Rumor Has It (Limelight) (3 page)

I heard him rifling through drawers. Shit, as I stood here mentally undressing this guy the cops were on their way. Jeff was not going to be happy. Never mind how attractive this guy was, I had bigger issues.

“Um...excuse me?” No answer. “Excuse me...” It occurred to me that I couldn’t even address dreamboat by name.

He walked back into the room with a first-aid kit in his hands and sat down beside me on the bed. Every nerve leapt to attention. My skin felt itchy like I needed to scratch only there was no one spot that would give me relief. This was ridiculous. I had bigger problems than the fact that my hormones worked overtime around this guy.

“Mason,” he said.

“Huh?” Way to showcase my college education with that reply.

“My name is Mason.”

“Right. I’m Ellie Wagner. Nice to meet you.”

I stuck out my hand to shake his. Seconds after he took my hand in his I wrenched it away; for two reasons. One, because it friggin’ hurt my wrist. Two, because the electric jolt racing up my arm when he touched me was unnerving. His eyes flicked up to meet mine. I could see now that they weren’t all green. Flecks of hazel around his iris broke up the solid color. The combination made it difficult to look away, but my brain managed to remember the situation with the cops still needed sorting out.

“So, Mason, about the cops. You can call them now and tell them they don’t need to come, right? That it was all a big misunderstanding?” I’ll admit I batted my eyelashes a little in the hopes he’d see only an innocent girl who in no way deserved an audience with the authorities.

He laughed. He freaking laughed like it was a big joke that I might be arrested. Never mind that when the police called Jeff to check my story, I’d lose my job.

“I don’t see the humor in this situation.” I was trying to tread lightly but even I could hear the irritation in my voice.

A slow easy smile crept across his face. He had a dimple. Seriously? That attractive and somehow the heavens figured he needed a dimple, too? For what? In case there was a girl alive who didn’t want to drop their panties for him upon contact? It was just unfair.

“Easy. The cops aren’t on their way.”

“But...you said—”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I lied.”

“Oh.” I sounded so damn intelligent today.

“I didn’t have time to call them. I heard the crash and came running and there you were. Pretty girl, pantless, sprawled on the bathroom floor.”

Heat rushed into my cheeks. I felt mortified enough that he’d basically seen my bare ass before he even knew my name. Bringing it up again only made it worse. I was saving my mental breakdown for when I got back in my car. Surely I’d exceeded my monthly quota for embarrassment.

“Now, let’s take a look at your injuries.” He picked my wrist up off my lap and gently turned it over a couple of times to check it out. “It looks like you only sprained it. Nothing is broken or it’d be blown up like a damn balloon right now. It’s a little swollen. Ice it when you get home and it’ll probably feel a lot better in the morning.”

“Okay, good idea.”

“I’m gonna wrap it anyways to help keep the swelling down.” Instead of moving to get the bandage out of the first-aid kit, he stroked his thumb over the pulse at my wrist. He probably meant it to be soothing. I found it erotic as hell and had to resist the urge to press my thighs together. I said nothing but watched as his much larger hand held mine. My heart was beating so fast I was sure he could hear it. I tried my best to keep my breathing even.

The silence stretched and began to feel awkward so I cleared my throat. Mason let my hand go and searched through the first-aid kit. I found it difficult not to watch the muscles moving beneath the skin on his forearms while he did his rummaging. Who knew I had a fetish for forearm muscles?

“Okay, hold your hand out,” he said. He gently wrapped gauze around my wrist, almost delicately. It was surprising a man with so much raw power could be so gentle. “All finished.”

“Thanks.”

“Let me take a look at your head.”

He raised his hand to my face and lightly brushed away stray hairs that’d come loose from my ponytail and tucked them behind my ear. A shiver raced up my spine. As Mason tended to my forehead and the apparent lump there, I used the opportunity to check out his eyes again. They were astonishing. I’d never seen anyone with eyes quite like them in my life. As he leaned in to get a better look at my injury the scent of coconut suntan lotion drifted up and I realized he’d probably been planning on hitting the beach or the pool before I’d come barging in. That must’ve accounted for him being bare-chested. Of course, if I had a body like his I’d saunter around advertising it, too.

“You have a pretty good bump starting, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I want to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”

“I’m fine. Honest.” Uncomfortable again by how close he was, I went to lift myself off the bed. I needed to get out of here before I made a bigger mess of things and he really
did
call my boss, but his hand was on my shoulder exerting pressure to get me to sit back down.

“Sit.”

It was clear it wasn’t a request so with a sigh I did as he said.

“Do you feel woozy at all?” he asked.

“No.”

“Is there any blurring in your vision?”

“No.”

“Do you feel tired, like you want to go to sleep?”

“No more so than usual.”

“Headache?”

“A little.”

“Ringing in your ears?”

“No.”

“Feel like you’re going to be sick?”

“No.”

“You single?”

“Wait...huh?”

He didn’t speak. Just pinned his gaze on me; comfortable in the silence and waiting for me to answer. I, on the other hand, was
not
so comfortable. The butterflies in my stomach started because there was only one reason to ask. I was not in this guy’s league, I wasn’t in the ballpark; hell, I couldn’t even afford tickets to watch the game. I wasn’t sure who he was but he must be someone of stature based on the mere fact he could afford to rent this beach house for a month.

“Um, I should really...”

“It’s an easy enough question, Ellie.”

I had a feeling I was at a crossroads and my answer here was going to lead me down either the right or wrong path. I wasn’t sure which was which. I could lie to him. I could lie and say I wasn’t single and I have a long-term boyfriend I’m madly in love with…but hormones won out. I didn’t say any of that.

“Yes, I’m single.”

A slow grin crept across his face. “Good to know.”

