Make Me Believe: Unbelievable, Book 3 (5 page)

“Oh, this is going to be interesting.” She forked up a last piece of pasta and licked her lips. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why me?”

His gaze went to her mouth, and she saw the banked fire in his eyes. “Because I
want
a relationship with you. I don’t want to sleep with you and get you out of my system. I don’t want to get you out of my system, period.” He swallowed. “I’ve spent the last few weeks working through some personal shit—”

“What personal shit, exactly?” She interrupted him, hoping to divert him from any more talk of relationships and offering himself up as her fairy tale prince.

“Mrs. C told me you’d been married twice, and from what you’ve said, she let you know I’ve been engaged to three different women.” He held up three fingers to emphasize his point.

“Never managed to close the deal, huh?” Mock sympathy filled her tone and she patted his leg. She realized how close she was to certain parts of his anatomy, and yanked her hand away.

His fingers snapped around her wrist and drew her palm to his lips. He kissed her hand, which made her shiver, then he nipped at the base of her thumb. “Unlike you, I figured out they weren’t right for me before we took that walk down the aisle.”

“Touché.” She grinned and tugged her arm from his grasp, rubbing her fingertips over the spots his mouth had touched. “You broke it off all three times?”

“Nah.” He ran a hand down his chin. “I ended it with first one, which was a relief for her, I think. We were too young. She was my high school sweetheart, and I thought I wanted to spend my life with her, but we had a lot of growing up to do. We were both in college and we just…became different people.” His grin turned rueful. “The second one left me.”

Despite herself, Celia was interested. Fascinated, was more like it. She’d spent the last year loaded down with uncertainty when it came to him, so learning more was probably something she should avoid, but she was too curious not to listen. “She’s the one who didn’t like the firefighter schedule?”

“Among other things.” He propped his elbow on the counter and sighed. “She didn’t like the danger of my job, didn’t like that I could be called in for an emergency at any time, so making plans could be problematic. We both thought she could adjust, but…no. I guess I should have seen it coming when she walked, but the truth is it kicked me in the gut.”

Linking her fingers together, she managed not to reach out to him. The echo of pain in his voice was something she could relate to. She cleared her throat. “And the third fiancée?”

“She was the firefighter.” He swallowed and glanced away, but not before she saw the flash of devastation. If the second fiancée had hurt him, it was nothing compared to this one. He let out a slow breath. “She died on the job.”

Her chest cinched tight, and this time she couldn’t stop herself from squeezing his hand in sympathy. “I’m so sorry.”

“I stayed in L.A. for a few years after it happened, but going into the firehouse every time just…hurt.” His fingers gripped hers a little too tight, and his focus turned inward. Shaking his head, his voice went rough. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I knew that wasn’t healthy. Hell, I didn’t even realize
how
bad off I was until an old friend tapped me to take a job in Cedarville. He dragged me up to check it out. It was fucking amazing. The further away from home I got, the better I felt. It was like a huge weight lifted off my chest, and after three years, I could suddenly
breathe
again.” He ran his free hand over the back of his neck. “Never looked back.”

She groped for something else to talk about, to take his mind off the ugliness. “It’s nice that Price followed you here.”

A soft laugh straggled out of him and he released her hand. “Yeah, I like having him around. He’s a good brother. “

“It must have been nice having a sibling. I always wished I’d had one.” Someone to share her painful losses with might have kept her from making some of the dumbest mistakes of her life, such as marriage number one and number two. Then again, her life had made her who she was and she was okay with that. She liked herself and she’d accepted her mistakes as part of living.

“Yeah, I figure if I ever have kids, I’d want at least two.” He chuckled. “Siblings can be a pain in the ass, but they can also be a blessing.”

“You want kids?” Somehow, that hadn’t occurred to her. He seemed like such a
guy
, and wishing for babies just didn’t fit the picture of him she had in her head. Then again, she’d never have guessed he was carrying around the kind of past he had. The three failed engagements had always made her see the
love ’em and leave ’em
type when she looked at him, but now she wasn’t so sure.

