Mason: His to Convince (The O’Malleys #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Rebecca wheeled around the corner of Chestnut Street much too fast for the road conditions.

She intended to be safely behind locked doors and had absolutely no intention of letting him in.

She wasn’t physically afraid of him, for all his size.

No, she was just so damn mad! Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw no headlights glaring in the dark rain swept night behind her and giving a sigh of relief, pulled into her driveway.

The rain, really pouring down now, gave her a few precious minutes.

Steady, dependable Mason would never exceed the speed limit, especially in this weather.

Snatching up her purse and books she made a mad dash for the door, her sneakers squishing with each step.

Swearing softly she fumbled for the key while icy rain dripped down the back of her neck.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the sleek black car pull up to the curb as her key finally slid into the lock.

Stumbling through the front door she heard a car door slam.

Dumping her things down on the hall table she watched Mason’s long strides toward her with a strange fascination.

His hair was plastered to his head, the rain making it look even blacker.

Her eyes registered the tall frame and she stood transfixed for a moment, trying to decide if she actually had the nerve to slam the door in his face.

It was the blaze in his brilliantly blue eyes that jarred her into action and deciding she did indeed have the nerve she swung the door shut only to have a large flat palm stop it in mid slam.

Refusing to lower herself to a wrestling match, which she had no hope of winning; she clenched her fists and turned her back on him, almost stomping down the hall and into the kitchen.

Silently fuming, she shrugged out of her dripping jacket, flung it over the nearest chair and turned to face the large man she knew had followed her.

Finding her nose mere inches from an extremely masculine sweater clad chest did not in the least intimidate her, although the smell of his musky aftershave did trigger a moment of purely feminine response.

Shaking her damp blonde curls out of her face she planted her hands on her hips and backed up enough to be able to look him square in his spellbinding eyes.

Craning her neck back to be able to do so might have given a weaker woman pause but Rebecca was five foot two of spitting mad fury and no power on earth could have stopped her at that moment.

Or so she thought, for in that instant two very large, powerful hands came down on her shoulders and gave her a quick shake.

“What in the hell is the matter with you?” he demanded roughly.

Wet curls snapped around her head, flashing green eyes widened in shock. Mason had never touched her in anger and she was momentarily stunned at the hard strength in those hands. Misunderstanding her silence he continued.

“You were driving like a mad woman on those slippery roads. Sometimes I don’t think you have any sense at all.”

“That is exactly what the matter with me is,” she responded, twisting out of his grasp.

“When are you going to realize that I’m a grown woman, capable of making my own decisions, taking care of myself?

And another thing,” she continued, poking a finger into his chest. “The reason I took off so fast tonight was because I, fool that I am, did not want to embarrass you, like you embarrassed me by announcing my grade to the entire class. I didn’t think you’d appreciate me telling you just where you could shove that test.”

“You earned a ‘D’ and you got one,” he shot back. “I announced everyone’s grade if you remember correctly.”

“Yeah, well everyone else passed it. You could have talked to me after class instead of making me look like an idiot.”

“You knew I was teaching that Economics class as a special favor to Dean Roberts before you registered for it. Surely you didn’t think you’d pass the course just because your surrogate big brother happened to be the prof?”

Surrogate big brother, ha, she thought. If my feelings were any less sisterly, it’d be illegal.

“You’re not my brother, or my guardian, and at the moment you were not very high up on my ‘buddy list’ either,” she told him, suddenly feeling deflated and tired. Walking wearily over to the sink she filled the kettle and switched the stove on, trying to get her emotions under control.

Mason raked a hand through his hair in frustration as his eyes slid over her petite form.

Her back was to him and he couldn’t stop himself from staring at the rounded swell of her hips.

Thinking of her as a grown woman was about half his problem.

Protecting her and worrying about her were second nature to him.

He’d been taking care of her in one way or another since her dad died when she was seventeen.

Jake Moran had been damn good to him, given him a break when no one else would.

Taking care of his daughter after his death had seemed like the right thing to do even if she had given him a run for his money.

Well she wasn’t a little girl any longer and although it was hard to accept, somewhere along the line, while his mind was still thinking of her in juvenile terms, his body was definitely headed in another direction.

Taking two cups down from the cupboard Rebecca spooned instant coffee into them, wishing she hadn’t left her cigarettes on the dash of her car.

She didn’t smoke often but she could sure use one now, even if it did make Mason crazy.

All the things she had meant to say to him suddenly seemed cruel and unfair.

It wasn’t his fault he saw her as a child he was responsible for, especially when he could reduce her to an argumentative, uncontrollable brat with just a few words.

Somewhere along the way their relationship had changed and she didn’t know how to go back, or if she even wanted to.

She was twenty-two and the chasm that separated them, a measly ten years, seemed miles wide.

Working days and going to school nights left her tired and irritable and with a shrug of her slim shoulders she decided to let things rest for now.

Pouring the hot water into the cups she turned and handed one to Mason.

As tired as she was it didn’t occur to her that he took milk in his coffee and she froze when he walked across to the refrigerator and opened the door.

Mason stood there staring into it and slowly turned back to her swearing softly and glaring as she chewed her bottom lip.

Damn and double damn she thought as she watched him set his coffee down and proceed to investigate the cupboards and pantry. When he got to the bread box he slammed it shut in disgust and advanced on her with a determined step, stopping mere inches from her now defiant form.

“Well you certainly seem to be capable of taking care of yourself. You’ll never have to worry about getting an infection as apparently everything here is growing some type of penicillin.

Normally, intelligent women replace things when they become green and fuzzy, but hey, you may be on to something here.

” Anger was again evident in his voice. “Obviously you’ve been living on black coffee and take out.

No wonder you look so frail and frazzled lately. ”

“I love you too big guy,” she responded sarcastically. “You always know just the right thing to say to make a girl feel special.”

“Keep it up and you’re going to feel really special,” he growled. “You won’t be able to sit down, but apparently you don’t eat meals anyway and it is almost bedtime so…”

Pinned effectively against the counter, Rebecca kept silent, her hands wrapped around the hot coffee cup.

Although this wasn’t the first time Mason had threatened her with a spanking, and she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last, she wasn’t worried.

In all the years of his grumbling and growling he had never laid a hand on her and if truth be told she had probably deserved it about a thousand times.

She felt a quick flutter in her tummy and wondered for a split second if her luck had finally run out but shook it off just as quickly.

Mason topped her by over a foot in height and one hundred plus pounds.

He would never hurt her. On the other hand, her innate honesty forced her to admit he was right.

There wasn’t a decent thing to eat in the house.

She had been going to pop through a drive-through on her way home but things hadn’t worked out that way.

Wishing she had a good argument didn’t help.

The fact was she just hadn’t taken the time to grocery shop in quite a while.

Another fact seemed to be that when he was this physically close to her, she lost the ability to think straight.

Instead of coming up with some witty comment all she could think about was the width of his shoulders and the way his jeans fit those long legs just right.

She grasped the cup tighter to keep her hands from creeping up around his neck.

Mason ground his teeth waiting for some type of explanation and deftly removed the cup from her hands, dumping the contents in the sink.

Bad move Mace she thought and slid both hands behind her, leaning on them.

Unfortunately this caused her breasts to thrust forward and when they met that hard chest there were two identical gasps.

Her arms came immediately up with the intention of pushing him away and ended up securely around his neck.

His hands also had the intention of setting her away from him and instead ended up wrapped around her bottom, pulling her even closer.