Broken Heart

by Laura Browning

  “Sweet…so damn sweet, and I’ve missed you so much.”

  “Touch me, Mason. I want to feel your hands on me. I never ever forgot you, but all I could do was imagine your touch. Now I need it for real.”

  He flicked his fingers over the shirt buttons, releasing them and pushing the placket aside to reveal the pink, puckered tips of her breasts. Please, God, don’t let him scare her. He cupped her again, stroking and squeezing before lowering his mouth to suckle her. When she moaned, his cock swelled until he ached with the need to be inside her. Slow. He had to slow down so he didn’t frighten her.

  “More, Mason.”

  He pushed her breasts together, licking first one nipple and then the other. Then, continuing to knead her with his fingers, he kissed his way to her belly, covered only by his silky boxer shorts. Mason laid his cheek against her and closed his eyes. His hands slipped to her waist, holding her in place while he swallowed again and again. Emotion had overwhelmed him and he simply couldn’t do anything else as he fought for some control.

  “Mason? Honey? Is something wrong?”

  Uncertainty colored her tone, and he was sorry he’d sparked it. He shook his head.

  “Then why have you stopped?”

  “I’m so sorry,” he grated, his voice thick and hoarse. “I let my anger blind me. I’d give anything to have been able to spare you this right from the very beginning. I should have trusted…”

  She stroked his hair, squeezed his shoulder. They lay there like that until she finally spoke. “We can change it right now, Mason. Make love to me. Join your body to mine and let’s make new memories. We can start again. I want to. With you.”

  He blinked the moisture from his eyes, leaned away so he could see her face. “I want you to see me, touch me, before we go any further. I have to know you’re comfortable with…” He gestured to the thrust of his erection, tenting the front of his sleep pants.

  She smiled, the most beautiful expression he’d seen. “Stand. Let me take them off of you.”

  Mason realized he was trembling as he watched the expressions flit across her face, and yes, there was a flash of fear, but then she moved beyond, as if her subconscious had awakened to whom it was standing so near. She rested her forehead against his stomach, her breath brushing the material covering his cock. Mason couldn’t hold in the moan quaking through him.

  “Oh, sweet heaven, Stacey. Touch me.”

  He was desperate, needy. He’d longed for this for the past two years, dreamt about it at night and then kicked himself for not being able to put her from his mind. She captured the ends of the ties at his waist, slowly pulling them undone while he shook. Then her hands slid into the elasticized waist and pushed. She eased back, her glance shifting between his face and his cock. When it finally sprang free, her gasp was soft–just a catch of breath.

  “You’re beautiful, Mason,” she whispered, pushing his pants until they dropped of their own accord and he stepped free.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, unable to tell from her expression where her head was in that moment. She didn’t answer with words. Instead, Stacey touched him.

  Mason went utterly still, tears running down his cheeks as he let her explore his body, afraid to move for fear he might frighten her. She wrapped her fingers around him, teasing him. Then her lips and tongue brushed him and he sobbed.

  “Mason?” Worry colored her tone. “What’s wrong?”

  He shook his head, stroked hers, afraid to speak but hoping she would understand it was okay to keep going. She did. Her caresses gained confidence, so he let her continue to the point he feared he would lose control.

  “My turn,” he whispered, pushing her back on the bed and sliding the boxers over her slender hips and down her long legs. When she was bared to him, he knelt next to the bed. “You good?”

  Her smile was a bit wobbly, but she nodded.

  “I want you to watch. I want you to know who it is.”

  She opened to him, reached out and touched his cheek. “No one’s done this since you.”

  Mason’s hands clamped on her butt cheeks. Her husband had never given her this? What the hell? He turned his face to the inside of her thigh and softly kissed the tender skin. “Then let me love you this way. For this first time. All right?”

