Page 26 of Take Me (Cherry Blossom Lake #5)

Erika

I beat Mason to the bedroom by five or six seconds, which is just enough time to get in my head about setting the stage for this hookup. Do I strike some seductive pose on his bed, or stand at the foot of it with hands on my hips like the confident goddess I am?

Fuck it. I hear footsteps in the hall, so I scramble behind the door.

“Boo!” I pop out with my arms up, making him jump like a scared little girl.

But there’s nothing remotely feminine about the man who whirls to face me. “You’re so fucking dead, Gentry.”

Blue eyes blaze as he stalks me around his bedroom. He’s a lion and I’m an injured gazelle.

Not injured— horny , that’s the word I’m after. I’m achingly aware of how big my best pal really is. Years of lifting heavy kegs has chiseled Mason to masculine perfection. He’s always been bigger than his brothers, and those guys are huge .

But Mason’s a whole different beast. A beast I’ve unleashed, who’s now chasing me around his bedroom.

“There’s nowhere to hide, girl.” He growls as he stalks me, flashing his wide, dimpled grin.

A thrill rattles through me as I skitter away, dodging his oversized paw. “You’ll have to catch me first.”

“With pleasure.”

The way he says pleasure makes me shiver. My knees start to wobble as I jerk to the left, then dodge right like I did when I’d fake out opponents in flag football.

But this is no sports field. It’s Mason’s bedroom, and he knows it better than I do. The next time I dart right, he pounces.

“Gotcha.”

I squeal as he scoops me into his arms, pinning me tight to his chest. I anchor my nails in his shoulder and nip at his earlobe harder than I would if I planned to seduce him. “I’m not going down without a fight.” I shriek as he tickles me.

“Someone’s going down, that’s for damn sure.” With a growl, he tosses me back on the bed. “Gonna make you pay for that, Gentry.”

His eyes are on fire as he prowls over me.

“Oh yeah?” God, he looks good. Those biceps are fucking insane. “How do you plan to make me pay?”

“For starters, I’ll eat you up.” He gives the guttural roar he’d make when we were kids and his grandma read Where the Wild Things Are . He was trying to make his young siblings laugh, and Parker and Noah would crack up on cue.

But that’s not my reaction now. Maybe it’s the grownup growl rumbling deep in his chest. Could be the feral gleam in his eyes as he strips off my leggings and panties. There’s no trace of little-kid Mason in the confident guy who unhooks my bra with one hand.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s the way I remember the rest of that line from the book. The four words that follow the Wild Things’ vow to eat Max.

“I love you so.”

But love isn’t part of this act. It’s lust, pure and simple, as Mason shoulders my thighs apart.

“Jesus Christ.” He breathes it with reverence from the hollow between my bare legs. Lifting his gaze, his eyes lock with mine. “You are so fucking sexy.”

The wonder in his gaze makes me shudder. Nobody, not one single person, has ever said that to me. Certainly not as he’s dragging his tongue through my slick, achy seam. I gasp as his tongue swirls over my clit, then plunges inside me like he’s starving.

“Mason—oh my God.” I’ve never felt anything like this. Not just the fact that my best friend on earth is going down on me.

It’s the way he’s devouring me like this is for him and not just a way to appease me.

I know it’s not right to let my mind drift to Neil in this moment.

But the contrast is stark—Mason’s consuming me, savoring me, claiming me.

With Neil it was more like a tick box he’d check just to get to the main show.

This feels like an act of pure need. He’s hungry and feral, tender and gentle, back and forth between opposing forces until I’m panting and clawing the sheets.

“Oh my God!” White-hot desire engulfs me, unfurling tendrils of pleasure that pulse through my limbs. I’m coming so hard that my vision goes blurry and I clutch at the top of his head.

He doesn’t let up until he’s wrung every last drop of pleasure from me. It goes on forever, bright little spasms that wrack my whole body. When he looks up, he’s grinning, triumphant with my arousal painted on his chin. “That was fucking magnificent.”

“Show off.” Does he know how unraveled he left me?

“Promise me something.”

“To not let this fuck up our friendship? On it.”

His eyes flash with dread just for a second. Then he’s right back to grinning, the lighthearted guy I’ve known my whole life. “Promise me that no matter what happens, that won’t be the last time I taste you like that.”

“I promise.” The words leave my mouth before I can think, but I know once they’re out there they’re true. “You pretty much just ruined me for other men.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Please. Like you don’t know you’re incredibly good at that.” Surely dozens of women before me have told him so.

