Apparently not.
“Um…we’re not moving,” she stated once he started the engine and turned on the A/C.
“And neither are the majority of the cars,” he replied, both his hands gripping the steering wheel.
For a moment, she could only stare. “So…then why rush to the car?”
Now he twisted in his seat and faced her. “Because now we’re alone and it’s quiet and I can turn on the A/C and we can talk. I remember you saying how uncomfortable you were earlier in the heat and thought this would be better.”
She felt herself begin to relax.
And she had to admit how she misjudged him.
The cool air began to hit her heated skin and it felt wonderful. “Thank you,” she said softly. “This is definitely better than standing around outside.”
He gave a small nod and smiled. “So…what did you think of the rest of the show?”
“It was great and I have to admit it was cool how the guys in the band all grew up around here and shared their personal memories of our town and the coast.” She shrugged. “It made it feel a little more personal and intimate, you know?”
Nodding, he said, “I agree. Although I don’t remember ever seeing them hanging out here in Magnolia.”
“They’re all a bit older than us, Mason. By the time we were old enough to really be hanging out at the bars and clubs here, they were out touring the world.”
“Hmm…I guess.” He grew quiet but his gaze never left hers. “So…”
“So?”
Scarlett knew she probably had a dozen questions she wanted to ask him–things she wanted to know about him–but she had no idea where to even begin.
His laugh was low and deep and sent little shivers along her skin. Reaching for one of her hands, he held it. “So what is it that Scarlett Jones does when she’s not at concerts with her friends?”
And she had to hand it to him, it was a great way to start.
“Well, on the weekends, I tend to see whatever my friends are up to. Sometimes we hit the local places for dinner or go dancing, but sometimes we head a little down the coast to Wilmington and see what’s going on there.”
“I’m surprised our paths haven’t crossed before because that sounds a lot like how I spend the weekends.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
“Well, I have a feeling we’re not hitting quite the same places. A lot of the times I’m on my bike so…”
“So…what does that mean? You only go to biker bars? Because I’ve got to tell you, Jones, I don’t see it.”
Unable to help herself, she laughed out loud.
Practically snorted.
“Hate to break it to you, Bishop, you’d be surprised.”
“Come on! Really?” His eyes went wide as he fully checked her out. “No. Just…no. I can’t see it!”
Still laughing, she shook her head. “Okay, okay, okay…that’s not where I normally go, but sometimes I do.” She shrugged as her laughter faded. “Sometimes I ride up the coast for the day and find a bar or restaurant that’s a little more casual and check it out. I’ve found some great places to eat that way–places I wouldn’t normally go.”
“Do you ride alone?”
“Sometimes, but I know that’s not always safe. Sometimes one of my brothers are with me and sometimes I convince Courtney to put a helmet on and ride with me.”
His eyes went wide again. “She rides too?”
The image of her friend riding her own hog was almost enough to make her break out in laughter again. “Oh, gosh, no. Courtney has no desire to ride on her own. When we go, she rides on the back of mine.”
More like has a death grip around her, but she didn’t think that would be a smart thing to point out right now.
“Wow.”
“Have you ever ridden?”
He shook his head. “Can’t say I have.”
“It’s awesome. It’s the perfect way to spend an afternoon,” she said almost dreamily, wishing she could show him right now.
The image almost made her laugh too because she couldn’t picture the ever-put-together Mason Bishop on the back of a Harley. No doubt it would be a little too undignified for him.
“You’ll have to take me out on one sometime.”
Say what now?
“Really?” she squeaked, both excited and a little surprised by his interest. “Or are you just saying that?”
“One thing you should know about me,” he began, “I try to always say what I mean. Less chances of getting into trouble that way.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there.”
He nodded and looked down as he caressed her fingers. “Let’s just say I spent too much time letting other people tell me what to do with my life. Because I wasn’t clear about how I felt or how much I hated it, situations got out of control.”
“Someone you were involved with?” she asked hesitantly.
“No. Family.”
“Damn. That sucks.”
“Let’s just say I’m in the process of claiming my own damn life.” Then he snorted with disgust as he looked up at her. “Lame, right?”
There was a vulnerability there and while it would have been easy to make light of it, Scarlett had a feeling he needed a little affirmation that he wasn’t alone.
“Not at all,” she began softly. “Some people take a little longer to know what they want out of life, while others seem to know since birth.” She paused. “Then, there are those who want to try to please everyone and would be okay with it, except they get taken advantage of.” Then she deliberately stayed silent until he looked up at her. “And that’s not okay, Mason. It’s not okay to let people do that to you. So if you’re taking control of your life back, then I say good for you.”
The look on his face told her he didn’t quite believe her. “What about you, Scarlett? Are you in control of your own life?” he asked, his voice so quiet it was almost a whisper.
