Whatever It Takes (25 page)

“That’s it, baby. Keep your eyes on me.”

Laurie moaned and her eyelids fluttered but she held his
stare. The dresser banged against the wall and Laurie let out groan after groan
in the same rhythm. Still looking into her eyes, Mason began to growl with
every thrust. He tangled a hand in her hair, turned her head toward him and
kissed her. He slid his other hand down her front and caressed her clit and
Laurie tore her lips from his to ground out his name.

Mason moved both hands to her hips and continued at his wild
pace. Laurie’s muscles clenched around him and she cried out loudly. He wasn’t
finished yet—he tightened his grip on her hip and pumped harder and faster. Her
muscles began to relax only to spasm and squeeze him again. Her moaning became
louder and louder with each spasm until the sounds she made bordered on
screaming.

“Mason, I can’t,” she cried.

“Yes you can,” he growled. “Give it to me, baby, give me all
of it.”

He lifted her so her toes barely touched the floor and
stared into her eyes in the mirror as he continued thrusting. Her arms trembled
and her feet kicked at the air as she came again, this time screaming loud
enough that the neighbors probably heard. The sound shot through Mason and he
exploded.

Muscles trembling, Mason lowered Laurie back onto her feet.
She immediately leaned forward and rested her forehead against the mirror as
she took gasping breaths. She lowered her arms and allowed the remains of her
teddy to slide off, onto the floor.

Mason attempted to slow his breathing and kissed the back of
her head.

When he was sure his legs would hold him again, he pulled
out of her and then scooped her into his arms. He carried her to bed and lay
her down. Staring down at her naked form, he relieved himself of what was left
of his clothing then he slid into bed beside her and pulled her close.

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” he murmured as he
kissed her.

“I did,” Laurie assured him. “I guess I’ll be teasing you
more often from now on.”

Mason laughed and kissed her neck as she sighed sleepily.
Exhausted and happy, they both drifted to sleep quickly.

Laurie sat in the middle of a pile of law books and papers.
She’d foolishly decided to get a jumpstart on studying for finals. She thought
it would take her mind off being stuck in the house but it only frustrated her
more. After only two hours of studying, she ended up fighting the urge to toss
every book out the front door.

It was only three days until classes resumed and she still
wasn’t sure what kind of battle she would have with Mason about going back. She
didn’t want to be at odds with him but she’d worked too hard to give up in the
home stretch, regardless of the reason.

Mason was at work and she was certain Dewayne was somewhere
in the house, keeping an eye out for her. She knew he was doing it out of
loyalty to Mason and even though she thought the guys were going a bit
overboard with it all, she did her best to avoid making his job any harder. She
stayed inside and if he told her to go upstairs or to the back of the house,
she did so without argument.

She had just started stacking up her books when the doorbell
rang. Instantly, she froze and looked toward the front door. She wasn’t
expecting anyone and as far as she knew, Mason and Dewayne weren’t, either.
Before she could move, Dewayne hurried through the room, heading for the door.
He pointed at her, which she understood to mean she should stay put. She heard
him chuckle from the foyer then the door opened and she heard mumbling voices
outside. She assumed it was someone for Dewayne and went back to putting her
books away.

“Well, there’s the love of my life.”

Laurie looked up at the sound of Mona’s jubilant voice and
lit up. She got to her feet and met her new friend halfway across the room for
a warm hug.

“I knew you were the one. I knew it as soon as Mace dragged
you to our table at the bar. I never saw him look at anyone that way. I told
Dewayne that first night that you were going to snag him.”

Dewayne, who was standing directly behind Mona, gave a
confirming nod.

“Now I hear he’s all behaving himself and shit. Sweetheart,
it’s nothing short of a miracle.”

Laurie laughed as Mona squeezed her one last time before she
released her.

“Mona, it’s so great to see you!” After spending the week
locked up in the house with the guys, Laurie was giddy at the prospect of girl
talk.

“I’ve got beer and tequila,” Mona announced, holding up a
twelve-pack of beer in one hand and a fifth of tequila in the other. “Dewayne
is getting the rest out of the car. We are going to have a girls’ day in. We
can do hair and makeup. I brought some costumes from the club so we can play
dress up, and what’s a girls’ day without manicures? I have about seventy
different nail polish colors. This is going to be so much fun…a whole day of
beauty.”

Laurie laughed and actually felt excited about Mona’s plan
for their day.

It took three trips for Dewayne to carry everything in, and
Laurie was a little overwhelmed by all of it. Dewayne disappeared into the
kitchen with one of Mona’s bags and returned shortly with a pitcher of
margaritas and two glasses. Mona thanked him with a sensual kiss before he
ducked back out of the room.

