Mason (5 page)
“This isn’t going to work.” He nodded but
only kept grinning at her. “You’re not…I don’t even know you, and now you’re
saying that we’re to be together for a while. This just doesn’t happen in my
world. Or anyone’s, for that matter.”
“Forever…not a little while, but forever.”
She didn’t like the sound of that any more than she did “for a while,” but didn’t
comment when he continued. “I’m a cougar, as you’ve seen first-hand. My parents
are both gone as you might know, but my family and I have been what we are
since birth. I’m not really…the only contact, real contact, I’ve had with a
mate is my brother’s mate. And you know Holly. We never…I guess we’ve been too
busy trying to carve out a bit of our own earth to worry about what it is to
have a mate.”
“She said she’s going to have a baby. Holly
did, she said she was pregnant.” Mason nodded. “Could you stop doing that and
speak to me? I hate bobbers, and you’re making me insane with it.”
“All right. Yes. Holly is going to have a
baby. It’ll be a child just like you were when you were born, in case you
wondered, but when it turns about twenty-five, he’ll be able to shift. Had
Holly been a cat from birth, the baby would be able to shift sooner. It still
might. We’re waiting to see when it’s born. You should eat.”
The abrupt change of subject threw her off,
so when he handed her the sandwich on a plate, she took it without thinking. It
made him let go of her hand and for some reason she felt like she’d been
smacked on the hand. Eating the sandwich, she thought it better than asking him
to hold her again. Emma was as confused as she’d ever been about things.
“I’m sure you have questions. I do too. I’m
not…there is a lot I don’t know about mates either. We’re all learning this as
we go.” Her mouth was full or she might have stopped him there. They were not
going to be mates, not now or ever. “Our kind mates for life. If one of us dies,
the other either dies too or raises the children, should there be any. But we
breed fast too. And only with our mates.”
“I don’t want children. I have a job, a
career to go back to when…what makes you think that we’re really mates? I mean,
this just could be wishful thinking on your part.” He started to shake his head
and then told her no, it wasn’t wishful thinking. “Then what? Is there some
sort of telltale, like in poker? Or do you just take on the weak and hope that
someday they really are what you want?” Flushing, she knew that she’d been rude
and told him that. But he only smiled.
“Can you stand without hurting?” She put the
plate down and asked him why. “You wanted to know and I’m going to show you. I
could more than likely explain it, but you’re not going to believe that either.”
Standing up cost her; Emma was sore and
hurting still. Her wrist was in a sling, but the pain pills seemed to keep that
pain at bay. But she’d had a chance to see herself in the mirror this morning
and she’d realized how lucky she really was to be alive.
“I’m going to touch you.” She was afraid to
speak. He was so close she could smell his cologne, and wondered what it was he
wore. Mason also smelled of leather, old and worn, the earth, and something
else. “Don’t move. If you do, my cat is going to think you’re not okay with
what I’m doing.”
“What is it you’re going to do?” Instead of
answering her, he put his face in her neck. Her entire body seemed to come alive.
Well, not just alive, but “mother fuck I’ve just put my finger in an electrical
socket” alive.
His breath was warm, almost hot as it touched
her throat. Her pulse seemed to pick up in speed, and she wanted to hold onto
something.
Mason
, her mind screamed,
hold onto Mason
. The smell
was stronger now, almost too much, but really not enough either. When he put
his hands on her waist, gently, and pulled her to him, his cock touched her
pussy and she moaned.
She felt him stretch and harden, and she
wanted more of him. When he rocked into her, it took her breath away and she
put her hand on his shoulder. It was that or tumble back on the couch with him
on top of her.
“Do you feel it?” She nodded and found
herself seeking his neck. When she was there, she wanted to taste his flesh,
lick him and see if he tasted as good as he smelled to her. “You have a scent
that only I can smell. A taste that only I can taste. Our love making will be
fast, hard, and consuming. You’ll come so many times that exhaustion will take
you, only to wake and want it again and again.”
When he rocked into her again, she felt her
body respond. The need to come with this man was making her mouth water, and
when he pulled her closer still, she nipped at his pounding pulse and moaned. Need
hurt her, it was so strong. Her clothing was too tight and too heavy. Her
nipples needed to be freed, suckled, and then bitten. Her body was no longer hers
but his, and she wanted him to have it now.
