Page 42 of Bidding For Her Curves

I hang up, taking a second to breathe in and then out while I yank the cord from the wall.

“Everything alright?” Jules asks, sidling up next to me, stroking my face with her hand.

“Better now,” I tell her. “Just a ghost from the past… Say, what kind of dogs were you thinking about?”Chapter Twenty-ThreeJulesI might not know much about high finance, but I’m no dummy when it comes to who’s on the phone.

I know it’s that Nicholas man. Mason said he’s one of the few who has access to that number. I also know that no matter how much Mason wants me by his side 24/7, I know when to make myself scarce too.

I take a bathroom break, and by the time I come back to the kitchen, I can’t help but overhear. And I think I hear enough to get the picture anyway.

I turn back, giving Mason his privacy, waiting until I think he’s done before going back into the kitchen.

I can’t help it either, the passing thought.

There’s just too many stairs in this place too… the kids… They don’t come out with common sense or big enough to climb stairs the right way.

Remembering what Mason said about keeping me barefoot and pregnant, it makes me smile. I find myself standing in the wide hallway bathed in sunlight, rubbing my belly just thinking about it.

And it’s not the bagels I’m feeling in there.

Maybe that’s why he wants a family. Maybe that’s why I do too, we’ve never known any ourselves.

I hear Mason winding his call down, I know it’s not on a happy note either from his tone. I hum as loud as I can to let him know I’m coming.

I suddenly want to tell him that he can have me barefoot and pregnant if he wants, that all I want in this life is him, him, and his children.

Inside me and all around us.

If money’s no problem, then I don’t have to work. I can work at what I feel like doing best, loving my man, and raising our kids.

Why should life be any more complicated than that?

Mason’s better at dealing with some things than I am, and he looks like he’s dealt with his own demons in a matter of seconds.

I can’t say I’m sad to see that phone cord ripped from the wall either, I don’t want anyone bugging us unannounced anymore either.

I ask if he’s okay and he replies by asking which kind of dogs I was thinking of.

It makes me smile, proving that Mason is thinking like I am, not worrying so much about the business side of his life.

But that still concerns me too.

I nestle myself between his legs as he sits on a stool, his big arms wrapping around me and his nose touching mine.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask him in reply, knowing that once he’s made his mind up its how things will be.

“Dogs?” he says, smiling. “Absolutely! But you’re right, we’d need a house first. Can’t have a pack of mutts running around up here,” he says, looking around as if he’s already considered having dogs.

As if dogs are the only thing we’re really talking about.

“I mean… moving from here. Not being one door away from your boardroom,” I explain.

“Everything has happened so fast, Jules. I know it has,” he says calmly, hugging me close and then pecking my lips.

“But I know when it’s time for a change. I always have. I feel it in my bones,” he explains, and gently guides my hand to his lap.

“Feel that?” he asks, grinning like a maniac, making me laugh until I gasp, curling my fingers around his thickness.

“I feel it,” I hear myself moan lightly. “But I’m serious. I don’t want you to wake up in a week or a month and look at me, thinking if it wasn’t for me you could have done so and so…”

Mason grunts, frowning.

“I just don’t want you to become another Nicholas,” I say out loud, regretting it straight away. “I didn’t mean it like that,” I say quickly.

“How much did you hear?” he asks. Then, “Or rather, how much did you figure out for yourself just now?”

“It’s none of my business,” I let him know. “I just don’t want you making rash decisions when you’re-”

He interrupts me, smiling. Squeezing me tighter.

“When I’m what? In love?”

I feel my breath catch, then shiver. I realize too that maybe I’m the one who’s scared of making a commitment.

Maybe I’m the one who feels a little, okay… a lot afraid of changing her life overnight.

“I do love you, Jules. More than any words can say,” he tells me again.

“And I love you too, Mason,” I echo back to him, really meaning it because I do.

“I just… I guess I just don’t want you to get tired of me or think this is a mistake somewhere down the line,” I admit.

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