The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (211 page)

She laughed loudly, “No he’s not but Lucas is here.”

I returned her laugh as Lucas greeted me, “How rude is my wife, Ava?

“She’s really rude, Lucas. I need you even if she doesn’t.”

“What’s up, sweetheart?” he asked as I heard Layla’s giggle echo through the phone.

“Okay, keep your hands off her for two minutes, I need you. I need an overhaul of security surveillance at Allure, discreet micro cameras to hide in the privates, a system where I issue members with access passes and software that allows me to do regular identity and criminal checks. You do anything like that?”

“I do and it’s about time, I was gobsmacked with just the open area protection when I was last there.”

I didn’t argue with him about his attendance here. It seemed like everybody knew about Allure except me but that wasn’t Lucas’s fault. I know Mason would have threatened him into silence.

“Good, when can you come and scope the place out? Quick as possible Lucas, and don’t forget I’m one of your wife’s best friends and should jump the queue.”

He chuckled, “Tomorrow?”

“Perfect, I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I ended the call then looked at the other name I had selected on screen for a long while, my nerve and gut tensing as I needed this person’s specialty and knew no one else would do the job better.

I blew out a breath as he answered and my throat constricted tightly causing a squeak to break out before I found my voice.

“It’s Ava Fox, I need your help.”

Silence greeted me for a couple of seconds, then, “Where do you wanna meet?”

Chapter 27

Mason

HE ANSWERED THE door then shut it quickly but my foot wedged in the door and pushed it back before he could close it in time.

“I need a word.”

He stared at me through the gap, his whole face contorted in both rage and fear but give him his due, he stood his ground, holding the door tightly and preventing me from pushing it any further.

“We can either do this on the doorstep, with all your neighbours listening,” I gestured with my eyes to notify him of doorways on his landing sliding open stealthily, but not quietly enough for me to be unaware as hushed breaths echoed around the corridor. “Or we can do it in privacy, Kade. Your choice.”

He huffed loudly, his shoulders heaving with his anger but his resignation saw them eventually slumping with a nod of his head as he opened the door wide for me to enter.

“Thank you” I said gratefully as I took in his apartment.

It was pure bachelor pad, its light colours and deep toned décor notifying me of his single status. No feminine touches had been applied at all; no pictures adorned the walls, no knickknacks cluttered the place and no soft edges were to be seen anywhere in the open plan area.

A large queen sized bed feasted on the space in one corner, the sheer size of it seemed to dominate the room as the other furniture slid into the background. Even the dark wood kitchen area seemed insignificant against the mammoth bed.

“Nice place” I told him honestly.

“I doubt you’ve come here to compliment my digs. What do you want, Mason?”

I inhaled long and slow before I turned to him. His body was in defence mode, his fists tight by his sides ready to be used if needed, his feet were slightly apart as he braced his body in preparation to fight and his expression, wary and alert.

“Calm down, I haven’t come here for a fight.”

His shock showed clearly on his face and my lips twitched as I felt his palpable relief. “I need to know what the hell is going on with you and Courtney.”

His brow pinched in both confusion and defiance, “I really don’t see how it concerns you. What my relationship status is has nothing to do with you.”

“It does when it involves my friends and upsets my wife” I retorted as I helped myself to a whisky from a crystal decanter on his sideboard, the tell-tale aroma of the expensive brand making my mouth water as the deep timbered scent curled around my senses and lured me in. I downed the shot in one and refilled my glass as Kade deliberated over my last statement.

He sighed heavily and sank down onto a chair in front of an open, but fake, log fire. “Look Mason, what exactly do you want to know? Just ask then we can get this over with and you can get the hell out of here and leave me alone.”

I smiled to myself before turning back to him and seating myself opposite him on the small leather couch. “I want to know if it’s serious between you both.”

His jaw clenched faintly as his chest heaved vividly. He stood and poured himself a drink before returning and reclaiming his position afore me. “Why, Mason. I don’t understand what it is to you?”

I leaned forward, placing my glass on the small table between us as I rested my elbows on my knees and stared straight at him, “Because my wife is still in love with you.”

