Xeni Read online

  He did exactly what she asked, fucking her slowly, softly, his thick erection working her from the inside. Xeni soaked it up, basking in every sensation. The way his lips moved over hers, down to her neck, lightly tracing her nipples before sucking them both to painful peaks, until she was crying out. The orgasm that hit her wasn’t enough. She came, hard, but it didn’t satisfy the ache. She only wanted more. Mason was right behind her, letting out a groan that let her know he felt the same way. They’d only taken the edge off. They’d have to do it again and maybe a dozen more times, just to make sure they got it right.

  He carefully rolled to his knees beside her and when he came back from disposing the condom, he lay down beside her and pulled her closer.

  “I have notes this time.”

  “Oh yeah?” He perched up on his shoulder, concern creasing his forehead. She reached up and tried to smooth the worry out with her finger.

  “Next time we do it at the piano.”

  “Only if you promise me that you and Daryl are never together near a musical instrument.”

  Xeni rolled on her back, laughing at the ceiling. “I can’t make any promises.”

  13

  Xeni was exhausted, but all the unanswered questions in her head and the daunting to-do list, which included what she came all the way to New York for, made it impossible for her to shut her brain off.

  She rolled over and looked at Mason, who was snoring softly beside her on the living room floor. They probably should have moved their sexcapades to a bed, but he seemed so peaceful that she didn’t want to wake him. She found her cardigan piled up next to Mason’s discarded jeans and slipped it on, then went to find her phone. She grabbed it off the kitchen table and slid open the back door to the screened-in porch. She’d learned pretty quickly that Kinderack had a mosquito problem the likes of which Los Angeles had never seen. Nothing sounded better than a midnight stroll through her aunt’s garden, but she didn’t want her legs to get all chewed up.

  Another thing she had to add to the list: figure out if her aunt had any help keeping up the immaculate back yard.

  She took a seat in one of the rocking chairs and pulled up her LetsChat app. Another Friday night and the girls were all chatting about their plans. They were all boo’d up with the exception of Xeni and Meegan. If she were home, she and Meegan would be on their way out to find some acceptable amounts of trouble. Maybe Shae would ditch her man, Aidan, and join them. Or Keira would invite them all over to her house if her husband was out on the road seeing to some pyrotechnics business. From the look of things, Sarah, Meegan and Joanna were headed to the movies. She switched over to her text conversation with Sloan. It was time she told somebody in her life what was going on.

  A little bit of personal news.

  I may have gotten married yesterday.

  Cutie pie of a Scotsman named Mason

  She pulled up her favorite picture of her and Mason during the ceremony. She was in his arms a few feet off the ground and they were kissing. It was Pinterest worthy, like one of those photos that came with the frame. She stared at it for a while after she hit send, then went back to her camera roll and looked at all the photos Liz and her friends had forwarded that night. She’d saved them all to her phone so they would be safely stored in one handy place.

  Clicking over to the last photo, Xeni turned her phone to the side and looked at the picture Liz had taken of her sitting on Mason’s lap. Suddenly her phone started ringing in her hand. It was Sloan. Xeni hit ACCEPT.

  “What in the whole world is going on?”

  “Hi.” Xeni almost teared up again. It was so good to hear Sloan’s familiar voice.

  “Are you okay? Have you been kidnapped? Did a cult get you? Do you need reinforcements? I’ll send Rafe. He’s amazing at organizing and lifting heavy boxes, but he can also spring you from a cult. He can have a man to man with this… Mason? That’s his name, right? Rafe wants to know if you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine. Honestly, the whole new husband thing is the least crazy part of all of this. Do you have a few minutes?”

  “Of course. Hold on.” Xeni could hear a muffled “Here, babe,” before Sloan returned. “Sorry, just had to hand off my baby,” Sloan groaned. “Okay. Tell me literally everything.” And Xeni did. Well, mostly everything. She told Sloan about the inheritance and the hoops they had to jump through to get it. She kept the truth about her birth to herself. She couldn’t talk about that until she fully wrapped her mind around it. She definitely didn’t want to talk about it until she and her mom had at least one calm conversation, but in the meantime, there was Mason.

  “So, you’re like married married. It’s all legal and everything.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s he like?”

  “Tall. Very tall. Burly. He’s like the definition of burly. He looks like he just walked out of the woods and onto a farm.”

  “Cute enough to make you pop a titty out?”

  Xeni laughed, remembering all the conversations she and Sloan had had when she’d first started seeing Rafe. Their stakes had been a bit higher since Sloan was Rafe’s boss at the time. She’d hired him as a live-in nanny to take care of her twins, but once they realized how attracted they were to each other, things had changed. Sloan had been wary because dating the nanny was a red-flag recipe for disaster. Luckily, things worked out just fine. Great even, and there was a new infant son to prove it. But before they’d said their own vows and decided to go half on a baby, there had been many nights when Sloan and Xeni had been up texting and talking about what Sloan should do about the new man in her life. Now it looked like it was Sloan’s time to return the favor, even if there was no real relationship to speak of.

  “He is very cute, very handsome. I don’t mind looking at him at all.”

