Savor Me (6 page)

"
I HAVE TO WORK
in the morning," I whisper to Mason.

Hunter dozed off a while ago, but Mason is still awake, stoking my hair. I can't help myself. I stare at his lips that have never touched mine. I want to lick them, but I know he would turn his head. It thoroughly pisses me off that I can't taste him, but it makes him the forbidden fruit. I'm no better than Eve. I'll stick around until I get a bite.

"Where do you work?" Mason asks his first personal question since I met him.

I lean my arm back and stroke Hunter's side. "Sweet Surrender."

"The bakery?" he asks, quirking an eyebrow and looking down at me.

"Yeah."

"That place has the best carrot cake muffins. What exactly do you do there?"

"I own it."

"What!?” he shouts, sitting up, dragging me with him. The movement causes Hunter to stir, but he quickly falls back asleep.

"Shhh... Don't be so loud." I try to hush him, but judging by his wide eyes, I know it's a lost cause.

"You own the bakery?" he questions.

"Yeah. Why is that so hard to believe?"

"Oh, I don't know, Lace. You don't exactly strike me as a businesswoman."

"Maybe you should stop judging a book by its cover," I snark back at him.

He gives his own smartass response. "Maybe you should stop speaking in cliché."

With his answer, I roll my eyes and roll away, turning toward Hunter. At least Hunter never judged me, and he even kissed me.

"Lace, come back. Don't do that." He curls up behind me instead of rolling me back in his direction. I rest my head on Hunter’s slowly rising chest, but I secretly pretend I'm still staring up into Mason’s eyes.

"I co-own the bakery with my friend Lydia. We opened it about six months ago."

"I'm sorry. I just figured you would do something edgier than own a bakery. Like run a tattoo parlor or piercing studio."

"Nah. I spent four years in culinary school. The idea of piercing some dirty guy’s dick doesn't appeal to me."

"It doesn't have to be dirty." He rolls his hips into my very tender ass.

"Mason, if you want a piercing, I can point you in the right direction, but you would be better off asking me for a bear claw or fritter."

"I like fritters," he whispers into my neck, nuzzling into my hair.

"Well, that I can help you with."

I roll back over to face him. He's been quiet all night, and now suddenly he is talking up a storm. I'd love to get to know this mysterious man. One minute he is claiming me at a bar, but the minute we hit the bedroom with Hunter and he closes off completely.

The room is pitch black except for a small ray of light sneaking through the corner of the blinds. The streak of light runs across the ridges of his stomach as if it were drawn there by a greater force. Boy, do I know that feeling. I don't know what it is about Mason—well, besides the obvious—but I couldn't take my eyes off him tonight. When I came, I couldn't drag my eyes away from his, and even though he refused to kiss my mouth, his eyes never moved away from mine. It was no insta-love. (Ha! Love!) But there was some sort of mysterious draw. I'm pretty sure the only reason we are talking about ourselves right now is because he felt it too.

"So you train the horses?"

"Yeah," he answers through a sleepy voice while slowly stroking my back with this thumb.

"Isn't that scary? Riding all the wild baby horses?"

He lets out a soft chuckle. "I don't break the foals, Lace. I wait until they’re yearlings."

"Yearlings are still babies!" I try to defend myself, but I can feel his chest shaking with silent laughter."Hey, Mason, do you know the recipe for German chocolate cake?" I ask as he continues to laugh.

"You trying to hire me to help at the bakery?" He pulls me a little closer into his side.

"No, I'm just proving a point. You can't do my job, so don't laugh when I ask silly questions about yours."

"Okay, okay." He surrenders to my attitude. "Anyway, no, my job isn't scary. I've been training horses since I was twelve. My dad owned a breeding farm in Kentucky."

"You're from Kentucky? How do you know Hunter then? Isn't he from here?"

"Damn, Lace, did you even talk to Hunter at all before jumping in bed with him?"

"Oh, you're one to talk! You didn't know me at all tonight, but you sure didn't seem to have a problem fucking me with your best friend," I snap.

