I quietly rushed over to her. I didn’t want to wake her, I wanted a moment of peace with her before she found me and all hell broke loose.
Her beautiful face was now thin and pale, marred by many ruptured veins and blemishes. Her delicious soft curls were gone, a large scar trailing across her head with the light from the moonlight. There was a layer of downy softness sheltering the delicate skin over her skull and I swallowed to stop myself from feeling it under my fingers.
“You are so beautiful,” I whispered into the dark.
Her suffering was evident and I swiped away the tear that rolled down my cheek. I longed to take away all her pain, make everything right again, crush all her despair and beg the God’s to give her back her life.
But I couldn’t. I had to accept that she had moved on, that she was taking the path in life that would destroy her, but while she was hell bent on destruction, I had to back off and let her blow before I could even think of getting her back.
She believed she was no longer a fighter. I begged to differ. She had fought the hardest battle of her life—alone. She had stepped into the darkness isolated and unaided and my little warrior had fought.
She needed to keep fighting now until she saw the light again. Until she realised that whatever or whoever she had become, she was still my beautiful Ava but I knew to let her find that again, I had to let her go.
A tear fell from my face and dripped onto her new hair as I bent and placed a soft kiss on her head. “I won’t say goodbye, baby. I’ll never say goodbye. But I need you to find your life again, I need you to grab hold of something, anything, and use it to pull yourself out of this.”
She grumbled but didn’t wake as I ran my thumb tenderly over her cheek, the prominence of her bone triggering an ache inside. “I love you, Mrs Fox. My monster of fortitude.”
She sighed as I stepped out of the bedroom and quietly pulled the door closed behind me.
The anger and hatred erupted as soon as I blocked connection with her.
I needed to get drunk.
I needed to get high.
I needed to fight back.
I needed to fuck.
Chapter Sixteen
Enemies
Ava
Four weeks later
“NOOO!” I LAUGHED and shouted at George as I whipped the bar towel at him. “There are some things a mother does not want to know!”
He grinned at me over the bar, “Mom, I’m nineteen.”
“I don’t care if you’re forty bloody six,” I scowled at him. “I do not want to know!”
Debora laughed and took a huge bite from her sandwich. “I agree with Ava. I sure as hell don’t want my mom knowing what my sex life entails.”
We all lifted a brow at her and she shrugged, “Okay, I don’t want to know what my mother’s sex life entails.” She shuddered and I smirked at her.
Over the last four weeks, my son’s girlfriend had been a godsend. She had made it her mission for me to get back on track, and although she was only young and her heart was in the right place, she had no idea. However, the way she loved George broke my heart. They were the replica of Mason and me, from the way they looked at each other, to the way they touched and laughed together, and although it physically hurt to watch them, it made my heart swell so damn much.
“Room six,” Owen smiled at me as he handed me a tray of drinks.
“Well, we’re off,” George grinned when he took Debora’s hand. “We have a room booked.” He dragged her across the room and up the stairs to the privates.
I cringed when Steed smirked at me from his stool on the opposite side of the bar. “Yeah, I can get that’s a bit weird.”
“You have no idea,” I sighed as I walked down the corridor towards the entertainment room. “Steed,” I sighed as I felt him follow me down the corridor. “You don’t have to follow me everywhere.”
“I’m good,” he drawled through a huge yawn.
I stopped, sighed and turned to him. “Go home. I’ve only just started my shift half an hour ago, there’s still at least six hours left.”
He pursed his lips and stepped into me. “Fine. I’m going home. I will be back at midnight for you. Do not leave without me, do you understand?”
“Good god, Steed. It was a random stolen car. I haven’t seen or heard anything funny in the last four weeks. I will be fine. My car is here, and I have been given the all clear for driving you know.”
I bit into my lip when his lips curved into a wicked grin and he forced me backwards until my back rested against the wall. The tray wobbled in my hand and I struggled to keep a hold of it when his face came so close I could smell his damn toothpaste.
“For one, I will leave you when I deem it safe.” His mouth moved up the edge of my jaw until it brushed my ear, triggering a shudder to rip through me. “And secondly, I have been taking you home for the last three weeks because I can guarantee one day you will invite me in, strip me naked and sink that delicious mouth of yours around my cock until I come right down your elegant little throat.”
He smirked at the whimper that left me, then patted my face softly and winked. “See you at midnight.”
I stared after him as he strolled down the corridor, his arrogance controlling his gait as well as his personality.
He’d been trying to bed me for weeks and I was finding it harder and harder to resist him. The way he spoke, so openly and bluntly, ignited a fierce lust in me and I knew he would fuck me like I liked to be fucked. But I couldn’t give in. For one, I was still in love with my husband and for two, my body was a mutilated hideous heap of scars and wounds that no one would ever be allowed to see again.
I gulped back the lump in my throat and entered room six, nudging the door open with my hip as I balanced the tray on my shaky hands.
“Damn you,” I whispered to myself when the aftereffect of Steed left me a trembling mess.
The room was dark, the only light coming from a few sconces around the room. Music was playing quite loudly and I groaned when I caught the two girls writhing in ecstasy on the podium.
