Page 4 of Hidden Resolution (Stonebrooke #2)

T he morning dawned bright and beautiful. Sunlight and sea air streamed in past the billowing curtains. Shonda stretched as she enjoyed the smell of the ocean.

A jolt shot through her, like being hit with a live wire, and she shot up in bed, heart hammering with the force of a resonating steel drum.

She was positive she’d locked the bedroom windows last night.

She distinctly remembered setting the AC to seventy-two and the fan on low.

The curtains had most certainly been drawn.

No way would she feel comfortable in a strange place with potential onlookers close by.

Yeah, that left window shouldn’t be open at all.

Without leaving the bed, she scanned the room. Everything appeared to be untouched. She eased from under the covers, careful not to produce a sound. After padding barefoot to the bedroom door and peeking into the living area, her pulse spiked.

The slider was open!

Only a few inches, but enough to indicate a visitor.

Panic clawed at her rib cage, leaving her short of breath, and she bolted for the door. Whipping it open, she charged out and straight into a brick wall .

Nope, make that a man’s chest!

Steel bands came around her to break her fall, supporting her as her knees gave way.

“Dear God, I think I broke my nose,” she moaned.

“Let me see.” Gentle hands tilted her chin.

Mason. His identity was evident by the way her body betrayed her, warmth intensifying and heartbeat quickening. All thanks to his deep, sinful voice.

He examined her nose as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.

“I don’t think it’s broken,” he said. “Want to tell me why you ran out of your room like hellhounds were chasing you?”

“Oh!” The reason slammed back into focus, and she gripped his wrists. “Someone was in my room. I don’t know if they’re still there.”

“Stay here. Let me check it out.”

“No! You’re not going in there by yourself. What if they have a weapon?”

He snorted his disbelief. “Chances are they’ve already escaped out the back with all the commotion you caused here in the hall.”

Annoyingly, he made sense.

Shonda folded her arms. “Then I guess there’s no reason I shouldn’t go in with you.” Sarcasm slipped out, but she didn’t feel bad. His alpha act was starting to grate.

“Are you always so difficult?” Mason asked, exasperation riding every syllable. “The longer we argue, the more time the perp has to escape.”

She fumed in silence while he checked every corner of her suite. Of all the high-handed attitudes! Right now, she was finding it difficult to remember what had made him so attractive to her in the first place.

“All clear,” he announced, stopping in front of her. “Let’s call the front desk and report it. Also…” His finger traced the thin strap of her tank top. “You may want to put on something less revealing, love.”

The spark in his eyes was the polar opposite of last night’s cheek kiss. She’d never given thought to her sleepwear being particularly revealing before, but Mason’s interest made her reconsider.

And now she was covered in goosebumps.

Damn the man and all his sexy energy.

While they waited for management and local police to conduct their investigation, she wrapped herself in silence. Mason said little, standing like a sentinel at her side.

Nothing appeared to be missing, and the officers were less than impressed with her story. Their polite disbelief was infuriating.

“There’s no sign of forced entry. You probably forgot to lock up,” one said with a tight smile.

She bristled and tamped down the desire to punch his smug face.

“I did lock up,” she replied through clenched teeth. “I’m a responsible adult who knows how to secure a fucking door.”

“We’ll make a note of the incident,” another offered, kinder but just as dismissive as his partner. “If anything happens again, please call.”

“Yeah, sure,” she snapped, stalking forward to see them out. “I’d absolutely love it if you came back and condescended some more.”

Shonda slammed the door behind them with more force than strictly necessary. It helped. A little. Smashing things would’ve made her happier. She shifted on her heel and froze.

Mason was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. His face was unreadable.

“You think I made this up, too?” She stormed closer, working up the nerve to tell him to go to hell.

“No,” he said evenly. “Not in the least.”

Under his watchful gaze, her rage cooled.

“Why should you believe me when they didn’t?” she asked curiously.

“I couldn’t sleep last night. When I stepped outside, I glanced over to see if your lights were still on. From what I could see, everything was shut up tight.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything to the police?” she demanded, circling back to pissed off.

“It wouldn’t have done any good,” he said matter-of-factly. “They weren’t interested once they’d discovered nothing valuable was taken.”

