Atonement (Heart of Stone) (29 page)

3 months
later

“Where the hell is he?” I grumbled to Mason as I checked
my watch for the thirtieth time.

Katie and George were sat on Nate’s private plane with
Mason’s mum as I stood on the tarmac with Mason waiting for Kade.

“He’ll be here” he sighed as he pulled me into a side
hug. His voice was strong but I could feel his apprehension.

Kade had agreed to come with us to Portugal after all and
he was late as usual. His recuperation had taken longer than mine, his release
from hospital only being granted a few days ago. I knew he struggled with the
sight of his scar. It was jagged and ran the length of his throat from his jaw
to his collarbone but neither Mason nor I noticed it anymore.

“I have a bad feeling, Mason.”

He frowned but then smiled as he tipped his head towards
the departure doors as Kade strolled through.

My stomach sank as I took a look at him. His footing
faltered as he fixed his eyes on mine. “Where’s his luggage, Mason?”

He was quiet beside me and my soul starting panicking.
“Kade?” I swept my eyes over his face as he came before me, his heart displayed
openly as he rolled his lips and swallowed gently. “Don’t do this, Kade,
please.”

Mason slipped his hand in mine but I snatched it back,
“Kade?”

His shoulders heaved as he inhaled heavily, “We would
never survive, Ava.”

“What?” I scoffed in bewilderment, “What the hell are you
on about?”

Mason nodded in understanding. He stepped forward and
palmed Kade’s cheek, “You know you can always join us if you change your mind.”

He smiled softly at Mason and nodded, “I do.” Kade pulled
Mason into an embrace, and I watched in anger as they embraced hard, both
feeding their understanding and affection to the other before Mason took a
glance at me and ran up the stairs to the plane.

“Ava” Kade breathed as he took a step closer. I
retreated, taking an identical step back, “Sweetheart, please.”

I shook my head rapidly as I screwed my eyes up and refused
to liberate the tears, “No.”

His hands gripped me and drew me close. I struggled
against him but he held me tighter, his arms wrapping around me as his body
took my fury. “Why? Why Kade? It will be fine, it will work. I promise.”

“Listen to me, Ava” His hands embraced the tops of my
arms as he shifted me back a little so I could see his face. That was a waste
of time; I couldn’t see him through the rush of my tears.

“For now, maybe for a few months everything would be
great but both Mason and me… we’re both so in love with you Ava that we’re
eventually going to clash. We both want to own you, both of us want to possess
every inch of you, we want you to be ours…” His finger tilted my chin until he
locked gazes with me, “Our dominance over you will destroy us all and I
couldn’t bear for either of you to hate me.”

“Never, Kade, we could never hate you.”

He smiled softly as he placed a gentle kiss on the tip of
my nose and palmed my cheek, “And what if I started to hate you? What if we
each started to wonder if either of us is spending too much time with the
other, or if Mason gives you a better orgasm than me? Or… or if Mason started
to think you loved me more and were plotting to out him. Or you begin to
imagine things that aren’t there between me and Mason?”

His eyes shone with love but they also held a need for me
to understand, to listen to what he was saying and to accept his decision.

I did understand and I knew deep down he was right but I
selfishly wanted both men, wanted the best of both worlds. I wanted to have the
cake, own it, possess it and devour it.

“I’ll always love you Ava, always. You are my first love,
the first woman who ever owned all of me. I need you to be happy, sweetheart. I
need you to live your life now, not live in the shadow of two controlling men;
two men who want everything of you, Ava. We’d drown you, suffocate you with
love and I couldn’t bear it if we broke you in our desire to make you happy.”

My heart was bleeding so much I was sure I could feel the
trickle of it over my ribs and down into the pit of me. “But… I love you Kade.”

There, I had said it. For the first time in eight years I
told this man I loved him.

He closed his eyes as if savouring my declaration and as
he opened them a tear leaked from the corner and spilled down his face and into
the groove of his scar as if trying to heal it. Heal him.

His eyes moved over my face as he burnt me to his memory
and a choked sob left my throat as I palmed his face and brought his mouth to
mine, telling him everything my heart had to tell him as I delivered my soul to
him. He would own it now, carry it with him forever as it protected and
cherished him from the inside. He would always possess a part of me.

“I’ve loved you for eight years, Kade and I will love you
for eternity.”

He nodded as his tears flowed freely, his chest
stuttering with his sobs as mine choked me.

“As I will always love you Ava, forever and absolutely”
he whispered as he rested his lips on my forehead.

“Go.” Was the last word I ever heard from him, the last
time I would ever hear the soft grate of his voice and the last time my heart
would stutter at his closeness.

I turned and walked; walked away from a part of my heart,
a huge part of my life and all of my soul as I ascended the plane stairs and
never looked back.

Never once saw his face again.

Never heard his words of love again.

Never felt his tender touch again.

Never saw the twinkle of fun in his eyes again.

But never regretted his decision.

He was right; we would have destroyed each other in our
attempt at happiness, in our effort to share each other and in our greed.

Mason had pushed aside his fear and his own wants in his
endeavour to make me happy, but in the end would he have been happy? Would he
have been content in life as he watched another man love and please me, another
man own the part of me that should be exclusive to Mason.

Mason was my world, the life force than ran though my
veins and I would forever be his, wholly and entirely.

“Ava?”

I turned to him as his fingers gently swiped my tears,
“We’ll be fine, baby. We’ll be happy. I promise.”

I nodded, I knew it and as I turned to look at my babies,
my amazing peanuts, I understood finally that God had repaid his debt to me,
reimbursed me for the blackness that had once overwhelmed me and had offered me
a way out and I was grasping it with both hands.

It was time now; time to take what was offered and relish
it, consume it and feed from it and time to live. Live a life my parents would
have wanted for me. Live a life that George had fought for me and finally live
the life that Katie had granted back to me.

Time to live the life that my family cherished me with.

THE END

Please continue for an after note from the author:

 As we say our final goodbye to Ava and Mason, I know
you’re all screaming at me through tears for Kade.

But our respective love for Kade would want him to be
happy, and I feel that a life with Ava and Mason would have brought many more
woes for the illustrious trio.

So, I am pleased to tell you… Kade will return to your
Kindle’s December 24
^th
to tell you how his life developed after the
departure of Mr and Mrs Fox.

He deserves his Happy Ever After and I am determined to
give him one, and I will make sure he goes out with a bang!!

Thank you for taking Ava and Mason into your hearts with
me, for demanding this final instalment of their lives and for seeing them
through to their Happy Ever After, and as my heart aches with the goodbye, my wicked
soul smiles with the hello to Kade.

So, until Christmas Eve….

Dawn x