The Valentine's Dare (The Sycamore Serial Book 1) (7 page)

She strode over to the door and opened it, coughing into her hand as she greeted Mason on the other side. “I’m okay, just a bit sick.”

Mason cocked his head, seemingly puzzled. “It looks like you’ve been crying. Is everything okay?”

Shit shit shit.
Kierra’s heart began beating in double time, her throat choking up as she realized he’d seen through her quick cover up.
 

“It’s nothing, really,” she said, trying to smile and mostly failing. “I’m fine, really. You should go back to your party.”

She was suddenly aware of how close he was, how much the concern in his green-flecked eyes touched her. Wanting nothing more than to melt into his arms, Kierra instead stepped back and turned away, trying to put up distance where her emotional walls failed.

“I don’t want to go back until I know you’re going to
really
be okay,” Mason said, and everything in her crumbled once more.

Kierra had to fight not to let the tears come again, forcing down her anxiety and tension, hot tears building behind her eyes. As if sensing her distress, Mason stepped forward and gathered her in his arms, his grasp on her warm and comforting, his chest a bastion of strength. The door swung shut behind them, and without the world at her back, without space between their bodies, Kierra let out all her tension in his arms - if not, quite yet, her tears.

They stared right there for a long moment, breaths sharing space, bodies relaxing into each other. His arms were comforting on her back, his warmth and scent making her emotional in a whole different way. But she had to let him go, so she pushed back - and he kept his arms around her, looking down into your eyes.

“No one should ever make you cry like that,” he said, eyes intense, voice rumbling in his chest against hers.

Closing her eyes, Kierra let the space between them fall away as they kissed once more.

It was tender yet hot, his arms around her, his hips cupping hers, her mouth hungry for every bit that he would give her. His hands roved down her back, coming dangerously close to her ass. Kierra threw her leg around his, drawing them together with insistence, losing herself in the heat of their arms.

Mason pulled back from their kiss, only to draw more, smaller kisses down her cheek, her jaw, her neck. Kierra drew him closer with her hands, and he hitched her up with his arms, her legs coming to wrap around his waist.

He walked her back towards the counter, laughing as they bumped against it.

“I’m probably going to catch your cold now, aren’t I?”

“To tell you the truth, I was never sick.” She smiled at him, hands framing his face. “But you definitely made me feel better.”

She unwrapped her legs and he put her down on the ground, his hands comfortably on her hips. Kierra got up on her tip toes and kissed him again, softly and wonderfully, their mouths opening and tongues meeting together. She wanted
all
of him, around her and inside her. With suddenly clarity, Kierra realized she had no reason to be alone. Whatever comfort she wanted, she could have it for herself.

Her phone rang.

Mason pulled back. “You should get that.”

Kierra shook her head, but still pulled the phone out to glance at it. The name on the screen sent cold tremors through her, and she suddenly needed all the space in the world.

What am I doing? This is such a big, awful mistake.

“I can’t do this,” she said, motioning between them.

Puzzled, Mason tilted his head at her. “Can’t do what, exactly?”

Wordlessly, she shook her head. “I just can’t, I’m sorry.” Her voice was stuck in her throat, clawing its way down to her stomach. “Please just leave.”

“Okay.” Face hurt and wounded, Mason withdrew, shutting the door silently behind himself as he left.

Without him there, she expected the tears to start once more. To her surprise, though, she was all dry inside, from head to toe.
There’s nothing left of me at all.

CHAPTER SIX

C'est la Vie

For the next half hour Kierra sat by herself in the living room, staring at her phone.

The voicemail message sat on its screen, blinking at her incessantly. She knew she should delete it, but at the same time some part of her needed to hear his voice. Like a wounded animal licking blood from its flesh.

She hit “play” and pressed the phone against her ear.

“You haven’t gotten back to me yet, and I don’t understand.” His voice was low and resentful, his breath heavy against the mouthpiece. “I’m coming back for you, baby. We
will
be together again. Whatever it takes, forever and ever. I love you.”

A long, strange moment of silence, his breath in her ear; then Brooks hung up, apparently realizing his message was done. No doubt all the others had been some sort of variation of the same, drawn-out pleadings and declarations of love, all full of angry resentment and bubbling violence lurking just beneath the surface.

“End of messages. To delete message, press 7. To save for 30 days, press 9.”

Kierra hit 7, the phone beeping in her hand, robot voice confirming the deletion. She wanted to feel some sort of resolution, a triumph at having listened to his voice, once so loved, and feeling nothing.
He told me he loved me and I’m not running into his arms,
she thought, wondering why there was nothing left in her heart but emptiness and fear.

Why did I even listen to it if it wasn’t going to help,
she wondered.
What was the point of putting myself through anything?

Touching her fingertips to her lips, she could feel where Mason’s had once touched her, could close her eyes and imagine him there once more. His voice, soft and easy, caring and accepting, rang in her head.

“He’s nothing like Brooks,” she murmured to herself, lips moving against her fingers.

And at that thought, she suddenly felt alive once more, realizing that she
didn’t
have to repeat her heartbreaks over and over.
If only Mason were still here standing before me so I could tell him.

But she’d already pushed him away.

She would never trust him.

Mason stood in the fourth floor hallway, listening to the sounds of a party happening in his room. He didn’t feel up to going in and he knew better than to go back to Kierra, so instead he just stood there, leaning against the wall, wishing he hadn’t quit smoking and thrown out all his cigarettes.

