“For even suggesting Lily is a problem for me.”
“For most women it might be.”
Sage rolled her eyes and turned to me, giving me another straightforward glance at world class breasts. “Even if this were real Lily wouldn’t be a problem Mason. I’d be more worried about your inability to commit.”
“My what?”
“You heard me. You hardly date so I’m guessing you go out of town to get your needs met which means you have no plans to settle down again. As a future bride that would be a bigger concern.”
Damn. Did she really think that about me? The truth was that I had gone out of town to find women who weren’t looking for anything more than a few hours of fun and maybe a meal. A few had hinted for more and I found myself too busy to see them again. But for the past year or so no one had even lit my fire. Not the way Sage did anyway. “Maybe I haven’t found the right woman yet.”
She thought about it but everything about her body language said she didn’t believe me. “I’ll bring my stuff over later this week.”
“I’ll help.”
“No need. I’ve packed up and moved plenty. More than you in fact.”
I sighed and took a long pull from the bottle. “Might look weird if your fiancé doesn’t help you move.”
“Fine.” She stood and handed me her half-empty bottle before walking back inside the house. Moments later I heard the front door close and my whole body relaxed.
This would be the longest summer of my life.
***
I got up early Thursday morning because I knew Sage would try to move everything on her own and I wouldn’t let that happen. After taking care of morning chores I left Lily with Maybelle, hopped in my truck and headed for the Double Barrel. She’d chosen to live there because Sierra owned it but I hated every minute of it. As the only bar in town it was a surefire way to find the wrong kind of trouble. Climbing the stairs behind the bar I knocked and waited, ready to feel smug over thwarting her plans to move solo.
But of course when she opened the door the joke was on me because Sage wore the tiniest possible denim cutoff shorts I had ever seen, showing off her long muscular legs to absolute fucking perfection. And don’t even get me started on the lightweight cotton tank she wore that called attention to the bare breasts jiggling underneath. “Just in time,” she said with a smile, walking back inside and leaving the door open for me to follow.
“We didn’t set a time,” I told her, looking down the hall where I assumed the bedroom and bathroom were located.
“I know but I knew you’d show up today to make sure I didn’t do it all on my own.”
I followed the sound of her voice to the kitchen and found her bent over a large box. And groaned. “So you just knew I would show up?”
“You’re here aren’t you?”
Yeah I was, dammit. We got down to work taping up boxes and packing the living room and kitchen. “Is any of this furniture yours?”
“Just some of the bedroom items.”
We worked in silence for about thirty minutes, packing and labeling the rooms in front and it was an exercise in torture. I had broken out into a sweat and we hadn’t even started lugging boxes down the stairs. Nope, every time we moved around the small space some part of her tight little body brushed up against me. Nipples against my chest, her glorious backside against my near constant erection. The strawberry scent of her hair drove me wild. Made me hungry. Intoxicated me. Dammit. “How can there be so much stuff?” The place was smaller than a shoebox, where did all this stuff come from?
“You can always go back to the ranch and I’ll meet you there whenever.”
She said it so casually, so nonchalantly I knew it was a challenge. But I would stay and I would help her. I had to. “I said I would help and I will.”
She nodded and turned back to grabbing items from the top of the cabinets. “We’re almost done. Just the bathroom and bedroom.”
I couldn’t be sure but I thought I heard a smile in her voice. “I’ll take the bedroom,” I told her, not sure I could stand all of her scents overtaking my senses.
“Perfect.” She hopped from the chair and guided me down the hall where the bedroom sat on the right and directly across the hall was the bathroom. “Have at it.”
I stepped into her bedroom and immediately wanted to change my answer to the bathroom. The whole place was so…Sage. Bright and sunny with a white comforter dotted with colorful tulips, matching pillowcases and curtains. But that was expected. What I hadn’t expected to find was a giant stack of lingerie in the middle of the bed. White and red, blue and pink silk and lace panties, bras, negligees and some other things I couldn’t name. Instantly my mind conjured up images of Sage spread out on my sleigh bed wearing each of them, looking at me with heat in her eyes as she reached for me. Fingering the delicate materials, I knew I was in trouble, thinking about Jack’s little sister like this. Wanting her as bad as I did.
