The Wolf Of Penshaw Lake
Chapter 19

I’m a slut.

A great, big, fucking whore.

I placed my hands over my face and silently wished the ground would swallow me up and spit me back out on the doorstep of a convent, where I would spend the rest of my days happily as a nun.What on earth was I thinking? Of course Mason just wanted to fuck and run.

Pump and dump.

Ejaculate then Evacuate.

Wham, bam, thank you ma’am.

I snorted with laughter and sat up in bed, running a hand through my hair. My brain had officially gone crazy with the amount of anxiety-ridden thoughts that had been running through it after that insane lapse of judgement during my date with Mason.

Ahotlapse of judgement. A seriouslymind-bending, erotic, steamylapse of judgement. After a year of running, the first man to show any genuine interest in me gets me to practically bend over for him. If my mother knew, she would absolutely have my hide. Despite a constant bombardment of messages from Mason, Josie, Dee and even Isaac, I refused to leave the house all weekend. I felt ashamed for enjoying it. I felt guilty for ignoring all I had been taught by mum. I felt...pathetic.

A knock at the door shocked me out of my downward spiral. Frowning, I reached for the little burner phone I kept on the nightstand. It was seven thirty at night. On a sunday. I cocked my head to the side and swung my legs over the side of the bed to pad over to the window and take a look outside. I could see three figures, but they were too close to the door to make out. I draped my dressing gown over my vest top and shorts, hoping to hide the stubble on my legs from two days of not shaving.

Another knock came at the door, this time accompanied by my phone ringing. I hastened up my pace down the stairs and glanced at myself in the hallway mirror.

Christ.

I looked haggard.

I swung open the door, the setting sun almost blinding me as I did so and I blinked quickly, holding up my hand in front of my face to try and make out who was in front of me. I pursed my lips as I realised who it was.

Dee, Josie and Kate.

“What?” I asked, moving backwards to shield my eyes and moving my hand away from my face so I could cross my arms.

“What?” Josie repeated. “Hello? We thought you’d died.”

I rolled my eyes, “You are so dramatic.”

“All of us, including Mason have been trying to reach you after your date. Mason is practically beside himself thinking he’s done something wrong,” Dee cries, gesturning wildly behind her in the direction of the Stone manor.

I sighed, “I just couldn’t face anybody.” Inside, my brain was whirling. Mason was beside himself? About me? Surely not.

“Why? Mason came home with the biggest grin on his face like he had just won the lottery,” Josie added.

I smiled at that, the corners of my lips turning upwards ever so slightly as I felt my cheeks redden.

“I just...” I stopped, barely able to get my words out.

“This calls for wine I think,” Kate decided, brandishing a bottle of red wine in the air.

The three girls bustled themselves in the house, just as easily as they had made their way into my life. I watched as they walked straight into the living room as though this were their home. I shook my head lightly, unable to dim the smile on my face as I shut and locked the door. Mum was out with Jane again, I could rant to the girls without her hearing a thing.

“Get your glasses doll,” I hear from the living room and I quickly oblige, heading to the kitchen to fetch four wine glasses.

I enter the living room to replace a space for me next to Josie on the worn, leather couch. I curled myself up in the corner as Kate handed me a half-full glass of deep, dark red wine. I took a sip immediately and relaxed my muscles into the couch as I let the wine do its job. Kate took a seat on the matching armchair and Dee looked happy enough cross-legged on the large, brown pouffe.

“Talk. Now,” Dee demanded. “Why are you avoiding us?”

“I’m not,” I sighed, it was only a half-lie. The only person I was really avoiding was Mason. It just so happened that wherever I went in town, he happened to show up too. The only place I was alone with my thoughts was my bedroom.

“What happened on your date?”

I took a really long gulp of wine.

“Stop guzzling or I’ll take it off you,” Josie warned. “Speak.”

“We kissed,” I admitted.

All three girls shrieked and Josie jumped up from the couch so quickly, I didn’t know how her wine didn’t spill everywhere. I had to clutch mine just so the momentum didn’t make me spill it.

“I’m so happy,” Dee cried, her grin lighting up her face from ear to ear.

“You minx,” Josie screeched just as Kate yelled, “I have to tell Isaac and Kai and Eric!”

“No, no stop!” I cried, leaping from my position on the couch to wrestle the phone out of Kate’s hand. “No telling the boys. I’ve barely been able to wrap my head around it myself.” I grabbed Kate’s phone, much to her dismay, and placed it into the pocket of my dressing gown.

“Girl you kissed Mason, shouldn’t you be jumping on the rooftops?” Josie asked, her excitable manner dropping like I had just kicked a puppy.

I flopped back onto the couch and dropped my head into my hands, abandoning my wine on the side table. I really didn’t want these girls to think I was some kind of hoe. I had only known them for a little over a month and yet it was like I had known them for years. I felt closer to them than any friends I had during school. They felt real. Like they weren’t going anywhere.