“I’ve never felt this way before. I want you
to take me right here. This is…is this right?” She waited for him to laugh at
her, but he moved her head so that he could bury his mouth over her throat. The
need for him to bite her was making her wetter. Her pussy felt tight and ready
for him. Wrapping her leg around him, around his hip, had him lifting her from
the floor. “Take me. Please. I need to come with you.”
“I can’t.” Her heart hurt at his words, but
he took her mouth and kissed her with the desperation that she was feeling. “I
want you. Christ, do I want you. But I can’t take you here. Your family is just
in the other room. But I need to mark you.”
Anything
, she thought,
just do something
that will make me feel whole
. Mason kissed her again, his mouth doing
things to hers that she knew he wanted to do to her body. Hell, she wanted him
to do the things to her. When he moved along her chin to her throat again, she
nearly cried out when he sucked her flesh into his mouth. Her body was suddenly
pressed against a wall with him rocking hard into her.
“I’m going to bite you.” Nodding, she started
to beg him to take her somewhere and do whatever he wanted, but she was so
close now that if he stopped she was going to scream. “Come for me, Emma. Let
me taste you when you come.”
“Please.”
His mouth seemed to be everywhere. His hands
were cupping her breast hard over her blouse. The pinch to her nipple had her
looking down to find his dark hand cupping her bare breast and tugging at her
nipple. When he leaned down and took the hard tip into his mouth, she cried out
again, this time with a small hard punch of a climax. When he lifted his head
and looked down at her, she nearly begged him to finish her, but she didn’t
have to worry. He watched her face while he fucked her hard through their
clothing.
“Come.”
Her body seemed to know that he was boss. And
when she cried out this time, his body bowing back from the wall, he put his
hand over her mouth and bit deeply into her throat.
Her body screamed out a release, and before
she was finished, a second then a third one left her weak, yet needing more. He
suckled at her throat, his hands still at her breast, when he lifted his head
suddenly and kissed her. She wanted more…her spent body seemed to need more.
And when he brought her again, giving her another mind-blowing climax, she went
limp in his arms while he held her.
Emma held onto him. He was speaking, but she
was too fuzzy, too everything to listen to him. No one had ever made her feel
this way during sex. She was lucky if she got any enjoyment out of it at all,
and this man had given her so much. Trying to listen to him, she realized that
he was telling her he was sorry, and she lifted his head up by his hair.
“You should know that instead of finding that
painful, it’s very sexy to me.” Emma jerked his hair harder. “Okay, that, not
so much. Would you like for me to have you hold me this way near your pussy?
The thought of eating you has me hard as stone.”
To prove his point, he rocked into her again.
Moaning, she could feel another climax building and wanted it in the worse kind
of way. She looked at the man giving her this, making her feel this way, and
asked him to stop. He did, much to her body’s dismay.
“What have we done?” He put his face back
into her neck, and she felt his hot tongue roll over her skin. She nearly begged
him to make her come again, but he lifted his head and took her to the couch. When
she was seated, he stood by the fireplace, about as far from her as he could
get. “Are you mad? Because I have to tell you, that’s the best sort of sex I’ve
ever had. And if you ever want to do it again I’m here…but I’m thinking it was
more than that. Wasn’t it?”
“We’re bonded. Not mated yet—that would
require us to bite each other during a climax—but we’re about there now.” She
felt her body respond to his words, and it wasn’t as scary as she’d hoped it
would be.
I can talk to you through a link now. You can…I think you can me
as well, but I’m not sure.
His voice was gentle in her head, almost like
he was really talking to her. But she had no idea if she was ready to talk to
him that way, and ignored the ease with which he’d made the connection to her.
“And this need? This overwhelming need to be
fucked by you, it’s this mate thing?” He nodded and she wanted to ask more, but
wasn’t really sure how to begin. “Did you know that it was going to happen
between us? I mean, my dad is thrilled, like he’s been planning this…you didn’t
do this to get the ranch, did you? You’re no better than my brother if you did.
