Where Would I Be Without You

Chapter Eight

Well, he is not a good guy; he's a great one. As I sat at his kitchen counter on a barstool, I watched him chop up a salad for us, while he had two chicken breast cooking on the stove in some sauce that smelled to die for.

"You know." I started to tease. "Doing dishes for a woman is one thing, but cooking for her takes it up a whole other level."

"Do you need me to do this with my shirt off too?" He teased as he looked over at me with just the right amount of seduction to his face that I almost answered yes.

"That might make us jump to date number seven, tonight." I took a sip of white wine that he poured for me, because there was some truth to what I just said. Just watching him cook, with the way his ass looked in his jeans and his cowboy boots gave him a rugged sexy appeal, triple ah!

He put down his knife that he was using to cut tomatoes, walked over to me and gently brushed my hair behind my ear. He let his lips drop to mine for a soft kiss and when he pulled back, he shocked me with what he said next. "As bad as I want to make this date seven, and the fact that I wish we never set a number, we just let nature take its course; I know that we both want something more here. Besides, you haven't started asking me questions. I thought I might be barraged with at least a few by now. Instead, you have sat in my kitchen, looking at me like I need to undress you and make you feel every bit the woman you are."

Oh swoon. I let out that ah sound, and he laughed and walked back over to cutting tomatoes. I took a big swig of wine, not very lady like, but I needed some courage. Once I swallowed, Mason got his questions shot out at him like a tennis ball practice machine in overdrive.

"So what made you want to stay with the family business? What were your last serious girlfriends like? What was this about Internet search on me, and can we do one on you tonight? What is your family like? Your mother? Your sisters? You've mentioned your dad is kind of hard on you, how so? How is it you and Carl already know each other?" I would have gone on, but the look on his face was priceless.

"Say again. What was your first question?" He laughed.

"Ok. Tell me about your family." I put my hands folded together under my chin and leaned my elbows on his island countertop as I stared at him with intent.

By the time we finished eating, I knew more about him than most men I have ever dated. He is the oldest of four kids, and his Catholic family wanted him married off to a nice Catholic girl years ago. His father preferred he married someone like his sisters, educated and employed in prestige positions; his mother just wanted him happy and in love. His sisters just wanted another sister and some more babies to go around. His dad was hard on him and rarely showed appreciation. We laughed about my mom being the same with me, and that it must be a first-born child thing. I found out that his last two girlfriends were a bit on the stalker side; one actually called him every hour on the hour. Now, he will not take a girl to meet his family until he does a background check. He never got around to how he knows Carl, because by the time we talked about him doing a background check on me, he had his laptop in front of me and his name in a search engine program that one must purchase. He told me to hit the return button as he had already typed in his vital information.

I spent the next twenty minutes reading some interesting things on Mason Montahue. He is quite the delectable young man. Had a few strange posts on line but what person doesn't. Had a YouTube video of him singing that he had begged a friend not to post, which was why he refused to do a song with me at the bar earlier this evening. I will not be asking that of him again. By the time I looked over at him doing the dishes in his kitchen, while whistling, I realized I was more in love with the man I just read about and waiting a few more days was not necessary.

When he finally turned to my staring, he leaned against his kitchen counter and smiled. "This was fun."

"Yes it was." I looked at him as a hungry lion looks at a piece of meat.

"I know that look Amber." He walked towards me and as soon as he got within reach, I practically slammed my body against him. His mouth tasted like wine; his lips tingled against mine, and my body was cooing a song that had me ignoring all 'let's be smart about this' signs.

Mason was the first to pull away from the kiss. He stepped back, ran his hands through his hair and gave me a sideways glance. "I don't want to wait until our seventh date." His pleas were begging me; I was begging me, and I thought what the hell, it was only a number.

I looked over at the clock, and the night was young, numbers were numbers, and I knew more about him than most men that I slept with, not to mention; he knew just as much about me. I let the one-word roll off my lips that gave him the go-ahead sign, and things were going to progress from there; I was sure of it. "Yes!"

As soon as our lips met again, clothes flew to the side of us, skin was being touched and not much else was said verbally, yet all the physical parts were spot on. It was as if we were made for each other, knew what each one liked and responded accordingly to each other. Within the hour, we laid next to each other, somehow in his bed, not quite remembering how we got there, breathing hard with two naked bodies lying next to each other and only thing touching were hands.

I spoke up first. "Wow." Because that was how I felt. Not to compare to other men, but I did. Mason had me figured out, or maybe, he just knew how to please me so well that I didn't think it got any better than it did.

"Wow is one word to describe it all. You are fantastic." Then he rolled to his side and propped himself up as he lowered his lips down to mine and kissed me. I felt his hand wander over parts of my body briefly, and then he pulled back while looking into my eyes. "You ok? You know. That we didn't wait."

"I'm good. I didn't know if I could hold out much longer. I think if we had tried, we might have exploded." I laughed.

"I was waiting out of respect. I respect you Amber. You're fantastic." He kissed me again and then rolled off to the side of me. Just hearing him say that ballooned my heart ten times, even though, deep down, a small part of me worried that since we didn't wait, he might have lost respect and find ways to think twice about what we were building.

That thinking, that once Mason and I had made love that he would just want to dump me and move on was lingering in my brain every second now. He must have sensed something as his words and actions of encouragement of there being an us carried on through the rest of the evening. Later that night, he walked me to my apartment, kissed me good night in a way that told me this did not end here tonight.

When I got home on Thursday from work, after worrying because I had not heard from him all day, I was greeted with a very stinky and slimy looking super in a work flannel shirt, work pants and rubber boots. He was holding a mop and bucket. The first words out of his mouth brought relief to my ears even though they shouldn't have.

