The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (132 page)

I was sweating profusely, my legs trembling in fright as I panted and wheezed, my lungs fighting with the air that was trying to fill them.

“Avaaaa.”

I risked a glance back. I still couldn’t see him in the darkness, my eyes scanning the area and trying to adjust to the black depths following me. I turned back round and froze as I found myself back in the dirty rundown bedroom. “Noooo!” I screamed as my eyes landed on Greg in the chair. His eyes were open but blank and very, very dead . . . like him. His throat had been cut and blood was pouring from the wide open wound, his tongue swollen and hanging slightly out his open mouth.

I couldn’t move, my body frozen in shock and horror. Hands gripped my arms and I screamed. “I told you Ava, you can’t outrun me. I will always get you,” Dane sneered as he dragged me over to the hook and chain.

“Please no . . .” I begged, sobbing and weeping loudly. He yanked my hands upwards towards the hook and handcuffs suddenly appeared, binding my wrists to the hook as Dane stood before me, a leer on the half of his mouth that remained. “No, please Dane.” I was crying uncontrollably now, snot and dribble hanging off my face. He laughed the high pitched cackle that iced my blood and froze the air in my lungs, and held up the poker, glowing and bright red in the dimness of the room. I screamed again and struggled against the handcuffs, chafing and ripping the skin on my wrists.

He laughed at me again. “Where’s your precious Mason, Ava? He promised he wouldn’t let me get to you and yet here I am.” He smirked as he swept his hands over himself. “Ready Ava, what do we say?”

I shook my head rapidly, my bladder suddenly full and my body now naked. I looked down at myself and shook my head again as he took a step closer. “Need the toilet, Ava?” he chuckled and cocked his head.

I jerked against the hook, pulling and tugging trying to free myself. He took a step closer and his mouth rested against my breast. “Ask Ava,” he demanded and I shook my head.

“No!” I said firmly and he tutted at me.

“Ask Ava.” he repeated.

I shook the chain, trying desperately to tug it out of the ceiling. I let out a sob as he bit roughly into the flesh of my breast and I clenched my thighs together hastily. I heard his sinister laugh as I felt the urine trickle down my leg and I whimpered now I knew what was coming. “Please Sir, I didn’t mean . . .” I let out a blood curdling scream as I felt the blistering sear on my back, my skin recoiling and shrinking as the poker incinerated it and then ate away at the flesh underneath.

I howled at the most intense pain I had ever felt as he held the poker tighter against me and it continued to corrode into me, the smell of charred tissue and muscle rank in my nostrils.

“Say it Ava,” he demanded as he moved the poker to a new area of skin, the heat already sizzling into me before he placed it against me.

“SAY IT WHORE!” he roared. I opened my mouth but the words wouldn’t come. “Three . . . two . . .”

I gulped but opened my mouth again “YOU ARE MY MASTER AND I MUST BEHAVE. . . .” I shouted and then screamed. . . . .

“AVA! FUCK!!!” I heard Mason shouting from somewhere. I continued screaming against the scorching sensation, as I flipped about, trying to take the pressure off my back.

“GET IT OFF ME!” I screamed as I shot off the bed, my hands desperately trying to reach around my back.

Mason clamped onto my arms. “Ava!” He shook me lightly and I shook my head rapidly.

“It hurts so much Mason . . . stop it!” I begged as I struggled out of his grip, “Make it stop!!” I screamed.

“AVA!” Mason bellowed at me.

Suddenly I snapped awake and realised where I was, my brain reverting back into the present. I stopped abruptly and stood immobile, breathing heavily. “Baby, it was just a dream,” he soothed as he pulled me against him and wrapped me up in his arms. “Sshhh,” he pacified as he stroked my hair while I trembled against him.

“Mason . . .” I sobbed.

He scooped me up into his arms then walked into the bathroom and started to fill the bath without letting go of me. “It’s okay,” he whispered as he kissed my head and cupped my face. “I love you and I will never let him take you again.”

CHAPTER 12

MASON SETTLED ME in the bath when it was full and climbed in behind me, wrapping his arms and legs around me as he rested his chin on my shoulder. I sighed, relaxing into him as he planted tiny wet kisses on my neck every so often. “Okay?” he asked.

I hiccupped and nodded. “Yeah,” I whispered back.

We lay silent for a while, both lost in our own heads. “Ava?” Mason asked quietly.

