Fortitude (Heart of Stone) (13 page)

“Yeah,” I sighed. “You?”

“Bouncing, darlin’, just bouncing.”

I didn’t remind him that he’s actually been bouncing off
Mason’s fist not five minutes ago, I didn’t think he’d appreciate the
comparison.

I spotted Kade and Grace propped up at the bar talking to
Owen as soon as I entered the Panther. They both turned to look at me when the
door banged closed behind me, their expressions knowledgeable of my mood.

I roamed the room, hunting for the redhead that I knew
worked here. Her thick red hair always made me think of Ava, her large breasts
always made me think of Ava, and the way she walked with a swing to her hips
always made me think of Ava.

And tonight I needed to fuck Ava.

I spotted her, leaning against one of the poles talking
to Misty. She gasped when I grabbed her hand and silently pulled her towards
the stairs.

Kade was out of his seat instantaneously, his long
strides hurrying towards me. His fingers wrapped around my wrist when he
reached me, “Don’t do this, Mason.”

“Fuck off, Kade. Leave me be.”

“No,” he snarled at me. He prised my fingers from the
girl and tilted his chin to her, dismissing her.

“You fucking arse,” I growled as I pushed against him and
slammed him against the wall at the bottom of the stairs. “You have no right to
do this.”

“I have every right, Mase. I’m sick of watching you both
self-destruct. It’s about time you both faced this.”

“Oh, my wife is facing it alright,” I hissed as I leant
into his face. “With Steed’s cock up her ass whilst he beats the shit out of
her.”

His eyes closed slowly before he sighed heavily.

“You knew!” I shook my head at him. “Tell me, am I the
only stupid bastard who didn’t?”

“Mason…” he spat at me when he opened his eyes and glared
at me. “She wasn’t fucking him until she found you with Rebecca. You hurt her,
so much. How the fuck did you think she would react, clap and send you both
champagne?”

“I…” His words hurt, dug inside me and cut deep when their
truth hit me. I knew going back to Rebecca would hurt her but originally I’d
just done it to make her jealous, hoping it would slap some sanity into her and
bring her back to me. But when I realised that that plan wasn’t going to work,
the easiness to Bec, along with the coke highs was too effortless to turn
around from. “I thought it would bring her back.” I answered even though my
logic now seemed stupid and foolish.

He shook his head at me, “Do you not wonder why she chose
Steed? We all know how he likes to play, how he likes to inflict pain and
humiliation.”

“What?”

“She chose to fuck Steed because he isn’t you, Mason. He
hurts her, he makes her feel how she thinks she should be feeling. He turns her
into the monster she thinks she is.”

“Oh Christ,” I choked out. “But she isn’t that, she isn’t
how she sees herself. She’s beautiful, she is the most amazing thing that ever
touched me. Her strength is astounding, her resilience overwhelms me and…”

“Mason,” Kade cut in. “I know this, you know this but
it’s Ava that has trouble knowing it.”

“I don’t know what to do,” I whispered as I fought to
control my emotions.

He tugged on my hand and flicked his head to Grace. She
smiled and nodded before Kade pulled me up the stairs and into one of the
privates.

He took us straight over to the couch before pulling me
beside him. His hands were on my face immediately, his thumbs wiping at my
tears as his lips caressed my cheeks, his love swallowing each painful tear
that left me.

I moaned and slid my fingers through his hair, pulling
him further into me as he continued to work me through my heartache.

His kiss touched my lips, his tongue forcing them to part
so he could take my tongue with his and fight out my despair as his anger
emerged and he yanked my head back with a fierce grip to my hair.

I slipped my hand under his t-shirt, my fingers tracing
each contour of his delicious abs, the grooves defined and enticing as I teased
both of us.

He grunted and gripped my own shirt, lifting it over my
head before his mouth was copying my route and tracing the edges of my stomach
muscles with his tongue as his fingers dug through my jeans and massaged my
growing erection causing me to push my hips into his touch, demanding more as
my lust intensified into a raw need, a craving I would never be able to pacify.

