Page 20 of Housekeeping

11

Mason

I woke up feeling like I was on top of the fucking world. I had a fucking dirty grin on my face and nothing could erase it. Not even Dad and his fucking antics. It lasted for all of two seconds as I stretched across the bed and found it empty.

What the fuck?

I thought I was dreaming, so I looked around and sure enough, the room was empty. Shit, why did she creep out like that? I was thinking about it when I remembered last night and thought, it doesn’t matter. Last night was fucking….

Hmm, I couldn´t believe that I was lost for words. Me. Mason Thompson. Then I remembered she had to work and that must be why she got up and didn’t want to disturb me. I slid out of bed, humming a little tune, and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. No longer feeling dejected, but more like the fucking king of the castle.

I’d see Laura again, there was no doubt about that in my mind. I wasn’t sure what had changed yesterday when I’d held my hand out to her. Before she probably would have just turned me down. I felt a little guilty when I thought I used her vulnerability yesterday, just a little bit, to get what I wanted. The decision had ultimately been hers, and she’d had plenty of times to try to back out of it, only she hadn't.

I jumped out of the shower like a rabbit out of a magic hat, toweled myself dry and walked back to the bedroom, and headed for the closet. My mood was put to a dramatic end once again as I thought about going to look for Laura and then remembering that I had to work too. I couldn’t start neglecting work, not for any reason. I found another pair of slacks and a shirt, a belt, cuffs, and a coat. I got dressed, then put on a pair of socks and my shoes. I stopped in front of the full-length mirror behind the closet door and grinned at my reflection.

I went to the bed where I opened a drawer on the nightstand. I pulled out a watch and wrapped it around my wrist.

I left my room with my hands in my pants pockets, still humming the same tune under my breath. There was a large smile on my face, but no one there to see it. By the time I got to the elevator and pressed for the right floor, I’d controlled my expression just a little. I was going up to see my brother after all. I didn’t want to confuse him, and I didn’t want him getting the wrong idea either.

I got off on the right floor and walked down the hall, nodding to the secretary before walking right into the office. Trent was already there, already working, as usual. He had his head buried in his monitor already, scanning reports.

“Do you ever fucking sleep? Or are you living here these days?” There was a jaunty tone to my voice as I broke the silence.

He glanced up from the computer. “Well, I’m always busy. I get off late and I start early, most work is like that. It won’t go away if I take extra time to sleep. How’s your work been? Anything to do today?”

I crossed the room to sit on the chair in front of his desk, crossing my legs and folding my arms, thinking for a split second whether to tell him about last night. A second longer of thought made me change my mind. We weren’t tight. We didn’t share intimate details of our lives and that wasn’t going to change now.

“At the moment, no. I’m done with what I had to do before, so I came to see if there was something else you needed help with.”

He sighed and leaned back, his elbows resting on the arms of his chair, and his fingers clasped together. There was a slight frown on his face, and I took it to mean I wasn’t going to particularly like the news he had to tell me.

“There’s a deal we need to get for the hotel, an important deal. The problem is, I’m swamped with meetings for today, besides everything else I need to do.”

“And?” I asked out of curiosity.

He picked up a folder on top of his desk and pushed it across to me.

“We either get it, or our competitors will pick it up from under us, and we can't have that or Dad will have palpitations when he comes back. I need you to go and get this deal for us.”

I read through the document, taking note of the dates. Trent was right; Dad would be mad if we lost this because it was a deal he must have been working on for nearly three months. I recognized some of the names, and they were pretty big, almost as big as the Thompson name.

“How long do you think it’ll take you?” Trent prompted, his eyes drilling into me.

“It’ll only take a day or two. It depends on the level of competition though, because with something like this I’m assuming there is going to be competition.”

He knew more about it than I did. I had to pick his brains, even if my cock was begging me to find Laura. My mind was telling me I couldn’t fuck this up. Not once, if for once I was going to earn my Dad’s respect. Even if it felt like a waste of time at the best of times.

“There is, but I’m sure it’s not anything you can't deal with. I need you to head out as soon as possible. I would have gone myself, but I get better deals out of a boardroom, and Kevin isn’t particularly suited to this.”

Of the three of us, I was the one good at cutting deals. I closed the folder and got up.

“I’ll head out in an hour. I’ll let you know when I get the deal.”

“Or you could let me know if it falls through.”

I laughed. “Oh, please. I’ve never lost on a deal.”

Especially not when it was taking up my time when there was plenty of other shit I could have been doing. I left the office with the folder tucked under my arm, heading back to my room. Once I was in, I picked up the hotel phone and made a call to the cleaning department.