conversation.
“So I can ensure they meet an unfortunate end before they get anywhere near you.”
Normally, a statement like that would be uttered with a smile or joviality intended to take the threat and bite out of it. Mason Sinclair says the words with a lethal bluntness that makes my eyes widen. “Did you crawl out from under some rock recently?”
“Yes,” he answers, again with that deadpan look. “I’ve spent most of the last four years in the Amazon with a tribe cut off from the rest of civilization.”
My mouth drops open. “You...are you serious?”
His lashes sweep down in a slow blink. “Why would I lie about something like that?”
I shake my head to clear the conflicting messages bombarding me. “Regardless of that, there’s no excuse for your rudeness considering who you are.” His eyebrow starts to spike, and I purse my lips. “Yes, I know exactly who you are. I googled you. People do that nowadays. In fact, it’s considered an insult not to google a person you meet at the first opportunity.”
His mouth twitches. “Duly noted. But the facts that interest me about you won’t be online. Unless you’ve been a very naughty girl,” he drawls.
God. I can’t make up my mind where my exasperation ends and my excitement begins with this man. All I know is I need to get away from him. Now. Before I lose my mind. Or throw myself at this hard wall of a body.
I drag my gaze from said body and look around to see that while we’ve been engaged on what can only politely be labeled verbal intercourse, the sun has set and lights have come on aboard the other boats and along the marina.
“I’m going to find the captain of this yacht. I’m sure he’ll give me a tour since you don’t seem inclined to.”
I hurry to the sofa where I dropped my clutch and head for the stairs, which lead god knows where. As I near the stairs, I hear him behind me.
“I’ll give you your tour. But bear in mind that each hour you force me into this useless dance with you is another hour I clock up on your punishment board.”
I hide a shiver of excitement and thread a bored tone through my voice as my feet click on the solid wooden floors down a wide hallway. “Give it up, Mason. Not every woman you meet is destined to fall at your feet in abject worship.”
I come to a halt when the hallway forks into four crossroads. With all that’s happened so far, I feel like this is some sort of ominous sign.
Mason stops behind me. His breath brushes the top of my head as the heat from his body engulfs me. Every single cell in my body stands to attention at the ominous feeling that washes over me, as if the moment is an important one that I can never retrace my steps from.
I feel his touch a second before his fingers trail down my arms, eliciting a deep shudder he can’t miss. “No. But you are. You’re destined to fall at my feet and stay there. Not because I want you to, but because you’ll like it. And because you won’t want to be anywhere else. I promise you that, Keely.”
Chapter 8
mason
M y fingers trail over the delicate skin of her inner wrists, and I can feel her stiffening herself against another shudder. I want to tell her not to bother. I already know her body’s reaction far better than she thinks I do. But I hesitate.
I’m not even sure who I’m hesitating for. Her, for the skittishness she’s desperately trying to hide. Or me, for the line I know I shouldn’t cross but can’t help caressing and toying with. Everything she’d said on the deck was right. Well...almost everything. I have no intention of taking her fast. I already did that on top of the car in Montauk. And as much as the need pounding through me demands a fast, bough-breaking release, it won’t be that way.
Not with her.
If I end up taking her.
I told her when we first met that I won’t play any games with her. And I still won’t.
But the fact of the matter is that I still haven’t picked up the phone to Hani;
“So I can ensure they meet an unfortunate end before they get anywhere near you.”
Normally, a statement like that would be uttered with a smile or joviality intended to take the threat and bite out of it. Mason Sinclair says the words with a lethal bluntness that makes my eyes widen. “Did you crawl out from under some rock recently?”
“Yes,” he answers, again with that deadpan look. “I’ve spent most of the last four years in the Amazon with a tribe cut off from the rest of civilization.”
My mouth drops open. “You...are you serious?”
His lashes sweep down in a slow blink. “Why would I lie about something like that?”
I shake my head to clear the conflicting messages bombarding me. “Regardless of that, there’s no excuse for your rudeness considering who you are.” His eyebrow starts to spike, and I purse my lips. “Yes, I know exactly who you are. I googled you. People do that nowadays. In fact, it’s considered an insult not to google a person you meet at the first opportunity.”
His mouth twitches. “Duly noted. But the facts that interest me about you won’t be online. Unless you’ve been a very naughty girl,” he drawls.
God. I can’t make up my mind where my exasperation ends and my excitement begins with this man. All I know is I need to get away from him. Now. Before I lose my mind. Or throw myself at this hard wall of a body.
I drag my gaze from said body and look around to see that while we’ve been engaged on what can only politely be labeled verbal intercourse, the sun has set and lights have come on aboard the other boats and along the marina.
“I’m going to find the captain of this yacht. I’m sure he’ll give me a tour since you don’t seem inclined to.”
I hurry to the sofa where I dropped my clutch and head for the stairs, which lead god knows where. As I near the stairs, I hear him behind me.
“I’ll give you your tour. But bear in mind that each hour you force me into this useless dance with you is another hour I clock up on your punishment board.”
I hide a shiver of excitement and thread a bored tone through my voice as my feet click on the solid wooden floors down a wide hallway. “Give it up, Mason. Not every woman you meet is destined to fall at your feet in abject worship.”
I come to a halt when the hallway forks into four crossroads. With all that’s happened so far, I feel like this is some sort of ominous sign.
Mason stops behind me. His breath brushes the top of my head as the heat from his body engulfs me. Every single cell in my body stands to attention at the ominous feeling that washes over me, as if the moment is an important one that I can never retrace my steps from.
I feel his touch a second before his fingers trail down my arms, eliciting a deep shudder he can’t miss. “No. But you are. You’re destined to fall at my feet and stay there. Not because I want you to, but because you’ll like it. And because you won’t want to be anywhere else. I promise you that, Keely.”
Chapter 8
mason
M y fingers trail over the delicate skin of her inner wrists, and I can feel her stiffening herself against another shudder. I want to tell her not to bother. I already know her body’s reaction far better than she thinks I do. But I hesitate.
I’m not even sure who I’m hesitating for. Her, for the skittishness she’s desperately trying to hide. Or me, for the line I know I shouldn’t cross but can’t help caressing and toying with. Everything she’d said on the deck was right. Well...almost everything. I have no intention of taking her fast. I already did that on top of the car in Montauk. And as much as the need pounding through me demands a fast, bough-breaking release, it won’t be that way.
Not with her.
If I end up taking her.
I told her when we first met that I won’t play any games with her. And I still won’t.
But the fact of the matter is that I still haven’t picked up the phone to Hani;
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