Mason (Fallen Crest High 0.5)(17)

She would. She always was. I turned to the new girl and kept that information to myself. “You go to FCP?”

She nodded, but glanced down for a moment. When she looked back up, she was biting her bottom lip. I frowned, wondering if this was the same sexy appeal she was going for. She seemed cautious, not sultry now. “My mom works for your dad.”

“A lot of people do.”

“Yeah. True.”

She started looking around. When she saw her friends, they gave her a thumbs-up sign and she rolled her shoulders back, lifting her gaze back to mine again. What was going on?

“What do you want?”

She tensed. “What do you mean?”

“You came over here looking like you wanted one thing and now you’re playing at something else.” I didn’t like games, and this girl was throwing out too many different signals. She was a head trip. “Look,” I started. I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but girls don’t come over to me unless they have one thing in mind. I don’t date. Girls know not to even try with me. So…” I drew out the last word and let it linger between us.

She didn’t react. She knew what she was doing. Realizing that, I narrowed my eyes. Then I asked, “Did they put you up to this?”

She looked too and frowned. Her friends realized we were talking about them and squealed, turning around so their backs were to us. All their heads went together and Sarah sighed. “You saw that before?”

“Was this like a dare? I dare you to go up to Mason Kade and what? Kiss me or something? What’s the end goal?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Jeezus. You’re straight to business, aren’t you?” She went back to biting on her lip, but she rolled it out so it looked like she was pouting. “This was a mistake. I should’ve never listened to her.”

I grinned. Now we were getting somewhere. “Who’s her?”

“What?”

“You said you never should’ve listened to her. Who’s her?”

“My mom.”

“Your mom?”

She nodded. “She works for your dad.”

“A lot of people work for my dad.” As I said that, I already knew the angle. The mom wanted an introduction to my dad. She heard about the divorce and sent her kid as bait. My stomach clenched. I let out a disgusted sound. “Bit of advice.”

She paused, listening. Her eyes narrowed.

“If a guy has a reputation for being an ass**le and doesn’t date, he’s not fairytale material. He’s not going to change so don’t go over to waste his time.”

Her mouth fell open. “Jeezus, you’re blunt.”

“Are you here to screw me?”

She turned away and crossed her arms. I thought she was leaving, but she didn’t. She stood there, as if thinking it over. When she turned back, there was a tentative look in her eyes. I said, “You heard me. I don’t date. I don’t hold hands. I don’t do nice things for girls. I have sex and that’s it. Your mom put you up to this, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know, but my god. You’re so ‘in your face’ about it.”

I frowned. “I don’t know why you’re so shocked. You know my reputation. Your mom wants an ‘in’. How do you think this would happen?” I made a show of looking her up and down. “Think about it. I would have to like you. I would have to keep you around. I would have to develop feelings for you. All that would have to happen before we’d think about inviting your mom over—” I saw that she was speculative. That didn’t make sense, and I paused, thinking about a different angle. When it hit, I had to laugh.

“What?”

“Shit.” I shook my head. “No. Your mom wasn’t going to wait around for that to happen. She was going to wait for us to screw a few times and then what? You’d pretend to get pregnant? Your mom would sue us for money?” Seeing the surprise in her eyes, I watched as it turned to being suspicious and realized she hadn’t thought about that either. Then it clicked and a storm filled her gaze. I smirked and shook my head. “Your mom is a piece of work.”

She muttered, “I was just hoping to hang out. None of that crap.”

I began to look around, but Kate was gone. No. I saw her. She was grinding against a different guy. When she saw me looking, she gave me a smug smirk, but I didn’t care. She could do whatever she wanted and thanks to this girl’s appearance, I was in a certain mood now. Feeling the old restlessness and anger in me, it was all boiling together. I needed to get laid or I’d end up getting in a fight. As if sensing my mood, Logan lifted his head from Tate’s neck and frowned at me. I narrowed my eyes at him, but turned away when he began to lift his girlfriend off of his lap.

As he approached us, he looked her up and down, throwing an arm around my shoulder. “Who’s this, brother?”

I shrugged his arm off. “Sarah Cast.”

“Hey guys.”

I tensed when Tate came over to the group. Her tone was friendly, but she was trying to dissect the girl with her eyes. Logan cast me a questionable look. He had felt me stiffen next to him, but he didn’t say anything.

Logan frowned, leaning back against the counter beside me. Tate laughed softly. “What’s going on?”