I looked around for the occupiers and groaned louder when I found them bent over a small table, both of them snorting lines of coke naked.
“Just put the tray over there,” a voice said as he pointed to another table in the corner.
The tray finally slipped from my grasp as vomit rushed up my throat. I only just managed to hold onto it when Mason turned round and frowned at me. “You okay, love?”
Realisation hit him with a force when he disregarded the blonde wig and the false breasts disguising me. “Ava?”
I stared in silence when the brunette turned to face me. “Well, hello Ava.” Rebecca sneered.
Everything I had hung on to, everything I had fought for these past six months disintegrated in a heap around me. My heart and soul burst open in so much agony that I would forever feel the pain.
“Why . . .” My jaw opened and closed as I took in their bare bodies, condoms littering the floor and the lines of snow decorating the table.
“Ava . . .” He stumbled to his feet, his high causing him problems when I backed off and he couldn’t reach me quick enough.
I shook my head at him as I fell through the door, snatched my bag from the restroom and raced out of the building, Mason’s cries of my name echoing around me as I clambered in my car.
I watched his naked body sprint after me in the rear-view mirror until I floored the accelerator and disappeared around the corner.
* * *
I banged on the door, my fists hurting with the force of my knocks. “Come on damn it.”
The hallway light illuminated and the catches shifted until he opened the door and stared at me in just his shorts. “Ava?”
I pushed him back and instantly dropped to my knees before him. “Although you didn’t invite me in, I can still guarantee this is the night you sink your cock down my throat and fill it with cum.”
“What the . . .” He hissed when I y
anked his shorts down and promptly sheathed his already hard cock with my mouth. “Fuck . . . Fuck!”
His unique taste tingled on my tongue as I lapped down his shaft and cupped his balls with my teeth. He grabbed my hair and pulled off my wig before he clasped my head and started to direct my movements. “Shit . . . more . . .”
He thrust into me and I accommodated him by loosening the muscles in my throat, before I slid back up him and circled his swollen head with my tongue. “I’m not gonna last darlin,’” he growled as he held my head still and started to fuck my mouth hard and furiously.
I took everything he gave me, flicking my tongue on him and tightening my lips when he started to tremble. His fingers dug into my scalp when he shot his load into my mouth, a huge torrent of sweet cum lining my throat and charging into my belly with force as he groaned loudly through his orgasm.
I was yanked upwards and then scooped up into his arms as he took the stairs two at a time.
He stood me in the centre of his bedroom and knelt before me, yanking at my work shorts until he tapped my foot and I stepped out of them. My hands immediately covered myself, self-awareness at another man’s eyes on me flushing my body with shame.
Steed took my hands and shifted them to my sides as he glared up at me, “Never be ashamed of your body, Ava. You are fucking beautiful.” He was angry but I nodded faintly. “Now apologise and hold your hands behind your back.”
I stared at him. He pinched the inside of my thigh causing me to gasp. “I once told you I fuck with pain, Ava. This is your last chance to pull your shorts back up and walk away.” I chewed on my lower lip, my mind swinging left and right as I fought with the yes and the no. “You stay,” he continued with a dark gaze on me. “Then I fuck you like you’ve never been fucked before . . . my way.”
My chest was heaving as we both waited for me to decide.
I pulled my hands behind my back, holding onto each wrist with the other hand as I looked down at him. “I’m sorry.”
His lips twisted into a cruel smile before he placed a hand on my stomach and pushed me backwards until my back hit the bed and I was staring at the ceiling.
I closed my eyes when Steed grabbed at my knees and forced them apart. “Open up for me, Ava. Let me see you.”
My eyes shot open when he pinched my clit roughly. “Open your fucking eyes.”
“Sorry,” I whimpered. “I thought you meant my legs.”
He winked at me but kept his eyes fixed on mine when his mouth slowly lowered between my legs. “Oh fuck!” I groaned as my fingers dug into the sheet covering the bed.
Explosive shocks detonated in my veins when his tongue circled my clit, his teeth grazing slightly as a finger slid inside me. “Fuck darlin,’ you’re drenched. Is this what I do to you, Ava? Do you think I can make you beg?”
I couldn’t answer him as his tongue slid inside me alongside his finger. One of his hands pushed against my pelvis when my back arched with pleasure and I lifted off the bed. “Keep still,” he growled at me.
He continued his assault, driving me higher and higher until I was only hanging on by a thread. The thread severed when he slipped his thumb into my arse and sucked hard at my clit. I struggled to breathe through the intense orgasm as it took control of my lungs and brain, its powerful hold ripping at my nerves and firing every single fibre of me into nirvana.
I was flipped over and I swallowed heavily as I heard the rip of a foil packet. I shook my head furiously when he pulled at the hem of my top. “No, it stays on.”
“What? Why?” he asked with a furious frown.
“Just . . . no. It’s the only thing I demand. You can do anything you want to me but my top stays on.”
“Ava,” he sighed when I flattened myself further into the mattress. He knew why, he could read it in me, my shame at the way I looked.
I stared at him over my shoulder. “You either fuck me or I leave.”
