Sadness hung in her eyes, and her bottom lip poked out just a hair. “Then why are you telling me now?”
I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing it with my teeth and tugging on it gently before kissing her again.
Masyn pressed the heel of her hand into my chest to put some space between our mouths and forced me to answer.
“Because,” I replied, the sweet flavor of her kiss still on my tongue, “the day Peyton Holstein strolled into town was the first indication you’d ever given me that you were jealous. And it took Beau pointing it out. I had no clue why you were so upset.”
She crossed her arms. “I wasn’t jealous.”
“Sweetheart, you were. And it’s okay. Every time I’ve ever seen you touch another guy, I’ve wanted to rip his arms out and shove them down his throat.”
“That’s a tad barbaric.”
“It’s the truth.” I brushed her hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. “I hated seeing you with another guy. I was just as jealous, but after the stuff with Alex in high school, I didn’t think I could say anything.” My eyes flitted between hers, and I watched her nostrils flare as I studied her expression. “I had to wait it out. At least, I thought I did.”
The fine, blue lines swirled with the iridescent green of her irises, and her pupils swelled before returning to normal. “Why? Just because of that scene in the lunchroom? That happened years ago. We were just kids.”
My jumbled thoughts would likely never make sense to Masyn. “Yeah. I regretted how I handled that. What happened that day ruined any chance I might have ever had at a relationship with you.”
She ran her fingers through her hair, and the smell of rosemary filled my nostrils. Her scent was intoxicating, but I wouldn’t get the words out by lingering in it.
I didn’t give her the chance to say anything before I offered my heartfelt apology and confession. “I can’t change my past or the stupid decisions I’ve made along the way, Masyn. All I can do is tell you how I feel now and hope you feel the same.”
Masyn squirmed in my arms until she managed to break the death grip I had on her so she could reach over and turn off the lamp. She moved out from between my legs and back to the side she’d taken over in the last couple of days, and I situated myself on my back. I’d hoped for more, to know where we stood, where we were going, and what she wanted. I hadn’t gotten any of that. Relieving my heart of its greatest secret would have to do for tonight. If she were still lying in my arms, then there was hope for the rest and possibly even a future. I’d waited for six years; one more night wouldn’t kill me.
Just before I drifted off with her practically on top of me, Masyn tilted her head up and used her hand to turn my face toward her. She softly pressed her lips to mine, and when she pulled away, she nuzzled into my neck and whispered into my ear, “Lee Carter, I’ve loved you since we were five, when you walked me home from school.”
Chapter Fifteen
Waking up with Masyn covering my left side—her thigh between my legs and her breasts pressed to my ribs—was like experiencing sunshine for the first time. The entire world looked different when the alarm went off. Her sleepy eyes recognized where she was, and a lazy grin lifted her lips.
“Mornin’, sweetheart.” I kissed her forehead and tried to adjust my body so my erection wasn’t firmly pressed against her thigh.
“Hmm.” She wiggled to stay as close as she had been when we woke up. “Good morning.” Her lips were like heaven when she teased my chest with peppered affection.
As much as I didn’t want to get up, we both had to be at work in an hour. “If you hurry, we can still do omelets before work.”
She moved her hand down my side and trailed her thumb over my abdomen. “We should call in.” If she thought she could entice me to stay in bed, it wouldn’t take much, but I knew she’d regret it.
“You and I both know that neither one of us is going to call in, and certainly not at the same time. Navigating this in town is already going to be difficult; we don’t need to throw blood in the water to attract the sharks.” My fingertips found the bare skin between her tank top and shorts and traced patterns on her side.
I’d love nothing more than to stay right where I was for the rest of the day and explore Masyn’s body. And I planned to do that very thing, just not before work. Nevertheless, I had to remind myself we had all the time in the world. Just because we’d finally admitted how we felt didn’t mean we had to race to the altar tomorrow. Although, if I thought I could convince her to, I would just to make sure no one else ever stood a chance at having her.