There was no way she was going to lie to him and considering what he just admitted, she owed him the truth.
“I am,” she said with a gentle firmness so as not to sound smug. “I’m the only girl in the family–I’ve got three older brothers and my mom died when I was four, so…I learned early to stand up for myself.”
“Damn, Scarlett. I’m sorry. I didn’t know, I…”
Squeezing his hand, she gave him a small smile. “Why would you? It’s not like we’ve known each other that long.”
Now he frowned. “We were in school together our whole lives. Hell, we were lab partners in middle school…”
“That didn’t make us friends, Mason. And it wasn’t something I talked about all the time, so…it’s okay.”
“Still,” he said solemnly. “I’m sorry. Here I am bitching about my family and…”
She cut him off. “Trust me. I still bitch about mine too. My brothers are all overprotective assholes sometimes and my dad has never quite figured out how to handle having a daughter. That’s how I ended up working in his garage, learning how to work on cars. It’s the real reason I love motorcycles.”
“So it wasn’t all bad,” Mason said.
Unable to hide her smile, she said, “No. No it wasn’t all bad. But they’re not perfect and neither am I.”
“What’s your biggest fault?”
“Ooh…that’s a loaded question.”
Now his smile was back. “Now I’m even more curious. Come on, spill it. Tell me something about you that makes you imperfect. Because from where I’m sitting, it’s not possible.”
Chuckling, she said, “More cheesy lines?”
“Nah. If I were going for cheesy, I would have said something like, ‘I didn’t know angels flew this close to earth.’” Then he waggled his eyebrows at her like he did earlier.
And yet…she couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re crazy. You know that, right?”
“Crazy about you…”
“Mason…”
In a move she didn’t s
ee coming, he reached up and cupped her face and kissed her. And it was even better than the one from earlier. His hands felt wonderful against her cheeks and she simply let herself melt against him.
Or as close as she could get with the center console between them.
Scarlett reached out and clutched the front of his t-shirt just to have something of his to hold on to. Her lips opened under his and the feel of his tongue against hers had her humming with pleasure. It was a sound he mimicked moments later as they continued to taste and tease and torment each other in an act she hadn’t found arousing in years.
If ever.
If all she ever got to do tonight was kiss Mason, it would totally be worth it.
And the fact that she was even thinking like that should have sent up warning signals, but it didn’t. Why? Because this felt so incredibly right. He wasn’t a stranger–not really–and she found she liked talking with him, laughing with him and especially kissing him.
It could only get better, right?
They kissed until they were breathless. And when the need to breathe became too great, Mason’s mouth moved from hers and traveled along her cheek and then on to nibble on her ear. His hot breath felt positively panty-melting and all Scarlett wanted to do was crawl over the console to get to him.
“Mason…” she said breathlessly. “We should…I mean…can we…” He gently bit on her earlobe and it nearly had her bucking out of her seat. “This is crazy!” And at that point, she cupped his face in her hands and brought his lips back to hers.
And damn.
Scorching. All heat and need and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could contain herself. Maybe it wasn’t particularly a good thing–for her to be this turned on by a make-out session. And yet, here she was, ready to drag Mason into the backseat like a horny teenager on prom night.
Yikes.
She lost track of time and there were only two things she was aware of: first, how no one kissed like Mason Bishop, and second, his hands had stayed above her shoulders the entire time. Not once did he try to cop a feel, and she found that oddly arousing.
The man could kiss and had manners??
How was it possible he was still single?
Not that she cared because it was totally working to her advantage right now.
When Mason finally broke the kiss, they rested against each other’s foreheads while they caught their breath.
“Damn, Scarlett. I haven’t made out in my car since…”
“High school?” she teased.
Chuckling softly, he agreed. “I’m usually a little more sophisticated than this.”
Her heart kicked a little hard in her chest at his admission. Good. She liked that she had him a little off his game.
God knew she was.
After a moment of companionable silence, they both straightened in their seats and froze.
The parking lot was empty.
Well, almost empty. There were a few cars scattered around but for the most part, everyone was gone.
“How…? When…?” she stammered, looking around in confusion. “Where did they all go?”
Clearing his throat, Mason pointed to the digital clock. “We’ve been sitting here for almost a half hour.”
“What?” she cried. “That’s not possible.”
“And yet…” He didn’t need to finish. The clock didn’t lie and it would be pointless to argue about it. The fact was the lot was empty. “So…do you still want to go to my place?” he asked hesitantly.
The logical part of her brain kicked in.
“Um…maybe we should go someplace and get something to eat after all.”
“Oh, okay. You hungry?”
How could she possibly answer without embarrassing herself? Turning, she looked at him and with a shy smile. “Not really, but considering what just happened here, we both know what’s going to happen if we go back to your place.”
