Fall in Love

by Anthology

  “I can help there.” He leaned in and took her nipple in his mouth, sucking gently at first and then harder as her tempo picked up.

  “Mason,” she groaned.

  His name on her lips like that, with that needy, almost desperate sound, made him want to do it to her again and again, over and over, for days, weeks, years on end.

  “Ad, you’re so…God, you’re…everything,” he said gruffly, surging upward as she came down.

  She held his head in both hands and kissed him, hot, wet, wild. Then she tore her mouth free and cried out as she came.

  He definitely wanted to hear and see that for the rest of his life.

  The realization, combined with her look of ecstasy he was very proud to have created was enough to push him over the edge. He felt the heat and pressure build and burst into her. The only woman he ever wanted to be with again.

  She leaned into him, resting her forehead on his shoulder again, neither of them moving. Their breathing quieted, their heart rates came back down and still they stayed as they were.

  “Holy crap,” she finally said against his chest.

  He laughed and smoothed a hand over her hair. “Poetic, Ad.”

  She lifted her head and gave him a grin. “Sorry. But wow.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

  “I mean…that sounds dumb and it’s not like I was a virgin but—”

  He squeezed her butt. “You can skip the part where you tell me about all the other guys, okay?”

  She tipped her head to one side. “Really? It really bothers you that I’ve been with other men?”

  Mason swallowed. How could he tell her all he was feeling? It made absolutely no sense. For him to feel possessive and like she belonged with him, to him, that he looked at her and thought mine, that he wanted to be there for every birthday and Christmas and when she was sick and every time she smiled or cried or orgasmed—well, it was crazy. They barely knew one another, had spent only a few hours together and it was illogical to feel the things he was feeling.

  Illogical was difficult for him. Things that didn’t have proof and something he couldn’t explain made him suspicious.

  But here, with her, it was true.

  He felt like he’d been late in getting to her and it was incredibly unfair that he’d missed out on so much with her.

  “Adrianne, I think there’s something I need to tell you.”

  She looked concerned. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  He was counting on her to think that what he was about to say—because he couldn’t not say it—was not good. Was, in fact, insane. He knew that the connection, this chemistry, this craziness wasn’t one-sided, but maybe Adrianne would be more rational about it and would insist that it was too fast and too incredible. She might be able to convince him that it wasn’t real, that it was a combination of physical attraction, nostalgia being home again and the fact that it was a fling—fun and unimportant in the overall scheme of things.

  She pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and wrapped it around her, sliding off his lap. “Do I need to be dressed for this conversation?” she asked.

  If he had his way, she’d never be dressed again. “You’re not going to be dressed for the next several hours, honey.”

  She seemed relieved at that. She grabbed a tissue box from the end table and handed it to him. He took care of the condom and pulled his underwear and pants back together but didn’t fasten them. He turned to face her. She was leaning against the arm of the couch, the blanket tucked under her arms.

  “Adrianne, I think you should know that—”

  “You’re leaving,” she said. Then she sighed. “I know. It’s not like I thought you were going to stay here with me forever.”

  Stay here with me forever. The words hit him directly in the chest.

  It was what he wanted.

  He had a farm here that he loved. He wanted to plant and grow and dig in the dirt. He wanted to go to the annual festival and have a welcome mat and…Adrianne.

  He stared at her. Fuck. How had this happened in two days? How was this even possible? He didn’t want to go back to Chicago?

  But he didn’t even have to think about it. He didn’t. He believed in what they did there, but he didn’t have to be in Chicago to do it. He could be anywhere. He could oversee experiments anywhere, he could conduct team meetings virtually, he communicated with many members of their team via computer anyway, and he could fly out of the Omaha airport. There was no reason he had to be in Chicago instead of Sapphire Falls.

  And there were a few really good reasons to be in Sapphire Falls instead of Chicago.

  “I want to stay,” he said simply.

  Her smile slowly shrank and her eyes got wide. “What?” she whispered.

