Page 1 of Forever Your Touch

Chapter One

The incessant ringing forced him awake.

“What?” he barked into the phone.

“Wake the hell up, Mason. I need your help.”

Keith Maxwell’s panicked voice broke through Mason Kincaid’s drunken haze like nothing else could. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, ignoring the girl asleep beside him. Checking the clock, he saw it was three in the morning.

“I’m up,” he yawned. “What’s going on?”

“It’s my sister.”

“Which one?” Keith was his best friend, but Mason had only ever met one of his four sisters. He and Keith met their freshman year in college, and they’d been fast friends since.

“Josephine, my baby sister.” Keith took a deep breath and let it out. “She’s gone and moved in with a guy none of us likes.”

Some of the worry went out of him. Girl shit. He should have known.

“Keith, man, girls date guys all the time their families don’t approve of. It happens.”

“She moved to New York, asshole. This guy fucking convinced her to move to New York with him, away from all her family. She doesn’t know anyone there. What if he’s an abuser? We wouldn’t even know.”

Okay, he got why Keith was freaked. His baby sister moved across the country. Hell, if he had a sister, he’d be pissed too. “Okay, calm down, dude. What is it you want me to do?”

“I need for you to be me.” Keith broke off and started talking to someone else. He was probably calling from Mason’s old frat house. Mason could hear the sounds of the party still going on downstairs here at their NYU chapter where he currently was. Friday nights were party nights at Alpha, no matter what state you were in.

What the hell did that mean? For him to be Keith?

“Explain.” He was still too drunk for this shit.

“Jo doesn’t have any family there. I need for you to be me, to be her fill-in brother.”

He did not hear that right.

“Keith, what the hell—”

“Look, Mase, I know it’s a lot to ask, but you’re my best friend. You’re the only person I trust to look out for my sister. You need to watch that bastard she shacked up with, make sure he’s treating her right. You know I’d do the same for you.”

Fucker. Mason growled, knowing Keith would do the same for him. No way in hell was he getting out of this now that Keith pulled the best friend card.

“Fine, asshole. Text me her address, and I’ll go check on her.”

“Not just check on her, Mase. Be there for her. Beme.”

“Fucker, it’s three in the morning, and I’m so drunk I’m seeing two of everything. Call me tomorrow and tell me about this shit.”

“Fine, I’ll call you tomorrow. Sleep it off.”

Fingers curled around his cock, and he turned his head to see the brunette wide awake and ready to play. Sleep would come later. He had business to attend to right now.

He hung up the phone and turned all his attention to the girl with the magical lips.

***

Morning came and went. It was well past noon before Mason kicked the brunette out of his room and went to shower, his head buzzing. Hangovers were rare for him. He’d grown up with five brothers, and they’d taught him how to hold his liquor. He ran a hand through his shaggy, thick black hair as he skirted around people still passed out cold in the hallway. It must have been a wild party. Once he hooked up, the party faded, and he’d continued it in his bedroom.

The party scene was getting old. He loved it when he was a freshman, but the older he got, the less he wanted to get drunk off his ass and behave like an idiot. It was why he’d retired to his room instead of partaking in the festivities going on downstairs.

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