The Art of Sage (Cruz Brothers #2)

by Melanie Munton

  I glanced over at my car. “Do I get to drive?”

  He dropped a set of keys into my hand. “It’s your car.”

  I told the girls and Mrs. Frasier goodbye and climbed into the driver’s seat next to Mason. As I started the car, I noticed that there was a new keychain on the ring. A rose. I shot a suspicious look at Mason, but he was staring out the window. I had a feeling that the keychain was meant as a symbol for my mother, or to emulate my tattoo, though both were the same thing.

  I loved him so much.

  I hoped that him showing up there with my decked-out car meant that he still loved me too.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Just drive,” was all he said.

  Since it was a nice day, I was more than happy to roll down the windows and just enjoy my sort of new ride. He directed me out of the Baltimore city limits and I got more and more curious. I was briefly distracted when I hit the freeway and Mason yelled, “Open her up!”

  I did and oh my God.

  People say they have food-gasms? Well, I had the absolute best car-gasm of my life when I thrust Roxanne into second gear and shot down the road in a rumble of gas-burning magnificence. I delighted in the purr of her newly re-built engine, relishing the meanness of her new sounds. Hell, I could feel it in my stomach, in my chest, in my ass as the vibrations reverberated through the seats.

  “Nice job on the engine, by the way,” I told Mason.

  He looked over and shot me the panty-melting smile to end all other panty-melting smiles. No man on the planet could deliver those like Mason Cruz. I was now convinced. “Thought you’d like that,” he responded.

  I followed his instructions and realized that we had ended up in the Cherry Hill district. He led us up a winding road until we eventually came to a clearing. There wasn’t a sign that I could see, but there was an area at the very top that was like an overlook. I was surprised that when we got out of the car, it had a beautiful view of the Patapsco River.

  I backed up so we could sit on the trunk while overlooking the Baltimore Metro landscape spread out in front of us. Once our bodies were inches apart as we sat next to each other, my nerves spiked again. Mason sat forward until I saw nothing but his back as I stretched out, leaning on my hands behind me. I watched the rise and fall of his shoulders as he took steady breaths.

  Somehow I sensed that this was as hard for him as it was for me, so I decided to ease us into it a different way. A way that we would both feel comfortable with.

  “Stand up,” I said.

  He turned around to look at me in confusion. “What?”

  I tipped my head to the space directly in front of me. “Stand up and drop your pants.”

  His face heated as he stared at me. And even though he looked like he might have had his own ideas for how he wanted this to happen, he followed my instructions. I watched with bated breath as his fingers snapped open the top button of his jeans and slowly drew down the zipper. Unsurprisingly, there was no underwear covering his manhood. Mason likes the commando look. I could feel myself growing wet as the patch of dark hair below his belly button was revealed to me. I couldn’t explain why, but that was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen in my life.

  “You been taking care of yourself while we’ve been apart?” I asked, my eyes glued to his rigid shaft.

  He tipped his head back, breathing through his nose, as he gripped himself firmly in his hand. “Not even once,” he confessed, shocking me. “I wanted to, needed to so many times. But it never felt right. Not without you.”

  I couldn’t have been happier with that answer. “Are you just going to sit there and watch or are you going to spread your legs for me?” he asked impatiently.

  I finally took my eyes off his impressive package and looked up at him, a coy smile spreading my mouth. “Yes.”

  His brow furrowed. “Yes what?”

  “Yes, I’m going to watch you. I’m going to sit here and watch you touch yourself like you’ve wanted to since we’ve been apart.”

  “I’ve wanted you,” he replied. “I don’t want my hand when I have you sitting right in front of me with a hungry pussy.”

  God, this man has such a dirty mouth. I couldn’t get enough of it.

  “And you’ll get this hungry pussy after I have some fun. But first, I want to watch you pleasure yourself so I can sit here and imagine what you looked like in bed while we were apart. I want to picture you lying there, imagining me and remembering all the ways you’d fucked me, trying to get yourself off.”

