Controlling Krysta (7 page)

This was the man Jennifer fell in love with all those years ago. Before the Alzheimer’s and the fire and the accident.

On some level, I had known he was there all along. I’d been drawn to him. But I’d avoided asking too many questions, afraid of getting too involved. I’d convinced myself I’d be satisfied by the kinky sex and that would be the end of it.

Or maybe I hadn’t really convinced myself of anything.

“Would you come sit over here with me?” He was so polite compared to regular Mason.

“Okay.” I followed him to the L-shaped sitting area in the corner of Dix’s office. He sat in the chair while I took the end of the couch closest to him.

His back was straight. His hands rested on his knees. Why was he so tense? I wished I could think of a way to bring back the levity of a few minutes before.

He cleared his throat, but still didn’t say anything.

Was he planning to fire me? Fuck, I needed this job.

“Am I fired?” I blurted out. Subtlety was never my strong suit.

“Fired?” Mason leaned forward, a bewildered expression on his face. “Why would you be fired?”

“I, well…” I didn’t want to say it was because I’d given him an involuntary blowjob.

“Krysta…I have an interest in you beyond…” He paused as though he couldn’t find the right words.

An “interest” in me. Sounded like I was a real estate deal. Was he trying to be romantic?

This conversation reminded me that he couldn’t give me what I wanted, despite all the organ-melting that went on a few minutes before.

Two smiles don’t make a real relationship.

“I’d like for us to…”

I couldn’t let him go on. I had to be honest.

“Mason, I’m attracted to you. I mean really, really attracted to you, but I need intimacy, actual touching. The kind where you reach out and take my hand, not the kind where I feel like I’m molesting you against your will.” There, it was all out on the table now.

“Please hear me out,” he said. He still didn’t reach out and take my hand. “I haven’t felt this way about a woman since…” His eyes drifted off for a moment and I knew he was thinking of his wife. “I haven’t felt this way in a long time.”

“But—”

“You met me at a low point in my life,” he interrupted. “But having you around has made me look to the future again.”

“I don’t know if that’s enough, Mason.”

“My daddy always said, ‘Nothing good comes easy.’” Then he shook his head and smiled. “Of course, he’s in South America partying it up with easy women, so maybe he’s not the best role model.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. Rich guy, damaged by life, bad father…He wasn’t making his case any more appealing to a woman with years of psychology classes under her belt.

A part of me really wished he could find a way to talk me into whatever it was he wanted to talk me into.

However, no matter how much I wanted Mason, he couldn’t possibly be right for me.

“It’s Friday,” he said. “Come to the ranch with me for the weekend. It may take a while to get exactly where I’d like to be with the touching, but we’ll never know if there’s something here if we don’t give it a try.”

“Okay.” Did I just say that? What happened to all my objections? "But I’ll drive my own car out there,” I added, to make me feel I hadn’t lost control of my mind completely.

“Really? You’ll come?” The hopeful, boyish expression on his face made my heart skip a beat. Suddenly, he was adorable, on top of everything else.

When I left Mason’s office a few moments later, I knew exactly why Jennifer Maddox had fallen for this man. And that I had no business going to his ranch.

“This is the pasture,” Mason said. He pointed to an endless grassy area in front of us.

A few yards away, past the barbed-wire fence, cows grazed, happily unaware that there was anything in the world more important than the grass beneath their feet.

I, on the other hand, was a wreck. Why had I agreed to come out here, even after knowing this could be more than an attraction with Mason?

He was absolutely, positively not what I needed in my life. A man who was racked with guilt over his mother’s death and broken-hearted over his wife’s was too damaged for me to deal with right now. Maybe ever.

And he was likely to be selfish and superior, since he was born wealthy.

I wasn’t sure those were the scariest aspects of the situation. I kept thinking about how Mason had brought my odd sexual proclivities to the surface. The ones I’d known were there, on some level, all along, but thought I would never face.