I’ll have you know right now that—”
She found herself on her back. He was over
her and pressing his body into hers. Instead of pushing him off, which was what
her head was telling her to do, she pulled him down to her mouth and kissed
him, telling him with her body how much she needed him. But when he lifted his
body from hers and stood over her, Emma whimpered, her body aching to have his.
“I’m leaving now before we do something that
we’ll regret.” Emma sat up, her face level with his hard cock outlined in his
jeans. “If you keep looking at me like that, Emma, I’m going to bend you over
this couch and fuck you like the animal you just accused me of being.”
With that, he turned and left her. The door
closing to the room she was in was loud to her, ringing of an anger that she
was beginning to feel herself. How dare he leave her without explaining? Getting
up, she went to find her father. If he had done this to her, she was going back
home and never returning. She might anyway.
Zach watched Mason. Whatever demon he was
trying to get rid of wasn’t going away any time too soon. When the hammer he
was using broke in half, Mason threw it across the field and looked like he was
going to toss something else when he turned to him.
“You do and you’ll walk funny for the rest of
your life. And that mate of yours, whoever she is, is going to be very
disappointed in you too.” Mason growled and Zach laughed. “That bad, huh? Who
is she? The Mitchell girl? I heard she was in town. Or is it someone else?”
“Emma McBride.” Zach had no idea who she was
but nodded. “She’s got this brother, Dirk, who I want to—”
“Wait. Dirk the Dick’s sister? You’re mated
to Dirk the Dick’s sister?” Zach started laughing, and even when Mason had him
pinned to the fence post they were setting, it didn’t stop him from laughing
harder. “Christ man, is she as bad as him?”
“No. Christ.” Zach was dropped to the ground,
but since he didn’t think Mason was satisfied, he stayed where he was. As funny
as he found this, he didn’t think Mason was in a mood to fuck with. Well, maybe
a little bit, but not enough to get the shit knocked out of him. “She’s
beautiful and sexy. Smart too. I guess she’s a partner in a law firm in the
city. Mother fuck.”
Zach stopped laughing when he realized how
hurt his brother was. “Did she say something to you? Is she, I don’t know,
pissed that you’re mated with her?”
“No. That’s not a problem. But her dad…for
months now her dad has been hinting that I buy him out. And a couple of
mornings ago he told me that I should marry his daughter and I could have the
entire ranch free and clear. I can’t buy him out, and now…Christ now, it seems
that his daughter will be marrying me and we’ll have the farm anyway.” Zach
asked him if she knew that part. “Not yet, but knowing her dad, he’s more than
likely telling her how this was his plan all along and that he was going to
have grandkids. Then this shit with her brother came up.”
Zach listened while Mason told him what had
happened with Dirk the Dick. He really wasn’t surprised by the news. Dirk had
been a prick since he’d known him. And he was forever telling everyone that he
was too rich to be stuck here. He’d even bragged how he had anything he’d
wanted whenever he wanted all the time. Zach had always blamed his parents
until he met Katie and Landon a few years ago. Then he realized it was just
Dirk. A pig-headed asshole.
If there were any nicer people in the world
than the McBrides, he didn’t believe it. Katie was kind and giving, her husband
loud and boisterous. Funny, both of them were, and you could tell that they
loved each other like they were pack and not humans. Zach always thought that
his parents were like them, kind and loving and needing each other.
“What are you going to do about him?” Mason
didn’t answer but looked out over the field that separated their ranch from two
others. “Do you think he’ll come back there? I did notice that there were more
wolves around.”
“I do think he’ll come back. And when he
does, he’s going to do some major damage to them. Not just the property and
land, but to them as well. I don’t think that Landon is really aware of how
much one man can do to them.” Mason tuned to him then. “I had to go back and
talk to Fox. He’s been keeping tabs on Dirk. The boy has been in more trouble
in the last month than all of us put together over our lifetimes. He throws
these elaborate parties, then trashes the hotel that he has them in. There have
been three wrecks with his car that have caused more damage than we owe on
everything we have. And Fox said that it happens weekly. Things that a man his
age should have outgrown by now, but he acts like he is owed it. Last month he
trashed a hotel room and cost Landon nearly ten grand to fix it back. And when
asked about it, Dirk told him to fuck off. Had we talked to our parents that
way…hell, even Aunt Georgie…we would be picking ourselves up in another state.”
