Untouched: 2 (Rough Boys) (11 page)

Inside, the counter was lined with loggers and truck drivers. The booths were filled with a few people she knew—the mailman on break, the girl who bagged their groceries at the market.

Eva led Brady to a table for two and situated him. When the waitress, Karen, came over for their order, Brady piped up, telling her everything he wanted to eat. Chicken nuggets, chocolate milk and an ice cream sundae.

Eva’s pocketbook couldn’t exactly handle that, but how could she resist? “Sounds great. I’ll just have some water with lemon, Karen.”

The waitress dragged her gaze over Eva. “You dieting or something, honey? The last thing you need to do is lose a few. You have the same perfect body you had in high school.”

A flush climbed Eva’s face and disappeared into her hairline, especially when Whit Hammond pivoted on his counter stool to look at her. She flushed more deeply until a light dew of perspiration dotted her forehead.

She’d run into the handsome logger a few times since she’d lost her husband. Each time Whit stared at her with an intensity that sent her off-kilter. He and Mason had been inseparable growing up. Did he know about her and Mason’s recent affair?

“How’s it going, Eva?”

She nodded and put out a hand to stop Brady from drumming the table with his silverware. “Pretty good.”

“Heard there was some trouble at Dorsey with an injured man.”

“Yeah, but he’s going to make it.” Word had come in that Jack Caffrey would survive his accident, though it would be a long rehabilitation. The man had lost his ability to speak and had little function in his left side.

Mason was still out of his head with worry over the logger. He’d even been calling some bigger outfits in the area lately and was taking private calls from their owners. She suspected he was asking their opinion about how to handle the claims and settlement.

“Your boss is a good guy. He’ll take care of his employee.” Whit eyed her until she squirmed. He had to know something.

She ducked her head and hoped to avoid that conversation. She had no idea how to define her relationship with Mason. In the few weeks since they’d started sleeping together, she couldn’t deny the feelings she had for him. But he might not feel the same. Hell, they might just be sleeping together. Either way, she wasn’t about to leave his bed until he evicted her from it. The time spent in his arms equaled the best moments of her life.

“What are you doing for Christmas, Eva? Spending any time with Mason?” Whit’s question made her head whip up. Damn, he’d asked, when she’d hoped he wouldn’t.

She shot a look at Brady. She hadn’t mentioned Mason to him. He was four—he had no inklings about the workings of adult relationships. And she wanted to keep it that way. If nothing panned out with Mason, then her son would be none the wiser. If it did, well…then she would have thoroughly considered the ways to introduce Mason.

“I think our Christmas will be quiet this year. Just me and Brady.”

“We gots our tree up!” Brady interjected.

“Do you, now? Is it a big one? About this tall?” Whit held up a hand. Even seated, he was tall. When he raised one long arm, it was about eight feet.

“No.” Brady giggled. “A wittle tree like Charlie Brown has.”

Blood infused Eva’s face once more. It wasn’t that small, but she had cut it from their backyard, being too broke to buy one and too tired to go traipsing into the woods after one.

Whit laughed but she knew by his expression that he took note of her embarrassment. “I’m sure it’s a very special tree, sir. You have a good momma.”

Fortunately Brady’s lunch arrived and Whit turned his attention elsewhere. Eva hurried her son through his chicken nuggets and even the hot fudge sundae with sprinkles. But by the time she got him into the car, she was a mess. The last thing she needed was Whit to tell Mason about their conversation. While she hadn’t given anything away, it might bother Mason that others knew about what was going on between them. They’d kept their looks or touches to a minimum as much as possible, but Mason made that more than difficult.

As she bundled Brady back into the car and drove home, a thought struck her. Had Mason confided in his old friend Whit about her?

A seed of warmth sprouted in her belly at the idea. For her, it wasn’t just sex. She wasn’t ready to delve into the particulars of her emotions, but she couldn’t just make a clean break from Mason Dorsey. Each moment she’d spent with him was ingrained in her soul. At any given moment she was able to conjure the way he’d looked at her, his rough kisses, tender touches and his passionate words.

No, she was far from being in control of her feelings for him. But did it matter? When she was in his arms, she relinquished all restraint to him, and gladly.

The crack of a rifle shot made Mason jerk. He stopped mid-step, his boot hovering over the snow as he searched his surroundings. The forest was thick here and the mountain laurel tall. He could barely see thirty feet in front of him, and that’s exactly what worried him. If someone was in these woods hunting, then they couldn’t see him either.

Who the hell was on his personal property anyway? The ground was posted against hunting. In all his years growing up, he could only remember his father asking one person to get off their land, and that had been someone from out of state who didn’t know any better.

He listened hard for the crunch of feet on snow. In places, the snow surface had been melted by the sun and formed a crust. It made for difficult walking but he’d had to get out of his house to clear his head or he’d scream. Walking down the road didn’t offer him the peace he got when hiking in the woods.

He whipped his head to the left at the sound of footsteps. Pivoting, he backtracked, placing his feet in the original places he’d stepped before, trying to be as quiet as possible. The scents of pine and laurel enveloped him, but there was something else he detected on the breeze—blood.

Since he was old enough to walk beside his dad, he’d been in the woods with him, hunting deer and turkeys and many other birds in this part of the state. He knew the scent of blood.

Someone’s poaching on my land.
Pissed now, he strode around the laurel. The trees thinned and he was able to see a trail of footprints leading away from him. Quickly he moved forward to find the tracks were close together and the feet small. A kid? The anger in his chest abated a bit. A young hunter might not know this land was posted, especially if he entered in a stretch without a sign.

Still, he was going to set the kid straight so he didn’t think he could continue to take deer off Mason’s property.

