Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Mason knew his past would eventually come back to bite him. He’d just hoped it wouldn’t be somewhere public where a woman was making a scene and drawing attention from everyone in the room, including the man he was tailing.
The blonde—Sheila? Shelly? He couldn’t remember—looked mad enough to spit nails. He opened his mouth to speak, but a second woman materialized next to the table.
Well, hello.
He was so distracted by the sight of her that he completely missed what she said.
Something about being mistaken. Whatever it was, he would gladly set her straight.
She turned her attention back to the blonde—Rochelle, that was her name!
The word boyfriend falling from her lips had him snapping back to reality as she directed her pretty dark eyes to him with a sweet, if slightly wobbly, smile.
“Sorry I’m late. Work was hectic and I finally just got off.”
He froze, feeling like he was standing at the wrong end of a scope. Who was this woman? His gaze clashed with hers, the dark depths silently urging him to just go with it. He shrugged good-naturedly. “No problem. Glad you made it.”
“I see you started without me.” She threw a wry look at his half-empty plate, completely tuning out the blonde who stood by, watching with a sense of bewilderment.
The brunette turned to Rochelle, an expression of sympathy on her pretty face. “Sorry for the misunderstanding. He gets this a lot.”
Rochelle’s gaze jumped between him and the other woman before settling on the brunette. “You’re with him?”
“For about eight months now. Right?”
She threw a look his way, and he nodded. “Next week makes nine.”
“He gets confused for his brother a lot,” the brunette explained to Rochelle. “He’s a twin, and sometimes…” She lifted her hands, as if that explained everything.
Rochelle glared at him suspiciously. “Is that true?”
“It is.” Mason fought the urge to glance at the brunette, wondering how she knew about his brother.
“Oh.” Rochelle blinked several times. “I… I’m so sorry. I thought…”
“It’s fine. Sorry I couldn’t help.” He smiled, still feeling off balance as the brunette slid in next to him and her thigh pressed to his.
She was warm and smelled as sweet as spun sugar, and he couldn’t help his reaction to her as his groin tightened.
Automatically, his arm moved, wrapping around her shoulders as she leaned into him.
She tipped her head up and threw another of those sweet smiles his way. “Hi, honey.”
Looking confused and more than a little embarrassed, Rochelle dipped her head as she turned tail and headed across the bar. Once she was gone, he turned his gaze to the woman next to him. “Well, that was… interesting.”
She too had been watching Rochelle make her escape, but now she turned a look on him, her big brown eyes huge in her face. “I’m pretty sure I did you a favor there.”
“No doubt. She was out for blood.” He suddenly sobered. He knew for certain he’d never met this woman, so how did she know so much about him? It immediately put him on guard. “How did you know about my brother?”
“Hmm?” Her pretty brown eyes searched his. “What do you mean?”
“You told her my brother was the one she was looking for. How did you know I’m a twin?”
Her gaze widened almost comically. “Oh, my God. There are two of you wreaking havoc on the female population?”
She’d guessed? Her reaction was too genuine to be anything other than complete and utter surprise at his revelation, and he was stunned into laughing. “Actually, yeah, I do have a twin. We’re fraternal, so we don’t look much alike. And I promise he’s worse than I am.”
She let out a little snort when he winked at her. “If you say so, Romeo.”
“What? Don’t believe me?”
“I haven’t decided yet.” The pretty brunette next to him settled back against the booth and took another sip of her bright green drink.
“So…” He asked the most obvious question. “Why are you here?”
He watched bemusedly as she stole a fry from his plate and popped it into her pretty mouth. “Like, here at the bar, or here in your booth?”
Either. He definitely wanted to know what had brought her to the bar alone—and how long she planned to be here. But for now, he’d settle for the situation at hand. “Why’d you tell her I was your boyfriend?”
She took a sip of her drink before she turned to face him. “I don’t know what transpired between you two, and I don’t care. But it’s really not very classy to pull something like that in public. I figured you could use some help.”
She was pretty—more than pretty, actually.
He’d noticed her giant doe eyes and long brown hair the moment she’d walked in and plopped herself down at the bar, but she was even more beautiful up close.
Her heart-shaped face was highlighted by those gorgeous eyes and pouty pink lips.
