Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men 1)

Dang it, how could I forget about Sarah? I had to be the worst babysitter ever.

Five minutes later, I skidded my car to a sloppy halt in front of the Arnosta house. Jittery adrenaline roared through my veins.

I jumped into the birthday festivities with both feet.

“I’m so sorry I’m late.” Breathless, I blew through the front door without knocking. “I lost track of time while I was writing a paper for school. I know…” I paused to grin and pose in a jaunty kind of position, because the tension in the air almost choked me as soon as I entered. “I’m a total geek that way.”

Then I turned toward the three young girls I didn’t recognize. They hovered in a pack together on the opposite side of the room from Sarah. “Hi, I’m Reese,” I told them, striding forward to shake their hands. “I’m Sarah’s evening sitter.”

Brittany, Leann, and Sorcha introduced themselves, giving me stiff smiles and casting uncomfortable glances at Mason and Sarah, who were crowded together by the loveseat.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you guys. I’m sure we’re going to have a blast today. Sarah is always the life of the party. Which reminds me, I need to give the birthday girl a huge hug, like right now.”

I hopped over to Sarah and leaned down to enfold her into my arms before I waved her gift in front of her, letting her hear the items inside rattle. “I think you’re going to love it.” I set it among the pile of other gifts on the coffee table.

Sarah looked absolutely miserable. I swear tears were gathering in her eyes, and the anger oozing off Mason kind of shocked me. He wouldn’t stop glaring at Sarah’s classmates.

I rubbed my hands together. “So…where’s Dawn?”

Mason sliced his scowl to me. Through gritted teeth, he hissed, “She’s in the kitchen, setting out the food.”

“Great.” Ignoring his nasty mood, I forced a huge smile. “I’m starving. Let’s help her.” Hooking my arm through his, I dragged him to his feet and patted Sarah’s shoulder as I passed. “We’ll be right back, little buddy.” As soon as I had Mason in the hallway, I hissed, “What the hell did I miss?”

“Brilliant idea to invite the classmates,” he muttered. “They’ve been ignoring her the whole time and won’t even stand on the same side of the room as her.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, what did you expect, with you hovering over her like a pissed off guard dog? I swear, you were foaming at the mouth as you stared at those poor little girls. I’m surprised they haven’t run screaming from the house yet.”

“Poor little girls, my ass. We invited every brat in her class, and only three of them showed up, the three who openly confessed they were only here because their parents forced them to come. Sarah is crushed.”

Our conversation abruptly halted when we entered the kitchen to find Dawn rushing around frantically, taking ice cream out of the freezer and setting it by a bowl with no punch in it.

“Hey, Dawn,” I greeted. “You look a little harried. Why don’t you go visit with the guests? Mason and I can take care of this.”

“Oh, Reese, you’re a saint. Thank you.” Dawn sent me an exhausted, yet relieved, smile—something her son had yet to do. “I’ve been scrambling all morning to get this party ready. It’ll be nice to get off my feet for a bit.”

As she left the kitchen, Mason muttered, “Thanks for volunteering me.”

“What?” I asked, shocked by his bitterness…towards me. I mean, hello, I’d just walked in the freaking door. “What did I do?”

“Where were you?”

“I told you; I was at home, writing a paper.” Yeah, yeah, that was a total lie. I’d finished that paper last night before my mother had called. But I couldn’t tell him about Eva. She hadn’t even told Alec or her parents yet.

Finding the punch mix sitting in a pitcher in the fridge, I grabbed it to pour it into the bowl as I rattled on. “It’s actually a pretty interesting subject for my Brit Lit class. We had to read Chaucer in Middle English, which totally sucked monkey butt, and then translate it into today’s English. But let me tell you, The Canterbury Tales is not just some sweet, innocent fairytale. I mean, I’m still pissed the rapist ended up in a happily ever after romance, but—”

“I don’t care about your paper, okay.” Mason threw his hands into the air. “My sister is about to cry in there. I wanted this to be the best birthday ever…but she hates it.”

My mouth dropped open. “Oh, my God. Is it your time of the month, or what? I said I was sorry. I honestly lost track of time. And it will be the best birthday party ever. I swear. We just need to get past that first stage of awkwardness and everything will be fine. Trust me.”

Running his hands through his hair, Mason watched me begin to cut the cake. Since it didn’t have any cool design on it, or even an awesome slogan like Happy Birthday, Sarah, I assumed it was safe to cut.

“I’m sorry,” he immediately relented, clutching the back of the kitchen chair and bending forward to blow out a breath. “It’s just…After that thing with Eva this morning, I wasn’t su

re if you were going to come. Then you were late, and I thought—”

“Hey.” I paused after sinking my knife into a thick layer of frosting. Keeping my voice gentle, I set the knife aside and reached for his hand, forcing him to look at me. “Don’t worry about Eva, okay? We talked. She isn’t going to go to the police. I swear to you, you don’t have to worry about her.”

His eyes were still slightly bloodshot from his night of gin. They penetrated me with meaning as he squeezed my fingers. “That wasn’t the part I was worried about.”