“So this is your dungeon.” Mona sighed, looking around the
living room. “Nice décor, by the way.”

Laurie shrugged and accepted the drink Mona offered her.

“You poor thing, seduced by sexy, badass Mace, and the
bastard changed his whole life, then dragged you home and forced a ten-thousand-dollar
ring on your finger. Poor, poor girl. It’s just like beauty and the beast.”

Laurie couldn’t help but laugh at Mona’s description of the
situation. Mona sobered and patted Laurie’s arm.

“I know Mace can be a real hard-headed bastard but you gotta
know, it’s only because he loves you.”

“I know.” Laurie sighed. “And I love him too. More than I
ever dreamed possible.” She gulped down half her drink and plopped down into
the chair Mona positioned for her. “Enough talk. Make me beautiful.”

* * * * *

Two hours later, Laurie danced around the living room,
wearing the skimpy outfit Mona had picked out for her. Laurie could barely
breathe in the corset and the heels were dangerously high but she did her best
to rock it. Her hair was too big and her makeup too heavy but she felt like a
sexy siren, nonetheless. It helped that she was on her fifth margarita.

“So what’s the deal with you and Dewayne?” she asked Mona as
the two of them danced to eighties music. “Are you secret lovers, friends with
benefits, what’s the deal?”

Mona laughed breathlessly as they dropped to the couch.

“I guess you could call us friends with benefits but only
when we’re both single. We just have a thing for each other that goes way back.”
She refilled their glasses, took a healthy drink and leaned back on the couch. “Hell,
all the other girls took one look at Mace or Rafe and they were head over heels
in love, ready to bear their children. Me, on the other hand, the first time
fourteen-year-old, skinny-ass Dewayne smiled at me, I got butterflies. The
other guys became like brothers so the idea of humping them was gross, but not
Dewayne. He’s one of my best friends on the planet but he damn sure doesn’t
feel like a brother.”

“Where did you guys all meet for the first time?”

“We were in foster care together and we managed to keep up
with each other after we left,” Mona told her. “If it hadn’t been for Mace and
the other guys, things would have gone badly for me.”

Laurie looked at her friend warily, afraid she was digging
into a tender spot.

“It’s okay,” Mona assured Laurie. “Nothing serious ever
happened to me, thanks to the guys…especially Mace. He saved all of us from
having it a lot worse than we did.”

“How did he do that?” Laurie got comfortable on the couch,
eager for some details of Mason’s past.

“By being Mace.” Mona chuckled and then elaborated. “My dad
got sent to prison when I was fourteen and after a few months of bouncing
around, they sent me to the same foster home the guys were stuck in.

“It was in Baton Rouge and it was a really fucked-up place.
The dad was abusive to everyone in that house and the mom only showed up once a
month—when the subsidy checks came in—then she was gone again, so we kids had
to stick together. There was me, Mace, Dewayne, Rafe and the guy’s own sons,
Caleb and Garrick. The dad zeroed in on Dewayne first, probably because he was
so small and skinny. The old man would slap Dewayne around over any little
thing but that only happened a few times before Mace stepped in.

“He was big, even at age fifteen—not as big as he is now and
certainly not as big as the foster dad, but bigger than the rest of us. Anyway,
one day Mace stepped in front of Dewayne and called the dad a coward, and the
man just unleashed on him.” Mona closed her eyes and shook her head. “The guy
pummeled him. I mean, it was brutal and Mace didn’t fight back. He just took
it. He knew if he did anything to the bastard, they would send him somewhere
else—probably juvie because he’d been in trouble before—and then we would be
there on our own. So for a few weeks, every time the dad would go after
someone, Mace would be there to piss him off and take the beating.”

“That does sound like Mason,” Laurie said. Pain settled in
her chest at the thought of him going through that kind of abuse. Her stomach
clenched and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear any more.

“After a while, the dad stopped going after anyone else. I
remember how my heart would pound when he would call Mace to the shed out back.
That meant he was in for a full-on beat down.

“We never knew when or why he was going to call him out
there but we knew what it meant when he did. Sometimes, the beatings were so
vicious that we could hear the sound of his belt or fists hitting Mace from
inside the house. I think it made that old man feel like a badass to beat on Mace,
because he was such a big kid. The dad didn’t actually beat the hell out of Mace
like that every day but the bastard would kick or slap or punch him at every opportunity.

“The other guys always felt bad because they were too afraid
to step in and help him like he did for them, but they were all so scrawny and
Mace always told us to keep our mouths shut and stay out of the way when the
dad was after him.” Mona glanced at their empty glasses then grabbed the
pitcher and refilled them again.

Laurie wiped the tears from her cheeks before she took a big
gulp.