His face grew furious as his chest heaved. He grabbed my hands and held them in one of his huge ones above my head. “Do not fuck me off.”
“Why?” I smiled cockily at him. “You wanna fuck hard, then fuck hard. Fuck me with anger because that’s what I need.”
I gasped when he impaled me in a single thrust, the width of him burning my walls, stretching me unforgivingly after months of nothing. “That’s what I deserve,” I finished under my breath when he started to move.
His hands gripped my shoulders firmly as he pounded into me. He fucked with so much anger and hatred that as soon as his fingers circled my throat I was coming violently and loudly.
Each of his hard thrusts shifted me further and further across the bed until I was literally hanging off the edge, the palms of my hands on the floor to support myself.
He clutched my shoulders and yanked me back until we were both kneeling with him behind me. “Ride me, Ava. Show me how fucking hard you fuck.”
We were both sweating liberally, our bodies wired and strumming with pleasure as we groaned and grunted together loudly. I worked him so hard I swore I would be bleeding when we finished. But I didn’t care, I needed the pain his fingers and cock offered. I deserved it. I warranted every single agonising jolt of pain that he gave me.
He pushed me forward until I was on all fours. I yelped when his palm connected with my backside so hard the sting made my eyes water, but I came like a fucking animal, growling and snarling through it.
Steed yanked at my hips, pulling me onto him even further when he roared out my name and climaxed as brutally as I did. His hips bucked and jerked, forcing his cock even more cruelly into me as he fell onto my back and sank his teeth into my neck, generating another orgasm to shudder through me faintly.
We both collapsed in a heap, Steed rolling off me before he could crush me. I stared at the pillow as I lay immobile and vibrating in the aftershock.
We were both silent, the enormity of what we had just done hitting us now the arousal had died. “Shit,” Steed uttered as he pulled himself upright and sat on the edge of the bed. His hands raked through his hair in distress.
I climbed off the bed and pulled my shorts on, “Don’t worry. He won’t find out.” I muttered as I pulled on my heels.
“What?” he stared at me in confusion. “I’m not worried about Mason, I’m worried about you.”
“Why?” I shrugged as a numbness flowed through me. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.” He whispered as he tenderly cupped my cheek. “You weren’t emotionally ready for this. And I took advantage of that.”
I laughed at him but pulled away and trotted down the stairs, swiping my bag from beside the front door. “Steed. Chill out. I won’t be back for seconds. I’m afraid you were there to be used, and I used you.”
I watched as shock covered his face. “Right.” He blinked back his stunned reaction to my honesty.
“I won’t plague your life by knocking on your door, and I won’t be asking for a repeat performance so you needn’t worry.”
“Ava!” he shouted as I opened the door and left him staring after me.
I was silently humoured by the fact that I had watched two naked men stare at me through my rear view in a single night.
But there was only one that had broken me. There was only one who had torn the remaining pieces of my soul apart. And there was only one who made me go home, get high and sob myself to sleep.
Again.
Chapter Seventeen
Roots
Mason
SHE HAD SLID the chain on the back door to try and keep me out. That didn’t stand a chance when I kicked at it and it flung open, the force of it banging loudly in the silent house.
I took the stairs two at a time and slammed open her bedroom door. “Ava . . .” I froze when I found the room empty, the duvet still perfectly pulled over the bed and the many prissy cushions she always had scattered perfectly in place.
“What the . . .”
She should be home by now, she’d had a good thirty min
utes on me. I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialled Steed. He declined my first call and I tried again. He picked up on the fourth ring, “Hey, Mase.”
“Are you with Ava?”
He hesitated and I frowned to myself when I sensed his unease. “No.”
“Well she’s not home and you get paid to fucking shadow her. So would you like to tell me why the fuck my wife doesn’t have a shadow at the moment?”
“I, ummm . . .”
The front door opened and closed with a quiet click. “Got her.” I told him and ended the call abruptly as I went down to find her.
As soon as I exited the bedroom, my face was squashed up against the wall, both my arms pulled behind my back and a gun crushing against my temple. “Ava! It’s me.”
“What the fuck, Mason.” She declared as she let me go. “You stupid bastard. I could have killed you.”
I grinned at her, my little warrior still had it. “Where the fuck have you been?”
She stared at me, her head tilted to one side. “Are you for real?”
“Yes,” I nodded to confirm her question. “You should have been home ages ago.”
“Get out!” she snapped as she pushed past me and flicked on her bedroom light, dropping her bag to the floor as she walked into the en-suite she’d recently had fitted and started the shower. “Go home, Mason. I don’t want you here.”
“I wanted to check you were okay.” I told her quietly, shame at my behaviour coursing through me.
She scoffed loudly. “You wanted to check up on me? Why?”
“Well because . . . you know . . .”
“Because I found you with that fucking whore again? AGAIN!” she suddenly screamed, her face flushing with anger.
“I . . .”
“You what Mason? You what?”
I was just about to answer her when I caught the mark on her neck. I swear something invisible hit me in the face and chest simultaneously. I gripped her face and moved her head aside to make sure I hadn’t imagined it. “What the fuck is that?”
The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone Page 220