Before I’d gotten there, he’d changed into a pair of jeans—crisp ones that fit him perfectly, of course—and a black western shirt.

The black cowboy hat was a different one than he wore to the office. I kept trying to decide if the hat made him more handsome or more menacing. Either way, it was hot.

I stared at his profile. A thick cord of electric energy surged from my chest down to my toes. I imagined him ordering me to grab a fence post while he punished my naked bottom with a horsewhip.

Shit. I didn’t want to encourage these tendencies in myself, did I? After getting out of that Brandt situation with at least most of my dignity intact, why would I allow myself to be dominated by a man in any way?

I didn’t want to feel weak or powerless…normally. Why did I find it so irresistible to submit to Mason’s commands?

I realized I hadn’t said anything for a couple of minutes.

I glanced around. “Nice barn.” In fact, it was the largest, most beautiful barn I’d ever seen, not that I spent a lot of time in barns.

The exterior was sage green with decorative brown slats and giant brown doors. The place was so lovely, it could almost pass for a house.

“Barn’s back there.” He pointed to the back of the building I’d gestured toward. “You can’t see it from here. Those are the stables…where the horses sleep.”

“Wow, can I rent a stall?”

He chuckled, then his gaze travelled back toward the pasture. “When I was a kid, I never thought I’d live on a ranch when I grew up.”

I tried to imagine Mason as a boy. “Why was that?” I’d relaxed as soon as he’d started speaking of his childhood. Did he know that would disarm me?

“Because I was scared to death of my daddy’s bulls.”

I watched a huge black bull, standing alone in a penned-off area.

“Do you have a special gym in that barn? He looks like he spends all day in it.”

Mason laughed as he propped his boot on a fence slat. “He’s more of a lover than a fighter.”

“Anyone special in his life?”

Mason made eye contact and I realized it may have sounded like I wasn’t really talking about the bull.

“Actually, he’s got a whole harem of someone specials.”

A jealous knot formed in my stomach and I broke eye contact. I’d had a flash of how I’d feel if I found out Mason was seeing other women. Were we still talking about the bull?

“A harem of females? Sounds like any man’s dream,” I said sarcastically.

“I don’t know. I think polygamy is overrated—having to satisfy so many different women. It’s hard enough to figure out how to please one.”

My eyes met his again. They were smiling at me and the corners of his lips were turned up a bit. Was I the female he’d like to please?

Be cool, Krysta.

“I think for polygamists, it’s usually about pleasing the man,” I said.

“Damn, maybe I should reconsider, then.” This time he wore a full-blown mischievous smile.

I melted. It was so sweet, how much he and his brother resembled each other when they smiled. But only Mason’s smile made my skin tingle.

I wanted to press my mouth against those smiling lips. But I was still afraid of whatever this was between us, and what it could become.

“Have you heard anything from Dixon?” I asked instead. “His voice sounded strange when he called in and said he was leaving town.”

“Well,” Mason said thoughtfully. “What you heard was probably the unusual absence of cocky.”

I raised my eyebrows at him, hoping he’d tell more.

“Dix has a special woman in his life, but it’s been a long-distance thing for a few months now and he’s afraid he’s losing her.”

“Dix? Afraid?” I repeated doubtfully.

“Yeah. I’ve never seen him like this over anybody.” His brow knitted together and I knew that he was genuinely worried about his little brother, as Dix had been about him.

“I hope he can pull this off. She’s a sweet girl…” He looked down at me and I caught the twinkle in his eye. “Not my type, though. I like ‘em with a smart mouth.”

“Hey!” I said.

I tried to punch him in the chest. He grabbed my fist, leaned in, and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

That was it. He had me. He’d voluntarily made skin contact of the sweetest kind, and, apparently, that’s all it took for me.

Now, I didn’t just want him. I wanted to keep him. Running my hands up his hard chest, I encircled his neck and pulled his head toward mine. He didn’t resist.

