I pulled back to look at him. “Really? Tell me about them.”

“It’s nothing major. I found two big engineering companies offering internships and entry-level positions.” His eyes twinkled with enthusiasm, making him even more handsome. “One works mainly with roads and bridges, and the other does it all. Skyscrapers, malls, hospitals, you name it. Of course, I’m hoping to be called for an interview for the first one, but I would be happy with either. Even skyscrapers and hospitals would help me gain experience and build a resume.”

“I know you’ll be called for an interview with both.”

“Your confidence in me is staggering,” he said, lowering his head to mine. He placed a kiss on the right corner of my lips. “I knew coming to Washington would be good for me, but I had no idea it would be this good.”

“I still can’t believe you’re here.”

He kissed the left corner of my lips. “I still can’t believe I found you again.”

I wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him to me, closing my mouth overs his. Without hesitating, he answered and kissed me deeply, his tongue teasing me.

I had suggested we take this slow, but not this slow. If David hadn’t arrived in the apartment that night and interrupted us, Mason and I would have probably ended up in bed, and that was totally fine by me. Better than this growing need inside me and I couldn’t even satiated it. Not here anyway, and by the looks of our schedule, it wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

I glided my hand over his stomach, cursing the fabric of his shirt for being in the way.

My cell phone beeped, bringing sanity back to my mind. I broke the kiss and grabbed my phone.

Tracy: You’re still coming to my Fourth of July party this Friday, right?

I groaned.

“What?” Mason asked, spying my phone.

“It’s Tracy. She wants to know if I’m going to the party. My mother has a party in Richmond, but I think she’ll let me go to Tracy’s.” An idea popped in my mind. “Tracy always wants to go to a club after the party. Where are you working this weekend? I could convince her to go there.”

“I like that idea.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’ll be at the Blue House.”

Me: Only if we go to the Blue House after. I heard it’s a great club.

Reading the text, Mason laughed.

Tracy: Really? I’m up for that!

I looked up at him and smiled. “I guess I’ll see you again on Friday.”

He snaked his arm around my waist. “When you go out with Tracy like that, where do you usually stay?”

“At Liana’s house. I tell my mother I spend the night at Tracy’s though.” When I first started doing that, I was so sure my mother would find out, but she never checked with Tracy or anyone else where I ended up.”

He splayed his fingers on my back and pulled me close. “Hmm, is there any way you could ditch Liana and stay with me?”

A wave of desire burst through as if all I had felt this afternoon had been nothing. I tilted my head up to his. “I could definitely do that.”

Mason

The last two days had been torture and now, working at the bar of this fancy club, I was a freaking bundle of nerves, barely doing my job because I was too distracted, looking for Charlotte everywhere.

Tracy had told her they would come here after the Fourth of July party, but what if Tracy changed her mind? I forgot to ask if Charlotte would show up alone if Tracy gave up. It wouldn’t look good for her, would it? The daughter of the governor showing up alone at a club. The paparazzi would be all over that, creating stories about how she was sneaking or on the hunt.

“Hey, man, can I get two Bud Lights here?” a guy asked from the other side of the counter.

“Sure.” I grabbed the two beers from the fridge, opened them, and put them on the counter before him.

Hoping nobody would ask anything of me for the next thirty seconds, I pulled my phone from my back pocket and shot Charlotte a quick message.

Me: You’re coming, right?

I watched the phone, waiting for a message, until someone asked me for a drink. I ran amok for another thirty minutes, serving drink after drink as if the gates of the club had been opened and allowed in a new horde. Charlotte wouldn’t be among them, though I couldn’t help but look for her. I glanced to the raised VIP area along the walls to my right. She wasn’t there either.

My cell phone vibrated and I cursed under my breath as I prepared a few drinks. When I got rid of those, I ignored a girl asking for a beer and grabbed my phone.

Charlotte: Look to your right.

My head whipped so fast to the right that my neck hurt. There she was—wearing a tight black dress that molded around her curves, not too short, but far from being too long either, just enough to have a guy salivating for her delicious legs. A guy like me—entering a VIP area with Tracy by her side, and that Donnie boy behind her.

Jealousy coiled in my stomach and I gritted my teeth.

Me: What’s that guy doing here?

Charlotte: Tracy invited him.

I didn’t answer right away, mainly because I would type some inappropriate words. I tucked my phone back into my pocket and gave a beer to the girl in front of me.

I went to the back and halted before my manager.

“Can I go up to the VIP bar?”

He glanced through the door, to the bar down here and to the bar up there. There were three bartenders here and only one upstairs and now the VIP area was full.

“Yeah, yeah, go,” he said. “Just pay attention. If things slow down there, I want you back here.”

“Sure,” I said, already walking to the back door.

I raced through the hallway that led to the back entrance to the VIP bar, my jealousy and anxiety fighting for a place in my chest. I stopped behind the closed door and took a deep breath. I had to calm myself. I had to behave in here. Punching Donnie boy wouldn’t help Charlotte or me.

I opened the door and stepped into the bar area with Alan. The bar was a like a long counter corridor that ran the entire back wall of the VIP area, reaching each section. Charlotte was in the center one with three girls and five guys. She stood beside Tracy, watching the dance floor, while Donnie boy was seated on a black leather couch, talking to another two guys.

“Oh, good. I need help here,” Alan said as he prepared a Black Velvet and a Buck’s Fizz.

Tearing my gaze from her, I started on a martini when my cell phone vibrated.

Charlotte: Where are you?

Me: At the bar.

Charlotte: I don’t see you.

Me: Look closer.

She stared at her phone with a frown and I bit back a laugh.

Tracy leaned closer to her and said something in her ear, then whirled in her hooker heels and sauntered to the bar. Still with her frown, Charlotte looked back at Tracy. She was turning to the dance floor again when her eyes met mine. Almost instantly, the frown was gone and a bright smile shone on her beautiful face.

I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hey, can I get a bottle of Dom Perignon Rose and a few flutes, please?” Tracy asked.

I turned half of my attention to her. “Sure.”

I grabbed the expensive champagne bottle and some crystal flutes that only the VIP bar had, and put them on the counter.

“Help me with this,” Tracy said to Charlotte, who now stood by her side. She looked incredible with dark makeup and her long hair brushed back in waves. My body hummed, just thinking that later, she would be in my bed.

“Yup,” Charlotte said, grabbing the flutes while staring at me.

When Tracy headed back to the couches, I pushed the martini to Charlotte.

“You remember,” she said, reaching for the glass.

“Of course I do.”

Her fingers brushed mine as she closed her hand around the stem, and I inhaled a sharp breath, trying to control my thoughts so I wouldn’t sport a hard-on here.