Considering everything. She worked for me and she would be living with me as my fake fiancée. My daughter loved her and if I started something and it went sideways she would be hurt. The possibilities for complications were endless. And I couldn’t bring myself to give a damn.
“Hey Mason, I was thinking about something.”
Her sultry voice pulled me out of my inappropriate thoughts and I turned to her. “Yeah, what’s that?”
“If we’re going to pull this off we need to be comfortable together. As a couple so in love they want to spend the rest of their lives together.” I nodded trying to figure out where she was going with this. “We never touch and other than that one kiss in front of Walt, we don’t kiss either.” She took a few steps closer, hiding a smile at the way my hands fisted around a light blue thong. “We should practice.”
I must have hit my head earlier and was now hallucinating. “Kissing? You want to practice kissing?”
She nodded, a solemn expression on her face that belied the sparkle in her eyes. “I think we should. For the sake of our arrangement.”
“Sage,” I warned as she took another step closer, and another.
“What if you go to kiss me in front of Walt, his wife or the other TPBA members and it’s awkward? Or you go the wrong way when I lean in to kiss you, or I flinch when you touch me.” She stopped in front of me, hands on my chest. “What if we don’t sell it and you look like a big fat liar Mason?”
Dammit she made some good points and it’s not like I wasn’t itching to touch her, taste her, kiss her again. “Fine we’ll get to it later,” I told her but her lips crashed against mine and she jumped up, wrapping her arms and legs around my body so that her hot core cradled my growing erection. We fell to the bed, now surrounded by a rainbow of silk and lace while she completely devoured my mouth, licking at my tongue while she ground against me. I held her hips close, helping her find the perfect rhythm while her mouth moved from my mouth to my jaw, my neck.
She kissed me until we were both breathless, skin flushed with desire and a satisfied grin on her face. “You’re really good at that.”
I chuckled and held her tighter. ‘Thanks sugar, you’re pretty damn good at that too.”
“You feel good too,” she moaned and ground against my cock, sending shards of electricity pulsing through my body. “So. Good. Mason.”
And that was it. I couldn’t stay here in this position, with her looking sexy and full of desire as she found pleasure with my body. I needed to get up or I would strip us both and spend the rest of the day buried inside her. “Sage,” I growled and stopped her hips.
“What?”
“We can’t, sweetheart.”
She grinned and moved again. “It sure feels like you can.”
“Sage.” She heard the warning in my voice and smiled. “We can’t”
Just like that the desire faded and turned to disappointment, maybe hurt. “Right,” she said and jumped off me like I was on fire. “Better finish up then.”
The rest of the afternoon
passed quickly, if quietly, as we finished boxing everything up and getting it into our trucks. She hopped into hers and I did the same with a vow to talk to her later about what had happened.
But I never got the chance. Lily added an extra set of hands so we finished in no time before she left to get a storage unit in town. By the time she returned she’d claimed exhaustion and spent the rest of the night in her room.
It took everything in me not to bang on her door until she opened it and finish what we started in her apartment. But I couldn’t. I shouldn’t.
I didn’t.
***
To be continued…
Hope you enjoyed this preview Dear Reader. If you’d like to find out how Mason & Sage’s story ends, check out them out here
Excerpt Dr Daddy Next Door
Rory
“I have always been a fan of silk ties and blindfolds,” Rosanna batted her eyelashes up at the object of her affection, smiling coquettishly when she raked a hand through his salt and pepper hair.
“I’m happy to show you the pleasures to be found without a few essential senses.” Dr. Hargrave removed the ever-present bowtie and corduroy blazer that made him look every inch the anthropology professor he was, and moved in closer.
