Page 78 of Thirst For Me
Maybe I should’ve. Sounds kind of fun, actually.
None of Mason’s family is here, and miracle of miracles, he doesn’t kick me out the minute he sees my ass taking a seat. Instead, his gaze clings to me as I settle in at a table by the jukebox with Sophie and Trish and Hot Mom/Maria.
I meet his gaze across the distance, and there he goes, eye-fucking me all over again.
All day, I’ve felt his eyes on me.
I’ve managed to hire some extra staff at the smoothie bar to get us through the festival, and to help me out when Sophie leaves town afterwards—including Bev and Bill’s twenty-year-old niece, Chloe, who’s come home on summer break from college and has been an absolute godsend. Which means I was able to step away from Cutie Fruitie today, and spend hours outside instead—me, Mason, and many of the other volunteers, setting up the market tables and shade structures and festival signage. And every time Mason came near me, I felt the tension radiating between us. This hot, bothersome push and pull.
Not the tension of two people who can’t stand each other, but the tension of two people who can’t help noticing when the other one is near.
Who can’t stoplooking.
And who want to do much, much more than look.
Or maybe that’s just me.
When he comes over, the women at my table fall suspiciously silent as he serves me first. It’s a coincidence, I’m almost sure. Until he sets a bubbly cocktail in front of me, tinged with Sea Haven’s violet gin. “You seem to like purple,” he says, his voice low in my ear, and heat explodes through me. A spark of embarrassment followed by an intense surge of lust.
Is he flirting with me?
A very large part of me can’t fucking believe I told him about the purple dildo incident. But another, much hornier part is fucking thrilled thatI think he’s flirting with me.
I take a sip and meet his gaze as he serves up the other ladies’ drinks. We didn’t even put in an order, he just brought these over, and they all get cider. Mine is the only one that’s different, and it gives me all the wrong ideas.
God help me, I kind of love it when he pays attention to me.
Maybe I should’ve told himwhySophie bought me that dildo—because I’d confessed to her how shitty my sex life with Kyle was. He didn’t know what he was doing; he had terrible aim; worst of all, he didn’t even seem totryanymore.
Soph had labelled this state of affairs “the trifecta of disappointment” and gave me the dildo for my thirtieth birthday along with a bottle of lube.
Maybe if Mason knew how sexually deprived I’ve been, he’d take pity on me and just do me already.
“Wow, that was blatant,” Maria says, delighted, as Mason walks away from our table and I stare at his muscular ass. “Swear on my children, I have never seen Mason look at someone likethat.”
When I find every eyeball at the table locked onto me, I take ajust chilling over heresip of my drink even as I feel my cheeks turning pink. “Look at who? What?”
“She’s in deep denial,” Sophie explains to the others. “But it’s not her fault. She doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head. So, shedoesn’t actually see him taking a mental bite out of her ass every time he’s behind her. You know, same as she does to him.”
“Ahh,” Trish says, like some confounding mystery has finally been solved.
“What?” I say innocently. “Who’s biting whose ass?”
“Mason Grant,” Maria enunciates, like maybe I am actually this dense, “is completely obsessed with you, Sierra.”
I blink. “He is not.”
“Say more,” Sophie says, shushing me with a flap of her hand.
“Oh, Mason’s a total playboy,” Maria says. “If you haven’t heard.So manywomen around here have tried to lock him down, fix him up, make him their man. All for naught. But I’ve never seen anyone turn his head like this baddie does.” She flips her thumb toward me, likeI’mthe baddie she speaks of.
“Who . . . me?”
“You are a baddie,” Maria informs me. “Own your own business. Won’t put up with his shit. Hot as fuck in yoga-wear. Check, check, check. If that man has a wish list, I’m sure you’re it.”
“More,” Sophie demands. “This is gold.”
“He’s very hard to get,” Trish concurs, happy to jump onboard. “He’s always been, like, the hottest guy in town, you know? It was like that in school, too. Girlslovehim.”
