Jenna was outraged. She’d fought incessantly with her mother over the issue, to no avail. With tight lips, Joann Mathews made it perfectly clear if Jenna wanted to remain in the family fold and attend the college of her choice, she would shut her mouth and let bygones be bygones.
In retrospect Jenna wished she’d have told the woman to go fuck herself and left with Mariel and David. However, that wouldn’t have gotten her where she was today.
Instead Jenna played the game for five years, finishing high school and then college, all the while seething inside about the injustice of her mother.
She considered her father, Patrick, to be a browbeaten man who didn’t have a spine of his own. He didn’t say much, and Jenna often caught him with one brow lifted at his wife’s decisions, but he let the woman rule like a true matriarch.
Jenna let her head fall back on the couch and groaned. Why was she pondering all this shit from the past when she had far more pressing issues to deal with in the present? Starting with sleep. She needed rest before she had to work all day tomorrow.
Owning her own flower shop had been challenging, and she’d barely scraped by for years. But it was her dream. As much as her mother tutted about the absurdity of her daughter working, Jenna was determined to prove her mother wrong.
She could and most certainly would make a life for herself. She didn’t need her family’s wealth and had no interest in participating in the farce that was their lives.
Her only regret along that line was she also had no relationship with her only sibling. Jean was two years younger, and at twenty-four, still lived at home. Jenna hadn’t seen her in two years. She hated the loss but wasn’t sure how to breach the gap.
She hauled herself off the couch and padded to her bedroom, pulling her camisole over her head as she walked. When she reached the bed and saw her shorts and tank top lying tossed on the covers, she smiled.
Mason. For all his oddities, he was a much better subject to ponder than her family.
Jenna stripped naked, used the bathroom, and then slid between the sheets. She never slept naked, but her skin was so hot and over-sensitized tonight she couldn’t contemplate putting on a T-shirt.
She closed her eyes, but the top sheet rubbed against her nipples, seeming to abrade them into tight points as though the sheet were made of sandpaper instead of cotton.
What the hell world had she slipped into? Now she couldn’t sleep because she was so horny, she was on fire. She’d never been horny—with the exception of the two times she’d been out with Mason before tonight. At least not so aroused she couldn’t concentrate.
She crossed her hands under her breasts and tried to tent the sheet to get it off her nipples, but instead found herself stroking her fingers over her skin until goose bumps rose. She moaned and squirmed against the mattress, lifting her knees and digging her heels into the bed.
Maybe she should have let Mason bring her home. No. Bad idea.
The way the man looked at her, eyes smoldering with desire, made her panties wet. Hell, tonight she hadn’t even worn a thong. She’d been bare under her jeans, and her pussy rubbed against the denim all evening, driving her insane.
There wasn’t anything Mason could do to her right now she couldn’t do to herself.
Sure. Go ahead and tell yourself that.
Picturing the last time she’d been with Mason and imitating his movements, Jenna pinched her nipples and tugged on the distended tips. Her mouth fell open, and her head tipped back as she thought of his hands roaming over her body, his mouth licking and nipping at her breasts, his cock—the one she’d never seen—straining toward her entrance.
Jenna smoothed her hands down her body and spread her legs farther. She flicked a finger over her clit first, intentionally going where she knew Mason wouldn’t have gone. The man liked to torment her. She felt a sense of naughtiness at her brazen intent to bring herself to fulfillment fast and now.
She could picture him shaking his head at her as she stroked her clit over and over, uncaring that she was going to come without delay. She was alone, after all. She didn’t have to do things his way.
In minutes, she tipped over the edge, a deep sound coming from her throat as she arched her hips off the bed and pulsed around her finger. She hadn’t even reached inside her pussy. All this reaction was from her clit.
As she settled back against the mattress, she sighed. Girl, you’re in a heap of trouble.
Chapter Nine
At five o’clock Saturday afternoon, Katy pounced into Ribbons and Bows, a grin spread across her face. “How’s it going?”
Jenna smiled at her from behind the register. “Busy. But I’m glad. Kept my mind occupied.” There were no customers in the shop at the time, and Jenna was enjoying a moment of reprieve from the bustle. Both her employees were out making deliveries.