The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (268 page)

He quirked a brow at me and held his palm flat against his chest. “You wound me. I’m not that shallow. We had a conversation about green beans on Monday and that didn’t end with my cock buried inside your lovely little pussy.”

I rolled my lips and smirked, “If I remember rightly, it ended with your tongue inside my pussy and your cock inside my mouth.”

“Ah,” he popped his lips and shrugged. “So it did.”

“It’s okay,” I sighed heavily as I shook my head. “Take me if you must.”

He laughed so loudly and happily that my own lips twitched with him. “You are so good to me.”

“A woman knows her place,” I whispered against his ear as I nibbled at the lobe with the tip of my teeth. “And her place is right here.” I slid down on him, his thickness stretching my inner walls almost unbearably.

His head fell back against the tiles as his eyes fluttered closed. “Jesus Ava.” The groan that came from him provided all the lube I needed to work him harder.

“My god, you are so fucking stunning” I breathed. My tongue lapped at the rivulets of water that ran down his chest, each perfect muscle providing many contours and lines to follow.

His hands came up to cup my breasts, his fingers kneading gently at the flesh. “Fuck, I love your tits,” he whispered before his tongue traced around the edge of the swell and I quivered over him. He studied me and I knew he was watching the pleasure he bestowed on me cover my face.

My jaw dropped and my breathing sped up as he dipped his hips and changed the direction his cock was brushing against me, his upward thrusts meeting me as each of my plunges took him deeper and deeper. “I need to feel you, Ava. Come for me, baby. Make me feel what I do to you.”

I shivered as my orgasm hit, my nerve endings crying out at the overwhelming sensation. Mason cried out my name when his own climax took his eyes from me.

I wiped at the stray tear as it rolled down my cheek before he reopened them and caught it. He wasn’t to witness anymore of my tears. I was hurting him too much. My pain was his pain, my heartbreak his own and I didn’t want that for him. He had given me too much these last twenty years for me to repay him with even more pain.

“I love you, Mason.”

He opened his eyes and smiled tenderly at me, “And me, you. Forever and always.”

I nodded, “Forever and always.”

Chapter Twelve

Mason

“WE ALL DIE,” Connor started bluntly as he stood looking over the huge mass of people that had squashed into the small chapel in Scotland, his and his brother’s hometown. “But this time, it is my brother.”

He glanced down at his paper resting on the lectern before him. I caught Ava slip her hand into Courtney’s and I copied her pose, sliding my fingers between hers in her free hand.

“This time, someone took something very special from us.” Connor paused and I closed my eyes as all the sorrow in the room compressed my chest. “My brother wasn’t just another being on this sorry planet, he was one of its pillars. His strength held up those around him, his generosity gave others the encouragement they needed to go on but it was his love that he gave so freely that deserved him a place . . . up there.” He smiled as he looked up.

I watched the tiny tear slide out of the corner of his eye and trickle down his face until it fell from his chin and splattered onto his neatly written words. His hands grabbed the wooden structure before him when his knees buckled and a choked sound echoed around the room.

Ava shot up from beside me and took Connor in her arms, before leading him back to his seat and then replaced his position at the front.

She smiled out at everyone as she slowly scanned the cool room. “Someone took my friend. Someone took your friend.” She continued to smile as a tear dripped off the tip of her nose. “But I won’t ask you to pray for him. Greg doesn’t need our prayers. He has the golden ticket, he is already laced with scotch and . . .” She turned to Courtney and smiled, “Forgive me, Hun but your husband already has the Angels on their knees.”

Courtney let out a loud sob but nodded and laughed.

Ava grit her teeth together, “But it is us that is left to suffer without him. It’s us that grieve and hurt so tremendously the pain seems unbearable.” She placed her palm on her chest over her heart. “But you know what. He’s still here. I still feel him; laughing at my antics, shaking his head at my wrongdoings, tutting when I drink too much. And gazing at his beautiful wife with so much love that she will forever feel that with her.”

She paused and rolled her lips then turned and placed her hands on the coffin. I tipped my head and strived to listen to what she said. I knew she was saying something when her lips moved but I couldn’t distinguish it so I left her to make her own peace with him. She then turned back around and looked up to the sky and let out a sob. “And now it’s our job to watch over his family whilst he prepares our own beds up there for us.”