A tiny dimple flashed in her chin, and his fingers twitched in their need to touch the tiny divot.
He clenched his hand into a fist where it rested on his thigh. “How could you tell?”
She canted her head to one side and studied him, her dark gaze sweeping from the top of his head down to his waist, every place not concealed by the table. “Your posture. Most people probably wouldn’t be able to tell, but it was practically screaming ‘get away from me.’”
“Yet here you are.” He smirked.
“I’ll leave in just a sec.” She waved a hand dismissively, then paused. “Unless…” Her gaze darted back to his. “Was I wrong? If you’re meeting someone or want me to go, I can—"
“Not a chance.”
This was way more entertaining. Who cared about the mark he was supposed to be watching tonight when he had this gorgeous woman next to him?
The man he was currently tailing would be leaving soon anyway, and he’d already gotten a few pictures of the woman his wife suspected he was having an affair with.
He would probably take her to one of the hotel rooms later or he’d go home to his wife where he belonged.
Either way, his recon for the night was complete.
“Oh. Okay, good.” She looked relieved. “I was worried there for a second. Sometimes I act before I even think about the consequences.”
No kidding.
Undaunted, she continued. “My brother complains about it all the time, says I have no impulse control.” She rolled her eyes like she didn’t believe a word, and he couldn’t help but side with the brother in question.
Then she caught him totally off guard when she leaned toward him and sniffed. “You smell good.”
“Um… thanks?” It came out more as a question than a statement, but she nodded regardless.
“I don’t like a lot of men’s cologne. Some of it is way too strong. I like a guy to smell good, but not bathe in it, you know?”
Did she ever stop talking? And her mind—not to mention her mouth—went a hundred miles a minute.
She shot him a questioning look and he realized he hadn’t answered what he thought was a rhetorical question. “Right.”
She turned her attention back to the drink in her hand, and he wondered how many she’d had.
It appeared she’d only taken a few sips, but she didn’t seem inebriated.
Far from it. It seemed like she’d hit the coffee shop across the street and chugged the contents of their espresso machine before striding into the bar and touching down in his booth like a tornado.
Mason felt bad for her brother, whoever he was.
“Speaking of,” she continued, “did you know that by calculating the current unsolved murder rate, there’s a possibility that there may be up to two thousand active serial killers in the US right now?”
How in the world she’d managed to segue from cologne to killers was beyond him, and he wasn’t entirely sure he even wanted to know her train of thought. She turned those big brown eyes on him, head tipped slightly to one side as she waited for his response.
“Are you one of them?” he asked, only half joking.
She blinked, then let out a laugh. “You think I’m some kind of black widow, preying on men in bars?”
“Never know.” He shrugged. “It seems to be working so far. You came over here and pretended to be my girlfriend under the guise of saving me from having my hide chewed out by the Barbie doll.”
“Okay, yeah.” She grimaced. “It sounds way creepier when you say it out loud like that. I’m just gonna…” She grabbed her drink and started to slide out of the booth, but he grabbed her hip and pulled her back to him.
“You can’t leave now. It was just getting good.”
She lifted a brow his way. “You compared me to a serial killer.”
“In my defense,” he replied, “you hit me with the true crime facts first.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Fair point.”
He found himself wanting to draw out the conversation. “So, what happens now? You lure me in with your pretty face and irresistible knowledge of useless trivia?”
“That’s not useless!” Still holding her glass, she used her pinky to point around the room. “What if there’s a serial killer in this bar right now?”
He winked. “I’d protect you.”
“Please.” She rolled her eyes, but a faint smile curved her lips.
“Okay, you’re right. I would totally sacrifice you as bait and make a run for it.”
“Hey!” She lightly backhanded him, and he laughed.
She was quirky, but he found that he was enjoying himself. He was acutely aware of his hand resting along the curve of her hip, and he fought the urge to curl his fingers into her flesh. “All right. So now that we’ve broken the ice with talk of homicide, I think I should at least know your name.”
She paused for a moment, then— “You can call me Viv.”
Curiosity piqued, he turned to face her more fully. “If you don’t want to tell me your real name—”
“It’s not that,” she said, flustered. “Viv really is my name.”
He nodded. “Is it short for something?”
She bit her lip. “It is. It’s just… My name is kind of strange.” She must have seen his confused expression, because she grimaced. “My name is Virginia.”
