Struck By You: Players (11 page)

He smiled and kissed me deeply again just like he had outside his car half an hour ago.
“You drive me absolutely crazy,” he whispered in my ear and knocked the wind out of me.

Four hours later we were at the St. John’s airport. He picked up a BMW from the car rental place and we set our way to the B&B.

He booked the largest room at a beautiful bed and breakfast with a spectacular view of the ocean.

He placed the luggage on the bed and opened one of them for me. “I picked up some things for you yesterday. I wanted to keep this as a surprise and I didn’t want to stop at your place to pick up clothes, since I knew we would be late coming to airport if we did.”

I was stunned at everything. I was still trying to get over his public affection toward me, trying to swallow what he said. Being here was unreal and he kept surprising me by the minute.

I started to look through the things he got me.

Designer black pumps, a tiny black evening dress, a red evening dress, black sandals, a white floral bikini, a pair of jeans, shorts, and a couple of cute t-shirts, a toothbrush, a hairbrush and finally something wrapped in tissue paper.

“Those you’re not wearing this weekend,” he pointed out as I opened the package containing three beautiful lace panties.

I smiled, wrapped my arms around him and kissed him. “Why are you doing this?” I whispered.

He looked into my eyes and caressed my face. “You make me want to be a better man,” he said knocking the wind out of me again but this time, my knees felt weak.

     We had a wonderful dinner Friday night and made love in the hot tub afterwards. Saturday we went sightseeing, ate lunch, made love in the car, whale watching, had lobster for dinner, watched the sunset at the pier and then went back to the B&B.

I was exhausted by the time we got back. I lay down and then I remembered I needed to take my birth control pill. Mason was taking a shower so I waited till he got out to ask him to grab my pills from my purse.

He brought me my pills and sat beside me on the bed. He had something in his hand.

“What do you have there?” I asked after I put my pack on the night table. He took my hand and placed the small black velvet box in my hand. It was the earrings that Paul had given and I had forgotten to take them out of my purse.

“Who gave you those?” he asked.

I looked at the box and looked at him.
“It’s just a gift.”

“Who gave those to you? I want you to say it Riley.”

“Why does it matter?” I asked.

“Just say his name.”
“Mason, stop.”

“I want you to stop seeing him,” he said bluntly.

“You can’t say that to me Mason, I don’t belong to you.”

He got up abruptly, grabbed his clothes, got dressed and slammed the door behind him as he left the room. I heard the car start and screeched the tires as he drove out of the parking lot.

I stayed up as long as I could waiting for him but by one a.m. I started to doze off.

He woke me up when he came back – he was intoxicated and it was nearly three a.m. He stripped naked and lay down next to me.

The next morning I woke up to him on top of me. He was licking and kissing my nipples. When he saw I was awake he began to bite me gently and then harder, the more aroused he became. He started to inflict pain and I was sure I was going have bruises and bite marks if I didn’t stop him.

“Get off me,” I said pushing him off me.

“Is he rough?” he asked, sliding his hand between my legs.

“Stop it.”

“I bet he comes quickly,” he pressed on.

“I mean it, stop it.”

“Can he make you come over and over again Riley?”

“That’s enough,” I said trying to get out of bed but he held me down.

“Does he get to come in you too?”

I slapped him hard across the face, hitting his eye, and when I had the chance I got out of bed.

“What is wrong with you?” I yelled. I had tears rolling down my face, and I was disgusted with him.

He sat up and tried putting his arms around me but I stepped away before he could.
“Fuck,” he said, rubbing the ridge of his nose.

“Would you believe me if I said I’m sorry?” he said.

“Yes,” I lied.

“I got really drunk last night and I think I’m still drunk.”

“I think we need to stay away from each other for a while,” I said.

He looked up at me dejected, and shook his head. “No, please don’t. Riley, I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

I turned the other way and started to get ready to leave.
     “Riley” he whispered.
     “Just for a while Mason, I need some time.”

We didn’t speak much on the way home. When we got to the airport, I parted ways and took a cab home.

By the time I got home, I had to take a shower again as I was tired from the flight. I was getting into bed when Mason text messaged me.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could take it all back.” I didn’t answer. I deleted his messages and went to bed.
     At around eleven p.m., my phone started ringing. I was half asleep when I picked it up.

     “Riley?”

     “Yeah.”

“What happened today?” It was Paul. I had completely forgotten I was supposed to see him earlier today.

“Shit, I’m sorry, I completely forgot,” I said, but he was silent on his end for a bit.

“Can I come and see you?” he asked.

I was in no mood to see anyone, least of all another man.
“I have to be at work early tomorrow. Can I take a rain check on that?”

“You bet, I’ll see you Wednesday,” he said and hung up.

Chapter 14

    
T
he week went by rather fast. It was already Friday and I had not spoken or seen Mason all week. Taking a break for a while or indefinitely was a good thing and after the things he said last weekend, I wasn’t sure we were on the same page with our arrangement.

Paul wasn’t angry with me as far as I knew, and tried to hide his frustration when I lied and told him I was on my period. I began to regret getting together with him and I could tell he wanted more than I was willing to give him, but letting down was going to be a challenge.

As soon as I walked into the studio, I saw my sister pacing around the lobby on her phone. She was talking to Eric by the sounds of it, regarding where the kids would be staying.

Angie greeted me as soon as she saw me. “Hey girly, what’s going on with Serena? She looks frazzled,” I said as I put my bag away.