  “I want to stay.” He lifted a shoulder. “Sapphire Falls is, surprisingly, more appealing than anything in Chicago.”

  “You want to stay…for a few more days?” she asked.

  If he wasn’t mistaken, she sounded almost hopeful. He frowned. “You only want a few more days?”

  She stared at him, the blanket gripped in her fist against her chest.

  “I want a hell of a lot more than that, Adrianne. I want to have sex with you in every position possible, but I want more than that.”

  “What are…” She stopped and cleared her throat. “Like what?”

  “Everything.”

  “Everything?” she repeated, her voice nearly a squeak.

  “I’m falling in love with you,” he said. “I know it. I love that you get me. I love that you’re so genuine and accepting—not just of me but of everyone. You try to make Hailey look good even when she’s being selfish and flaky. You smile at Drew even when he’s being annoying. You make gourmet candy for all the guys even though they have no appreciation for anything gourmet. You don’t try to change anyone. You let them be who they are.”

  He shifted so that he could lean closer to her, let her see the truth in his eyes. “You’re so happy and content. You’ve figured out what you want and you’ve found it. I want to be near your…energy. I want that real, open satisfaction that you’ve found.”

  The only place he’d ever felt even close to that had been in Haiti and on the farm here in Sapphire Falls. And now with Adrianne.

  It was ironic that his sanctuary was in the midst of the last place he thought he ever wanted to be. Part of his haven was this woman who loved this town and was in the middle of everything that happened here.

  Sapphire Falls was different with Adrianne here.

  For instance, he’d gotten to make out in Herschfield House. He even kind of liked poker.

  “So I’m staying,” he said resolutely.

  She swallowed. “Whoa.”

  He waited for a few seconds. “That’s it? Whoa?”

  “We hardly know each other.”

  “I’m not saying it makes sense.”

  “But I—”

  “We’ll get to know each other,” he said, cutting her off. “Because I’m staying and I don’t want to wake up without you. Unless there’s a really good reason for us not to be together, you better be okay with sleeping naked.”

  He’d said it firmly, with a frown, but she looked turned on. And completely shocked.

  But slowly her mouth spread into a smile. “I sleep in a silk nightie with no underwear. Will that work?”

  He shook his head, still frowning even as relief spread through him. “Nope. You’ll have to lose the nightie.”

  “Okay, okay,” she said with mock exasperation. “If you’re going to insist.”

  “Oh, I’m going to insist.” He shifted, moving so he could cover her body with his. “I’m also going to insist on you getting rid of that blanket and spreading your sweet legs for me again right now, because I need you, Ad. I really need you.”

  In the middle of the night, they lay spooning on the couch, Mason behind her sleeping, his arms around her and the blanket over them both. In spite of being well spent
physically, Adrianne was wide awake, her mind reeling.

  Holy crap.

  Not poetic, but fitting.

  Mason wanted to stay. In Sapphire Falls.

  She pulled in a long, slow breath and pressed her hand over the familiar spot on her chest.

  This was crazy. Completely, utterly insane.

  He made her heart pound with the things he did, said, who he was. But worse, now he said he wanted to stay.

  Nothing had made her heart pound like that idea did.

  And the fact that she wanted him to.

  Because the discomfort in her chest now was only the beginning.

  Because it would never work. He couldn’t leave Chicago and everything he had and did there to move to Sapphire Falls. Sapphire Falls had nothing for Mason. Okay, he thought part of what he wanted was her, but that couldn’t be true. This kind of stuff didn’t really happen in the real world. People didn’t meet, fall in love and live happily ever after in the span of two days.

  He was drunk on the nostalgia of home, the feeling of fitting in, the idea of getting the girl.

  She understood and part of her was thrilled to be a part of that for him. She liked him, so she was glad his homecoming was good.

  But she was to the point now where his leaving was really going to hurt. And that was before he’d tempted her with the idea of his staying.

