Betad by kitchmill. Mistakes are my own.
Preread by Hoodie.
Today is Wed-nes-day, AHS night! Let's celebrate with a chap!
4
The sound of engines revving grew louder the closer we got to the line leading into the fairgrounds. The lights from the campground were blinding. The whole vibe only fed my anxiety.
Catcalls from the men and dirty looks from the women flanked Alice and me as we made our way through the grounds.
Every ounce of my being was telling me to turn tail and run. It wasn't too late. I could go home and catch up with whatever was on Netflix and put an actual shirt on.
But then, there he was. Colorfully contrasting tattoos against a black T-shirt, tattered slim-fit jeans, and leather boots.
I stopped in my tracks. "Oh shit, Alice. I don't think I can do this." I flattened my hand against my stomach. It was going crazy.
"You what?"
I shook my head, working my way backward toward the taco truck we had just passed. "Yeah, I can't do this." Alice followed as I dashed behind it.
"Okay, okay. Focus, Bella. Are you focusing?"
"I'm nauseous."
"Good enough." Alice grabbed my upper arms and made severe eye contact. "Remember what Mike said yesterday?"
I gave her a look. Why was she bringing Mike into this?
"He was talking about the new plays he was working on."
I always zoned out when Mike started talking about his new plays.
"Okay so, we're in the fourth quarter, right?"
My mouth dropped open, the utter confusion letting nothing escape.
"Just hear me out. So, fourth quarter. We're down three points. Or was it four?"
"What?"
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. What matters is we go for it. We don't punt. We don't try for a field goal. We go for it. We go for it or we go home."
"Okay then, let's go home."
Alice briefly shut her eyes in annoyance. "No, Bella. You're not following," she insisted. But I was trying. I really, really was.
"This is your Hail Mary. Your moment to go for it. There is no turning back. You're here. You're dressed. You look amazing."
"Thank you."
Alice took my hands in hers and shook my arms loose.
I let out a long, soothing breath.
It didn't work.
"Since when do you know what a Hail Mary is?" I asked in an attempt to distract myself.
It didn't work either.
Alice shrugged a shoulder. "Claire's been teaching me some things. But enough about football. The point is I know you want him. I know he wants you. And what can be better than that? Two people wanting each other at the same time. No strings. No commitment."
I looked away. Alice followed my line of sight through the taco truck window to where Masen was standing.
"No pain, no fights. Just nice, natural chemistry. Connection like that doesn't happen that often."
She had me there. I'd never experienced anything on this much of an instinctive level. Becoming a mom aside. I could feel the draw to him from all the way over here.
"I think this will be good for you. Let this guy get you out of your head for a little bit. If not for yourself then for this outfit. It'd be a shame if he never saw you in it."
We shared a smile and I minutely chillaxed. A thing Brady told me I needed to do often.
"Okay, okay. I'll do it. I'll go out there. Just do me a favor, would ya?"
"Anything."
"Get me a taco and frozen margarita first?" I hadn't eaten all day and was on the verge of passing out.
"Okay, but I'm not sure if taco meat is the best thing to eat before sticking your tongue down someone's throat."
All I had to do was give Alice a look and she was on it, stepping out from behind the food cart and getting in line.
…
"Do I have anything on my mouth?" I asked after I was done scarfing everything down. Alice took a good look with her phone light.
"No, you're good."
"What about my teeth? Anything in my teeth?"
"No, they're perfect. Nice and pearly white."
I nodded, running my palms over the front of my skirt. A nice, soothing warmth flowed through me. "Okay, I think I'm ready."
"Great. Let's go."
"No, wait." I reached out to grab Alice's arm and stop her. "Do you have any gum? My breath has to be rancid." I tested it in my hand and cringed. "Why did you let me go and eat a taco?"
Alice gave me an incredulous glare then yanked herself from my grip to search through her purse. She pulled out a bottle of liquid breath freshener. I doused my tongue with it and coughed. Shit was strong.
