When Its Least Expected (12 page)

Then he had to vamoose, because let’s face it, her brother was one scary guy, even
one

legged and in a wheel chair. Mason liked his face. It didn’t need rearranging any
time soon. But Harley’s hate-filled ‘get outta my room’ was not exactly what he had
hoped to receive for a goodnight or a goodbye.

The absolute last thing Mason could concentrate on today was advanced chemistry,

especially when Harley was sitting so seemingly relaxed in front of him. The lingering
scent of strawberries and chocolate filled the air, and it was just enough to drive
him wild, insane with need for her. It had gotten so bad that he literally had to
grip the edges of his desk, just to keep himself from smothering his nose into her
neck.

He moved his hands to ring them together under his desk, and he leaned forward to

whisper in her ear, unable to fight the pull any longer. His breath was frantic as
he struggled to stay in control. “Harley?” he cooed. She jumped, about a foot out
of her chair. Tiny, familiar goose bumps appeared along the backside of her neck.
Obviously her cool façade was just an act.

He smiled. His little beast still wanted him ... oh yeah.

“Are we going to talk about what happened?” Obviously the timing was off, but Mason

couldn’t keep it together any longer. He had to hear that sweet little voice of hers
again. He’d missed it way more than he should have been allowed to.

“No, Mason, we’re not. Now stop … smelling me!” she spat with a deep, throaty bark.

He grinned harder. So they were back to that stage again?

“Yes we are, little beast, and we’re doing it … tonight after school. I’ll meet you
in the

parking lot by your car.” Mason leaned back in his seat, a huge ass grin spread across
his face.

She stiffened. This girl was
so
not getting away from him as easily as she probably would have liked to do.

The bell rang before she has a chance to respond, and Mason took off out the door,
not

planning on giving her the liberty to say “screw you.” With an extra skip in his step,
he made his way towards his locker, but something a few feet ahead of him caught his
eye. He blinked,

making sure he wasn’t seeing things. Nope, that douchebag Toby was still there, towering
over some girl in a secluded corner of the hall. His hands were everywhere on the
girl’s body, and she squirmed under his hold. Shit, he was going to have to do something,
and he’d been in such a good mood too. He slammed his locker shut with a groan.

He narrowed his eyes, watching the wannabe player hit almost all the bases and then

some in period of two minutes. Why wasn’t anyone saying anything? The girl didn’t
seem

completely defenseless at least, but Mason had a hero complex that wouldn’t cease.
He didn’t like Toby, so that’s all it took for a decision to be made.

“Toby, my man, what’s up?” Mason slapped him across his upper back, probably a little

harder than necessary. Scratch that, it wasn’t hard enough, especially if he was still
standing.

Toby turned and glared at him. The dude was creepy.

“What do
you
want, pretty boy?” Mason zeroed in on his victim, and the relief in her eyes was
evident. She slipped away without looking back.

Good girl…

“I just wanted to see how you were, man. I’m guessing pretty good and all, seeing
as

though your hands were pretty busy with that little blonde.” Mason fought an angry
smile.

Nobody called him ‘pretty boy’. Nobody…

Mason leaned casually against a locker, arms crossed over his chest, chin held high.
Toby

practically snarled in obvious irritation. Standing up to the prick probably meant
war, but Mason was geared up for battle because he was so done with the bastard.

“Yeah, I was doing
really
well … until your punk ass came along. What the hell is your problem?” He poked Mason
in the chest. The guy had a few inches on him, but Mason had

moves the dude couldn’t even imagine.

The adrenaline in his body began surged through his veins feeding him like a familiar

drug addiction that he didn’t even realize he’d missed.

Backing down was not an option anymore.

Mason moved forward without another thought, inhaling the stench of cigarettes and

nastiness that accompanied the freak. He almost reached into his pocket to grab a
piece of gum, but smart ass Mason didn’t want to play.

Evil Mason did.

