By the time I heard the shower turn off, I was sitting up in bed. And despite his consideration of me as I slept, I was still nervous to face Mason this morning. Last night had ended fine but now that I thought about it, there were some hiccups that made me shudder.
Upon leaving Noah’s apartment, Mason had brought me to his and after running me a shower in the guest bathroom, he’d pulled me into his chest by the waist of my leggings. Running a hand down the curve of my ass, he pressed his lips to mine and squeezed, his fingertips just grazing my pussy. But when I moaned, he pulled back and laughed.
“Don’t make those sounds.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t need to get any harder.”
Selfishly, I wanted him to. I couldn’t help wanting to touch Mason, to feel my hands wrapped around his erection. But when I reached between our bodies, he swiftly stopped me before my fingers made contact and with a call from Noah buzzing on his phone, he told me to shower and left. By the time I got out, he was still on the phone. But he put the conversation on hold for a moment to tell me to go upstairs and sleep in his bedroom. And as much as I wanted to stay up and get some kind of answer for what just happened between us, I was minutes from passing out, so I went ahead and slept.
I felt him join the bed two hours later and to my dismay, he didn’t touch me. He didn’t come near me, and so I was convinced that by the time I woke up, I’d be alone. And I was right. I did wake up alone.
But not quite as I’d imagined.
“Morning.”
Mother of God.
I felt like a queen the second Mason came out of the bathroom. Leaning against a cloud of pillows in a sea of buttery silk, I turned to find him walking toward me like a Greek god walking earth. I had to bite my lip as I took in the plush, white towel knotted low on hipbones that screamed sex. I couldn’t even help my eyes as they traveled up each perfectly defined section of the six-pack that looked even better than it did in my imagination. Lord. I’d never ogled someone so blatantly in my life but it really couldn’t be helped with a man who looked like Mason Leo – especially not when he was greeting me with that sexy, crooked smile.
“Morning,” I returned in a murmur, treating myself to every slanted cut of muscle in his back as he grabbed boxers from his dresser.
“Sleep well?”
“Yes,” I replied as he disappeared into his closet. The neat sound of a zipper pulled up let me know he was changing, so I took the time to breathe and try to mimic his nonchalance. But when he emerged still shirtless in belted black pants, I nearly lost my breath again.
He observed me for a second then asked point blank, “Why are you nervous?”
My eyes fluttered. Feeling exposed, I hugged the sheets to my chest. “Um… I don’t know, Mason,” I laughed curtly. “Can’t you guess?”
“I’ll move past our little spat last night and guess that it’s something to do with the events that took place after. After you got out of the pool.”
“Warmer,” I said, watching his bicep twitch as he dried his hair. Mason smirked.
“Alright. Then is it the fact that my tongue made you come harder than Aaron’s ever made you come in your life?” He peered up from his towel to catch my frozen expression. “Oh yeah, I think I nailed it. Still not sure what the nervous Bambi eyes are about though.”
I was incredulous. “Really? You just said it. It’s that whatever line there was between us… we crossed it last night. Hard.”
“And do you regret it?”
I looked up at his gleaming eyes. “No,” I replied sooner than I meant to. I hugged the sheets harder to my breast as I countered. “Do you?” For all I knew, the silence that passed spanned three seconds but to me it felt like half an eternity.
“No,” Mason finally said.
I nodded despite doubt crawling through me. “Then…” I remembered our moment in the bathroom, when I’d wanted to return the favor to Mason only to have my offer declined. In my exhaustion, the rejection hadn’t fully sunk in last night but this morning, it made my face heat right up. “Why wouldn’t you…”
“Let you repay me?” Mason cocked his eyebrow. “Considering you thought I was trying to buy sex from you twelve hours ago, I wanted to keep things crystal clear,” Mason said, glancing up at me. He looked almost irked by the skepticism pinching my brow. “Hard for you to believe?”
“Yes?”
“Why?”
“Probably because I know too much about your sexual appetite and because I saw how hard you were at Noah’s house. And I almost felt it how hard you were downstairs last night, before I showered.” I forced myself not to be intimidated by his gaze pinned on me as he crossed the length of his room to reach his other dresser. “I guess I just have trouble believing that you’d deprive yourself of pleasure just to give me reassurance.”
I watched his back as he opened a drawer. “I don’t deprive myself of pleasure.”
“Is that your way of telling me you had girls over while I was passed out last night?”