"We ready now?" she asked, tossing the bottle back in her purse.
Taking a deep breath, I straightened my shoulders. "Ready."
My heart beat wildly, my skirt flowing freely in the wind, exposing my freshly tanned leg as Alice and I made our way toward the booth where Masen had been waiting for us in his casual black shirt and jeans.
He was with the same group of guys he'd been with the day before, resting his backside against the front of the booth where we met. He looked so relaxed, so comfortable with himself. It was as if he didn't have an ounce of anxiety in him while I was filled with enough for the both of us.
One of the guys noticed us approaching and tapped Masen on the stomach with the back of his hand.
Masen followed his friend's gaze and straightened the moment he spotted me, his whole body turning my direction.
"Wow, Bella. You look … Wow," he said once I was standing in front of him.
"Yeah?"
He rubbed his chin, taking me in. "Yeah."
I did the same with him. "You, too."
Making brief eye contact, Masen gave me a soft smile that reached his eyes, crinkling the skin at the sides. His gaze dropped back down to my exposed leg then raked back up my body as if he wasn't sure where to look or what to do with it, which was surprising.
A few low laughs resonated from the group. As if waking from a trance, Masen stepped closer, placing his hand at the small of my back when he turned to make introductions.
It was hard to pay attention to names and faces with Masen's hand on me, partially touching the sliver of exposed skin. The warmth from his palm seeped in through my clothing, heating the area beneath my belly button. When he slipped his thumb under the hem of my halter top that heat made its way further south, flooding out from between my thighs and making me squeeze them together.
The sensation nearly made my knees buckle. I hadn't had a welcomed touch like that in so long I'd forgotten what it was like to want someone. How nice it could be. Though, I had never felt anything quite this strong. No man's vicinity had ever made my head swim the way Masen's seemed to do.
"So, are you guys part of a club or something?" Alice asked. "I know Masen here works on planes and the like. Do you guys do the same? Do you all work together?"
The bald guy, Jasper, was the one to answer her. "I'm a part of a local club and Masen here is an honorary member. We grew up together in Chicago. We met up with the rest of these guys when we started driving in for this rodeo. That's been what, eighteen years? Yeah, since we were eighteen. Shit. Where'd the time go?" He huffed a laugh. "Am I right?"
"So right," Alice agreed. "I swear just yesterday Claire was a baby. I mean, she'll always be my baby. But, you know …"
"Claire's your daughter?" Jasper asked.
Alice nodded, beaming with pride. "She is and a handful. She just turned eight." Alice pulled out her phone to show Jasper some pictures. Pretty soon the two were gone in a world of their own, and it was pretty adorable to witness.
"How was your day?" Masen asked, his voice startlingly close. His breath brushed by my ear, lightly vibrating my eardrum.
"Oh, uh, it was good." I nodded. "Productive." Turning my head I came face to face with his smirk.
"Productive, huh? That's an interesting word."
Half of Masen's body was behind me, his hand still at my back. My first instinct was to lean in and snuggle him.
"Yeah, well I volunteer at the local clinic every so often. I put in a few hours today then headed over to the gym. Cleaned the house before getting ready to come out tonight." I shrugged. My life was so boring. He probably thought I was a total snore. "How about you? How was your day? Did you spend it here?"
Our faces remained agonizingly close. My focus flicked from his eyes to his mouth then around the circumference of his face before finding his eyes again.
He seemed to do the same only landing on my lips. Clearing his throat he looked away. "Yeah, the guys and I mostly sat around after we got set up. I don't see them much so it's nice to catch up." I felt him shrug behind me.
"I bet." The side of his neck caught my attention, specifically his carotid artery. It was large and beating rapidly, making me think maybe he did get nervous. And that meant I made him nervous.
Good.
"Are you all staying at the campsite together or do you have your own tent or something?"
His gaze snapped back to mine. A zing shot through my entire body when our eyes met.