“Someday, maybe.” His smile turned self-deprecating. “I sort of planned on it during…well,
all three
of my engagements. What about you?”

“Um, I don’t know.” She glanced away and shrugged. Somehow, they had drifted to dangerous territory again. No way was she discussing her future kids with him. “My divorces haven’t really meant good marriages and happy families. I always figured if it happened, it happened.”

“No planning for you, huh?” His gaze searched her face for a long moment, but she had no clue what he might be looking for. “Anyway. I’ve spent the last few weeks sorting through all that old baggage, so I get it if you still need some time, but this relationship
is
going to happen. How amazing last night was just makes me even more determined to keep you.”

There didn’t seem to be any derailing him. Hopelessness punched through her. She’d had a hard enough time resisting him when he’d just wanted a date, but if he started pushing for more? After the emotional high of the night before and now that she knew more about what he’d been through? No. God, no. She firmed her jaw. “No one keeps me—everyone leaves. That’s just how it is. I don’t
do
relationships. Not anymore. I do light, casual sex. No strings attached.”

“That’s fine. We can start there.” His answer was immediate, his tone far too easy, and she suspected he’d had this part of his little speech planned before he’d shown up with dinner. “I’m going to try and change your mind, but I’m not stupid enough to turn down sex with you after having a semi for the last year anytime you were near me.”

A half-laugh burst out of her. “That’s really romantic.”

“I’m not really romantic.” He lifted his hands in the air. “Never have been, never will be. But I’ll treat you right, even if it’s not all candlelit dinners and walks on the beach.”

“It was
just
sex.” Her voice was just a little bit too desperate. Was she trying to convince him, or herself? This was why she should never have given in to temptation. And now she was being punished.

“Okay.” He smiled. “For now.”

“You’re obnoxious.” She gripped the edge of the counter and stared down at the gleaming granite surface. “And I never said I was sleeping with you again. One night was enough for me.”

A bolt of lightning was going to strike her any second for telling that whopper, she just knew it, but if she didn’t look Mason in the eyes, he might not be able to see the lie for what it was. Awareness hummed through her body and had since he’d walked in the door. She wished she could shut it off, but she’d been failing at that since the day they’d met.

He leaned in until she could feel his warm breath brush the side of her neck. “You didn’t enjoy yourself?”

Clenching her fingers on the counter, she refused to give in to the wave of molten fire that coursed through her at his nearness. “You know I did.”

“But you don’t want to enjoy yourself like that again?” His lips grazed her throat and tingles exploded down her skin. She fought a shudder and could do nothing about the way her nipples contracted.

Her breath rushed out, but she couldn’t form a single thought enough to say anything. His hand covered hers, stroking her tense fingers and up her arm. Goosebumps broke out across her skin, and it took everything in her to keep from throwing herself at him. There wasn’t a hope in hell of pushing him away. Now that she’d had him, she only wanted more.

“There’s nothing I can do to force you into a relationship, right?” He ran his tongue up her neck to her ear, then blew a cool breath along the moisture he’d left behind. “I can try to change your mind, but I can’t
make
you. Right?”

“Right.” Her voice came out weaker than she would have liked, but at least she’d managed to squeak the word out. She wanted to rub herself against him, feel that exquisite friction again.

“So you have nothing to lose, and you get some great sex in the bargain. This can’t go any further than you allow it to.” He captured her earlobe and worried it between his teeth. At the same time, his fingers moved to stroke the sensitive underside of her breast.

The dual assault broke her. “We are
not
dating. There will be no relationship. We’re just having sex.”

It was the last bit of sanity and self-preservation she could muster before she turned into his embrace. Groaning, he stood and pulled her off the stool. One of his hands twined in her hair, holding her in place. The other hand roamed her back, her bottom, making her whimper and squirm to get closer. Just like the night before, the second he touched her she went up in flames. Her heart pounded in her chest, her blood rushing madly through her veins.

