Free Lessons in SECRET by Crystal Perkins

Mase, too, but after Stella
threatened him, he may want to stay away. I hope not, but I have to
be prepared for it.
    * * *
    Mason
    I’m sitting in the
game room at Isa’s apartment building waiting for her. The guards
directed me here when they told me she wasn’t home yet. There’s
no seating in the lobby, and I was hoping they’d just send me up to
her place. I wanted to look around a little, and see how close she is
to bringing Kurt down. I know she’s in, but I really need to know
how much time there is.
    They didn’t go for my
promises of just wanting to surprise her, and told me they’d send
her into the room once she got here, and I could surprise her then.
If I’d been thinking clearly, I would’ve remembered that this
place isn’t guarded by the usual rent-a-cops. That’s the problem,
though. Since meeting Isa, I haven’t been thinking or focusing the
way I need to be. And I really shouldn’t be here. I convinced
myself that it was over, but I know it’s not. I can’t walk away
from her. And it just might get me killed.
    “What do I need to
see in there?” I hear Isa ask from the hallway.
    I don’t hear the
answer, but I stand up to greet her as she walks in the room.
“Surprise.”
    “Mase? Hi. What are
you doing here?”
    “I wanted to be here
in case you needed me. You know…after.”
    “Oh. You didn’t
have to. I’m fine.”
    She’s fine after
sleeping with some random guy? Maybe we’re both hiding more than I
thought. “Really?”
    “I didn’t sleep
with him…or anything else.”
    “What? How? Isn’t
Kurt going to be mad?” I already know the answer to that last one,
but I have to ask.
    “I can’t tell you
the details, but let’s just say that he fell asleep, and will wake
up thinking we had a really good time.”
    She knocked him out.
Good girl. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”
    “I know what Stella
told you earlier. I hope she didn’t scare you away,” she tells
me, looking way too serious.
    “I’m here, Isa.”
    “But maybe it’s too
tell me goodbye.”
    “That’s what I
should be saying, but I can’t. I really can’t.”
    “I don’t want you
to be with me if it’s not what you want.”
    “I’ve never wanted
something as much as I want to be with you. Please don’t ever
forget that. I love you, Isa. More than I thought I could love
another person. I should be walking away from you, but I’m too
selfish for that.”
    “I love you, too. And
if wanting you is selfish, then for the first time in my life, that’s
what I plan to be.”
    I kiss her. I can’t
not kiss her after she says something like that. She kisses me back,
and we both pour everything we are into it. Into each other. I’ve
never kissed another woman like this, because there’s never been
anyone like this for me before. And there never will be after her.
She’s it for me, and that means I’m going to die alone one day.
Because God knows, I’m not going to be with her.
    I put those thoughts
out of my mind as she starts walking backwards, our mouths still
having their play date. I hold her hands as she leads me down the
hall. We stop kissing before the lobby, but I keep possession of one
of her hands. We smile and nod until the elevator doors close, and
then the bases are loaded.
    Her legs are wrapped
around me as I suck on her nipple through the fabric of her dress and
bra, and thrust my pelvis into hers. Her hands are pulling at my hair
as she squeezes me closer. I never realized that dry humping in an
elevator could be so hot. Belatedly, I think of the cameras that must
be in here, and pull back.
    “Cameras?”
    “Yes. But Ain—my
friend—will erase the tapes. I need your mouth.”
    We reach her floor just
as I give her what she asked for. I’m the one walking backwards
now, carrying her in my arms as she starts kissing and biting me on
every exposed piece of flesh she can find. I gently pry her off my
neck to remind her that it’s not turtleneck season and