Price of a Kiss

by Linda Kage

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t leave.” I clutched him a little tighter. “Don’t make me leave.”

  “Never.” He drew his knuckles down my cheek. “Tell me what to do. I’ll do it. I swear. Just tell me how to make this better.”

  “It’s already done.” I rested against him, limp and defeated. The only thing left to do now was for me to adjust and accept. Since not doing so didn’t seem to be an option without losing him completely, I closed my eyes and burrowed close.

  I had stuck around to help keep him together, but there we were, and he was the one preventing me from falling apart. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

  He tucked his face into my hair and sniffled. “I thought I loved you enough that my feelings could protect you,” he confessed, his voice ragged and hoarse. “I thought I could keep you from being hurt. Damn it, I was so sure I could spit in her face and end it for good. I was so stupid and cocky. And you got hurt because of it.”

  “No.” I smoothed my hand down his arm. “You did protect me. You kept her from contacting Jeremy. You saved me.”

  He sniffed again and kissed my hair. “Come on.” Holding me tight in his arms, he stood and carried me from the bathroom to his bedroom. He laid me in the center of the mattress and pulled out the sheet and blanket from under me before drawing them up to my chest.

  After a quick peck on my forehead, he crawled in beside me.

  We faced each other on the mattress without touching. He hadn’t turned the lamp on, but I could see his face clearly from the light glowing in from the hallway.

  “It wasn’t always so bad,” he murmured. “When I first started, it was kind of cool. I mean, beautiful, rich, fancy women were paying attention to me, stuffing hundred-dollar bills in my clothes. I was getting laid three or four times a week. It gave me a confidence I never had before. But it got old real fast and by the time I realized those woman didn’t respect me—I wasn’t even a person to them—it was too late. I had this reputation, I was their puppet, and I felt stuck.”

  Reaching out with a soft smile, he tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “I can’t regret it, though. If I’d never accepted her offer that afternoon, I wouldn’t have started my clientele at the country club. I never would’ve made enough money to feel like I could go to college. And I never would’ve met you.”

  I sniffed and wiped my face. “I don’t think I’m worth it.”

  He laughed softly, his expression indulgent with tenderness. “Trust me. You’re more than worth it.” With a kiss on my nose, he sighed. “Okay, so I spilled my soul to you. Your turn.”

  I didn’t know what to say. My soul felt empty of stories.

  Mason’s fingers lightly traced the scar on the back of my neck. “Will you tell me about this?”

  With a shudder, I closed my eyes. “She pretty much covered it all. There’s not much left to tell.”

  “I want to hear it anyway. I want to hear it from you.”

  So I told him, and afterward, he pulled me close. “I’ll do whatever I can to keep him from hurting you again.”

  “I know.” It’s what I feared most.

  I rested my cheek on his chest, glad to be with him, and doubly glad he hadn’t called me stupid for allowing Jeremy to manhandle me for so long. I fell asleep wrapped in his arms.

  Dawn woke us when she came home, gasping loudly the moment she saw the babysitter in bed with her son.

  Both Mason and I jerked upright as we sprang awake.

  “Mom,” he said, slapping a hand over his heart, only to fall backward into his pillows and close his eyes. “Jesus, you gave me a heart attack.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she bit out, throwing laser beams my way. “I wasn’t expecting to check on you and find you in bed…with Reese.”

  Mason’s brow burrowed with disbelief. “You still check on me at night?”

  “Yes! I’m your mother, aren’t I? Now, are you going to explain what you’re doing in bed with the babysitter or not?”

  “Oh.” He sat up again and glanced at me. “Jeez, Mom, nothing happened. Look. We still have our clothes on.”

  Dawn lifted one eyebrow, obviously not impressed. I edged a little closer to Mason. He found my hand under the blanket and clutched it hard.

  “Sarah…she had a seizure,” he explained, “and Reese flipped out. She tried calling you first, but I don’t know, maybe she dialed the wrong number. Anyway, she couldn’t reach you, so she called me next. After we put the munchkin to sleep, Reese sort of lost it and started crying. I wasn’t sure what to do to help her. So I made her lie down and talk things through. Then we both fell asleep, and you came home, and that’s where we are now.”

