Page 87 of Swept Away

Okay. So, this is only me?

Feeling my way around, I move toward the kitchen.

“Gizmo? Where are you?” I call my cat, and only manage to do that once when I hit a wall of muscle and a sharp scream peels from my lips.

A hand slides promptly over my mouth while a strong arm snakes around me.

I’m instantly lifted off the floor, and I kick my legs for nothing. My back is pressed into a man’s chest, and laughter echoes in the living room.

I quickly figure out what’s going on, and the answer comes from Carter, who sets me on my feet and brushes his lips over my cheek.

“Too late, babe. You could’ve been dead by now,” he says, and I have no idea what he’s hinting at.

“I told you she wasn’t ready,” he says to the man who chuckled a second ago.

Another arm loops around me, and Mason pulls me into his chest, no longer laughing.

“Where the fuck were you, kitten?” he says against my temple, and I’m scared and turned on at the same time.

20

GEMMA

I shovehis chest away from me, and he steps back, laughing.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I say and pivot to Carter. “Can you please restore the power?”

He looks at Mason, who tilts his head in approval, and walks to the surge panel. Within seconds, the power is restored, and the lights come on.

Avoiding Mason’s eyes, I walk past him toward the kitchen when he grabs my wrist and stills me in place.

“Where’s your phone?”

I move my gaze to him.

I haven’t seen this man in a week. I missed him, hated him, jerked off at the idea of him. He felt close to me. Then he felt like a stranger to me, someone I never thought I’d ever see again, and had to remove from my head.

Whichever way I tried to break away from him has failed miserably.

He looks at me sternly, his expression divorced from the careless laughter I heard in my living room moments ago.

I’ve never seen Mason mad before, but he looks pretty pissed now.

“Bring me her backpack,” he says to Carter, who snatches it up from the table and tosses it to him.

He catches it with one hand, his eyes locked on mine.

“Where’s your phone, Gemma?” he asks, pushing my backpack toward me.

I reach inside my skirt, retrieve my phone, and hand it to him.

“Turn it on.”

I do as I’m told and give it to him.

“Why didn’t you answer my texts?”

I look at him like he has lost his mind and move away from him.