A Little Bit Naughty (13 page)

“Am I really that bad?”

“Yes,” she answered without hesitation. “But I think I may have exacerbated your unflattering side. Kiera always said that you only turned into that serious, mean guy around me.” She tilted her head to the side. “Why was that?”

He stared at her for a long time, still tossing the pillow up in the air. Finally, he set it aside and sat up in the bed.

“It’s because I hated that you were with Eric. You could have chosen any other guy, and I would have at least been able to stomach it. But Eric Pearce?” He shook his head. “You were married to him for what, eleven years?”

“Twelve.”

He grunted, shaking his head again. “I just don’t know what you ever saw in him. He’s always been such an asshole.”

“Yes, but he was a charismatic one.” A sad smile drew across her face. “I have to admit that I was blinded by the charm. Eric approached me the very first day I started at Maplesville High, and from that day forward I couldn’t see anybody but him.”

“I would look at the two of you walking around school, and I just wanted to rip his throat out. Eric never deserved you.”

“I know that now, but it took me a while to see it.” She swirled the spoon in the peanut butter, but found her appetite had suddenly fled. “It truly seemed as if I was living the fairytale every girl dreams about, until it all came crashing down. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that a part of me knew all along that Eric was being with other women. The signs were there for years, but I chose to ignore them because I didn’t want to mess up the illusion of being the perfect couple.”

“Were you happy?” Mason asked, scooting over to sit beside her and lifting the jar out of her hand.

“I thought I was,” she said. “But, you know what? I am now. Even though I live in this little apartment—”

“Ridiculously tiny apartment,” he interjected around a mouthful of peanut butter.

Jada stuck her tongue out at him. “Even though I’m living in this
cozy
apartment, and I’m barely scraping by some months, I’m more at peace now than I’ve been in a very long time.”

“After putting up with Eric all that time, you deserve some peace.” He trailed a finger down her cheek. “I’m happy you found the peace you were looking for.”

Jada caught his hand. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Can you really be at peace with the way you shoulder everyone’s problems, Mason? You spend so much time concerning yourself with what’s going on with your mother and Kiera, I don’t know how you have any time for yourself.”

“Speaking of Kiera—”

“We’re talking about you right now.” She poked his chest. “You need to steal some time away to do something just for you.”

“Hmmm…” He scooped up more peanut butter and sucked the spoon. “Let’s see,” he said after a few moments. “I’ve spent the majority of my day making love to you. That should definitely count as doing something just for me.”

“Okay, I guess that does.” She laughed.

“Now, back to Kiera.”

Jada rolled her eyes. “Mason.”

“Something is going on with her, Jada, and I know you know what it is.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because you, Callie and Kiera don’t know how
not
to share everything that’s going on in your lives.”

“I haven’t told her that I’m sleeping with her big brother.”

“Because you only started sleeping with her big brother a few hours ago.”

She rolled her eyes again. “Fine,” she said with a sigh. “Kiera’s in a tiny bit of a financial bind, but it’s nothing she can’t handle. Do
not
butt in, Mason. That’s the last thing she wants, and I swear if you tell her I told you anything I’m going to deny it and then I’m going to run you over with my car.”

“That’s a sign of affection from you, isn’t it?”

Jada reach over and pinched his nipple.

“Ouch, woman. Why are you so violent?”

“I mean it, Mason. Let Kiera handle this on her own. You’ve taken care of her long enough. She can fight this battle herself.”

He remained silent.

“Mason,” Jada said, warning coloring her voice.

“Fine.” He sighed. “I’ll stay out of it, even though it’s ridiculous of her not to come to me for help when she knows all she has to do is ask. Why suffer through unnecessary trouble?”

“Because sometimes a person just has to do things for themselves. Deal with it.”

This time he was the one to roll his eyes. Jada suddenly realized that as much as she’d enjoyed bickering with Mason over the years, it was a thousand times better when they bickered naked.

Mason reached over to her bedside table and picked up her alarm clock/iPod dock.