His brows drew together. “Like the state?”
“Yeah. It’s kind of a long story.” She let out a beleaguered sigh, and her pretty face twisted as she peered up at him.
Well, he definitely wasn’t going to let her leave him hanging like that. “By all means, I have all night.”
Most of the night, anyway. She intrigued him on a level he’d rarely experienced, and everything else was pushed to the back burner as he focused his attention on her.
“Okay, so… my parents were kind of nomads.” She paused.
“That’s not true. I think even nomads have a purpose in life.
Mom and Dad were groupies when they were younger, following some eighties band around on tour.
They lived in a camper and dragged it from town to town, picking up enough work to pay for their drugs and beer before moving on to the next place. ”
“That sounds… exciting.” In truth, he couldn’t begin to imagine. His mom passed when he was young, but his father was the seven-to-three, hard-working, blue-collar type. He didn’t have time for fun, let alone his twin boys.
“They hit every major city, and my parents named each of us after the places where we were conceived.” Her cheeks burned bright pink. “I guess I’m lucky it was Virginia and not, like, Columbus or something, right?”
“Virginia.” He lifted his arm and spread it over the back of the booth, away from the temptation of her mouthwatering curves, and studied her for a moment.
Thick, dark hair hung in long waves, framing her beautiful heart-shaped face. Her skin was lightly tanned, or perhaps just naturally olive-toned, and it made her expressive, big brown eyes appear even larger and brighter.
His gaze skated downward over her high cheekbones and full mouth. Her bottom lip was fuller than the top, but it suited her. She was cool and classy but definitely more than a little peculiar. “I like it.”
She rolled her eyes. “No one likes my name. It’s a stupid name.”
He rolled a lock of that glossy dark hair between his fingers. “I think it’s beautiful. Just like you.”
She stared at him for a second before a laugh fell from her lips.
And not a little giggle, or a chuckle. Oh, no.
She let out a loud, bold laugh that penetrated his body and wound around his heart.
It was unrepentant, as if she wanted nothing more than to just enjoy life and wouldn’t let anything or anyone take that joy from her.
She wiped her eyes as she turned back to him. “Does that work for you?”
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand her question about the ridiculous pickup line. He grinned and lifted a shoulder. “Occasionally.”
“Uh huh.” Her gaze swept over his body once more before taking another sip of her drink.
He scooted closer and extricated the glass from her hand, setting it on the table. “What—”
Capturing her jaw in one hand, he turned her face toward his. Deep in those huge doe eyes he saw wariness and hesitation, but he also saw desire. With the pad of his thumb, he traced her full lower lip. “So, Virginia. Now you know my secret.”
Her lashes fluttered several times as she blinked up at him. “What secret?”
“That my cheesy pick-up lines don’t work.”
“Clearly, Romeo.” She grinned.
“Are you from around here?” He had to know. From time to time he thought he’d caught something of a northern accent, but there was always a chance that she was local. Even if she lived in her namesake of Virginia, that wasn’t too far away…
It didn’t escape his notice that he was already planning to see her again, but he had a feeling this girl would be worth more than just one visit. Many more.
Those gorgeous eyes searched his, and her lips opened several times before she rasped out the words. “I’m only here for tonight.”
“Shame.” He brushed his thumb along her cheekbone. “Up to you, beautiful.”
She seemed to know exactly what he was asking because her eyes dropped to his lap before meeting his again. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she studied him. Without a word, she pulled away and slipped from the booth.
His heart hit the floor and disappointment engulfed him.
He’d pushed her too far, too fast, and now she was running away.
He opened his mouth to speak, but she turned back to him and leaned into the booth.
Propping one hand on the table and the other on the back of the booth, she caged him in.
She dropped a kiss on his cheek, her lips skimming his two-day scruff before her breath hit his ear. “Two-oh-eight.”
With that she was gone. His gaze dropped to the table, and he saw the key card she’d left behind, tucked partially beneath the rim of his plate.
A slow smile spread across his face as he picked it up and turned it over in his hands.
Abandoning his meal, he tossed several bills on the table to cover the tab, then headed for the bank of elevators in the lobby.
As soon as the doors closed, he adjusted his hard-on. Tonight may have started out boring, but it was definitely looking up.