  He bared his teeth at me like an animal does when it sees something it wants and decides to go after it, hunt it down. “I’m not going to jack off all over you, Sage. That’s not happening. I’m getting inside you because it’s been too damn long since I’ve felt you under me.”

  Words I loved to hear. “You will, I promise. But you working yourself up gets me worked up, and I want to be nice and wet when you push yourself into me.”

  The smirk he flashed at me was devious. “Now you’re talking, baby.”

  I didn’t take my eyes off his hand as it wrapped around his length and started to stroke. I licked across my bottom lip as one finger traced around his head, pinching the tip. But when that hand slid down in one hard pump, accompanied by the thrust of his hips, I sucked that lip into my mouth, biting down hard, trying to prevent myself from taking over for him.

  “Spread your legs.” His voice had a dangerous edge to it. And just so I could hear more of it, push him a little farther, I ignored his request.

  He removed his hand.

  Reluctantly, I met his lethal gaze. “You want me to keep fucking my hand while your dirty little mind gets off on it, you’ll do what I say.”

  Recognizing that as his don’t fuck with me voice, I complied. He waited until I had my legs open and spread wide before his hand went back, continuing to stroke himself.

  “Your turn. Drop your pants and touch yourself.” I frowned slightly and he snorted in laughter. “Don’t lie to yourself. This is exactly what you want. And you fucking know it. Do it now. Don’t make me tell you again.”

  No problem. He hadn’t been the only one to not touch himself since we’d fought, and I needed a release in a bad way.

  I was quick to unsnap my jeans and get my fingers pressed up against my sensitive folds where I needed them most. Mason’s hand started to move faster as my own moved below my panties, my hips beginning to rock against my own fingers.

  “Oh, yeah, baby.” The sound of Mason’s slapping flesh spurred me on. “Are you dripping for me yet?” he rasped. “How’s she liking the show?”

  “Mmm, it’s nice,” I breathed. “But she wants more.”

  “I know she does. She misses this, huh?” He asked the question with an extra hard pull on himself. “Misses how deep it can reach inside her. How good it can make her feel.”

  “Yes.”

  I was trying to watch his movements, but it was hard when my clit began to pulse from the physical attention and his growled questions.

  “Good. Because he misses her too. Misses how hard she sucks him in when she’s really hungry for it. How tight she squeezes him when she’s milking him dry. He’s never felt anything like her, baby. And he needs to feel more of that. Right now.”

  “Then, I’d say she’s ready for him.” Judging from how soaked my fingers were.

  “Fuck.”

  The next thing I knew, my jeans were being ripped down my legs along with my underwear. Tingling sensations spread along my skin, throughout my core, as the light breeze kissed my bare sex. Mason took hold of my ankles and pulled my legs further apart, opening me fully to his lecherous eyes.

  “Goddamn,” he whispered as he lightly caressed my slick, swollen lips. “I would love to give her a proper welcome home kiss. But I don’t think I would make it through that without my balls exploding. Not when I know how you sound when you come in my mouth. Not when I know how fucking sweet you taste. I’ll make it up to her later
.”

  He didn’t give me a chance to respond. With his hands on my hips, he roughly pulled me forward and slid through my entrance without resistance. “Yes!” I screamed at the same time he groaned “Jesus Christ.”

  It didn’t take long for my body to recognize his. As soon as I adjusted to the feeling of being so full, Mason moved. Pulling out and pushing back in with feverish urgency, he didn’t relent.

  “Been wanting to fuck you on this car ever since the day I met you,” he grated through clenched teeth, clearly trying to make it last, though we knew neither of us were going to be able to draw out our pleasure too long.

  “Going to make you ride me in the front seat too, so that every time you drive this car, you won’t be able to think of anything but my cock inside you. I want you to be driving down the road with those images in your head, doing everything you can to keep from fingering yourself while your other hand is on the wheel.”

