Wyne and Chocolate (Citizen Soldier Series Book 2) (13 page)

F
riday evening took forever to make an appearance. Jill had been
busy all week, between work and finding a new car, she’d hardly had time to
think. Yet she did. At times, it had been difficult to concentrate on anything
other than the way Mason had tasted coated in chocolate. The heat in his gaze.
The heat in his body. How he’d taken her on the floor, and in her bed, and how
his gaze had turned to near espresso when she’d had him in her mouth.

Heat
rushing to her cheeks, and other parts south, she drew in a ragged breath,
grateful Teresa had already gone home, leaving Jill at the shop alone until
closing, an hour away. Which was good, since Gwen was on her way to pick up Lea
from the bus station, giving Jill time to get their sweet treats and coffee
chasers ready.

And
think about Mason.

Their
first night together had been beyond memorable.

And it
hadn’t just been due to the chocolate. It was the connection. The way he knew
her body and what it wanted,
needed
before she even knew. The way he’d
put her first, even though he’d been fighting his ability to trust her.

I
don’t abandon.

His
words constantly echoed in her head. She wanted to believe them. God, she wanted
to, but experience had taught her no one, no matter how good their intentions,
could promise such a thing. Including Mason.

It
didn’t stop her from admitting she was falling for the guy. She missed him.
Hadn’t seen him all week. She knew the resort had picked up an unexpected bus
load of vacationers, which kept him busy taking others on adventures. And that
this weekend he had drill, a three day drill as Lea had informed on their Skye
call last night, where the soldiers stayed at the armory from Friday evening to
Sunday afternoon. At least she had a shot of seeing him since the armory was
visible from her shop. And, she hoped maybe he’d stop in on his way home
Sunday.

But she
also knew they’d agreed to take it slow, which meant no calling when she needed
to hear his voice. All right, so she’d picked up the phone, numerous times…a
day…but never placed the call.
Slow. No pressure
. Thank God he’d called
her twice, because she’d been losing the battle with her willpower.

No
driving to the resort after work for no reason in the hopes she’d bump into
him. Although yesterday, when she’d gotten her new car, her three year old
used
car, she’d considered driving to the resort to show him.

But then
common sense had kicked in.

If he’d
wanted to see her that bad, he would’ve jumped in his Jeep after work and
parked in her driveway. He knew where it was, how to get there, how to do a
good many things.

So did
she. Too bad deploying patience wasn’t one of them.

“Here’s
the city girl, and she needs chocolate. Stat,” Gwen said, breezing into the
shop, her smiling sister in tow.

Lea
waved. “Hi, Jill. Yeah, stat.”

“Hey,
you,” she said, returning her friend’s smile as the pretty brunette sat down
and smacked her lips. She set their chocolate treats on the counter, using her
new blend, curious to see the sisters’ reactions, especially Lea’s.

“Where
have you been all my life?” The woman salivated over her plate. “What’s it
called?”

“Chocolate
Overload. It’s similar to a Black Forest cake, but instead of cherries, I
substituted more chocolate, then drizzled the rest over the slice.”

Lea
stared at the dessert. “It looks too beautiful to eat.”

“Well,
if you’re going to have trouble, just slide it my way,” Gwen said. “I have no
issue with decimating that beauty.”

Her
friend moved the plate in the opposite direction, twisting until her shoulder
blocked her sister. “Nope. I think I can manage. You just worry about your own
treat.”

Laughing,
Jill set out their coffees and watched while the sisters took their first bite.
Twin moans of ecstasy echoed through the shop as they made the
O
face.
She took that as a good sign.

“Holy
hell, Jill. Is this a new blend? My God, it’s delicious,” Lea gushed, shoving
another forkful in her mouth. “It’s almost better than sex.” The woman lifted
her head and glanced around. “Don’t tell Ben I said that.”

Gwen
nodded, not bothering to look up from her dish. “I concur. And require more.”

Cutting
another two—bigger—slices, she silently deemed the new blend a
go
on
Lea’s secret gift. “It’s just something I cooked up last weekend.” With the
help of one delicious guardsman. Which they did not need to know. She slid the
plates in front of the woman, then finally settled down to eat her own slice.

Her
mouth watered. Damn, it
was
good. So good. The smooth, creamy, bitter,
sweet, and salty tastes were the perfect blend, and would forever remind her of
Mason.

