Zoe/Mason and #21
Thanks for the ask! This was in regards to my 2020 Spotify Unwrapped. #20 was Lord Huron’s Fool for Love.
Well I’m not afraid to fight Let’s step outside and I’ll show you why
Mason frowned when he saw that Zoe’s office was empty. It was well past her time to be off the clock, and the fact that she hadn’t left was troublesome.
Not that he was waiting for her or anything.
He didn’t bother flicking on her light, his eyes looking at the oversized desk calendar. Ah. He remembered her talking about the self-defense class that she and Tina were hosting, but he hadn’t caught what day she was going to be doing the clinic on. Grabbing her pen, he crossed the date out, seeing that it was Zoe’s habit to do it for all the other previous days of the month and she had missed doing it with that calendar square.
Not like he was concerned it may throw her off in the morning. It was just his way of being polite.
The police station had a decently sized gym and Mason leaned against the doorframe to watch the last bits of the class. He had to admit, he didn’t expect Tina to be so capable in breaking holds or throwing her attacker into the mats. She had good form and was a decent opponent. You know, for a human.
Then again, it didn’t take much when your opponent was a scrawny string bean of a teenager, constantly blowing his hair out of his eyes. Mason sneered. If there had been anyone nearby, he would have bet that Douglas had volunteered for the class purely so he could touch Zoe, even if said touching was her slamming her knee into his solar plexus.
He winced. Mason could tell that Zoe was pulling her punches, but he’d been on the receiving end of that hit - he’d felt generous their last sparring session and slowed down enough for her to connect her punches. She hit fast and she hit hard, much to his approval - and he knew that even without her full power that Douglas was going to feel that one in the morning.
He waited until the class had been concluded before approaching.
“Thought I’d find you here,” he drawled, watching as Zoe started snapping folding chairs together and handing them over to Douglas, who stacked them up alongside the wall.
She grinned. “You remembered.”
He scoffed as he moved to help her pick up chairs, quietly smirking when Douglas turned and jogged over to them, body language all but screaming that he didn’t like the fact that Mason had shown up. “Of course, sweetheart,” he drawled.
She raised an eyebrow. “Uh huh. You went into my office and saw my calendar, didn’t you?”
Mason decided not to answer that one. “Nice class you put on, I caught the last fifteen minutes. Covered a lot of ground, though I highly doubt that anyone’ll have to put that knowledge to use any time soon in this town.”
She shrugged. “It’s still good information to have on hand. You never know when some stranger will show up and crowd you in an alley.”
He sidled up to her, hovering close enough to feel the heat of her body radiate towards him. She’d put on a plain t-shirt and yoga pants for the demonstration and his hands itched to rove over dips and curves he’d all but memorized. “That an invitation for something, Sweetheart?”
“Yeah, if you want to get your ass kicked.”
Mason’s head whipped over to where Douglas was sullenly grabbing chairs and hauling them over to the wall. “What was that, kid?”
“Mason -”
He ignored Zoe’s warning and crossed his arms over his chest. “Couldn’t quite hear you.”
The tips of Douglas’ ears turned pink. “It’s just that she’s been showing off her moves all night. She’d eat you alive if you tried anything in an alley with her.”
“That’s…” Zoe took a breath to try to gather her composure and try not to laugh out loud while shooting Mason a look that said don’t you dare make an innuendo. “Thank you, Douglas, for the vote of confidence.”
Douglas smiled and gave her such a look of blind devotion that Mason found his hackles rising. “You’re an excellent teacher, Zo,” he said dreamily.
There was a thread of irritation in Mason’s voice that he couldn’t quite get out. “She really is, kid. And since you’ve been tossed around all evening, I bet you picked everything up right quick.”
Douglas squared his shoulders and puffed his narrow chest out. “I sure did,” he said, looking Mason in the eye. Mason had to give him credit for not immediately backing down. Then again, he hadn’t given him a proper intimidating look backed with a burst of pheremones to make the boy unnerved. “In fact, I could probably teach you a thing or two.”
The harsh bark of laughter couldn’t be stopped, but then again, he also heard the indelicate snort Zoe gave. “Kiddo, if you really think you could take me on, you’ve got -”
“It’s Officer Friedman,” he said, coming out of his perpetual slouch in order to stand up to his full height. Granted, he was still several inches shorter than Mason, but the defiant look in his eye earned him the tiniest of nods of respect. “And yes, I know I can take you on.”
Zoe stood in between them. “Okay, I don’t think that’s the best of ideas. It’s late, we should all be getting home.”