  She felt his lips moving over the back of her bare shoulder and his thickening erection pressing into her butt. A shiver went through her as her whole body heated. She had never wanted sex like this. Right now, after three orgasms she still felt needy, like there was a hunger that hadn’t been satisfied yet, an itch that desperately needed scratched.

  She was going to itch for the rest of her life after he went back to Chicago.

  “Hold still,” he whispered against the back of her hair.

  He ran a large palm down the side of her hip and thigh and brought her leg up and back to drape over his hip behind her. He slid his fingers forward then, stroking over her stomach, lower, pressing against her mound, circling her clit and slipping into the hot wetness that seemed to be constant for him.

  Two fingers slid deep and she gasped as his thumb stroked over her clit at the same time.

  “Mason,” she choked.

  “I’ll never get enough of you,” he murmured, kissing her hair, her shoulder.

  She knew the feeling. But she couldn’t think like that. Hearing him say it was almost painful. She needed to keep him from talking, from saying all the things she yearned to hear—like how they could work it out, how they could be together, how his hands would be the only ones to ever touch her like this again.

  “Mason, I want—”

  He thrust his fingers deeper and she forgot that she wanted anything else.

  “Reach a condom,” he urged.

  He’d brought several she’d learned, so she reached for the pants that lay on the floor between the couch and coffee table and pulled one out. “I can’t reach to put it on you.” He had her firmly pinned right where she was.

  “I’ve got it.”

  He slipped his fingers from her, which made her want to whimper from the loss. Stupid. Dangerous. Bad.

  A moment later, he lifted her thigh farther and she felt the tip of him at her entrance. Instinctively, she arched her back and he pressed forward, sliding fully, thickly into her.

  They moaned together.

  His hand returned to her, stroking her clit as he moved behind her. She had less leverage in this position, but Mason was doing fine, pumping deep, long and slow.

  She was quickly breathing hard, feeling the coil of desire wind tighter, as if she was reaching for something just beyond her, something that only Mason could provide.

  “I love you, Ad,” he said gruffly as he thrust deep.

  And she shattered.

  Her orgasm, her heart, her resistance.

  “You’re what?” Lauren demanded as Mason dodged two kids on bikes on the sidewalk on his way from Adrianne’s to the café. It was a beautiful morning.

  “Staying in Sapphire Falls. I’m in love.” He said it with a big grin even though she couldn’t see it over the phone.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Lauren muttered.

  He grimaced as he heard a crash on Lauren’s end of the phone and the expletive that followed. “What are you doing?”

  “Dropping a pan of brownies on my ceramic tile floor.”

  “You okay?”

  “Oh, sure, I’m great. I send you off to a reunion you didn’t even want to go to so I could have a romantic weekend with Alex. And you end up in love and I get dumped. And I now have to go to the store for more brownie mix. Because I am going to eat brownies. But I’m definitely great.”

  Lauren never ate sweets. Unless she was upset. Generally, she was upset about something that happened in the lab or with their contracts and he could easily get her through that.

  Damn. “You and Alex broke up?”

  “Yes, she dumped me. Because my idea of having a life outside of work wasn’t enough. She didn’t want to be part of my life. She wanted to be my whole life.”

  Mason wasn’t sure what to say here. He was the best friend, so he knew it was his job to say something comforting, but Lauren was always the one to break up with her boy- and girlfriends. That generally required taking her out for a drink and telling her she was right to do it. This was new territory. He couldn’t remember a time she’d been dumped.

  “I thought this weekend…the point…” He really didn’t know what to say.

  “The point was to show Alex I cared about our relationship, that I was willing to give her some time, focus on her, make her a priority. But as soon as I said something about Haiti, she freaked. She wanted me to give everything up. She wanted me to get a normal job.”

  Mason frowned. “A normal job like what?”

  Lauren sighed. “Hell if I know. A science teacher, I guess, or a researcher in a lab where I can go home at five o’clock and have Christmas off.”