That was true. Zach remembered when he’d been
ten and decided that he wanted to try cursing. He wasn’t any good at it, but he’d
picked up a few words that he thought he’d like to add to his vocabulary. They
were a wrong choice, and Aunt Georgie had shown him the error of his ways very
harshly. Zach had been very careful of his words when he’d been around his aunt
since then.
“So now what? You can’t just leave her there
to be hurt by him. And from your…mood, I can tell that the two of you didn’t
part ways on a good note.” Mason just growled. “Yeah, that’s going to work with
her. Tell me what you want me to do to help you. Not with her…I’m as clueless
as you are about mates and stuff, but I can see what I can find out about Dirk.”
“He’s been put out. Landon has had him taken
out of the will, the locks have been changed on the house, and he has no car or
money. Credit cards have been cancelled, as well as his access to the bank has
been taken out. I talked to Fox and he’s going to remind Landon to call all the
merchants in town and tell them that if Dirk charges anything, damages
anything, then he’s responsible for it.” Zach was impressed, but they both knew
that changing the locks and the other things was only going to make him madder.
He told Mason that too. “Yeah, I know that, but I don’t think Landon gets it. I
think he thinks his son will come back to him with open arms after he sees what
it’s like to have nothing and to have to fend for himself.”
Dirk would blame this all on his family and
never see that all of it was his doing. Zach knew this, and he was pretty sure
that Mason did as well. The man was bad news, and there was little you could do
to someone like that short of killing them. And Zach had a feeling it might
just come to that.
Mason went to the truck and got another post
and a hammer. This one would stand more because Mason seemed to be, while not
better, in a lighter mood. The two of them planted three more posts before
Mason spoke again.
“I’m having some of the wolf pack nearby
patrol the grounds, as you noticed. Mackley said he’d do it, but it would cost
me. He knew that I’d mated with Emma and wants to be able to run on the
property some. I told him I’d have to talk to her, and he thought that smart.” Zach
had to agree. He’d noticed that things went better for Jace when he included
his wife in things. “I have no idea what to do with her.”
“What do you mean, do with her? And if I were
you, I’d never say that in front of Holly. It might get you castrated.” They
both laughed. “Just love her, I guess. What comes will come. I’m thinking that
sooner or later this thing with Dirk is going to come to a head, and he’ll
either straighten up or be killed. I’m thinking, from my own experience with
the man, that he’ll be dead long before he gets a clue.”
By nightfall they had planted nineteen posts.
Tomorrow, Gerard would deliver the fencing that they’d ordered and Darin and
Logan would start to put it up. That was a four-man job, and he and Mason would
help them as soon as they put in the rest of the posts. Ranching was hard work,
but Zach loved it.
~~~
Dirk had nowhere to go. And not only that, he
didn’t have a dime on him. Going to the bank had left him pissed off and nearly
put in jail, but he’d managed to get out of that too. Fuck, this shit was
getting old. And now his fucking phone wasn’t working.
“Dad, you’re going to regret this.” Dirk sat
down at the table at the diner and tried to think how he was going to get the
woman behind the counter to give him some food. The last two places he’d been
to, trying to order and charge it to his dad, hadn’t worked and he really didn’t
expect it to here. When the woman brought him a glass of water and no menu, he
figured she’d been called too.
There were crackers on the table, and he
reached for a handful of them before those too were snatched away. He wanted to
toss them back in the waitress’s face and tell her to fuck off, but he might
not have anything to eat again for however long his dad was in a snit. And then
there was Mason.
That guy was really going to get it for
making his dad do this, because Dirk had no doubt that it was all Mason’s doing
and not his dad’s. First of all, his parents weren’t that smart, and even if
Emma had suggested it, they’d never do this to their only son. Especially him. Dirk
was a god to his family and they seemed to have forgotten that since Mason had
been sniffing around his land. And even though he’d told his dad he wanted no
part of ranching, he certainly didn’t want Mason to have any of it.
The cop sitting down across from him made
Dirk sit up. He wasn’t afraid of him but thought about tearing him apart for
assuming that he could sit with him, Dirk McBride. But the man spoke before he
could say anything.
