Page 34 of Thirst For Me
I sit back and watch it play, looping over and over.
Whoisthis woman?
Is she in porn or something?
I almost don’t even want to know.
But I can’t let June or this seductress from the city interfere with my parents’ dream. I’ve got to be smarter than this.
Since when was I ever such an idiot for a pretty face?
There’s a knock on my office door, and Beckett sticks his head in. “Hey, Mason. That Sierra woman is here. You said to tell you if—”
I’m already on my feet and brushing past him.
And there she stands, at my bar. Looking every inch as beautiful, lost, and fucking treacherous as she did last night. And earlier today, when I told her to stay away from my family.
“Hey,” she says stiffly. “I just—”
“Not out here,” I cut her off. “In my office.”
She hesitates but follows me inside.
I close the door behind her and she crosses her arms over her chest. She wears the same T-shirt and sweats I saw her in outside Pier Seven hours ago, and she looks tired. Dark circles under her eyes and, if I’m not mistaken, the remnants of last night’s makeup. Like she hasn’t showered yet or settled in anywhere. Or had a moment’s peace since we met.
That makes two of us.
She still looks hungover, actually.
She tears herself away from the eye-contact vortex that we both just got inexplicably sucked into. “Look, I’m just here to get my phone,” she says. “I think I left it here last night.”
I study her, trying to suss out the truth from her bullshit.
She didn’t have her phone at my place last night? And this morning?
I reorient myself around this fact. She couldn’t have used it, then, to take photos of any of the tax documents or other business records I keep at the house.
Of course, this could just be part of her story. She could have another phone.
She could be lying to my face. Again.
“I don’t have your phone. But if my staff found it, it’s likely behind the bar. We have a lost and found.”
“Great. Then I’ll go ask them.” She turns on her heel, and I wonder, did she chooseright nowto come over here because Jace just took my truck into Duncan? Did she think I wasn’t here, because she didn’t see it in the parking lot?
How disappointing for her.
I put out an arm, press a hand to the door, keeping it firmly closed. “You sure that’s all you want?”
She blinks up at me. “Meaning what?”
“Well, what was the next phase of your little plan? Dupe me into a marriage proposal? Signing over all my property? The orchard? Did June give you a list?”
She takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what’s going on between your family and your neighbor, but trust me, I want nothing to do with it.”
“I don’t trust you,” I say bluntly. “And I’m surprised June trusted you to pull this off. You don’t lie well.”
She looks nervous as hell. Shaky. But maybe that’s just the hangover.
