Page 93 of The Spare

"Girlie, your legs are amazing!" The one in the back says, staring at me rather stunned. "What's your workout routine like?"

Mason turns his head to look at them, but then immediately turns back to his gelato, taking a bite.

"Oh thanks," I smile shyly. "I run like, ten miles a day-"

"You have to find you a man to wrap your legs around, and that'll give you a great start-" Mason talks at the same time I do, his voice laced with amusement, holding up an arm when I gasp and throw my balled up napkin at him. One of the girl's jaw drops.

"Mason!"I whisper yell. "Get-don't listen to him,"I say in an exasperated voice, raising my brows and shooting him a “will you shut up” look when the girls giggle before moving on. He just grins and puts another bite in his mouth, chuckling to himself. "I can't believe you!" I say before peeking around.

That's when I realize Mason and I are actually garnering a lot of attention.

"Mason," I hiss, tugging on his hand. He takes off his sunglasses and rolls to his back, putting his head on my thigh. "Mason, there's a lot of people looking at us!"

"So? We look good, and we work damn hard for it. As long as they're not trying to touch you, let them look," he says wryly. I eat another bite of the gelato and then absentmindedly play with his hair. "We're leaving soon."

I frown, tilting my head down to look at him. "But we just got here like an hour ago. We haven't even swam. Why do we have to leave so soon?" I twist my lips as he tilts his head up to look at me, giving me a “really?” look that makes me roll my eyes. "Mason, we have to spend a little time out of the palace."

"And thisisa little bit of time." He turns his face to kiss the inside of my leg, just inches from my pussy, and I can feel myself heat up from more than the Mediterranean sun.

"So, what's with the tattoo?" I ask, motioning to my name etched in his lower stomach. "When did you get it?"

"The day after your eighteenth birthday."

My brows rise. "And I never knew."

He smiles, I'm sure feeling very clever. "Nope."

"What else didn't I know? Were you fucking anyone?"

He smiles. "The last time I fucked anyone other than you was three days before I met you."

"How much did you spend paying my boyfriends to go away? And where did they go?"

He grins. "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per guy-" I gasp, outraged, "and where they went?" He shrugs a shoulder and getsan amused look on his face. "Who knows. As long as they didn't go inside ofyou,they could have fallen off the face of the earth for all I cared."

I scoff, scrunching up my nose. "Selfish. Anything else I don't know?" He suddenly goes quiet and I put down my cup of gelato, turning a bit. "Mason?"

"Enough questions. My turn." He turns to look at me. "When did you know you loved me?"

It hits me in my feels, and I flop back down on a huff of breath. "When I saw you leave your dad's office one day. You guys had gotten into an argument and I'd followed you out. Remember? When we all had just gotten back from doing the charity house build?"

He nods. "Hmhm."

Slowly over the last five days of us officially being together little things have come out along the way, like the tattoo, how we'd wanted each other for a while, Hendrix knowing, Mason fighting for me to have a semblance of a life but… now we're able to get to the really good stuff.

"I gave you a hug, and it was the way you put your arms around me… I think. Because for so long you'd always been there for me, but up until that point I hadn't been there for you in the same way. I felt like I contributed to our relationship, and that you'd needed me just as much as I needed you. And from there… I spiraled slowly I think…"

He gets a little grin on his face, but he remains quiet for a minute. "The day I met you I went and talked to my Uncle about getting the loan for my business. And then I went and bought the cufflinks that you see me wear all the time."

"The M initials?" I whisper. My heart beats fast and my brows scrunch together.Can't be.

Just about every time I saw him, he had them on. My mind races, at how every time we were together, he'd been pining for me just as much as I did him.

"Yep. Everyone thought M was for Mason, but-" he turns his face to me and then reaches out a hand and trails his fingertips across my brow and then down my cheek. "But the M was really for my butterfly."

Oh wow.

His words hit me right in the heart. I blink past the tears in my eyes and nibble my bottom lip.