by Amy Brent
“That’s fine with me,” he said.
“Wonderful.”
“However, I’m concerned it eventually won’t be okay with you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I don’t know much about you, or maybe I know too much, I’m not sure. But I do know you care about Emma.”
“Your sister.”
“Yes. And I know you hate lying. We’re already dodging the press, and I know that worries you. Us getting caught. Are you willing to add another person you have to dodge to the pot? Someone you confide in and trust?”
“I have to admit, I didn’t think you’d care,” I said.
“I usually don’t. But in this case, if it’s going to be an ongoing thing, it’s natural to do a risk assessment. Keeping something from your best friend—”
“We’re not referring to her as ‘your sister’, are we?” I asked.
“Not really. That adds another risk. Another risk we both need to take into consideration. I’m willing to do it, but you have to communicate with me. If it becomes too much to juggle, running from the press and dodging your best friend, then you have to tell me. It’s no fun when only one party is enjoying themselves.”
“I completely agree. Lines of communication totally open. That goes for you, too,” I said.
“I believe I’ve shown you I have no issues with communicating.”
“This is very true,” I said, sighing.
Just then, my phone rang. I took another sip of my wine as I reached down and silenced it. I wanted to enjoy this time with Mason. This time, where we were actually talking like adults instead of fucking like teenagers. We both sat and enjoyed the sunset as we finished our glasses of wine, and he plucked mine from my fingers before he got up from the couch.
“Refill?” he asked.
“I’d love one,” I said.
But then, my phone rang again.
“Answer that,” he said.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“Just make sure. We’re both business owners. Maybe it’s work,” he said.
He stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest, and for a split second, I couldn’t breathe. His icy gaze was intense, and his arms were flexed. It took all the composure I had left in my body to not stride over to him and throw my body on top of his.
I pulled my phone from my purse, looked at the name, and immediately I felt my face pale.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s Emma,” I said as I answered the phone. “Emma. Are you all—wait, wait. I can’t. Emma, take a deep breath.”
I saw Mason move out of the corner of my eye. His hands were down by his sides, and his shoulders were rolled back. He was posturing for a fight, like someone had just hurt his friend. Or his love. Or his child.
Or his sister.
“Hey, hey. Emma, it’s going to be all right, okay? I’m out of town right now, but I’m turning the car around.”
I locked eyes with Mason and sighed. I hung up the phone with Emma and rose to my feet, secretly disappointed I had to leave so soon.
“I’m so sorry, Mason. But Emma’s—”
“Is she all right?” he asked.
“She’s had this on-again-off-again idiotic boyfriend bullshit. Apparently, he’s engaged now? Or something? Even though they went out on a date two weeks ago. I don’t know.
She’s an absolute wreck. In her car and had to pull over because she can’t see. I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Let me know when you touchdown safely in town.”
“I will this time,” I said.
He walked me to the door, and I mindlessly lifted to my toes and kissed his cheek. My lips lingered a bit longer than they should have, drinking up his warmth as his hand smoothed along my lower back. Our eyes connected one last time before I started to my car, and he leaned up against the banister of his porch until I was out of sight down the road.
Even as I rode into town on my white horse for my best friend, I couldn’t wait to see him again. The anticipation of what I’d just agreed to was mounting, and I could feel the unused sexual energy coursing through my system. I got home and held Emma all night while she cried, letting her bitch about her pathetic ex while we drank disgusting cocktails and passed out on the couch.
And he was there in my dreams, his lips grazing my stomach as my skin tingled at his presence.
Chapter 20
Mason
I was ecstatic about being fuck buddies with Sarah. She was an easy flight from L.A., which meant she was never more than couple hours away from sitting on my cock. Her luscious curves and her beautiful tits were mine for the taking whenever I wanted, and all weekend, I jerked my cock to her memory. I knew she was dealing with some emotional bullshit from Emma, but I also knew the moment she wrapped it up with her, she’d be running back to me.
Finally, some sense had been knocked into that woman.
We would both get what we want without the shitty emotions that always screwed people over in the end. I got her body, her attention, and her mind, and she got my body, my good cooking, and anything she could ever want me to buy her. I had plans to shower her with everything and ruin her for any other man who might want her. I wanted to set the standard in her life that every other man would pale in comparison to.
Ruining a woman like Sarah Williams for the masses made me salivate.
I stayed by my phone all weekend, hoping she’d call. I sent her a few text messages and got clipped responses, and I found myself missing her. I wanted her to be here with me, drinking wine and moaning over how good my food was. I didn’t want her traipsing around downtown Dallas trying to make someone feel better.
