Page 5 of Forever Your Touch (Manwhore #4)

CHAPTER FOUR

The sound of the rain hitting the roof woke Jo long before her alarm went off. Ray snored beside her. She laughed softly when she heard him. He swore he didn’t snore, but the man was louder than a lawnmower.

Slipping out of bed, she reset the alarm for Ray then took a quick shower. Jo was nervous, and not just because it was her first day at a new school. Mason was picking her up for breakfast.

Fill-in big brother.

She shook her head as she pulled on a pair of well-worn jeans then tugged on a baby blue t-shirt.

Leave it to Keith to find a way to keep an eye on her.

He’d called her yesterday, and as pissed as she was, Jo couldn’t fault her brother for looking out for her.

It was actually very sweet and something Keith had spent his entire life doing.

She just wished he could get behind her and Ray.

Why her family didn’t like him, she had no idea. She loved Ray, and he made her happy. He wasn’t perfect, but neither was she. No one was perfect. She could only hope they’d come around, because Ray wasn’t going anywhere.

She looked at the clock. Six twenty. Mason would be here soon.

How had she let herself get roped into not only breakfast, but being chauffeured by the guy?

Not that she minded the rides to and from school.

It would save her a lot of money, but Mason stirred up feelings in her she shouldn’t be having.

Feelings that made her feel guilty because she truly did love her boyfriend.

The honk of the horn pulled her out of her thoughts, and she grabbed her bookbag and let herself out of the house, locking the door. Mason’s truck sat in the drive. It seriously needed a paint job.

“Morning,” she said after she’d gotten in and put on her seatbelt.

He just grunted.

Mason did not look like the same vibrant person she’d met on Saturday. His hair was messy, his eyes bloodshot, and he was still wearing his pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt. Definitely not a morning person.

“Thanks for picking me up.”

He nodded, still not saying anything.

“So, you go to this place a lot?”

“You’re one of those people, aren’t you?”

Boy, he was grumpy. “Those people?”

“Those bright and chipper morning people who have sunshine and rainbows shooting out of their ass before they even get a cup of coffee.”

She laughed at the surly note in his voice. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

He shot her an even grumpier look.

“You’re the one who volunteered to come get me,” Jo reminded him. “I can easily catch a bus to school…”

“No.” He put a hand up, cutting her off. “Absolutely not. Keith would beat my ass black and blue.”

“Then don’t complain about my morning personality.”

He huffed. “Did you get the text I sent you last night?”

“That was you?” An unknown name came up, and she ignored it.

“Yeah. Keith gave me your number, so I shot off a text. You need to be able to reach me.”

Jo pulled out her phone and opened the unknown text then added Mason’s name into her contacts. While she and Mason might not know each other well, it was nice to have at least one friend in New York.

The rest of the drive to Mae’s was spent in silence. She decided to leave Mason in peace. He had gotten up before dawn to pick her up.

Mason let out a relieved sigh when he pulled into Mae’s parking lot. He needed coffee in a bad, bad way. He led the way in and took the first empty booth he came to. It was just starting to get busy in here.

Another waitress who knew him by name came over. Heather worked here part time to help supplement her scholarship funds. He’d had two classes with her last semester.

“Morning, Mason.” Her gaze bounced to Jo, curious, as she handed them menus. He never came in with a girl. “What can I get y’all?”

“Coffee,” he muttered. “Four cups of coffee. Three for me, one for Jo.”

“Three?” Jo asked, her eyebrows waging a war with her hairline.

“Don’t judge, Josephine. Not all of us are born with the ability to be so perky at this godawful hour.”

“What’s good here?” Jo picked up her menu and started looking it over. Mason watched her study the specials, her teeth worrying her bottom lip.

“Everything.” He tapped his foot impatiently, needing Heather to hurry up and bring his coffee. He’d barely dragged himself out of bed in time to pick Jo up. His eyes felt like sandpaper, and all he wanted to do was lay his head down and sleep.

