Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men 1)

Calm down? Calm down? Was he mental? This was not a time to calm down.

“You can’t help her if you’re flipping out.”

Shit. His steady, grounding tone trickled past the panic and somehow found the only rational section of my brain. I blew out as calming a breath as I could manage.

“Did you get her out of her wheelchair?” he asked. “Is she lying down?”

I nodded. “Yes. We’re on the floor in the hall. I was giving her a bath when—”

“Good,” he butted in, obviously not needing details. “Keep her there and just stay with her. Talk to her. Let her know she’s not alone. I’ll be home in a minute.”

“Do I call for an ambulance?”

“Is she turning blue or changing any color?”

“No.”

“Not yet, then. This is fairly typical, but I’ll know more when I get there.”

“Okay. Okay.” I clutched the phone gratefully. “Hurry.”

“I will.”

He hung up before I could thank him. And I really, really wanted to thank him for being there and answering my call.

But…later.

Tossing my phone aside, I crawled to Sarah and held her hand, stroking the back of her knuckles where her curled, contorted wrist seemed to wrap around my fingers, begging for help.

“It’s okay, honey,” I cooed. “It’s okay. Reese is here. And Mason’s coming.” Sniffing, I didn’t even wince when I bumped the still tender area around my nose ring when I wiped the back of my hand across my face.

For some reason, I remembered something I’d heard once about epileptic people and how you had to make sure they didn’t swallow their tongue during a seizure. I tried to look into Sarah’s mouth, but her jaw was clamped tight. She didn’t appear to be choking, so I prayed she hadn’t swallowed anything that wasn’t supposed to be swallowed. A trail of drool seeped from the corner of her pressed lips. I wiped it away, figuring no girl would want to be caught drooling, especially if the paramedics who might need to come save her were as sexy as hell.

Then a breath later, she fell still and went catatonic.

“Sarah?”

She didn’t respond. Her eyes were open but they stared sightlessly. My level of scared rose to a whole new level. I checked for a pulse and when I found one, I began to cry even harder. The relief was more than I could handle.

“Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Please be okay, little buddy.”

I didn’t know if unconsciousness was common after a seizure, but I didn’t want to call Mason again; I wanted him to concentrate on the road so he could drive as fast as possible to get here.

Since Sarah was no longer juddering about, I hurri

ed into the bathroom and collected her nightclothes. If I were her, I wouldn’t want everyone to see me in my birthday suit while I was out cold.

With her being wet and unconscious, it took me three times as long as it usually did to dress her. My fumbling fingers, which wouldn’t stop shaking, didn’t help matters. And it was impossible to see clearly through all the tears that kept falling and blurring my vision.

I’d just pulled her shirt on over her head when the front door flew open.

“Reese?”

I wiped my nose with a trembling hand and sniffed. “We’re here.”

Mason appeared in the hallway.

“I was just getting her nightclothes on,” I explained needlessly as I smoothed Sarah’s shirt down her torso. “She passed out. I didn’t know if that was normal.”