Mason cocked his head to the side, one side of his mouth lifted in a sadistic grin.
“My

problem man … is
you
!” Mason paused and lifted a finger, playing a secret game of eeny-meeny-miny-mo as
he tried to figure out which bone he was going to demolish on the guy’s face first.
Toby must have read his signals because in the blink of an eye, he had Mason pinned
up against a locker, an arm pressed across his neck.

Mason’s eyes clouded over with rage, “I’m gonna kick your ass so hard, you’ll
never
be able to feel it again.” Mason threatened him through gritted teeth while Toby
pushed against his larynx harder and threw his head back in laughter. The guy had
the balls to look over his

shoulder and glance at their gathering audience.

“Number one rule in a fight, Toby my man,” he growled, even though his breath was

limited. “
Never
look away from your opponent.”

Mason found his inner demon, and he pushed him out. The entire crowd around them

gasped like fools as Mason pushed Toby hard onto the floor. He smirked … the dude
had been

warned him...

Toby grimaced, attempting to sit up, but the process was slow.
Pussy …
“Whatever, you freak. You’re too much of a pansy to lay a hand on–”

Everything turned to chaos, and Mason’s vision blackened. He had no time to think
as his

body and mind split into two different directions. The sane and the insane. Fists
connected with eyes, knees collided with guts. Mason made it known with his hands
that he wasn’t to be messed with.

Toby grunted and curled over in a ball on the floor. “
Get up! Fight, you wussy!”
the crowd around them chanted.

“
Fight-fight-fight!”

All Mason saw was red and the sweat that began to cloud over his eyes. He was going
to

finish him, bury him so deep into the ground that he’d never again see the light of
day. More adrenaline poured through Mason’s body as his foot kicked against hard ribs,
or was that a head?

Shit, he didn’t know. He didn’t care. Not even a tiny pair of hands that struggled
to pull him back could keep the rage away. All his anger, all his stress from the
past seven months was unleashed on this surge of physical rage.

“Mason! Stop!” Feminine hands scratched at his shoulder. He shoved them away, but

they came back with vengeance. “Stop! Please, just stop!”

The intruder was next, female or not. He was in a zone, and
nobody
had the right to end it but him. “Please, Mase!” He stiffened. That voice … he knew
that voice.

He spun on his heels, and immediately soft strawberry scented hands cupped his cheeks.

He inhaled and closed his eyes. The aroma pulled his hatred down a notch. “Mason,
it’s me. It’s Harley…” With that one little H sound, Mason stopped breathing just
long enough to focus on the light that appeared in front of him.

Beautiful brown eyed Harley. His savior, his angel was there, worry and fear etched

across her face. “Harley…” Mason half growled, half pleaded. She didn’t seem to notice
his

inner turmoil, or if she did, then she didn’t seem to care. She was too busy brushing
her

fingertips against his now most likely bruised eye. Her soothing “shh…” and “you’re
okay” were enough to make him stop and realize what the hell he’d just done.

The rage had finally taken over.

Quickly, as if awakening from a nightmare, he spun around to check where his nemesis

was. He saw movement down the hall, and he followed it with his eyes. Numb-nut was
limping

away from him, with the help of his buddies on either side of his slumping body. The
crowd had diminished, leaving only him and Harley alone. He turned towards her again;
the fear continued to assault her eyes. She bit down on her lip, but the move only
emphasized her anxiety more.

She glanced around them, dropping one of her hands onto his shoulder while the other

reached for his hand, and like a bat out of hell, she started to pull him behind her
down the hall.

Mason let her. He followed his light. They reached the exit that led to the parking
lot. Harley took
one last glance behind her before she pulled Mason towards her car.

The intenseness of the fight faded with the cool October breeze, but the adrenaline
was

still there, pouring through his veins like a high stream faucet. It was going to
take a whole lot of something to calm him down, and he wasn’t sure whether it was
a good idea to get into a car with her or not.

There was no telling what he’d say or do next.