“Here you go.” Heather set four cups of coffee on the table along with a carafe of whole milk. Mason wasted no time in picking one up and taking several long drinks. It burned his tongue, but he didn’t care. He needed the caffeine.

“Do you know what you want to order?” Heather and Jo were both staring at him in amazement. He ignored them and drank down half the cup.

“Pancakes.” Jo dumped some sugar in her coffee and added milk.

“My usual.” Finally, the jittery feeling in his stomach started to settle. He decided then and there to invest in a Keurig so he could survive waking up this early.

“Feeling better?” Jo asked, staring at him over the rim of her coffee cup.

He nodded. “Yeah. I don’t function well without coffee in the morning.

” He pulled the second cup to him and doctored it with milk.

He couldn’t stand sugar in his coffee, but he loved milk.

After Angel got him used to using milk, creamer held no appeal.

Thank God the people here knew that and he didn’t have to constantly remind them to bring him milk.

As much money as he spent at this place, they better know his order, though.

“I can see that.” There was an unmistakable smirk in her voice. He didn’t even have to look up to see it. Damn perky morning people.

He yawned and sat back. There was a definite smirk on her face. She was still sexy as hell even with those blue eyes of hers laughing at him.

“You need to email me your class schedule. I sent my email address in the text last night.” The smell of bacon and eggs assaulted him, and his stomach growled.

“Are you always going to be this grumpy in the mornings?”

“Yup.” He took another sip of his coffee. “You never told me what you were majoring in.”

“Psychology.” Her gaze swept over the diner, and he found he couldn’t rip his focus away from her. Damn, but she was gorgeous.

And she had a boyfriend, he reminded himself.

Asshole of a boyfriend, but still a boyfriend.

And she was Keith’s little sister.

“Why psychology? You have a huge YouTube channel. I thought you’d be doing something that could help you with that.”

“Human behavior fascinates me. I’ve even been thinking of getting my PhD in criminal psychology and working with the FBI.”

“My brother, Kade, used to work with the BAU.”

Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yeah. He and Viktor own Kincaid Security and Investigations now.”

“How many brothers do you have?”

“Five.” He watched her eyes widen and laughed. “My family is just as big as yours. If I remember, you have three sisters and Keith.”

“Any sisters?”

“Thank fuck, no, but I do have three nieces now. Delia, Arielle and Rose. Rose is only a couple of weeks old. Delia is almost eight and Arielle isn’t quite a year. We’re already stockpiling weapons.”

“I think you have a few years yet.”

Conversation stopped when Heather brought their food. He thanked her and dug into his eggs and bacon, his stomach agreeing wholeheartedly. He loved food, but then all his brothers did.

“These are good.” She sounded surprised.

He looked up to see syrup dripping down her chin. Without thinking, he reached over and swiped it with his fingers and then sucked them clean.

He ignored her sharp intake of breath and his own shock. “They make everything from scratch.”

“You going back to bed after breakfast?”

“God knows I’m gonna try. My first class today isn’t until one.”

“I thought you said it was at ten.”

“Nah, that’s my Tuesday and Thursday class. I got them mixed up.”

“Mason!”

They both looked up to see a couple of guys making their way over. It was some of his frat brothers. “Hey, guys.”

“You’re up early.” Mark Stevens leaned against the booth and eye fucked Jo. “I can see why, though.”

“Jo, these are my frat brothers, Mark, Scott, and Devin. Guys, this is my pseudo sister, Jo. She’s off limits.”

“Hey, Jo. Good to meet you.” Scott was the first one to recover from Mason’s snarled statement.

“Nice to meet you too.” She smiled, and Mason had the sudden urge to pull her across the table and tuck her into his side, away from the guys staring at her.

“She has a boyfriend.” The edge in his voice was a clear warning, and Scott took it as such. He’d had to knock the fucker out his first semester here. Idiot thought he could haze the new guy. Fat chance of that.

“I do.” Josephine looked at Mason like he’d grown a second head. He sounded almost jealous when the guys came over. That couldn’t be right, though.

“Yeah, but are you attached to said boyfriend?” the third guy, Devin, asked, a twinkle in his eye.

