The road had never seemed so short, or the distance to her windowsill so high, as he dragged the toe of his boot through the dirt and dreaded coming face-to-face with her.
Finally, he couldn’t put it off any longer. He jumped up and easily pulled his weight over the sill. April didn’t lie in the bed in her darkened room tonight, but instead sat in a chair by the window waiting for him. He didn’t like the change.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” she returned.
Mason walked to the bed and sat on the edge facing her. Feet planted firmly on the ground, he rested his forearms on his knees and leaned forward. As ready as he’d ever be, he braced himself for the inevitable. “All right. Go ahead.”
April laughed nervously. “You’re acting like you’re in the principal’s office or something.”
He sat up straighter and tried to look casual as he waited for her to crush him. “Sorry.”
She shook her head and let out a short laugh. “It’s okay. Um, anyway, I have something to tell you.”
Mason swallowed hard and stared at a point just past her head. “Okay.”
“I, uh, I’m going to college in New York in the fall. I didn’t tell anyone when I applied, not even my parents. I wasn’t even sure I’d get in, but I did, with a scholarship, and I’m going.”
Mason’s gaze swung to her. “That’s it? That’s what you had to tell me?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Nothing else?”
“No.”
Laughing, he stood, lifted her into his arms and swung her around. “That’s great. I’m very happy for you.”
April laughed too, hanging on to his shoulders tightly. “Yeah, I can see that.”
Finally, regretfully, he put her down, but didn’t let her go. Mason leaned down and brushed his lips across hers in what he told himself was a congratulatory kiss.
He had come in contact with her bare flesh when he’d picked her up in that T-shirt she slept in. Craving more, he slid his hands up beneath the bottom of the shirt, up over her panties, and felt the warm skin as his hands circled her waist. Touching her was starting to get to him now that he knew she wasn’t cutting him loose to be with Clay exclusively.
Mason sat in the chair and pulled her into his lap. She came to him willingly, so much smaller than him that she could curl right up in his lap with her head nestled against his chest and her ass nestled against something lower.
He kissed her again, letting his tongue slide against hers. His hands strayed to her thighs, longing to dip inside her and see if she wanted him as much as he wanted her. But there was something he had to tell her first, before he let his hands go any farther.
“While we’re telling things, I’ve got something to tell you too. I’ve made a decision. I’m going to enlist in the Army at the end of the summer.”
April stiffened and frowned. “But you were going to ride with Clay.”
“I’m not as good as he is and you know it. I’d have a mediocre career in his shadow. I don’t want that.”
“But the Army? Mason, we’re in a war. You could get killed.”
He let out a laugh. “I could get crippled or killed just as easily in the rodeo as in the Army. You know that.”
Frowning again, she struggled to get off his lap. “I don’t want you to go.”
“You’re going away to college.”
She huffed out an angry breath. “That’s totally different.”
Mason shook his head, his voice calm and steady, not reflecting what he felt inside at all. “No, not really. The fact is, you can secretly apply months ago to a college halfway across the country and not tell me you’re going ’til now, but I make the final decision only a few days ago that I’m definitely enlisting and tell you about it almost right away and you’re mad at me. Just like how you were mad at Clay and me for going to Elk City instead of the prom, and look where that got you.”
He regretted the words the minute they left his mouth. The look on her face at what he’d said was as horrified as if he had slapped her. In the dim light, Mason could see the tears glistening in her eyes.
“Look, I’m sorry.” He needed her to support him in his decision, to understand why he’d had to make it. She obviously didn’t. Mason let out a breath of frustration. “I’m gonna go.”
Before I make things worse,
he added silently.
With one glance back, he swung over the sill and slid to the ground. He strode as fast as he could away from her before he did something stupid, and changed his mind and went back. She was mad and upset and there was nothing he could say or do to make things better. Hell, he was pretty mad and upset himself. They’d both have to get over it in their own time.
He would. No way could he stay mad at her. Then he’d apologize again and think of a way to make it up to her. If she let him.
Mason allowed himself one indulgence and stopped by the lake on his way home. He stared at the water shimmering beneath the moonlight, remembering their time together there, when he heard footsteps running.
He turned in time to catch an armful of crying angry woman. April beat at him with her fists and then collapsed against his chest, sobbing. “I hate you for joining the Army and going away.”
“Shhh. It’s okay.” Mason held her tightly to him.
Her face crushed against his shirt, he could hardly hear her. “No, it’s not. You’re going to go and get yourself killed.”
Not if he had anything to say about it, he wouldn’t. Mason rubbed her back, realizing she’d shoved her feet into flip-flops and run after him in nothing but the T-shirt she’d been wearing in her room.
Her sobs quieted, finally stopping until she whispered, “I love you.”
Mason’s breath caught in his chest at hearing that. As he lifted her up to kiss her, she wrapped her legs around his waist. His erection pressing against her panties, he groaned and plunged his tongue inside her mouth.
April moved against him, her breath catching in her throat each time her shift in weight rubbed the crotch of her panties against the bulge in his jeans. April getting herself off by rubbing against him was more than Mason could take. He wanted inside of her and now.
Mason walked them both to the water’s edge and lowered her to the ground. He stripped off his clothes as quickly as he could as she thankfully did the same. He lifted her again. April naked before him in the moonlight was a dream come true, but April naked and in his arms in the water was almost more than he could bear.