By the time our lips met, he took over, pressing his mouth hard onto me. His tongue pushed inside, exploring with such passion, a ball of heat plunged from my chest to my stomach.

I wanted more. I closed the inches of space between our bodies. His hands splayed across my back and squeezed me tightly against him.

The heat from his body melted through me, morphing into desperate, burning desire.

A strange sound tore through the air, startling me out of the kiss. I glanced around.

“It’s Bart.” He nodded toward the bull. “I think he just told us to get a room.”

*****

He turned out to be a bit of a gourmet and wouldn’t let me help in the kitchen at all.

My dream man!

We lingered over supper, and he told me all kinds of stories about when he and Dix were kids.

He avoided the sadness of the past few years, but this probably wasn’t the right time for that anyway.

My misgivings of a few hours ago had vanished. There was more than the hot tension and kinky sex. We had a real connection.

His cell phone rang and he reluctantly checked the screen.

“I have to have a quick meeting with Dix. The files are down the hall in my office.

Make yourself at home. This should only take a few minutes.”

“Hey Dix,” he answered regretfully, walking from the room.

I decided to make myself useful clearing the dishes from the table. I wasn’t a big fan of kitchens, since people generally expected you to cook in them. But even I had to admit this one was pretty awesome. State-of-the-art, yet done in a way so you still knew you were at the ranch.

When I finished rinsing the dishes, I wandered into the huge open living room. The wood beams in the high ceiling were a nice touch.

I curled up on a distressed leather couch and thought about how surprisingly comfortable I was here.

It wasn’t the house, though. All evening, Mason and I had fit together emotionally in a way I’d never experienced with a man.

How was that possible? Had I been completely wrong about him? Or had whatever this was between us affected him positively, too?

We’d kissed and held hands and he hadn’t seemed the least bit uncomfortable about it.

I was so relaxed, cradled by the overstuffed back cushion, I only opened my eyes half-way when Mason strode in.

Something slammed loudly on the coffee table and I jumped, suddenly wide awake. I glanced down and saw that he’d smashed a file folder down in front of me.

I stared up at him in confusion. His lips were pressed together, his eyes narrowed. His entire body was tense.

“What happened?” This was a different man than the one who’d left me twenty minutes before.

“You tell me.” He nodded toward the coffee table. “Looks like I pulled the wrong file from Dix’s desk when I left the office.”

My heart beating like a scared rabbit’s, I reached down and flipped the file open. It was the contract Dix had made up for me to sign. I’d forgotten all about it.

Speechless, I stared down at the front page. This was bad.

“Seems you’re a hell of an actress. I actually believed we had something.”

“We do, Mason. I felt it all along, but I didn’t know for sure until I ca—”

“Stop!” He leaned down, placing his palms on the coffee table. “There’s no point, now.” He glanced down at the contract. “I’ve read it.”

“But it’s not—” What was I going to say? That is wasn’t how it looked?

Mason stood and paced toward the kitchen. “I can’t believe Dix pulled this on me.

He’d better hope Tessa wants him up north because I never want to see his face again.”

“Mason, your brother was worried about you.”

He turned and strode toward me. “So he hired a receptionist-slash-psychologist to trick me into thinking she cared about me?” He stopped in front of me. “Well, damn, I feel better already.”

My heart hurt. Mason thought he’d been bamboozled by his brother and the woman he…

I tried not to think the word. It came anyway. Loved. An hour ago, Mason had loved me.

I couldn’t let it fall apart now because I knew I loved him, too.

“Mason, listen to me. I’ve wanted you from the first day. I didn’t sign the contract for the money. I just needed a way to rationalize these urges I had.”

“Get the hell out. I can’t listen to you anymore. Who knows what they’ve taught you to do in shrink school.”

So I was getting to him.

I stood and walked around the coffee table, stopping right in front of him. I hoped my nearness would change his mind, but I was afraid to put my hands on him.