Элла Франк - Exquisite

“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.

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.

“Do not yell at me.” she stated through clenched teeth.

She knew she had to stand her ground right now but it was slightly hard to do with an angry wall of male muscle in front of her and here she was in a shirt, panties and some really ugly slippers.

“You’re lucky I haven’t strangled you yet.”

“Look mister, you barged in here not the other way around.” She took a step back when he took a menacing step forward. He was livid. In all the encounters she’d had with him this was the first time she’d seen his easy going demeanor completely slip. His eyes were cold and they narrowed, as his muscles bulged with every breath he took, looking like he was that much closer to exploding. If she was trying to find a plus side, at least he was still talking to her. He leaned down until he was inches from her face and she could smell alcohol on his breath.

“Are you drunk?” she blurted out.

His jaw clenched and he closed his eyes for a moment, muttering something she couldn’t quite understand, then his eyes opened and glared at her. “No I’m not drunk. Although you sure could drive a man to it.” he paused and just as she was about to say something he held a hand up and placed a long finger against her lips. “Shh. You and I need to lay down some ground rules Lena O’Donnell.”

She arched a brow looking at his finger but he just kept it there while continuing to glare her into the door.

“First. You do not get to run away from me anymore. You get to act like the adult you are and actually confront your issues.” He seemed to notice she wanted to say something but he just shook his head at her. “You hung up on me, so obviously you didn’t have anything to say. So right now you can just listen. I don’t know what I said to piss you off tonight but from the short phone call, your highness granted me, I gather you thought I was trying to tell you that my fantasy woman was running around somewhere on the streets of Chicago and that hurt your feelings.”

Lena opened her mouth trying to say anything in her own defense but he just pushed that finger closer against her lips, almost flattening them.

“Second new rule. You don’t get to hang up on me. It’s rude and extremely annoying. It’s a cowards way out and I know you’re braver than that.”

Her eyes narrowed fractionally and he nodded. “That’s right Lena. I’m onto you and all your little quirks. If we’re going to do this, which is what I thought we were trying to do, you need to let me in. I’m sick of walking on egg shells around you and quite frankly I’m tired of being worried I’ll offend you. So suck it up princess. Easy, relaxed Mason is gone. There’ll be no more, ok Lena you just come back when you’re ready.” he paused, removed his finger and stood straight. “Because guess what? I’m ready now.”

Lena stepped around him heading for the couch when she felt his hand grip her arm and spin her back.

She turned on him and lifted her head. “You going to man handle me all night Langley or is this just the pre show?”

Narrowing his eyes he let her go and she made her way over to the couch. She sat down and watched him move to come and stand in front of her. He was fuming mad. She could see the fury bubbling in those eyes and when he stood there silently she tilted her head up . “Are you just going to stand there all night? Or are you going to sit?”

“I’m not a damn dog Lena!”

Trying hard not to grin at that comment, because she knew he would not appreciate it, she bit the inside of her cheek and scooted forward until her butt was on the edge of the couch. Looking up at him she placed her hands on her thighs and nodded. “I agree with you.”

He widened his stance and put his hands on his hips. Did he not realize she was eye line with his very hard erection and all she wanted to do was touch?

“What did you just say?”

Guiltily raising her eyes she felt the heat on her cheeks. “I said I agree with you.”

“Just like that?”

Finally Lena gave in to the urge that was pushing at her. She reached forward and just when her fingers were about to make contact with the front of his pants he reached out quickly and grabbed her wrist. Her eyes snapped up to his and she saw they were burning down at her.

“I asked you a question. It’s rude not to answer.”

Biting her bottom lip Lena shivered at the slow deep voice that had just made it’s way down between her thighs. She felt him tug her arm and she was forced to stand as he pulled her wrist and she fell against him. Craning her neck back she lowered her eyes and took a deep breath in. She could feel his hand grip tighter around her wrist as her breasts rose against their clasped hands.

“Yes. I agree with you. Just like that.”

He leaned down until his mouth was hovering over hers and their eyes were so close it was almost hard to focus.