Atonement (Heart of Stone) (8 page)

      I grinned in satisfaction as
I pressed my back against the large oak, using the wide girth of the trunk as
cover and watched my beautiful wife dart from tree to tree in her pursuit of
Courtney.

The commando overalls hugged her damn fine arse as the
front zip struggled to encase her large breasts. Her red hair sprung wildly
from beneath her hood as she held her gun like a pro, which is exactly what I
had made sure she was.

It was important that I knew she could protect herself,
especially in my choice of life and business.

I trained my sight on her, the weight of the rifle
feeling good in my hands. “Come on, baby. Six more steps.”

A crunch of undergrowth announced company and I spun and
shot Tristan directly in the chest with a blast of red paint.

He grinned and held his hands up, “I should’ve known I
wouldn’t be able to take you out. You’ve had too much practice.” He winked with
his words and I laughed.

My sister’s boyfriend was okay, he absolutely idolised
Kerrie and that earned him my respect. “Sorry, mate.”

He shook his head and tapped my shoulder. “No worries, I
could do with a piss anyway.”

I laughed and nodded as I turned back to take out Ava.

“Damn.” She was nowhere to be seen and I peered around
the tree in an effort to detect her.

My back exploded with a pressured hit and I closed my
eyes and groaned before I turned to a stunning victory smile from my little
warrior.

“Well done, baby” I said slowly as I took a step towards
her. She nodded briskly, a huge beam adorning her stunning face before she
realised I was stalking her.

“Oh no, you sore loser” she chuckled, knowing I was just
playing but she squealed when I leapt after her.

Her gun hit the floor as she sprinted across the wooded
area, the vegetation slowing her considerably.

“No” she laughed as I grabbed her waist and rugby tackled
her to the floor.

“You’re mine” I growled at her as I began a relentless
tickle on her ribs.

“Shit, Mason, stop.”

“Nope, never. I’m gonna make you suffer, I’m a mardy
loser.”

“You’re a hard mardy loser” she moaned when my erection
dug into her back and she wiggled against it.

“One touch, baby, that’s all my dick needs from you. You
know that by now. He’s yours, Ava. He knows what you demand of him.”

“Damn right, my darling husband. He’s mine.”

“Always” I whispered as I flipped her over and brought
her lips up to mine with a slide of my hand behind her head. She moaned into my
mouth with a small wisp of her warm breath as I twisted my tongue around her
delicate expert muscle.

I could feel her nipples peak, even through the thick material
of the overalls, and I returned her moan with my own as my cock powered to a
new level of rigid and my balls tightened.

God this woman demanded my arousal, brought it forth with
a simple touch and I grumbled against her as I realised we were in the middle
of a forest and would probably get kicked out for humping in a public place.

“I love you so god damn much, Ava. You’re my world baby,
my support structure. I wanna say sorry now.”

She frowned up at me in confusion, her perfectly trimmed
eyebrows pulled together and the sight of her anguish clamped hold of my heart
and constricted. “Sorry? For what?”

I sat up and pulled her up until she was straddled on my
lap as I took her cheeks beneath my palms and stroked my thumbs across her
cheekbones, “I’m gonna fuck up, baby. I always do, always. So when I do, please
know that I would rather die than hurt you.”

“Is this the coke, Mason?”

I shook my head at her, “No, Ava, it’s nothing in general
but… I dunno, it just feels like all our paths are hitting the crossroad too
soon for our relationship to deal with them at once. I dunno how to explain it,
like you don’t know how to deal with what your body is yelling at you. My head…
it keeps warning me to something I don’t understand yet, and I need to tell you
before it’s too late.”

Her eyes searched my face but then she nodded, “Okay.”

I didn’t deserve this woman, her compassion and constant
forgiving nature were pure and immense, and her unrelenting love for me after
years of ache and hurt would never be taken for granted.

“Come on.” I pulled myself up and offered her a hand
before she picked up her gun and turned to wink at me.

“Just gonna splat Courtney, then I’ll meet you in the
bar.”

