The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (198 page)

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!

Her shocked face gave away her surprise and I cupped her chin and made her look at me, “I did not mean that the way it came out.”

She widened her eyes on me but then smiled softly, “I know.” She finished with a laugh as I pulled out and used the towel to clean my cum off her thighs.

“My hero” she sighed before she jumped down and pulled her skirt back to its original position.

“You gonna be okay with me gone?”

She sighed but shrugged, “Sure. This weekend was for you though.”

I nodded and planted a soft kiss on her forehead, “And you’ve made it one to remember, Ava. Thank you; for the gifts, the weekend and . . . Connor.”

She scrunched her nose deliciously, crying out for me to kiss it, and nodded. “It was my pleasure, Mr Fox. Ring me when you hit home. Are you leaving the kids at your mum’s?”

I nodded in confirmation to both questions as I enveloped her and pulled her in tight, “Try and get some sleep tonight.”

I knew she had trouble sleeping without me and tomorrow she would be grey, pale and exhausted. She nodded once and smiled warmly, “Don’t worry, and get this shit at work sorted.”

Yeah, like it was gonna be that easy.

“I will, baby. I love you.”

“And me, you” She answered as we walked out of the small room to cat calls and wolf whistles.

Ava laughed and bowed but I didn’t miss the dark look in Kade’s eyes.

Yeah, numbnuts, I can make her scream!

Chapter 12

Ava

MONDAY NIGHT SAW me back at the Panther. It was packed with it being ‘open night’ as Layla called it.

One night a month William opened the doors and allowed entry to non-members and I was currently chuckling at Willow’s choice of pole music.
Theory of a Deadmans ‘Little Smirk’
was blasting through her individual speaker and just as it sang ‘Karma bitch’ guess who walked through the door?