Betting on You by Jessie Evans Page B

‘dude.”
    “Dude?”
    “Yeah, like, ‘Aria, Dude is one the phone!’” Lark shook her head. “Only way I could keep from calling them by the wrong name.”
    Mason smiled. “She and Nash should get along just fine, then. He used to be good at casual relationships back before this last girl. Maybe he and Aria can remind each other how to have fun again.”
    “Good. We’ll invite him,” Lark said. “But we won’t tell Aria. I think it’s better if it’s a surprise.”
    “That way she can’t yell at us until after it’s over,” Mason said.
    “Absolutely,” Lark said with a wicked grin.
    “Maybe I like this devilish side of you, after all.” Mason reached over to squeeze her leg right above the knee, making her giggle.
    Truth was, he liked all sides of her. He just liked Lark, loved her like he’d never loved anything. He couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a day—or a life—than with her by his side.

Chapter Ten

    The day grew hot, but not too hot, and Mason and Lark spent every minute of it outside, hiking and sunbathing and driving the boat around the lake until it was almost time for the cookout.
    It was nearly five o’clock when Mason dropped Lark at her parents’ house to take a shower, and ran back to his hotel to do the same. Lark was sad to see him go, but from the moment he left her by the door to the moment he rang the doorbell again, less than forty minutes had passed, proving Mason was as eager to get back to her as she was to have him by her side.
    Lark raced down the stairs in her bare feet, shouting, “It’s for me! I’ll get it,” and threw open the door, fighting the urge to leap into Mason’s arms and kiss him until they were both breathless.
    He looked…gorgeous.
    His damp hair hung in blue eyes that practically begged her to drag him into her bedroom, lock the door, and show him just how happy she was that they were back together. His fitted jeans clung to his strong legs and his black button down shirt emphasized the slight scruff that was beginning to show on his face. He looked good enough to eat, good enough to devour inch by delicious inch. She didn’t want to share him with anyone else. She just wanted her and Mason, alone, both preferably wearing as few clothes as possible.
    But that’s exactly why she’d planned this cookout. If she didn’t surround herself with people, she wasn’t going to make it another day without giving in to the urge to pounce Mason like a she-cat after a man-sized hunk of catnip, and that just didn’t seem like the smartest idea only four dates into their second chance.
    “Long time, no see,” Mason said, grinning as widely as she was, his eyes sparkling with the giddy happiness they had both been infected with since they laid eyes on each other this morning.
    “I see you didn’t take the time to shave.” Lark leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms, not missing the way Mason’s eyes flicked down to the significant amount of cleavage displayed by her black baby doll dress and back up again.
    “I was in a hurry,” Mason said, stepping closer.
    “In a hurry for what?” Lark asked innocently. “Dinner isn’t being served until six thirty.”
    “In a hurry to get back to this woman I like a whole lot.” Mason wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her out the door and into his arms. “She’s about your height and wearing this little black dress that I think might drive me crazy by the end of the night. Or ten minutes from now, I can’t be sure.”
    “Is that right?” Lark put her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to breathe her next words inches from his lips. “And why’s that?”
    “Because she looks amazing, and I want to touch her so bad it’s killing me.”
    “You’re touching me right now,” Lark said, leaning closer, pressing her breasts tight to his chest, making Mason’s breath rush out and a pained expression flicker across his face.
    Lark shivered. She understood that pain. She