The Price of Mason

by Linda Kage

  I snorted and rolled my eyes. “I was freaking distracted and backed into a valet car when I was parking another one. Dinged both of them.” Because I couldn’t look her in the eye as I lied, I dropped my forehead onto the table in front of me and groaned. “I think the only reason my boss didn’t fire me on the spot was because I’m usually a good employee.”

  Add a tally to the truth column.

  Her expression filled with sad compassion. Hugging her own waist, she said, “I’m so sorry.”

  Huh? “For what?” I hadn’t lied to her so she’d end up feeling responsible, anyway. She wasn’t allowed to put this on herself.

  She waved her hand. “You know, for causing your distraction.”

  “You didn’t. I…” I stood up, determined to put her at ease. “My suspension had nothing to do with you.” Another lie. Total lie. “It was all me. You…you’re not to blame for anything. You’re the good part in all of this.”

  Truth. The truths were at least outnumbering the lies, thank God.

  I stepped closer, watching her earnestly, needing her to know that she was the best part of everything.

  “You’re the warm sun that shines when everything else is dark.” Truth, truth, truth. “A smile and a hug in a roomful of disapproval. You’re…” I cringed knowing I shouldn’t touch her even as I pressed my brow to hers. “You’re everything.”

  A tear slipped down her cheek. Then she blurted out a nervous laugh. “I love you, too.”

  Confession #26: Did I mention I could make some terrible decisions?

  I love you was the very last thing I expected to hear…but maybe the very first I wanted to hear.

  Choking on air and trying not to focus on how good those words sounded in my ear, I lifted my face, already shaking my head adamantly. “You… No. You shouldn’t.”

  I wasn’t good for her, not the way she was for me.

  Hell, I had no idea what she saw in me enough to even want to continue being my friend.

  She touched the side of my face, gazing at me with adoration. “But I do.”

  I swallowed and closed my eyes.

  Don’t do it, don’t do it, I silently commanded, right before I leaned in and pressed my mouth to hers.

  An electric current of pure excitement zapped through me as soon as I felt the softness of her lips. Intimidated by the all-consuming experience, I pulled back to check on her and make sure she was okay. Her lashes fluttered open, exposing dazed eyes, clouded with desire, and I lost all my willpower to resist her.

  “Sorry, I can’t stop,” I rasped before sealing our mouths together once more.

  This was my fantasy, coming true, right here: being with Reese, kissing Reese, listening to Reese tell me she loved me. It had to be a dream.

  I deepened the contact, needing more. She wrapped her arms around my waist, pressing her chest against mine, and I stroked my tongue against the roof of her mouth, making her moan.

  I think her knees gave out then because she started to sink lower. But I wasn’t finished—not by a long shot. I hoisted her up, and her legs hooked around my hips. When I tried to hold her up against me by catching her tight ass, I lost my balance, and we both tilted sideways until I staggered into the kitchen cabinets and set her on the counter, where I remained slotted between her thighs and could nudge my aching cock more firmly against her warm core.

  She gasped into my mouth, and I ran my hands down the back of her neck, over her scar, and along her spine.

  Then I cupped her soft breasts as my tongue stroked hers, imagining what it’d be like if all our clothes were gone and I was thrusting deep inside her. I mimicked the action I wanted to perform, and she choked out a surprised sound of need before throwing her head back and cracking it on the cabinets behind us.

  Which somehow jarred me back to reality.

  I was kissing Reese and dry humping her on my mom’s kitchen counters. What the hell was I doing?

  “Shit,” I gasped, breaking away and touching the back of her head where she’d just bumped it, even as I rasped, “We can’t do this.”

  Then I rested my face against her shoulder and panted, trying to regain full control of myself.

  She merely hugged me as if I hadn’t just totally rejected her. Rubbing my back with soothing circles, she said, “If this is going to be the only time I get to touch you, then can you wait at least a minute longer before coming to your senses?”

  I released a shaky laugh. “Okay.”

  For her: anything. I looked into her eyes, and they were so freaking blue and so freaking big. They were too tempting.

  I attacked, surging in for another kiss. Her sweet mouth molded against mine as she cupped my face. Except she hadn’t told me she wanted this, wanted me: a gigolo.

  So for her, I pulled out every ounce of restraint I had left and paused the kiss long enough to mumble, “Okay, we should stop now.” Except my lips brushed past hers again. I ran my fingers up the center of her spine, waiting for her to say yes or no, one way or another. When she didn’t and just let me keep touching her, I groaned. “Reese, we should stop. I need to stop before it’s too late.”

  In answer, she placed kiss after kiss along the length of my throat and murmured, “Why?”

  Fuck, was that her way of saying yes? I wanted it to be, more than anything. But then I remembered what would be best for her.

  With a regretful moan, I cupped her waist one last time and started to tug her off the counter, except her warmth brushed against the front of my jeans, right over my straining zipper, and suddenly my mouth was on her neck, and I was trying to figure out how to get her out of her jeans without pulling away.

  She sucked in a harsh breath, and it broke the spell.

  “Dammit.” I tore myself away, backing off to put about ten feet of space between us.