His eyes sparkled under the security light. A gleam in there that told me he knew exactly what I was asking.
"We're in the same general area but I have my own tent."
A rogue strand of hair whipped across my face. Masen tucked it behind my shoulder, the pads of his fingers lightly brushing my skin before his arm fell back to his side.
"You hungry?" he asked.
I was. But not for food. My face warmed at the thought.
"I actually ate already but I don't mind if you get something. I could go for something to drink."
"All right." He turned his attention to his friends. "Hey, guys, we're gonna go see what they got to eat around here. We'll just meet you back at camp later. If that's okay with you," Masen added, his hand sliding across my back to curl around my side. A brand new wave of lust washed over me.
"Alice? You okay with us meeting up later?"
Alice waved me off. "Yeah, sure. Go. Have fun. But be safe," she added with a wink.
I shot her a glare, my thoughts going directly to the condom she had me stick in my bra alongside some money and my ID.
Masen grabbed my hand to lead me away from the group, threading our fingers together just before hitting the heavy crowd.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd held a hand that was bigger than my eight-year-old son's. It made me feel like the opposite of a mother. Very free and feminine. Young and reckless but undeniably safe from consequence because at thirty I was too old to make any more stupid mistakes. I'd learned from them all years ago. I knew who I was and what I wanted. And what I wanted was to experience wild, unbridled passion. But cautiously, of course. And only for one night. I wasn't looking for a relationship. Those led to conflict and disappointment and I was done with all that. All I wished for was peace within and around me. And the occasional good fucking. Nothing more.
Extracting me from my thoughts of fucking him, Masen pulled me closer, let go of my hand, and placed his on my hip while he ordered some food for himself and drinks for the both of us.
We walked and talked a little between bites of his tenderloin. Mostly about the craziness we were witnessing and how different our lives looked outside of these fairgrounds.
Once he was done eating his arm made its way around my shoulders. My hand came up to meet his. Our fingers tangled to lock his arm in place across the back of my neck in the most natural way.
Side by side we walked in perfect synch, our movements fluid as we slowly maneuvered the crowd.
Before long everyone around us disappeared into the background, their murmurs muted by his deep voice and contagious laughter. As the night went on I could feel myself getting more comfortable with him. Bolder. In the way I spoke, smiled, laughed, and touched him. We did an awful lot of touching.
The feeling of his body against me and beneath my hands was intoxicating. I could feel myself getting higher and higher off of it. As if his manly pheromones were slowly seeping into my skin over the course of the night.
The more we talked the more I focused on his lips. I wanted to kiss them. I wanted to climb up his body and cling to it as I kissed them. I wanted that more than I'd ever wanted anything in my life. Besides to win the jackpot.
"Is this the first year you've had a booth here?" Masen asked once we stopped at one selling knockoff sunglasses.
We'd talked little about my son so far, which was okay by me. Masen had no kids himself but claimed to like them. He had a slew of nieces and nephews and seemed completely unbothered by the fact I had a kid.
"It's the third, actually," I said, sliding on an oil stained pair of fake Ray-Bans to model.
"So, wait." Masen removed the glasses from my face. "You mean to tell me you've been here three years in a row and I'm only just now meeting you?"
Shyly smiling, I shrugged and snatched the glasses to put them back where I got them.
"Nah. Doesn't seem plausible. I would have noticed you." he said.
"Don't be so sure."
"Oh, I'm sure." Brushing the hair from my shoulder, Masen stepped closer to run his thumb down the side of my neck. Heat rushed outward and up from my stomach as he toyed with the strap of my top.
My first instinct was to ruin the moment by arguing with him. Because no way would he have noticed me when I was sixty pounds heavier. Nobody did. Not ever.
The sound of a guitar filtering through the air stopped me from burdening him with my own personal self-image issues.
Grabbing his hand, I urged him to keep walking instead of talking about lost time.
Who else watches American Horror Story, no matter how bad it gets? What's your favorite season? Mines Murder House, season 1.
