Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men #1)(77)

“And I love you, period,” I said.

He must’ve known I wasn’t going to take any kind of rejection from him, because he didn’t even attempt to pull away when I slid my mouth to his.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR




Everything transgressed from hug into kiss so seamlessly, I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Mason sank his hands into my hair and held my head steady as his lips worshiped mine. After I shifted my face just enough to align our lips better, he moaned out a needy sound. His mouth wasn’t demanding but begging, and I couldn’t handle letting him beg. So I opened up, and we deepened the moment.

I couldn’t stop kissing him. Our mouths took on the intimate dance of getting to know each other, learning each hidden crevice and sensitive nook. One wet embrace bled into another, until we both had to come up for air. And even then, we held each other, our cheeks pressed firmly together as our hands skated over clothes until they found their way under them.

His chest was sleek and warm, so taut under my fingers. I needed to know every muscle and freckle he had. Catching the bottom of his shirt, I pulled it up. He lifted his arms to help me, and a second later, he was shirtless.

I sucked in a breath, just staring. “You are so…beautiful.”

He reached out and pulled me back to him. “Not nearly as beautiful as you.”

My fingers became addicted to touching him. He felt so good.

Mason pressed his mouth to my closed eyelids, my cheeks, my forehead, my chin. As he began down my neck, I slid my hands around to the base of his spine. Pressing my palms flat against heated flesh, I lowered them, dipping into the back waistband of his jeans.

He sucked in a breath and clutched my face with one palm. His other hand shifted up the inside of my shirt to my bra, and under the cup. Arching against him, I— A ringing from his front pocket startled me into yelping. I tugged my fingers from his pants and jerked back.

Mason’s jaw went tense. He closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. Slowly, he slid his hand out from under my shirt. His gaze flickered up to watch my face as he made sure the backs of his fingers trailed along my abdomen before they left me. Only then did he yank his phone from his pocket. When he looked at the screen, his face drained of color.

I knew it was over then. Whatever farce of a relationship we’d just started had shattered. Because he had a client on the line.

Turning his back to me, Mason pressed the phone to his ear. He didn’t answer, but his caller must’ve known he was on the line because I heard a muted female voice saying something to him. A second later, he spun toward the nearest window and jerked the blinds down, nearly yanking them from the wall in his rush.

“Whatever,” he hissed and disconnected before he flung his phone onto the counter as if it was contaminated. “Damn it.” He kicked the wall and ran his hand through his hair.

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to hear the truth aloud, even though I already knew.

“We had an eavesdropper,” he said, his voice low and barely controlled with a wrath that surprised me.

When he glanced toward the closed window blinds, it struck me.

Oh, God.

I set my hand over my mouth. “Mrs. Garrison?”

He nodded. “Apparently, she didn’t like seeing us kiss.”

Ripping my fingers from my lips, I balled them into a fist. “Then maybe she shouldn’t have watched.”

Mason bent down and snagged up his shirt. “I have to go. I got the royal summons from the wicked bitch herself.” As he yanked the cloth back over his head, making his sexy tousled hair look even sexier, I wilted.

It was hard to believe I’d just had my hands in that hair. And now he was going to let another woman put her hands in it.

Shaking my head, I denied that this moment was happening. “You’re not really going over there, are you?”

“I have to, Reese. She owns this house. She owns my mother, and Sarah, and me. I have to see what she wants.”

Well, that wasn’t hard to guess. The cougar pimp wanted him.

“She may own this house, but she doesn’t own you, or your family. You do not have to go over there.”

“I’m just going to see what she wants. That’s all.” When he glanced at me, his expression turned vulnerable and uncertain. “Will you be here when I get back?”

My mouth fell open. “Are you on crack? Hell, no, I won’t be here! You know what she wants, Mason. She wants you naked in her bed. If she’d wanted anything else, she would’ve told you over the phone, or better yet, she wouldn’t have interrupted our kiss at all.”

From the stubborn look on his face, I knew I hadn’t convinced him to stay. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes. I won’t even go inside her house.”

I turned away. “Fine. Whatever. Go over there. Fuck her. I don’t care. I’m out of here.”

I swiped my purse off the table and marched toward the back door.

“Reese.” He lunged after me and wrapped his arms around me from behind. His chest was so warm, and so Mason, I almost melted on the spot. “Don’t leave like this. Please don’t leave like this. I promise you, I will not sleep with her. I don’t care what she tries to hang over my head. I just want to tell her to leave me alone.”