PRICE OF A KISS (Forbidden Men #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Reese

Two Years, Three Months, and Twelve Days LaterOkay, so maybe I was about to start drooling just the teeny tiniest bit when my cousin bumped her elbow into mine, distracting me from feasting on the hunk of man candy across the quad I might possibly have been—i.e., was totally—undressing with my gaze.

“Girl, don’t even think about it. You couldn’t afford him if you emptied all the money in your piggy bank.”

I blinked, cleared my throat, and murmured, “I’m sorry, what?”

“I said, uh-uh. No way. You can’t afford him.”

Wrinkling my nose, I kept staring because, well, really, how could I stop? He was hotness exemplified. That was my new name for him, actually: Hotness.

“What? Is he, like, for sale or something?” I snickered at my own joke.

Eva patted my knee in a sympathetic gesture. “Yes. Actually, he is.”

My grin slipped. “Huh?”

Seated on one of the benches outside the main building of Waterford County Community College, Eva and I had been sipping on our morning dose of caffeine and sugar, arguing over who was wearing the cutest shoes, when Hotness himself had crossed my line of vision at the very corner of my eye. I’d glanced over to catch the whole picture and yeah…Shoes? What were shoes?

But seriously. He was wickedly beautiful. With the strap of his messenger bag slung diagonally across his chest, he leaned against one of the campus’s many bronzed animal statues as he chatted with a handful of other guys.

Wearing jeans and a simple T-shirt, he shouldn’t have stood out among the pack. But he did. Oh my, he did. His dark, wavy hair called to me—Reese, Reese! Run your fingers through my wild, gorgeous, untamed mane. It did. For real.

So maybe I didn’t have a detailed, up-close-and-personal view of him. I mean, I couldn’t even make out his facial attributes from here—and a striking face was what usually drew me first. But none of that seemed to matter, because I had this gut feeling deep inside that his smile was an absolute heartbreaker.

It was breaking my heart that very second.

There was just something about his aura that screamed sensual, confident, charming beast. It radiated off him in waves as he relaxed in a comfortable, total guy stance, casually draping an arm across the back of a frozen stallion. The boy was a piece of art, and hella more alluring than the chunk of metal currently supporting his weight.

I could not take my eyes off him. “Just tell me he doesn’t stalk and stab his ex-girlfriends.”

“Nope,” Eva assured me. “He doesn’t even have ex-girlfriends. Because he’s a gigolo.”

Oh, yes she did. Out loud. In the middle of a busy campus. Like it was an everyday fact.

I ripped my stare away from Hotness to gape at my cousin, who, sure, sometimes said some crazy-ass s**t. But really, this was up there with the best of her whoppers. “Excuse me?”

Eva smirked. “He sells his body for money.”

As if I needed the dictionary definition for a gigolo. Hello. “What the heck are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Mason Lowe, that guy you keep sexually harassing with your eyes.” She tipped her head in the direction of Hotness still leaning against the bucking horse statue. “You can’t stop staring, I know. He’s stunning, I have to agree. He was two classes ahead of me in high school, and we shared a fourth-hour math class my sophomore year, so yeah, I’ve drooled over him a time or two myself. But trust me, sweetie, he’s not available. Because he’s a frigging gigolo.”

When I did nothing but blink at her because, um, what was I supposed to say to that, Eva insistently added, “I’m serious!”

“You mean figuratively, right?”

“I mean exactly what I said, literally.”

I c****d an eyebrow. “And…you would know this because…?”

“I don’t know. I just…know. Everyone knows. Except the cops, of course. Otherwise, he’d be in jail for illegal prostitution or something. It’s a well-known rumor he works at the Country Club as some kind of cover to set up appointments with his clients, who just happen to be some of the richest, horniest women in the county who pay him boocoos of cash to pleasure them…any way they want. I’m certain some of my mom’s cronies have had him.”

My mouth fell open. I scrutinized her an entire minute before snorting out a laugh and shoving at her shoulder. “Oh, my God. You are such a liar. Jeez, E., you totally had me going for a second.”

“What?” Eva managed to look insulted. “I swear to God, I’m not lying. Do you want to go ask him?” She hooked her arm through mine and tried to stand up, dragging me with her.

Um, yeah. Not going to happen. I’d internally combust from hormone overdose if I went anywhere near Hotness right now. Like getting too close to the sun, he’d probably burn me with one of his deadly testosterone rays. And I so wasn’t wearing enough SPF for that kind of action.