“I live with him, so I’m pretty attached.”

“Damn, girl, all the good ones got to be taken, don’t they?” Devin teased.

Jo wasn’t really paying attention to Devin. She was too focused on Mason. He looked pissed.

“She’s taken, so fuck off.” Mason turned his head so he could see them. “We’re eating. Go get your own table.”

Scott held out his hands in surrender. “Fine, grouchy. We’ll leave you the fuck alone.”

As soon as they walked away, Mason relaxed. “Stay away from those three.”

“Why?”

“Because there has been some shady shit go down at the frat, and those three are at the center of all of it. We can’t prove anything, but that don’t mean shit.”

“Noted.” She took another bite of her pancakes, careful of her hands. It would be her luck to spill something. “So, I was looking through your videos last night.”

Now, that got his attention. He stopped glaring at the guys a few booths away and turned his attention back to her. Jo had never seen anyone with eyes like Mason’s. They were a true black. You couldn’t tell where the pupil ended and the iris began. They were beautiful.

“You did?”

She nodded and sipped her coffee. “Yeah. You do some funny skits. I even saw a few Let’s Plays on there.”

“I only record the games I really want to play. The last two I did were Resident Evil Two remake and the Outlast Trials. I typically keep it light and funny.”

“So, horror games are light and funny?”

“Well, no, but they make for some funny moments seeing me scream my ass off onscreen.” He smiled sheepishly. “I’ve been thinking of adding movie reviews as well.”

“I was thinking of doing movie reviews too.” Jo made a note to look up his playlist for those games.

Mason screaming like a girl was something she definitely wanted to watch.

She pushed her plate away, unable to eat anything else.

“Think maybe you might want to go watch a couple movies with me, and we can do them together? Swap it from channel to channel each week, and that way fans don’t think we’re straying too far from the content they expect from us? ”

Mason’s eyes got huge. “Really?”

“Really. Maybe give your channel a boost in the process. I figure if you can haul me back and forth from school, I can introduce you to my subscribers.”

“I’d like that.” He gave her a shit-eating grin. “I’d really like that, and not just because of the channel. I have a feeling you and I are gonna be really good friends, Josephine.”

“I could use a friend.”

He took her hand, his thumb stroking the back of it, sending a wave of shivers along her arm. “You got one, moye dragotsennyy .”

“What does that mean?” His accent was thicker today. She’d barely detected it yesterday. Keith told her Mason grew up in Russia, but hearing him speak it in that accent did things to her girly parts, and she felt a blush race up her neck and bloom on her cheeks.

Mason leaned forward, his black eyes intent. “You’re blushing, Josephine.”

“I, uh…”

“You two ready for the check?”

Jo took a shaky breath and pulled her hand from Mason’s, grateful for the waitress’s interruption. Spending time with Mason might not be the best idea after all, but she wasn’t about to back out of her offer to do a movie review segment for their shows. It wouldn’t be right.

“Sure thing, Heather.” Mason never looked away from her, and it made her blush run even hotter.

“Paying separate or together?”

“Together,” Mason answered before she could. When she opened her mouth to protest, he cut her off. “Don’t even think it. I asked you to breakfast, which means I’m paying.”

This was new for her. She and Ray usually split the check when they went out. He’d never offered to pay her half before. Her old boyfriend always footed the bill. She’d been with Ray so long, she’d forgotten what it was like not to split everything.

It was nice.

Once the check was taken care of, Mason dropped her at her building and drove off, presumably back to his frat to get some sleep.

She went inside and hurried to her first class, even though it was a little early.

The smile on her face seemed to want to linger, and that was all because of Mason.

She couldn’t help but compare him to Ray, and sadly, her boyfriend came up lacking.

Didn’t mean she didn’t love him, only that she saw his flaws a little more clearly.

Taking out her laptop, she shot off an email to Mason with her schedule. She refused to let herself think about how much she was looking forward to seeing him later. It was only because she desperately wanted a friend.

That…and nothing else.