Her legs were around him once more, but this time nothing separated them. Mason waded them into the pond, the cool water making her nipples hard against his chest as she clung to him. With his cock nestled between her legs, once they were chest-deep in the water she was buoyant enough to move freely over him, rubbing against his tip.
He watched the rapt look on her face as, eyes closed, she worked his cock to sit just at her entrance. Mason drew in a deep breath and held it as she moved just the first inch of him in and out of herself. Then she did the one thing he’d been dreaming of for the past week and lowered her body.
April stared at him, wide-eyed, as her own weight slowly forced his whole length inside of her incredibly tight pussy, until he was hilt-deep with her seated tightly against him. He didn’t move, just held her as her eyes closed and he felt a shiver run through her.
His lids drifted shut as he felt both the cold of the water and the heat of April’s body surround him. He supported her weight easily with his hands beneath the water, and it took only the slightest of movements on his part to raise and lower her.
It blew his mind to think he was the first man to do this to her. He had to be. They’d known her for years and besides the prom, she’d never spent any time with another guy, and she’d sworn nothing had happened that night with Clinton.
Mason had had sex with a woman before, so had Clay. They’d ridden in a rodeo out of state and stayed overnight. It was easy for a bronco rider, even an amateur, to get laid if he really wanted to. And he and Clay, tired of being virgins, had wanted to. When two girls approached them, flirting and showing way too much boob to be interested in anything besides fucking, they hadn’t thought twice about it, except to run to the men’s room and buy a half a dozen condoms, because who knew where those girls had been before them.
But that night had been nothing like this. This was April and she loved him. As painful as he knew it was going to be later when he left for boot camp and she left for college, he loved her too. He whispered the words against her ear now as he made love to her. Tears in her eyes, she kissed him again.
They took it slowly, partly because he didn’t want to hurt her during her first time, mostly because he never wanted it to end. But every stroke inside of April had him falling more under her spell until his world narrowed to nothing except the sound of her breathing near his ear and the feel of her body covering his.
He reached between them with one hand and found the spot where their bodies joined, the place that caused her to start shaking, finally convulsing around him.
Mason felt himself reach the point of no return and reality came crashing in. He yanked her up and off him as he started to come.
Not willing to put her down and too shaky to carry her up onto the grass, Mason stayed with her in the water afterwards, April still wrapped around him. When she kissed him, he kissed back, but his mind was reliving that final moment, calculating if he’d pulled out in time. Considering what they’d do if he hadn’t. Since he was already ruining the perfect night by worrying, Mason added Clay’s name to his list of things to stress over.
Letting them drift deeper toward the center of the pond, he let them bob, neck-deep. “Can I tell you something?”
She nodded.
“I figured you were fixin’ to dump me tonight.”
April’s brow furrowed. “Why would you think that?”
“You asked to talk to me, not Clay. I thought you’d decided you wanted only him and not me.”
“Do you still think I would do that?”
“No.” He laughed and then sobered when a thought hit him. “When are you going to tell Clay about New York?”
“I already did. Last night.”
Her answer nearly sunk him. Stunned speechless, all he could do was think that perhaps he hadn’t been her first after all.
Chapter Eight
“I had sex with April last night.” Mason paused, and then added, “And I know you were with her the night before.”
Clay swallowed hard and waited for the axe to fall while Mason, jaw firmly set in a familiar expression that said he wasn’t happy, stared off into the distance.
Finally, Mason turned to look at him. “I’m not sure I can do this anymore. This feeling inside me when I think of you being with her alone sucks, and I don’t even know what, if anything, happened between you two the other night.”
At that, Clay realized April hadn’t told him what happened, just that they’d been together. Clay watched Mason rub his chest, as if to relieve a pain there. Picturing him with April last night and knowing for a fact what they had done, Clay understood a bit about how Mason was feeling.
“Would it be better if you did know what happened?” Clay offered.
Mason laughed bitterly. “I doubt it.”
“Well, if it helps any, I swear to you, I didn’t mean for anything to happen at all. I only went there to talk.”
Mason laughed again. “Yeah, I know. So did I.”
“So if you don’t want to do this anymore, what do we do? Have her choose between us? Or does one of us bow out?”
Raising a brow, Mason looked at him. “You willing to bow out?”
There was absolutely no doubt in Clay’s mind as to his answer to that question. “No. You?”
Mason shook his head. “No. Before last night, maybe I could have, but not now. She told me she loves me.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Mason turned to look at him. “She told you she loves you?”
Clay laughed. “Yeah, but don’t worry. It was in the same breath she told me she loves you too.”
“So we’re both in the same boat here, it seems.”
Clay nearly let it go, but just couldn’t. He was too pissed Mason had gone all the way with her on his own, without him being there. “Yeah, except that you’re going away.”
Mason looked defensive. “So is she.”
“She’s going to New York. You’re likely going to Iraq or hell, I don’t know, Afghanistan, for all you know.”
“So you’re saying you’re better for her than me, even though you’ll be on the road all the time, risking breaking your neck and surrounded by hoards of women intent on fucking the star rodeo rider?”
Frowning, Clay took a step closer to Mason, about to protest the insinuation that he would ever cheat on April, when she was suddenly there behind them.
“Stop it, both of you. Stop fighting.”
Mason swore quietly beneath his breath.
“April.” Clay took a step toward her.
She held one hand up. “No. Don’t touch me. I’m mad at you both. Neither one of you is being fair to me. You’re standing out here discussing me and who’s better for me like it’s your place to do so, without even caring what I want. If you’re going to fight over me, then I won’t be with either one of you.”