7. MASON
MASON
I hadn’t noticed how much the woman in front of me resembled my sister’s broken spirit when I first saw her, but the pain in her eyes was hard to dismiss. I hadn’t missed the way Bailee had referred to herself as 'nobody’ and the way her family had seemingly ignored her during our first meeting.
I settled beside her, leaning against the counter as I placed a comforting hand on her thigh, waiting for her to speak her truths. I didn’t even know why I was pushing her to unravel. It probably had something to do with my savior complex, my need to heal, to help… it wasn’t something I was proud of. But I needed to know that when I walked out of here, I had done something to help this broken woman.
“It’s everything,” Bailee whispered. She quickly ran through a host of scenes that had happened in the past few weeks, tears spewing down her cheeks as she stared at the bottle of whiskey beside us. She was already beginning to wobble a bit, and I knew that a few more swigs would only drown out her feelings for the evening. “I’ve screwed up. A lot. I break down. I’m broken. And they just… don’t know what to do with me anymore.”
“Baby girl,” I shifted off to the counter, pressing a gentle hand to the inside of one of her thighs. Bailee opened almost immediately as I settled between her legs and cradled her face in my hands so that our eyes met. Her eyes were glassy with unsung tears and my brain short circuited for a moment as I tried to remember why I had started this fucking conversation, to begin with. “You’re not broken. You just need a little help.”
“Are you offering?” Bailee asked softly, the pout settling on her lips almost too much to resist.
“I wish I could but a week isn’t a lot of time to do much at all.” Wish I could what exactly? I wasn’t a therapist. I was a goddamn realtor with a job working for rich assholes. There was little I could provide this beautiful woman other than broken promises.
A cute sigh left her mouth as her gaze dropped to my lips. “How about a kiss then?”
I chuckled, unashamed that the pressure in my pants became just a little too much to bear. “Will that help fix things?” One of my hands slipped to the back of her neck, the other to her waist as I pulled her flush against my chest, relishing the way her breasts pressed into me and her thighs squeezed my hips.
“Won’t know until after.”
All of this was a fucking bad idea, but I let my dick override my brain. Just this once. Our lips crashed together in a hungry embrace as I sank into her sweet taste. What was supposed to be a short kiss turned into me cradling her against me, her thighs wrapped around my hips, and her hands fisted into my shirt as she demanded more.
I had never done something so unprofessional in my life. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that broken up about it.