He reared back, as I knew he would, my honesty and openness stunning him and surprising him through to his core.

“I need to know how you feel. Do I have need for concern or is it real between you and Courtney?”

He remained still and flabbergasted into silence, his eyes narrow in suspicion but his heart hammering in his chest, I could see the telling frantic beat of his heart in the pulsing throb at the base of his neck, its thump hypnotising and enticing.

“Did you love her? When you took her in your pool house, did you love her, Kade?”

His adam’s apple bobbed rapidly but he nodded once honestly, “Yes.”

I nodded as my own heart beat sped up, my gut clenching as I approached the next question that needed to be answered just as truthfully. “Do you still love her?”

His brow puckered into a frown as he cocked his head, his eyes penetrative and inquisitive. “And if I did?”

“Just answer the damn question, Kade. Don’t fuck with me.”

I leaned back into the sofa and rested my ankle on the opposite knee as I threaded my fingers and rested them in my lap, preventing me from giving in to my need for dominance and control and doing something stupid.

I either needed to beat him to a fucking pulp or fuck the shit out of him, my dick hardening torturously at the thought.

What the hell was wrong with me? I hated this bastard for what he had done to my relationship with Ava. The photos of them in that damn pool house refused to leave me, denied my want for peace but all at once fired a need in me as the pictures floated around my head, especially the one of Kade’s face between my wife’s firm slender thighs. His tongue in her sweet pussy, fucking her into oblivion with it, driving her wild with desire as her face contorted with both rapture and lust.

I closed my eyes and dragged in a breath as erotic images of my cock slipping into Kade’s tight ass as he pounded Ava’s delicious wet pussy with his tongue filled the space behind my retinas.

Fuck, I didn’t need this. Not now, not while I needed to take management of the situation between Kade and my wife.

“Answer me, Kade, do you still love her?”

He stared at me for a few moments then squared his shoulders and pulled in a deep breath. “Yes.”

I twisted my lips and closed my eyes again, this time frantically attempting to rein in my anger and jealousy.

“Yes Mason, I loved her then and I still love her now. Happy now? You got what you came for, now leave. I suppose you wanna beat the shit out of me, finish me under either your fists or the muzzle of a gun. Well do it quick, Mason cos’ I am so sick of all this bullshit.” He stood before me, his face red with both passion and rage, and his body solid and mean as he finally told me his secrets.

“Your wife . . .” he continued, “Your wife was the best sex I ever had, Mason, in fact no, I made love to your wife, Mason. We had a connection, I felt it. I knew she cared for me then and I honestly didn’t do it to hurt you. I didn’t go after her thinking, oh I’ll fuck Ava to get at Mason. Fuck, I knew you would kill me if you ever found out, but you know what? She was worth that and more, Mason. God damn it, she
is
worth pain and so much more. She is worth facing the devil in hell for. I know you understand that because you feel exactly the same and if someone told you that you weren’t allowed to love her would you stop? No, and I can’t either, I’m sorry, I can’t.”

I regarded him with sinister appreciation, his openness and frankness calmly esteeming. I did understand what he was saying because like him I would do anything for Ava. I would scour hell for anything she demanded, dig to the core of the earth for her dreams and my awareness of her feelings for Kade saw me here this evening. But could I do what I came here for, ask what had been on my mind as I had knocked on his door, even tell him of my intentions when I found myself here?

“Do you love Courtney?”

He frowned again but sighed and shook his head, “No, but she’s developed feelings for me. I didn’t mean for that to happen, Mason, and now it’s too late but I didn’t intentionally go out to hurt anyone.”

I flew off the sofa and had him pinned between me and the wall in seconds as I pressed my hard body into his. His breath stunted and I flinched when his eyes darkened, in lust or fear, I wasn’t sure. Maybe I was reading too much into it as my horniness controlled my senses. Maybe I was looking for something I hoped was there but wasn’t.

“You knew she was married to Greg, Kade. How could you have not meant to hurt anyone when the woman is married?” I snarled at him, my rage camouflaging my desire.