She held out her hand to Harry as he climbed the three steps onto the podium. He leant in and kissed Ava on the cheek before he took his own position. “Thank you Aunty Ava.”

Ava grabbed almost frenziedly at my hand when she sat back beside me. “I’m proud of you, baby.”

She gave me a soft smile before turning back to Harry. He looked around the room but then rested his gaze on me. “My dad was loved by many and he loved many. But after my mum and I, there was no greater love he held than for Mason and Ava.”

Oh Christ.

I shook my head at him. “Don’t do this,” I begged. Ava crushed my hand as I tried to rise from my seat.

“Mason, sit down.”

“No,” I shook my head when the guilt tore at my throat and made it difficult to breathe. “I won’t listen to this. It’s time, it’s time to make them pay, Ava.”

She stared at me as confusion and disbelief marred her beauty. “Now?”

“Now!”

“But . . .”

“I don’t care about the time, I don’t care if I look rude, Ava. I need to do this. I can’t endure this anymore.”

“Okay,” she soothed gently as she stood beside me. She slid her thumb across my cheekbone and wiped the forbidden tear away. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

Chapter Thirteen

Ava

I DOUBLE CHECKED Barbara and the other two guns tucked securely into my clothing for the fourth time as I tapped my foot and remained back.

This was torture. Mason hadn’t let me go in with the initial team and I bounced on the balls of my feet as the adrenaline made me twitch.

“How much longer?” I asked him.

“Calm down, baby.”

“I can’t Mason, I need him. If they take him down before I get to him, I’m gonna go crazy.”

He smirked at me, “You’ll get your turn, I promise.”

I nodded. My ears picked up a slight sound and I frowned as the faint crack sounded again. I had always trusted my instincts, and Mason had always told me to trust them, so when my senses flared once more I pulled Barbara out, spun round and pointed in the direction of the sound.

Movement caught my eye as Mason pulled me down behind him and Sam, “Sshhh.” he whispered into the air almost soundlessly.

Sam nudged further towards Mason until they provided a wall in front of me. “Move,” I whispered back. “I need to be in front.”

“Ava!” Mason warned with a quiet hiss, “Do as your fucking told or you go home.”

What the hell?

My anger flared with him then. I wanted to hit him round the back of the head with a sharp instrument. “I’m not a child, don’t push me out, Mason.”

“I’m not!” he turned and glared at me. “I’m trying to keep you safe, not fucking omitting you!”

“Will you two shut the fuck up!” Sam declared as another crunch echoed around us. My eyes caught a shift in my peripheral view. The crafty bastard. I’m sure I looked like one of Charlie’s Angels when I spun on my bent legs and took him out with a single bullet to the forehead. Barbara had been silenced, much to my chagrin when Mason had said all females should sport a silencer.

Mason flicked an eyebrow at me when all three of us scanned the perimeter for more guests. “Well done, Ava.” I said to myself when the men just turned back round to wait for our signal.

“Fuck this!” I huffed. Mason was on my tail when I clambered over the electric fencing that been disabled by one of our guys on the inside.

“Ava!” He grabbed at my arm and pulled me back but I shrugged him off.

“Mason, I’m warning you, if you don’t let me go, I’m gonna blow a hole through your own damn head.”

I watched as his body locked up. His eyes glazed over, his fists tightened around the handle of his gun and the temperature around us dramatically dropped. I smiled slyly, “There you are, it’s about fucking time.”

He narrowed his eyes on me as his jaw clenched. “What?”

I shook my head at him in frustration before I continued to stealthily edge around the garden. “Well come on, look at you. Someone took out your best friend and so far I haven’t witnessed anything that reminds me of the sadistic, merciless bastard that I fell in love with.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” He barked as he tried to keep up with me when I skirted the building and approached the back door, grimacing at the security light that slicked on.

“Me?” I scoffed, “Where the fuck are you, Mason? You’ve become a pussy!”

The air left my lungs when my back hit the floor and Mason’s imposing frame imprisoned me. “Right, I warned you. I don’t know what the fuck has happened to make you suicidal, but no more, baby. You’re out!”

