Page 63 of Hidden Resolution

Shonda arched back, meeting his eyes.

Pure molten lava.

Her thighs tightened around him. “But not for food, right?”

He gave a low laugh, then winced. “You might want to ease up, love. My internal organs would like to survive this evening.”

A surprised giggle escaped her. She loosened her grip.

“Take me to bed, Mason.”

“Ah, those are the sweetest words I’ve ever heard.”

18

After two rounds of toe-curling, stress-busting sex and a quick shower, Mason offered to take her out for a late dinner.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather order a pizza and stay in,” she said. Her energy was depleted from a long day of work and their bedroom calisthenics. “Unless you had your heart set on going out.”

“Nope, pizza works for me. But I’m definitely taking you out soon. I’m going to insist on that dress, minus the underwear.”

“I’ve never gone commando,” she admitted, lifting the wineglass he’d poured for her.

The action of his reaching for his phone was arrested mid-stretch. He glanced back over his shoulder, expression caught somewhere between disbelief and delight.

“Never?”

She shook her head and bit her lip. “Never.”

“Dear lord! First you didn’t know what the Mile-High Club was, and now this? Your sex education is lacking in all the best ways, love. We’re going to rectify that. Soon.”

“If you haven’t rectified it by now…” She shrugged, guzzling her wine and stretching to refill it.

He grinned, climbing from their nest to cross to her bookshelf. When he settled back in, he had their old school yearbook. Flipping through, he paused now and again to study a photo.

“What are you doing? Seeking to relive your glory days?” she asked curiously.

“Pfft. Not hardly.”

“Really?” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I’d lay odds there’s a Sharp on every other page, with you beating out your brothers in a two-to-one landslide.”

“Funny,” he replied dryly.

Pinching his side, she added, “I’ll go further and say you don’t let anyone come to your place because you don’t want them to know you have your high school and college jerseys in shadow boxes hanging around the bedroom.”

He snorted. “You have me all figured out, don’t you?”

“Yep.” She laughed, snuggling down into the covers with a jaw-cracking yawn. “Seriously, what are you searching for?”

“The last time I was here, I noticed this on the shelf. I thought I’d see what younger Shonda looked like.”

She groaned. “And you had to start with my freshman year? You couldn’t pick my senior year, when I’d lost the braces and developed breasts?”

He stared at her as if the concept of her being ugly was foreign to him. “You’re lying.”

With a resigned sigh, she leaned in and flipped a few pages, then tapped her picture.

Though his face was expressionless, he missed nothing as he studied the photograph.