Alex’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve never met your ex-wife, but when you spoke just then, I got the feeling I was hearing her words. Not yours.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter who’s saying it. It’s still the truth.”
“Mason, I think—”
“Enough talking,” he interrupted because he’d reached his limit. He’d spoken more words in the last two days than he’d spoken in two years. Besides, the truth was out of him. She knew the whole of it, and he didn’t want to waste one more minute of this day with her. “Let’s get back to more important activities.”
Just as he was leaning in to claim her mouth, the entirely heinous sound of Doc’s voice boomed out of the tree line. “Finish digging sand crabs, you two, and get your asses back to the house—preferably with clothes on! Just got an email from Special Agent Fazzle! He’ll be calling us on the satphone in twenty minutes! They found the speedboat and the third body and got a hit on some prints!”
Alex had squealed and pulled the edge of the blanket over herself after hearing the first word out of Doc’s mouth. But not before Mason watched her skin blush with so many shades of rose and pink that he was reminded of the dawn. When the sun first sent its warm rays across the sky.
Fucking piss-poor timing, he thought, silently calling Doc a litany of unkind names.
“We’re coming!” Alex yelled, and then her cheeks flamed red when Doc chuckled and she realized her double entendre.
Wrinkling her nose, she whispered, “I’m assuming ‘digging sand crabs’ is another of the colorful euphemisms you guys have come up with for sex?”
While Mason would like to say he had no idea what she was talking about, the truth was that right behind dick jokes, the next thing his former teammates and current business partners enjoyed best was coming up with creative phrases for the act of procreation.
He avoided answering her by calling out to Doc, “We’ll be right behind you!”
Only after he heard the crunch of Doc’s footfalls grow faint did he stand and offer Alex a hand up.
“A return to reality, huh?” She swiped up her glasses and slipped them onto her face.
“One way or another,” he reluctantly agreed, “it always creeps back in.”
She sighed and bent to retrieve her bra and panties. The sight of her bare butt, all sweet and plump and heart-shaped—not to mention the peek he got at her womanhood, still swollen and ripe—had his recently spent manhood twitching with interest.
Do we really needa be present during this phone call? Couldn’t we get the information from the others…after?
Alex saw what was happening between his legs, and her eyes pinged to his face. His intention must’ve been written there in indelible ink.
“Nope.” She took a step back when he reached for her. “As much as I like where your head is at, I need a break. Every muscle in my body is sore. Including muscles I didn’t even know I had before today. No,” she quickly added when his brow furrowed. “Don’t get all troubled and concerned. I’m fine. I’m better than fine. I’m great. But I’m calling a brief timeout. You need one, too, if the look of that bandage is anything to go by.” Now it was her brow that was furrowed. “Damn it, Mason. Did we pop a stitch?”
He glanced down to see three splotches of red staining the white of his dressing. “It’s fine,” he hedged when she bent to get a closer look. “Wounds bleed.”
She straightened and crossed her arms, eyeing him skeptically. She looked so adorably stern that all he could think of doing was throwing her onto the blanket so he could erase that expression and replace it with one of ecstasy.
Again, what was in his head must’ve been plastered all over his face, because she took another step back, quickly shrugging into her bra.
He wanted to weep when her lovely breasts disappeared from view.
“Come on,” she cajoled, stepping into her panties. “Get dressed. And be quick about it, because if you continue to stand there looking like that”—she motioned with her hand up and down his length—“then I might have to practice a few more of my newfound skills on you.”
Her words hit his ears, traveled down his spine, and landed inside his cock with a deliciously warm thunk. In response, the organ faithfully lifted itself vertical.
Her breath quickened. “No.” She waggled her finger. “No, no. I can see you took that as an invitation, but I—”
She jumped away when he lunged for her. Then, to his complete shock, she danced by him and smacked his bare ass hard enough to leave a handprint.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she admitted with an impish grin, hastily gathering up her T-shirt and shorts.
When she straightened, she saw the look in his eyes had turned positively predatory, and her own eyes widened in response. “I’ll meet you back at the house.” She darted passed him into the woods, narrowly escaping his next lunge.
Run, little rabbit, he thought hungrily. The big, bad wolf will be right on your tail.
As he finished dressing and packing up the picnic supplies, he found himself smiling. Really smiling.
He realized it was because for the first time in a long time, he was happy.
* * *
4:20 p.m.
Ring, damn you, ring!
Despite Alex’s silent pleading, the satellite phone remained aggravatingly mute in the center of the kitchen table. No help whatsoever in diverting the attention of the five sets of eyes that glanced between her and Mason.
An unspoken question hung in the air like a suffocating cloud.
She didn’t like being the center of attention. Neither did Mason, judging by his fierce scowl and the agitated bunch of his biceps when he crossed his arms over his chest.
Biceps…
Chest…
She may have called for a hiatus from their amorous congress, but seeing him across the table from her—so damned big and sexy—made her think perhaps break time was over. The idea must’ve registered on her face because when Mason caught her looking at him, his eyes darkened in that way she now recognized.
The peanut gallery must’ve caught on too. She’d swear the back-and-forth glances grew faster. The air grew thicker.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” She threw exasperated hands in the air. “The answer is yes, okay? Mason finally pulled his head out of his ass and accepted my offer. The deed is done, so can we please focus on something else?”
“Mazel tov!” Uncle John saluted her with the joint he was in the middle of rolling. “It’s about damn time,” he added after licking the edge of the hemp paper.