“No, no, I want to see how this goes.”
Zoe looked over Mason’s shoulder to glare at Tina. “Really?”
Tina grinned. “Honestly, I want to see just how many seconds it takes for Douglas to hit the dirt.”
Zoe reached out and grabbed Mason’s arm. “Can I speak with you privately?” she asked, not waiting for a response as she started dragging him towards the other side of the gym. “What is going on?”
He shrugged. “Kid’s feeling his boundaries and wanting to pick fights.”
She narrowed her eyes. “And you’re encouraging him.”
“Sometimes people need to know how far to test things and when the things they’re testing start to bite back.” He tossed a look over to the teenager, who had gone back to helping Tina clean up the remaining chairs. “Unless you want him to continue mooning over you.”
Zoe stood up straighter. “You’re jealous.”
“Can’t get jealous of someone who doesn’t have a chance, now can I?” The statement was said calmly enough, but he tapped out a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth irritably.
She yanked it from his lips and shook her head. “No smoking in police buildings.”
“Whatcha gonna do with that then?”
“Maybe I’ll give it back to you if you ask me nicely.” Her smile faltered. “Look, he’s a kid that’s thirteen years younger than me. Whatever little crush he has on me is just that, a crush. We all had them at that age and for the most part, we all got over them. It isn’t going to do anyone any good if the guy that he sees as some weird competition sends him to the hospital.”
Mason rolled his eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh that would have impressed Nate, had he been there. “Fine, I won’t hurt the kid.” He sneered. “Even if it would get him to stop dressing like a knockoff version of me.”
“Face it, you’re just jealous of his fancy new boots.”
He scoffed at her calling him jealous for a second time that evening. “Whatever. I have boots older and better than his.” His grin widened as he reached out to palm her hip, his arm pulling her closer to him. “That’s not the only thing that’s older and better either, Sweetheart.”
Zoe leaned in and pressed a kiss to his chin. “Careful, Sunshine. He’s going to wind up landing a lucky hit on that enormous ego of yours.”
Mason rolled his eyes and smirked. “I’m letting him get one good hit in, only so he feels like he’s doing okay.”
Zoe reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, her nails scratching against his scalp in a way that had him letting out what could only be described as a satisfied sigh, his hand sliding down to cup her backside and bring her in until she was all but riding his thigh. “Be careful with my officer, Mason. I’m going to need him to be well enough to start doing patrols.”
“You two gonna make out in the corner or is Douglas going to have to go in there and break you up?” Tina teased, cupping her hands around her mouth to be heard across the station’s gym floor.
“I didn’t know that was an option,” Mason retorted, giving Zoe a quick kiss and a parting nip to her bottom lip before moving away, his mouth teased up into a knowing grin as he caught the barely inaudible whine she let out at the lack of contact. “Don’t worry, Sweetheart. I’ll deal with this and then maybe we can go back to your place for a little wrestling match of our own.”
“Just…” she sighed. “Dial it down a notch or a million, will you?”
Mason shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to her. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll go puny human level, don’t get your panties bunched up.” Pushing the sleeves of his henley up his forearms, Mason lazily sized Douglas up, watching as he got into a fighting stance. “Well? You gonna throw a punch or are we standing here all night?”
Douglas narrowed his eyes and struck out, the blow easily dodged. “Not a bad start, let’s see if one of these actually connects.”
“Five bucks says your boy toy knocks him on his ass in less than five minutes,” Tina whispered.
“Not taking that bet. We both know how this is going to go.”
“Yeah, with you leaving me to tend to Douglas’s bruised ego while you go and get freaky with that tall drink of oh shit, he got a hit!” Tina bounced on the balls of her feet as Mason reached up to dab at his mouth with the back of his hand, the smallest dab of red streaking across his knuckle.
“Not bad at all. You’ve got some potential.” Zoe was positive that there was a tiny spark of respect in Mason’s voice before he struck out with a speedy one-two combination, hitting Douglas in the chest and stomach with enough force to knock him to his knees.
“You know,” Douglas wheezed, slowly getting back to his feet. “You don’t hit that bad either.”
Mason narrowed his eyes. “You’re a persistent one, I’ll give you that,” he told him, dodging another punch. Somewhere along the line, a demonstration of what Douglas had learned had boiled down to what looked like a plain fistfight, a haymaker that would have connected on anyone else going wild as Mason zipped out of the way. He was still using enough speed and force behind his punches that didn’t raise any eyebrows, and Zoe had to roll her eyes at the fact that he even made sure to pant every now and again so it looked as if he was running out of breath.
