Page 40 of Ronen
And those thighs of his were just on display and my eyes refused to look away from them. My mouth watered at their muscled thickness.
How did the man manage to look adorable and ridiculously sexy all at the same time?
My body responded, slick forming at my backside, and my breathing sped up as unbridled need raced through my body.
What the hell?
Yeah, Mason had always been sexy, but I had never had this visceral of a reaction to him before. Especially when I was mad as hell. Which I was right now. He had been deliberately lying about losing my books. What kind of psycho does that?
Concentrate on the books, Ronen. Ignore all the sexy. You can deal with that later. Much later. Or never.
Never seemed like a good time to deal with all the mouth watering sexy Mason brought to the table.
“I’m waiting!” I snapped, tapping my foot against the scuffed hardwood floor that had seen better days.
“I liked you, okay?” Mason said in a rush, like that explained everything, and I stared at him completely gobsmacked.
“What?” I finally whispered, because nothing he said made any sense, and even after staring at him for a full minute, I still couldn’t make sense of it.
He shrugged, “I liked you. I thought–think–that you’re…beautiful, okay?”
I blinked at him. Blinked some more. Opened my mouth then shut it.
“You think I’m beautiful, so you lied about losing books?”
“When you say it like that it sounds dumb.” His lower lip stuck out a tiny bit, and I did a double take, because surely Mason wasn’t…pouting?
Tilting my head at him, I gave him a look that said that it was exactly how it sounded.
“You wouldn’t talk to me,” he puffed a breath out, while he stared at his ankle in the black boot with the velcro straps. “I tried to get you to talk to me. I would ask how your day was, even ask about books, just to hear your voice. To start a conversation. And you shut me down every single time. All buttoned up and professional. You used as few words as you could to get me to move along with my day, while looking at me like I was scum beneath your shoe. And then I forgot to return a book, and you said more than two words to me. Granted, you weren’t happy with me, and your eyes were flashing with green fire that you were trying hard not to unleash, and I was just…” he fumbled for a word to describe what I had made him feel that day. While all I could do was stare at him, wide-eyed, my chest heaving. “You were stunning, Ronen, and I wanted to see more of that side of you. Wanted to hear you say more words to me, even if you were chewing me out in the nicest way possible. The way you would roll your eyes, and your chest would puff out, and you would tap your foot, was hot as hell, okay? Just like you’re doing now.”
I willed my foot to stop tapping. It didn’t listen.
Mason gave me a small smile, “I realized if I lost books, I would get to see that side of you. It would force you to talk to me.”
“You kept telling me you lost books, and paying for them? So, I would talk to you?” I wasn’t touching the rest of it. Not right now. Though a small part deep inside preened at the idea that he found my anger a turn on. “It wasn’t like we had any meaningful conversations, Mason.”
“I didn’t say it made sense,” he sighed, pulling at the hem of his shorts, bringing my eyes right back to the area I did not want to look at.
Fanning a hand in front of my face, I unzipped my jacket with my other hand. “Why is it so hot in here?”
Mason frowned at me. “It’s really not. I tend to run hot, so I keep the thermostat dialed back. Most people find it too cold for their liking. Are you alright?”
“No, I’m not alright,” I snapped. “I’m burning up because your thermostat is set on the ninth degree of hell, and I found out you were lying and stealing my books! Nothing about that isalright!”
“Technically they aren’tyourbooks, Ronen,” Mason snapped back. “And I paid for all of them, so now they’re mine.”
“Ugh!” I yelled, “You are the most infuriating alpha I have ever met! I came here to see how you were, but I can see you’re fine.”
He waved a hand towards his foot. “It will heal in a few days. So, we’re just not going to talk about what happened? Typical.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded, hands on my hips. “Besides, nothing happened.”
Mason gave a short laugh that said he couldn’t believe the audacity of me. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. When we touched.”
“You were high as a kite from whatever they gave you,” I was going with deny, deny, deny all the way. “You must have hallucinated it.”
“Itbeing the fact that we are fated mates,” he crossed his arms over his chest, pulling the shirt tight across his pecs. Were those his nipples I could see outlined beneath the material. Goddess, I needed to focus on something that wasn’t Mason. “You’re something, you know that?”