  Then I turned away to lean my forearms against a wall as I bowed my head.

  “Do you realize what you’re doing to me, Reese?” I rasped, thunking my forehead forward against the wall. “Making me choose like this?” I knew it was better if I stayed away but I just couldn’t seem to manage it. She needed to be the one to decide.

  “I haven’t made you choose anything,” she cried in exasperation, making me glance over to realize she might’ve interpreted my words completely not the way I’d meant them. “Have you ever once heard me ask you to make any kind of decision?” she growled, narrowing her eyes. “I understand completely why you do this. You don’t have to choose.”

  Wait. Did she think I was trying to choose between her and prostitution? That was just crazy.

  “Except I already have,” I tried to explain. “I have declined every offer I’ve gotten lately because the only person I want is you.”

  Her eyes went hopeful and her throat worked as she swallowed. “S-since when?”

  Shit. I couldn’t remember when I’d been in that office with her English professor. But it’d definitely been, “Since the night before we almost kissed in your apartment during Eva’s party,” I said, even though I’m sure it had been longer than that.

  Joy lit up her expression. When she stepped toward me, I knew she was going to kiss me. I freaked, wanting her to be sure, because once she decided to be with me, I wasn’t letting her back out. I was keeping her.

  “It might not last,” I blurted.

  Frowning, she stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean?”

  God, why was I trying to talk her out of it? I didn’t want her to reject me. But I did need her to be certain without a single doubt.

  “I tried getting out a year ago,” I started. “I refused everyone for four months straight. But it didn’t change how people treated me. Then the bills started piling up. Not as bad as they had been before. But it worried me, made me fear that our lives would plummet again. Then one day, this client got so desperate, she offered me double my price to keep me from refusing. So I agreed. And everyone else began to pay that price. Before I knew it, I was all the way back in again.” I shook my h
ead, revealing an ugly truth I didn’t really want her to see, but knowing she needed to anyway. “I want to say I’ll never go back to it, but… I did before.”

  She shook her head as if to reassure me that I wouldn’t do any such thing. But her eyes filled with fear and doubt, the very doubt I needed her not to have.

  “I never should’ve told you how I felt,” I rasped, regretfully. “When I learned he was going to take you out, I should’ve just gritted my teeth and kept my mouth shut. At least we’d still be friends.”

  She glanced away sadly and shrugged. “But then we never would’ve kissed.”

  When she turned back, I smiled softly. “Yeah,” I had to agree. At least I had a memory of how her mouth tasted.

  And now, she’d successfully managed to ruin me for every other woman out there.

  With a sigh, she came to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, resting her cheek on my shoulder. I exhaled and hugged her back, burying my face in her hair. “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever known,” I confessed. “I love your spunk, your crazy thoughts on life, your caring soul.”

  “And I love you…period.”

  Warmth filled me. This time, she kissed me, and I was done with resisting.

  I kissed her back longingly, claiming what she’d just given me. Sinking my hands into her hair, I tilted her chin up how I needed her for the best access, and we both moaned our pleasure when we hit that sweet spot of perfection.

  I couldn’t stop kissing her, she couldn’t seem to stop kissing me. We stroked each other, exploring. Her hair was so silken soft against my fingers, her flesh warm and supple. I could’ve held her all night.

  After she slid her hands up under my shirt and palmed my back muscles, she caught the hem of it so she could tug it off completely. I lifted my arms to assist.

  Once she had me bare-chested, she sucked in a breath, just staring. “You are so…beautiful.”

  I snagged her around the waist, tugging her back to me. “Not nearly as beautiful as you.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes, smoothing her fingers up my sides to investigate the dips between my ribs. It felt heavenly.

  Finally, someone I wanted to touch me was touching me.

  I kissed her closed eyelids, then her cheeks, forehead, and finally her chin, cherishing every sweet inch. As I started down her throat, she skimmed her hands around to the base of my back before slipping her fingers into the waistband of my jeans.

  I cupped her face with one hand as she touched me, my other moving up inside her shirt to her bra. When she arched against me, my phone began to ring from my pocket, making me realize where we were and what time it was.

  My mom could come home at any moment.

  Reese released my ass and guiltily jerked her hands from my pants.

  “Shit,” I hissed, closing my eyes briefly as I slid my fingers out from under her shirt and away from her breasts. I watched her face as the backs of my fingers flitted over her abdomen. When she shuddered, letting me know she enjoyed the sensation, I felt settled enough to see who was calling me.

  When I looked at the screen, however, all warmth drained from me.

  I should’ve ignored it. To this day, I’ll regret taking that call. But I had a bad feeling I needed to know what she had to say, so I turned away from Reese so she couldn’t see my regret as I pressed the phone to my ear and answered without a single greeting.

  Patricia’s command was brief but brutal. “Stop fucking her on your mother’s kitchen cabinets and get over here now, or I will destroy her. That’s a promise, Mason. Her very life could be in danger. Hell, you’re putting your sister’s and your mother’s lives in danger by letting this girl into your home.”

  Hating that she’d been able to see everything that had just happened between Reese and me, I spun to the kitchen window and jerked the blinds down, making them bounce in righteous indignation from how roughly I’d closed them.

