Page 3 of Born Reckless

“Mason,” Elena says as she sidles up beside him. “Enjoying the party?”

“You know I wouldn’t have come if it was anyone but Asahai,” the man says, but as his eyes slide back to mine he just kind of… stares. His gaze once more slowly sinks down the length of me before finally coming back to my own. “And now I’m very grateful you’re so pushy.”

Elena’s lips curl in a devious smile, and my insides feel like a lightning storm as the tastiest looking man in the room keeps on staring.

He’s even hotter standing right in front of me than he looked across the room.

“Mason, I want you to meet my best friend, Juliet Doe,” Elena says. And from her tone, I can tell she’s very pleased about how this interaction is going. “Juliet, I want you to meet my brother, Mason.”

And with those words, adrenaline spikes in my blood, and I feel a deep blush rush over my entire body.

“Brother?” I blurt out, and it comes out a little panicked.

Elena’s brother?

And I’m standing here,in front of her, shamelessly checking him out.

“Juliet?” Mason says, his tone slightly surprised. He didn’t know this meeting was happening tonight either. But slowly, a smile pulls on the corners of his mouth. “It’s nice to meet you. My sister talks about you all the time.”

He reaches out a hand, and tentatively, I take it. And sparks fly through my fingertips at the contact, straight to every feminine part of me. “You, too.”

I look over at Elena, and I cannot understand what is going on. She has this nearly manic smile on her face, and I’ve never seen her look so pleased with herself.

“Mason is far too much of a homebody,” Elena says as her gaze shifts to her brother. “He seems all too happy staying in Chicago every moment of his life. This is the first time he’s come with me to New York in years. I knew I had to seize the opportunity and introduce you two.”

Mason smiles, and that very feminine part of me reacts in very positive ways to how confident it is. “Money never sleeps,” he says to Elena. “You know how many hours I’m going to have to put in when we get back just to catch everything up?”

Elena bumps him with her shoulder. “Mason is the CFO of the company.”

And Elena is the CEO. I honestly have no idea what it is she does for work, simply that she’s in business.

“Time to live a little,” she tells him, and then raises an eyebrow as she looks at me. She gives a wink, and then looks around the room. “There’s Asahai. I’m going to go say hello. You two get to know each other.”

She reaches for a glass of red wine the bartender hands to her with miraculous timing. Now that I’m paying attention, there’s an insane number of people in here drinking red wine. It’s either really good wine or really terrible, because it smells kind of weird in here. But just like that, Elena darts through the crowd, looking like a lioness on the hunt.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” I say, my tone confused, and maybe just a little embarrassed. “I have no idea what is going on.”

Mason gives this slightly embarrassed smirk and looks off to the side. “I think my sister is trying to set us up.”

Instantly, my eyes rip back to his. “I thought siblings were supposed to chase you away from their best friends?”

Mason chuckles. “Elena talks about you all the time. Like, it gets annoying. She’s been trying to convince me to let her introduce us for… six months?”

I shake my head. “Seriously? What could she possibly have to say about me? I’m the most boring person ever. I work. I go to school. And that’s about it.”

He smiles again, and goodness, it’s going to be really hard to keep him at arm’s length if he keeps doing that. “Trust me, according to my sister, you’re anything but boring. And come on, you’re a doctor.”

I shake my head and look out over the crowd, seeking out Elena. I find her talking to a very handsome man with black hair and brows, laughing and smiling. Her eyes go straight to me, and she gives me this knowing smile.

“I honestly don’t even know how this works between us, we literally have nothing in common,” I say with the shake of my head. “But I’d die for that woman. She’s the best person I’ve ever met.”

“Funny,” Mason says as he brings his glass to his lips and takes a sip. “She says the same thing about you.”

My eyes slide over to his and with a smile, I finally walk up to the bar. I ask for a water. “So, Mason Godfrey, what makes us the perfect match?”

He chuckles, and it’s kind of annoying how good a smile looks on him. If the god Apollo were to manifest into modern times, he’d look exactly like Mason Godfrey. He shakes his head. “I don’t know. My sister has this idea of a happily ever after for me, but it’s a little hard to maintain a relationship when you work as many hours as I do.”

“So, she wants me chained to a workaholic,” I say, smiling at the glass the bartender sets in front of me.

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