Page 33 of Unmasking Love (D.C. Renegades #1)

He kept me up all night. Instructing me to edge myself, reading my body through the screen just as well as he does when we’re together in person.

Then, when he finally let me finish myself it was the most mind-numbing orgasm I’ve ever experienced.

My body was limp afterwards but my mind was buzzing.

It took me another forty five minutes to settle down and fall asleep.

But this trip is about resting and relaxing. The pampering sounds nice. A massage, mud bath maybe. And then plenty of time lounging in the cabanas that line the private beach.

“Excuse me, Miss Daniels?”

“ Yes?” Both my mother and I say at the same time. Mom got tired of changing her name with each husband so she is now legally Anna Daniels and she tosses a hyphen onto her husband’s names for fun.

The poor server looks unsure what to do next. Who to address. Mom lowers her sunglasses and gives the young man a once over. He flushes and I watch as the tray he’s holding tips a little before he catches it. “I uh, have a drink delivery for Harper Daniels.”

“That’s me,” I smile and raise my hand. He steps over and hands me a creamy brown drink with a straw.

“This is a Horchata latte sent from Aiden Youngren. He says he hopes you got some sleep on the plane and this should help perk you up.” The kid clears his throat and steps away in a hurry.

“Who is Aiden Youngren?” Mom asks without skipping a beat.

“He’s someone I’m seeing.”

“What did you do to lose Crispin darling? He’s the son of the agency owner. You’d have been made. You wouldn’t have had to work again.” She says, shaking her head at me in disappointment.

That’s Mom’s method. Find a man, charm the pants off him, literally, and then weasel her way into his life so she can be a stay-at-home wife. It was more difficult for her when I was around but she’d find ways to use me in her schemes.

“Yeah, but he cheated on me, Mom,” I say as I take a sip of the drink. It’s creamy and sweet and I like it a lot.

“Oh, pish posh Harper, cheating doesn't mean anything. People cheat all the time, it’s the way of the world. Hell, if I had a penny for every time I cheated or the man I was with cheated I’d be independently wealthy!” She lets out a cackle and I hide my grimace in my straw.

This is a sentiment I do not share with my mom.

I hated the way people looked at her. At me.

Like they assumed the worst. And yeah, oftentimes they were right about her because she made her way through this world by her ow n rules, but I have tried not to do the same.

Mom never cared about the collateral damage of her decisions.

I try to make my life as impactless as possible.

“So what does Aiden do for a living?” She asks. I know as soon as I tell her he’s a professional athlete she’ll wildly overestimate his income and status level and figure out a way to try and use it to her advantage. I want to protect Aiden from that, from her, from my past.

The lie slips out before I can think twice about it.

“He restores furniture for a living.”

“What?”

“He renews old furniture and gets it ready to be sold again.”

“Like garbage?”

“Sometimes it’s people’s trash I guess, yeah. Other times people come to him to fix stuff,” I’m making it up as I go and I hope I sound convincing.

“And he’s made a whole career out of this?” She asks skeptically.

“Yep.” I smile and then take a sip of my drink. If they ever do meet I’ll have to tell him about his new career.

“Well, it’s nice of him to think about you while you’re gone I suppose.” She mumbles and picks up a magazine and starts to page through it.

We sit quietly for the next hour or so while I enjoy my Horchata and mom aggressively flips the pages of Vogue. The sun moves across the sky and finally she swings her legs over the side of her lounger.

“Okay, let's go to the room, dinner is in an hour and you need to get ready.”

***

My phone buzzes with a FaceTime call as we walk back to the room after dinner. Mom got us a suite so there are two bedrooms and a living area b etween them. I decline the call and text Aiden that I’ll call him back in a few minutes when I’m alone.

He had a game tonight and I checked the score throughout dinner.

I change out of my dress and into one of Aiden's shirts. I miss him and wanted to feel close to him. When I settle into bed I call him and hold the phone up to my face.

"Hey beautiful." He says softly. "You look sun-kissed."

"I do?"

"Yes, warm and delicious and I wish I was there to lick the salt off your skin."

I squirm my legs together, he says stuff like this all the time and I can't believe it's for me.

"We'll have to plan a trip sometime then."

"We will." He shifts so one hand is behind his head making his bicep pop and my eyes fixate on it. He sees, and flexes.

"I miss you," I blurt out. I've never said that to a boyfriend before. I never wanted to be seen as needy. Instead I would try to set up dates and ways for us to be together, like making him lunch and bringing it to work, but with Aiden? All bets seem to be off.

"I miss you, too, Harper. Tell me about your day."

I go into the details of my flight and how beautiful the resort is. I don't go into detail about Mom and the strain in our relationship I feel. She means well. She just doesn't understand that I do things differently.

"I saw the team won. Tell me about the game." I volley back to him. He tells me about the morning skate. About lunch at the hotel. About suiting up. How he was given a special edition hat to wear on the bench and then he signed it and tossed it over the glass to a kid at the end of the game.

A yawn slips from my lips and he smiles. "Gosh, sorry."

"Don't be sorry, I'll let you get some rest. And don't think I didn't notice that t-shirt you little thief."

I b lush and tuck my chin into the collar. "I wanted to feel close to you."

“If only I had something of yours to take with me on the road.” Aiden ponders and slowly he pulls something up between his fingers. It looks like a blue ribbon.

“Aiden!” I gasp.

He grins.

“You stole my underwear!” I accuse.

“I might have pocketed them on your first night over. Not my fault you couldn’t find them.” He shrugs and balls my panties into his fist.

“Tell me you haven’t been wearing them or something weird.”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean, 'not exactly'?”

He turns his face away from the screen for a moment. When his eyes come back to mine they’re piercing. “When I jerk off I wrap them around my cock.”

Involuntarily my thighs clench together and I swallow hard. That’s actually really hot.

“Wanna see?” He asks and he doesn’t wait for my response. He props up the phone on the bedside table and pulls his boxer briefs down. He’s already half hard and the languid strokes he gives himself look lazy. I look up into his face and see that he’s biting his lip and I find myself mirroring him.

“Touch yourself too Harper.” He whispers and I slide my fingers to my core. “Match my pace.”

Together we finger ourselves and I squeak instead of screaming out when my toes curl into my feet. My body stiffens and my eyes flutter shut but when he grunts quietly I open them and watch him ejaculate onto his stomach. He drags my panties through his release and rolls towards the phone.

“You’re going to ruin them,” I tease but it’s half hearted.

“You’re going to ruin me.”