Chapter 14
After Jordan told him to hurry, Mason grinned like the lunatic he’d become since he met her.
He drove toward Eastward Look much faster than he should have, but whatever.
There were few advantages to giving most of his awake hours to the town of Gansett.
Speeding without consequence was definitely one of them.
He resisted the temptation to flip on his emergency lights, laughing to himself over the idea of using his lights to get to a woman faster.
That was a line he wasn’t far enough gone to cross.
Yet. It took eight minutes to get to Eastward Look when it probably should’ve taken fifteen.
He tore into the driveway like a man possessed, and that was probably a fitting description. Because what other explanation could there be for a thirty-five-year-old man who certainly knew better to be losing his mind over a woman?
Jordan came out of the house, her dark hair down around her shoulders, her eyes big with excitement and her smile even bigger as she came toward his vehicle.
Mason kept himself perfectly still as he took in every detail of the frilly top and tight cropped jeans she wore.
But it was her stunning face that was the showstopper.
He should’ve gotten out to hold the door for her, but she was in the car before he had the thought, bringing the distinctive scent of expensive fragrance with her.
She grinned at him. “Glad to see you and the sling.”
Mason could only stare at her. How was this incredibly beautiful, smart, sexy woman interested in him?
“You okay?” she asked, her brow furrowing.
“I think so.”
“You think so? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said gruffly. “Not a goddamned thing.”
Her smile got even bigger. “Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.” Mason’s brain had been scrambled by the sight of her, and he had to pull himself out of his dazzled state to put the SUV in Reverse, to drive, to remember where he was going and what his own name was. Shit, this was bad, and getting worse by the second. Ask him if he cared.
“Where’re we going?”
He had no fucking clue. “I need to run home to change, and then we can decide what we feel like doing. Okay?”
“Sure.”
“I have no idea what condition my house is in.”
Jordan’s low sexy laugh was like a lightning rod of desire that electrified every cell in Mason’s body. Christ have mercy, she would be the very death of him at this rate. “Are you a slob?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m a slob, per se, but things get messy when I’m working all the time.”
“I’m a slob. Just ask Nikki. It drives her crazy. She’s a neat freak. The way I see it, life is too short to be worried about cleaning all the time.”
“Agreed, but I don’t do dirty.”
“In general, or are we still talking about housekeeping?”
Mason released a long deep breath. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Doing what?”
“Being so sexy you make my head spin while pushing my buttons and tossing out suggestive one-liners that make it so I probably shouldn’t be driving in my current condition.”
“What current condition?”
“I can’t discuss it.”
“Why not? Is the subject too hard?”
The low growl that escaped from his tightly clenched teeth made her laugh hysterically. “You’re such a brat.”
“So I’ve been told all my life.”
“Why do I suspect you take that as a compliment?”
“How else should I take it?”
“You must’ve been a holy terror as a kid.”
“I kept things interesting.”
Mason laughed, delighted by her and thrilled to be with her even as he reminded himself that the last time he’d been delighted by a woman, he’d ended up flattened and heartbroken. That’d been years ago, but he’d never forgotten the way it had felt to be left by the woman he’d loved.
He wanted to think Jordan was different than Kayla had been, but he was smart enough and wise enough to know that he was taking a huge risk by getting so excited about a woman whose life took place on the other side of the country. “Could I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“How long are you here?”
“I don’t know.”
Mason tightened his grip on the wheel as he tried to figure out what he should say to that.
“Why?”
“I’m just wondering if I’m on a dangerous mission here.”
“How do you mean?”
Mason took a right into his driveway and pulled up to the barnlike garage where he was restoring a vintage Mustang in his “spare” time.
He hadn’t touched the car in weeks. After cutting the engine, he turned in his seat to look at Jordan, who was looking right back at him with big brown eyes that slayed him.
“I like you. I like this, whatever it is, we’re doing here.
I liked last night—a lot. But what I wouldn’t like is to let this go on only to be left crushed when you go back to your real life. ”
Jordan pondered that, appearing to give his concerns serious consideration.
“I hear what you’re saying, and I’d be the first to tell you that getting involved with me is a risky proposition, especially right now.
