Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men, #1)(17)

“Me too,” a couple more people spoke up.

And thus, I had a study group arranged for Tuesday evenings after my library shift. My schedule was filling by the day. If I wasn’t careful, I might actually appear to have a life soon.

Tickled that things were working out for me better in Waterford than I had expected they would, I trooped to the cafeteria next, starved since I’d given my breakfast away to the ungrateful bastard jerk face, who was still more beautiful than any man should be.

After purchasing a fully loaded salad-to-go, I found a deserted table outside and parked myself. I’d just opened the plastic lid to my lunch, my mouth watering for some ripe, green lettuce, when a shadow fell over my food, jarring me alert.

“Wha—” I glanced up, almost expecting to see Jeremy’s leering grin, but gasped when I found Mason Lowe instead, hovering next to my table with his messenger bag once again strapped diagonally across his chest.

“What’d you say that drink you gave me this morning was called again?”

“Umm…” I blinked, unable to stop staring at him standing only three feet away. “Uh, it was a…a white chocolate mocha espresso. Why?”

Yikes, I hope it hadn’t given him the scoots. That might get nasty.

But he made a pleasant humming sound in the back of his throat. “Mmm. It wasn’t bad. Thanks.”

Thanks?

Dizziness swamped me. The appreciative way he spoke sounded so genuine, so…so sexy, my entire body responded.

“Well….” I cleared my throat. Respond, Reese. Freaking say something back to him already. “Yeah.” I swung out my hand as if to sign ‘you’re welcome’. “And…and thank you for, you know, forgiving me for the way I acted last night.”

Okay, he hadn’t quite said, ‘you’re forgiven for the way you acted last night’, but I was going to interpret his presence as just that.

I blew out a relieved-sounding breath. “I thought you totally hated me.”

Yeah, yeah, I said that out loud. I’m a dork. Put it on my epitaph already. Though, honestly, I hadn’t meant to say it; it just kind of projectile vomited from my mouth.

Mason gazed at me with a slight squint. I felt his stare all the way to the tips of my toes. It left my chest tight and my head muzzy. I couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was thinking, but no matter what thoughts flowed through his brain—good or bad—they were definitely intense.

Finally, he glanced away and licked his lips. “No. I don’t…I don’t hate you.”

His voice was low and serious, and damn, he might as well have said ‘I love you’ by the way it affected me. I found breathing was suddenly impossible.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out, which was probably a good thing, because I’m pretty sure anything I would’ve said in that instant would’ve left me eternally mortified.

He shifted on his feet as if he were going to take off. But his eyebrows wrinkled, harboring conflicted thoughts, before he ran a hand through his hair. Never in my life had I wanted to be a hand as much as I wanted to be his hand right then.

“So I talked to Sarah this morning.” He rushed out the words and played with the strap of his bag in a nervous manner.

“Oh, God,” I moaned, squeezing my eyes closed and clutching my head, feeling eternally mortified anyway. “She told you about the makeup, didn’t she? Oh…fudge. Is Dawn pissed? Is she going to fire me? I swear, I removed every inch of it before she went to bed. We even—”

“No. Yes.” He muttered something under his breath and pressed a fist to his forehead as if he was embarrassed about how my rant flustered him.

Heat flooded me. I was unreasonably flattered that I’d actually managed to fluster him at all, and that he was embarrassed about being flustered in front of me.

“Yes,” he finally said, straightening and speaking precisely. “Sarah told me about the makeup. She told me about everything you two did last night. And no, Mom is not going to fire you. She’s probably going to give you a bear hug the next time she sees you. Sarah was absolutely glowing this morning. I’ve…I’ve honestly never seen her so happy. So whatever you think you did to annoy me last night after my shower has been erased tenfold by everything you did for my sister.”

My jaw dropped as I watched him gaze at me with a sincerity that tore open my chest and made my crush for him expand into a wicked, hot mess.

After I cleared my throat, I straightened my spine and tried to calm myself. Resist the hunky gigolo, Reese. Resist!

“And you couldn’t have said anything like this to me earlier this morning because…?” I arched an eyebrow, actually proud of myself for standing firm against his oozing sensuality.

But that’s when it happened.

His face lit up and he grinned.

He grinned.

It was the first real grin I’d ever seen him give. And it was all for me. It fried a couple of my nerve endings. I definitely felt overheated. Might’ve even smelled smoke.

With a carefree shrug, he answered, “You were giving me food…and apologizing. If I had said anything then, you might’ve taken that bear claw back.”

He had a point. I would have. Bear claws were very important to me. Unless he had pulled out that sweet grin this morning. In which case, I probably would’ve sat on his lap and hand fed him the damn doughnut.