  “Do you like him?” Sloan asked. “I mean, you two look pretty cozy in those pictures. That doesn’t look like a shotgun wedding between two strangers who can’t stand each other.”

  “Well, there was never a point at which we couldn’t stand each other. There hasn’t been time, but you got the strangers part right. He’s… I’m trying to think of the right word. He’s easy to be around. You know me.”

  “I do,” Sloan laughed. “I know how careful you are, but you didn’t answer my question. Do you like him?”

  “I like him as well as I can, since I barely know him,” she said cautiously, like he wasn’t just inside of her a couple hours ago. “He seems like a good guy. He’s kind. Very considerate. He can cook. I know that’ll score him some major Sloan points. He plays the bagpipes.”

  “He sounds like a well-rounded young man,” Sloan teased.

  Xeni was quiet for a second. She realized then that she actually wanted Sloan to meet him. She wanted all of her friends to meet him. “I mean, yeah, I like him. And I may have done more than let him touch my butt.”

  “Aww, Xeni,” Sloan cooed. “Is the dry spell broken?”

  “It is.”

  “How does it feel?”

  “Good. I mean, I embarrassed the shit out of myself by crying on him during foreplay, but we managed to pull it together.”

  “And it was good?”

  Xeni instantly felt her cheeks and her thighs warm all over again. “Yes. It was very good. Ten out of ten, would fuck again.”

  “Yay,” Sloan giggled. “I’m so happy for you. And you said you were gonna give Miss Havisham a run for her money.”

  “Hey, there’s still time. He might break my heart and then I’ll go mad and convince your girls to go out and destroy a few men, just for a taste of justice. Anyway, none of that matters. It’s over in thirty days.”

  “What if you don’t want it to be over in thirty days?”

  “Things are a little more complicated than that.”

  “What do you think he wants?”

  “To sample more of this sweet, sweet ass,” Xeni replied.

  “Well obviously, but I have a hard time believing he’s not half in love wit
h you already. Do you have any more pictures of him? I can’t really see his face too well.”

  “Yeah, hold on.” Xeni sent Sloan the picture of them with clasped hands high in the air, husband and wife.

  “Girl,” Sloan said.

  “What?”

  “Are you sure you just met this guy? You two look so happy.”

  “I mean, we were having fun, but that was mostly chaotic energy manifesting itself as joy.”

  “Uh huh, sure. So, when do I get to meet him?”

  “Never?”

  “Nah. No way. You’re not hiding a whole ass husband from me.”

  “No, I’m hiding a whole ass husband from everyone. You’re the first person I’ve told,” Xeni confessed.

  “Wait. You haven’t told your parents? You haven’t told your mom?”

  “Nope.”

  “You know Joyce is going to flip out, right?” Sloan laughed. She’d hung out with Xeni’s mom a handful of times and heard dozens of stories of her day-to-day antics. She knew the headache Xeni was in for if and when she found out that Xeni tied the knot without even so much as a phone call. If being the key word. She knew she should tell her parents. She should have told them as soon as it happened, but then she’d have to tell them everything and that wasn’t an option at the moment.

  Besides, Xeni was owed her own secrets for a while. Thirty years should about cover it.

  “She’s going to flip out, but I’m going to worry about that when I get home.”

  “That’s true. How’s the packing going?”

  “It’s not. My mom wanted me to look for something for her. I moved some stuff around, but I haven’t actually moved anything yet. Had to get married for the money first.” Just then, Xeni heard Mason moving around inside the house. She stayed put, though. He was probably looking for the bathroom.

  “Don’t say that. He’s in love with you. Pictures like that don’t lie.” Xeni knew Sloan was only kinda joking. Sloan was a hopeless romantic, an optimistic dreamer, whereas Xeni was a realist. Who believed in witchcraft? It didn’t have to make a lick of sense to be the truth.

  “He is definitely not in love with me and even if he were, it wouldn’t change anything. This isn’t a romcom. If anything, it’s some sort of sick joke at my expense. You understand that after I dig through all my favorite aunt’s possessions and decide what to do with her houses, I then have to fly back to L.A. and explain to my family why this woman left me a literal fortune?”

  “Well, at least you have money to hire someone to come help you pack.”

  “That is true.” Xeni heard the porch door open. She looked over as a shirtless, sleepy Mason stepped outside, rubbing his eyes. “Sloan, hold on one sec. Hey.”

  “Everything alright?”

  “Yeah, just talking to my friend. I’m bragging about suddenly having a husband.”

  “Don’t tell her how good looking I am. I don’t want to make her jealous.”

  “Too late. She’s seen photos.”

  Mason sighed and hung his head. “I don’t know if I can handle two women at once, love.”

  “I’ll be in in a sec.”

  “Okay. Take all the time you need. I’m going to see about that ice cream.”

  Mason slipped back inside and Xeni was glad no one else was around to witness the dopey grin on her face.

  “Hey, sorry.”

  “Was that him?!” Sloan practically screeched.

  “Yeah.”

  “That accent. I thought the Southie thing Rafe has going was hot. Phew.”

  “You just had a baby. Please relax.”

  “Sorry,” Sloan laughed.

