Page 22 of Love Me Ever After
“Do you want a drink?” I deflected his question. If we were going to have a conversation, I needed more vodka.
“Water will be fine. Need to keep a clear head.” He stood up. “Why don’t you let me get it? You’ve been running around after us all day. It’s only fair.”
He had a point. I handed him my glass. While I waited for him to come back, I tried to get my feelings straight. The vodka would no doubt loosen my tongue and I needed to have some idea of what I wanted to say.
“Here.” Mason handed my glass back to me. “I made it a double.”
I took a sip then screwed up my eyes. “Jesus, was it a double double?” Wincing at the strength of the drink, I placed it on the table beside me. No more until we’d finished our chat. I couldn’t jeopardise saying something I wouldn’t be able to take back. “What did it feel like to cheat on your girlfriend with your ex?” The words slipped out, but I couldn’t help myself.
His brow wrinkled. “What girlfriend?”
“Whit.”
Mason let out a laugh. “You seriously think that Whit’s my girlfriend?”
“Why else would you spend so long talking to her on a video call?”
He snorted. “We aren’t together,” he said, simply. “She’s a good friend, yes. We did get close in New York and have slept with each other. But she’s never been my girlfriend.”
“Oh.”
“Yes. Oh.” His brown eyes studied me, glittering with amusement. “So you still slept with me even though you believed I had a girlfriend?”
I winced. Hmm, not exactly my finest moment, but I’d got caught up in the excitement of the situation and hadn’t given Whit a second thought. “Um, yes?”
He shifted closer to me on the sofa, close enough that I could catch the faint scent of his aftershave, all wood and citrus aromas.
“You wanted me as much as I wanted you.”
His words dared me to disagree with him.
But I couldn’t.
He was absolutely, one hundred per cent, completely and totally right.
And I didn’t know what the hell to do about it.
Mason tilted his head, waiting for me to reply. I didn’t want to risk opening my mouth because I wasn’t sure what would come out.
After a few minutes of neither of us speaking, he cleared his throat. “Where do we go from here?”
I sucked in my lips. “It’s not like we can blame it on being drunk.”
“Ha, so you’d have to be drunk to sleep with me again?”
“Clearly not.” I raised an eyebrow.
He leaned over and took my chin between his thumb and forefinger, slanting my head towards him. “I’d easily do it again in a heartbeat.”
My breath hitched, heart beating wildly in my chest at his words. “You don’t think tonight was a mistake?” I forced the words out. “Like you were horny and I was an easy target for you?”
Mason touched the tip of his nose with mine, the soft brush of his skin awakening all sorts of butterflies in my stomach. “Being with you would never be a mistake, Ems. And you’re not easy.” The corner of his mouth lifted.
I closed my eyes, trying to block him out. If I couldn’t see him, maybe I could get my brain to function rationally instead of my emotions going into overdrive. “What are you saying?”
“You have to admit there’s still something between us. Despite all your protestations and insisting I’m with Whit, you wouldn’t have done what you did tonight if you didn’t still have some feelings for me. You can’t break your emotional connection from the physical, no matter how hard you try.”
Damn, he was perceptive. When we’d been together, I’d told him exactly that. Even when I was younger, I had to be emotionally involved with someone before jumping into bed with them. I’d never had a one-night stand because of it. But I’d also been hurt because guys had told me they were into me simply to get me into bed. I didn’t want that to be true now.
