The Lesson (2 page)

She grabbed a light cardigan and
started to race down the hallway and stopped herself before she
reached the living room.
Slowly,
she told herself.
You don’t want him
to think you’re too eager.

She took careful, measured steps the rest of
the way until she reached the small living room and found Mason
sitting on their shabby brown Barcalounger and Nonno Joe on the
couch. Both men looked up and smiled as she entered the room,
although Nonno Joe’s slightly furrowed brow let her know that he
was worried about something.

“Your friend was telling me about his
classes,” Nonno Joe told her. “Did you know he transferred to your
school from Duke?”

Bianca gaped and shook her
head.
Duke?
she
thought.
Why on earth did he leave a
school like that to come here?

“I missed my family,” Mason offered after
noticing the creases in Nonno Joe’s forehead.

Nonno Joe’s forehead smoothed as much as it
could among the ever present creases and wrinkles. His lips quirked
up as he nodded. “Nothing more important than family.”

“Of course not,” Mason agreed. His smile was
charming, but for some reason, Bianca didn’t believe him. She
pushed the thought aside as he stood and offered her his hand. “Are
you ready?”

She nodded.

“You kids have fun,” Nonno Joe said as
Bianca kissed him on the cheek.

“I won’t be home too late,” she told him.
“I’ll call and check in around nine.”

“Bah!” he dismissed with a wave of his hand.
“You don’t worry about an old man like me. Have fun, sweet girl,”
he smiled as he turned on the television and settled into the
Barcalounger Mason had vacated.

After the front door closed behind them,
Mason turned to her, humming a bit. “Sweet girl?” he smiled as he
took her hand. “I like that. Come, sweet girl, let’s go.”

Bianca followed him out onto the porch
of their small house and stopped when she saw the car waiting at
the curb. “Is- is that
your
car?” she faltered and glanced back at their little clapboard
house. Never before had she felt so insecure about her home and
finances. Sure, they’d never had a lot of money, but Bianca had
never felt poor. Now, she couldn’t help feeling shabby next to
Mason and his obviously expensive car.

Mason glanced at the zippy little red
Porsche with the top down. “This old thing?” he grinned. “The
heater sucks, and the only air conditioning it has is when the
top’s down.”

“Hmm.” She glanced at him. “I have a feeling
there’s a lot about you I don’t know.”

“All you have to do is ask,” he told her,
stretching his arms wide. “I’m an open book.”

She raised an eyebrow and pulled her
cardigan on.

His grin widened. “You don’t believe me. I’m
hurt,” he told her, his tone indicating the exact opposite. “Well,
I’ll have to prove it to you.” He walked to the car and opened the
passenger door. “You’re chariot awaits.”

She climbed in, putting on her
seatbelt and watched him walk around the front of the car.
You don’t belong with a guy like him,
the little voice inside her piped.
It’s so obvious.
He’s a rich boy.
You’re from the poorest neighborhood in town. It’ll never
work.

Maybe he worked hard for
the car,
she argued .
Maybe
it’s an expensive hobby.

Ha!
The voice
mocked.
He went to Duke. And quit to come
here? And he drives a car like this. You know better.

She did, but at the moment, she didn’t care.
Something about him made her ache. She couldn’t stop herself from
wondering what it would be like to kiss him, and her fingers itched
to touch him. She could no more stop what was happening than she
could stop a freight train with her bare hands.

Go away,
she
commanded the voice.

“So,” Mason turned to her after he hopped in
the car. “Are you hungry?”

A gentle breeze drifted through the air,
carrying with it the scent of his cologne, and she couldn’t stop
herself from inhaling. Staring at him she found she was, indeed,
hungry. Ravenous, in fact.

He met her gaze, his eyes flaming as he
studied her, and his nostrils flaring slightly. When he spoke, his
voice was slightly hoarse. “I was going to take you to Bamboo Sushi
and out dancing, but now I think I’d rather take you home and order
in. Less noise, less distraction. Is that okay with you?”

“Yes!” she blurted, then blushed
wildly with embarrassment.
Did I just
agree to go home with a total stranger?
she thought in
horror.

He’s going to think you’re
easy,
the voice taunted her.

I’m not going to
sleep
with him,
she
answered in horror.
All we’re doing is
going to his house to spend time together without any
distractions.

Liar.

Go away!
She
shot back.

He started the car, and as he pulled away
from the curb, took her hand in his own. His fingers were warm and
firm, and when he squeezed her hand ever so slightly, it sent a
shock through her entire body.

“Do you like sushi?” he asked.

Her cheeks flamed and she tugged at the
sleeves of her sweater as she admitted to her inexperience. “Never
had it.”

He glanced at her and lifted a brow. “I
guess we’ll have to remedy that. I know a decent place that
delivers, so when we get back to my apartment, we’ll call in.”

Bianca nodded.

See,
the
voice inside her mocked.
Already you’re
proving what a rube you are. What possible reason could he have to
be interested in a girl like you?

Bianca refused to answer the voice this time
and concentrated on Mason instead.

“So why did you really leave Duke?” she
blurted in an attempt to distract herself and quash the voice. “I’m
not buying the family thing.”

“That one didn’t go over, eh?” He gave her a
half-smile as he glanced at her.

“Not even a little.” She smiled back. “Nonno
Joe may have bought it, but I’m thinking you had a less …
altruistic motive.”

He stiffened and tried to give a casual
shrug. “I guess you could say I made friends with the wrong
people.”

Bianca glanced at him as he careened around
a corner. “That’s not really an answer.”

He laughed. “Perhaps. But you know what? I’m
more interested in hearing about you. Why do you live with your
grandfather? He’s pretty old to be raising a young thing like
you.”