And that was it. That was all he said and then he got up off the bed, took the first-aid kit with him, and disappeared into the bathroom. Talk about leaving a girl hanging.

CHAPTER THREE

She
was
single. How the hell did that happen? Were the guys in Virginia fucking blind? I didn’t date fans, but I was positive she didn’t have the first clue who I was. It’d be a nice change to date someone who wasn’t trying to get something from me.

Just ask her out.
You know you’re going to.

What the hell? I hadn’t been out with someone without an agenda in years. It’d be a nice change of pace. My goal was to relax, and there was nothing more relaxing than getting laid on a regular basis. Assuming she was into it, too.

I shoved the first-aid kit back where I’d found it and made my way back to the bedroom. She’d gotten off the bed and was standing beside it, tapping her foot, looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here. As I approached her my cell chirped from the great room.

“I’d better get that.”

“Sure. Yeah. Okay,” she said.

I jogged into the other room and made a dive for my cell.

“Mason here.”

“Ah, the prodigal son.”

“Hey, Mom.” A small amount of trepidation still crept up my spine whenever I heard her voice on the other end of the line.

“How are you? Where are you?”

“I’m on a little vacay before the next tour gets up and rollin’. How are you? How are Olivia and Justin?”

“Oh, they’re good. That’s why I’m calling.”

“Everything okay?” I asked, the uncertainty in my voice obvious. Justin and Olivia were my half brother and sister, and they meant everything to me.

“Yeah, yeah. But I wanted to call and see if there’s any chance you could send more money along.”

Prickles moved from the base of my spine up to my neck where the hairs stood on end. My mother asking for money was never a good thing. I was trying to imagine what she’d gotten herself into now.

“What happened to your monthly allowance?” I asked.

“Nothin’ happened to it. I’ve got it but this is for something outside regular expenses.”

A plethora of different out-of-the-box expenses went through my mind. Namely cocaine, booze, meth, oxy. I could’ve kept going but she cut me off before I could ponder any more of her former vices.

“It has to do with Olivia’s birthday,” she said.

“You sure it has to do with her birthday and not that douche bag ex of yours?” Let her be put off by my tone. I didn’t care. Ed was a first-class loser and nothing but trouble. I didn’t want him anywhere near my kid brother and sister.

“What’cha talking about?”

My muscles went stiff at her denial. “Don’t bullshit me. Jorge told me he’s been sniffing around again.” Jorge was the full-time sober companion I’d hired for her the last time she got out of rehab so I could make sure her shit was on the straight and narrow while I traveled the globe doing what I do.

“That might be so but I wouldn’t give that loser the time of day.”

“You sure about that?”

“When are you ever gonna trust that I’ve cleaned up my act? I’ve been clean and sober for almost five years now.”

Her voice broke in the middle of her sentence. I was upsetting her. There was a momentary twinge of guilt but it was hard to give up the twenty plus years of disappointments my mom had delivered. “What did you have in mind?”

“I thought maybe I could turn the backyard into a carnival with a petting zoo, cotton candy machines, clowns. The whole works.”

The house I’d bought my family certainly had enough room to accommodate the idea. Olivia would love it and there was nothing I liked more than putting a smile on her face. “Sounds like a decent idea. How much does something like that cost?” Nothing but dead air. “Mom, how much?”

“Uh...probably fifteen or twenty thousand. To do it right.”

“Have Jorge call my accountant. I’ll send him a text letting him know it’s fine.”

“Thanks, baby. I’m so excited. Your sister is going to love it!”

“Good. I’m in the middle of something. I gotta run.”

“Talk to you soon.”

I knew at some point I needed to extend a certain level of trust to my mother but it was still difficult for me. Five years of sobriety didn’t erase a lifetime of neglect. There wasn’t a chance I’d let my kid brother and sister succumb to the same fate I’d had growing up. Like hell I was going to see them sitting in a leaky trailer, starving, and wondering if Mommy would remember to come home that night to feed them. Fuck that. I hadn’t worked nonstop for years to see that happen. I was going to make sure they were set for life. Whether that life included my mother or not.

I dropped my phone back on the table and turned to see Ellie in the doorway of the bedroom watching me. She had a sheepish look on her face. She must have overheard my conversation.

“I’ll just get going,” she said. She started to make her way across the wide expanse of the great room.

“Hold up. I’m driving you home.”

She stopped and slowly turned around. “My car is out front.”

“Well, you won’t be driving it. I’ll take you home and pick you up tomorrow. Bring you back here to get your car.”

“Why would you do that?” She folded her arms across her chest and stuck one hip out to the side.

Lucky for her I didn’t mind a woman with a bit of attitude. “You’ve hurt your wrist, banged your head, and even though you say you feel fine I get the feeling you’d say that whether or not it was true.”

“I
am
fine. I appreciate the offer but I can drive myself home.”

I could see I was going to have to play my ace to get her to agree. “It’s not up for discussion. Unless you want me to call your boss and tell him what happened this afternoon?”

Her arms dropped to her sides. “Fine. I’m waiting outside,” she said and stomped out of the room.

I chuckled on my way to the master bedroom to throw on a T-shirt. On the way out I grabbed my phone, took the car keys off the counter, and locked the door behind me. I found Ellie leaning against the outside wall, arms crossed over her chest again. Only now she had on a pair of killer heels that made her legs look even longer than before. Instead of looking stupid, she looked adorable.

“Come on. I’m parked in the garage.”

I walked around her and down the stairs to the garage. Ellie’s heels clicked on the stairs behind me. I punched the code into the security keypad. The door rose at a crawl and the white Range Rover Evoque I’d be using this month came into view. Damn, I loved this vehicle. If I ever stayed in one spot long enough it might be worth getting one.