Page 27 of Raised On It (Between the Pines #1)

Mason

I ’ve changed my clothes what has to be close to fifty times.

I’ve had my hair up, then down, and then back up again.

At the moment, it’s down. I have on a casual red floral print dress that stops mid-thigh. I figure if I’m lucky on this beautiful Thursday, the length and flowy material will provide easy access for a certain CEO.

The day Miles revealed his real job, we talked at length about everything his role as president and CEO encompassed. He was clear that lots of travel came with the job, and he had only been around so much lately because it was harvest season.

I got my first taste of exactly what he meant that very same night. We had dinner with his parents later in the evening and then he dropped me off to go home and pack for his meeting with Luna Enterprises in San Francisco to discuss charitable and investment opportunities for EBC .

He’s been gone for three days.

Three days since he told me how important I was to him.

Three days since thanking me for finally finding him.

Three days since leaving me sexually frustrated after not sleeping with me again!

If I thought I was hot and bothered for the man before our trip to the brewery, it was nothing compared to how I felt after talking for an hour in his office.

What I wouldn’t have given for him to rip my clothes off and take me on his leather couch.

Hell, I would have been happy sprawled out on the dark wood of his desk after scattering its belongings all over the floor.

I just wanted him.

I thought for sure he would have come in with me after dinner with his parents, but instead, he told me to take the time he was away to really think about things. He said he wanted to be clear that he wasn’t talking about anything temporary. He was all in, and he needed to know I was too.

He also said he was tired of me using the fact that I'll be going back to New York as a reason to say this was temporary. As far as he was concerned, it was a moot point, and we would deal with that when the time came.

Well, I’ve had time to think about it, and frankly, I’m sexually frustrated. I know my time in Eastlyn will be short-lived, but for the time being, I’ve decided to live in the moment. To see where things go and to make the time I am here count.

It’s time to live in the here and now. If he can do it, then I can too.

Besides, I deserve a little happy.

Still trying to decide on what shoes to wear I’m balancing on one nude open-toed stiletto and checking the mirror to see if it’s the one when there’s a knock on the door.

“Eek!”

Squealing in frightened excitement, I kick my heel off and inadvertently hit the lamp on the bedside table .

Shit! He was supposed to text when he was headed this way.

Just knowing he’s on the other side of my front door has my heart dropping to my stomach.

I run out of the room, leaving the bedroom a disaster zone, bouncing off the furniture like a pinball on my way to answer his knock.

When my thigh hits the corner of the sofa table in the living room, it hurts like a son of a bitch, and it’s no doubt gonna leave a bruise, but there’s no slowing me down.

I can’t get to him fast enough, but when my fingertips touch the cool metal of the doorknob, I freeze. Taking in a deep breath, I needlessly smooth the front of my dress, trying to ease the nerves that are suddenly getting the best of me.

“I can hear you in there. Open the door, woman!”

I swing the door open to find Miles with suitcase in hand waiting for me impatiently.

“City Mouse, there you are. What took you so long?” He puts his bag in his other hand to push my hair behind my ear. “I missed you something awful.”

“Is that so?”

“Came straight here from the airport.”

He steps forward, forcing me to step back and let him in. He crosses the threshold and closes the door, placing his bag against the wall.

“I’m glad you did.”

Standing in the middle of the room, we stare at each other, neither of us moving a muscle. My insides, however, are a nervous wreck and shaking something fierce.

Hands shoved in his pockets, sandy blond hair a mess from his clear rush to get here, T-shirt clinging to his broad shoulders, he is the epitome of sex on a stick.

All confidence and bravado. Yet his eyes…

his eyes are looking for something. Answers to something I’m not privy to somehow.

I’m afraid if I speak first, I’ll disappoint him by not giving him exactly what he’s waiting to hear .

Thank God, he finally speaks.

“You have time to think about things?”

Oh shit. He was really serious about that.

Still afraid to speak I confirm I have thought about things with a nod.

“Cause, Mason, I’m about to make love to you all night long, but only if I know you’re in. Like really in.”

Whoa…did he say make love? As in love?

“I’m in.”

“You sure?”

“I am.”

“You gonna give it a rest when it comes to all this going back to New York talk?”

Animatedly, I zip my mouth shut and throw away the key.

“That’s my girl. Get over here.”

His arm wraps around my waist, pulling me tight against his hard torso. I’m pressed against an Adonis, but it’s his words still bouncing around my head that have my heart melting and my core throbbing.

His lips land ever so lightly on my forehead, my cheeks, and finally my mouth. His tongue outlines my lips but doesn’t seek refuge past them. He drugs me with his slow seduction, and my head is in the clouds.

“I missed you so much,” I confess against his lips.

“Say it again.” He sighs into my mouth, his breath filling me with life. In no rush at all.

“I missed you so much.”

Holding my face oh, so gently, he pulls back to look at me.