Rosanna’s breath hitched. Her skin flushed and her pulse raced as he drew closer.
* * *
I leaned back in my oh-so-comfortable computer chair and blew out a long breath. The erotic romance I was writing was coming along nicely, and would be a good complement to my thesis. The examination of young women and sexuality when it came to older men was common throughout history and literature. It was, at least to me, the perfect project for my double masters in Modern Literature and Anthropology. I only hoped my professors thought so too.
With a crack of my knuckles and a jerk of my neck, I got back to work. I was at the good part, when the young and nubile Rosanna would slide her panties off and expose herself to the professor. That’s when I saw it, a small head topped with brown curls peeking inside my house. I grinned at her poor ninja skills, ducking down seconds after I’d already seen her, figuring she must belong to the new neighbors who moved in about a month ago. Between my final two graduate school courses and my job, correction my old job with television personality Dr. Todd, I’d been so buried in my own life that I hadn’t even met them yet.
The tiny brown head popped up again, in front of my picture window that overlooked the verdant backyard that I’d spent many hours tending in order to clear my head. To find inspiration. I waved and she ducked again, pulling an amused laugh from me.
Saving my document, I stood, stretching tense muscles before making my way to the door. The house was a white side-by-side duplex with blue trim. Though I hadn’t been inside since the firefighters moved out, I knew the other half of the building was the opposite of mine. The main rooms were switched, mine faced the backyard and theirs faced the street. I’d never been upstairs, but I figured that’s where two of the three bedrooms were located. I pulled open my door and stepped onto the shared porch, finding the little girl ducking behind the patio swing.
“Hey stranger, do you need some help?”
Big clear blue eyes the color of the sky peered up at me through a mess of curls. Finally, her head bobbed up and down, but that was it.
I dropped down onto the balls of my feet, ignoring the way my thighs screamed in protest. I’d skipped going to the gym lately because I was just too busy.
“I’m Rory and I live right here. What’s your name?”
“Sydney,” a soft voice said with hesitation.
“Nice to meet you Syd,” I held out my hand giving her a grownup shake that made her giggle. “Now, how can I help you?”
Those big blue eyes that made her look so vulnerable called out to me, but the way they darted off to the sides made me wary. Finally, she looked at me again, and I guess she decided she could trust me.
“My sitter didn’t show up.”
I blinked. This was out of my depth. What the hell did I know about little kids? Nothing, that’s what. The only little kid I knew was myself, and I had never really been a kid to be honest.
“Where are your parents?”
“My mommy is gone. My daddy is at work. He makes babies,” she offered proudly.
Instantly my heart went out to this adorable little girl with an ethereal beauty that would stun the world in a few years. Losing a parent was hard. I should know, I lost both of mine. That’s not true, exactly. I never knew my father because he’d left my mom long before I was born. But when I was fifteen I lost my mom. Literally. Came home from school two days before homecoming to find the entire apartment empty except for my room.
“I’m sorry about your mom kiddo. But why is your dad already gone if the sitter didn’t show up?” I stood up and tried to peek through the window above their closed door, but even with my own five-seven height, the window was too high. I tried the door knob, but it wouldn’t budge. She was locked out.
“Babies were coming and Amy said she was coming in five minutes,” she said with so much exasperation I had to bite back a smile. “It’s been longer than five minutes.”
“You’re probably bored and hungry, huh?”
Again, her head bobbed up and down as she inched closer to me, stealing inside my place before I changed my mind.
“I didn’t eat for a long time.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t try to cook on your own,” I told her and she gave me a perplexed frown.
“I’m too young to cook.” Her tone implied she thought I was an idiot, but her curious gaze held mine.
“I know.” She tried her best to climb up onto one of the counter stools, but she was just too tiny so I gave her a boost.
“Thanks,” she grinned, showing off a pretty smile full of baby teeth. “What are we having?”
