“Come, let’s have a nightcap,” he said as he tossed a hundred on the table.
I looked up at him as I bit my bottom lip. After everything that had happened between us, I knew in that moment I wanted to give this a chance. I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach that there was something about him. He was someone I wanted to get to know better. I didn’t know where it would lead, but I was willing to find out.
Making my decision, I took a long drink of water before wiping my mouth and pushing myself out of the seat..
I felt like I had broken past a barrier. I wanted to keep going to see what else I could find, and there was only one way to do that: follow him.
*
The ride home was quiet and I could feel the sexual tension building, but it also seemed like he was starting to distance himself again.
When we finally arrived to Mason’s colonial home, he opened the door for me to enter and guided me through French doors which led to his study.
He took off his tuxedo jacket and laid it on the black leather sofa before unwrapping his bowtie and tossing it down on his desk.
I watched him, waiting for his next move. It was as if his whole demeanor had changed as soon as we left the deli. The mask he’d so easily taken off was back into place.
It was part of his personality I was getting used to.
He walked to a cherry wood cabinet off to the side of the room that held a decanter of brown liquid and poured it into a tumbler. He threw it back in one gulp then poured another glass. He grabbed it and walked in my direction as I stood there, watching him approach.
He stopped when he was mere inches away from me. I tilted my head back to look at him, wondering what was going through his mind. I was amazed at how his presence could change so drastically and yet, I wasn’t fully uneasy. That was the Mason I was used to, the brooding, domineering side, the first side I’d gotten to meet, and it was such a turn-on.
Lifting his hand, he dipped his index finger in the brown liquid and then brought it to my lips. I took shallow breaths as I looked into his eyes, not knowing what he was doing. But then he leaned down slowly, his gaze never wavering from mine, and licked the liquid off my lips.
My eyes closed at the sensation and my first instinct was to lift my arms and wrap them around his neck to kiss him, but I held back. I knew what this was. He was exuding his power. Showing me who was boss, his controlling ways wanting to take over.
“These lips,” he said softly, running the pad of his thumb along my bottom lip. “These beautiful lips could seduce any man.”
I darted my tongue out, licking his thumb and the remnants of what his tongue left behind.
He looked into my eyes before slowly lowering his lips to mine, holding my chin in place.
As soon as the taste of him entered my mouth, I lost all sense of what was right and wrong. I couldn’t help it. I knew I couldn’t deny my feelings, and resisting was futile.
I lifted my hands to unbutton his shirt as our mouths devoured one another’s. Then he reached behind me and unzipped my dress, making it fall like a puddle at my feet.
I moaned into his mouth as I ran my hands over the contours of his chest while he undid his cufflinks, letting them drop to the floor. It was the first time my fingers had touched him, the heat of his skin warming my fingertips.
I pulled away from him, breaking our kiss so I could look him over. Running my hands up to his shoulders, I pushed his shirt so it would fall freely to the floor. My heart was racing as my eyes roamed over his body, which I wasn’t permitted to see before. I let my mouth hang open so I could breathe him in, the smell of scotch and his cologne attacking my senses. He was a breathtaking sight. His body was built like a runner’s, lean and muscular. I let my hands glide over his skin so I could outline every curve as I made my way down to his abs. My favorite part was the “v” leading down his pants. It was like a beacon, pointing to the most precious part.
I tilted my head down to kiss his chest when his hands wrapped around my wrists, causing me to jerk my head up and look at him. I gazed into his hooded eyes and waited. I waited for him to move, to say something, to push me against the wall, to kiss me, anything, but he didn’t. We just stood there and stared into each other’s eyes.
He continued to stare at me, looking over my face, at every feature as if to lock it into memory. I remained still and let him. I wasn’t sure what was going on in his head, but I didn’t want it to stop. No man had ever looked at me as if I was his treasure, something precious to hold onto. It meant something. I wasn’t sure what, but I could feel it.
Lifting a hand, he ran his knuckles down my cheek and I closed my eyes and leaned into him, savoring the feel. It was the kind of tender touch I’d been aching for, one I wasn’t expecting to get from Mason, and it caused butterflies to form in my stomach.