“I don’t think I saw Mace without a black eye or split lip
for about five months but he never complained or looked for sympathy. In fact,
he would have been pissed if any of us had the nerve to feel sorry for him. I
think he looked at it as his job to protect us.”

Laurie nodded and swallowed another swig of her drink. “So
whatever happened? How did you guys get away?” she asked, still wiping tears
from her eyes.

“Well, Rafe was getting sent home to his mom and they were
moving here. My dad was getting out early for good behavior so I was going home
in just a few days. I remember I was so excited to see him and I had been going
through my clothes, looking for something nice to wear when I first saw him. Of
course, I didn’t have anything, but the next day Dewayne showed up after school
with a pretty little summer dress. I have no idea where he got it but it was
perfect.” She smiled warmly and seemed to get lost in the memory for a moment. “Anyway,
it was only three days until I was going home and the foster dad came into my
room in the middle of the night. I was the only girl left in the home because
the other two had run away, so I was all by myself. He grabbed me while I was
sleeping and covered my mouth and told me he was going to give me something to
remember him by. I couldn’t get away or even scream for help. I really thought
the evil bastard was going to rape me.”

Laurie shivered in fear and revulsion for her friend.

“I must have kicked the wall or something because all of a
sudden, Mace burst through the door. He hit it so hard it cracked down the
middle. The next thing I knew he had the dad down in the middle of the floor,
punching him over and over.

“The guy was big and I was afraid he would throw Mace off
and beat him to death, but Rafe and Dewayne came running in and started kicking
the son of a bitch. Then Caleb and Garrick came and joined in. Between the five
of them, they beat him unconscious. We all knew we were going to be in deep
shit when he woke up so we tied him up and locked him in the shed out back.”
Mona laughed and swallowed the last of her drink.

“We could hear him yelling out back but we just ignored him,
and we were far enough away from any neighbors that we didn’t have to worry
about anyone hearing him. It was a great couple of days—we celebrated Mace’s
sixteenth birthday, drank all the asshole’s booze and just relaxed a little,
but we knew it wouldn’t last. Caleb and Garrick called their grandma and she
came and picked them up, then Rafe and me went home to our parents and that
left Mace and Dewayne.

“Mace was finished dealing with foster care, said he’d taken
his last beating from some asshole on a power trip, so he decided to take off
on his own. Dewayne didn’t have anyone else and Mace had always kept an eye out
for him, so naturally he took him along. Once they were far enough away they
made a call to the cops and let them know the guy was locked up and none of us
ever looked back.”

By that point, Laurie was feeling pretty close to drunk and
couldn’t seem to stop the tears from flowing. Mona attempted to comfort her by
holding her hand.

“I didn’t see them again for about four years. Then one
night, Dewayne spotted me in the strip club where I worked. Man, he’d filled
out and grew up real nice and sexy.” She laughed and blushed a little. “We
hooked up for the first time in his car right there behind the club. Turned out
he was still running with Mace and they had found Rafe right after he moved
here with his mom.

“They’d looked for me for a while but me and my dad had moved
to Houston when he got out of prison. I came back here when he screwed up and
got sent up again. We’ve all stayed in touch and looked out for each other ever
since. Rafe even tracked down Caleb and Garrick, who’re living in Oklahoma.
They turned out to be great guys and I’m sure you’ll get to meet them soon.
They work construction so they travel a lot, and sometimes the jobs are right
here, so every few months you can count on them popping up and turning the city
upside down.”

Laurie wiped at her eyes again and chuckled at the color
that came off on her hands. Her makeup must be a mess.

“I’m glad you all found each other but I hate that Mason had
to go through all that.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you, sweetheart.” Mona hugged Laurie
and then tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “But I wanted you to
understand the lengths Mace will go to in order to protect the people he cares
about. He took awful beatings for us but he’s crazy in love with you. He
changed his life for you. He’d give his life for you and yes, he’ll lock you in
a dungeon and put you under armed guard if he feels it’s the only way to
protect you. That’s what he is and always has been, you know? A protector. A
bull-headed, overbearing, sometimes-a-complete-asshole protector.” Mona gave
Laurie a wary look. “Do you think you can live with that?”

Laurie heard the tension in her friend’s voice and realized
Mona was asking a serious question. She was afraid Laurie would leave Mason
because of his dominance and protectiveness. She felt a lump in her throat as
she thought of how much Mona must care for him.

“I can live with a lot of things, Mona, but I can’t live
without him. I’m not going anywhere, even if he has a tendency to lock me in
the tower when he gets anxious. You don’t have to worry but I appreciate that
you care enough about him to talk to me about it. I’m glad you all have each
other.”