“What’s wrong chick?” Josie asked, her voice gentle and concerned.

“I don’t want you guys to think I’m a slut,” I said finally, sitting up and flicking my hair back behind me.

“What? What the fuck, why would you even think that?” Dee asked, her dropped mouth indicating she was gobsmacked. “Did that little runt say something, I’m going to-”

“No, no,” I reassured her. “It’s not Mason.”

“Even if you dropped your knickers for him, we would never think you were a slut,” Josie added. Her eyes suddenly widened, “Did you?”

Just as Josie was about to spontaneously combust, I shook my head, “No...but that kiss it was...” I stopped myself, unable to replace the words to accurately describe that kiss. Bliss? Magic? Everything I had ever dreamed?

“Euphoric,” I decided. “Like I had just been kissed by a celestial being.”

Kate grinned, “Continue please,” she said, bringing her wine glass to her lips as she eagerly awaited for the rest. “Please do not leave a single detail. I am so single I have cobwebs and I am only living due to stories like this.”

“For the wank bank,” Dee snorted underneath her breath.

Kate didn’t even flinch, “yep.”

I decided I would need more wine, so I gestured for the bottle with my now empty glass. I filled it and sat cross-legged on the couch.

“Okay, you want the whole date or just the naughty bit?” I said, a twinkle in my eye and a smirk on my lip. I blamed it on the wine.

“Naughty bit please,” Josie begged.

I laughed, feeling immediately at ease. There was no judgment in this room. I just hoped they would have some clear cut advice afterwards, because I was at a loss at how to even process how I was feeling. I began telling the story, of how we flirted in the bar, how Mason looked at me like he was about to pounce and how he dragged me out of the bar.

“-and then he just kissed me. It was like he was starving. It was so passionate,” I breathed, closing my eyes slightly as I relived it.

“-and then?” asked Dee whose mouth was slightly open as she drank in every little detail.

“He pushed me against the car and wrapped my leg around his waist. It was only when I felt his fingers drift up my thigh that...”

“Oh my god what?” Kate butted in.

“Shhhhh,” Josie and Dee hissed at her.

“I pushed him away.”

“WHY?” Screeched Josie as she stood up. “Why did you stop, are you dumb?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction, “No, but...”

“But what?”

“We were in a car park! There were other people. I felt like I was in some kind of Amsterdam sex show!”

“She’s not like us,” Dee reasoned. I frowned but Josie and Kate nodded, as though it all of a sudden made complete sense. “So wait, what I don’t understand is why you’re avoiding him?”

“Because I don’t want him to think I’m some whore that he can just fuck and chuck!” I exasperated.

“Oh honey,” Josie sighed, “Mason absolutely does not think that.”

“I wish you knew,” Dee added wistfully, drinking up the remnants of her second glass.

“Knew what?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows together.

Dee looked like a deer caught in the headlights as Kate, Josie and I all looked at her.

“Just what he actually thinks of you, that’s all.”

A ping stopped me from questioning Dee more, as I turned to replace the source of the noise. Josie located her phone thrown haphazardly onto a cushion. She picked it up and groaned.

“Oh man,” She voiced. “Soph, you need to go and speak to Mason.”

Her tone of voice worried me, “Is something wrong?”

Josie shook her head, “Not exactly,” She showed her phone to Dee who mumbled a string of curse words and finished her wine.

“What? What’s wrong?” I suddenly felt as though they were hiding something from me and feeling excluded made my stomach twist, sending nausea up through my chest.

“You need to go and speak to Mason,” Josie repeated, “Nothing is wrong per se, but you both need to talk to each other, Sophie you need to tell him how you feel.”

“You’re definitely going to have to speak to him,” Kate added and I frowned, turning around to face her as she cheekily waved her phone at me.

“How did you?” I began, putting my hands into my pockets. “Never mind, what do you mean?” I asked her.

“Cause he’ll be here in like...ten minutes.”

I stared blankly at her as the words drifted into my brain. As the realisation hit I swore.

“You...WHAT?” I screeched. “I look like a corpse.” I added, flapping the dressing gown like a demented pigeon.

Dee laughed at me, before sobering herself up and nodding, “No you’re right,” She said ignoring the dead look I gave her. “Take that bloody thing off. Have you got some hair ties?”

I nodded and was quickly ushered upstairs by the three girls. The plan was to make me look effortlessly pretty, with that just-got-out-of-bed-but-still-gorgeous look that only models seemed to possess the ability to do. I tried to explain that it was pointless, but Josie just shushed me.

So shush I did.

Kate worked her magic on my hair, throwing it up in a casual, messy bun, just as Dee swiped some mascara across my eyes and a matte powder on my face. Josie trawled through my wardrobe and found a pair of tight, grey tracksuit bottoms and a black vest top. As I sat there, cross-legged on the floor, I smiled at the chaos surrounding me.