“Well, it doesn’t make sense for me to try to get any work done today. And, since I’ve been forbidden to look into what’s going on with my sister, I’ll need something else to do with the rest of my Saturday.”

Jada couldn’t stop the naughty grin that etched across her lips. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

He leaned over the side of the bed and pulled the travel bag onto the mattress. “I think we can find a few things to occupy our time.”

Chapter Eight

His legs crossed at the ankles atop his desk, Mason had just sat back in his office chair to look over a tax deduction app one of his colleagues had recommended for his clients, when the doorbell rang. Carrying the iPad with him, he continued scrolling as he made his way to the door.

He opened the door without even looking up. “Yeah?”

“Is that how you answer the door?”

His head shot up, along with his pulse rate.

“Hey there, beautiful,” he answered with a smile, moving out of the way so that Jada could enter. He hadn’t even realized how much he’d been waiting to see her until she appeared on his doorstep.

 “You do realize that to hear you calling me beautiful is nearly as unsettling as you calling me adorable, right?”

“There’s no denying you’re beautiful,” he said as he closed the door behind her. “And adorable still applies.”

Her timid smile and gradually reddening cheeks only proved his point.

“Did Kiera decide to do that Seafood Festival in Lafayette?” she asked.

Mason grinned at her change of subject.

“Yes, she did,” he answered, setting the iPad on top of the nearby apothecary cabinet. He wrapped his arms around her and linked his hands at the small of her back. “Which means the house is empty. Which means that I’ll be taking a break from work.”

He went for her mouth, but she jerked her head back.

“Work? It’s Sunday.”

“It’s also tax season, and I happen to be a tax attorney,” he reminder her, aiming for her lips again. But Jada side-stepped him, ducking out of reach of his lips.

“I didn’t come here for what you obviously have in mind,” she said. “I came to kidnap you.”

Mason arched a quizzical brow.

“You may want to put on some old clothes,” she advised. “And tennis shoes, if you own a pair.”

“I own tennis shoes.”

“Then get them on.”

“Can I know where we’re going first?”

She scrunched her face up, as if she was thinking hard. “Hmm…do kidnappers usually tell their victims where they’re going?”

“When the victim outweighs the kidnapper by sixty pounds? Yes.”

“Fine,” she exasperated. “We’re going fishing. Yesterday you told me you haven’t been since your dad died.” She hunched her shoulders. “I was thinking that maybe it’s one of those things you can start doing that’s just for you.”

Mason wasn’t even sure what to do with the emotion that clogged his throat. The fact that she’d even given thought to coming up with something he could do that was just for him was more than any other woman he’d been with had ever done.

Last night, after making love for the fifth time in a twelve-hour span, Jada had cuddled against his back and asked him about the fire that would have likely killed him, his mother and his sister if he had not gotten up for a glass of water that faithful night. Recalling the fire eventually led to talk about his father, and he’d shared with her how much he used to love going fishing with him, and how he had not done so since his father passed away.

Mason knew he didn’t have time to go fishing today. He was already behind after spending all day yesterday with her, though he’d cut his own tongue out before he voiced a single complaint about that. When he weighed the appeal of spending the day fishing with Jada—of doing
anything
with Jada—with being holed up in his home office all day reviewing spreadsheets, there really was no contest.

Twenty minutes later, they were heading east toward Gauthier.

“Where did you get the fishing equipment?” Mason asked, gesturing to the two rods sticking out the back window.

“I borrowed them from Bradley Mitchell,” she said. “He owed me a favor after helping his daughter’s dance team with their routine. See, those old cheerleader skills are still coming in handy.”

“What about the uniform?” Mason asked. “I can think of several ways that can come in handy.”

She plucked him on the arm. Damn, she was adorable.

She pulled off the highway onto a dirt road, and Mason suddenly realized where they were headed.

“Ponderosa Pond,” he murmured. “Man, I haven’t been here in years.”