  His mother stared at him for a moment before she glanced at me. “Sarah had a seizure? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine,” Mason assured. “She seemed lucid and alert after it was over. We read some Harry Potter together before she went to bed.”

  Dawn nodded and rubbed her forehead. “Good. Thanks for being here, Reese.” She glanced at me and frowned in concern. “Poor dear, you still look shaken. Your eyes are red and swollen.”

  I glanced down, not sure how to lie as well as Mason had. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and tugged me against his side. “I’m going to drive her home. Her friend called and needed to borrow her car, so she needs a ride.”

  Startled by his quick thinking, I lifted my face. My brain still felt fried and overcooked. But he was so convincing, I almost found myself believing him. He even talked his mom into leaving his room before he crawled out of bed so she wouldn’t know he’d only been wearing boxer briefs under the covers.

  “I can’t believe you just totally lied to her,” I hissed as soon as she was gone.

  He sent me a scowl, telling me to keep my voice down. “I didn’t lie. Sarah really did have an attack and I calmed you down afterward. Just not tonight.”

  I snorted and rolled my eyes but ended up grinning. He grinned back and took my hand, kissing my knuckles.

  For that brief moment, everything felt almost normal.

  Dawn was removing a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator when we passed through the kitchen to the back door. Struck by her everyday behavior as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened tonight, I wanted to hate her for making Mason feel as if he had to sacrifice himself for the past two years. But I stopped myself. If I looked for flaws in everyone I encountered, I’d find them one hundred percent of the time, and I’d always be disappointed. I didn’t want to be disappointed in this woman. She had raised two of my favorite people on earth. She was their mother.

  Instead of glaring, I stepped toward her and pulled her into an impulsive hug. “I just want you to know you have some amazing children.”

  She seemed startled at first, but then she relaxed and hugged me back. “I do, don’t I? And I know they’re both very fond of you too.”

  When we pulled away from each other, Mason was there to take my hand. “I’ll be back in the morning,” he told Dawn before dragging my tripping, surprised self out the back door.

  “Mason! Oh, my God. I can’t believe you just told her that.”

  “What?” When he looked at me, he appeared confused. “I thought you didn’t want me to lie to her.”

  So, I guess he planned on staying all night with me then. My heart jerked with relief because I didn’t want to be apart from him either.

  “But now she’s going to think we’ll be having sex all night.”

  He merely shrugged. “Well…a guy can dream, can’t he?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Once we reached my apartment, Mason held my hand as he walked me up to my door.

  After stroking my hair in the most loving caress, he had me stand just inside the entrance as he checked the entire loft, making sure no psycho stalker ex-boyfriends were lingering about. I treasured the sweetness of his actions.

  When he returned to me and took my hand again to lead me to my room, I followed in giddy exultation.

&
nbsp; We undressed ourselves, facing each other as we stripped down to our underwear. His eyes heated as I pulled my dried tee over my head and my breasts pushed taut against the cups of my bra. I knew he was aroused; he revealed an impressive bulge in his boxer briefs when he pushed his jeans down his legs. But instead of reaching for me, he rotated away and turned down the sheets of my bed.

  “After you.” His gaze was filled with care and devotion. “I swear I will refrain from hogging the mattress and blankets tonight.”

  I paused before climbing in, as relieved as I was disappointed that he didn’t put the moves on me. We deserved a little physical connection. I needed to get close to him and share my body with him in the most intimate, bonding way possible.

  But later. Not tonight.

  Sex wasn’t the main thing he needed from me just now. It wasn’t the main thing I needed from him either. For the time being, we both could do with a little emotional comfort.

  So instead of the horizontal tango, what followed were some of the sweetest, yet most platonic, hours of my life. Mason managed to turn the utter depression I’d begun in his neighbor’s backyard into unreserved bliss.

