Page 42 of Nanny for the Firefighter

Hitting it with a soft thud, Mason pins me in place, grabbing both of my hands and then holding them to the wall over my head with one hand.

Holy shit. This is pretty damn fast. Do I want?—

And then his lips are on my neck, and my thoughts short-circuit. Jumping into the sack with someone has never been my thing, but right now?

I want nothing more in the universe then to finally give in to the fire between us.

“Little Songbird.”

The words send my arousal up even higher, the reminder of when we were so much closer making my heart swell and break all at once.

“Mason,” I mumble.

And then his lips are traveling down my neck toward my breast, and nothing else in the world matters.

Knock, knock, knock.

The vibrations tunneling through the bedroom door reach me on the wall right next to it, and I freeze.

I meet Mason’s wide eyes, his panic a mirror of my own, and then he puts a finger to his lips, urging me to stay quiet.

Giving him a quick nod, I clamp my hand over my mouth.

Mason steps back, reaching for the door but not opening it all the way. The thin barrier of just a few inches is all that stands between me and whoever is on the other side.

“Hey, Mason.”

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me? Hudson!

“Have you seen Bridget? I seem to have lost her somewhere, and I just wanted to make sure she’s okay.”

The concern rakes through me like a thousand papercuts, and the frenzied beat of my heart hits so hard it threatens to send me into cardiac arrest.

“No,” Mason says easily enough, “I haven’t. I needed to take a break from the party, so I came up here. Maybe she’s doing the same. Have you checked outside?”

I hear shuffling, and my muscles squeeze down, trying to lock in place so that I don’t make a single sound.

“I did, but maybe I just missed her. Thanks, man. You coming down soon?”

Watching Mason from behind the door, I see him nod with a mostly convincing smile.

“Yeah, I’ll be down in just a minute.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you down there.”

With that, Hudson leaves, and Mason shuts the door. I sag against the wall, releasing my held breath as my eyes flutter closed.

I can still feel my blood rushing through my ears, the low sound bellowing as I try to form some semblance of a thought.

“You should probably go.”

Mason’s voice startles me out of my post-panic exhaustion, and I look up at him with my eyebrows raised to my hairline.

I want him to say more. I want him to say that he didn’t regret what we just did and that this could be something.

But he doesn’t.

And worse, I know heshouldn’t.

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