She tugged on his shirt, pulling it out of his pants so that she could get her hands under it. His skin was rough velvet under her palms—smooth hot skin and crisp curly hair. Skating her fingertips over his chest, she found his small nipples and circled then. His hips jerked and he moaned, his hands tightening almost painfully on her backside, but he didn’t stop her. She smiled against his mouth and teased his nipples until they beaded into hard little points.

He moved his hands around until he could unfasten her pants, dipping his fingers inside to stroke her through her panties. Shock hit her, and she jolted, pinching his nipple hard in reflex. A sound that was somewhere between a chuckle and a groan erupted from him. He broke their kiss, shoving her slacks down her legs. She kicked aside her shoes and stepped out of her pants, letting him pull her top off.

“Take your clothes off too.” She pushed his shirt up, wanting all of him naked. Now.

Instead of listening to her, he leaned back to take in her undergarments. “Were you expecting me?”

“Nope.” A grin quirked one corner of her lips. Today she had on scraps of fire engine red silk and lace. “I always wear nice undies. It makes me feel sexy.”

“You’re always sexy, no matter what you’re wearing. But if I’d known all this time that you had
this
kind of thing on under your clothes every time I saw you…” He groaned, not bothering to finish the sentence as he swooped down to draw her nipple into his mouth, sucking the tight tip through the lace of her bra.

Pleasure exploded inside her, and she held onto his shoulders for balance. “More, please.
More
.”

He switched to her other breast, sucked the crest deep into his mouth and bit down. Batting the imprisoned nipple with his tongue rubbed the lace over her sensitized flesh, and a sound of utter need erupted from her throat. Her sex clenched on nothingness, and she could feel herself dancing on the ragged edge of orgasm. She shoved away from him, her chest heaving with each breath.

Eyes glazed, he swayed toward her, his hands twitching as though he might reach for her again. “Did I hurt you? Are you all right?”

“Bed. Now.” That was the most lucidity she could hope for at the moment. She turned and walked toward her bedroom, his heavy tread following her down the short hallway. Her thighs brushed together with each step, making her aware of how little she was wearing, and her excitement ratcheted up by the second.

Thankfully, her room was relatively tidy, with only her clothes from the night before strewn across the mattress. Though at this point, she wouldn’t care if the place were a sty. He hooked her discarded bra up with a finger. “Mmm. I have fond memories of this little number.”

“Get naked, Delacroix.” She scooped everything off the bed and onto the floor, then she stripped out of her undergarments.

He chuckled, but yanked his shirt over his head and toed his shoes off at the same time. She reached for his belt, unbuckling it. Anything to speed this process up. Her heart raced, beads of sweat already gathering at her temples. Unfastening his fly, she pushed his pants and boxers down until they hit the floor.

His cock sprang free of the restraints and she cupped him in her palms, stroking up and down his erection. He was long and thick, so big that she wasn’t sure how she’d taken him the night before, but she knew she wanted to try again. She also wanted to taste him. Taking a step back, she perched on her side of her bed, which put her mouth on the same level as his dick. A pearl of fluid trailed down from the tip of his shaft, and she traced its path with her nail.

He shuddered, his hips following the motion of her hand. “Don’t tease me, sweetheart.”

Figuring actions spoke louder than words, she darted her tongue out to lick the bulbous crest. His fingers splayed against the back of her head, urging her closer. Circling her fingers around his cock, she squeezed tight and pumped him hard, once, twice. He swore under his breath when she sucked him into her mouth. She slid down on him until he touched the back of her throat, running her tongue along the underside of his cock. The muskiness of his skin made her moan, and his hand fisted in her hair when the vibrations hit his shaft.

“I’m going to come if you keep that up.”

She giggled, suckling him harder for a moment before letting him slide free of her mouth. “Well, we can’t have that. Yet.”

“Brat.” He sat beside her on the edge of the mattress, and before she could blink, he’d hauled her facedown on his lap. His warm palm cupped her backside. “I think that deserves a little retribution, don’t you?”

Anticipation swamped her. Her heart jolted, her pulse leaping into a gallop. Oh, God. This was something she hadn’t tried before, but she couldn’t deny that the concept made cream flood her pussy. “O-okay.”