Burning Desire. Kayla Perrin
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Ohhh.” Mason’s eyes widened, as if he finally understood something. “Are you telling me that you’re not into men?”
For a moment, Sabrina was too speechless to react. Then her lips parted, and she gaped at him. “Because I’m not interested in going out with you, that means I’m gay?”
“It’s a possibility.”
Sabrina was suddenly enraged. There was a part of her that wanted to throttle him. He was smiling good-naturedly, as if this was all just fun and games for him.
“No, I’m not gay. I don’t appreciate your caveman tactics. If no one has ever had the guts to tell you no before, let me be the first one.”
Instead of being frazzled by her comment, Mason’s eyes lit up with humor. “Caveman?”
“Well, you certainly seem to have Neanderthal attitudes about dating.”
“Caveman, Neanderthal. Go ahead, don’t hold back. Tell me what you really feel.”
Sabrina gritted her teeth, and then closed the door to the back of her vehicle. She was beyond ready to get out of there.
She went to the driver’s-side door, but Mason followed her. “Are you planning to take off? Without even a goodbye?”
“You are getting on my last nerve,” she muttered.
“What was that?” he asked.
Sabrina spun around to face him. “You want to know what I think about you? I think you’re attractive man. One who has an honorable job. But a guy like you has a hard time hearing no. And because no one tells you no, you expect everyone you ask out to say yes. Right now, you’re completely baffled as to how I could possibly reject you. So you assume I must be gay. That’s why I said you have a caveman attitude. It is offensive for you to assume that I’m not interested men, simply because I’m not interested in you.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever called me a caveman before.”
“I call it as I see it. And with your archaic—”
Before Sabrina even knew what was happening, Mason suddenly bent down, slipped his arms around the back of her knees and hoisted her over his shoulder.
Sabrina screamed. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“I’m going to take you somewhere so I can have my wicked way with you.”
“Let me down!”
“Why? According to you, this is how I operate, right?”
Sabrina could see people’s heads whipping in her direction, smirks across their faces. Two people who had just exited a car nearby raised their cell phones and began snapping pictures.
“This is humiliating!” Sabrina went on.
“But I’m only doing what you expect of me. You said I’m a Neanderthal. In fact, you said that about three times.”
“Let me down!”
“Not until you take back what you said.”
“Mason! I swear—”
He then slowly slipped her down his body. Her breasts pressed against his rock-hard chest as he lowered her. Her heart was racing, her pulse pounding in her ears. She gripped his shoulders instinctively, for balance, but the moment her feet hit the ground, she pounded on his chest.
She should have slapped him, but he had already made a spectacle of her and she didn’t want to draw more attention to them.
“How could you?” she asked, her chest heaving up and down. “People are staring! Taking pictures! I’m probably going to end up on the internet somewhere!” Mason grinned down at her, an easy smile on an undeniably handsome—and arrogant—face. “And you think this is funny?”
“One thing you’ve got to know about firefighters is that we like to joke around. Our jobs are so intense, it’s important to find ways to make it light.” He shrugged his shoulders. “And, you did call me a caveman. I believe, from what I’ve learned about caveman, that they’re prone to knocking woman over the head and taking them over their shoulders.”
Sabrina turned away from him, her breathing erratic as she tried to calm herself. She was angry. But she was also turned on. Being in his arms like that, she’d felt a purely sensual reaction to him.
Two young women in their early twenties walked toward Sabrina and Mason en route to their own car. “Are you really a firefighter?” one of them asked, looking up at Mason’s helmet.
“Yes, I am.”
“Lucky you,” the other one said to Sabrina, before remotely unlocking the car behind Sabrina’s Equinox.
The two women then giggled as they got into their vehicle. Sabrina turned back toward Mason, leveling an angry stare in his direction. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“It’s my view that everyone can benefit from a little lighthearted goofing around. Maybe some more than others.”
“Are you trying to say I’m uptight?”
“The only thing I know about you for sure is that you’re a tough cookie. But I look forward to learning more about you at dinner. Unless you’d prefer we only go for a drink.”
Sabrina marched toward her driver’s-side door and opened it. “Mason, it was nice working with you. Now, I must be on my way.”
She climbed into her car, slammed the door and quickly started the engine. She then she drove off, leaving Mason standing at the curb, looking after her.
Chapter 5
Of all the completely insane things for a man to do! The next morning, Sabrina was still livid. She couldn’t believe that Mason had actually had the nerve to throw her over his shoulder in front of strangers at the beach. She was humiliated!
Who knew if photos of the embarrassing incident would end up on the internet? Or even video? She was a professional in Ocean City. She didn’t need to have photos berating her reputation online.
But worse than what had happened was that Sabrina had a reaction to Mason’s ridiculous behavior. A small part of her had actually felt a thrill. Sabrina still felt an odd tingle in her nether region when she thought about how Mason scooped her into his arms. He had picked her up as though she weighed no more than a rag doll. His strength was impressive and her attraction to him electric.
After that initial rush, reality had set in, and her embarrassment had taken over. Embarrassment and outrage.
As Sabrina had lain in bed not sleeping, she’d dreamed about what had happened earlier that day. Though her dream had gone in a completely different direction. Once Mason had put her down, he had kissed her senseless.
When Sabrina woke up, she was hardly rested—and it was all Mason’s fault. As she got ready for her day, she thought about how nonroutine her photo shoot with Mason had been. Of all the shoots she had done in her career, his had been the most unusual.
Dressed and ready to work, Sabrina made her way downstairs. Although her studio and office were housed in the lower part of the house, she physically had to exit her apartment upstairs, go down the staircase in order to open her locked office. It was the best of both worlds. One, it was cheaper having her office and studio in the space where she lived. Two, having to physically exit her apartment and go downstairs was akin to getting in a car and heading to the office. Only this way, she didn’t have to deal with the commute.
There was a small kitchen in her office, and she placed a pod of French Vanilla coffee into her instant brewing machine—truly the best invention since the toaster, in her opinion. A short while later, she was heading into her personal office with a steaming cup of java.
Sitting at her desk, she fired up her computer. The Apple computer had a twenty-seven