“I want to lie here for a little while longer.”
“So, no breakfast?”
“I’ll claim my omelet another morning. And don’t think I’ve forgotten you owe me a foot rub, too.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
Masyn’s hand roamed my torso, and her fingers dipped below the waistband of my shorts. I loved that she wasn’t daring enough to reach in and take what she was so clearly interested in. She was shy, and I had no idea she was so affectionate—she certainly hadn’t been touchy-feely with the guys I’d seen her date.
“Hey, Masyn?”
“Yeah?” Her voice was deeper than usual in the morning, and the vibration of that one word on my chest made my cock stir. She giggled when it jumped, but she didn’t say anything.
“Why did you and Tommy Morton break up?”
“That’s a blast from the past.”
“I know, humor me.”
“You already know the answer. He cheated on me with Melinda Beece.”
“What about Devin Callen or Kyle Perkins?”
Her fingers stopped moving, and she arched her back, twisting to see me. The grimace marring her features indicated her confusion.
“Or Larson Camp and Greg Davis?”
“I only went out with each of them a few times. I don’t think I would have even said we broke up. We just didn’t go out again.”
“But was there a reason?”
“It sounds like you already think you know, so why don’t you tell me, and I’ll confirm or deny.”
I flipped her over onto her back and settled between her legs with my hands tucked under her shoulders. My weight was on my elbows to keep from crushing her while allowing me to see her face. “Was it because of me?”
Laughter rolled through her and shook my chest. “You’re full of yourself, Lee.” She tried to push me off, but I refused to budge.
“So it wasn’t because you spent the night here?”
It was a good thing her eyes wouldn’t permanently stick in the back of her head like we’d been warned as kids. “Beau needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.”
I rolled again, taking her with me, so she rested on my chest. “Or maybe you should learn to open yours.” Kissing her today was like the first time yesterday. I hoped that never changed and that the electricity between us stayed this strong. I’d never experienced it with anyone else and never wanted to again.
“Come on, we’ve got to get moving.” I smacked her ass with a final peck on the lips. “We can lie around after work.”
She sat on the edge of the mattress and turned to me. “We don’t have to hang out with Peyton and Beau this afternoon?” Masyn acted like spending time with our best friend was a chore.
“Not if you don’t want to. Peyton’s leaving tomorrow, so we’ll have all weekend to see Beau before he goes back to Atlanta on Sunday.”
I climbed from bed and rummaged through my drawer in search of a white T-shirt to put on under my uniform. When I turned around and pulled it over my head, Masyn hadn’t moved. Her hands were in her lap, tugging on her fingers and picking at her nails. Her teeth worried the corner of her bottom lip, and she stared at the floor. I hated seeing her vulnerable and unhappy when she was typically vibrant and strong.
Kneeling in front of her, I ducked down to see her face. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“None of this seems real. I’m
worried you’re going to wake up and realize how inexperienced I am and be bored with me, and I don’t think I can handle that.”
“I can’t convince you of anything else by telling you what you want to hear. You’re going to have to trust me and give us time.” I kissed her cheek and pulled her up by her hand. “I promise, I didn’t wait six years to tell you that I love you just to go racing off in a week or a month or even a year.”
“Lee, I’ve never had a boyfriend.”
“Good, we can navigate this together—’cause Lord knows, I’ve never had a girlfriend. Now go get dressed while I make our lunches.”
“Don’t forget coffee,” she hollered down the hall after me.
If I’d thought being injured and having to work the docks made for the slowest day possible, being injured and having to work the docks while dreaming about spending an afternoon alone with Masyn curled up in my bed was far worse.
I was impressed with her ability to keep things about us quiet while we were at the shop. She hadn’t gotten all bent out of shape when I didn’t kiss her goodbye. She didn’t try to hold my hand at lunch where we’d be forced to answer questions. And she hadn’t acted any differently than she had since the day we’d started at Farley’s. Outside of my house, Masyn was the same girl she’d always been—and I loved it, except, where she’d only entered my thoughts occasionally before, she plagued them now. I swear, I counted every second that ticked by on my watch, making the day infinitely longer.