“What
are you going to name it?” Lea asked, finishing her second slice before
reaching for her coffee.

“I think
you called it right, sis. Better Than Sex,” Gwen replied.

As much
as Jill loved the suggestion, it wasn’t feasible. “Since minors are a big chunk
of my clientele, I’m afraid I have to go with something more PG rated.”

“Party
poopers. Okay,” Gwen said with a sigh. “How about…Better Than Nookie?”

Lea snickered.
“I think sex has to be taken out of it all together, sis.”

“Now
who’s the party pooper?” Gwen grumbled. “Better Than Men?”

Jill
exchanged a look with Lea. Yeah, the former model was holding in some serious
aggression for testosterone carriers.

“How
about if I just call it Better Than and let the customer fill in their own
blank?” she suggested, sinking her fork into her cake.

“Ooh, I
like it,” Lea said, sipping her coffee. “Now, maybe you can fill in the blank
and tell us who you had sex with this week?”

“What?”
She choked on the dessert that hadn’t quite made it down her throat before her
friend hit her with that question. How the hell had she known? Oh, right. Ben.

“Who had
sex? Jill? When?” Gwen sat up and stared at her across the counter. “Damn. You
did
.
You’re flushed and happy…”

“Wearing
a sappy grin. You’ve had sex,” Lea finished. “When did you and Mason finally
get together? I want details now, woman.”

“Mason?
Damn. Yeah. Spill.”

Both
sisters sat with their arms folded across their chests, matching determined
expressions on their face. Shit. She wasn’t getting out of this.

“All
right, fine. Yeah. Mason and I had sex,” she admitted, reaching for her coffee.
“It was just one night, and I haven’t seen him since.”

Lea
frowned. “What do you mean you haven’t seen him since? Define ‘haven’t seen him
since.’”

“We had
sex Sunday.”

“Define
sex,” Gwen interrupted. “What kind?”

Lea
nodded, eagerness lighting her gaze. “Yeah. Wild monkey? Off the wall? My fav,
by the way. Slow and hot and…damn. I have to wait until Sunday before Ben comes
home. He and some of the guys are staying at the armory all weekend after drill
because a few soldiers are traveling too far to go home at night. Sheez, with
all this off the wall sex talk,
I
need him home at night.” Her friend
fanned herself. “But, enough about me. Spill. What kind of sex did you and
Mason have?”

“Great,
incredible, very memorable sex Sunday, then he dropped me off here at work on
Monday morning, and I haven’t seen him since.” Which sucked. She was beginning
to regret her decision not to call him. What if he’d changed his mind about
seeing her? What if he was trying to figure out a way to let her down easy?

“Well,
the resort has been swamped this week,” Gwen offered with a tilt of her head.

She
nodded. “I know.”

“Any
texts or calls?” Lea asked.

“Two
calls.”

Gwen
narrowed her eyes. “Who made them?”

“He
did.”

Both
sisters wore matching grins again.

“What?”
she asked, glancing from one set of knowing blue eyes to the other. “What
difference does it make who called?”

“A huge
one, honey,” Gwen said, and Lea nodded.

The New
Yorker set her coffee down and cocked her head. “Can I ask why you didn’t call
him?”

She
sighed. “God, I wanted to, but…we kind of agreed to take it slow, and I didn’t
want to pressure him.” Maybe she should’ve pressured him…

“Smart
move,” Lea said. “And it seems to have paid off if you had him calling you.
Jill, guys never call girls unless they want to get laid, and from what you
said, you haven’t seen him since the laying.”

“Yeah.”

“Sunday,
you said?” Gwen’s gaze bore into hers. “The same day you made chocolate?”

Lea’s
palm slapped her chest. “Oh my, God. You made chocolate with Mason. He’s the
reason it tastes so good. He was your muse.”

Damn.
She knew better than to fight a losing battle. “He was more than that. Trust
me.”

“Hot
damn.” The brunette blew out a breath. “You ate this delicious stuff off each
other, didn’t you? I want to eat it off of Ben. I am so friggin’ jealous I can
hardly stand it.”

Gwen
pouted. “So am I, and I don’t even want a guy.”

