The Price of Mason (Forbidden Men 10)
Confession #17: I had a bad habit of setting myself up for temptation.
When Reese left through the back door, I followed. I didn’t want to be anywhere else but with her, and besides, a trio of girls who’d gathered at the other end of the hall were eyeing me as they sipped their drinks, and from the expressions on their faces, they thought they owned me. Made me think they were little Patricias in training.
So I fled from them and stuck with Reese.
She looked at me lustfully sometimes, too, but I liked the way she watched me, like I was something awe-inspiring and important, not like something she wanted to train and bend to her will. The way her eyes heated made me feel special. Essential.
When she glanced back at me now, however, her gaze seemed wary and instantly on guard.
“Or…you could just, you know, come with me,” she said slowly, making it clear that my following her made her uncomfortable.
I didn’t want to make her uneasy. That was the very last thing on my agenda. But I also refused to be left alone at this party.
So I made a joke of it. “Hey, you’re not leaving me in there by myself with fifty other Eva Mercers lurking about. I might be molested before you returned.”
“Oh my God,” she groaned, rolling me a dry look over her shoulder. “Drama much?”
I shrugged, letting her decide for herself how accurate I was being.
She sniffed and started up a darkened staircase. “Well, just don’t expect me to jump in front of you like some kind of human shield if any frisky females come flying out of the shadows to ambush you for a freebie.”
With a laugh, I followed her up. “I’ll be sure to toss you in front of me against your will, then.”
“Ha, real funny, smart-ass.” At the landing, we stopped, and I listened to her in front of me, her keys jingling.
I frown
ed, wondering if she did this every night she babysat: stood out here in the pitch-dark night, fumbling with keys.
I was about to ask if there was a light around when she said, “Here we go,” and unlocked the door.
Suddenly realizing I was following her alone, inside the place where she lived, my libido sprang to life. As I stepped into the front room behind her, all I could think about was all the places I could take her in here.
I pictured myself shoving that textbook she had lying open on the coffee table aside so she could sit there, facing me, as I unzipped my jeans. Or I could clearly see us curled up in the blanket that lay wadded on the couch, both of us naked underneath. Or I could heft her up onto the kitchen cabinets among the dirty dishes and step between her spread thighs so I could give her a long, drawn-out kiss as I pushed inside her.
Before I knew it, I was actually walking around the apartment, fantasy after fantasy springing to life inside me. The place was small, quaint, and perfect. Like a love nest.
Nodding, I glanced at her. “Yeah,” I said, “I have to say, you were right. This is pretty awesome. I could live here with no problem.” When I caught sight of an apple sitting in a fruit basket on the table, I grinned. Since me taking her food was our thing, I snagged it and buffed it against the shoulder of my shirt.
Reese sighed and shook her head. “You just couldn’t resist, could you?”
I met her gaze as I took that first slow bite. “What? Resist your forbidden fruit? Hell no.” Then I winked and chewed. “What do you think of them apples?”
She snorted. “I think your pun is corny and pathetic.”
Except she really didn’t at all, and we both knew it.
I laughed and kept eating, trying to temper the desire that was roaring through me. “So, where’s this book?”
“In my room.”
Of course, it was.
She hurried through a side doorway, and because I was a glutton for punishment, I wandered to the entrance.
I knew I shouldn’t go in. I was already knocking at temptation’s door; I was being a complete idiot for even coming here tonight. But hell, I’d already gone this far, and I ached to see her room, the bed she slept on each night, the sheets that touched her skin when she dreamed.
The need was more addictive than I could resist.