Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men 1)

I tried not to wonder what he was doing every night he worked late, or which woman he was servicing, or how much she made him touch her, or why he kept living that stupid, freaking lifestyle. But it drove me crazy, thinking about it.

Things had changed between us. Our friendship had shattered. And he knew it too; otherwise he wouldn’t have stayed away.

I was so tempted to slip into his bedroom and leave a letter on his bed, just to tell him how much I missed him and how I could still be his friend; we could get past that stupid, almost kiss. I wanted to study with him at lunch again, watch him steal a portion of whatever I was eating, tease him about whatever topic we were discussing, and just…be in his company.

But leaving him a note felt too Jeremy-ish. So I never once even opened the door to his bedroom, not even to peek inside.

And in return, a part of my soul ached on a daily basis. A chunk of me felt missing.

I needed Mason back in my life.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I guess it was bound to happen eventually, but I still wasn’t prepared when it did.

Thirteen days after Eva’s Labor Day party—a.k.a. the night Mason Lowe almost kissed me mouth to mouth and thereafter totally abandoned me—Sarah had her first seizure. Well, her first one around me, anyway.

Yeah, I totally freaked.

One second, I was assisting my little buddy in the bathtub, making her giggle over the corniest knock-knock jokes on the planet. The next she was lurching from her bathing chair, her entire body convulsing. It was a miracle I caught her slippery, wet torso before she took a serious nosedive.

“Sarah?” I screamed. “Oh, God. What’s wrong? What’s wrong, baby?”

She couldn’t answer me. I had to clutch her tight so she didn’t shake right out of my arms. It took me a bit to work through the panic and realize what was happening. But it didn’t reassure me in the least once I did.

A seizure.

But, oh, holy shit. A freaking seizure.

My mind went blank; I couldn’t remember one thing Dawn had told me about seizures except there was nothing to do to stop them. Oh, and I had to make sure she didn’t hurt herself in the middle of one.

Since the bathroom seemed too confined and suddenly hella dangerous, I half carried, half dragged her into the hallway.

Laying her contorted body on the carpet, I knelt beside her and stroked her shoulder once before dashing into the bathroom to grab all the towels I could see.

After covering her, I stepped back and burst into tears. Biting my knuckles to hold in my sobs, I tore down the hall and into the kitchen to scramble for my phone in my purse. I snatched the emergency contact list off the fridge in the next breath.

I was only gone from her for about three seconds, but it felt way too long by the time I returned, falling to my knees at her side.

Almost expecting to see foam spewing from her mouth as if she’d turned rabid, I wiped wet clumps of hair out of her face and clutched my phone with my free hand.

Dawn didn’t answer her cell within four rings—and I swear these were the four longest freaking rings of my life. I think I had about three mini heart attacks between each one.

I couldn’t handle waiting for a fifth, so I disconnected and found the next number in line on the contact list. Mason’s cell phone. My fingers shook so badly and my brain was so overloaded with fear, I knew I had to be punching in the wrong digits, but I continued jabbing until a ring echoed into my ear.

I wiped a buttload of tears off my cheeks and listened to the echoing silence after the first ring. I could count each heartbeat as it pounded in my chest. God, if he was with a client right now, I was going to kill him.

Just as the second ring started, he answered, and I swear, his voice had never sounded so wonderful.

“Mason, I need you; I don’t know what to do.” I rushed out the words, making one long, breathless, run-on sentence. “Sarah’s having a seizure, and I don’t know what to do. She won’t stop shaking, and Dawn’s not answering her phone. I’m so freaked out right now. I don’t know what to do.”

Had I mentioned that I didn’t know what to do?

Mason didn’t answer immediately. After a painfully long pause, he said, “Reese?”

Oh, my God! There was no time for introductions. “Yes!” I screamed in a frustrated, get-with-the-program-already kind of way. “Who the hell do you think it is? Did you hear me? I said your sister’s having a seizure.”

“Yeah, okay. I heard. I think. Just…first of all, calm down.”