I yanked both our asses back down. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just go up to someone and ask him if he’s a gigolo?” Gah!

Eva responded in typical Eva fashion. She shrugged and tossed her hair. “Why not? I doubt he’d lie about it. It certainly doesn’t seem to be a secret.”

I threw my head back and shouted out a laugh. But, wow. Sometimes Eva was just too much. The things she could think up were, well…they were outlandish. I kind of loved that about her, and yet it also embarrassed the heck out of me. Sadly, I wasn’t quite as outgoing as my vivid counterpart. I was much more prone to moments of horrified blushing than feats of extroverted greatness. I mean, I wasn’t shy by any stretch of the imagination, but I was by no means an Eva Mercer.

As if he sensed I was blushing over him that very second, Hotness—or as Eva had dubbed him, Mason Lowe—glanced in our direction and made eye contact. With me.

I stopped laughing. Stopped smiling. Pretty much stopped breathing. Gawd, but the boy sure knew how to hold a heated stare.

“Lord have mercy,” Eva murmured next to me.

I didn’t respond—couldn’t if I’d wanted to. I was too busy being electrocuted from the inside out. My fingertips sizzled and toes curled as if an invisible, kinetically charged bolt tethered me to the hunk fifty yards away, who seemed to bind us together with his stare alone.

Yes, the chemical current between us was exactly that powerful. I’m not even exaggerating. Okay, maybe a little. But not much.

He broke the connection by shifting his attention to Eva. I gasped from the release as if someone had just ripped a Band-Aid off my soul.

Not that I could really tell, but I swore his eyes narrowed when he focused on my cousin. He sent me another quick dart, which suddenly seemed full of accusation, and swiftly turned back to his group, dismissing us both entirely.

Never before had a mere glance rattled me so deeply.

Blowing out an unsteady breath, I set my hand against my wildly thumping heart. If I had just flatlined and someone had used a defibrillator to bring me back to life, I don’t think I would’ve felt more jolted than I did now. “Whoa.”

“Yeah,” Eva murmured, sounding similarly affected. “I think I need a cigarette.”

I turned to her and blinked. “You don’t smoke.”

She rolled her eyes. “I swear, sometimes, we cannot possibly be related. You weren’t supposed to take that literally, ReeRee. Gah.”

My rational cognition was still too fried for me to think properly, so I merely murmured, “Oh.” Then I shrugged. “Well, my sparkly ballet flats still kick your sandals’ ass.”

“Dream on.” She snorted. “Sandals are so in this season.” And with that, she chomped her gaze back on my piece of man candy.

“Whatever,” I mumbled with a petulant sniff, battling this insane urge to pull her hair and scream that I’d seen him first, or at the very least remind her she had a boyfriend. “Chillax, E. I was just looking anyway. It’s not like I want to get married and set up house with him. I am so not ready for another relationship right now.”

“Whatever,” Eva repeated right back, but in a much nastier tone than I’d used. “I told you he was unattainable.”

Damn, what had crawled into her Wheaties and died? And why did she keep staring at him? Seriously, it pissed me off something crucial, because now I couldn’t sneak another peek. Two girls eye-gushing over the same guy was just plain pathetic.

Oh, hell, it didn’t matter if she wanted to hog all the ogling to herself. I was a little too intimidated to look at him again, anyway. I mean, what if he looked back? I wasn’t sure I could take that kind of shockwave twice in one day.

I assume no one had ever actually overdosed from a lusty glance before, but with Hotness around, I had a bad feeling I’d probably be the first.

So, I focused my attention on my class schedule I’d pulled up on my cell phone two-point-five seconds before becoming intensely aware of Mason Lowe’s existence. Draining the rest of my latte, I looked up the room number for my first class. The heat and steam from the drink burned all the way down, but I kind of welcomed the pain. It kept me distracted from you-know-who.

Gasping out a silent gulp to cool my inflamed esophagus, I blinked back tears. “So…” It took me a few tries before I could add, “You said you had Brit Lit with me, right?”

“Right,” Eva answered. From her breathy reply, I could tell she was still busy staring.

“Well, it starts in…three minutes. Maybe we should get going.” At this point, anything to get her to heel and take her eyes off my hunk would do, even attending Early British Literature.