I nodded before giving her a flick of my eyes towards the
tree Courtney was currently using as a shield. “I love you” she mouthed and I
laughed as I walked away and heard Courtney shout ‘Ow’ then curse quite
violently.

***

“Lay.”

She turned to me with a smile and I knew she had forgiven
me for my inexcusable words to her Monday. “Just wanted to make sure we’re
okay.” She palmed my cheek after she studied my pupils. “I’m off it, don’t
worry, babe.”

She sighed and nodded, “You wanna talk about it?”

“Not really, but I wanna ask a favour.”

She looked at me expectantly and I pulled in a breath. “I
have to go back, something urgent has come up and I wanted you to… watch Kade.”

Her eyes narrowed as she tipped her head slightly,
“You’re leaving Ava here?”

I nodded.

She gave me a wary gaze; her ability to read me was
uncanny. “What’s going on, Mase?”

“Nothing’s going on,” I offered praying she didn’t read
my lie. “Just something I have to deal with. I’m taking Sam and Greg with me
but the other guys are staying here. I can’t be worrying about Kade whilst I’m
dealing with shit, Lay. I need you to promise me.”

She flicked a glance towards Ava who was grinning as she
slaughtered the others at Battlefield 3 but then nodded. “I’ll watch him but
you need to start trusting her.”

“I do, I do but after… Dane, I worry about her, Lay.
She’s been hurt too much already and I don’t mean just emotionally, physically
as well and if… if anyone ever,
ever
, touches her again, I don’t think
I’ll be able to hold back. You get me?”

She nodded, she understood. If anyone understood being physically
hurt it was Lay. “Okay love, no worries.”

I kissed her forehead and called out Ava’s name. She
turned to look at me and I gestured to the kitchen with my chin. She nodded and
after placing her controller on the floor, she walked into the kitchen with me.

I rolled my lips as she slid her arms around my waist and
buried her nose into my chest, seeking my scent to pacify her soul. I knew this
because it was exactly the same fixation I had with her.

“I have to go back” I told her as my soul inhaled its own
necessary hit.

She frowned up at me and disappointment covered her
beauty, “Awww, Mason.”

“I know, I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do about
it.”

She sighed heavily but nodded resolutely, “Fine.”

I tilted her head back so I could see her stunning bright
green eyes, “You can get a lift back with Nate and Liv. Greg and Sam are coming
with me. And baby…”

Her eyes scanned me, the tone in my voice alerting her to
a warning. “He touches you and I will finish it, understand?”

She tipped her head, a slight fierceness in her eyes as
her face darkened slightly, “Him or me?”

Oh, she had understood my words but I knew she would.

“You don’t really need an answer to that, do you” It was
voiced as a statement not a question just as it was said as one.

“Understood,
Sir
!” she hissed as she pulled away
but I wrapped my fingers around her arm. I knew she was mad when she had called
me ‘sir’. That word meant more to Ava than what it inferred after her time with
Dane.

“Don’t push me, baby. You do as you’re told and I’m hunky
dory. You got me?”

“Fuck you!”

Okay, enough of this bullshit!

Her back was slammed against the wall before she could
take another breath, my groin pushing into her as my chest pressed against the
plumpness of hers. “Don’t go there, Ava. I have to deal with bullshit at work,
not with you. All I asked was to steer clear. I have done my best with him this
weekend.
I
let you have your way;
I
backed down enough to let him
back into your life.
Don’t
make me regret that decision.”

She sighed in acceptance, “Fine, but you need to learn to
trust me. You had more women in our time together than I did Mason and I have
learnt to trust you.”

Fair enough.

I nodded in my own acknowledgment, “Yeah, and you know
how much it hurt you, well I have feelings too Ava, I feel what you felt when
you found out… when you found me.”

We met halfway, both of us still strong with our own
feelings but understanding the others argument also.

She nodded again, her knowledge that those photos of her
with Kade in his pool still haunted my mind, and my heart.

“Good girl.”

I planted my lips on hers, my kiss controlling, dominant
and telling her just how much she meant to me. The soft moan that she made leapt
into my mouth and had my dick stirring in my jeans. I grasped her hair tightly
in my need for control, “Mine.” I whispered against her neck as I left her with
a few of my signatures.

