If You Could Only See

Chapter 4

Mason~

"Now I see what all the fuss is about," Gabriel said as he plopped himself down on the couch. The twins had all their shit unpacked, and it had all been put away by Wednesday, so the living room was livable once again.

"Yeah," Michael agreed as he sat down on one of the armchairs in the room. "That girl is smokin' hot. She doesn't need makeup with that lickable little beauty mark she has by her eye."

"Watch it," I growled.

Aiden clapped me on the back as he passed me on his way towards the kitchen. "Relax, Mase. They're just fucking with you."

"Uh, actually, I'm not," Gabriel remarked. "That girl is grade-ow!"

I slapped him upside his head as I passed the couch, following Aiden into the kitchen. "I don't need your commentary review on her, Gabriel. I just needed you two to know what she looks like, so that neither of you hits on her, making me have to kill you."

Gabriel snorted.

He knew that I knew that they wouldn't.

It had been about six months after I'd first seen Shane that I had finally accepted that I was fucked when it came to that girl. I had spent most of my life not feeling much of anything for people, but every time that I'd seen her or had been near her, curiosity, concern, want, desire, possessiveness, protectiveness, and lust like a motherfucker assaulted me. I'd known that she was different, but I'd been hoping that the feelings that she invoked in me would go away with time.

They'd hadn't.

All they'd done was end up becoming a full-blown obsession, and it'd been then that I had confided in Aiden, then we'd done whatever we'd needed to do to find out all about her. It hadn't taken long to see that Shane did nothing outside going to class, going to work, and studying. She also had only one friend, and if she dated, no one could tell. Granted, had she dated, it probably wouldn't have gone well for her. It sure as fuck wouldn't have gone well for the poor bastard that had dared ask her out.

She was mine, whether she knew it or not.

Aiden had grabbed a bottled water out of the fridge, and then leaned back against the door, looking at me. "Are you sure you're going to be able to last until you graduate?" he asked.

I didn't blame him for asking because that little visit to the bookstore hadn't been necessary. I could have pointed her out to the twins a million different ways, but for some reason, I had wanted to rattle her. "I've managed for three years already. What's a few more months?"

He wasn't buying it, and apparently, neither were the twins as evident when they both walked into the kitchen to join in on our little heart-to-heart. "I think the girl is beautiful," Michael chimed in. "It is possible Dad will overlook her pedigree and just be happy for...okay, forget I said anything."

We all stood silent as Michael pretty much nailed it on the head. The only reason that I'd kept my distance for the past three years was because our father would lose his shit if he knew that I was interested in a girl that didn't come from money or influence.

Now, don't get me wrong; I couldn't give two fucks if my dad liked Shane or not. However, my problem lied in the fact that he still held the purse strings to my future. If he knew where my mind was, I had no doubt that he would threaten me any way that he could to put me back onto the path that he envisioned for me, and that would include the money that he was paying for my education and my position at Buchanan Industries.

However, the true issue at hand was that Shane Slaughter had me so tied up in knots that I'd give up Buchanan Industries to be with her. There were three other sons that could take the conglomerate just as far as I could, so I had no conscience about walking away from it. Nonetheless, I couldn't walk away from my degree. I needed my degree from Blaineview to step into my father's shoes at Buchanan Industries, and I'd definitely need it if I were forced to carve a different path for myself because of Shane...or rather, because of a father that was a stuck up, snobby, elitist with no conscience. Now, while I loved my mother very much, she was weak and of no help to any of us, making her a constant disappointment to me and my brothers.