My life is a bit of a mess at the moment.
I’m still technically married to a malignant narcissist and could get sued by my production company unless I continue my show when I really don’t want to. So yeah, I hear what you’re saying.”
She glanced at him, looking madly vulnerable, and held his gaze as she continued. “But the thing of it is, Mason, I really like you—and not just because you saved my life. I like talking to you and pushing your buttons and kissing you. I like how I feel when I’m with you.”
“How do you feel when you’re with me?” He called himself ten kinds of fool for asking, but he had to know.
“Comfortable. Safe. Entertained. Amused. Aroused.”
Mason closed his eyes, took a deep breath and held it for a long moment before releasing it.
“Those are things I hadn’t had with my husband in a very long time. Some of them I’ve never had.”
“Which ones?”
“I never felt particularly safe with him, and he stopped being entertaining quite some time ago. I’ve been uncomfortable around him for years, and it’s very difficult to be aroused by someone who makes you nervous about what he’s going to do next.
I don’t mean to compare you to him, because there’s no comparison.
I’m only saying that this, with you, is more in a few days than I had in years with him. ”
“Why’d you stay, sweetheart?”
“I told you about how I was raised, shuttled between divorced parents who were fighting over us. I didn’t want to be divorced.
I hate that word and everything that comes with it.
When I married Brendan, I thought it was forever.
I really did. He knew how important it was to me that I not end up divorced.
But then his career took off, and I couldn’t compete with everything that came with it. ”
“You shouldn’t have to compete with anyone or anything. He should’ve put you first.”
“For a while, he did, but we both got swallowed up by the celebrity life. I won’t lie to you.
It was fun for a while. We liked being Jane, which was the stupid couple name the press gave us.
We liked the money and the perks, and I loved the clothes and the photo shoots and the endorsement deals.
I take my share of the blame for getting swept up in superficial things and letting the marriage get away from me.
I woke up one day and realized I didn’t even know him anymore, and I’m sure he felt the same way about me. ”
“What happened at the end was in no way your fault. Tell me you know that.”
“I do. I didn’t do anything to deserve a broken arm or a concussion or a split lip that took weeks to heal.”
Mason fumed at the thought of her being so badly injured at the hands of the man she’d once loved. “Which arm did he break?”
“This one.” She pointed to her right forearm. “I’m told it was a clean break, but it hurt like nothing ever has.”
“Did they make you wear a sling?”
The side of her face lifted into a small, sad smile. “No, because it was my forearm, it didn’t need to be completely immobilized. It only required a cast that ended before my elbow.”
Mason reached across the center console to rest his hand over the place on her right arm that had been broken by her husband. “How’d he do it?”
“He grabbed my arm, and when I tried to get away, the bone snapped.”
“I’d snap his neck the same way he snapped your arm if he was here.”
She covered the hand of his that was still on her arm, the warmth of her hand permeating the chill that had overtaken him at hearing how her husband had broken her arm. “He’s not worth you spending the rest of your life in prison.”
“It’d be worth it to know he could never hurt you again.”
“He’ll never hurt me again, Mason. I won’t allow it. I shouldn’t have gone back to him after the video.”
“If you blame yourself in any way for any of this, that’s not going to make me happy.”
“You’re very sweet when you’re pissed off.”
“I’m pissed off at him, not you.”
“I know that.” She glanced at him. “So to answer your original question, I’m kind of a mess and my life is a wreck, but I really like you, and I couldn’t wait to see you today.”
“I couldn’t wait to see you either. I left work hours earlier than I normally would.”
“Will you get in trouble?”
“I don’t give a flying fuck if I do.”
She smiled. “All righty, then.”
“You want to come in?”
“Uh-huh.”
They hadn’t decided anything, but he’d learned more about what she’d been through with the asshole she’d been married to. He hoped that guy never showed his face around here, because Mason wouldn’t trust himself not to actually snap the fuckwad’s skinny little neck.
After hearing about Jordan’s childhood and how it had been splintered by an ugly divorce, Mason already understood the things that would matter to her—loyalty, faithfulness, peace, harmony and unconditional love. How could the man she’d married not have known those things about her?