  She nodded, her golden eyes glowing with anticipation. He remembered seeing her like that so often. With a final, soft smile, he raised her hips and began teasing her with his tongue. She was heaven–sweet, flowing heaven. Her moans and her taste had him hovering at the very edge of his own climax, but he held himself in check, intent on giving her the ultimate pleasure before he ever sought his own.

  She cried after she came, wracking sobs he soothed with his body and his voice, and only when she was tucked against him and quiet did he begin to kiss her again. Mason shifted her so he could kneel between her thighs. She watched him as he guided his shaft to her opening, then smiled and laughed as he began to thrust long and slow.

  Mason wished he could make it last forever, but it had been too long, and feeling her wrapped around him was more than he could resist. He locked his hands in hers, rested his weight on his elbows and held her gaze as he thrust, spilling himself inside her.

  “I love you,” she whispered and he answered the same way. She was back where she belonged. In his arms and in his bed. Now all they had to do was convince her parents it was the right thing. Mason knew Stacey too well. She needed that approval, no matter how much she might resent it.

  * * * *

  Jace shut the hotel door behind the last of his in-laws, who’d felt it necessary to escort him all the way to a hotel, and leaned his forehead against it as he turned the deadbolt. “You should go too, Justin,” he murmured. His world was falling apart. “I don’t care what they say. This is going to get ugly. Go back to the ranch.”

  Justin’s arms slid around his waist, the comforting bulk of him pressing against Jace’s back. “I can stand the heat.”

  Jace laughed, but it was choked and painful. “I’m not sure I can.”

  “Then let me help you.”

  If only it were that simple. Jace’s mind raced as he tried to figure out if he could still avoid coming out. Publicly it might be possible, but could he avoid it even to his family? He shuddered. Being gay might not be a big deal in another place, or if he were another person, but Winchester men had always adhered to a certain code.

  “Jace, let your sister’s husband take over the business. Come back to the ranch with me.”

  He took a deep breath. “I can’t do that, Justin. I think you were right the other day when you said you needed space. Maybe we both do.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Maybe you should go back to the ranch. I can’t be what you want. I can’t live the way you want.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Justin had stepped back, studied him now with faintly narrowed eyes.

  “Won’t then.” Jace hardened his heart.

  Justin pressed his lips together. “I see. It’s okay for us to sneak around and have sex on the sly, but now it’s come to a point where we either bring our relationship out or deny it, you choose to continue living the lie.”

  “That’s my choice.”

  “I’m sorry for you.” Justin brushed past him, unbolted the door and stepped through it. “I’ll be around for a few weeks so I can conclude the ranch’s business here. You know where to find me.”

  The door shut quietly. Jace leaned against it again, but this time he made no effort to control the emotions that shook him with such force he eventually sobbed out loud.

  * * * *

  She must have slept. When she awoke, Stacey felt safe and rested, then realized part of her security might be due to Mason’s arms wrapped around her and his powerful body spooning her. She breathed deeply, catching his spicy, masculine scent, and smiled.

  Mason.

  “You all right?” At his question, she realized she must have spoken aloud. His arms tightened, hu
gging her close.

  “Yes. Yes, I am. God, Mason, I feel amazing.”

  He chuckled in her ear with his gravelly voice, sending a shiver of awareness along her spine. “That might be the best ego boost I’ve had in years.”

  She turned in his arms and buried her face against his neck, loving the feel of his scratchy beard, of his hair-covered legs tangling with her long, bare limbs.

  “I know there are a lot of things we need to do,” she told him, “but for a bit, I want to savor feeling like a normal woman.”

  She didn’t want to discuss Jace, didn’t want to mention the utter weirdness that had been her marriage to him. Maybe someday, she’d be able to look back on it with added perspective, but at the moment it was too painful and too humiliating.

  “Wherever you are right now,” Mason whispered in her ear, “leave that place. I can feel you tensing on me. The past is done. We’re moving ahead. What’s for you to decide is what you want to tackle first.”

  “If he’s out of the house, I want to go get my personal belongings. As far as I’m concerned, the house can be rented or sold with its contents.”

