Mason: #6 (Allen Securities) (2 page)

“So speaking of the move,” Taylor said, changing gears. “Saturday night. Your cute little ass is so hitting the club with me.”

Victoria grimaced and took one last glance at the island counter.

She hated going out to bars with Taylor. They always seemed to end up at the seediest spot in the area, and she spent most of the time trying to wedge herself into the corner.

“I don’t know, Taylor,” she started.

Her friend was ready this time.

“Oh no you don’t. This is my last weekend in town, and we are hitting the bars. You’ll need to unwind after watching Mason’s munchkins. They’re cute, but it’s not like they can party.”

The finality in her voice suggested there wouldn’t be any argument.

Victoria sighed. “Fine.”

Lucy darted into the kitchen from the living room where she had been watching a movie with her brother. The sweet black-haired girl carried a book in her hands.

“Will you read to us, Tori?” she asked. She stared up at Victoria with her soft hazel eyes.

“Sure, sweetie. Why don’t you go wait on the couch while I finish up?” Victoria smiled. She watched as the little girl skipped into the other room like she’d been told she was getting cookies for every meal. Victoria turned her mouth to the phone. “Taylor, I gotta go.”

“’Kay, but don’t forget and don’t even think about getting out of the house without something short and low cut on. You need to get your fun time on.”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “We’ll see.”

Taylor laughed into the phone.

“Don’t make me dress you,” she threatened.

“Fine.” Victoria hung up before her friend could make more demands.

* * *

Mason stepped up to the door on his house, the enticing scent of pot roast hitting his nose already. It was heaven having someone else cook food beside him.

He’d gotten used to it during his time with Sarah, but it was exhausting coming home from work just to start cooking. Before the kids, they tended to have a lot of sandwiches or ate out, but he got sick of paying an arm and a leg for Sarah to get a salad.

He opened the door and smiled brightly. The kids were tucked in his favorite recliner, Tori reading to them. Each was snuggled next to her about as close as they could be.

If he were an outsider, he might think they were hers. They shared the same jet black hair.

The sight pulled at his heart. This is what his kids needed: a mom to snuggle close with. To kiss their ouchies and tuck them in at night. Something Sarah had never done. Something that almost seemed to disgust her.

The three turned to look at him. The kids leapt out of the chair and raced toward him.

“Daddy!”

Little Lucy was first in his arms. She kissed him on the cheek when he knelt down. Tommy wasn’t far behind. The boy had been a little more distant recently, seeking more Tori’s attention than his father’s. Mason suspected his little guy had a crush on his pretty sitter.

He reached out an arm and pulled his son in for a hug. The boy threw his arms around him and hugged back.

“Were you both good today?” he asked and then looked over to Tori as she stood.

He shouldn’t have been happy to see her sitting in his recliner or the fact her floral shampoo lingered on it through the night. But the thought still slipped through his head.

She smiled warmly at him. His heart thumped hard as she stared down at the children.

“They were perfect,” she said.

“We went to the park,” Lucy said and grinned. “Tori let us get ice cream.”

Tori gave a gentle poke to her ribs. “That was supposed to be a secret.” She winked at Mason.

He stared at the three of them. Their smiles faltered for a moment as he continued to stare with a stern expression.

“Ice cream?” he asked and raised a brow. “And where’s mine?”

They looked at one another for a moment before he gave a little chuckle.

Tommy took Tori’s hand and put it in Mason’s.

“Tori will take you for some,” he said.

As soft pink filled her cheeks, and Mason couldn’t help but like the look on her.

He gave a little squeeze to her small hand and leaned forward toward her.

“Is that right?” he said, his voice low as he stared into her dark green eyes. “You’ll take me for ice cream?”

Tori licked her lips, and he was pulled forward a little at the act.

“Only if you’re good,” she said, her voice husky and low.

Need for her filled him. The game they had been playing vanished, overwhelmed by desire.

Tori’s eyes widened, and she stepped back. Her hand pulled away from his own.