Memories of the last time he was here instantly bombarded him, but instead of making him melancholy, all he could do was smile. He tried his best not to think about those days just before he lost his dad, but after sharing those stories with Jada last night, he realized they were some of the best times of his life.

She parked underneath the overreaching branches of a huge oak tree, and they unloaded the rods and an aluminum pail from her car.

“What about bait?” Mason asked.

“Bait?”

“The fish won’t just jump on the hook. We actually need to cajole them into getting on there. The usual method is bait.”

Jada let out a sigh. “Okay, if you want to know the truth, this is my very first time fishing, and I am so grossed out by the idea that it’s taking everything I have within me not to throw up just thinking about it.”

Mason chuckled, shaking his head. “Get in the car. We don’t have to do this.”

“No!” she said. “No, Mason. Really, I want you to fish.”

He ran a finger down her cheek. “You’re willing to be grossed out just for me? Do you realize how sexy that is?”

She laughed. “Do you realize how shocking it is to discover that you actually have a sense of humor?”

“I’m being totally serious,” he said, swooping in for a quick kiss.

Using a sturdy branch, Mason dug around the softer earth at the edge of the pond and came up with a few worms. Jada freaked out so much when he baited his hook that Mason set her rod on the ground and declared that he would be the only one fishing. She responded by pumping a fist in the air.

“Now we just sit?” Jada asked.

“Pretty much.”

She was silent for about a minute before she said, “So, is this right above watching paint dry on ‘The Most Boring Things To Do in the World’ list?”

Mason looked over at her. “You do remember that you’re the one who brought me out here, right?”

“Yes,” she said. “Are you enjoying it?”

“Actually, I am. It’s been a really long time since I did this. I didn’t think I ever wanted to fish again because I didn’t think it would ever be the same without my dad. It might not be the same, but it’s still good.”

“According to Kiera, your dad was a laugh a minute.”

“He was a huge practical joker. Used to drive my mom crazy.”

“Yet, his son is so serious,” she remarked. “Maybe you should take a page from your dad’s book. He doesn’t sound like a guy who would have been working on a Sunday.”

“No,” Mason said, a corner of his mouth turned up in a sad smile.

Over these past few weeks, thoughts about how his dad would view some of the decisions weighing on him lately had crossed Mason’s mind more than once. He’d spent so much time concentrating on keeping that one promise he’d made to take care of Kiera and his mother that he never considered how his dad would feel about the way Mason was taking care of himself.

Something told him that the lighthearted family man who’d raised him would not approve. Jada had the right idea. There was nothing wrong with being a bit more selfish with his time. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t still watch over his mother and sister while also taking a little time out to enjoy life.

“Thank you for this,” he said. “I didn’t realize how much I needed it.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, a surprised, genuine smile lighting up her face.

He switched his fishing rod to his left hand and reached for her, but she side-stepped him.

“Stay back,” she said, crossing her fingers in an X to ward him off. “You’re not touching me with those wormy fingers.”

“You’re such a girl.” Mason laughed. “As long as I can touch you tonight, I have no problem keeping my wormy fingers to myself.”

She grimaced. “You’ll have to take a rain check. I have a bachelorette party coming up this week and still need to go through my inventory—”

“I can definitely help with that.”

“I’d like to have some things available to sell at the bachelorette party, thank you very much.” She laughed. “I also have to prepare for two interviews tomorrow, including one with The Fortier Foundation! They sent the email yesterday afternoon, but I was otherwise occupied.”

Her grin was so deliciously sexy Mason had to stop himself from tossing the fishing rod in the pond and attacking those lips. But then her smile turned wistful, and the longing in her voice caused his chest to tighten.

“Mason, I want this job so badly. It would make all these months of searching worth it if my interview goes well tomorrow. Which is why I need to prepare.”

The excitement he witnessed in her eyes had just earned Selena Pareja a bottle of her favorite Shiraz. Mason would have it delivered tomorrow. Even if Jada didn’t get the job, it was worth it to see the pure happiness derived just from having an interview.