Glaring at Mason as I watched Sam walk past out of the corner of my eye, and the whole time wanting to smack that smirk off Mason's face. It took all my concentration on keeping my feet planted instead of going for Mason throat. The stench of the kids arousal hit us from 20 feet away! Fighting the urge to grab him by his throat for laying a hand on Sam was one thing, but seeing the smug look fade off Mason face, and tension building in his shoulders helped get my wrongful anger in check. Sam was not mine.

I was proud of the kid though, he kept his shoulders square, head up, eyes down cast looking at my shoulder so not to challenge but more out of respect. Not backing down.

"D, it's not what you think man," Mason said, seeing the sceptical look on my face, "Don't get me wrong she's attractive but it's not like that. I feel comfortable around her like an old friend and I think she feels the same way, and that's it."

"Old friends don't strip in front of each other." Growling. Maybe the anger wasn't as checked as I thought.

"Hey I wasn't the one who striped...I mean I started to...hell...its nothing I swear and why aren't you mad at her. Shit D, why are you mad at all? It's not like you staked a claim on her or anything." The kid was talking a mile a minute.

I flinched at the comment. Mason was right, hell I knew that, but was having a problem keeping that in mind when the rest of my brain and body was saying to protect her from everybody and anything. "It's not...she's Mady's best friend and I don't want anything to go wrong or for her to get hurt." It was the truth, just not the whole truth, but Mason didn't need to know that.

Looking stricken, Mason raised his eyes and said in a stern voice, "I would never hurt her. It's hard to explain but I have to protect her."

Much more relaxed now and completely understanding the kid. Patting his back as I walked by, "Yeah. That I understand."

Not wanting to continue with this conversation, I left Mason and headed for the house to do what I came to do in the first place. To find Mady and let her know what was going on so far, then head back to Jack's, to find out the rest of the story with Katie. You could almost taste it, something was coming or was it already here? Whatever it was it was going to change our peaceful way of living. "Not good. Not good at all," mumbling to myself taking the stairs two at a time