“Yeah,
it was great. But, we haven’t seen each other since. We barely have a thing.”
She lifted her shoulders. “Heck, I don’t even know what we have. It’s—”

The bell
above the door rang as Mason stepped inside wearing his ACUs and a determined
expression with a bit of heat in his gaze. The sisters twisted around to see
who’d walked in then sucked in a breath and glanced back at her. She hardly
paid them any mind, her gaze was glued to the gorgeous man who removed his Army
hat and marched straight for her.

“Hey,
Mason,” Lea said, echoing Gwen’s greeting.

He
nodded to them without stopping and was behind the counter before she could
blink.

“Hi. How
wa—”

Setting
his hat on the counter, he pulled her close and swallowed her words with a
deep, thorough kiss that had her clinging to his shoulders for support.

“Damn.”

“Holy
hell.”

From
somewhere in the stratosphere, Jill heard the sisters, but she was too far gone
to worry about an audience. Mason had one big, warm hand around her back and
the other thrust in her hair holding her close, kissing her like there was no
tomorrow. And he tasted so damn good, all hot and hungry, she was only too
happy to participate.

When
they broke for air, she set her temple near his chin and concentrated on
filling her lungs. And finding her legs. Yeah, she needed them, too. Jeez, with
one kiss, the man stole her breath, what was left of her brain cells, and her
ability to stand. Damn potent.

“I’ve
been thinking about doing that all week,” he said near her ear, his hot, ragged
breathes sending shivers to her toes.

He drew
back and gently brushed her lower lip with his thumb, and it warmed her beyond
measure to know he didn’t care they had an audience.

“Sorry
to kiss and run, but I needed to sneak down here during chow since I’ll be
stuck with a bunch of guys ‘til Sunday.”

“My
pleasure,” she said as the bell rang and Ben walked in, same determined
expression on his face as he strode straight to Lea.

Her
friend turned then squeaked and leapt from the stool straight into her man’s
waiting arms for her own thorough kissing.

Gwen
glanced around the embracing couple to the door. “How come I don’t get a hot
soldier to kiss?”

Jill
chuckled. “You want one? I’m sure there are plenty who’d line up.”

Mason
nodded and pulled a phone from his pocket. “Just say the word. I can have ’em
here in sixty seconds.”

“No
thanks.” The blonde shook her head and turned back to her coffee. “The moment’s
passed. I’m good.”

“I’m not
good, not by a long shot, but we have to go,” Ben said, reluctantly untangling
himself from Lea’s arms. “See ya Sunday.” Backing up toward the door, he
switched his attention to Mason. “Let’s go, bro. We have less than three to hit
the drill floor.”

“I’m
right behind you,” he said, then turned to her. “See you Sunday?”

She smiled.
“Yeah. You can’t miss me. I’ll be at your place…well, Ethan’s…baking cupcakes
with Tyler.”

“Sweet,”
he said, cupping her face and kissing her on the lips. “Stay out of trouble.”

“We’ll
be at her place tonight. What kind of trouble can she get into?” Gwen asked
innocently.

Mason
groaned. “Now I’m worried.” After another quick kiss, he released Jill, nodded
to the sisters then rushed out the door.

She
gripped the counter for support as Lea sank back down on her stool and they
blinked at each other. “Well…that was…”

“Yeah,”
her friend agreed with a sigh.

Gwen
fanned herself as she waved at the displays. “It’s a wonder you two didn’t melt
all the chocolate in here with those kisses from your guys.” 

Your
guys.

She had
a guy? Was Mason technically her guy? Maybe. She liked the thought, except the
part where he would eventually leave.

“Well,
we should check on Dad before we head to your place,” Lea said, rising to her
feet.

Gwen
nodded, slipping into her fur. “Yeah, we’ll see you in about an hour. We’ll stop
by your uncle’s and grab some pizza because, damn, I missed eating pizza the
last ten years.”

“Super.
I haven’t had it in a while,” she said, a stab of guilt piercing her gut for
being too busy to stop by to see her uncle in almost two weeks.

“Okay.
We’ll see you soon.”

It was
just about time to close and get ready to relax with her friends for a night of
junk food and movies. Life was good. She watched the girls leave, then grabbed
the dishes from the counter and carried them to the sink. As she washed the
plates and put them away, she sang with J-Lo on the radio, her heart feeling
lighter than it had in weeks.