  He wrapped me in his arms and snuggled with me, talking about trivial things like Harry Potter, and lattes, and college, and spiders, and our futures. We drew on each other’s hands with our fingers and guessed what pictures we’d made. We tried to have a thumb war under the covers…with our toes. Then we lay in tranquil silence, holding hands and listening to our breaths slow until we both fell into a dreamless oblivion.

  I had a lovely, solid rest. When I woke, I didn’t feel as if I’d spent any of last night bawling my eyes out until they’d nearly swollen shut. I felt refreshed and warm as I snuggled into my soul mate, who had kept his promise and hadn’t hogged the mattress or the sheets.

  Rolling around to face him, I watched him slumber next to me. It was like witnessing a miracle. He was beautiful. Inside and out.

  As if sensing my stare, he stirred, his breath catching before he turned his head my way and fluttered his thick, stubby lashes open. A tired smile lit his face, and I seriously can’t even describe how amazing it felt to be the recipient of it.

  “Hey, Sweet Pea,” he rasped.

  If I wasn’t turned on before, I certainly was now. His morning voice put his regular voice to shame, all sleep-clogged and sexy with the perfect amount of huskiness to it.

  “Hey, Hotness,” I returned, my fingers itching to reach out and just…pet him. Giving in to temptation, I asked, “Can I touch you?”

  His lashes closed, resting against the tops of his tanned, sculpted cheeks as his smile grew broad. “You don’t have to ask.”

  I reached out immediately but paused within inches of contact. He must’ve sensed my hesitation because he reopened his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  I swallowed, utterly overwhelmed. “I don’t know where to start.”

  Mason’s gaze warmed. He wrapped strong warm fingers around my wrist and drew my palm forward, leading me where he wanted my hand to follow. When he set it on the center of his chest, right over his heart and pressed my flesh flush to his as if fingerprinting my soul to his, I blinked back gratified tears.

  “Start here. No one’s ever touched me here before.”

  I rubbed a circle on his chest over his heart. It thumped strong and steady under my fingers, so I leaned in and set my lips to the precious spot, sealing the moment with a kiss.

  Remembering a certain hickey from the night before, I glanced over without thinking, only to find all traces of Mrs. Garrison completely gone. His unmarked chest gleamed, sculpted and magnificent like a clean slate. And all mine to touch as I wished.

  Unable to stop grinning, I glanced up and bit my lip before I took the plunge. “Word,” I said.

  His sexy brows lowered with confusion. “What?”

  I chuckled. “I thought you told me to just say the word when I was ready. So…word. Or should I say ‘the word’?”

  Mason sucked in a sharp breath, looking suddenly uncertain. “Reese—”

  He began to sit up, but I nudged him back down. Since my hand was still covering his heart, it didn’t take much effort to apply a little pressure and topple him back onto the mattress.

  “It’s okay, Mason,” I assured him. “I love you, and I want to show you how much. I want you to have that recreational fun you’ve never had. I want to pamper and spoil you as no one ever has before.” Or ever will. “And I want to wash away all their rules and restrictions until you feel free to do whatever you like with me.”

  His eyes darkened with feeling. Lifting his hand, he cupped my face gently. “God, I don’t deserve you.”

  “And yet you have me anyway.” I grinned and moved my touch over him, exploring to my heart’s content, starting at his face with his rough, unshaven jaw and working my way down.

  “So, you’re about to give your first freebie, Mr. Lowe, the amazing gigolo.” Teasing, I slid the tip of my nose along the side of his neck. “Would you like to pause and say a little something to mark the occasion?”

  His expression crackled with heat as he lay passively under me, watching my every move. “Oh, but this isn’t going to be my first freebie.”

  “What?” My stomach dropped into my toes. “But you said—”

  “Shh.” He cut me off by setting his finger over my lips before I could sit upright. With a light, reassuring kiss on my forehead, he kissed my cheek next. Then my jaw…Mmm. My neck. “It’s not going to be a freebie at all. I plan to make you pay. Big time.”