"Wow, are you always this feisty?" he asks with an unlikely smirk.

"Usually."

"Good to know." He pauses, probably to make sure I'm not ready to claw at his manhood. "I've known Hunt since elementary school. Our dads were friends growing up. We shared an apartment in Louisville. His parents got a divorce a few years back, and his mom remarried Mr. Vance last year. He asked Hunter to move here and help with the business side of the new stable, so he brought me along as his trainer."

"How long have y'all been here?"

"About four months." He doesn't say anything else, but he continues to stroke my back.

I feel the need to fill the silence with something. "So riding horses doesn't scare you?"

"Nah. It's second nature to me. Nothing to be scared of when you know what you're doing."

"What the hell are y'all yammering on about?" Hunter rolls into my back, sandwiching me between the two guys.

"Jesus Christ, get the fuck off my arm, asshole," Mason snaps as Hunter snuggles against the arm that is wrapped around me.

"Then move your fucking arm. Lacey’s hair smells good." He buries his face in the back of my head.

"Yeah, okay. I should go." Mason sits up, ready to leave.

"What? No!" I shout. My heart begins to race, and Mason looks over at me partially confused, partially alarmed by my outburst. "I just mean, maybe I'm not done with you yet." I immediately move it back to a sexual place, knowing that I've exposed too much of myself.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere, sugar." Hunter flashes me an unbelievably white smile. I swear it almost glows in the dark. He folds his arms behind his head and shakes his hips showing off his hardening cock.

"I thought you had to work, Lacey," Mason asks while rolling his eyes at Hunter. "I'll give you a ride home." He stands, but Hunter stops him.

"Hell no. You heard the lady. She isn't done. So sit your ass back down. You can sleep over here tonight." Hunter drags his teeth across my neck and Mason lets out a huff, but for some reason, he lies back down.

My pulse immediately slows, and my whole body relaxes when I'm convinced that he won't be leaving. This unnatural attachment to Mason is starting to bother me. I've known him for one day, yet I cling to his presence.

"Fine. Can we at least go to sleep for a little while? I'm exhausted," he says, showing his annoyance a little more openly.

"That’s what I was trying to do before you two woke me up. Oh, and for the record, Lacey, I'm scared shitless of those damn yearlings. I tried to break a horse with Mason once, but I ended up the broken one. Two cracked ribs from a hoof to the stomach." He stops talking when Mason barks out a laugh. "Shut up, jerk-off. You set me up and you know it."

"I did not set you up. You're just an idiot for walking behind an unbroken horse while I tried to saddle her. I know people who have been riding for ten minutes who know better than that." Mason continues to laugh but once again settles on his back, pulling me against his chest. Hunter rolls into me and cups my breast.

We lie like this for a while. I can't fall asleep, but I know Hunter racked out again. First his breathing evened out. Then, he eventually rolled away from me and stretched out across the bed. I stay curled against Mason, and his hand never stops sifting through my hair. It’s the most comfortable I’ve ever been. I'm not usually a snuggler, and it’s not like Mason is a warm and fuzzy teddy bear either.

Ever since Hunter entered the equation, Mason has been quiet and distant with me. He’s never kissed me, yet there is still something in his eyes that says more than his actions. It’s something deep but very distant.

I would think I was reading into things, but just as I begin to doze off, I hear him whisper against the top of my head, "What are
you
scared of, Lace?"

It's a personal question that I would usually avoid at all cost, but the answer escapes without hesitation. "Being left alone."

I should freak out that I accidentally shared something so personal with some random guy. This isn’t the way I usually act at all. Aside from the fact that there are two men in the bed with me, none of this is normal for me. I don't talk after sex unless it's to get ready for round two. I sure as hell don't let guys sift through my hair. So you can imagine my shock when Mason asked me this personal question and I actually answered it. However, I'm so comfortable and sated that I don't give it another thought before I drift off to sleep in his strong arms.

"MASON!" I SCREAM AT
the top of my lungs. I bolt up straight, unable catch my breath. Even though I have known him just over twenty-four hours, I reach out, trying to find the one person who can save me from this nightmare.