Ahead, he caught a flash of an orange hunting jacket. “Hey!”

The person spun at once, still too far away for Mason to make out the features. But the figure was small and young.

The hunter looked around nervously, his rifle butt rested on his boot, safely pointed away at least. Mason quickened his pace, his thigh muscles warm from the exertion of moving through the hard snow.

As he approached, the hunter slid off his hood to reveal gleaming mahogany waves. Mason sputtered and drew up short. “Eva!”

“Hi, Mason.” Her lips and cheeks were cherry red from the cold, but as their gazes met, a dark blush stained her face.

She was bogged down in a very large hunting coat—probably Bill’s. And she had on a pair of jeans and no other outer layers. They were wet to the upper thigh.

“Christ, Eva. You’ve gotta be freezing. What are you doing out here?”

Emotion flickered across her face, confusing the hell out of him because it was unreadable. What was going on in her mind?

He moved close, reached for her. She came into his arms easily but held herself stiffly. Tension hummed in her.

“What are you doing?” he asked again. “Are you hunting?”

“I was, but haven’t seen anything.”

Unease wove through him. “I heard a shot.”

“I was…sort of practicing, shooting at a stump. I haven’t hunted in a long time.”

“You do know this is my land?” He pitched his voice low to avoid sounding accusatory. He didn’t give a damn if she was on his property. Hell, he wanted her in his house—in his bed. And a small voice in the recesses of his brain cried out that
she
was his property.

Tamping it down, he brought Eva’s chin up with his thumb. Her dark eyes glittered with something so close to fear that Mason’s heart flipped over.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course.” She let her gaze slip away. “I didn’t know it was your property, Mason. I’m sorry. I guess I’m not entirely sure where I am. I thought this was public ground.”

She shifted and he allowed her a bit of space but kept her in the circle of his arms. Dammit, something was off. She was acting strangely. Was she lying to him?

“No, not public. The boundary runs there in a jagged line.” He pointed toward the row of ash trees his dad had planted decades ago to mark the Dorsey border.

“I see. I’m sorry.” Her tone was so forlorn it tugged his heartstrings.

Caressing her hair off her temple, he stared into her eyes. “Sweetheart, it’s okay. You’re welcome on this land. Hell, how could I ever deny you anything?”

Her breath quickened. It passed across his face, scented with mint. Even out here hunting she smelled of vanilla. His cock reacted instantly, swelling to almost full erection in seconds.

“Could you deny me this?” She dropped her rifle into the snow, heedless of its care, and then wove her arms around his neck. She yanked him down and brushed her lips over his, igniting the fires of passion in him.

He pulled her onto tiptoe and dipped his tongue into her hot mouth. The first taste raised a groan from him. He hadn’t taken her in too long. The weekends were torment. He couldn’t reach her by phone and he spent the entire two days longing for her. Not only her body beneath his but the sound of her voice and the flash of her dark eyes.

Picking her up, he turned with her and pinned her against a tree. The maple was slightly wider than her—perfect for holding her against and driving into her.

“Damn, Eva. You’re even gorgeous in all these layers.”

He sank his tongue into her mouth and kneaded her rounded hips. A low throb captured his cock, growing more insistent as he kissed her.

Shivers ran through her and into his hands. He tore away to stare down at her, panting for control. “Come home with me, baby. Can you stay with me today?”

She dropped her gaze, concealing her eyes beneath her heavy lashes. “I can’t. I need to get home soon.”

He rested his forehead against hers, still gripping her hips tightly. He didn’t want to let her go. Had no desire to spend another Saturday alone. And the upcoming workweek was a short one because Christmas fell on Thursday. That meant he wouldn’t see her for four days. A searing pain stabbed him.

No, he wasn’t going to stand for that. They had to make arrangements. With her son in the picture, Mason was hesitant to show up at her house. He didn’t want to confuse the kid, and besides, it was Eva’s place to invite him if and when she was ready.

Suddenly, he realized she might not be as eager to spend time with him as he was with her. She never gave any indication that she wanted to hear from him when he said he’d called and her phone was still out of service.

He loosened his hold on her hips and drew away. “Eva, what’s going on with us?” The words flew from him without caution. He regretted them the instant they were out in the cold air, a fog of uncertainty between their bodies.

“I-I don’t know, Mason.”

Fuck, that was the last thing he wanted to hear. What
did
he want to hear? Maybe that she enjoyed being with him and yearned for him on the weekends too. Or that she at least wished she could come home with him and spend the day abed, making love, sharing food off a tray and watching the birds play in the wetlands from his bedroom window.

She said nothing more and the silence swelled to gigantic proportions. The sun was out again, slanting through the trees and capturing her in a ring of light. Her eyes shone with tears and his heart squeezed hard in response.

Tenderly, he cradled her face. “Sweetheart. Talk to me.”

“I’m afraid to say too much, Mason.”

He locked his jaw, determined to take it like a man if she was turning him away.
It would be a blessing if she did. She’d cut you loose and you could go West again without thinking you’d missed out on something here.

Was that what he was doing? Waiting for her to dump him so he’d have the go-ahead to leave? When had his universe shifted so abruptly? Up until a couple of days ago, he’d been making phone calls to bigger forestry companies in the area, offering to sell his business to them. One outfit was seriously interested but first Mason had to get the accounts in order so they could see what they were purchasing.

What if she told him she wanted him to stay—if she whispered the emotion he saw so plainly in her eyes?

He swallowed hard. “All right, baby. I don’t need you to say anything else. But before you go, I’m going to leave you with this.” He slammed his mouth over hers, claiming her body if not her heart. Need hummed in his veins and drew his balls up tight against his body. The ache in his groin spread.