  “Oh, I’m going to pay, am I?” I pulled back as much as he would allow to arch my eyebrows. But the press of his lips against my collarbone made my entire body shudder with hunger. Sensing I might actually like where this was headed, I licked my lips. “I’m getting the girlfriend discount, right?”

  Mason merely shook his head, amusement lacing his chuckle. “Nope. You’re going to owe me more than anyone ever has before.”

  “Really? Hmm. What do you plan to charge?”

  Stealing my bad habit, he wrinkled his nose. “Just your body. Your heart. And all of your soul.”

  I let out a happy sigh and threaded my fingers through his hair. “But I’ve already given you those.”

  His grin was slow and devastating. “Well, there’s my first then. A woman who pre-pays.”

  I giggled. “In that case, sonny, lie back. I’m not done investigating my purchase.”

  He gave me a toothy grin. “Need to check my teeth?”

  I lifted one eyebrow. “Not quite the spot I had in mind.”

  “My armpit?” When he lifted his arm, I threw my head back and laughed.

  “Put your arm down, you dork.” I manually put it down for him, hiding his hairy pits. “Maybe I was talking about your tattoo, huh.”

  I traced my fingers over the words Make Me, stunned I was actually touching it, that he was letting me anywhere near it. Goose bumps sprouted on his abdomen as I ran my fingertip along each letter.

  His smile faded as he glanced at his ink. “I was pissed and feeling defiant after the first time I stopped accepting clients.”

  “I thought as much.” Leaning forward, I kissed the words. His stomach muscles tensed under my lips and his hand petting my hair told me how much he liked the attention.

  After obsessing over his navel, I skipped down his body, moving directly to his feet.

  He sat up, resting his weight on his elbows so he could watch me. An amused crinkle lit up his eyes. “Hey, you missed a spot.”

  I waved him silent. “Don’t worry. I’ll get to your ears, I swear.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not what I was talking about.”

  Glancing at the bulge in his underwear and seeing a wet mark spreading on the cloth, I blanked out for a second, overcome by this urge to climb into his lap and ride him that very second. I could almost feel the thick glide of him entering me already.

  But I didn’t want to do something that would remind
him of anything…nasty. Unsure, I met his gaze. “I just…I thought maybe your…I was worried a couple of overeager clients might’ve touched it more than you wanted, so I didn’t want to…intrude.” I mean, if I had been paying him boocoos of money for it, I’d demand a little playtime with that specific body part too. “I didn’t want to—”

  He tossed his head back and laughed. “Reese. Jesus, you are too cute. I don’t care about them. I just know I want you to touch it. I want your hands on me. Right here.”

  When he skimmed his fingers over the exact spot we were discussing, I caught my breath, forgetting all about who had come before me. But holy tattooed gigolos, seeing Mason touch himself there was freaking hawt.

  “My goodness, Mr. Lowe,” I breathed, trying to control my racing pulse by keeping very, very still. “I think that was just about the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “Then you haven’t seen nothing yet.” With a wink, he wrapped his fingers around himself through the cloth of his underwear. As he pumped slowly, my jaws throbbed from the way my mouth watered. “I ache so bad for you right now, Reese, just thinking about sliding into you has me...” He closed his eyes and gave a full-body shiver as he groaned.

  I think I might’ve had a mini orgasm. Seriously. A shockwave of awareness lit through me so hard and fast, I caught my breath in surprise.

  “Well, we can’t have that.” Before he realized what I was about to do, I grasped his underwear and slid them down his legs, dislodging his hand from his junk, which was a damn shame. But what sprang free, all naked and exposed, left me with a whole new eye-party of astonishment. “Holy Mary, mother of God. That’s definitely the biggest I’ve ever seen.”

  Mason’s eyes narrowed even as his cheeks flushed from the compliment. “Just how many have you seen?”

  “Including you? Two.” Ignoring the suspicious question in his gaze, I returned my attention to his penis. Crouching hesitantly close, I cooed, “Hey there, big fellow. You don’t bite, do you?”

  Mason laughed and groaned at the same time. “Damn it, Reese. Your sense of humor is going to drive me crazy before this day is over.”