“It’s nice to hear.” He looks pleased as he crawls up my body, kissing me softly as his hips find their place between my spread legs. “God, Gentry. Why haven’t we been doing this all along?”

“Beats me,” I say, though I can think of three-thousand reasons. They escape me right now as my hands wander down, finding him rock-hard and ready. I’m dying to feel him inside me, but there’s one thing I didn’t quite count on.

“Uh, Mason?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m not gonna do the whole virginal damsel thing where I ask if you’re sure it’ll fit.” My voice shakes a little, though I’m not really scared. I am kinda nervous. I wasn’t expecting him to be this… um… “Go slowly, okay?”

I love that he doesn’t make me say it out loud. He doesn’t even gloat that I’ve basically just told him he’s much bigger than any guy I’ve been with before. Understanding fills his blue eyes as he holds himself right at my entrance.

“We’ll go as slow as you want.” He kisses me gently as my hand strokes the length of him. “I’ve got all night. Hell, I own my own business. Let’s take all the time in the world.”

His tenderness has the opposite effect. Instead of making me want to slow down, his words leave me clenching and achy and dying to have him inside me.

Using my slickness to stroke his thick shaft, I guide him to my center.

I’m panting, he’s gasping, and we’re fused together with hazed gazes and flushed, sweat-slick flesh.

He starts to slide in, and my walls clench around him.

“Oh my God.” He feels so fucking good that I forget to slow down, forget all my plans to let my body adjust.

I welcome him in like a houseguest I’ve spent a lifetime praying will turn up at my door. I’m pulsing around him, pulling him into my body. Gripping his shoulders, I wrap my thighs around his hips.

“Don’t want to—” gritting his teeth he chokes out the words, “hurt you.”

“You’re not.” I start to move with him, finding a rhythm that feels even better. “Fuck, Mason—how are you so goddamn good at this?”

He laughs and keeps thrusting, eyes locked with mine as he moves. “Not gonna last long like this.”

“Do you want to slow down?”

“Not sure I can.”

I know what he means, and I feel it, too. I’m no longer controlling my body. I give up trying and let myself go, moving beneath him like we’ve done this forever. Like we’re built to connect just like this.

The orgasm sneaks up on me, snatching the breath from my lungs. “Holy fuck!” Clawing his shoulders, I tilt my hips up to contain him. “Mason?—”

“Jesus Christ!” He lets out a roar I feel deep in my chest, and not just because he’s on top of me. Every faint twitch of muscle, every beat of his heart rocks through my body as I shatter.

We’re entwined in a way I’ve never felt with anyone. It’s not just the simultaneous orgasm—though my God, that’s insane, and so unexpected. We’re one body moving together, taking and giving; thrusting, retreating; pulsing and pounding until we’re both breathless and spent.

With one final groan, Mason rolls over and pulls me with him, fitting my head into the curve of his arm. I lie there panting and sweaty, the side of my face glued to his biceps. When I tip my chin up to study his face, he’s watching me with that big, dimpled grin.

“Dammit, Gentry.”

“What’s that?”

“Looks like you ruined me, too.” Still grinning, he kisses the top of my head. “Permanently annihilated for other women.”

“Guess that’s fair, since you ruined me first.”

“Damn right I did.”

“Me and my magical coochie have laid many an innocent man to waste. Don’t take it personally—it’s kinda our thing.”

“I believe it.” He kisses me again, on the forehead this time, then once on the nose before kissing my lips. I’m expecting a peck, but this kiss goes on for a really long time. It’s achingly soft, but so full of feeling that I’m breathless again by the time we pull back.

“Destroyed,” he says, grinning.

“Totally torpedoed.”

“Blown to bits.”

“Later for that.” Grinning, I grip his half-hard shaft.

He groans like he’s in pain or maybe intrigued by the thought. “That’ll wreck me for sure.”

“Total oblivion,” I agree.

“Utter and complete devastation.”

I rest the palm of my hand in the middle of his chest, no longer sure if we’re joking.

As anyone could guess by how long we’ve kept up our knock-knock joke schtick, Mason and I aren’t ones to give up on a good thing.

We keep having sex for the next several weeks, in between working and family stuff. I move in for real, since the crew that’s repairing the roof at my place gets delayed by the rain.

The only weird part of living and sleeping together is how not weird it is. It sorta makes sense that someone I’ve known since before I got my first period—a memory marked by Mason nobly swiping a tampon from his twin—would settle so effortlessly into other forms of intimacy.

That’s all this is: an extension of friendship. A chance to have each other’s backs through all these damn weddings.