Page 10 of Swept Away

“Thank you for bringing him back. I don’t think he’ll stay, though. He only behaves when you’re around.”

His reply arrives swiftly.

“Do you want me to stay a little longer?”

My eyebrows push up, and my lips turn silent.

“Um…” I mumble, still not having a clear answer.

I’m not used to having men over at my place. In fact, no one has visited my place since I moved here.

My eyes drift over the man.

He has his T-shirt on, yet my hackles rise.

The cat won’t stay with me regardless.

Once the man leaves, he’ll go too. I know Gizmo well.

We’ve been doing this dance for some time.

The only thing that’s different tonight is him… The man in front of me.

“What’s your name?” I ask abruptly, as I haven’t even had a chance to check my phone and retrieve the information from there.

“Mason,” he says with a smile.

I look at him incredulously.

“Really?”

He seems amused by my reaction, and I begin to think his name is as made-up as the story about his sister was.

“Yeah,” he says, slowly nodding and gauging my reaction.

His eyes make me aware of the tension swirling below my waist, which is far from being good news.

I shouldn’t even think about that.

Sex has always been a struggle because it’s never been right. It wasn’t the right man, the right time, or the right setting.Whatever it was, it wasn’t right.

I always thought sex should be raw, addictive, something to get hooked on, in a good way, but that’s not what it was.

Sex shouldn’t be on my mind right now.

Maybe it’s not on his mind either.

“I won’t stay long,” he says in the voice of someone who needs to crash someplace for a little while because they have nowhere to go.

A smile tugs at my lips.

“Sure. Come on in.”

My gesturing toward the room surprises me.

This is so not like me.

My hand shakes a little when he steps in and I quietly close the door behind me.