How did I end up so lucky?

“Throw these on,” Josie exclaimed, then cocked her head to the side staring at my chest. “-and a bra, if you don’t I think Mason may actually die on the spot.”

I chuckled and grabbed the new clothes. I paused as the girls made no motion to give me some privacy. Kate rolled her eyes, “We’ve all got tits,” She said.

I shrugged and quickly changed into the new casual clothes, checking myself out the mirror. Dee sprayed my neck and wrists with a sweet-smelling perfume and I tidied up my eyebrows. I squeaked as I heard the knock on the door.

“I’ll answer it,” Josie cried as she was halfway down the stairs.

“You got this, he’s besotted with you,” Dee reassured me.

“-and you look hot,” Kate piped up.

I thanked her and descended the staircase, each step closer to Mason sending my heart into overdrive. He was stood in the hallway, conversing with Josie when he heard me come down and looked up. A soft smile graced his features and he removed his hands from the pockets of his jeans.

“Hey,” I breathed.

“Hey,” He repeated. “Can we talk?” He asked, gesturing to the living room.

“I’ll be upstairs,” Josie grinned and darted back up the staircase, no doubt to try and listen in at the top.

Mason let me go first and I led him into the living room, offering him a wine. When he turned it down, I knew that it must be something serious and the worry was now firmly etched in my blood. He turned around to face me and took my hand in his, I immediately sighed at the warmth it brought to my own.

“Why were you avoiding me?” He whispered.

I dropped my head, “Because I didn’t want to be just a one time thing with you and you mentioned that you wanted to replace the one...and that’s obviously not me and-”

Mason cut me off, “What? You are not a one time thing. Where on earth did you get that notion from?”

“That kiss,” I replied, my cheeks flushing a rosy pink despite the matte powder.

Mason smirked, “I had been waiting to kiss you since you first stepped foot in Penshaw Lake. Forgive me if it was a little heated, I couldn’t resist.”

I frowned, “But I’m notthe one,” I said, gesturing quotation marks with my fingers.

Mason stepped closer and I could feel the heat radiating from his body. He gently cupped my chin in his hand and lifted it up so that I was looking into his eyes. They were black again, but I was used to it now.

“You have no idea how wrong you are,” He said simply and I thought I could hear a squeal from upstairs. Mason made a throaty noise, that sounded suspiciously like a growl. It turned me on, but there was no way I would ever admit that.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me Mason,” I sighed, I wasn’t sure why I was telling him this, but something in me just couldn’t accept that Mason would truly want me. All of me. But Mason just smiled knowingly, as if he knew something I didn’t. He didn’t answer me, instead he took a few steps back and stuck his hands in his pockets once more.

“I have to leave for a few days,” He explained. “But when I’m back, you and I are going to have a proper talk.”

“Where are you going?” I asked, unable to explain the sadness I felt at his statement, but I was going to miss him.

“Up North. It’s a little town near Scotland. My friend Patrick is having some trouble and I’m going up with some family to help.”

I nodded, “I understand. Who is going with you?”

“Myself, Isaac, Kai and Eric will be going. A few other family friends will be heading on up too. I may need the girls too if things escalate, but I’m hoping it won’t lead to that.”

His tone made me nervous, “Will you be in danger?” I asked.

He barked a laugh and brought me into his arms as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

“No. I will be fine darling.”

He pressed a kiss on the top of my hair and I closed my eyes in pleasure. It was such an intimate, affectionate gesture that I was surprised at. I expected Mason to be all passion and fire, but secretly he held a gentle, nurturing side.

“When will you be back?”

“I hope it won’t take any longer than a couple of days.”

Mason suddenly leaned down and went to kiss me, before pausing and looking for consent within my eyes. I looked into the black depths of his own and the feeling of lust took over my body. I pressed my lips to his and locked my arms around his neck. He groaned and pulled me closer, trapping me within the confines of his body.

A cough sounded from behind us and I pulled back from Mason who groaned and spun us around, still keeping his arms locked around my waist.

“What?” He growled. There was no mistaking it this time. His abnormally low voice was definitely accompained by a growl. If it sent my heart races, I was the only one. Josie, Dee and Kate just stood in the hallway, amused expressions placed on their faces.

“Isaac has been calling. It’s time to go,” Dee was the brave one who decided to speak up.

Mason sighed and nodded, detaching his arms from me dejectedly as though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

“You have my number saved in that little phone of yours right?”

I nodded. His was the only male number in the phone. I considered it a great leap forward. I said a final goodbye to Mason at the door, who had to be shoe-horned out of the door by the girls much to their amusement. When the door finally shut, I locked it with a grin.

I was finally getting to live a normal life.