"I had to deal with a backed-up sewer issue down in my apartment building. Cracked sewer pipe. Stuff no man wants to see, smell or clean up. I have been dealing with a plumbing contractor all day. I was just coming to this building to get another mop and bucket, when I thought maybe you might be home and want to know why I have not texted back all day. It's been a real crapper today, literally."

I tried not to laugh as I pinched my nose, but I did. I finally got out the words when the sorrowful look on his face told me he needed a little TLC. "I'll make you dinner. You go finish up and by all means wash up, and I'll be here waiting."

He started to reach in to kiss me, but I took a few steps back, opened my eyes to huge round circles and almost screamed out. "No sirree buddy. You stink. Hurry up. Wash up! And I'll be here." As soon as he took the step back out of my doorway into the hall, I quickly slammed the door shut before he answered. Whatever he had been cleaning all day obviously got on his work boots and the smell soaked into his clothes, because he stank. I heard him yell behind the door. "Thanks love. See you in a bit."

Thanks love. See you in a bit. Those few words, especially the first two replayed in my head several times while I danced around the kitchen pulling a dinner together. I opened a bottle of red wine and let it sit. I dashed into my room and put on some sexy lingerie under a tight blue tee shirt and a pair of fresh jeans. I slipped on a pair of four-inch heels in leopard print. I was being sexy. Then I freshened up my makeup, put on a pair of cute earrings and a gold necklace all while thinking of those few words he shouted through the door.

Forty-five minutes later, a freshly showered Mason stood knocking on my door. He had a six-pack of bottled beer in his hand and a smile on his face that told me he was thankful I had dinner waiting for him. "Smells good." He took a whiff in the air as he stepped inside. I closed the door behind him and took the beer out of his hands.

"Want to eat in front of the TV or at the table?" I offered.

"Let's eat at the table." He followed me into the kitchen as I pulled the chicken casserole out of the oven and set it on top of the stove. As soon as I closed the oven door and laid the hot pads off to the side, his arms were wrapped up around behind me, and he was kissing my neck.

"What a day. That smells really good. You smell really good. If I wasn't so hungry for food, I would start with you." I turned in his arms, wrapped my arms around his neck, and laid a huge kiss on his lips.

When I pulled back, I could not hold back the earlier fears that I held in all day. "I worried when you didn't text me back today. I didn't want to be a stalker girlfriend, but I wondered how your day was going. Seeing you standing there after I got home, I won't doubt what kind of day you had. Sorry about slamming the door, you stank. You smell nice now." I leaned my lips against his neck and took a quick smell of his freshly showered skin, and then I dropped a kiss on his neck.

When I pulled back, he had his hands wrapped up in my hair and a look in his sultry eyes that made me want to dive right in. It was a serious look, and his voice spoke just the same. "This job is going to have some crazy moments. Believe me when I say I am counting the days to wearing a suit and tie again, but if I don't text back, it's not because I don't want to. You don't know how good it felt to know I was coming back here, freshly showered to a home-cooked meal." Then he let his lips drop to mine, and our tongues quickly got involved as they felt a bit left out. When we finished kissing, I pulled back and looked into his eyes.

"Anytime you want; I'll cook you a home-cooked meal." I kissed him quickly and then turned to shut off the buzzer that was now sounding off loudly throughout the tiny kitchen.

By the time I finished watching him polish off three servings, I had only eaten a small portion of casserole and a huge glass of water. I was not hungry all day because I was thinking about him and our time together last night. Every time I looked over at the flowers he sent me and no text back, I worried. As I sat in my kitchen watching him eat rapidly, I realized I had worried myself for nothing. I had to realize that he had a job that can give him some freedom here and there but could also make a day go crazily awry. That thought made me think about what our time would be like when I started these online courses. I needed at least eight hours a week to complete the schooling and log on for tests. I was good at time management and could see it working, although doing course work seemed so boring compared to being with Mason. Then I wondered how busy his job as an executive would be. Carl's had him working long hours and some weekends. Marion was accepting of it as I was her tagalong pal, but would I?

He looked up from his last bite with a satisfied smile on his face. "I can hear you thinking hard over there. Your dinner was delish by the way. Not as tasty as you." Then he leaned in and pulled my head in close for a kiss. That kiss eased away all the worrisome thinking I was doing just a minute ago.

"Don't mind me. I had a busy day as well. I was a little worried when you didn't text me back. You know since we got ahead of ourselves last night."

"We did. Didn't we." His dimple smile crept wide as his eyes enlarged. I was sure his thoughts were thinking about how well we got ahead of ourselves last night. I know my mind quickly went back to the memories of our naked skin and the way we interacted so well together. It wasn't sex. It was lovemaking, and it was a bit scary how surreal it felt.

My voice held a bit of trepidation as I said his name in question. "Mason?"

"Yeah love." He grabbed both our plates, stood up and began walking towards the sink.

"Leave those. I will get to them later. You're tired. Let's move to the couch." I offered.

"You sure? I don't mind. I can even take my shirt off." He teased.

"As pleasant as that sounds. I want to hear about your day." I grabbed his hand and walked him towards my couch. As soon as he sat down, I handed him the remote, then I offered up. "While we are in the early stages of dating, I might offer you things like, let's say, the remote but when we get more serious, I like to have control of my own remote." I laughed.

He looked at me straight in the face and laid a sweet gentle kiss on my lips. The next thing I knew, the remote was back in my hand and what he said next had my heart pounding like crazy. "We are more serious. Don't you think? Especially after last night."

I replied with a kiss that led to other things. Later that night, I fell asleep in his arms listening to him talk about cooking me dinner tomorrow. I guess I did not have to question what last night meant to him after all.