by Natalie Ann
“Really?” Cade said. “What the heck is with you guys finding women at work?”
“As you so kindly pointed out,” Aiden said, “we’re never anywhere else. Unlike you.”
Cade snorted. “Whatever. I’m always the last to know everything, it seems. You all knew, didn’t you?” he asked looking around the room. Mason couldn’t tell if Cade was acting like he was hurt or he really was.
“You’re never here,” Aiden said again.
“It’s because you guys give me so much shit when I am. I might as well stay out of your hair.”
Everyone laughed but Mason. He wanted to but thought there was some truth to that statement. He’d always been more sympathetic to his siblings than they were to each other.
“Maybe if you didn’t spew shit out of your mouth all the time we wouldn’t give you so much grief.”
Cade laughed this time. So much for feeling sorry for him. He was probably just busting on everyone to get sympathy or attention like he did as a kid. “Someone needs to liven things up in this family. You guys all walk around with sticks in your asses half the time.”
Mason rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Let’s move on, please.”
“No,” Cade said. “I want to know more about this lady you’re dating. What’s her name?”
“Jessica,” Mason said.
“She’s in college,” Brody said and Mason knew Brody did that just to jab at Mason.
“Really? Is she even legal?” Cade asked, busting out laughing. “I need to go meet this chick.”
“She’s not a chick,” Mason argued. “She’s more mature than you. A hell of a lot smarter than all of us too.”
“All I know,” Ella said, “is I’m getting sick of you guys bringing home younger women and making me feel old.”
Mason thought for a second and realized it was true. Aimee and Nic were both early twenties, so really not that much older than Jessica.
“Can we be done annoying Mason?” Aiden asked, usually the one to stand up for him. “I’ve got work to do. Mason, did you have anything else to add besides your love life?”
“Ella,” Mason said, “did you find out anything else from the security company?”
“No,” she said, frowning. “The cameras had been rotated to that door just a few days prior. There was nothing else left to see.”
“What’s going on?” Cade said.
“Nothing much,” Mason said. “Just that a side door in the warehouse was unlocked and Jessica was able to get in that day when she was locked out. No one admitted to it. I’m not sure if someone snuck out for a smoke and didn’t lock it or not.”
“The cameras only go back three days,” Cade said. “So it was unlocked all that time?”
“I don’t know for sure. That’s my guess.”
Cade looked at Ella. “Call what’s his name. The mountain man and have him put more cameras in the warehouse. At all doors at all times.”
Mason wanted to jump in and say that it was his business and his responsibility and that he’d already thought of that too. Seemed neither he nor Cade had to worry though. Ella pulled out a piece of paper. “Here’s the quote for the work right here. I already talked to Travis about it.”
“Good,” Mason said. “I don’t need to see the cost. It should be done regardless.”
“Agreed,” Aiden said.
“Same,” Brody said.
Ella snorted. “I don’t know why I bothered to meet with Travis then, I should have just told him to do it.”
“Oh, Ella,” Cade said. “You enjoy all those quotes and projections. Don’t say you don’t.” She narrowed her eyes at him, which only made him laugh. “You love me, Ella. Admit it,” Cade said.
“It’s a good thing she is sitting across the table from you,” Mason said. “Now she’d have to jump across it to smack you and she probably couldn’t in her little skirt. Not without messing herself up.”
Everyone laughed but Ella. “Are we done with the brewery?” Ella asked in her businesswoman’s voice, ready to move on. “Aiden has work to do, so you go next,” she told him.
And they did, because they always did what Ella said.
Calming Presence
Mason was walking back to the brewery, lost in thoughts over the meeting with his family when he heard his name yelled. Turning, he saw Chuck standing there, grinning at him.
“Chuck,” he said, still walking. This douche would forever be in his life, it seemed.
“So how’s the young lady?” Chuck asked, walking up to stand next to Mason.
“Don’t you have something you need to do? Or don’t you have a job?”
Chuck laughed. “I was wondering if you were hiring?”
Mason stopped and laughed. “You’re joking, right?”
“No. Why?” Chuck asked, looking confused.
“Why?” Mason said, shaking his head. “You made my life miserable in school. For years if you weren’t calling me names, then you were shoving me around. Now you think since we’re adults you can call me your friend and think I’ll give you a job. Get a life.” Damn, that felt good to say and came out so easily.
He started walking away, but Chuck reached out and put his hand on Mason’s shoulder again, squeezing hard. “I asked if you had a job opening; I didn’t say anything about being friends.”
Mason knocked Chuck’s hand off his shoulder. “Keep your hands to yourself and find yourself another place to work.”
“No need to get nasty,” Chuck said, his eyes narrowing.
“You haven’t seen nasty,” Mason said. The words were coming out of his mouth without thought right now.
“Want to go around with me?” Chuck asked. “Think you’re so tough because you’ve made a name for yourself? Or are you going to get one of your brothers to take care of it for you?”