Fuck, not now.

I pushed away from the wall and moved away before I did something really fucking rash and foolish. Why the hell was I looking at Kade differently now?

Because I had finally faced up to my sexual preferences, being honest with myself made me see things, as well as people, differently. My sexual appetite hugely diverse to what it had been in the past.

I knew I wasn’t gay, Ava’s sweet sexual pull on me granted that, but Kade, God he was suddenly tempting the sins from me, enticing an arousal that was only present for him and luring something dark from deep inside me.

Kade remained pressed against the wall as he regarded me warily, he had seen it in me, I knew he had. I had felt his body harden under mine, felt the aroused frantic beat of his heart in his chest, felt his fucking erection pressing into my belly.

Okay, I needed to take control of this, push past it and deny we hadn’t both felt what we had.

“What exactly do you want, Mason?” Kade asked quietly but hoarsely and I grit my teeth at the rough tone in his voice, his lust now unmistakeable and undeniable.

I turned and watched him. I viewed the desire that could never be acted upon, saw the confusion that mirrored mine and saw the need pulsing in his eyes.

“I need you to decide what you want, Kade.”

He swallowed heavily and stared back, his gaze heated but wary as his body hummed violently in the quiet room. “I think you know what I want, Mason, just as I know what you want.”

“You know nothing, Kade” I growled at him as I kept myself distanced and closed off to his curiosity.

He nodded slowly, “So you don’t want to fuck me?”

I was on him faster than lightening, my desire to pummel him, pound my fists into him raged through my system as I once again pinned him under me.

Our joint breaths were laboured and severe as we stared at each other violently, our bodies strumming with need and carnal desires.

His hot skin burnt straight through me, the raw primal lust expressed openly on his face seared directly to my dick, hardening it beyond its limits as a bead of sweat trickled down my chest, bouncing across my blistering skin as I fought to pull back.

So damn hard, becoming impossible.

“Admit it Mason, you wanna slide your cock deep within me, claim me, fuck me so hard that I scream your name in ecstasy but do you want your pretty wife to watch or do you wanna hurt her and do it behind her back?”

“Fuck you” I roared as I pulled away and left him still leaning on the wall, his legs trembling and his hard on ram-rod stiff as I slammed his apartment door behind me.

Chapter 28

Ava

I CRINGED AND shivered inside as the crack of the whip slashed against Madam Raquel’s toy for the night, her own face contorting in pleasure as openly as the man’s currently bent over the large tacky bed.

Jesus Christ, this place needed a complete overhaul, from security all the way through to new décor and furnishings. The corridors and reception rooms were freshly painted and decorated, all the greeting rooms decked to appeal but the private rooms were awful. It was a dive, plain and simple.

I scanned the room, strategically placing imaginary micro cameras in different parts of the room to obtain the best overall view of the room.

I had been surprised that none of the clients had regular criminal checks. They underwent one when they joined, along with health tests but then that was it, no more were done. Any of these men, or even women, could suddenly develop a fetish for rough and fatal sex and that was a hazard Mason couldn’t afford right now.

I heard the door behind me open and close and I turned to find Mason watching me. His eyes flicked to the scene in the room before his brow puckered and he rested his dark eyes on me.

My breath caught in my throat and my pussy walls clenched almost painfully when I caught the look of pure animistic need in both his body language and his expression.

“I need you” he whispered when he approached. His voice was low and raspy as his fingers curled around both of my hips tightly and painfully. His chest heaved with his heavy inhalations and the hunger rolled off him in thick tangible waves of lust.

“I need to fuck you right now, Ava, right now.”

I nodded as every inch of my skin pinched tightly with sensitivity, “Not here. My office.”

“No, here” He added as his gaze landed back on the couple now fucking hard and fast on the bed, their loud grunts filling the air with sex as Mason’s aura filled it with raw, primal lust.

I shook my head again, “I can’t Mason, the . . . the whip, I can’t.”

His expression softened as he nodded in agreement and grabbed my hand, pulling me swiftly from the room with an urgency I had never seen in him before.