Page 6 of Cherished By the Sinners

The Japanese guest looked from her to Mason and back.“I see.”

Mason broke eye contact with her to glare at the guest.“Do you?”he asked, his voice clearly saying he didn’t believe it.

The guest looked between them again, then a hint of a smile lit up his gaze.“Yes, I think I do.If you don’t mind, I would like to provide a small note of feedback regarding the young lady’s work.”

Mason didn’t say anything, but she had to use more and more strength to keep his hand where it was.

The guest seemed to take this as permission, and gave her a nod of his head.“Your housekeeper is kind and works with great diligence.No harm will come to her from any of us.”

Mason didn’t say anything for several seconds, then, finally, he growled out, “During your stay?”

“Anywhere, at any time.”

The tension in Mason’s body ratcheted up another level.If this kept up, she was going to have to use her body weight to keep him from stabbing the guest.

“Why?”Mason asked.

“As I said, she is kind and...joyful.Happiness is sometimes difficult to find in the world today.It should be protected and allowed to flourish.”

Mason remained silent for another moment, then said, “Agreed.”He relaxed his shoulders, arm, and hand.

The Japanese guest bowed to Mason and walked back to the doorway to his suite.

Once the guest was out of sight, Darlene let go of Mason’s wrist and he did something that made the knife disappear.

How had he done that?

Never mind, she didn’t have time to figure out his magic trick.“I have to finish cleaning the suite,” she said to Mason.“If you will excuse me?”

Mason turned to face her again.“Why did you stop me?”

She blinked, and the anger that had subsided when the guest came to talk to them reignited, burning a hole through her sternum.“Because I didn’t want you to lose your job, or end up in jail,” she hissed at him.She smacked his chest with one open hand.

He glanced down at her hand, which was still touching his chest, then he looked at her again.“You were trying to...protect me?”

She rolled her eyes.“Yes.”

“Why?”He sounded so confused.

“Because I...”Damn it, she’d almost said,because I like you, because you and your brother are the hottest men I’ve ever met, because if something happened to you I don’t know if I would ever recover.“Because I...care about you.You and your brother are my friends.I don’t have a lot of those.”

“Friends,” Mason said flatly as if he didn’t know what the word meant.He stared at her for so long, the expression on his face slowly transforming from irritated and angry to something closer to satisfied.“You care about us?”

He didn’t take a step, but somehow he seemed closer to her.

“Yes.You and your brother are good men and you’ve been kind to me.”

He snorted and shook his head.“We arenotgood men.”

She gave him a sad smile.“I guess that depends on how you definegood, doesn’t it?”Darlene turned and walked back to the suite she was cleaning.

She’d bet her next paycheck that her definition of good was completely different than his.