Page 80 of The Spare

Mason waits ‘til she's in the door before he closes it and leans down into my ear. "Go get cleaned up, baby. I'm sorry we were interrupted. I'll make it up to you in the bath later when they leave." He presses a kiss to my lips before turning to head after his brother.

I take a minute and press the back of my hands to my burning cheeks. We haven't even been together three full days yet and we were already caught having sex. How embarrassing.

Isobel gives me a little smile as I make my way to her where she's waiting by the threshold to the kitchen, where Mason moves around there with Hendrix, taking out a bottle of wine and a decanter of whiskey. "Hey," she says, giving me a shoulder shrug. "At least it wasn't mom that caught you."

I roll my eyes. "That's not helpful," I say sarcastically.

Fuck, I need to lay down.

Sit down.

Something.

I feel a trickle of Mason's semen make its way down the inside of my thigh. "Two seconds," I say to Isobel, walking past her, but she's hot on my heels.

"Nuh-uh, Melly," she waddles next to me, refusing to give me any privacy. "We need to talk.You and Mason?"

I roll my eyes and push my way into our bedroom, not stopping until I'm all the way in the bathroom where I take a towel and wet it. "Can you at least turn around so I can fucking wipe up?" Isnap.

She turns her back to me, tapping her toe to let me know she's incredibly impatient. "When did this happen, Melody? And why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know, Izzy. 'Cause maybe I thought it was just a stupid teenaged crush?" I wipe my face with the warm towel, cleaning the sweat off my neck and chest before reaching under my dress where I clean myself up and then toss the cloth into a hamper.

"Have you two been fucking this entire time?" she asks, turning her face slightly.

I scoff, walking past her and then head to our closet.

She follows me, and I make her wait while I open my intimates drawer and grab a change of underwear, yanking it up my legs. She sits on the same bench I blew Mason on, glancing around the space curiously. I make her wait, taking my dress off, standing in my underwear and snatch a clean dress off a hanger.

"Melody!" Isobel hisses as I pull the dress on.

"What?"I snap, turning to face her and crossing my arms.

"Were the two of you fucking each other this whole entire time?" she stresses, giving me an inquisitive look.

"No!" I say, throwing my arms to the side then letting them hit my hips with a little pop. "There, are you fucking happy, sis? He wasn't fucking me. You didn't fail in your pursuit to protect me and smother me half to death. Is that what you want to hear?"

"Melody, please don't be like that. I think we deserve some answers, considering."

I recoil my head, scrunching my face up. "Considering? Consideringwhat?"

"Oh I don't know, Melody," she says sarcastically."How about everything King and I have done to keep you safe these last four years?"

Her eyes flash at me, but I take a step forward and meet her ire with my own. "Safe or in a prison? I couldn't even go to the fucking school I wanted to go to, Isobel."

She gets off the bench, cradling her stomach in her hands. "You know why we said no, Melody.It was too far-"

"It wasn't your decision to make!"I yell at her, letting it all out. "And I wanted to be fucking free of it all. Did it ever cross your mind that I was going half out of my mind being followed every two seconds, not having any privacy? Not even being able to choose something as simple as a college to go to? I wanted freedom."

She scoffs, nodding her head and pointing her finger at the door. "So your solution to get that hard earned freedom is tofuckand marry King's brother,huh?Because you wantfreedomso much, Mel?" She shakes her head. "Make it make sense, Melody. You'llneverhave freedom in this family. Ever. So stop deluding yourself. I can't believe you're so fucking ungrateful-"

"Isobel, get out of my closet," Mason's voice sounds out, startling me. "You may be able to run your mouth off to Hendrix, but that won't fly in my house."

I turn, seeing Mason standing there looking like he's going to blow a gasket. He walks a few steps in, followed by Hendrix who looks at me warily before stepping around Mason, the center island, and over to Isobel who's eyes narrow into slits.

"Izzy, you really need to calm down-" Hendrix says, but Isobel's head tilts to the side, and I shake mine, already knowing it's about to get bad.

Downright ugly, knowing both of Isobel and Mason's tempers.