I wanted her here in my arms.
She was so down to earth. She didn’t try to be someone she wasn’t. She was forward, always expected the truth, and always questioned the order of things. She was a self-made woman with a drive to survive and succeed, and I could relate to that. She wanted to educate and make people’s lives easier, and I could relate to that. Her banter and the way she didn’t treat me like I was royalty was also intriguing. It was like my money had absolutely no effect on her at all. Out of all the things that could have impressed her, my money seemed to do that the least.
And I found that I enjoyed that.
We also had a great deal in common, at least with our family situations. She understood my emotions toward it. She understood what it felt like to have a mother abandon her. She knew what it felt like to be screwed over by family and to be taken advantage of when it came to her money. It’s probably why she treated me the way she did.
Because she understood.
Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I really did enjoy her company. Even though I didn’t get to seat myself between her perfect thighs, I still enjoyed the talk we had before she had to rush out after Emma.
That was the real issue, keeping this from Emma.
Shit. I’d fucking blown off Emma.
I needed to call her. I knew what it felt like to get nothing but bullshit from women in my life, and she didn’t deserve the crap that was being thrown her way. I didn’t know the story, but I didn’t want to be that same kind of man in her life. I had to make it clear to her that I wasn’t ready to rekindle things with Mom. That I didn’t want to talk about it. But I’m sure there were other things we could talk about, right?
Just not Sarah. We couldn’t talk about Sarah.
I picked up my cell phone and scrolled through to her number. Before I knew what was doing, I had the phone to my ear, listening to the ringing of the phone as I waited for Emma to pick up. I didn’t know what was going to be said or if she’d even take my phone call, but what I did know was that I had to at least try.
After all, Sarah was disgusted with me when she found out who I was, and there was something inside that didn’t sit right when I thought about that.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Emma? Hey. It’s
, um, it’s Mason.”
“I know. Why are you calling?” she asked.
“Look. I’m sorry. I’ve been so busy with the business and stuff going on here in Dallas and I …”
“You what?”
“I was wondering if you’d let me make it up to you,” I said.
There was a silence on the other end of the phone that threatened to choke off my air supply. Never in my life had a woman made me so nervous. I got up out of bed and paced the floor, drawing in deep breaths through my nose as I tried to calm the trembling in my hands.
If Tony could have seen me at that moment, he would’ve never let me live it down.
“Sure. I guess that’s fine,” she said.
“Wonderful. Thank you, Emma. When are you free? I’ll make myself available.”
“The only night I’m free is Wednesday, technically, but even if we met up I’d be with my best friend.”
“You’ll be with Sarah?” I asked.
“You know Sarah?” she asked.
“I, uh, I watch her show. At least I started watching after I was interviewed there. She’s mentioned you a couple times on the show.”
I cringed, hoping to the heavens I hadn’t spoiled everything. I heard Emma take a deep breath before she let it out, sighing into the phone as I sat on the edge of the bed.
“I’m not a really good friend, I guess. I don’t watch her show.”
“Well, I didn’t interact with her for long, but she strikes me as the kind of person who wouldn’t care about that.”
“Yeah. There isn’t much she cares about, but when she cares, it’s fierce.”
“Sounds like a good friend,” I said.
“You should come out with us Wednesday night. I’m sure she’d enjoy seeing you again. Did the interview go all right?” she asked.
“Oh, no. I don’t want to barge in. You free any other night?”
“Mason, you blew me off. Just come out with us. I’d like it if you met her anyway. You know, outside of her work. She really is a wonderful person, even if she digs her heels in sometimes.”
Shit. What the hell had I gotten myself into? This was going to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
“Sure. Yeah. You just let me know when and where you guys will be on Wednesday night, and I’ll meet up with you. Under one condition.”
“What’s that?” she asked, sighing.
“No talk about Mom. I’m not ready to open that up with you yet,” I said.
“Okay. I’ll try. I will. But you know she—”
“Emma,” I said.
“Sorry. Okay. I’ll see you Wednesday, then. I’ll, um, text you? The details later?”
“Sounds good. I’ll keep an eye out for it.”
I hung up the phone and immediately called Sarah. She was going to have my head for this. Holy shit, she was going to be pissed.
“Hey there, handsome,” she said.
“We have a slight mishap I might’ve wiggled us into.”
“Us? What do you mean by us?” she asked.
“So, you have this way of sort of rubbing off on people.”
“What did you do?” she asked.
“I might have called Emma to try and reconcile. You know, make up for blowing her off.”
“Wait. You did what? That-that’s awesome! Oh, that must be while she’s calling me. Hold on.”
