She found him still there on the piano bench, waiting for her to pull it together. Xeni couldn’t read the expression on his face, but she could feel the energy in the room. He wasn’t bothered at all.
She nodded toward his hand. “See you ditched the string.”
“Still have it, though. Don’t worry, love. Just took it off during my shift. It’s sitting nice and safe on my desk back in the apartment.”
She didn’t expect that to reinflate her cold dead heart, but it did. “Oh.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Better. Thank you for asking.” She let out a deep breath and made the decision to put her feelings away. “So, I think I know what I want tonight, but I need you to be cool about it.”
“Cool’s my middle name.”
“Also, you have to keep everything that happened here tonight to yourself. The streets can’t know I’m this soft.”
“I promise your reputation is intact.”
“I want you to make love to me. Like, painfully slow. Early nineties R&B video, silk shirts in the rain slow. With lots of kissing. Are you okay with that?” Xeni didn’t know if Boyz II Men or Silk videos had made it over to Scotland, but it was worth a try.
Mason crossed the room and met her in the doorway. He had to duck his head to keep from bumping against the millwork. He crowded her against the jamb, then pressed his lips to hers. Just as his tongue swept pass her lips in a lazy, sweet motion, his hands came around her waist and he lifted her. Xeni couldn’t get her legs all the way around him, but it didn’t matter. He had her firmly in his grip as he carried her over to the pile of blankets. He set her down and Xeni did her best to be patient as he shucked off his clothes and rolled the condom on his impressive erection.
He climbed over her and picked up right where he left off, kissing her deeply on the mouth. Xeni could tell he was trying to be careful with her, bracing his hands on either side of her. He was being considerate, but Xeni wanted to feel him. All of him. She wanted to feel his weight and his warmth, so she slid her arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer. She opened her legs and reached between them, giving his cock a few strokes until he pressed himself inside her. Xeni broke the kiss, arching in the blankets as he stretched her pussy inch by inch. She was so wet, had been all night even through her tears, and finally, he was where she really needed him.
He did exactly what she asked, fucking her slowly, softly, his thick erection working her from the inside. Xeni soaked it up, basking in every sensation. The way his lips moved over hers, down to her neck, lightly tracing her nipples before sucking them both to painful peaks, until she was crying out. The orgasm that hit her wasn’t enough. She came, hard, but it didn’t satisfy the ache. She only wanted more. Mason was right behind her, letting out a groan that let her know he felt the same way. They’d only taken the edge off. They’d have to do it again and maybe a dozen more times, just to make sure they got it right.
He carefully rolled to his knees beside her and when he came back from disposing the condom, he lay down beside her and pulled her closer.
“I have notes this time.”
“Oh yeah?” He perched up on his shoulder, concern creasing his forehead. She reached up and tried to smooth the worry out with her finger.
“Next time we do it at the piano.”
“Only if you promise me that you and Daryl are never together near a musical instrument.”
Xeni rolled on her back, laughing at the ceiling. “I can’t make any promises.”
13
Xeni was exhausted, but all the unanswered questions in her head and the daunting to-do list, which included what she came all the way to New York for, made it impossible for her to shut her brain off.
She rolled over and looked at Mason, who was snoring softly beside her on the living room floor. They probably should have moved their sexcapades to a bed, but he seemed so peaceful that she didn’t want to wake him. She found her cardigan piled up next to Mason’s discarded jeans and slipped it on, then went to find her phone. She grabbed it off the kitchen table and slid open the back door to the screened-in porch. She’d learned pretty quickly that Kinderack had a mosquito problem the likes of which Los Angeles had never seen. Nothing sounded better than a midnight stroll through her aunt’s garden, but she didn’t want her legs to get all chewed up.
Another thing she had to add to the list: figure out if her aunt had any help keeping up the immaculate back yard.
She took a seat in one of the rocking chairs and pulled up her LetsChat app. Another Friday night and the girls were all chatting about their plans. They were all boo’d up with the exception of Xeni and Meegan. If she were home, she and Meegan would be on their way out to find some acceptable amounts of trouble. Maybe Shae would ditch her man, Aidan, and join them. Or Keira would invite them all over to her house if her husband was out on the road seeing to some pyrotechnics business. From the look of things, Sarah, Meegan and Joanna were headed to the movies. She switched over to her text conversation with Sloan. It was time she told somebody in her life what was going on.
A little bit of personal news.
I may have gotten married yesterday.
Cutie pie of a Scotsman named Mason
She pulled up her favorite picture of her and Mason during the ceremony. She was in his arms a few feet off the ground and they were kissing. It was Pinterest worthy, like one of those photos that came with the frame. She stared at it for a while after she hit send, then went back to her camera roll and looked at all the photos Liz and her friends had forwarded that night. She’d saved them all to her phone so they would be safely stored in one handy place.
Clicking over to the last photo, Xeni turned her phone to the side and looked at the picture Liz had taken of her sitting on Mason’s lap. Suddenly her phone started ringing in her hand. It was Sloan. Xeni hit ACCEPT.
“What in the whole world is going on?”