Shonda dropped into a chair, deflating. “So that’s it? Some fucker breaks in, and no one gives a shit?”

He pushed off the wall to stand directly in front of her chair. His intensity lit her nerve endings.

“Want to tell me why someone would break into your suite, leave everything untouched, and vanish, Shonda?”

“How the hell should I know?”

His eyes sharpened. “Don’t lie to me.”

Her throat tightened, and it was hard to push “never” from between numb lips. What was wrong with people? Did they view everyone they met with suspicion? Was that what the world had come to, a lack of trust?

More than a dozen heartbeats later, albeit fast ones on her part, he nodded once. “Let’s go get some breakfast.”

“Why don’t you tell me why you think someone would break into your room and not take anything?”

Mason didn’t wait for Shonda to get comfortable. Catching her off guard was the point, and judging by the flush creeping into her cheeks, she wasn’t happy about it. Too bad. He needed to know what kind of mess he’d walked into by agreeing to play pretend-boyfriend.

“I told you back in the room. I have no idea.”

He wanted to believe her. God, did he ever. But in his experience, women danced around the truth.

Wide, earnest eyes stared at him, and her lips parted as if she might spill secrets if pressed. Even the slight lean of her body toward him screamed honesty. Which meant this situation just went from bad to worse.

“Technically, you said, ‘How the hell should I know?’ Which, if we’re being honest, speaks of avoidance,” he countered.

She opened her mouth to argue, but he cut her off with a sigh.

“Okay, love, let’s say I believe you. That gives us two options.

” He ticked them off on his fingers. “You’ve either picked up a stalker, or someone was searching for valuables.

Let’s rule out a stalker for the moment.

You’re too far from home, and it feels too fast to attract one here.

Which leaves us with a B&E and a very important question: did they find what they were looking for? ”

“Again, I don’t know,” she said, clearly exasperated. “I don’t have anything anyone would want. I know better than to travel with valuables.”

She tossed the half-eaten strip of bacon onto her plate.

“Think,” Mason pressed, snagging the piece she discarded. “There must be something. A stalker would’ve taken a trophy or maybe left a message for you.”

She paled.

He instantly regretted pushing so hard, not wanting to frighten her worse than she already was. Yet they didn’t have the luxury of pretending this was nothing. The police had brushed it off as her imagination when they both knew it wasn’t.

“Mason, I swear to you, I don’t know. Assuming someone’s after me, why wait until I’m here? Why not attempt to break into my home or office? It doesn’t make any sense,” she reasoned.

He sighed. She wasn’t wrong.

“So what? Assume it was a fluke and double our guard just in case?” he asked.

“This isn’t your issue. You didn’t sign up for all this drama. I understand if you want to walk away.”

Her voice was small and achingly vulnerable. She was holding it together by sheer will, pretending she wasn’t shaken to her core.

“I’m not walking away, Shonda,” he assured her quietly. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Expression tight, she gave a slight nod. Worry was etched in every line of her face.

“We will,” he promised, lacing his fingers through hers.

Her helpless stare was broken by the server who slipped the check onto the table. Mason signed it and helped Shonda to her feet.

“Now let’s go do what we came here for and soak up the sun,” he suggested.

A reluctant smile curled her lips.

He’d take it.

From his towel, Mason watched Shonda at the water’s edge, wind teasing her hair, her expression distant, as if caught up in last night’s break-in.

She wasn’t faking it.

No one wore anxiety like hers unless it was real, and besides, his gut trusted her. Past incidents, however, warned him not to.

A few brave souls ignored his warning glower and ventured closer in hopes of charming her. It was time to remind the crowd she wasn’t on the market, even if their arrangement was as fake as a ten-dollar tan.

Mason jogged down the sand, cut between them, and swept her into his arms. He charged headlong into the aqua water, not stopping until they were waist-deep in the surf. An unexpected wave crashed into them, and he twisted as they fell, his body taking the impact as they both went under.

She surfaced sputtering mad, absolutely soaked, and utterly breathtaking.

“God, you are such an asshole!” she snapped.

He couldn’t help the grin. “Don’t be mad. Come here, I’ll let you sniff me.”