  “I should go. You get back to your man and said baby.”

  “Okay. Call me anytime. It’s just me and the boys this weekend. Addison and Avery are at Disneyland with Monica and Joe.”

  “I will. Enjoy your kinda quiet house.”

  “Oh, we already are.” That was code for “we just finished fucking and we’re gonna fuck again.” They said their goodbyes, then Xeni stood to go inside. She looked out at the night sky. It was clear, no moon.

  She found Mason in the kitchen where he held out a spoonful of cinnamon swirl for her to taste. After they finished half the pint, she took him to the room she’d dubbed guest room B where she’d already made herself comfortable. While she wrapped her hair, he climbed under the covers of the queen sized bed that barely provided enough room for his large frame. When she joined him, he curved his body around her, tucking his knees in tight behind her legs. It was a perfectly tight squeeze and in that position they both fit on the bed just fine.

  An odd but welcome sense of clarity had come over Xeni some time during the night. She’d slept like shit ’cause, while cramming into the bed was romantic as hell, Mason actually needed all the room he could get. Xeni ended up sleeping half on top of him and woke up with the worst pain in her lower back, but as she made her way to the bathroom, she realized some of the numbness that had been weighing her down had finally lifted. She didn’t have it all sorted out. For that day, though, she had a plan.

  She showered and when she came back to the guest room, still wrapped in her towel, Mason was awake, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “Ooooh, Christ, I slept like the dead.”

  “That makes one of us,” Xeni said, smiling a bit.

  “We need to move our sleepovers to a bigger bed.”

  “Agreed. Do you have plans for today?”

  “I told Silas I’d watch Princess P tonight, but my day’s clear until then. What’s on your schedule?”

  “I’m going to start packing up this house. Like, actually do it. Even if I don’t sell it, I want to get all my aunt’s things packed up. I’ll junk stuff that needs junking and ship stuff I want or think my mom or my aunts might want back to L.A..” Just saying it out loud made her feel better. She had a plan.

  “Happy to lend a hand if you like.”

  “I would like, thank you. And then maybe if you want, I can come watch Palila with you.”

  Mason sat up straight and Xeni watched as a little smile tilted up the corner of his mustache.

  “What? I don’t have to come if you don’t want me to.”

  “Of course I do. I’m just pleased and a little bit shocked by your request. It’s not every day my wife asks if she can spend more time with me.”

  “I think we need to get this out of the way. I like you. I like you a lot. I like your energy and I like your big ass hands. Maybe after we get divorced, I might fly back out here and ask you on a date. Maybe.”

  Mason came across the room and Xeni suddenly remembered how naked she was under the towel. Mason pulled her into his arms, but instead of kissing her, he leaned over and pressed his lips to her neck. She let out a noise like a frightened peacock when the kiss turned into a tickling raspberry. She squealed, trying to get away from him, but he just held her closer, blowing bursts of air up and down her shoulder until she was doubling over from laughter.

  He let her go and set his expression to neutral, like his own face wasn’t bright red from their playful struggle.

  “You have boxes?” he asked, running his fingers through his hair.

  “No, I need boxes.”

  “You get dressed. I’ll run back to my place and change. I’ll grab us breakfast and coffee, and you head over to Home Depot and get the boxes. It’s right near the Target.”

  Xeni remembered seeing the big home improvement store on her way to meet Liz. For some reason, though, she didn’t think this plan of attack was the best use of their time.

  “Or we could just go together. Seems silly to take two cars,” Xeni said. So chill. So cool. Not clingy at all. She had no business interacting with other humans.

  “Okay, new plan. I find my pants. You put on shoes. No need for pants, Just wear that towel. We swing by my place so I can shower and change, and then we get our day started.”

  “Let’s do it.” Xeni started for her suitcase, but Mason’s fingers light
ly touching her forearm stopped her in her tracks. She looked up at him just as he swept her up in his arms and kissed her senseless. She didn’t realize he actually lifted off the floor until her toes touched back down on the hardwood. Another light brush of his lips against hers and then he released her from his grasp.

  “Good morning,” Mason said quietly before leaving her alone in the guest room with a molten heat building between her legs.

  She was still trembling a bit when she climbed in the passenger seat of his oversized SUV. She hadn’t planned on spending the whole day soaking wet, but if he kept kissing her like that, she didn’t have much of a choice.

  “So, last night,” Mason said as they pulled back on to the main road. Her aunt really lived in the middle of fucking nowhere. They passed a large wooded area and then an open field before the crumbling stone wall that surrounded her closest neighbor’s property. It was the shit horror movies were made of. Xeni shook off the thought of herself running through the woods, trying to get help, and turned to Mason.

  “Which part? A lot happened last night.” Like how I cried on you just as you started having fun with my tits, she almost added.

  “You’re looking for more trust and freedom with your intimacy.”

  “Yes,” she said, letting out a reluctant breath. She usually confessed her feelings on her own terms, like blurting them out randomly, but she felt like she could talk to Mason. Damn this whole vulnerability thing. “I—with my ex, there was sex, but I always felt like I was having sex with myself.”

  “Elaborate please.”