Page 6 of I Need You Tonight
Chapter 3
Mason
For a second, all I could do was hope Nicole didn’t notice the effect she was having on my dick. When Zack had asked me to check on his little sister, I hadn’t expected to find that the awkward fifteen-year-old had turned into a sexy woman—her blond hair in a messy ponytail, her face free of makeup, and wearing pajama bottoms with cartoon pandas on them. I hadn’t expected to find her braless, if the way her nipples pressed against the fabric of her tank top were anything to go by.
I also hadn’t expected her to invite me in to eat ice cream and watchDie Hardwith her—because what girl watchesDie Hard?
But no way in hell was I saying no to that.
“What flavor?” I asked.
“Triple-fudge almond. The good stuff.”
One eyebrow jerked up. “What’s the special occasion?”
“Does there need to be one?”
I placed my hand on the chipped doorframe above her head. “Let me rephrase that. I have a sister, and the only time she used to eat the good stuff was when she had boy problems. AndDie Hardisn’t exactly your standard chick flick.”
She shrugged, her shoulders pale and delicate. But the shrug had a touch of sass—the same sass I remembered from all those years ago. “What can I say? I happen to love the movie. It’s filled with action, love, and redemption. And Alan Rickman always played the best evil guys. And did I mention there’s lots of action?”
I laughed. “I’ll give you that. And I definitely won’t argue against the movie. It’s one of my favorites….So, you’re telling me you’re not dealing with boyfriend problems?”
She snorted a laugh. “Does a series of really bad dates count?”
I pulled my hand away from the doorframe. “I’d say that counts. And yes, I’d love to watch the movie with you and eat ice cream.”
I entered her house and she locked the door behind me, then I followed her down the dark hallway toward the warm light. We stepped into the small kitchen. Whoever had decorated the place had a thing for avocado green. Green cabinets. Green fridge. Green linoleum floor. Even the yellowing wallpaper had green in it—along with brown—and reminded me of pineapples. Large, hideous pineapples.
“Wow,” I said as Nicole picked up her phone from the counter. “The seventies called and they want their kitchen back.”
“I know,” she said with a grimace, “it’s pretty bad. Zack likes to refer to it as the frog-got-caught-in-the-blender room.”
“More like a gremlin. The large, ugly kind from the movie.”
Nicole laughed and typed something on her phone. “Hey, I love that movie. But yeah, you do have a point.”
At those words I pretty much fell in love with her, but who wouldn’t when she had such great taste in movies? Luckily, the guys in the band had no idea that I lovedGremlins. They would revoke my man card if they knew.
“I bought the house from an old couple who lived here most of their lives,” she said. “I’m slowly redecorating it.” Very slowly, from the look of things.
Her phone buzzed in her hand. She checked the screen and grinned. “Zack says hi, and told me to play nice with you because you’re a good guy.”
I laughed, mostly because I appreciated that he felt that way after everything that had happened in the past. If I was a good guy, he was the goddamn pope.
While I appreciated the view of her fine ass, which I didn’t remember her having before, she grabbed two bowls from the cupboard, put them on the counter, then took down a wineglass as well. She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Would you like some wine? I’m having some. It’s been one of those days.”
“Do you have any beer?”
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
“Wine’s fine.”
She got another glass and retrieved the ice cream from the freezer. She then loaded the bowls with a healthy amount, which let me know just how crappy her series of bad dates had been. After that, she filled our glasses and led me to the small living room. As with the kitchen, it was like stepping back in time, with hideous puke-green shag carpeting and dark wood paneling.
The furniture at least looked to be from this century, although there wasn’t much to it—just a love seat, armchair, coffee table, and large-screen TV.
She parked her bowl and glass on the table and loaded theDie HardDVD into the machine.