“Yours” she answered on a strangled choke, “Always,
Mason, always. I need you; I need you so much, baby.”

Her voice was tight with her arousal and I took a swift
study of the room before I lifted her. Her thighs clung to my waist as I backed
us into the utility room and her moans made my cock cry out for more. She
always made my cock cry for more.

I settled her on the washing machine as she refused to
remove her mouth from mine. I cupped her between her legs and groaned at the
heat she radiated. She echoed my moan, the deep rumble of it damn near bringing
me to my knees.

I pulled away from her mouth so I could watch her face as
I stuck my thumbs into the crotch of her knickers and ripped them apart.

Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as her eyes darkened,
their bright green simmering to a deep jade, her lust making her look feral and
wild.

Dropping to my knees before her, I gripped her feet and
arranged them on the edge of the washer so she opened herself wide to me.

Fuck, she had the prettiest god damn pussy and its lure
drew me in time and time again. It owned me, it controlled me, it reigned over
me but maybe that was just Ava.

“I need to feel your mouth on me, Mason, hurry.”

Her pleading brought a wicked smile to the edge of my
lips as I tipped my head in expectation but I held back, I waited.

“Please, Mason.”

Good girl, she knew what was expected.

I held her eyes, locked her down as I swiped my tongue
the length of her hot flesh and the action gave me a shiver as always. The
first taste my tongue got of her always brought a shudder of ownership and
excitement but above all satisfaction.

I would never get enough of her; I never wanted to get
enough of her. I wanted her endlessly and forever. I wanted the pull of her to
hold me until the day I died.

I circled my tongue around her clit, its hardness
tempting me to suck it between my lips and send the jolt of pleasure through
her like I knew it did.

It did. She bucked, trembled and clamped her hands in my
hair to pull me deeper into her.

I didn’t disappoint her, I ate her, I tasted her, I
suckled her and I drove her absolutely fucking crazy. Her moans, groans and
dirty words had my dick screaming at me for release but I gave her this first, I
knew she needed it.

As soon as she screamed her orgasm my cock was out and
inside her wicked heat. I slammed in hard, not giving her a second to hit the
ground after her climax.

She was wet and hot and her cum welcomed me in with an
easy single thrust.

“Fuck!” I hissed at her as she seared my cock with her
tightness and blazing hotness.

I grabbed her bent knees, holding her legs in place as I
started a ruthless, punishing rhythm. She needed it hard, I needed it hard so I
gave it us both fucking hard as I pounded her across the lid of the washer.

Her screams were getting louder and louder and I knew we
could be heard through the house.

I didn’t fucking care.

My thrusts hit her deeper and harder and as soon as I
felt the clench of her muscles, I knew what she needed. “You – want – it –
Ava?”

She grabbed my hair tightly, her grip sent a shot of
exquisite pain through my head and straight down into my bollocks as I grit my
teeth, my desperation to hold back my orgasm until she had hers was fucking
near massacring me.

“Yes!”

“Ask!”

“Bite me - hard!”

Fuck, this woman would kill me and strangle my hard dick
simultaneously.

Her loudest scream erupted when my teeth sank into her
shoulder, her pussy constricted and my cock thanked the fucking lord as I
exploded into her core, the deep sharp jolts of ecstasy electrifying my brain
with every pump. My whole body tensed in exquisite pleasure and my balls
screamed as they emptied into her. “Fuck, fuck… fuck…” I groaned as my forehead
landed on her shoulder and her frantic beating heart was pounding against my
own.

“Oh dear god” she whispered and I chuckled.

“Yep, feel better?”

She nodded and beamed at me, “Thank you.”

My eyebrow lifted at her gratitude. “Leave the money on
the side, baby.”

She smirked as she wiped the sweat from my forehead with
a towel she found beside her. “Tenner do ya’?”

My jaw dropped and I pinched her thigh, “Funny, Mrs Fox.
I should be paying you though…”

I realised what I had said as soon as it left my lips,
fucking idiot!