  Mason stroked the hair back from her face. “Hold off until you get everything settled…at least the selling. I’ll double check with Phillip, then you and I can drive over there to collect your clothing and whatever else you want to take.”

  An hour later, they were standing at the base of the front steps, where Stacey had stopped, unable to make herself move forward.

  “I need you to go in first,” she told Mason, handing him the house key. He put his arm around her shoulders.

  “We’re going to wait for Phillip and his assistant. They’ll catalog everything, so there’s no question of what was removed from the house. I trust Winchester as little as you do.”

  “All right.”

  Phillip pulled up in a couple minutes, rounding the car to hold the door for his middle-aged paralegal. After shaking Mason’s hand and commenting on his bruised cheek, he pulled Stacey into a bear hug. “You all right?” he rumbled.

  She hugged him back. He was as big as Seth, but not nearly as intimidating. Phillip had always been the Boy Scout of the family–serious and goal-oriented, he’d avoided the mischief Brandon had gotten into and the rebellion that had characterized Seth.

  “I’m doing okay, Phillip.”

  He smiled at her. “We’ll make this as easy as we can.”

  Phillip and Linda went in first, with her and Mason following. Walking in the front door brought back so many memories, few of them good. It had taken Stacey time, but in the back of her mind, she’d realized something was seriously wrong with her marriage. Maybe some of it was her fault. Even though she’d sworn to herself she would make her marriage work, in the back of her mind Mason had always been there. Jace had never come close to obliterating the memories of her weeks in Mason’s arms.

  As if he could read her thoughts, Mason turned her to face him. “Nothing you could have done would have made any difference, Stacey, so do not blame yourself. You might have entered into your marriage with good intentions, but Jace never intended to alter his lifestyle. Remember, it was him who split us apart to begin with.”

  “You’re right.” Stacey shuddered as she glanced around her. “Let’s go to my office first.”

  This was the one space in the entire townhouse Stacey felt hadn’t been violated by Jace’s presence. He’d never come into her workspace. That she knew for sure thanks to the security she’d installed.

  “If you’ll tell us what you want to take with you from each of the rooms we go into,” Phillip instructed. “Linda will record it, then we’ll get copies of it to Jace before I bring in a mover. Where are you going to want it moved?”

  Stacey hesitated. “My personal items can go to Mason’s house, but this…”

  Mason squeezed her shoulder. “There’s room at the gallery, Stacey. I have an extra office you’re welcome to make use of temporarily or long term.”

  Their gazes met. Stacey felt the tension that had been building start to release. She looked at her brother and nodded. “That sounds perfect.”

  As lunchtime approached, Stacey’s cell phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID.

  “It’s Mother,” she said.

  “Take it,” Phillip advised. “If she wants you to visit, I want both Mason and me with you.”

  Stacey nodded. She recalled her last phone conversation with her mother and hoped this would not be a repeat.

  “Hello, Mother.”

  “Darling,” she began in a tone she might use with a slightly hysterical child. “Your father and I hadn’t heard from you and were worried. Are you feeling any better?”

  Stacey lifted her chin. “Yes, Mother. The bruises are beginning to fade. Phillip and Mason are here at the house with me, helping me collect my belongings.”

  There was a long silence on the other end. “You’ve involved your brother in your disagreement with your husband? Is that wise? I can still make arrangements for you …”

  “Let me stop you before you continue along this same line, Mother. Not only is Phillip involved, but Seth and Brandon know what’s gone on as well. In fact, all three of them assisted me last night in forcing Jason and his lover to leave. Phillip is filing the necessary paperwork petitioning for the annulment.”

  “But darling, the marriage is consummated. I think you’re overreacting to Jason’s desire to start a family.”

  Stacey pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is getting us nowhere. At the risk of inviting myself and my siblings to your home, I think it would be wise for all of us to discuss this.”