“What?”

“Go home before it isn’t Oswald that ends you.”

I glared at him as the bubble erupted in my stomach. Fire raced through my veins and exploded in a fury as I laid into him. He tried to catch each of my fists before they connected with him. “Ava, stop it!” He cried as he struggled to contain my rage. “What the fuck are you doing? You’ve lost it!”

I screamed at him as I pummelled him harder. Days of horror and devastation and despair surged from me in a torrent of violence. Sam tried to take hold of me when I rolled until I was straddled over Mason, but he couldn’t pull me back from the insanity that had overtaken me.

I was relentless and furious as I rained blow after blow upon Mason. His hands eventually covered his face as my abuse refused to subside.

I kicked out when arms wrapped around my waist and Sam dragged me back. Mason clambered up and pulled out his phone. “I need you,” he hissed into it before he disconnected just as abruptly.

His chest was heaving, his nose poured with blood and his cheekbone was already brandishing black bruising. I smirked when I saw his eye already closing up. He was an inch from me, his furious face stern with rage. “I’ll deal with you at home.” That was all he said to me before Neo appeared. “Knock her out.”

“What?”

He shook his head as his sad eyes gazed at me. “I know you’re hurting, Ava. But you have given me no choice.”

I glared back at him, “No Mason. You promised me I could do this, you swore it would be me.”

“And you swore to abide by my rules!” He roared at me.

I blinked back the tears as I tried to shrug out of Sam’s hold. “You do this and we’re done.”

He shook his head slowly, his expression full of so much pain with my behaviour but I couldn’t seem to pull back my hatred. It was burning inside me, the sear of it too agonising to hold inside. “And you do this . . .” he sighed, “then we’re all done.”

I hissed when I felt the scratch just above my elbow. “I will never forgive you for this, Mason.”

He nodded as he started to blur, “I know, baby. But you will.”

I shook my head as my legs gave way and my eyes rolled back, “No. . . . I won’t.”

Chapter Fourteen

Mason

“BABY,” I WHISPERED as I brushed the wild copper curls from her face. She murmured under her breath but didn’t move. “Ava.”

Her eyes slowly opened but the usual deep green had gone, they were dead and muted. The familiar twinkle had disappeared and had been replaced by a lifeless haze. “Hi,” I said softly as I ran my thumb across her cheekbone.

She didn’t speak. She stared at me, her eyes blinking slowly as though she was too tired of life to even give me a response. “I have news.” I swallowed at her despondency, she had given in, it was written all over her. “George woke up and he’s fine. They’ve done all the checks and everything seems okay.” She nodded but didn’t react to the news as I thought she would have done. “And Oswald has been removed.”

She dropped her eyes and nodded again before she turned her back on me and curled within herself. “Baby, please.”

I watched as her back lifted and fell rhythmically with each breath she took. I wouldn’t back down on this, I was grateful that her breakdown had happened before we had stormed the place, if it hadn’t I wouldn’t be watching her lungs inflate and deflate with her life force. “You need to understand why I wouldn’t let you go in, Ava. You were a hazard to everyone. I’ve always told you that you need to be alert and also calm on a takeout. You were crazy.” I reached out and pulled her hair behind her shoulder. Her eyes were open but she stared at nothing, her eyes not even focussing on the wall she was looking at.

“Do you have a death wish?”

She scoffed and I frowned at her reaction. “Yeah,” she whispered despondently.

I hated to see her like this. It was killing me along with her. I couldn’t help but worry that she would slip into the same episode that had haunted her after the Dane incident.

I slid my arm around her waist as I settled in behind her, my groin snuggling against her pert little bottom. “I remember the day I first saw you. I so desperately wanted to laugh at your wild hair but then you lifted your eyes to me. I swear the world stopped fucking turning and my heart actually stopped. You were the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.” I smiled to myself as I pictured her nervous eyes scanning the room, her fingers flicking rapidly against each other as her chest had heaved in that tight little stripy blouse she had worn.

I chuckled to myself. “Then I remember your little arse stuck out of the freezer and you banged your head on the lid when I made you jump.” I snorted and pursed my lips, “In fact, you were always banging your head on things when I was around.”