She muttered under her breath as she opened the passenger side door. She coaxed him

inside with the gentle push of her hand against his arm. He stiffened, staring down
at her

trembling fingers, and then back into her eyes. Dammit, he hated that she was scared,
but then again, she should be afraid. He wasn’t a good guy.

Mason tersely sat in his seat, his knee bobbing up and down, his hands clenched against

his pant legs. What he
could
use was an afternoon on the waves, losing his body in swells that had saved him from
acting like this many times before. Mason reached for the door handle,

groaning when he realized that the lock was in place.

The tender touch of Harley’s hand upon his leg was going to have to be enough of an

incentive to stop with the brooding … at least for a little while.

“Mason, what happened in there?” Her eyes rounded with fear as she stared over at
him

in question. She chewed on the inside of her cheeks, seemingly determined not let
her fear show.

It wasn’t working. He saw it all.

“It was nothing.” She frowned at him, removing her hand from his leg as if he’d stung

her. She pushed her hands together. Anger replaced worry, or was that disappointment
he saw?

“Don’t be that way with
me
, Mason Daniel. I know what I saw, and it scared the shit outta me! You weren’t you.
It was like … you blacked out or something! You became this whole different person!”
She had no idea how right she was.

“I mean, you just totally beat the crap out of Toby in there. Do you even realize
that?”

His scowl grew heavier as she turned to gaze out the window. Great, this girl was
worried

about her little boyfriend getting hurt…

He should have broken his nose too.

“Well excuse me, Harley, for kicking your dick faced boyfriend’s ass. Let me just
run

back inside and offer him a cookie.”

Her mouth dropped opened, her chin practically hit her own chest. “Jesus, Mase, I
don’t

give two shits about that guy! Why would you think that?” He grinned menacingly at
her.

“Never mind, don’t answer that.” She threw an accusing finger in front of his face.
“It was
you
I was worried about in there, not him. Shit, you could have gotten expelled or arrested
for

assault!”

She looked so cute when she was spitfire mad, tiger like, evil but sexy. “Don’t give
me

that grin, you dork. You need to answer me otherwise you
will
be finding yourself a new date to homecoming.” He touched his hand to his chest feigning
hurt just to hide his genuine shock.

Really though, how was it that this girl still wanted to go with him after that?

“Listen, Harley,” Mason voice went low, angered. “I saw the guy practically groping

some girl no older than my sister. It was disgusting and just not … right. Things
just got outta hand. That’s it.”

She shocked him by reaching up and applying pressure with a tissue against the corner
of

his bleeding mouth. Mason winced and backed away, but she kept at it, frowning at
him the

entire time. If babying him was what she wanted to do, then he’d let her. It’s the
least he could do.

“Go on, Mase. I’m listening.”

Mason shrugged and sighed, “Well apparently he didn’t like my attitude because he

started in on me, telling me to leave them alone and shit. Then he … poked me,” God,
he

sounded like a brat, “and things just went from bad to worse after that.” Harley stared
openly at Mason, her faced softening just enough that he could see her apparent relief.
Her lingering look ended, and she pulled her hands down onto her lap, clenching them
together around the tissue she still held. Finally she nodded and started the car.

He looked over at her through his half swollen eye. Exhaustion began to overpower
his

insides; the adrenaline finally ceased. This brave little thing sitting next to him
was truly more amazing than he had ever imagined.

The sad part was that he knew now, more than ever, that he didn’t deserve her.

* * *

did know was that she needed to get Mason as far away from school as possible. This
was

Harley’s first official time skipping, something she surprisingly didn’t feel the
least bit guilty about. That would change, most likely, when her mom and dad found
out.

When she saw Mason beating the ever-loving crap out of Toby in the hallway, her first

thought was fear filled. God, she didn’t want to see him get into trouble, or worse
yet, hurt. He never once came across to her as the violent kind, but the moment Mason
hands connected with Toby’s face, she realized just how little she actually knew about
this guy.