  “I think it’s an excellent idea. I’ll contact the priest and Jason…”

  “Stop, Mother. I can assure you, should Jason be anywhere in the vicinity, your sons as well as Mason Hatch will beat him to within an inch of his miserable life. Please try to understand this. My marriage to Jason Winchester is over. Since you will not believe me, I will bring Seth, Brandon, Phillip and Mason to explain the details to you and Father. I had hoped to spare you that much, but you’re making this into an impossible and very painful situation.”

  Phillip snagged the phone from her. “Good morning, Mother… Yes, I’m here with Stacey and she is perfectly sane. If you and Father have no other plans, please expect us around six tonight. I doubt the spouses will wish to be there, but in addition to Seth, Brandon, Stacey and me, you should also expect Mason Hatch… You’ll recall him from Lucy’s exhibition. Yes.” Phillip grinned at Mason. “The one with the ponytail. Goodbye, Mother.”

  He punched End and handed the phone back to Stacey. She glared at him. “Why is it Mother never listens to any of her daughters?”

  Phillip shrugged. “Maybe it’s generational. It could be worse.”

  “How’s that?”

  “I’m not sure she’s even aware we have a younger sister.”

  “Morgan does seem incredibly adept at fading into the woodwork or disappearing completely.”

  Phillip’s lips tightened. “I hope this evening will be one of those nights. I’m not sure she needs to hear what we’ll discuss.”

  “No. You’re right about that.” She glanced at everyone. “Let’s go to the master suite. I’d like to get it over with.”

  * * * *

  Mason kept an eye on her as they entered the room she’d shared with Winchester. It was hard enough for him, so he could only imagine what Stacey must be going through. She grabbed his hand, her fingers clutching. He pulled her to his side.

  “You don’t have to do this. I can do it for you.”

  “No. Just…stay with me.”

  Mason nodded, his jaw tight with controlled anger. He’d seen what was on the security video, and knew from Stacey’s descriptions some of what had gone on had to have taken place here. He could only thank God it was truly designed as a suite–a living room area followed by walk-in closets and the master bath, with the bedroom beyond. Phillip halted at the door from the bath into the
bedroom and glanced over his shoulder at his sister.

  “Is there any need to go farther?”

  Stacey’s fingers trembled in Mason’s grasp. “No. Everything I want is in the closet.”

  It took them another hour to go through the remainder of the house. Stacey refused to go either onto the deck or into Jace’s study. After they left the kitchen, Mason stopped her.

  “I think this is enough, Stacey. Let Phillip and Linda finish.” He glanced at her brother. “Once we have Stacey’s belongings out of here, have the locks changed. The property is in her name, so there’s no need for Winchester to be in here without being accompanied by you or someone of your choosing. The sailboat you can put on the market as soon as we have Winchester’s signature on everything. Until then, it needs to be secured for possible evidence, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Absolutely.” Phillip crossed the hallway and gave his sister a hug. “If I can talk Seth into driving, you want to ride out en masse to the house?”

  “That might be a good idea,” Mason interjected. “A show of solidarity.”

  Stacey took a deep breath. “All right.”

  Chapter 13

  Stacey felt a bit like the president as they approached the front door to her parents’ home. Dinners were never casual at the Barlow-Barrett mansion, at least when her parents were present. There had never been cookouts or informal family gatherings here. Those had always been saved for the beach or the house in Stowe. Here, the attire was dresses for women, at least a coat and tie for men. All three of her brothers were in suits. Even Mason had a suit on, though he’d paired it with a pink shirt and darker pink tie.

  She slipped her fingers through his, smiling tightly when he squeezed reassuringly. He’d slicked his long hair back, but left it hanging loose to his shoulders. Stacey knew precisely why. It was a subtle way to draw her parents’ anger from her to him, and she loved him all the more for it.

  Seth and Brandon were walking side by side in front of them while Phillip brought up the rear. Yes, it was a bit like having the Secret Service surrounding her. And what a shame she needed such protection from her own family.