Red spread across her face as she looked down and mumbled something about dinner before bolting from the room.

Mason took a moment to breathe in deeply.

Damn. Two more seconds, and he might have actually leaned in for the kiss he’d been thinking about. Not exactly the kid-friendly version either.

“Daddy, come play,” Lucy said and pulled on his hand as he pushed away his lustful thoughts. This wasn’t porn. He wasn’t banging the sitter.

Chapter Three

“Only if you’re good?” Victoria whispered. Her face heated from her own words.

What the hell kind of game was she playing? Mason wasn’t interested in her. She was just fun to play with. She shook her head. Overthinking was her enemy.

Not wanting to dwell on the embarrassing situation, Victoria pulled a piece off the meat and took a bite.

Perfect.

She went to place the other piece in her mouth but stopped when Mason placed his hand on her wrist and placed the meat to his mouth. He bit the meat, his lips brushing her fingers as he did. Victoria’s nipples tightened.

He winked at her before letting her hand go.

“Perfect,” he said and reached around her to grab the plates.

It was nothing. Really. They always set the table together, and often she would have him taste the meal. Maybe not out of her fingers, but it really was no big deal.

Or at least she thought.

Mason placed the plates next to her as she cut off little pieces of meat for the children, and he scooped a few vegetables on their plate.

He set it on the table in front of them.

“How many carrots do I have to eat?” Tommy asked.

“I don’t like the green things,” Lucy said.

Mason sighed loudly.

“You have two carrots, eat them both,” he said. “And the green is celery. It’s good for you.”

Really, Victoria didn’t mind. Children were honest about what they didn’t like. Unlike adults, it wasn’t meant as a slight against the person making the meal.

“Tori has been very nice to make us dinner,” Mason said as he poured water in four glasses. “Don’t you want her to keep cooking for us?”

Victoria brought their two plates over and placed them on the table. The children sat across from one another, and she could tell he was worried she might be upset.

She gave Mason a small smiled but stopped when Lucy launched herself from her chair.

“You won’t leave us will you?” she cried. “I promise I’ll be a good girl and eat the gross green things.”

Victoria smoothed down her hair and placed a kiss on top of her head.

“I wouldn’t leave even if you didn’t,” she said and looked down at her. Large tears pooled in the girl’s pretty hazel eyes. “But it would be very nice if you tried to eat the celery.”

Lucy nodded and walked back to her place at the table.

Victoria looked over at Mason, who watched the children as they silently ate. She could see the guilt in his eyes. He hadn’t meant to scare them.

They ate in silence, and when they were finished, she noticed that both had eaten everything on their plate.

Tommy stopped on his way out of the kitchen and handed her his plate.

“I don’t like carrots,” he said firmly. “But yours are good.”

She had to stop herself from pulling him into a hard hug and squeezing all the pain and mistrust right out of him.

Victoria watched as Mason took them into the other room for their evening bath. While the children splashed in the tub, she washed the dishes from the evening meal. She listened as he talked with them about their day.

He quieted for a moment, then forced a smile. “How would you both like to see your mother?”

Victoria dropped the dishes back into the sink and leaned forward to take deep breaths.

Sarah was back?

The children stared up at Mason with surprise, not that he could blame them. For the last year he had gone out of his way not to even mention her, and now here he was offering to take them to her.

“Is Mommy coming home?” Lucy asked and stepped out of the water.

He wrapped her in a warm towel and shook his head.

Tommy was next to step out. He stared his father right in the eye as he spoke.

“Good,” he said. “I don’t want her as Mommy anymore.”

Mason grimaced. This was going about as well as could be expected.

He wrapped the boy in a towel as well.

“Well, Mommy still wants to see you,” he said as the children slipped into their pajamas. “She just had some things she needed to get ready, and now she wants you to come see her new place.”

They both froze, the fear etched on their faces. He tugged on their hands and led them to their room.

