Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men 1)

“Okay, I have to know,” I said in a conversational manner as her face flamed red with confusion and anger. “Are those genuine Christian Louboutin shoes or knock-offs? Because I have always wanted to own a genuine Louboutin heel. And I would be pea green with envy if I knew you owned a pair. Are they very comfortable? Not that comfort really matters when your feet are wrapped in a pair of—”

“Are you totally insane? Why…why would you tell him where you are? You should be scared to death of this psycho.”

“Oh, trust me, I am. But insane?” I snorted and waved an unconcerned hand. “What a subjective term. I mean, what one person might consider totally normal—like, I don’t know…forcing her young, unwilling neighbor to have sex with her repeatedly—another person might think is totally repugnant. So, from your point of view, yeah, I probably look pretty much off my rocker right about now for sacrificing my own safety for the sake of saving the man I love from being blackmailed by a sick, vindictive, old spinster.”

Mrs. Garrison’s jaw tensed. “You’re as annoying as you are crazy.”

I pretended to think about it for a moment. “Meh. Maybe. My parents do keep trying to send me to a therapist. For the crazy part, not the annoying one. And I guess I can see where they’re coming from. I mean, being pinned against a wall with a knife to my throat by someone I thought loved me did kind of mess with my head for a while. But, you know what, I’m kind of glad I did email him…oops.”

I covered my mouth and giggled. “I mean, I’m glad you emailed him and told him where I was. I was seriously getting tired of always being afraid, of always glancing over my shoulder and expecting him to be hiding in every shadow.” I let out a refreshed sigh. “I’m glad this is almost over, you know. And hey, if he kills me this time, you’ll catch some of the blame for telling him where I was.”

Vibrating with fury, Mrs. Garrison hissed at me. “Get out of my house.”

I narrowed my eyes. “With pleasure.” Tossing my hair, I slid off her bar stool. “Oh, but one more thing.” I whipped out my hand and slapped her as hard as I could, actually wrenching her face to the side with the force of my blow. “Don’t ever touch Mason again. Or I swear to God, I’ll go even more psycho on your ass.”

Mrs. Garrison straightened and wiped her face just below her nose with a trembling hand. When she came away with blood on her fingers, I gaped. Holy swinging palms, Batman; I’d drawn blood.

Cool.

“I hope Walden kills you slowly,” she snarled, her hazel eyes glowing with hatred.

I grinned pleasantly. “If he does, I’ll make sure to come back as a nasty poltergeist just to brutally haunt you.” Twirling away, I strolled out of her house.

Mrs. Garrison had actually kind of disappointed me. She’d let me go without a fight. Humph. Chicken. I’d been all keyed up to kick some cougar ass, too.

Oh, well, such was life. C'est la vie. Maybe I could beat up the next woman who tried to hurt my man.

I drove home, feeling truly powerful for the first time in too long. As all those women had taken a piece of control away from Mason and made him feel cheap and used, Jeremy had taken away the same thing from me.

Fighting back, standing up for myself, taking control again felt nice. Felt good. Felt like I totally needed to celebrate somehow.

As luck would have it, a familiar Jeep sat parked in my spot when I pulled into the Mercers’ driveway. When I saw the sexy owner of said Jeep sitting on the top step in front of my apartment, waiting for me, I grinned.

Parking my car beside his, I killed the engine and leapt from the driver’s seat, full of smiles.

“Mason,” I squealed as I flew up all fifteen steps. “What’re you doing here?” I crawled right into his lap and wrapped my arms around him. “Oh, my God. You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

Kissing him before he could answer, I took control of his mouth, much the same way I’d just taken control of Mrs. Garrison. I showed them both who was boss. Oh, yes, I did.

Mason didn’t seem to mind as he kissed me back, thrusting with his tongue just as heartily as I was and entwining it with mine. Then, scooping me up by the butt, he cupped both cheeks and stood.

See, I told you he had some impressive muscles.

Not even breaking the kiss, he swung us toward my front door. “I couldn’t stay away,” he managed to explain breathlessly between kisses. “I couldn’t leave things like they were. Jesus, where the hell have you been?”

“I’ll explain later.”

“Mmph.” He seemed fine with that and kicked the door shut behind us as soon as we gained entrance.

We attacked each other. Right there against the door of my apartment.

I think I needed to release some of the adrenaline still thrumming through my system after my one and only stint of B & E as badly as he needed reassurance that I wasn’t still freaked out over the text I’d read earlier.

“Wow,” I said as soon as my tongue would allow me to speak intelligible words again. “I had no idea breaking the law could make a girl so crazy horny.”

I wilted down the surface of the door until I was sitting on the welcome mat, pleasantly dazed by how amazing the evening had turned out.

Mason slumped down beside me. “Do I even want to know what you mean by that?”