  “Whatever,” I growled into the phone before disconnecting and tossing the whole vile piece of plastic onto the counter for daring to deliver such a message to me.

  “Dammit.” After kicking the wall, I ran my hand through my hair. Why couldn’t that fucking woman just go away?

  Though Patricia’s dramatics were worthy of a big eye-roll, a fissure of fear still cracked open inside me. She definitely knew how to pull out the scare tactics, because nothing alarmed me as much as thinking that Reese was actually in some kind of danger. And what the hell did she mean about Reese risking Mom and Sarah’s lives too?

  Reese said nothing, just watched me from knowing eyes.

  “We had an audience,” I finally admitted.

  “Mrs. Garrison?” she guessed.

  I nodded, feeling sick inside. Sick, worthless, and lacking all hope for escape from the things I’d done these last two years. “Apparently, she didn’t like seeing us kiss.”

  Fisting her hands at her sides, Reese narrowed her eyes. “Then maybe she shouldn’t have watched.”

  I grabbed my shirt from the floor where it had fallen. “I have to go,” I explained, hating that she was seeing this, seeing me being controlled by Patricia. “I got the royal summons from the wicked bitch herself.”

  She watched me pull the shirt on and finger-comb my hair before she shook her head and frowned.

  “You’re not really going over there, are you?”

  “I have to,” I growled. Patricia was going to hurt Reese if I didn’t. And she hadn’t been bluffing this time. I could tell by the tone of her voice. But to the girl in front of me, I said, “She owns this house. She owns my mother, and Sarah, and me. I have to see what she wants.”

  What she knew.

  I’d been fooling myself these past few weeks, thinking I could be my own person, that I could talk back to her and deny any power she held over me. That woman had my number; when it came down to it, I would still do anything to protect my loved ones.

  Besides, Riker had just followed through on his threat to me, and he’d nearly gotten me fired from the Country Club. I’d be stupid to ignore this threat from Patricia right after that.

  “She may own this house,” Reese started reasonably, “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.” I wanted to wince as I uncertainly asked, “Will you be here when I get back?”

  She snorted. “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.”

  Yeah, well that was the very last thing Patricia would be getting. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes,” I promised. “I won’t even go inside her house.”

  Shaking her head, obviously not believing a word I said, Reese turned away. “Fine. Whatever. Go over there. Fuck her. I don’t care. I’m out of here.”

  Grabbing her purse off the table, she said nothing else as she stormed toward the back door.

  I panicked. “Reese!” Lunging after her, I wrapped my arms around her from behind, knowing without a doubt that she had nothing to worry about. I’d rather be burned alive than touch Patricia Garrison again.

  “Don’t leave like this,” I choked out. “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.”

  And figure out a way to protect Reese from whatever Patricia had on her.

  But Reese shook her head. “And you could have told her to leave you alone over the phone too.”

  My arms tightened around her, unable to let go. “Reese. Please.”

  Tipping her head forward as if torn, she said, “You might not have charged me a fee, but kissing you is too big of a price for me. I didn’t sign up for this. Now let me go.”

  Fuck. I choked out my denial and then loosened my hold enough that she
could push free with ease. Which she did.

  And then she was gone.

  Yeah, I don't think I want to confess anymore. You can see for yourself what happened next.

  Shaky and uncertain that I was really doing the right thing, I blew out a breath and then inhaled slowly, trying to clear my head. Everything inside me wanted me to chase after Reese. Forget Patricia; I wanted to be with Reese.

  But I had to make sure Reese was safe first.

  I’m not sure how long I took to bolster myself into walking next door, but I finally shook the hesitation and regret from my limbs, left my house, and kept my promise to Reese by remaining outside, just barely easing through the gate that separated my yard from the landlady’s.

  Patricia stood at the back door, waiting on me. When she saw me, she held it open, but I shook my head, refusing to move closer.

  “Can you make this little talk quick?” I growled. “My sister is home alone.”

  Patricia made my skin crawl with the pleasure in her voice as she said, “Well, it looks like you’re already worked up and ready to go, so don’t worry. I doubt it’ll take us long at all.”

  “It’s not going to happen,” I promised. “And do you mind never spying on me again? Your rude, creepy vibe just went through the roof.”

  She fluttered out a non-concerned shrug, her silhouette showing me that she was wearing a silk robe and little else. “I thought you said the little babysitter was just your friend.”

  “And I thought I said it was none of your damn business,” I bit back. “That part’s still true.”

  “Tsk, tsk. There’s no reason to be insolent, Mason.”

  “Jesus, why do you care if I get a girlfriend or not? What do you care if I have sex with every female in Florida? You’re the one who sent me to other women in the first place.”

  “But, darling, sex is not the problem. Everything would’ve been perfectly fine if you’d only screwed her and moved on. It’s you falling in love with her that’s the problem. Because once you fall in love, you’ll want to be all monogamous or some such horseshit. I know you, you will. And judging by the way you look at her, you already have. But I can’t allow it. I can’t allow some silly little twit cheerleader of a girl to play havoc on my extracurricular activities. I’m not finished with you yet.”