I had to stop myself from sprinting to the time clock at the end of the shift. But not even the group of men gathered near the breakroom could stop the grin that took over my cheeks when I saw Masyn coming from the other side of the shop. She’d released her hair from the knot she typically wore at work, and she’d unbuttoned her uniform shirt to expose the thin, white, cotton T-shirt she had on underneath. The pants did nothing for her and didn’t showcase her ass or hips, much less her legs, but I knew what was hiding beneath the fabric and couldn’t wait to take it off.
I didn’t care how long it took to get to sex, I wanted to explore every inch of her skin, and I longed for her to do the same with me. I was desperate to know her entire body like I knew the back of my hand.
“What the hell you grinning about, Carter?” Farley was always a pain in my ass.
“Taking top pay for a machinist while checking in trucks.”
Masyn tried to suppress her giggle, and she strolled past us without saying a word.
“Porter?” Farley made no distinction between her and the other guys in the shop. She worked in a man’s world, and he treated her like one.
She slid her card through the reader and turned around. “Yeah?”
“I need you to work over tomorrow afternoon. Line three’s parts aren’t meeting spec, and I need you to rework the codes to fix it. Shouldn’t take you more than an hour or two.”
Frequently, Masyn was thrilled with overtime, and even though she just agreed to stay late, I could tell she wasn’t happy about it. That was the downside of being the best programmer a machine shop had. She was their go-to when issues cropped up.
“Not looking forward to staying late tomorrow?” I asked her as soon as we were in the truck and behind closed doors.
She responded with a sideways glare and the flick of a button to change the radio. I’d gotten lucky before work and listened to the morning show on the country station. I wasn’t so lucky this afternoon. The only reason I got away with it on the way to work was because no music played, and she thought the hosts were funny.
I took her hand and kissed the top. “It’s only a couple of hours. It won’t be bad. Then you can come over and hang out with Beau and me. Just think…now you have an excuse not to say goodbye to Peyton.”
She raised her brows and cocked her head with a shrug. “You’ve got a good point. I just hate that he pulls that crap on a Friday afternoon.”
“Would you rather have stayed today?”
“I wouldn’t have stayed today.”
Masyn was fairly laid-back ninety-nine percent of the time. That one percent where she got riled up always made me laugh—and stand back. I was flattered that she anticipated seeing me as much as I did her.
A few blocks from the house, Masyn started bouncing in the seat next to me.
“What are you doing?”
“I have to pee.”
“Why didn’t you go at the shop?”
“I’m the only female in the place. Do you have any idea how gross those toilets are for those of us who have to sit to urinate?”
I didn’t even have the truck stopped before she unbuckled her seatbelt. I threw it into park, and she bolted out of the door and went flying toward the house. Finding the deadbolt locked, she continued her dance on the porch.
I leaped from the truck and crossed the driveway. “Where are your keys?” I asked her, trying to stifle my amusement.
“At my house, where my car is parked. Just open the door.”
She pushed past me the second I turned the lock. I shut the door and moved into the kitchen to dump off the two lunchboxes and rinse out the Tupperware inside of them. It was all terribly domestic, and every step made me grin.
I grabbed an apple from the basket and leaned against the counter, waiting for her to return. I needed to shower, but washing my hair with one hand took more effort than I wanted to put forth—especially if I could convince her to do it with me…or for me.
By the time she came back, I was tossing my core into the trash. She’d shed her uniform shirt and the belt she always wore, and her feet were bare. And if I wasn’t mistaken, she no longer had on a bra under that almost-translucent shirt. Masyn stepped between my feet and pressed her waist to my growing erection, tilted her head up, and I met her with a kiss. It was as natural as the sun rising and setting. Everything with her made sense.
