Read Online A Little Bit Naughty by Farrah Rochon - Free Book Online Page B

you? You, of all people!” She groaned, wrapping her arms around her legs and dropping her head to her knees.
    “Hey,” Mason said, unable to keep the affront from his voice. “What’s that supposed to mean? Me, of all people?”
    She lifted her head and shot him one of those sardonic looks he’d come to know so well from her. “You’ve been great tonight, but we both know the real deal. You’ve barely tolerated me from the moment you met me.”
    Mason just stared at her for several moments, a small smile tilting up his lips. “You really are clueless, aren’t you?”
    “See, that’s what I mean.” She threw her palms up. “You think I’m a dumb, clueless, airhead cheerleader.”
    Mason’s brow drew inward with censure. “You beat out Callie for valedictorian of your high school class and finished college and graduate school in five years. I have never thought you were dumb, clueless, or an airhead. As for the cheerleader…well, you wore the uniform.”
    And drove him crazy every time he saw her in it.
    The corner of her mouth hitched in an impish grin. “I guess I can’t argue with that. I did indeed wear the uniform,” she said.
    The easy smile he was able to draw from her made him feel as if he could leap tall buildings, grab clouds from the sky with his hands, do just about anything he desired.
    Mason leaned over and captured her chin in his fingers. “And I told you before, I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you, Jada.”
    Her skeptical expression wrung another chuckle from him. “I called you clueless because after all these years, you never figured out that I had the biggest crush on you when you first moved to Maplesville.”
    She jerked her chin out of his hold. “ What? ”
    Mason shrugged. “I did.”
    “You couldn’t stand me when I first moved here. In fact, you said those exact words to me on more than one occasion.”
    “I know,” Mason admitted. “What I probably should have said was that I couldn’t stand how quickly you fell for Eric’s bullshit, like every other girl in school. It was so predictable. But when I saw how hard he fell for you , it made it even worse, because I knew there had to be something special about you. It irritated the hell out of me that of all the guys you could have chosen, you chose him.”
    “You really don’t like him, do you?”
    Mason shook his head. “Never did. We got in a fight on the first day of second grade after I found him picking on a couple of kindergarteners. We’ve butted heads ever since.” He peered over at her. “I truly don’t know how you spent all those years with him. It’s as if you’re blind to the type of person he is.”
    “ Was blind,” she corrected. “My eyes are open now.” Jada blew out a tired breath. “You know what really gets to me? The fact that he’s winning. I hate it.”
    “He’s winning?”
    “Yes!” She pounded her fist with every item she ticked off. “He got all the money, he’s married again, and now he’s getting a baby. And what do I have? I’m unemployed, living in this shoebox, and I haven’t had sex with something that doesn’t require batteries in over a year.”
    He couldn’t do anything about the first two, but Mason had to stop himself from offering to change the status on her third issue.
    Jada rubbed her temples and let out a groan. “God, when did I become this whiny complainer? I hate complainers.” She shook her head and huffed out a humorless laugh. “I just don’t know how I ended up here. I was living the fairytale. Married to my high school sweetheart, living in one of the biggest houses in town, working at a great job. And then…poof. It all came crashing down.”
    “But you’re still here,” Mason pointed out. He reached over and tucked a lock of wavy hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger. Could her skin be any softer? “You realize that what you’ve been through this past year would break some people, don’t you, Jada? But you’ve managed