“Are we going to live with Mommy?” Lucy asked. Her eyes were wide with worry, and he hated to see it there.

“No, baby,” he said and reached out for them both.

They ran to his arms.

“This will always be your home,” he said. “Mommy just wants you to visit her for a bit. She misses you.”

Tommy spoke with his face still buried in Mason’s shoulder. “Then why didn’t she come sooner?”

Mason sighed. He knew the question was going to be asked. It was one he’d asked many times before.

“She was just busy,” he said, knowing it sounded as lame as it was.

Tommy stiffened in his arms and pulled back, his face red.

“Well, I’m not going,” he said. “I’m busy. Tori is going to take me back to the park.”

Mason sighed.

“Look, buddy,” he said. “Mommy is coming tomorrow, and you need to go with her. I promise that it will only be a month, and then you’ll be home to play with Tori all you want.”

The boy stared hard at Mason. The child had obviously inherited his mother’s stubborn nature. He walked around his sister and father to the other side of his bed and climbed in.

Experiencing the cold shoulder of a child was the worst.

“You’ll feel better about it in the morning,” he said. At least he hoped that was true.

Lucy climbed into her bed, and he shut off the light.

“Goodnight,” he said.

Lucy sighed. “Night.”

Tommy flipped over to the other side. Professional-level silent treatment.

Mason shook his head and stepped out of the room before shutting the door.

When he entered the living room, he found Tori picking up her things from around the house. Guilt spread through him. The kids weren’t the only ones who were upset.

“You heard?” he asked.

Tori looked over to him from the door and nodded.

“They’ll be gone a month,” he said.

She nodded again.

“Will you come by tomorrow?”

Her gaze darted to the hallway leading to the bedroom before she nodded again.

Tori opened the front door and paused, her back still to him.

“Night,” she said stiffly.

Mason sighed. “Night.”

She was out the door before he’d even gotten the words out. She hurried to her car, and he watched as the headlights drifted off around the corner. All his happy thoughts from before had vanished.

Chapter Four

Her fitful sleep haunted Victoria as she drove toward Mason’s home the following afternoon. The whole drive she kept replaying the previous evening’s events in her head.

She stifled a yawn, wondering if she should have handled leaving Mason’s house better. Maybe that would have helped her get some decent sleep.

Mason wanted her. There was no way she’d been mistaken about the desire in his eyes. What that meant, she couldn’t really say, especially with the children going off to their mother’s.

Her heart ached at the thought of them with Sarah. She’d heard nothing but bad things about the woman. Not only had she left Mason with a broken heart, but she’d had no problem running off to pursue her acting career, leaving her sweet children behind like an afterthought. The very idea of it made her gag. Those kids deserved more than that.

They deserved someone who cared.

It had been chance that had led her to start watching them. After she’d broken her leg during the chase by the Los Malos bikers, she had received so many surgeries.

The procedures had helped her regain full use of the leg, but there was no chance for her to finish school on time. She’d had to take a year off in order to heal and get the therapy she needed.

Jess, her sister, and Taylor had been worried for her. She wasn’t like them. She couldn’t bounce back from what had happened so easily. It was not like she was used to dealing with being shot at and running through the forest for her life.

She was going to be a grade-school teacher for crying out loud. She was more worried about kids clogging toilets or taking a tumble from the monkey bars.

So she found herself adrift, not sure what she wanted to do in the meantime. When the chance to watch Mason’s two kids had come up, her friends pushed her to take it.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted the job. She loved the times she’d been able to play with the kids at the Allen family home, but there was still a large part of her that was afraid, and not of what lurked in the dark. It had been months since she’d even thought about the dangerous biker gang. No, she was more afraid of her own feelings.

There was no question Mason was attractive. He had the sort of carefree boy-next-door look that weakened her knees, but he had two children and was split from his wife. She was certain a final divorce was on the way, but Mason didn’t seem interested in anything. Aside from last night, he’d never given any hint he was over Sarah.