"Fucking hell, Lace," he says with a sleepy voice as he drags me on over his body to the side farthest away from Hunter.

"Shit." I try to reach up and scrub my sleepy face, but Mason has my trembling body pinned to his own. "Shit, I'm so sorry. I..." I fade off as my voice begins to tremble right along with my body.

"Is she okay?" Hunter asks, sitting up while Mason smooths the hair away from my face.

"I'm fine. Sorry. It was just a nightmare. I dreamed I was being trampled by one of your crazy horses." It's an obvious joke, but it seems to appease Hunter enough to go back to sleep. He relaxes, instantly falling back to sleep.

Dropping his voice to a soft rumble, Mason begins his investigation. "What were you dreaming about?"

"Nothing."

"Bullshit," he snaps back.

"Can we just go back to sleep?" I plead for him to drop it.

"Yeah, whatever," he says, annoyed that I won't elaborate.

I can tell by the look in his eye that he is nowhere near ready to let this go. I’m sure I scared him. I mean, who wants to be woken up by a shrieking woman? But he makes no attempts to roll me back in the middle. Instead he curls around me, wrapping me in a Mason cocoon.

"You know it's not good to keep stuff like that in," he whispers against my neck.

"I'm not keeping anything in. Besides, you already know the answer. You might be the only one who knows what that dream was about." My connection with Mason surprises the shit out of me. I know I told him my biggest fear earlier, but I really didn't need to remind him of it. Yet the words still tumble out of my mouth.

"So who left you alone, Lace?"

"No one important," I answer honestly.

"No fiancé left you at the altar or high school boyfriend who took off and never came back? Something had to have made you this way.”

"Nope. But oh, wise horse trainer Mason, do you also have a degree in psychology that you aren't telling me about?" I can't keep the sarcasm out of my voice. If there is one thing I hate, it’s when guys try to figure me out. Sure, I opened the door with Mason by telling him something about myself that he has no business knowing. "I had one fucking nightmare. I don't need some deep, traumatic event in my life to be scared of something.”

"Oh yeah? Then just tell me why you called out
my
name?

"When, during sex? Um...because your huge dick was ripping me in half." This conversation is quickly escalating into an argument—at least on my end. Mason remains calm and cool, seemingly unfazed by my attitude.

"Oh, I know exactly why you were calling my name when I was making you come all over my dick, but why did you wake up from a nightmare calling
my name?
”

"Yeah, okay, I'm leaving." I stand up, ready to bolt. The morning is quickly approaching, and that’s my cue to go.

"Okay, I see how it is, Lacey. You are terrified of being left alone, but you have absolutely zero problems being the one doing the leaving," he bites out.

"Exactly," I snap back. I search the room for my clothes, never making eye contact with Mason again. I have no idea how that conversation deteriorated so quickly, but it’s probably better this way. For the first time in my life, Mason made me want to stay.

"Wake up. I need a ride home" I kick Hunter on the leg.

"What? Why? Have Mason take you," Hunter whines, half asleep.

"Nope, not happening," I say as I hear Mason pulling on his jeans. "I want your dick in my mouth on the drive back to my place." I know Mason is still standing behind me, and I can feel the anger rolling off his body. If I had to guess, he is probably more pissed off by my sudden departure—and even more so that he is missing out on a fabulous blowjob on the way—than our little spat.

"Now that is the right way to wake a man up!" Hunter sits up and begins getting dressed.

"Bye, Mase." I wave over my shoulder and painfully force myself out of the room. Hunter follows, but Mason stays still and silent.

The ride home with Hunter is quiet. I blow him, as promised. It was less than spectacular and I didn't even invite him inside to repay me. I just wanted to get away. No, I needed to get away. In only one day, Mason has fucked up my safe little world and he doesn't even know it. I'm not addicted to him or any of that other bullshit women spew. But I'm intrigued by him, and that is more than I can say about any other person I have ever met—including Hunter.