When You're Back (Rosemary Beach #12)(2)

“Are you here about a horse?” she asked, when I said nothing, just stood and stared at her. The jeans she was wearing were tight and showcased slender hips and tiny thighs. She was model-thin. I was not.

“I-I, uh—” I stammered. How could I talk to this woman? I should have just left. Confronting Mase while she stood there, looking like a Barbie doll, was going to be impossible. He would look at the two of us standing side by side and see who was the better pick.

“Are you lost?” she asked.

Yes. I was completely lost. Everything I thought I knew was true, everything I thought was mine, wasn’t. “Maybe,” I whispered, then shook my head. “No. I came to see—”

“Reese!” Mase’s voice boomed from behind the woman, and before I could say anything else, he was pushing past her and wrapping me up in his arms. “You’re here! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home? I would’ve come to get you. God, you smell good. I missed this. I missed you so f*cking much!”

I stared over his shoulder at the woman, who was no longer smiling. She was staring at me as if I were repulsive.

“I wanted . . . I wanted to sur-surprise you,” I tripped over my words, not sure what to think. I had heard him with her. I knew he was spending time with her, and she obviously didn’t want me here.

He grabbed my face and covered my mouth with his. As unsure as I was and as hurt as I had been by what I’d heard between him and this woman, I quickly pushed my feelings to the side. The taste of Mase and the feel of his lips moving against mine always undid me. He feasted on my mouth, and I clung to him as I inhaled his scent. The flick of his tongue over mine made me shiver. Nothing else in the world mattered when I was with him like this.

“Ahem. I’m still here, guys. Remember me?” The other woman’s voice broke through my delicious haze, and I froze. Pulling back from me, Mase actually chuckled and glanced back at the woman, keeping his arms tightly wrapped around me.

“Sorry, Aida, my woman is home, and I’m going to be all kinds of tied up for at least the next forty-eight hours. Maybe more. Go find something to do back at the house,” he said, then kissed the tip of my nose as he turned his back on the woman again.

“Kinda rude running off and leaving me and not introducing me to your friend,” she replied, with obvious distaste in her tone.

Mase grinned down at me and winked. “She’s a diva. You’ll get used to her.” Then he turned his head toward the other woman. “Aida, this is Reese, the woman I haven’t shut up about. The one I talk to for hours every night.” He turned his attention back to me. “Reese, meet my only girl cousin, Aida. She’s a bit spoiled, a lot dramatic, and easily bored.”

Cousin? If that’s all she was, why was she glaring at me like I was standing in her way?

I looked back at Aida, and she smirked. Although I was comforted by the knowledge that they were related, something about the way she looked at me felt like a challenge.

How . . . odd.

Mase

Having Reese in my arms again helped ease the frustration that she hadn’t let me know she was coming home. I would have picked her up from the airport. I didn’t like the idea of her arriving with no one to welcome her.

“Did you take a cab?” I asked, not liking the idea of that, either.

She nodded but didn’t say more.

“I wish you’d called me.” I pulled her against me and walked her back toward my truck. I was tucking her inside and getting her to our home. Where she belonged.

“I thought surprising you would be fun.” She seemed off, like she was upset. Maybe she was just tired from traveling.

“I’d say call me next time, but there won’t be a next time. I’m not going to be separated from you like that again. If you want to go to Chicago, I’ll go with you.”

Her body seemed to relax then as she leaned closer to me. This was what I needed today. Aida was exhausting and demanding. Having her here had helped ease the hurt of missing Reese but only because she was full of distracting, nonstop chatter.

As soon as Momma got home she would have to entertain Aida.

I took Reese’s suitcase and put it in the back of my truck, then slid a hand under her perfect ass and lifted her in. The giggle that escaped from her sent a warm sensation rushing through my veins. I needed her laughter.

“I’m not letting you leave my side for at least two days. I’m needy,” I said as I climbed in. “Besides, I picked you up a couple of books at the library last week. I’m ready for you to read them to me.”

She laid her head on my shoulder and sighed contentedly. “I read to you almost every night while I was gone.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t naked in my bed.”

She laughed again, making everything in my life feel perfect. She was what I had been waiting for. Everything before her had been dull, including the girls. No one had made me feel the excitement of waking up every morning and seeing her face. Or going to bed every night with her in my arms.

“You want me to read naked in bed?” she asked in an amused tone.

“Hell, yeah, I do. I want you to do everything naked.”

Reese tilted her head back and looked up at me. “You’re not serious.”

I glanced down at her smiling face. “Yes, baby. When I’m talking about you being naked, I’m very, very serious.”