With narrowed eyes, she slapped water in his direction.

Christ, he adored the fuck out of her fire. His thoughts turned to all the things he could do with her passion, all the heights he could take her.

“Come here,” he commanded.

Her mossy-green eyes went wide as her gaze dipped below the water’s surface. When she looked up, intrigue had replaced annoyance.

He quirked a brow in challenge.

She waded closer, but stopped a foot shy of touching him. “If this is a game and you dunk me again, I swear, I’ll kick your?—”

Lunging forward, he caught her around the waist, pulling her to him.

“Does this feel like a game?”

“N-no.”

“I want to touch you, Shonda,” he murmured against her ear. “Are you willing?”

Her answer was a nod, slight but unmistakable.

His hand slid below the surface, gliding beneath the edge of her suit. When he reached her, he found her slick and warm. “Mmm, seems like the ocean isn’t the only thing that’s made you wet.”

“Mason…” Her voice cracked on his name when he peeled off her swimsuit bottom, tucking it into the back of his waistband.

The flush on her cheeks wasn’t just the result of the sun’s tropical rays, and she cast an uncertain glance over his shoulder.

Her voice was breathless as she said, “People are watching.”

“Let them. What will they see? A couple enjoying a bit of necking?”

He trailed kisses down the side of her throat, nipping the soft skin. Sinking lower, he drew her closer. When she wrapped her long legs around him and pressed her core against his erection, he groaned and inched her hips away.

“None of that. Not yet,” he said regretfully.

With his thumb, he teased her, circling her clit while his fingers moved in gentle, deliberate strokes. She shivered, melting into him, arms encircling his neck as she pressed her face into the crook of his shoulder.

“I’ve got you,” he assured her, sliding his finger inside her warmth. “Let go and enjoy, love.”

She clutched his back, her muscles tensing as her thighs crushed his sides.

A sharp gasp escaped her lips, followed by a breathless moan.

She clenched down hard as he pleasured her and came undone right there in his arms. He held her through the silent trembling, capturing her mouth in a demanding kiss that stole her cry before it escaped.

And as she calmed, relaxing her grip, he brushed his lips against her temple, across her cheekbone.

Her eyes were glassy, her lips swollen, and she was positively wanton-looking.

“You okay, love?”

She nodded, gracing him with a languid smile. “Why didn’t you…?”

“Because this time was for you,” he said, lips quirking.

“Is that all we’re doing?” she asked, as she stroked him through his suit.

Mason held himself back from grinding against her hand, wishing to hell they had privacy with the barrier of clothes gone. He wove his fingers through her damp hair and gently tugged her head back so they were face-to-face.

“For now, but you need to know I don’t do long-term. If you want to continue this, know it’s only for the duration of our stay.” Her frown disappointed him, but he had to drive the point home. “You cool with the terms?”

She paused for what seemed like forever, and his heart raced like he’d been the one to experience the orgasm.

“Yes,” she eventually agreed.

He shut his eyes in relief. Had she said no, his disappointment would’ve been keen.

His desire for this woman was more than he’d felt for all the women he’d been with in the last five years combined.

That alone should have him running in the opposite direction.

But he was quickly becoming addicted to the taste of her mouth and the feel of her skin against his.

“Good. That’s good,” he said on an exhale, sounding winded and embarrassingly glad. “When I get off with you, it’s not going to be half hidden in the water with a resort full of people nearby.”

She stared at him like she couldn’t quite figure him out.

He told himself he preferred it that way. Better to remain mysterious and detached, if only to prove to himself he could be. Closeness equaled eventual betrayal and pain. He’d avoid both if possible.

“Okay, give me back my bikini bottom.” She held out a hand, and her expectant air amused him.

Mason flared his eyes. “Oh, crap.”

“Don’t you dare tell me you dropped it,” she growled. “I swear to God?—”

He produced the tiny scrap of material with a flourish and a laugh.

“You are such an assh?—”

Before the end of the sentence was out of her mouth, he kissed her again, eliciting her moan.

“Asshole,” he finished the insult with a grin. “Yeah, I know. I saw a kayak kiosk down the beach. Want to go?”