“Someone passed away, there’s a funeral tomorrow and she’s trying to figure out what to do with the kids and stuff,” whispered Angie.

“Who?”

“I don’t know, but apparently he’s some sort of important person. Lots of people are expected to be there” she said.

“Well that leaves out anyone in my family,” I joked.

“You and me both,” Angie giggled.

“Well this weekend is completely ruined,” said my sister as she got off the phone.

“Who died?” I asked.

“One of Eric’s lawyers. We were taking the kids to Niagara-on-the-Lake this weekend and now that’s out the window. The funeral is out-of-town and I’m not taking the kids, so Eric has arranged with his parents to look after them.”

“Which lawyer, Serena?”

“Don Hayes, the big corporate lawyer, died of a heart attack on Wednesday in his home. He lives alone so luckily the maid was there Thursday morning – she found him.”

My heart sank when I heard the news.

“Hayes, is he any relation to that hunk that comes in here sometimes?” asked Angie innocently.

I walked away at that point and locked myself in a bathroom stall. I wanted to call him and reach out to him but I was conflicted.

     After yoga class, I snuck into my sister’s office and looked through her email and found what I was looking for. All the details of the funeral were neatly filed away in her calendar.

     I called Paul and asked for the weekend off telling him I had to babysit, and he was okay with it.

     The funeral was out-of-town. The wake, ceremony and burial were taking place on Saturday starting at nine a.m., so I figured I’d get a head start and leave tonight for Port Hope, which was were Mason was born. The least I could do was pay my condolences in person since Mason and I were friends, regardless of our differences.

     The wake was only for family and close personal friends to Mr. Hayes so I skipped it and decided to head to the service held at the church instead.

I was astonished by the amount of people attending the services. Limos and luxury cars everywhere. The grounds of the church were swarmed by business suits, and high profile business men and women. I parked my car and walked through the crowd. As soon as I walked through the doors I saw people were lined up to greet his immediate family. Mason and Tanner, the two tallest figures, were at the very front of that line. I saw my sister and Eric as well in the line, close to the front, so I quickly made my way to the back of the line so they wouldn’t see me. I introduced myself as a friend of the family as I shook everyone’s hand to those who were close to him.

The closer I got to Mason, the faster my heart was beating; I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to me being there. The closer I got to him, the more I realized he was broken. He was pale and had very little emotion in his face. He wasn’t looking at anyone or anything, he just shook hands and said thank you to everyone that expressed their condolences.

By the time I was three people away from him, Tanner looked my way and recognized me immediately. He wacked Mason on the arm and whispered something in his ear and he was smiling wide, the asshole that he was at his own father’s funeral. Mason shifted his gaze toward me immediately and didn’t take his eyes off me until I finally got to him. I shook his hand. “I’m sorry for your loss Mason.”

He shook my hand, keeping his gaze on me.
“Thank you,” he said eventually and let go of my hand. He kept his gaze on me as I approached Tanner.

“I’m sorry for your loss Tanner,” I said shaking his hand.

“Thank you,” he said smiling wide and pulled me toward him. “Stick around sweetheart, I need some consoling,” he whispered in my ear. I rolled my eyes at him and walked into the church.

The service was long but beautiful. Mason and Tanner both had speeches but Mason’s was sincere and honest.

The cemetery was behind the church. Tanner and Mason were among the pallbearers and it broke my heart to see Mason taking his father’s coffin. I didn’t join the crowd – I stayed farther away watching. I hated funerals and this was the worst part of it.

Once he was buried, I watched as everyone started to walk back to their vehicles. As the crowd dissipated, I noticed Mason stayed behind, alone.

“Hi,” I said squeezing his arm.

He stood there watching his father’s grave, not saying a word. His facial expression was empty yet I could tell he was holding back whatever was that he was feeling.

“Please don’t be upset at me for coming here. I heard about it yesterday,” I said.

     He didn’t say anything, just kept looking at the grave.

“Okay, I’m very sorry for your loss. Take care of yourself Mason”, I said and turned to leave.

“Don’t go,” he said softly.

He changed his stance and looked into the distance.

“When we were kids barely hitting puberty,” he began, “my dad took us on a camping trip on one of his weekends. He thought it would be a good idea to give us the bird and the bees talk from a man’s perspective.” He laughed “He told us the biggest regret of his life was falling for a woman. He said men are hunters, predators – we go after our prey, we take what we need, and we move on to the next. We needed to start thinking that way, master it and we’d have it all. We’d never be alone as long as we focused on ourselves and our careers – women would drop their panties at our command, and he was right” he cleared his throat.

     “Ironically enough, my father died alone. Had he croaked a day later, no one would have found him until tomorrow.”

     I held his arm.

“Thank you for coming Riley, this means a lot to me. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again after what I did and said last weekend.” he began to say but I hushed him.

“Mason, we’re still friends, regardless” I said.
     “I’m sorry I keep hurting you, I just don’t know how to handle this insane jealousy I feel,” he said, shifting his gaze toward me.

I smiled and nodded. Words failed me.
“Where are you staying?” he asked.

“I was going to drive home, actually.”

“The law firm put this dinner thing together to celebrate his life, but I’m tired and I just want to forget today,” he said. “Will you stay with me tonight? I just want your company, nothing else.”

I agreed and we drove my car to the inn he was staying at.

We picked up some cheap Chinese takeout and watched movies on pay-per-view.

By the time we went to bed, it was close to midnight. We lay in bed in what had become his favorite position: his arm around me and my head on his chest, and we stayed up talking in the dark.