Good question. I cooked for myself pretty regularly because it was cheaper and healthier and now that I didn’t have a job, health insurance had become a luxury. I scanned the fridge and found enough ingredients to make a meal. “How do you feel about spaghetti?”
“I love spaghetti!”
I wished something in my life gave me as much happiness and excitement as spaghetti gave Sydney. “Do you have a number for your dad?” She shook her head. “Can you tell me where he works?”
“He has a hospital for mommies and babies and he works at the big hospital too.”
Okay then. I just hoped that he didn’t freak out when he came home and found the little girl gone. I fixed spaghetti and listened while Sydney told me all about her daddy the Baby Doctor. She made him sound like a super hero, and I could admit to a healthy amount of curiosity about the man. Even though he had left his seven-year-old kid home alone. Sydney ate two servings of spaghetti, fruit and frozen yogurt before she passed out on the couch while I edited part of my thesis.
I must have fallen asleep at some point too because I woke up with a little girl sprawled across my chest, fifty pages of my thesis scattered on the floor and a god-awful pounding coming from somewhere. The door. Gingerly I moved Sydney off me and padded to the door, squinting up at five uniformed officers and—holy hotness batman—a dark angel masquerading as a fashion model. Black hair and silver-blue eyes were the highlights, but the sharp cheekbones and rugged jawbone that could chisel rock were all appealing too. His frown…not so much.
“Officers how can I help you?”
The one with the thick seventies porno moustache stepped forward. “We’re looking for a missing little girl,” he said and described the child sleeping on my sofa to a tee.
“Sydney? Yeah I’ve seen her, she was lurking on the back porch because her babysitter didn’t show.” I gave the sexy Baby Doctor a scathing glare. “And her father left her home alone. She was hungry, bored, alone and locked out,” I added.
Officer porno-stache pushed me aside and stormed in with the others. He grabbed Sydney, who woke with a shriek, while one of the other officers held me back. B
ecause yeah, I was the threat.
“Why Rory? Wasn’t I good? I’ll be better I promise!”
“It’s okay Syd your dad is here,” I tried to soothe. “He was scared.”
She looked up at the man still wearing a scowl and even that made the irritating man look hot as hell. “I’m fine Daddy. Rory watched me.” She turned to me. “I was good wasn’t I?” At my nod, she ran to me and wrapped her little arms around my legs. “We’re friends now,” she said, to me or her father, I didn’t know.
“Try to get some sleep Syd,” I told her while her giant of a father continued to glare as though that alone could vaporize me.
“Night Rory.”
“Night,” he growled back, and not the sexy kind of growl either. The I’m pissed off and I want you to know it even though I’m still polite, kind of growl.
“Whatever,” I said and slammed the door in his face.
That would have had more impact if the stupid officers weren’t still inside my house.
Kane
“Daddy I think you hurt Rory’s feelings.” Sydney hopped up from her seat onto the counter, chin buried in her hands and frowned up at me.
“I doubt it honey. She’s probably just busy.” As long as she wasn’t around I didn’t give a damn where she was. That woman. Hell thinking about her now, days later, still pissed me off. What kind of adult kept someone else’s child without calling to let them know?
“Nuh-uh. I saw her peeking out the window when we left this morning. And she always leaves after we come inside.” She gave me her best admonishing look, dark brown brows dipped low in defiance. “Tell her you’re sorry.”
Ah hell. Days like this I felt much younger than my forty-two years. “Sydney, you scared the hell out of me!”
“And she saved me. Cooked me dinner and did my hair!” She looked so much like her mother with that ski-jump nose, wide mouth and freckles. “She was nice to me.”
Yeah, I could admit that was true. It had been kind of her to let Sydney in and cook for her while keeping her entertained. But dammit I hadn’t been that scared since her mother had woken up one day to a phone call that one of her friends was having yet another party. That day on the lake. She’d crawled out of bed, showered, dressed and left. All without a thought to our ten-month-old daughter.
Seal'd to Her: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance Page 57