“They never dealt with you before for me and they won’t now. Frank’s gym,” Mason threw out before he could stop himself. “Tomorrow at seven in the morning. Once and for all, you’ll see who the bigger person is.”
He turned and stalked back to the brewery trying to calm himself and slightly shocked at what he’d just done. He let himself in the front door and saw Mac, one of his brewers, was out on the floor talking with the hostess, looking over the sign-up sheet for tours.
“How’s it going this morning?” Mason asked.
He’d been here already, then left for the meeting. He was the first one in, as always, though this time he was here around five, two hours before Mac. Mac was one of his right-hand men and since Mac had everything covered at all times, he offered to do the tours this morning until someone else was available. It surprised Mason he and Mac got along as well as they did because Mac talked as much as Cade threw up.
“It’s going good. First tour was great, though I can’t seem to get them to laugh like Jessica does.”
Mason looked Mac over. Big guy. Not as tall as Mason, but about thirty pounds overweight and five years older. A shaggy beard on his face and his hair pulled back in a ponytail. “You probably scare all the women and kids.”
Mac reminded Mason of Chuck in size, but nothing in personality. He pushed the confrontation with Chuck out of his mind. He had time to figure out what to do tomorrow.
“And some of the men,” Mac said, laughing. “I kind of miss doing this from time to time.”
“I thought everyone was happy when we hired Jessica,” he asked.
“I’m thrilled,” Becky said, the hostess. “She’s so nice and fun. And she helps out between tours. I never thought she’d have such a calming presence to her.”
“Why’s that?” Mason asked, surprised by the comment. Jessica never seemed all that calm to him. Or at least in the beginning she didn’t. Lately she sure the hell was. Like she was completely different since they started to sleep together.
“Because she is always moving around so fast,” Becky said, “but she keeps everyone in line too, all the while answering questions and entertaining the kids. They love her.
People walk out of there talking about all the stuff they’ve learned.”
“Hey,” Mac said, “what about when I give a tour?”
Becky looked over at Mac, then back to Mason. “The guys say they learn things, but the women and kids tend to come out looking for the shop or wanting food. Sorry. I think you give too many technical terms.”
“So does Jessica,” Mac said. “I’ve heard her.”
“But she does it differently.”
“She’s got a nice smooth way about her,” Mason said.
“So we’ve seen,” Mac said, giving Mason a sly look.
“Meaning?” he asked, not surprised this might be coming up.
“Come on, Mason. You’ve got your eye on her. Ask her out,” Mac said.
Should he say something? He’d told Jessica if it came up to just say it and not deny it. “I already did,” Mason said, walking away. He did that often—walked away when he was done talking and his staff was used to it by now. Only this time Mac wasn’t letting him go.
“Hey, wait up,” Mac yelled, coming after him. “And?”
“And we’ve been dating for a few weeks, so I guess you guys don’t see as much as you think.”
Mac laughed. “Good for you. Maybe that’s why you’ve been a little bit more outgoing lately.”
Mason turned before they reached the brewery doors. “Am I really that different?”
“Nah. I’m just busting. Anyway, she’s a good nut. Nice kid.”
“She’s not a kid,” Mason said.
“She is to me. Though I guess she doesn’t really act it. Still, you couldn’t pay me to have the patience to date someone that young.”
“You like cougars, just finally admit it.”
“Hell yeah. They know what they want in the bedroom and aren’t afraid to say it. Best sex of my life was my ex. She was fifteen years older than me and I shouldn’t have let her go, but I wasn’t ready to commit.”
Mason shook his head, not wanting to talk about sex with any of his employees. “If you need someone else to do the next tour, let me know and I’ll find someone.”
“I should be good,” Mac said, so Mason pushed the door open to the hallway and then went into the brewery.
Petie was hosing down the concrete floor, cleaning up any hops that had fallen during the last mixture. He was also hosing down one of the guy’s boots. “Having fun?” Mason asked.
Petie turned. “Willy over there is always dropping half the grains on his feet. I’m just helping him out.”
“Petie is being a dick like he always is,” Willy said. “It’s like having a kid in the house, but I just ignore him like I do my own kids.”
Mason moved past and walked around the brewery, checking everything out, then went through the bottling plant and saw Dale drinking a soda and looking at his phone rather than watching the controls. He made his way over. “Everything running smoothly?”
“Yep. Just set this pass a minute ago. I’ve got fifteen minutes before the next one comes through.”
Dale was right, and it didn’t need to be watched non-stop, but it still irked Mason that his staff goofed off so much. Or at least some of them did. Most were good. Most did their job well. Hell, even Petie and Dale did a good job; they just wanted to laugh while doing it.
Normally he didn’t care. Once they started doing tours though, he told the guys they needed to watch their language and actions while anyone other than employees were back here. So far everyone did seem to be adhering to it.
Maybe he was just being overly sensitive lately because everyone seemed to be judging the age difference between him and Jessica. First his family, then Chuck.
He walked past the bottling plant and into the warehouse, then moved around and checked all the doors. Everything was locked and the bay door was shut. He’d been walking through checking more and more lately.