Spotting a trashcan nearby, I took aim and sank my empty cup, nothing but net, thanks to three years on the high school basketball team. “So let’s do this,” I announced, gathering my backpack and getting ready to stand.

But Eva slid over, slamming her body into mine until she smashed us together, hip to hip. “Wait.” Her voice went hushed and serious as her hand landed on my leg, holding me in place. “He’s coming this way.”

Drawing in a sharp breath, I glanced up. He’d abandoned his bronco statue and was strolling down the sidewalk by himself toward the main entrance of the school. Problem was, the bench Eva and I inhabited sat along the edge of that very path. He was going to walk right by us.

Nothing but ten feet of dead air was going to separate him from me.

Dear Lord in heaven, please deliver me. Could I survive such close proximity? I honestly didn’t know. My chest heaved from the sudden unsteady rhythm of my breathing.

“Watch this,” Eva whispered in my ear.

I glanced at her, hoping to find some kind of direction, for her to tell me what to do. But she didn’t look a bit aware of my approaching panic attack. The girl looked damn mischievous.

I grabbed her wrist. “Oh, God. What’re you going to do?”

Eva merely smiled her infamous Cheshire cat grin as she settled her gaze on the passing hottie. “Good morning, Mason,” she called.

Every muscle in my body tightening, I dug my nails deep into her wrist, warning her to shut it. But her greeting had already captured his attention.

He glanced over, his gaze indifferent. Jerking his chin in that way guys had of greeting someone with their head, he nodded. “Sup?”

I melted, and a dreamy whimper oozed out. But, wow, he had a compelling voice to go with that compelling body. It was deep, yet smooth, and entirely too sinful to belong to someone so pretty. It made me want to close my eyes, and just…liquefy.

“Looking good today,” Eva told him, her tone full of feminine wiles and not-so-hidden invitation. Tipping her face just enough for the sunlight to catch her flawless complexion, she let her beautiful mane of platinum blonde hair spill over her shoulder to bounce down her sizable chest. She couldn’t have said come-and-get-me-big-boy any more flamboyantly than if she’d shrieked it aloud. “What say we skip class this morning and do something…fun instead?”

Mason Lowe snorted out his disinterest at the same moment I gasped, “E.!” I really was going to have to remind her she had a boyfriend, wasn’t I?

At my reprimanding hiss, Hotness zipped his attention to me, and suddenly his expression was no longer unresponsive. His intense gaze burned into me, and yes, I was going to need a whole vat of Aloe Vera to soothe the delicious sting it left behind.

Again, our immediate connection held me prisoner. His heavy stare cemented me into place as if it made every organ in my body weigh a million pounds each. I could do nothing but gape back. Like a punch to the solar plexus, he left me breathless. I sucked in air, seeking oxygen.

He looked even better from ten feet away than he had fifty yards away. Separating himself from his guy-pack hadn’t even diminished his appeal.

And that face. I swear, angels sprouted up around him and began to sing in harmonious worship of that glorious face. Straight nose, prominent brow, über-defined square jaw, dimpled chin. He had every alpha male feature a guy could possibly possess. Even his eyebrows were thick and rugged. There was simply a hallowed kind of masculine perfection about him.

When he tore his gaze away, I felt wrung out and abandoned. I watched him pass by us and stroll all the way to the front door. Then I watched him disappear inside. Licking my parched lips, I turned to my cousin in a daze.

“Okay,” I heard my own voice say, the tone a trifle faint to my ears. “Maybe I could believe women paid him for sex.”

“Hells yeah,” Eva purred. “If I had the cash, I’d definitely do him.”

She sounded a little too invested in her statement, so I nudged my knee into hers, aghast. “What about Alec?”

She gave me an empty stare. “Hmm? Who?”

I lifted one eyebrow. “Your boyfriend.”

“Oh.” Blinking, she seemed to return to herself. With an airy shrug, she pushed to her feet and swung her bag over her shoulder in a fluid, graceful way only a supermodel could accomplish. “Mason is only a pipe dream. Like I said, we could never afford him.”

Something about the way she worded that made me think she’d actually tried. It worried me, but I didn’t question it. Guys were the very last thing I wanted to get tangled in right now. And true gigolo or not, Hotness had sticky mess written all over him. Eva obviously had some kind of prior claim.

For once in my life, I let my curiosity lie dormant. Silently, I trailed Eva toward the front doors of Waterford County Community College and into my new life as Reese Alison Randall.