Page 15 of Developing Hearts (Pine Point Fixer-Uppers #5)

Chapter fifteen

Mason

A solution had been found. The rest of the day, Mason didn’t get in his head once about how he looked or how crappy of a model he must have been or how he was constantly being observed.

In fact, by the time Mason was heading back to his hotel room, he didn’t remember anything about the day after that kiss on the roof.

Maybe that wasn’t entirely true. He could remember lots of things, but they felt unreal, veiled in a mist of hormones and confusion and…more than a little happiness, if he was totally honest with himself.

David had kissed him. Out of nowhere. He acted like he wanted to do it too.

Mason sat in his office chair, laptop open in front of him…

and he just sat. The idea of going through the motions again, filling out his spreadsheet, double checking everything, throwing himself right back into the work, then recording his thoughts like this was something clinical that could be captured in a document, it all felt wrong.

More than anything else, that felt unnatural.

After a couple minutes, Mason got up. The world would survive one night of him not furiously pecking away at his keyboard…he hoped. After all, it was more than a little bit egotistical to think that he was so important.

He dialed up room service and placed an order.

This was the sort of night that called for beers.

A couple of beers, at a minimum. Mason had also discovered they had a dang good chicken salad.

Mason was not particularly well-versed in culinary arts, so he hadn’t known what to expect from a sumac chicken salad.

Once he tried it, though, he ordered it the second night.

And now he was ordering the Turkish chicken salad yet again.

It was made with gem lettuce, sumac-roasted chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, and these crispy chickpeas that Mason could have gobbled by the handful, if the kitchen would send him enough.

Ten minutes later came a knock at the door.

It was quick, but it also couldn’t be that hard to throw together a salad from pre-prepared ingredients, so Mason didn’t question it.

He’d eat, then he could put on his responsible adult pants again and do his daily maintenance and record-keeping.

He couldn’t just float in the dream-like cloud of getting kissed by a gorgeous man.

A gorgeous man who was on the other side of the door when Mason pulled it open. “David. Hi.” Mason swallowed hard, suddenly feeling like he couldn’t breathe.

David had changed out of his more fashionable look, but that didn’t make it any less suggestive.

Either that, or Mason just thought he looked sexy in everything.

He was in a pair of black and red harem pants, patterned with roses, although the pattern was severely faded, as if David wore them a lot.

That, plus a black tank top with swooping arm holes, and he looked like a movie-ready boyfriend waiting for the director to say action.

Other than the tense set of his jaw, and the look of discomfort in his eyes. “Hi. Can I step in for a second?”

“Of course.” Mason almost stumbled as he backed up and let David inside, but it seemed like that hazy, horny, elated mist was finally lifting, and he really wished it would come back. “Everything okay?”

David turned and spread his arms wide. “You tell me. I really got caught up in the moment, and I think you’re so good-looking, but that doesn’t mean I have the right to just kiss you out of the blue.

” He scratched his fingers back through his hair, which lifted up the hem of his tank top and stretched the skin across his ribs and the muscles along the side of his chest. The ones that looked like little furrows in a field, that looked like they’d be a hell of a lot of fun to run his tongue over.

“I’m fine.” Mason’s voice was high and tight, and he sat down on the bed in some hope that David wouldn’t see him getting hard. “It was a surprise. I know you were trying to stop me from spiraling.”

David’s shoulders stayed taut, even as he lowered himself down into the arm chair in the corner. “I was…but that’s why I told you all of that. I kissed you because I wanted to know what your lips felt like. And then I really liked them.”

Mason felt a sudden sharpness to his breath. Something wasn’t lining up. “You don’t need to worry. I’m not offended.”

David nodded. “Thanks. But I still…I want to kiss you again.” Only after that did David’s shoulders finally relax a bit. “Properly. With you, you know, present and aware what my plan is. A proper kiss.” He crossed his legs, uncrossed them, and crossed them again the other way.

Mason had lived with a dick for thirty years. He could recognize the signs of someone trying to hide a hard-on, and that was a classic example. The tension inside Mason’s head grew. This still wasn’t lining up. “I’m okay. Honestly. I had a freak-out, but I’ve managed to calm down.”

David shook his head, a taut smile pulling at his lips. “I feel a little bit like I’m talking past you, here.” He rose and Mason learned he was right. There was a definitive imprint in those pants. “I want to kiss you. I think you’re sexy. I liked kissing you and would enjoy doing that again.”

“You don’t—”

David crossed the room and grabbed Mason by the shoulders, staring down into his eyes.

“Either you’re about to tell me that I don’t need to, in which case I tell you no shit, I want to, or you’re going to tell me that I don’t really want to kiss you, in which case you’re wrong.

” He squatted down so he was on the same level as Mason.

There was nothing off in his expression.

His eyes were bright. He didn’t seem drunk or anything.

Mason’s brain scratched and scrabbled for anything he could find that would make sense…

and eventually, he had no choice but to land on the obvious.

“You’re serious?” He still couldn’t say it straight out, had to make it a question.

“Yes, I’m serious.” David pressed a hand to Mason’s chest, still maintaining eye contact.

“Now you don’t have to say yes. I already kissed you without permission once today.

But don’t say no because you think that I’m somehow doing this against my will.

I’m not. I want to do this because I want you. ”

The words echoed in Mason’s head, all the gaps that his mind had dug, looking for some other explanation, leaving room for it to reverberate.

I want you . He tried to remember if he’d ever heard that before…

and he would put decent money on him never being told that someone wanted him. Not in that way. Not sexually.

Mason leaned forward and pecked David on the lips, even as his body and mind screamed at him to stop. A passing glance of their mouths and nothing more.

When David didn’t recoil, Mason laughed. “Holy shit.”

David raised an eyebrow. “I thought you tried not to cuss in front of clients.”

“I also don’t kiss clients. I think we’re beyond the realm of how I treat clients.” Mason felt tears pricking behind his eyes, but he pushed that back. A crying make-out session wasn’t a great idea. He could unpack his damage later if he had to.

For now, he leaned in for a longer kiss, and David sat down on the bed next to him.