My legs still felt shaky when I tugged my shirt back into place and smoothed my hair down.Mason leaned against the desk, chest heaving, and his eyes were dark as sin.I tugged my jeans up and buttoned them.
“I should go,” I whispered.
He didn’t move.Just watched me like he wanted to drag me back onto the desk all over again.
I forced myself to the door before I lost the nerve.I slipped out, and pulled the door shut behind me.
The hallway was quiet, but my heart pounded like I’d just run ten miles.I straightened my shoulders, plastered on what I hoped passed as a “normal night at work” face, and walked toward the bar.
Thorn was there, polishing glasses with that cocky little grin of his.His eyes flicked up, landing on me, and something about his look made worried.
“You okay?”he asked casually, as he twirled the glass in the rag like he had all the time in the world.
I froze for a second too long.“Yeah.Of course.Why?”
Thorn raised his eyebrows.“No reason.Just looked like you were sneaking out of somewhere you weren’t supposed to be.”
I forced a laugh, shaking my head.“I just needed a minute.I think it’s going to be a long night.”
He hummed, that knowing hum that made me want to throw one of those glasses at his head.“If you say so, Adley.”
I slipped behind the bar to grab a pitcher of water, anything to keep my hands busy.My reflection stared back at me from the chrome tap, flushed cheeks, swollen lips.God.I bit the inside of my cheek, willing myself to calm down.
Thorn didn’t push, thankfully.He went back to lining the glasses up in perfect rows, and humming a tune under his breath.
I took the pitcher and headed out toward the tables, but every step I took, I thought of Mason.His hands gripping my hips.His mouth against mine.His whispered,You’re gonna be the death of me.
And instead of feeling guilty, I felt alive.
Still, sneaking around wasn’t enough.Not when I’d just tasted what it was like to have him.Toreallyhave him.I wanted more than stolen kisses and slammed doors.I wanted what the ol’ ladies had, the kind of love everyone could see.
I was still in that office.Still on that desk.Still tangled up in Mason.
And I knew I’d risk it all to feel that again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mason
The clubhouse had its own kind of madness on Sundays, but this?This was something else entirely.
The guys could drink a keg dry, argue over a pool game until fists flew, and blast music until the speakers blew, but at least I knew how to handle that.Brothers fighting?You broke it up or let them wear themselves out.Too much beer?You cut ‘em off.Loud music?You dealt with it.
But the ol’ ladies in full party-planning mode?
That was chaos of an entirely different breed.
Alice stood in the middle of the common room like a drill sergeant.Streamers looped around her neck, a roll of tape stuck to her shirt like a badge, and scissors waving dangerously in her hand as she pointed from one corner of the room to the other.
“Wendy!If we don’t have twenty-five tables, this is going to be a disaster!”
“Twenty-five?”Wendy scoffed from the couch where she had a notebook balanced on her knee.“Eden doesn’t even know twenty-five people.”
“She has cousins,” Alice shot back without hesitation.“And half the damn town shows up for these things anyway.”
“That’s becauseyouinvite the whole town,” Raven said, and popped a grape in her mouth.“Not because Eden’s that popular.”
“Raven!”Eden groaned from her perch on the arm of a chair, face buried in her hands.
