Page 25 of Forbidden Cravings

When I emerged from my room, I found Riley munching on pretzels in the kitchen.

“Don’t they have a television?” I asked, spying the bagels Mason had gotten for me. I tried hiding my smile because they were from a local bakery he and Tyson would take us to when we were kids. He’d always teased me about my love for their bagels, and it surprised me that he’d remembered such a trivial thing.

“There’s one in the basement. That’s where they have the movie screen set up and the fun stuff. This is just for show, so they look mature.”

I glanced at her, seeing the knowing smile she gave me when I picked out a bagel.

“Look mature? Your brother is the second most deadly boss in this province and my brother is just as feared. The only one who outdoes them is your old man.”

Scoffing, she said, “My old man?”

I stuck my tongue out at her before sipping on some water and waiting to see how my stomach would handle it. I was so dehydrated that I wanted to gulp it down, but I didn’t want a repeat of the previous night.

Bagel in hand, I wandered out of the kitchen on a hunt for the television. “Come spend the day doing nothing with me,” I called to her as I searched. “It’s my last day here.”

“I would, but Mason sent Breck to pick me up. He wants to take me shooting.”

I stopped in my tracks. “You with a gun is a bad scenario, Ri. You’re likely to shoot Mason before I can get him in my pants.”

“Eww, dammit Casey. Stop putting those images in my head. I don’t care what you do with my brother, but I don’t want to know about it.”

I wandered back to the kitchen. “Fine. Where the fuck is the basement?”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s a nice mouth you’ve got on you.”

“That’s what he said,” I added, laughing at my joke.

Her snort was loud, and she burst out laughing with me. We’d always been silly, and I missed hanging out with Riley. It didn’t matter how much time passed between our visits, we were always the same when we were together. Just two goofy friends, oblivious of the dangerous world our brothers sheltered us in, me ignoring it and her unaware of it until now.

I talkedRiley into hanging out with me until Breck found us and hauled her away to wherever Mason was waiting for her. The rest of the day, I curled on the leather sofa watching movies.

Riley hadn’t lied. The basement reflected the relaxed side of Mason and my brother when they weren’t playing the parts of dangerous gangsters. Video games and pinball machines lined one wall at the far end of the massive room. A pool table sat in the middle. There was a bar against the other wall, a full range of alcohol, and even a stocked fridge. The other half of the basement was a movie theater, complete with reclining leather seats and a long leather sofa in the front. I tried not to think of either of them getting busy with women on the sofa I was now comfortably occupying. A streak of jealousy stung me when I thought of Mason on it, my mind envisioning a scene a little too vividly until I shooed it away.

Neither of us was innocent, and it wasn’t like we were together. I couldn’t even get him to fuck me, let alone anything more serious.

I was mid-movie, lost in the fantasy world on the screen, when Mason picked up my legs and sat on the couch next to me, laying my legs over his lap. I peeked over at him.

“I’m covered in blankets, my body hidden below layers of clothes, and now you decide to touch me?”

He gave me a coy grin that sent a torrent of flutters through my belly. “I told you, you’re too easy. I like a challenge, Case.”

“And the sloppy, unkempt looking girl with no makeup and an ‘I’ve been vomiting’ pallor is a challenge?”

He shrugged. “It’s cute.”

I flopped my head back, realizing I didn’t even have my hair down. I’d thrown it up in a messy ponytail, which had since started loosening so that curls lay in chaos around my face.

“Did you eat?” he asked, rubbing my ankles beneath the blanket.

“Just the bagel this morning.” I peered back over at him. “Thank you, by the way.”

“For what?”

“For everything.”

“It was nothing. I would have beaten the shit out of them if they’d touched Riley, too.”

“And the bagels?”

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