  I couldn’t formulate words. He felt too good, too perfect. I concentrated on how quickly he found that one spot inside me, urging him to stay right there. Pretty soon, even he couldn’t continue his dirty rambling, settling instead for groaning and panting as we finished each other off.

  We both reached our peaks at the exact same time, surprising me as fireworks went off behind my eyelids. Our shouts of pleasure floated through the air, drifting off into the void as we slowly climbed down from uncharted heights.

  “I know I screwed up, Sage,” he said all of sudden, remaining inside me. “I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you the day of the funeral. It’s true that my head was all kinds of messed up that day, but it’s no excuse for how I treated you. You were trying to apologize and explain, and I just turned you away.” He lowered his head and sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. Really sorry.”

  My heart splintered at the sincerity in his voice. “Did you mean what you said? About not knowing if you could stay and be patient with me? Were you really ready to give up on us for good?”

  His head snapped up and I became lost in the intensity of his gaze, those piercing green eyes. “Fuck no, I didn’t,” he spat, his voice full of fierce determination. “I’m not proud to admit it, but maybe a part of me wanted to hurt you as much as you hurt me. And I don’t want us to be that way. I’ve seen what those kinds of relationships do to people. They…decimate souls, Sage. Relationships like that do nothing but destroy and ruin. And I want us to grow, flourish. That is, if I haven’t already ruined everything.”

  Hell no, you haven’t. But the last bit of self-preservation I had when it came to this man forced the following words out of my mouth. “I told you I was going to work on my emotions. But I can’t guarantee that I won’t have moments where I slip up every now and then. I can’t have you bailing on me every time that happens. It crushes me because—” I looked away from him, licking my lips as I fought back tears. “Because it makes me feel like I’m not good enough for you.”

  I felt the puff of breath he released against my neck before one of his hands pulled my face around to his by my chin. His expression was one of disbelief.

  “How could you think that?” he asked. “With all of my issues and backwards thought processes, it’s me who’s not good enough for you, Sage. But I want to spend the rest of my life earning you. I need to know that I’m the type of person who deserves someone like you. And I’ll prove that to you every day, I swear. I’m not going to walk away just because you get upset and give me a bad look. The days of walking away from each other are over. For both of us. Okay?”

  His hand moved to my cheek, his thumb caressing it softly before moving lower to trace my bottom lip, his eyes tracking the movement.

  “You won’t leave me?” I asked, my voice trembling. I hated how vulnerable I sounded, but that’s exactly what I was with Mason. Since he held my heart in his very hands, I was nothing but vulnerable with him. Besides, we had agreed that we wouldn’t hide anything from each other anymore and that included our fears. “You promise you’re not ever going to leave me?”

  His other hand came up to grip my other cheek, bringing our faces flush against each other. His lips brushed mine as he spoke. “Baby, I’d fucking die if I ever did. I’ve already learned that. I’m just not whole when you’re not around. And if I couldn’t have you with me, beside me. If I couldn’t hold you, touch you, kiss you the way I need, I wouldn’t survive it. There would be nothing left of me if there was no you. That’s how it is now and we can’t go back. We can’t change it. And I don’t want to change it. Do you?”

  Oh, thank you. That was the moment I felt him lock away my heart with his for safe keeping. So that no one, not even he, could ever take it out and smash it.

  It was the first time in my life I ever felt that my heart was truly safe with another person. In someone else’s possession. And Mason did own it. He owned my heart, he owned my body, and he sure as hell now owned my soul.

  “No,” I answered him. “I never want that to change.”

  “You still love me?” Now, it was his turn to look vulnerable. Oddly, that was a huge comfort to me.

  “You jerk, I never stopped.”

  I only gave him a second to smile at that before I crashed our lips together, re-establishing a connection that had been severed for too long. Too long since I’d heard those groans of his reach my ears. Too long since I’d felt his demanding tongue seek out mine and do battle with it. And much too long since I’d seen his eyes roll back in his head whenever I clenched my inner muscles down around him.