He’d planned on having a staff meeting tomorrow and telling everyone about the increase of the cameras but decided not to. Something told him to hold off for a bit. They all knew there were cameras in places and others that rotated. It was probably just an innocent mistake, but he’d let it go for now.
***
Jessica was just walking in the door from her night class with a pizza in her hand. She should have eaten before she left but ran out of time. Between her job and being with Mason, she had to get her schoolwork done when she could. Though these two classes were easy, she had a paper due and spent most of the day typing it up.
She was just setting the pizza down when her phone rang. “Hey there,” she said when she saw Mason’s name pop up. “What are you doing?’
“Just finishing up some work. You?”
“I just walked in the door with a pizza.”
“What kind?” he asked.
“White garlic with tomatoes.”
“That sounds good. Care to share it with me?”
She hadn’t seen him since Monday at work. She’d left for home after saying bye to him and they’d just texted back and forth since. Not a lot, but enough to have some communication. She was guessing they were going to stay in the routine of her having time to herself Monday night through Friday morning for classes and assignments. She was slightly disappointed by it but knew that she still had to put school first.
Besides, Mason had work to do. She already knew he wasn’t at the brewery as much as he used to be and she was thinking it was because he wanted to spend time with her. As much as she was thrilled over that, she was thinking at some point they both had to get back to their normal routine.
“If you want to, come over and get it now,” she said. “I don’t want to eat at nine.”
“It’s almost eight thirty,” he pointed out.
“Yep. So I’ll have at least one piece gone before you get here.”
“Save me some,” he said, laughing, then disconnected the call.
Fifteen minutes later there was a knock at her door. “It only takes about ten minutes to get here,” she said, leaning in and giving him a kiss.
“It took me a few minutes to finish up what I was doing, then I locked up.”
“I haven’t even started yet,” she said.
“You waited for me? That was nice.”
“I can be nice.”
“You’re always nice,” he said, picking a slice up and taking a huge bite.
“I could say the same to you,” she said, moving over and putting her head on his shoulder.
He put his pizza down. “I’m sorry. Food has to wait.”
“What?” she asked but didn’t have time to do much more than drop her slice before he had her in his arms, over his shoulder and rushing into her room. It might have been the fastest he’d walked that she’d seen. She burst out laughing, thinking she’d never thought she’d inspire that type of a reaction in a man.
“What are you doing?” she asked when he took his shirt off.
“What does it look like? Hurry up or do I have to undress you too?”
“You brought me in here,” she said, crossing her arms, pretending to be annoyed, but more than anything she was already worked up. There was a heat in her body that was spreading fast in all directions and rapidly to the most important places.
She liked the look in his eyes right now. One of determination and complete male dominance. Mason had never looked like this before and that heat that was spreading in her body turned into flames.
“I did. I guess that means I can do what I want with you?”
“Go right at it,” she said.
If she thought he walked in here fast, it had nothing on how swiftly he was removing his remaining clothes until he was naked. He pulled her back up off the bed and sent her clothes around the room like articles flying out of a twister.
Before she could open her mouth, he turned her and put her hands on the bed. There was a moment of pause…what should she do? Should she say anything?
She didn’t have time before he moved behind her, his length and heat pressing agains
t her backside. Then his chest was against her back and his mouth at her ear. “Tell me to stop if you want.”
Did she want him to? Hell no. She was finding she had a lot of making up to do in the lovemaking department. But something told her that Mason wasn’t going to make love to her right now.
Nope. They were going to have sex.
Got-to-have-it-right-now sex.
Blow-your-mind-out-of-the-sky sex.
Make-you-want-to-scream-until-you-lose-your-voice sex.
She wasn’t about to say no.
When she kept her lips pressed together, his hands came around her waist and cupped her breasts. “That’s good,” he said. “Because all day I’ve been sitting at my desk thinking of this. Wanting this.”
There were no words about to come out of her mouth right now. Even if she had any thoughts, she was pushing them aside and focusing on his big rough hands massaging her, the hair on his legs as he nudged her legs apart, then a second later as he entered her. “Oh.”
“Too much?” he asked.
“Not enough.”
When he growled, she was thinking she shouldn’t have said that. Especially when he stood up and removed his hands. She wanted to shout at him to put them back, to touch her again, but his hands landed on her hips instead, gripping her tight. Okay, that was even better.
Next thing she felt was the solid length of him moving in and out. She was still bent over and loving every minute of it. “Mason,” she said, her voice rising. She was missing something and didn’t know how to ask for it. Didn’t know if she should.
“Touch yourself,” he said, almost reading her mind.
“What?”
“You know what you want,” he panted out, his hips moving faster than she could keep up, so she just stayed there and took it because there was nothing else she could do. Nothing else she even wanted.
Did she though? Did she know what she wanted?
Yeah, she did. So she reached her hand down and put it between her folds and started to move it up and down. And moved it around until her eyes crossed right when she found just the perfect spot. Then she stayed there and told him, “Can’t you go faster?”