  It was quite clear Alex had no idea what she was talking about. Dr. Lauren Davis couldn’t work a normal job. There were plenty of talented people who could do those normal jobs extremely well. Lauren needed to do more than that. She was needed for innovative things, things that those science teachers would be talking to their students about, things that didn’t follow a clock or a calendar…things like they did together.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Mason said.

  “But it’s reality,” she returned. “Most people don’t understand what we do, and they sure aren’t going to understand how much we do it. If we want to be in love with normal people we have to have more normal lives.”

  He could hear scraping sounds that indicated Lauren was cleaning up her brownie mess while she talked to him.

  “I don’t think that’s true,” Mason argued. “Adrianne—”

  “This is your fault anyway.”

  “My fault?” Mason repeated. “I left town when you asked me to so you could be with her.”

  “I mean all this craziness that I’m choosing over her. We can’t stop now. The stuff we’re doing at work is bigger than both of us, thanks to you being brilliant and stuff.”

  “Have you been drinking?” he asked.

  “No, dammit.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, I put some vodka in my orange juice this morning. But that’s not why I’m saying this. Mason, we’re supposed to be in Haiti in two weeks for the preliminary visit. We’re supposed to be in DC next week. I dumped Alex for this.”

  He heard a thump on her end of the phone.

  “I thought Alex dumped you.”

  “Alex dumped me because I said I was going to Haiti instead of staying here with her. So you are not staying in Sapphire Falls.”

  “This is different. Adrianne is—”

  “I get it,” Lauren said. “I do. She’s hot, right?”

  “Yes. She’s…” Mason trailed off, at a loss for the perfect way to describe Ad
rianne. Beautiful wasn’t enough. The way he felt about her was so much more than how she looked.

  “I know,” Lauren said. “The lips, the breasts, her smell, her skin, her hair…I get it. But that heat that fast doesn’t make sense. What about compatibility? What about what we—you—have in common? How can I—you—keep her interested when I—I mean you—are sitting on the couch watching Dancing with the Stars and all you can think is how much you could be getting done at work instead?”

  Mason’s knew his mouth was hanging open in shock. Lauren didn’t rant and rave like that. She sounded…crazy. She sounded…

  “Are you crying?” he demanded.

  She distinctly sniffed. “No.”

  He really had no idea what to say now. Lauren didn’t cry. She yelled sometimes. She slammed doors. She ate brownies. But she never cried. And she’d never been crazy about anyone like she was about Alex. Alex was different. With Alex, Lauren had been distracted, spontaneous…different. It had been fast and hot and crazy.

  Like him and Adrianne.

  He sighed. “Maybe you should just watch the show, Lauren. If that’s what she wants, do it.”

  “I’m still not there though. I’m still thinking about other things.”

  “Then maybe,” he said carefully. “She wasn’t the right one.” He hesitated with what he was about to say. “Adrianne gets it.”

  “Gets what?”

  “What we do. Why we do it.” He paused. “Who I am.” Lauren didn’t answer right away.

  “Does she?” she finally asked.

  “Yes. And she likes it. Admires it.” She let him write work notes on her.

  “Ah.” Lauren’s tone had totally changed. “She likes you.”

  “She likes me,” he agreed.

  He knew that Lauren understood what he was talking about and didn’t feel pathetic about it. She was almost the only one who could really know him without him feeling vulnerable. Almost the only one. There was another woman, a short blond with the sweetest mouth, who he was more than willing to have as close as possible.

  “Of course she likes you.”

  “Don’t say it like that.”

  Lauren sighed.

  Lauren knew women liked him. But not the real him. He was great at putting on the act. He was suave, polished, sexy, sure of himself. As far as they were concerned. But they didn’t really know him. When conversation turned to fertilizer and irrigation, most lost interest, if they didn’t just outright think he was weird. So he kept it superficial. They talked about social issues, politics, his travels, their work.