  Mason was the first to pull back as he laced our fingers together, entwining our bodies in the same way that our hearts were now joined. He rested his forehead against mine, sharing our breaths, as we allowed contentment to wash over us. This feels so right. I never thought I would ever experience that kind of peace in my life.

  “Better get used to it,” he murmured and I realized that I’d voiced those thoughts aloud. “Because this is how it’s going to be every day from now on. No matter how many issues we have to deal with from our pasts, no matter how ass backwards we might do things from time to time. We’re going to do it all together.”

  “And never give up on each other,” I added.

  “And never, ever give up on each other. It’s you and me, Sage.”

  I smiled. “Well. You, me, and Roxanne.”

  Epilogue

  Mason

  One month later

  I hadn’t even realized I was literally whistling while I worked until Jimmy opened his big ass mouth.

  “Alright enough, man,” he yelled at me.

  I raised my head in his direction. “What?”

  “Look, I know you’re all mushy gushy, lovey dovey with your purple-haired vixen. But do you have to be so damn cheery all the time? It’s kind of freaking us all out. Almost making me nostalgic for the days when your surly ass mean-mugged everyone in sight and only spoke in one-word sentences.”

  “I call that Moody Mason,” came a husky voice from behind me. I turned at the sexiest sound in the world to lay eyes on its owner, the sexiest woman in the world. And she’s all mine. Sage flashed a grin at Jimmy before turning her attention to me. “I still see him every now and then, but only when I don’t give him something that he wants.”

  I could hear coughing and cleared throats from the other guys, but I refused to look away from my woman, especially when she used innuendo within hearing distance of any other man. She only winked at me whenever my icy stare turned into a glare. The little minx.

  “Well, do us all a favor, hon, and refuse him a little more often so we can all get back to normal around here,” Jimmy replied in a disgusted voice.

  Without taking my eyes off Sage, I said to him, “You’re just mad because you lost the tattoo bet.”

  He scoffed and shook his head. “That was a technicality. Just because you didn’t get her name tattooed on you, doesn’t mean I should have lost. That was a whole case of beer I missed out on thanks to you, boss man.”

  “I�
��m sure you’ll survive,” I answered. “Besides, don’t think I don’t know you’ve all got another pool going for when I’m going to propose.”

  He smirked, wiggling his eyebrows at Sage. “I cannot confirm or deny that. Although if there was such a pool, my money would be on you losing your nerve and Sage here having to do all the proposing. So, if you find yourself in a position where you need to locate your balls, don’t come asking me for help.”

  Everyone busted up laughing, including Sage, but I let them have their fun. I got to go home to Sage after all, so I had nothing to complain about. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make Jimmy clean the bathroom before he left for the day. Revenge is sweet.

  I dragged Sage into my office, pushing her up against the door as it closed. “Why do you have to look so damn edible when you come into my shop, huh?” I covered her mouth with mine, swallowing down her moans when our tongues began to duel. “When you know I’m at work and can’t do a goddamn thing about this.” I pulled her hand down to cover my stiff cock through my coveralls, emphasizing precisely what this was.

  “It’s not like we haven’t taken care of that at work before,” she replied in a low voice.

  My dick twitched in her hand at the memory. I had managed to bend her over my desk one day and fuck her from behind, while the sounds of the bustling shop could be heard on the other side of the door. But after Sage left my office with mussed up hair and every man in the place grinned knowingly at me, I said never again.

  Nobody got to see Sage in post-orgasm bliss but me. Even my shop guys who I knew all loved Sage like a sister. They may have been family to me, but that didn’t mean I wanted them appreciating any part of her body.

  “Yeah, and you know that’s not happening again,” I said. “Besides, I’ve got too much damn work to do to have a hard dick for the rest of the day.” She laughed as I pulled her in for a hug, knowing she was having just as crazy of a day as me. “How did court go?”