“Wait, wait, wait! Sarah! No. Hold on. Just call her back.”
“Mason, what’s going on?”
I’d never lost my cool with a woman like this before. Holy fuck, what was happening to me?
“In our reconciliation promise, I told her I wanted to take her out to make up for the lost dinner. She said the only night she had free was Wednesday.”
“So, she’s calling me to cancel. I don’t care. That’s wonderful, Mason!” Sarah said.
“Not quite,” I said. “She may have invited me to go out with you guys and then guilt-tripped me with blowing her off to get me to say yes.”
“What?” she asked.
“I know. I know. That’s why she’s calling you. To tell you you’re meeting her brother,” I said.
“You can’t act like you know me,” she said.
“Well.”
“What the fuck did you do, Mason?” she asked
“When she said she was going out with you, I said your name.”
“Oh, hell,” she said, groaning.
“Don’t worry, I got us out of it. Sort of.”
“What exactly did you say?” she asked.
“I said I knew you from the interview and knew you were linked to Emma because you’ve mentioned her a couple times on the show.”
“I’ve never fucking mentioned Emma on the show!” she exclaimed.
“Well, Emma didn’t know that. Apparently, my sister doesn’t watch your show.”
There was a pause, and I could feel the grin slowly spreading across Sarah’s face.
“You said ‘my sister.’ ”
“Yeah?” I asked.
“I thought she was my best friend?” she asked.
“Are we really doing this now?”
“Yes, we’re really doing this now. You’re getting attached. You like Emma. It’s about damn time, too. That girl’s been trying to get you to sit down with her for a long time.”
“All right. I get it. I’m doing a good thing. But I can’t act like I don’t know you. We’re acquaintances. Emma said she wanted me to get to know you outside of work,” I said.
“Well, that’ll make things a bit easier. Any other bullshit I should know about before I flip over to Emma who’s calling me for the third time now?”
“Nope. That’s the end of my bullshit.”
“For today,” she said. “I guess I’ll see you Wednesday then.”
“Wednesday, it is. And remember, acquaintances.”
“Oh, you don’t have to remind me of that,” she said. “Just make sure your hands understand where we’re at that night.”
“I’ll do my best to inform them,” I said, grinning.
“I’m answering Emma’s call now. She’s pissing me off.”
“Good to know I’m not the only person who does that to you,” I said, chuckling.
“I guess it runs in y’all’s DNA. See you Wednesday evening,” she said.
“See you then, beautiful.”
Chapter 21
Sarah
“Well hello there. Fancy a phone call the day before D-Day. How can I help you?”
“Hey there, luscious. I was wondering if you were free for lunch today,” Mason said.
“I suppose I could be. Today’s interview was a very early taping with the time difference.”
“Time difference? Sounds interesting,” he said.
“It was. I got the chance to interview a few of our Navy soldiers stationed in Okinawa. The interview took place very early this morning. I’m free all day.”
“Well, how does lunch at The Souffle Salon sound?”
“You can get us in for lunch there?” I asked.
“Beautiful, I could jet us off to get us lunch anywhere,” he said.
“I can hear that smug little grin.”
“And I can hear you pouring into your panties.”
“Nope. I think that’s all the blood rushing to your dick,” I said.
“That, too. What do you say? Meet me there in an hour?” he asked.
“Sure. I’ll see you then.”
I rolled out of bed and rushed around to make myself look presentable. I changed my clothes quickly and washed my face, opting for a bit of neutral makeup before I tossed my hair up into a clip. I grabbed my things and slipped my feet into heels, wanting to stun him even at lunchtime. I wanted him to salivate over my body before we found somewhere private to go and enjoy one another.
After all, that was the arrangement.
I drove to The Souffle Salon and parked right beside his beautiful red convertible. I walked on in and found him sitting at a table n
ear the window, and for a second, I panicked. Near the window? Someone was going to see us. We were already taking a chance with the paparazzi by dining right here in town. Did he not remember the rules we set forth?
By the time I was pulled from my own thoughts, I felt his hand slide into mine as he led me to the table.
“The windows are tinted on the outside,” he said. “No one can look in and see us.”
“Oh. Yes. That’s right. Sorry, I just panicked there for a second.”
“No need. With me, everything is already thought out. You just relax,” he said, grinning.
“I take it you’ve had a good morning,” I said.
“Yep. The latest product roll-out is happening, and we’re projected to bring in two million dollars in revenue over the next year.”
“Rollin’ in the dough. That’s nice,” I said. “Have you given any thought to aligning your company with a charity?”
