but she stopped him unknowingly by curling her knees
up under her chin. “He went a different direction to pick me up though, one he wasn’t
used to. I guess he was trying to get to me quicker because I was kind of hysterical
about something.” She looked down at her feet, and swallowed heavily, the movement
drew his eyes to her long neck.

Dude, focus here!

He shook his head, determined to stay as undistracted as possible. Harley was spilling
her

guts, and he owed her a little attention for everything he’d done and said to her
this week. He was also dying to hear her secrets … all of them.

“Anyways, he was driving along on this deserted gravel road outside of town. It was

surrounded by trees on both sides, and quite a ways off the main highway too. He doesn’t

remember much else about what happened that night, except for the fact that he was
looking

down at a text message that I had sent him right before he lost control of the car,”
she cleared her throat, but her eyes were surprisingly dry. “He flipped the thing,
several times actually, before a tree stopped him. The car was smashed … completely,
and his right leg got pinned beneath the wheel just above his kneecap. It snapped
the bone in half.”

She shook her head and looked off towards the door. Her eyes were finally damp. Mason

again struggled to stay quiet, biting the insides of his cheeks as he listened to
her voice quiver as she spoke.

“His leg, it was … I don’t know, unfixable, I guess you could say. He was dying, losing

lots of blood too, so when the EMT and fire department finally discovered he was there,
they had to, um, cut it off. They smelled gas and were worried about the car exploding.
The Jaws of Life machine was apparently out of commission, if you can believe that
one...”

Mason gaped at her profile.
Holy hell
. She turned to him as she wiped her cheeks. “He’s, um, been one legged ever since.”
Without any further self-control, Mason leaned over and

twirled one of her dangling curls around his fingertip. Harley’s eyes widened at the
motion, but she didn’t move.

“Jesus, little beast, I’m so sorry.” The back of his hand fell against her cheek,
taking in the warmth. as he offered her his own version of comfort at the same time.
Her eyes closed, an almost inaudible sigh blew out of her lips.

These were not friend actions by any means, but hell, the need to touch and comfort
this

girl was overtaking every intelligible thought he had inside of his head. He just
couldn’t help himself. “Can you tell me more?”

She turned her body towards his, only to reach over the length of the bed to grab
a slice

of pizza. Mason sighed as his hand fell into his lap, still tingling from the warmth
of her cheek.

He shook it off and mirrored her actions, grabbing a slice before leaning back against
the head of the bed again. She eyed his position against her pillows, and a tiny laugh
escaped her gorgeous mouth. He’d never been so happy to hear it.

“Well, there’s not a lot else to say,” she countered, her voice wasn’t quite as assured
as it was before, “…other than the fact that David wasn’t even supposed to
go
to that party in the first place. He had an away football game the next morning,
so he stayed home to rest. I, on the other hand, couldn’t miss out on it, so I wound
up going and lying to my parents about it. They would never have approved, especially
since the more ‘responsible’ twin wasn’t going to be there.” She scoffed, biting into
pizza. “The only reason David got out that night was so my dumb ass

wouldn’t get in trouble.”

She averted her eyes, but Mason wasn’t done with her. He knew when someone needed
a

push. Maybe he was being an ass for being the pusher, or maybe he’d be her savior
in the end. A push was necessary. “And I suppose you blame yourself, huh?” She snapped
her head up, and

her eyes glowered with irritation. Still, she was silent, wordless. Mason had this
girl tagged, and he wasn’t about to ease up on her. “You have no reason to feel guilty,
Harley. Accidents like that happen all the time.”

Yeah, you know all about accidents, huh?

He looked down at his pizza slice, hating the evil thought that had surfaced. He was
now

a hypocrite apparently.

“It
was
my fault Mason,” her voice was harsh and angered. “I’d been drinking that night and
things just…” She let out an “
ugh
,” slapping her hand against her leg, “…got out of hand, and if I would never had
gone, then none of this would have happened. I screwed up. I
always
screw up! Now because of my idiotic, emotional behavior, Mason has to be legless
for the rest of his damn life.”

She fell back against the bed, throwing her pizza back into the box. Mason frowned
and

lied back next to her, turning onto his side. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, little
beast. I’m sure he doesn’t blame you.

“Sure, Mason, whatever. Like you’d know how it felt anyway.”
Yeah, right, if only she

knew.

“Okay, well, tell me this then. Why doesn’t your brother have one of those prosthetic

legs?”

She huffed and crossed her arms, dipping her chin into her chest. “David likes his
pity

parties too much, and he
refuses
to get fitted for one. He tells us that he
prefers
the wheel chair over walking. I’ve tried like hell to get him motivated and out of
that damn thing, but he just goes to therapy and refuses to do anything other than
work out his upper body.”

She rolled onto her side; her face was only inches from his. He gazed down at her
lips

and then her eyes, damn he loved her eyes. His body responded accordingly to her nearness,
and he gripped his pant leg so he wouldn’t touch her. He held in his breath as their
eyes locked …

held … burned with the intensity of a fire.

Dammit, this wasn’t the time to think guy thoughts.

Two seconds, one seconds … she rolled away and ended the moment, much to his

disappointment. His heart palpitated, and his head was spinning. What was she doing
to him?

“I’m so worried about him, but there’s only so much a person can say or do. It’s his

choice, not mine.” She brought her thumb up to her mouth and bit the nail. Agitation
was written clearly across her face. Guess he’d been pushy enough for one night, but
forgetting something this important wasn’t going to be easy.

Harley must have felt the same way, and he watched as she moved off the bed, only
to