“Mmm,” I murmured as I sank further into the warmth of the bath and the comfort of Mason’s solid chest.

“You . . . you shouted something before I woke you up.”

I could sense his nerves and I frowned, “What?”

I heard him sigh and then swallow loudly. “You shouted something like ‘you are my master and I must behave.’” I stiffened. He stroked his heel up and down my calf as his fingers entwined with mine. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned it,” he muttered quickly as he kissed my cheek.

I paused then took a deep breath. “He made me say it to him whenever he took me down from the hook and chain,” I divulged uneasily.

He was quiet for a while but I felt him brace himself. “What was the hook and chain?” He wanted to know but could he handle the knowledge? Only one way to find out and I was suddenly ready to tell him, to let him in.

“It was a chain that hung from the ceiling with a hook attached to it.” Mason pulled in a sharp breath. “He would secure me to it and then . . .” I paused, not sure how much he wanted or needed to hear.

He kissed my neck. “Go on, I need to know Ava,” he urged gently.

“Are you sure?” He nodded against my shoulder and I took a deep breath. “He would hang me from it and . . . and whip and fuck me.” I clenched myself but Mason remained still, the only sign I knew he had heard me was his heavy uneven breaths. “He had different methods of . . . of torture.” I swallowed and closed my eyes. “His favourite was the whip but he also used canes, a small blade and he . . . he used various objects to . . . to fuck me with.” I shivered at the memories. “The last torture he used before I got out, the one he made Greg watch was a . . . to . . . to brand me with a red hot poker.” I trembled, my mind trying to stay stable throughout the memories. Mason’s arms and legs tightened around me.

“Fuck!” He sucked in a large breath through his teeth.

“I would have to ask for things in a specific way and I always had to call him Sir.” I blew out a huge breath, trying to calm myself. I clung to Mason as I told him everything, up to and including how I had managed to get me and Greg out of there. I was finally glad to get it off my chest and talk, expose what had happened in that room and by the time I had finished I was crying and Mason was pale and quiet.

We sat in silence as I allowed him come to terms with it all. “I’m sorry,” I whispered eventually.

He slipped me round to face him and I knelt between his open legs. “No baby, don’t you ever be sorry for that . . . for what he did,” he told me firmly and I nodded.

“I’m not. I’m sorry for what it’s done to you, for putting those images in your head.” I palmed his face. “I love you Mason and you love me, so why do we try to crush each other?”

He closed his eyes in sadness. “I don’t know, baby.” His eyes opened, the pain and torture in them matching mine as they held my own. “But I know it destroys me more to be apart from you.” His thumb swept across my bottom lip. “I’m a mess without you Ava and I can’t lose you. I won’t let you go, ever.”

“I know,” I whispered and smiled. “We’re a fucking mess.” I leaned over and braced his now bent knees. “Come on, I need to feel you inside me,” I winked as I climbed out of the bath and swayed my hips on the way to the bedroom, dripping water everywhere.

I giggled as he scooped me up from behind and slung me over his shoulder, slapping my backside as he carried me to bed. “I’m gonna lick every drop of that water off your hot little body,” he growled. I giggled again as he turned his head and bit my bum before he threw me on the bed. He grinned at me as he settled at the bottom of the bed near my feet. Lifting one up, he stroked his tongue up the sole and then sucked on each of my toes before moving across and repeating the action on my other foot. Moving higher, he lapped at the droplets on my shins, knees and then my thighs, thoroughly licking me dry and duplicating on my other leg until he reached my groin. I gasped in anticipation but he diverted and moved straight to my stomach, dipping into my navel as he moved across my ribs and straight up my sternum between my breasts.

I groaned in frustration as he completely avoided my breasts and started at the tops of my arms, licking and lapping his way down to my fingers. As he reached my hand he turned my palm upwards, licked it and then bit the fleshy part at the base of my thumb before sucking on each finger, twirling his tongue around the tip of each one. I was writhing and fidgeting against the bed, hugely turned on and nearly begging for it.

Starting at my shoulder, he licked across my collarbone before sucking and biting his way up my neck and nibbling along my jaw. Then he found my mouth and I was needy and ready for him. I pulled him into me, gripping his firm arse and returned the torment by sliding my finger straight up the crease between his buttocks. He moaned into my mouth and I did it again.