“Young?” she scoffed. “I’m twenty-one. What
are you, some old man of twenty-three?”

He laughed again. “You hit the nail right on
the head. Okay, okay, so you’re not that young.”

“Or maybe we’re both young,” she
suggested.

His teeth flashed as a grin spread across
his face. “Maybe, but that still doesn’t tell me why you live with
your grandfather.”

She glanced down at her hands. “My parents
died in a car accident when I was four years old. I have no other
family. Nonno was it.”

Mason sobered. “Must have been tough,” he
said as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

She shrugged. “I don’t remember my parents,
and Nonno Joe has always been wonderful.”

“He seems like it.”

“What about you?” she asked as his eyes met
hers for a moment before they flicked back to the road. “What’s
your family like?”

“Oh, well,” he answered with a careless wave
of his hand. “You don’t want to hear about my family. They’re truly
and utterly boring.”

“I doubt that.”

He chuckled. “No? Well, what do you want to
know?”

“Do you have any siblings?” she asked. “What
are your parents like?”

“I have an older sister,” Mason replied
easily. “Andrea. She’s very … cultured. But then, so are my
parents.”

Bianca glanced around the car. “I guess that
doesn’t surprise me. They must be wealthy.”

“Does that impress you?” he asked, a shadow
passing over his face.

“No,” she soothed, sensing they were wading
into troubled waters. “Concerns me, maybe. It would definitely put
us on opposite ends of the social spectrum.”

“I don’t care about things like that,” he
bit as he held onto the steering wheel with a death grip.

Bianca braced herself as the car
turned a corner, the wheels letting out a slight squeal. She stared
at him.
Why is he so angry about his
family?

Why are rich trust fund babies usually mad
at their families?

That’s not fair.

Bianca reached up and brushed his hair away
from his eyes. “What did they do to you?”

Mason glanced at her, the hard set lines of
his jaw softening. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I get a little tense when
it comes to my family. They have a lot of expectations.
Expectations I continually fail to live up to. After all, the
Freeman’s are titans of industry, you know. I’m kind of the black
sheep of the family.”

“Freeman,” she said slowly, realizing it
sounded familiar. Her jaw dropped open when she remembered why, and
she stared up at him in shock.

CHAPTER THREE

Freeman?
She
thought wildly.
As in Freeman
Industries?

Oh, yeah,
the
voice inside her mocked.
You are
definitely in over your head.

He frowned as he took in her
expression. “You finally put two and two together, didn’t you?” he
asked, then continued without waiting for a reply. “Yes, those
Freeman’s. Freeman Lumber, Freeman Technology, Freeman
Financial,
Freeman Library
,
blah, blah, blah. My father has a finger in practically every pie
in the city.” He screeched around a corner, pulling into the
parking garage of The Matisse, a luxury apartment complex Bianca
had never set foot in.

Bianca stared at Mason, his face grim
as he drove through the garage, finally pulling into a reserved
spot.
Why does he seem so upset?
She wondered.
He was so playful just
a few minutes ago.

Because he thinks you want
him for his money,
the voice told her.
I bet every girl he’s ever met has thrown
themselves at him. And even you have to admit, the money makes him
a helluva lot more attractive than he was thirty seconds
ago.

No,
she
insisted.
I thought he was handsome
before. If anything, the money makes me uncomfortable.

Hmph,
the
voice replied doubtfully.
Maybe so, but he
doesn’t know that.

Well, I guess I’ll have to
prove it to him,
she answered stubbornly.

Mason hopped out of the car and came around
to open her door, and as she stared up at him, she found she wanted
to comfort him. “It must feel like an impossible standard to live
up to. Your father, that is” she explained as she took his hand and
climbed out of the car. “And very difficult to live in his shadow.
So hard to be yourself, especially if what you want from life
differs from what he expects. I think I would want to run away, get
out into the world by myself. Get away from this town where
everyone knew my name and find my own way. Sink or swim, you know?
Leave all that other stuff behind.”

She looked up to find him standing too
close, his eyes widening as he studied her face. “That’s exactly
how I feel.”

“You probably feel like changing your name
sometimes,” she continued as she stared up at him.

“Yes,” he agreed, his face softening as he
studied her. “It’s like I can’t break free from this idea of who
and what I’m supposed to be.” He reached up and moved her hair away
from her face and her eyes dropped to his lips.

He’s going to kiss
me
…

“Yes I am,” he said.

“What?” she managed. Barely.

“You were wondering if I was going to kiss
you. And the answer is yes, I am,” he answered in a whisper, just
before his lips swooped down to capture hers.

And such lips. Soft and firm at the same
time, he captured her bottom lip gently between his teeth and ran
his tongue over it.

Bianca shuddered and he removed his lips
long enough to utter an epithet and gather her in his arms, molding
her body against his.

She wrapped her own arms around his neck and
lifted her mouth to his. Their tongues warred, lips caressing lips,
and soon he was blazing a trail down her neck. She grasped his head
in both hands, dragging his mouth back to hers.

Never before had Bianca wanted a man like
she wanted Mason, and desire overpowered all her misgivings. She
took great delight in his groans of pleasure as she teased his lips
with her tongue. When she softly nibbled on his bottom lip as he
had done to her only moments before, his groan deepened, and he
pushed her back against the concrete wall of the parking
garage.

His hands swept down her arms, brushing
against her breasts, her nipples jumping to attention and
stretching almost painfully against the fabric of her blouse. His
hands moved down, cupping her buttocks, and he picked her up
easily.

“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he
whispered against her mouth. She complied, and his groan turned
deep and guttural. His mouth continued to ravish hers and she could
feel the heat of his desire through both of their clothes. She
wondered almost incoherently if he could feel her heat as well, and
then he ground himself against her.