“And that’s bad…why?”
Good question.
“Other than the obvious?” she said with a nervous laugh. “I mean…it’s not something I usually do.” There was more she could say but Scarlett decided to leave it at that and put the decision on him as to where they went from here.
For a long minute he didn’t say anything and she had a feeling it was because he couldn’t say the same for himself.
And that was okay.
Sort of.
Then, Mason straightened in his seat, his expression going somewhat fierce. “Scarlett, I promise you right now that if all you want is to go someplace and talk and get to know each other better, then that’s what we’ll do.”
And for some reason, she trusted him.
“And you’d honestly be okay? Just talking?”
He nodded solemnly. “I would. But if you also decided at some point you wanted me to kiss you again, I’d be totally on board with that too.”
It took all of five seconds for her decision to be made.
“Let’s go to your place.”
Four
Two hours later, Mason was sitting and laughing and trying to remember the last time he had enjoyed himself more.
They had arrived back at his place and Scarlett had marveled at the view of the beach and they sat out on the small deck while drinking some wine and talking about everything and nothing at all. There had yet to be an awkward pause in the conversation. Mason found she had a wicked sense of humor–which he kind of had an inkling of after their initial conversation earlier–and she was a woman of many talents.
First, there was the work she did on cars and motorcycles, which wasn’t even her full-time job. Her knowledge of all things automotive was unbelievable and he was more than a little intimidated by it. During the day, she worked as a social media specialist for multiple businesses here in Magnolia Sound. And as if all that wasn’t enough, she volunteered at the local animal shelter in her spare time.
They shared a love of pub food and sushi. They both enjoyed fishing and had similar taste in music and movies, too. She loved to read, but he had to admit that it wasn’t a favorite pastime for him.
When they got around to talking exclusively about him, Mason felt beyond inferior. If they were to do a side-by-side comparison, he was seriously slacking off. Sure, he was working for the city on the planning board and marginally using his engineering degree, but once his day was done at five, that was it. He went out and socialized–not even giving a thought to doing much else.
Maybe he would now.
“Working with the city must be pretty exciting right now,” she said, her eyes wide with curiosity. “I mean, with all the rebuilding going on, I’m sure you’re very busy.”
With a shrug, he reached for his glass and took a drink of his tea. “There have definitely been some challenges. I think we are a town that is all about traditions and keeping the historical look and feel we’ve always had.”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”
Another shrug. “We’ve gotten some pushback from the community on some of the proposals we’ve come up with.”
“Like what?”
“Bringing in some new restaurants–chains, mainly. It seems the good people of Magnolia like their mom-and-pop places and aren’t interested in joining this century.” He frowned. “And the thing is, I get it. I really do. My great-grandfather built most of this town, so he was steeped in tradition and hated any kind of change.”
Scarlett nodded in understanding.
“However, he was also a brilliant businessman who knew sometimes you had to buck tradition and take risks.”
“Okay, so why aren’t you?”
“It’s not that easy. It’s not just me working there. It’s a committee and we do let the community have a say in what they want. It’s a lot of bureaucratic red tape and annoying as it is, that’s just the way it has to be.”
“Well damn.”
“Tell me about it.”
She was quiet for a minute, looking up at the starry sky. “If you could cha
nge anything about the town–if there were no red tape and no committee to answer to–what would you change?”
Where did he even begin?
“I’d bring in maybe only one or two new restaurants–the chain ones. Then I’d open up another public parking area with beach access,” he explained. “There’s some land on the edge of town that hasn’t been developed and I’d love to see it turned into a park.”
“You mean on the north end?”
“Yeah. There are some older businesses down that way, but I don’t see them being too much of a hinderance. The bar might be a problem,” he said more to himself than to her. “Not sure how it would look to have a public park–a place where kids go to play–and a run-down old bar right across the street.”
Scarlett stood up abruptly and walked over to lean on the railing. Mason immediately followed. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Her tone said otherwise, so he knew he had to choose his next words carefully.
“Lots of stars out tonight,” he said as he slowly moved in close to her.
“Mm-hmm…”
Then inspiration hit. “Hey, girl, I think you might be a star, because I can't stop orbiting around you.” Placing his hands on her hips as he stood behind her, he rested his chin on her shoulder and waited for her to respond.
Thankfully, she laughed. “You are such a dork. How did I never know this about you before? Were you like this in school?”
Now his arms slowly wrapped around her waist and he found it felt really good. Her body fit perfectly against his. She was shorter than him by at least six inches, and when he straightened behind her, he could actually rest his chin on the top of her head.
Which he now did.
“I was probably worse,” he admitted. “But something about you makes these crazy statements come to mind.”
Except now the only thing on his mind was how she felt.
In Case You Didn’t Know Page 5