Sincerity.

Genuine sincerity is what I see looking back at me.

“Mason O’Brien, what have you done to me?”

“Crackle?”

“I knew you felt it too.”

“Miles… ”

“Fuck it.” He squats down so we’re eye to eye. “I’m in love with you.”

“What?” I ask, using the last breath left in my lungs to make sure I heard him correctly.

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t stutter.”

“You love me?”

“I do, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to show you just how much.”

“Miles…”

“Shh…no more talking.”

He scoops me up in his arms, and this man who claims to have never been in love before carries me to the bedroom. When he sees the clothes thrown all around the room and all over the bed he had intended to place me on, he chuckles.

Setting me on my feet with care, I start to reach for the full wardrobe covering the bed, but he stops me.

“Couldn’t decide what to wear, I see.” With a smile on his lips, he kisses me on the cheek.

Without any other words, he tells me to stay put with his eyes. He casually cleans up my mess, placing things on the chair in the corner of the room. Before he’s done, he makes a show of holding a pair of my lace panties up to his nose and taking a deep inhale.

The scrap of lace ends up in his shorts pocket instead of on the chair, and all my usual snappy comebacks are nowhere to be found. I’m having no trouble keeping quiet as he ordered in his oh, so sweet way.

Was he worried I wouldn’t return his words of love and therefore he’s playing it safe and cutting me off at the pass?

He turns his back, so he’s facing the overflowing chair and lifts his shirt over his head, adding his contribution to the mountain of clothes. I only get a second to take in the perfection of his back before he turns toward me.

You could knock me down with a feather .

Yes, his chest is bare, and his abs are on display, but it’s the lust in his eyes that has all reason leaving me.

His tan skin is bathed in the softness of the glow from the night’s sky that is slowly slipping away, soon to leave us in the dark. For now, the white walls are painted with pink and orange hues of the setting summer sun sneaking in through the window.

I’m thinking he’s going to lay me down on the now available bed. Instead, he walks up to me, slides his hand into my hair, and devours me with a kiss that has my breasts feeling heavy, my stomach tightening, and my legs quivering.

“I fucking need you, Mason.” He breathes into my mouth, taking me in another all-encompassing kiss and not giving me the opportunity to reply.

He untangles one of his hands from my hair and traces my body as though he’s memorizing my outline.

His other hand now gently tickles down my neck, over my sternum, my breast, and when he gets just below my belly button, the anticipation is killing me.

I know where I want his hand to go, and he does too.

If only he wasn’t slowly torturing me and prolonging his sweet seduction.

As I had hoped, my dress provides him easy access. He only has to inch it up ever so slightly, and with a little bend of his knees, one of his hands is caressing my ass.

I’m entranced by the electricity he’s trailing all over my body while continuing to kiss me senseless. The feel of his fingertips remains where he touched me moments before even though his hand is now turning me so my back is to his front.

My dress continues to work as my ally when one of his hands slips under the front of my dress while his other is laid across my stomach, pressing me against his very large erection.

My mind is just starting to register how an erection that size is going to fit when his finger slips under the lace not currently in his pocket.

His fingers work their magic while his lips burn a path up my neck so his tongue can trace the shell of my ear .

He must be able to feel my heart pumping with every scorching touch of my skin. How could he not? The thundering of my heartbeat fills my ears. The only other thing able to pierce its pounding is the sound of his breath sending me off into my own little world of ecstasy.

Bringing me to the edge of combustion, he removes his hand and releases my waist. Turning me around, he says, “Arms up.”

Without hesitation, I do as requested, and my dress is over my head and on the floor. Taking a step back, he looks me over from head to toe but not in a demeaning way. He’s admiring me. Lovingly.

Bringing his hand to his heart, he nearly brings me to my knees. “I have never seen anything so beautiful.” He moves closer, erasing the space between us. “No sunrise or sunset could even come close.”

“Miles…” I try to speak, but he interrupts me.

“Lie down, baby.”

Without giving it a second thought, I once again do as he asks, and what comes next is a night bathed in moonlight and blanketed in bliss. He takes me to places I’ve never been and fills empty spaces I had no idea needed to be filled.

There are moments of softness and care while others are sheer unbridled passion and unadulterated pleasure.

We make love all night long and don’t fall asleep until the early morning.

All too soon, the sun’s rays have made it to the bed.

Pulling the sheet over my head, I refuse to open my eyes to the light of a new day.

I’m not ready to face the realization that last night may have been a dream and I’d rather stay right where I am.

The dream beside me has no intention of avoiding the new day.

Joining me under the sheet, he kisses me gently before sliding down farther on the bed.

He takes my nipple in his mouth and swirls his tongue around the now tight tip.

His hands continue their exploring from a few hours earlier, and before I know it, without any words spoken, he slides down my body with his mouth guiding him to his destination and me to euphoria.