Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men, #1)(90)

I moaned in delight. “Sold.”

He popped from the bed, looking way too energized for my taste. Once he tugged his clothes on—I know, boo hiss, clothes bad—he grinned and leaned down to kiss me goodbye.

I’m fairly certain he meant it to be a quick peck goodbye, but…I couldn’t help myself. I sank my fingers into his hair—because I was actually allowed to touch it now, squee!—and opened my mouth under his, my teeth nipping at his bottom lip.

Groaning, Mason crawled back onto the bed and pinned me immobile under the covers so he could take over.

His eyes sparkled as he paused kissing me to grin. “So you want to tease, eh?”

It took us another twenty minutes of teasing each other before he finally rolled out of bed again. “Don’t move,” he warned one last time before disappearing from my room. Footsteps, the jingle of keys, and the door closing marked his departure.

I sighed, feeling a little lost without him near.

It was sad, really. I’d had no idea a girl could become so addicted, so completely, and so quickly. With Jeremy—

Oh, why did I keep comparing? There was no comparison. I’d always been a little leery of Jeremy, deep down, as if my soul recognized he was no good. But either Mason had my soul completely fooled, or he was the man for me. I voted for option number two, hands down.

Feeling delicious and pleasantly sore in all the right places, I stretched languidly under the sheets just as a beep came from the nightstand.

I frowned because my cell phone didn’t make that kind of boring tone. With a quick glance to the left, I discovered Mason had left his here. Worried it might be Dawn trying to reach him, I checked the ID.

When I saw the caller was Landlady, my blood ran cold. I should’ve felt guilty for opening her text and reading his private message. But, nah, I totally didn’t.

I have Jeremy Walden’s number dialed into my phone. Need you to come at ten tonight to keep me from pushing send.

With a gasp, I dropped Mason’s phone.

That bitch!

I should’ve known she’d keep trying to use me as bait to blackmail him into sleeping with her. I mean, why didn’t everyone suspect that of their evil, cougar landlady?

White-hot rage smoldered inside me. How dare she? How dare she hurt him like that?

I knew Mason. And every visit he spent in her bedroom damaged him. It stripped away a part of him and transformed him into someone he despised.

Well, that shit stopped now. No one hurt my man and got away with it. Mason wasn’t any woman’s play toy. Not any longer.

He also wasn’t the only one who could sacrifice himself to protect the people he loved.

So, that’s pretty much when I completely lost my mind.

A plan formed in my head, and I just couldn’t shake it away. It would be risky, putting my own safety on the line. It’d be slightly illegal, but heck, I’d always wanted to know what breaking the law felt like.

It might possibly blow up in my face too. But to free Mason of that woman forever, I had to try. And I didn’t experience one iota of regret as I made up my mind.

Putting step one of Operation Save Mason into motion, I pushed reply and typed in “I’ll be there.” After sending “Mason’s” answer, I cleared both her text and my response from his phone completely.

$

By the time Mason returned with both his hands full of lattes, I had dressed and moved to the front room, disregarding his request to stay put. After that text, though, I hadn’t been able to relax or remain naked a second longer.

He knew something was wrong the moment he saw me. His face filled with trepidation. “What happened?”

I didn’t want to lie to him, but I couldn’t tell him the truth, either, or he’d put a stop to my plans before I even started them.

I decided to go with the tactic he’d used on Dawn.

“One of your clients sent you a text message. I read it. Then deleted it.”

See, total truth.

He stared at me a moment before coming toward me. “Good. I’m glad you deleted it.” Sitting beside me, he placed the lattes on the coffee table before turning and taking both my hands. “But I don’t like this look on your face, Reese. Talk to me.”

I shook my head, not sure what to say. I was still too rattled from the message, too rattled from the plans I’d made. Too rattled by everything.

Licking my lips, I tried. “H-how often do you get a text like that?”

He winced and glanced down at our interlaced fingers. “It’ll take a while for the word to get out that I’m done.”

I nodded. “And how much longer after that will it take to convince all your clients that you’re really serious this time?”

I don’t know where these words came from, or why I used such a scathing tone to deliver them. I didn’t want to pick a fight with Mason. I just wanted to gather him close and tell him I’d protect him always.

But the idea of texts pouring into his phone for days and weeks, maybe months, from women wanting sex bothered me. So the words kept spewing from my mouth.

“How long will they continue to slip you their business cards and tell you to call as soon as things between you and me get a little rough? I mean, how closely am I going to have to watch what I say? Because the first time I piss you off, you could just going running back to—”