He pulled back and gave me his sexy grin before licking his way back down to my breasts and took a nipple into his mouth, sucking it in deeply. I arched my back off the bed, so desperate for him. “Mason please.”

“What do you want?” he asked against my red hot nipple.

He blew on it and I groaned loudly. “I need you to make love to me,” I breathed.

He looked up at me through his eyelashes as he circled my other nipple with his tongue, never removing his eyes from mine as he sucked his way up my neck and slid a finger inside me. “You’re dripping, baby” he groaned and then I felt him nudge his way inside me. “I need this slow and easy, Ava.” We both groaned and closed our eyes as he slipped all the way to the hilt.

“Oh God,” I whimpered and he let out a low growl.

He remained still as he took my mouth with his in a long lazy kiss, his tongue dancing slowly with mine as he showed me just how much he loved me.

He started moving relaxed and gentle inside me as I moved my hips to his measured rhythm. “Oh God Ava,” he moaned, “I love you so much.” He gasped as I tightened my internal muscles, lifting my hips and swirling them when he reached the tip of me. “Fuck . . . again,” he growled and I repeated the movement. “Jesus,” he rasped as he continued the leisurely pace. I slid my hand between us and gripped his shaft as he pulled out. “Fuck.”

He bucked slightly and I smiled at him. “You like that, baby?” I bit his bottom lip gently and he groaned loudly. All of a sudden he had us flipped over and I was straddling him. “Take me Ava. Work me.”

I placed my hands flat on his incredible chest and lifted myself off him slowly, paused and slid back down gradually, grinding onto him as I reached the base of him. He arched his back and thrust into me. “Fuck me harder, Ava.” I leisurely repeated, up, pause, tighten, down and grind. “Christ Ava, you’re driving me crazy.”

I leant down and sucked in the flesh on his neck, giving him my own signature and then licked my way up to his ear. “Tell me what you want Mason?” I mimicked and he gave me a roguish smile.

“Up,” he demanded through hooded eyes. I smiled, sat back up and lifted off him, hovering over him. “Down.” He grinned as he pulled himself up so we were chest to chest, my nipples rubbing against his sprinkling of hair. I slid down him, my eyes fixed on his.

“My turn.” He smirked and grabbed my backside and lifted me up. “Turn around,” he whispered and then kissed me quickly before I changed positions and my back was now pressed against his chest. He cupped my bottom and positioned his cock under me. “Down,” he whispered in my ear. I plunged down slowly and groaned at the intense feeling.

“Fuck!” I hissed.

“God! It’s so deep,” he growled, then he took hold of my arse again and lifted me up and then slammed me back down forcefully. I yelped at the sensation, Mason snarled and did it again, crashing me down as he lifted his hips.

“Fuck me, Ava,” he demanded as I started to ride him hard and fast. “That’s it baby, take me all.”

His hands cupped my breasts as he massaged them, still banging his thrusts up to meet my plunges and I could feel the onslaught of my orgasm. “Come for me Ava, give it me.” He grabbed my hips and started to control my movements, pounding me onto him.

“Fuck Mason. It feels so good.” I tightened around him.

“Now, Ava.”

His order spilled me over the edge and I climaxed relentlessly as bright lights burst behind my eyes and every nerve ending screamed in pleasure. “Mason!” I yelled as he swelled inside me, pulled me down roughly and sank his teeth into the side of my neck. “Yes!” I shouted as he cried out my name and exploded inside me, his fingers digging into my hips so hard I knew they were going to bruise.

Sinking down on him and leaned my head back against his shoulder. “God, you feel good,” he breathed and kissed my neck.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” I puffed. “In fact I’d say you’re pretty damn amazing in the sack.”

I grinned as he sucked on my earlobe. “Of Course,” he chuckled as his arms circled my waist. He fell backwards on the bed and slipped me under his arm. I rested my head against him as my fingers twiddled his chest hair.

“Come home, Ava,” Mason asked softly. I sighed but knew that I had to be strong.

“No Mason,” I answered gently.

He groaned and buried his face into my hair. “Baby . . .” he pleaded, “It’s so quiet without you and the peanuts.”

“I can’t Mason, not until you’re off the coke.” I tilted my head back and regarded him. “We just mess things up Mason and I can’t have you around Katie and George if you’re high.” I stroked his cheek with the tip of my finger. “I love you so much but it’s because of this I wanna take things slow. I want us to work Mason and we always seem to hurt each other.”