The worst thing you can do in college is fall for a girl you’ve got a bet running for.
Not only was Mason going to lose Kierra because she wasn’t ready to open herself up to him, but he was going to lose $1,000 in the process.

The party called out to him, along with the promise of a drink. Giving up on his thoughts and troubles, Mason returned inside to where his friends waited for him.

As he was going in, he passed by Leila and Lacy, who shot him curiously hostile looks before hurrying out the door. No doubt they were going downstairs to be Kierra’s comforters - a position he could no longer claim.

“Hey, Mason,” Frankie said when he saw him, raising his glass in Mason’s direction. “Where were you for so long?”

“Nowhere.” Mason grabbed a beer and took a good, long drink, sighing as the alcohol hit his system. “I need to call off the bet.”

“Seriously, man?” Frankie shook his head. “You can’t do that.”

“I can if everyone involves agrees to let me call it off. I want to get all the guys here this weekend, see if I can’t have the whole thing canceled. Will you help me out?”

Frankie stared at him in disbelief. “You really are serious, aren’t you? Alright, man, I’ll help out. But I have to say I think you’re crazy.”

“Yeah,” Mason replied, “me too.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

One and Two, You and You

Kierra was coming to the point where she just randomly assigned dates to each other.

It’d been three days since Mason’s ill-fated pizza party and their hot-and-heavy kiss. She hadn’t seen him or talked to him since; instead she’d tried to busy herself with her matchmaking responsibilities. As it turned out, though, trying to set someone up with the love of their life was, well, just as difficult as it sounded.

Maybe she was putting too much pressure on herself. After all, the dates only had to get along, not get married.
I’m really phoning this in, aren’t I?
Kierra thought, staring at the board she’d set up in her room with all the names on it.

A knock on her door served as a welcome distraction. “C’mon!”

Leila leaned in, a bowl of popcorn in her hands. “Lacy and I were doing homework in our room when we realized that we’d rather watch a movie instead. Wanna join us? You’re going to pop a blood vessel from concentrating too hard on that cork board.”

Sighing, Kierra tore herself away from it. “It’s just difficult. So much of the night is riding on my choices. Picking out drinks and decorations is nothing compared to deciding if everyone will be happy that night or not.”

“If they don’t like their date, they can always just switch,” Leila pointed out with a shrug. “And you know that if you need help you can just ask us, right?”

“Yep, we’ll definitely help out!” Lacy said as she entered the living room and dove onto the couch. “You set me up with Frankie, right?”

“I remembered.” Kierra nabbed the popcorn from Leila and joined Lacy on the couch, legs folded up beneath her. “It’s not you guys I’m having trouble with. Or most of the rest of the house. It’s-“

“Mason,” they both chimed in, like two annoying but beloved parrots.

“Exactly.” Sighing, Kierra shoved some popcorn into her mouth for comfort. “Setting him up with Anna feels like negotiating with a terrorist, but it’s not like I want to lose our spot on the fourth floor.”

“That, and you like him,” Leila pointed out, stealing back the popcorn. “Don’t take my word for it, though. You’re the one who kissed him.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Kierra replied, her tone terse. “I don’t want to talk about it though.”

“Actually, I was think about the Anna thing,” Lacy said, reaching over Kierra to take the popcorn from Leila. “I don’t think she can actually make good on her threat.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, she’s not the only person on the residency board. There are two other juniors besides her. Also, there’s no way Frankie would let her invalidate the Matchmaker prize. And he’s Head of House.”

“So you don’t think I should set up Anna and Mason,” Kierra said, noticing the way Lacy seemed to be trying to find ways around it.

“I’m saying I don’t think you want to. Or
have
to. Plus I really don’t like the bitch.”

“Yeah,” Leila agreed, “she’s kind of a
puta.
”

“Oh, the movie is starting,” Lacy said, turning up the volume on the TV.

Kierra was momentarily absorbed by the opening animations and credits, forgetting for a moment the Mason conundrum. Her phone, as ever, interrupted her thoughts, and she had to fish it out of her back pocket.

“Sorry,” she said, noticing the same number, once more. “Won’t happen again.”

It’s high time the past became the past.
And with a few touches to her phone screen, she blocked her ex-boyfriend’s number forever.

There was one thing Kierra forgot about: scavenger hunt club. It was her favorite club, and unlike book club she didn’t want to miss it. She held out hope that Mason wouldn’t show that week, but knew she couldn’t avoid him forever. At least if she saw him at the club she could avoid him easily.

So she told herself, until she got to the lawn where the club was being held this week. Of course, he was already there, but she pointedly turned away so he would know she wasn’t interested in talking to him.

The head of the club, Marcie, always came early to set up that week’s hunt. Every week there would be new clues - some related to Arterberry’s history - and new items hidden around the sprawling New England campus. Marcie would divide them into teams and they’d be off, going on a timed test to find landmarks, random facts, hidden objects, and even people.

Basically, it was like being a 7-year-old kid again, only with the added benefit of cursing like a sailor.

“Alright, everyone,” Marcie called them to attention. There were over two dozen people on the lawn outside for the club, so she had to speak up. “I have something really fun planned for this meeting. It’s going to take pretty big teams, but thankfully it looks like we have enough.