“You have any money?” Dirk told him he was
worth billions. “Nah, that’s what your daddy is worth. Do you have any money on
you?”
“You know I don’t. What did my father do,
call you up and tell you to come looking for me? Well, you can take a message
back to him for me. Tell him this has gone on long enough and for him to call
off his dogs. I’m sick of him thinking he can teach me a lesson.” The cop just
leaned back and let the waitress put the biggest fucking burger with fries in
front of him. Then when she set down a thick milk shake—strawberry, his
favorite—Dirk started to reach for it. As far as he was concerned, and it had
been that way his entire life, everything was his if Dirk McBride wanted it.
But the slap to his face had him nearly hitting back at the man.
“This is mine, you little shit.” The man ate
the burger like it was his last meal and he was going to savor every bite. He
even moaned a few times while swallowing it down with a few fries. Dirk started
to reach for it again, this time snagging a fry. As he shoved it in his mouth,
Mason sat beside him. It suddenly became a lump in his throat.
“Hello, Dirk the Dick.” Dirk couldn’t even
say anything around the knot of fry. “You and I are going to have a nice talk,
and Howie LeBlanc here—the sheriff, if you didn’t know it—is going to be my
witness that I don’t hurt you. Unless, of course, you are stupid. Then all bets
are off.”
Dirk drank down his water, trying to dislodge
the wad that was cutting off his air. When his head hit the table, twice, he
glared at Mason. The man had hit him so hard that he was sure a rib or two was
broken.
“You motherfucker, that fucking hurt.” Mason
grinned and told him he was trying to help him from choking. “By giving me a
concussion? I want you to know right now that when my dad gets over his snit
about this shit, I’m going to make you pay. No one treats Dirk McBride this way
and lives to tell about it.”
“Your dad isn’t dealing with you any longer.
I am. And it’s doubtful that you’ve ever hurt anyone with your fists, much less
killed them. You’re too much of a pussy.” Mason leaned back and stared at him
before he spoke again. “We’re going to iron this out. Then you’re going to be a
good boy or I’m going to take great pleasure in showing you how we deal with
shits like you.”
“Christ. Do you have any idea who you’re
talking to? Do you know what’s going to happen to you when my parents find out
what you’re doing? I’m Dirk McBride. My very name should make you tremble in
your shoes.”
Mason looked at the cop. LeBlanc stared at
him for several seconds before they both started laughing, a loud guffawing
kind of laughter that reminded him of braying jackasses.
Dirk jabbed his fist into Mason’s face. His
victory over what he’d done was short lived when he found himself with his face
nearly being imbedded into the table top. Mason was holding him down with only
one hand, and Dirk couldn’t move.
“Listen to me, you little fuck. In a few
weeks I’m going to marry your sister and we’re going to take over the ranch,
and all that entails. You come near her or any other member of my family—and
that would include your parents—and I will hunt you down. And you’d better
believe me when I tell you that I will hunt you down.” Dirk started to speak,
yell at the man, when his head hit the table three times in a row. His head
felt as if it was going to explode and he was sure that his nose was broken. Blood
stained the table. He could see it each time his head was lifted to be slammed
back down. When his head was lifted again, Dirk braced himself for the pain
when he was let go.
“You motherfucker. You’re going to pay for
this when my dad finds out how you treated me. And as for you marrying my
sister? Not going to happen. I’ll make sure it doesn’t.” Mason asked him how he
thought he was going to do that. “Because I’m the heir apparent, you cock
sucker, and what I say will carry a lot of weight regardless of what my dad is
doing right now.”
“You just don’t get it, do you? You’re not
welcome back.” Mason laid an envelope on the table. “Your dad sent you that. It’s
all you’re going to get from him until you do the required steps that are
listed on that contract. Until then, you are not to come near them, contact
them, or have anything to do with the ranch or anything that is owned by either
the Douglases or the McBrides.”
“Contract?” Dirk reached for the envelope and
opened it. Inside was a hundred dollars in twenties and a folded blue sheath of
papers, plus a note. He pulled it out and read it before stuffing it all back
in the envelope and tossing it on the table. “No. And hell no.”
