A corner of his mouth curved up. The grin was cruel, but his eyes hadn’t moved from my lips. “Maybe.” They had already darkened, but they grew black now. “Maybe you torture me, too.”
I was ready to start praying for patience. “You’re beginning to piss me off.”
“Am I?” He moved his hips into me in rhythm with his fingers.
I gasped out loud. Lust and pleasure were rolling through me like a riptide on repeat, over and over again. My hands found their way to his shoulders, and my fingers dug in. Then he moved again. I was pushed further away from consciousness. Desire for him was making me blind. I lifted my heavy eyelids and looked at him. His gaze was transfixed on my lips, and he licked his own, thrusting against me at the same time.
“Mason,” I whimpered.
I felt his silent laughter; his chest tightened and jerked before he pulled away, still grinning, but it had softened on the corners. His eyes caught mine and held them. They narrowed, and I caught a spark in them, one that I recognized. He was thinking.
“Mason, tell me.”
“They’re planning something, said it was supposed to be for next week, but it’s going to happen at the end of this week instead.”
The heat from my desire lessened. It made room for a chill. “What do you think it is?”
“Honestly?” He pulled his fingers out.
I nodded, a lump was in my throat now.
“I think they’re going to hurt you. Physically.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?” He frowned and lifted his thumb to my mouth. He rubbed it over my lips, tugging the bottom down before his hand fell away. “You’re not surprised?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I mean, that’s expected. Kate’s never struck me as the real smart type.”
“Well, she is.” The lust in his eyes moved to caution. He warned me, “You have no idea what she can do. Beating you up isn’t good, but I’d be a lot less worried if I thought that’s all she was going to do.”
“She’s been texting Heather a bunch.”
His body stiffened on top of me. “Saying what?”
“She needs to stop being my friend. Heather said there were threats to her and to her family, too.”
“When did this start?”
“The first day of school. She came over and made a big show about warning Heather away. That was when Tate tried to intervene.”
“Against you?”
“No, against Kate. She told her that going up against you isn’t worth it.” I frowned. The sexual intensity was gone, and he seemed deep in thought. I reached for him, curving my hand over his shoulder to his jaw. His gaze had moved past my shoulder, but I touched his jaw. “Hey. What are you thinking?”
“That I’m starting to figure out what else Kate is doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“With Tate.”
“What?”
He was off the bed in a flash and pulled on his sweatpants. The bed had only settled when he disappeared through the door and hollered, “Logan!”
“What’s up?”
Grabbing one of Mason’s sweatshirts, I pulled it over my head and ignored how it covered my pajama shorts. It looked like I wasn’t wearing anything underneath it.
Logan smirked at me as I came to the doorway. “You cold, Sam?”
“Shut it, Logan.”
Mason asked, “Where are you going?”
Logan had showered. He was dressed in jeans and his athletic sweatshirt. Playing with his car keys in his hand, he shrugged. “Was going to head out for a few. What’s up?”
“You going to Tate’s?”
His question threw both of us. There it was again, the lie Mason never explained to me. Narrowing my eyes at him, I studied Logan at the same time. He seemed cautious now and slid his hands into his front pockets. “Maybe. Why?”
“Kate mentioned a camcorder,” Mason said. “And before that Natalie had her brother’s camcorder. They were going to use it to take pictures of the mannequin.”
“So? They have a camcorder. So do we.”
“Kate said they were heading to Tate’s at the end. Sam just told me they’ve been sending threats to Heather. They want her to stop being her friend and Tate tried to warn them off.”
Logan nodded. “She told me about that. Said it was a lost cause. Kate’s gone off the deep end.”
“So,” Mason paused and watched him. He was waiting …
“So what?”
“Logan, I spelled it out for you.”
“Threats to Heather. Camcorder. Tate thinks Kate’s crazy. None of this is really new here, brother.”
I sighed. Even I knew what Mason was implying. Logan wasn’t dumb. If he wasn’t figuring it out that meant something else was going on with him. Moving to the couch, I perched on the end and said, “I think he’s saying that Kate might think Tate’s on our side.”
“She is,” Logan snorted. “No way would she go against you. She knows what we’d do to her.”
“Logan,” Mason groaned.
I lifted a hand to his arm and felt his tension. My hand began to rub. “Do you think Kate would take a camcorder to Tate’s out of the goodness of her heart?”
“Wha—oh shit. No. No way. You think?”
“Are you going over there?”
Logan glanced at his brother again. A resigned look came over him. “Yeah, I am. What do you want me to do?”