Her delicate hands, still covered in grease and crap from the shop, lifted the hem of my shirt. A chill ran up my spine when her fingers touched my skin, and there was no hiding the excitement between my legs when she tugged my shirt over my head. I had to help her a little because of the height difference, but it was still hot.
I was hypnotized by the sight of her tongue when she licked her lips and stared up at me with her brown eyes sparkling. And it dawned on me what I saw reflected back at me. It wasn’t just love. There was lust sprinkled in there, too. “I need to shower to get the grime off.”
“Me too.”
I didn’t have to ask, or even suggest. Masyn laced her fingers through mine and led me down the hall in a seductive dance to the master bathroom. While she turned on the water, I sat on the toilet to take my work boots off and then my pants. It was considerably harder to get them off without much use of my right thumb, but having Masyn as a sideshow made it worth the trouble. She shimmied out of hers, leaving herself in nothing other than a T-shirt and panties.
I pulled her across my lap and hugged her loosely. “You know we don’t have to do anything, right?”
“Are you telling me you don’t want to?” Expecting me to reject her, her expression changed and the corners of her mouth turned down just a hair.
“No. I’m telling you I don’t expect it. We can take this at your pace.”
“Lee, you’ve gotten your itches scratched by every girl in town for years. No one has scratched any of my itches except me. Trust me when I say, I’m beyond ready, and I’m tired of waiting.”
I tried like hell not to stare when she finally eased out of my embrace and took off her shirt. It had teased me ever since we left the shop. My jaw hung slack when she let her panties hit the floor. But I remained quiet and watched the erotic show. I knew she would be stunning; I just had no idea she’d take my breath away. I still sat on the toilet lid, and her chest was at the perfect height for me to take one of her tight, pink nipples into my mouth.
My eyes drifted shut when my tongue swirled around her peak, and my good hand squeezed her firm ass while I lavished her breasts with at
tention. She didn’t flinch or shy away, she arched her back into my embrace. I parted my lids when her head fell back. Masyn held herself in the most erotic pose I’d ever witnessed, and my dick stood at attention, desperate to be inside her. I tried to maintain contact when I got to my feet, but I lost the battle when her fingers slipped into the waistband of my boxers, whipped them down, and dropped them to the floor. Without thought, I stepped out of my underwear, kicking it next to hers.
She held my gaze when she took me into her hand and stroked with the confidence of an experienced lover. Masyn didn’t gawk, although she definitely appeared pleased with the package before her when she coaxed me across the room and we stepped under the steamy water.
The shower didn’t prove to be the sexy rendezvous that movies—well, porn—made it out to be. The twelve-inch difference in our heights made any type of contact difficult, and nothing lined up correctly, especially trying to do anything left-handed. She laughed at my awkwardness more than once, and somehow, that took the fear of being naked with her out of the picture. Not one time in the past had I ever worried about what a girl thought when I took off my shirt or when she felt my cock for the first time, yet with Masyn, I felt like a virgin trying to find my way. The difference was the nervous anticipation wasn’t negative, it was thrilling. And even through the mishaps and failed attempts at any type of physical intimacy, it felt as natural as her approach in the kitchen.
I slipped and nearly busted my ass trying to keep my hand out of the water. Masyn managed to keep me from falling, but we gave up on the shower and got out. I assumed we’d get dressed and watch a movie or order dinner. My dick had long since gone soft between the near-fatal accident and the cold air blasting me before I got a towel wrapped around my waist. I’d been so busy trying to conceal how drastic the change in temperature could be on parts of my anatomy, that I missed her drying off. And I certainly hadn’t witnessed her slink to my bed where she wanted to resume the party for two.
It was still unmade from being in it with her this morning, and the blankets were strewn to the right and gathered at the bottom. She’d stretched out on her side, and every lean inch of her drew my attention. I didn’t know where to start memorizing her details. The blinds were partially closed, making the room dusky, although certainly not dark. There was still plenty of light for me to spend as much time as I saw fit making sure to lavish every bit of her body with attention. Even still, I’d yet to move from the spot I’d been standing in to make it happen.
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