She knew better. He was a shitty actor, even if no one else but her could pick up on it.
Their impromptu fight ended abruptly when Mason’s fist connected with Douglas’s jaw, sending him sprawling onto the mats. “You okay, kid?” Mason asked, flexing his fingers as Tina and Zoe ran towards them.
Douglas sat up with Tina’s help. “I think you broke my jaw.”
Mason shook his head. “Nah. Trust me, you’d know if it was broken. Put some ice on it when you get home.” He turned to look at Zoe. “We done here, Sweetheart?”
“Everything okay, Douglas?” she asked instead, holding out a hand to help him to his feet.
“Yeah, Zoe. It’s all good.” She inwardly winced at the sad expression on his face, but also hoped that it would mean the beginning of the end to his fixation with her.
“Come on, Champ,” Tina said, patting him on his back. “We’ll make a pit stop to the break room for a bag of ice and then I’ll take you out for some ice cream.”
Mason waited until they were alone. “You’re pissed.”
Zoe turned back to face him. “What makes you say that?”
“I bruised your officer.”
She shook her head. “You could have done worse, but you didn’t.” She pulled out the cigarette from her pant pocket and handed it to him.
“I didn’t even ask nicely.” Still, Mason shook his head. “Keep it.”
She watched his eyes darken as she shrugged her arms into his jacket, the garment too big on her. “Maybe I’m feeling generous,” she said, digging into his jacket pockets until she found his slightly crumpled carton of cigarettes and replaced it inside. Turning on her heel, she made her way towards the gym’s doors and flicked off the light. “You coming or am I walking home alone?”
There was a whoosh of air and Zoe let out a grunt as her back gently hit the wall next to the light switch. “I seem to remember me talking about having our own little wrestling match,” he said, tightening his fingers in her hair, his palm cushioning the back of her head from hitting the wall when he crowded her.
“I don’t remember agreeing,” she purred, sliding her fingers up and under the hem of his shirt, feeling the muscles of his stomach contract at the contact. “Though maybe if you ask -”
He kissed her then, just like he’d wanted to all damn day, his mouth moving over hers and tongue dipping into her mouth to taste her. “Please,” he murmured, lips trailing downwards over her throat as he wedged his thigh between her legs. “Pretty fucking please.”
It took all his willpower not to shove her pants down her hips and have her there against the gym wall as she whimpered a shaky yes when his fangs skated across her skin, but he did muffle a groan into her shoulder as he let her grind against his thigh before grabbing her hips and smothering a pleased cry with his mouth. “Keep that up, Sweetheart, and we’re not going to make it back to your place any time soon.”
“Promises, promises, Sunshine,” she replied, nipping at his lips until he melted against her, forearm braced against the wall and his other hand wandering to cup her backside and yank her closer to him. Giving him one last kiss, she ducked under his arm, grabbing her bag and slinging it across her body before heading out of the gym and into the night.
Mason quickly shut the door behind them, letting his long legs catch him up to Zoe, who hadn’t gotten quite to the edge of the parking lot yet. He shoved the sleeves of his shirt down to his wrists and rubbed his hands down his arms before casually resting an arm over Zoe’s shoulder.
“You want your jacket back?” she asked, wrapping her arm around his waist as they walked.
“Eventually.” He sighed as the warmth from her body soaked into his side. “Besides, it’s just going to wind up on your bedroom floor in a few minutes.” Her scent was also going to linger in the lining for days, making him reluctant to light up a cigarette and have the smoke drown it out.
Not that he’d tell her that or anything.
Zoe grinned at his smile. “Promises, promises,” she repeated, moving closer to him until she was all but glued to his side.
Mason’s smile widened into a full-blown leer. “And you should know by now that I’m good with keeping my word.”
“I’m not arguing with you there.” She stopped them under a streetlight and teasingly nipped at his jawline. “Just looking forward to when you make good on them.”
Mason quickly looked around the empty streets, ears straining to hear anything over the tempting sound of Zoe’s heart. Making a calculated move, he reached down and grabbed her, slinging her over his shoulder as he moved away from the light and zipped down the dark parts of the street in a blur until they were close to her apartment. He would have rushed them into her complex properly, but he knew that there was that nosy neighbor on the second floor who always seemed to be looking out their window when he showed up and he didn’t want to risk anyone witnessing a display of supernatural speed.
“Don’t worry,” he drawled as she unlocked her front door. “I’ll make damn good on them.”
