“Ultimate fantasy?”
He narrowed his eyes at her, “Sexual or life goal fantasy?”
“Both.” she replied licking the drink from her bottom lip.
“But that’s two questions.”
“So? You asked two this is my payback.”
Laughing he nodded. “Ok life fantasy. Obviously I want the restaurant to be a success, but I also want a partner to share it with. I want success in my life with a wife. I want children and I want to grow old and die happy knowing that I loved someone completely and they loved me back. I want essentially what my parents had.”
He watched Lena taking in his answer then she smiled at him, almost wistfully and he wondered if she even realized he was starting to picture her in the leading role of that fantasy. Before he embarrassed himself and told her he leaned down and rested his elbows on the bar. He looked her right in the eye and said softly, “Sexual fantasy.”
He saw her take a deep breath and watched her chest rise then fall when she let it out again. “There are so many I can think of, but right now my ultimate fantasy is of a beautiful stranger and she’s standing just out of my reach but she’s fully captured my attention. Her presence holds me, almost in a trance. She sees me as well and watches me from where she’s standing. Then she smiles, the most sexy smile, that seems to invite me to come play with her. Knowing it’s driving me crazy, knowing I’m outside looking in watching her but not being able to get to her. Then I watch as she moves away from view but it’s with the unspoken invitation for me to join her, so I do.”
He noticed her pupils had dilated and her breathing was slow as he waited for her to say something.
“Why a stranger? What’s the fascination with watching her from a distance? I’d think a fantasy would be touching and rolling around somewhere, not looking at someone unobtainable. Doesn’t that defeat the sexual aspect?”
He reached out and touched her cheek. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because she seems untouchable but in the end she lets me touch her. As for the stranger part of it all, I think it’s more that she isn’t familiar to me. It’s new. Hot and passionate but so foreign it feels surreal. I can’t explain it.”
Her eyes flicked up to his and she sat back picked up her glass and drained it dry.
Lena had no idea how to respond. She wasn’t sure she even liked his answer. What did he mean, a stranger? Was he referring to her or some random stranger? She would like to think he meant her but if that were the case he must have a bad memory because she sure remembered letting him touch her, several times. So really it came down to, he’d just basically told her something he wanted to do with another woman. The perfect unobtainable woman and that totally pissed her off. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something but honestly she had nothing to say.
“So I guess that makes it my turn?” he stated in a voice so low she had to strain to hear him.
“ I guess it is.”
He stood up and placed his hands on the bar. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” she said shaking her head and looking behind him to the wall where a clock hung. It’d just turned nine and she knew it was incredibly early but suddenly it seemed vital she leave. She couldn’t explain why she was feeling the way she was but she needed out. Right now. Looking up at him she shifted to the side and hopped down off the seat.
She watched a frown pull down on his face as he asked. “What’s going on Lena?”
“Nothing. I just need to get going, it’s been a long week.”
“Sure it has.” he replied drawing out the, sure.
Lena’s eyes snapped up to his and she bit back the bitchy remark she could feel bubbling just under the surface.
“What’s going on here? Why are you running away right now?”
She felt her spine stiffen. “I’m not running away.”
He placed his hands on the bar and leaned over it so they were almost nose to nose. She took a step back.
“Yes you are.” He narrowed his eyes and said so softly she almost didn’t hear him. “Okay. Run away. I’ll let you go, but don’t think I’ll stay gone for long.” and with that parting shot he pushed back from the bar and walked away from her.
By the time Mason got home he was tired and pissed off. The night had not gone the way he’d expected. Actually it had somehow gone horribly wrong. Oh, it’d started off amazing, but then gone to shit real quick. They’d been having fun. Flirty, sexy fun and then it was like a wall had come down and she’d been throwing a whole lot of pissed off tension his way. God the woman was a pain in his ass and so ready to tell him to go to hell he had to watch everything that came out of his mouth. He reached into his kitchen cabinet and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. Pulling it down he poured a glass and made his way over in the dark to the window. He downed it in one gulp then turned grabbing the phone. Looking at the clock he noticed it was just turning 2am. Too bad, he didn’t give a shit. He punched in her number and let it ring. It rang three times then he heard her.
“Hello?”
“What happened tonight? What’d I do?” he demanded louder than he’d planned. There was silence on the other end and then he heard a sigh.
“You didn’t do anything.”
“Don’t jerk me around right now Lena.” he paused taking a deep breath. “I want to know what I did to piss you off.”
“It was just something you said that I over reacted too. That’s all. It was my fault.” she whispered.
He ran a hand up through his hair and gripped his neck. “Did I scare you or something?”
There was a long drawn out silence and then. “No. I wanted to be your fantasy not some stranger.”
And before he could answer, the phone clicked off and she hung up. He stared down at the phone shaking his head. Crazy, infuriating woman, she didn’t even know she already was.
Chapter Eighteen
Around twenty minutes after Lena had hung up the phone she was sitting in the middle of her bed with her back against the headboard. She was an idiot. A huge gigantic idiot and she’d be lucky if Mason ever talked to her again. She’d thrown on an oversized shirt, grabbed some water and made her way back to bed. Not being able to go back to sleep she’d switched on some music and was now currently listening to Coldplay. She was miserable. Once again she’d found herself getting to close, feeling to good and so she’d looked for a flimsy excuse to get mad, grabbed it like a life line and had ended up sitting in bed, miserable and alone. Scooting down a little she suddenly heard loud knocking coming from her front door. Her eyes flew to the clock, the read out showed 2.42am. She lay silently willing it to stop but there was no such luck and she knew exactly who it was going to be. Climbing off the bed she slipped her feet into her slippers and ran a hand down her hair. All the while the pounding continued relentlessly. As she came down the small hall she heard.
“Lena! Open this door! We need to talk.”
Groaning she swung the door open and found herself looking right up into the furious face of Mason Langley. “Are you insane?” she hissed at him.
Not bothering to answer he muscled his way into her house. She turned and demanded. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t just go around screaming the neighborhood down at 2.30 in the morning!”
“For god sake shut the door would you.” he grumbled.
“Oh now you’re concerned?”
“Close the damn door!” he shouted and Lena narrowed her eyes and slowly turned shutting the door and locking it with a definitive click.