My whole body shivered when I felt him lower my zip and
slip his hand inside, his fingers hunting and seeking before they curled around
my shaft and his palm massaged my cock, instigating my hips to pursue more of
his touch and lift upwards.

“Kade…”

He replied with a moan before he was suddenly sucking on
me, his lips soft as they slid down my dick, his tongue tracing the underside
as his fingers cupped my balls.

He slid to the floor on his knees to give himself better
access as I lifted my hips and slid my jeans off, giving him more of me to
pleasure.

His hands braced the tops of my thighs, his fingernails
leaving indentations in my flesh as his draws on me became fiercer and
hungrier.

“Not yet,” I told him as I pulled him to stand before me.

He unbuckled his belt and slid out of his clothes as his
eyes locked onto my face, his desire and longing darkening his gaze and
shadowing the bright blueness to his eyes.

I leaned towards him, taking his cock in my hand and
stroked his length, dipping my thumb over his slit and making him hiss. “Fuck
me with your mouth,” he demanded, his tone tight and squeaky causing me to grin
wickedly.

I obeyed immediately. This is how Kade and I played, how
we fucked, his dominance controlling but pleasuring at the same time, taking
away all my other thoughts until there was only him I was allowed to
concentrate on.

“That’s it,” he rasped as I sank down on him, shivering
as his unique taste brought me home. “More, Mason. I wanna feel your throat on
my cock, and your lips on my balls.”

He pushed into me harder and harder as I worked him until
he was panting and groaning, his grip on my shoulders holding me still so he
could drive into my throat without restriction.

I dropped him from my mouth and lifted myself off the
floor then sat on the sofa, my cock hard and high as I devoured his glorious
naked body with my eyes. “Let me fuck you.”

His teeth clenched together, his chest heaving as his
cock swelled even more. He took a step into me and slid his knees either side
of my thighs so he was straddled over me. He positioned the head of my dick at
his arse then slid down slowly, each inch I slipped inside him driving us both
crazier and needier.

He didn’t stop until my balls were squashed against his
buttocks and my cock was completely sheathed inside him. His face was tight and
damp, perspiration heavy on his skin as his teeth sank into his bottom lip with
the pleasure riding both of us.

“Ah damn,” he groaned when I shifted my hips and buried
myself deeper inside him.

He grabbed my hands, holding them against the sofa beside
my head as his forehead rested against mine and he started to move on me. His moves
were slow and steady, each rise and fall driving ecstasy into my veins and
coursing pleasure into each section of my brain.

He kissed me as he sped up, his tongue fucking my mouth
as my cock fucked him, his fingers holding onto mine almost painfully as he
took his pleasure from me.

He dropped one of my hands and placed it on his cock.
“Stroke me hard,” he whispered as his pace increased, his thighs thickening
with each lift and fall on me.

I squeezed his cock tight as he fucked me harder, forcing
my head to fall back against the sofa as bliss took over and pushed away
everything else until there was just me and Kade, fucking, groaning and
pleasuring, until my cum swirled angrily and shot inside him, filling him as
his shot across our bellies and he fell into my shoulder. “I love you,” he
choked out as he lifted to look at me.

“I love you.” I replied as I kissed him tenderly,
pressing my lips against his to show him as well as tell him.

He nodded and cupped my face as we both struggled to
catch our breaths. “And now it’s time to fight for your other love. It’s time
to battle this out with her. Show her that although she hates her
disfigurements, you fucking adore them. Show her how much her inner beauty
means to you, how much her soul turns you on, not just her looks.”

I nodded, my chest heaving as a resilience empowered me,
electrified each nerve inside me until I was panting with need to get to her,
to tell her exactly that, to
show
her exactly that.

It was time to show my little warrior just how much I
could fight too.

“And how’s the male students?” I asked Katie with a smirk
as I balanced the phone between my shoulder and mouth to uncork the bottle of
wine.

“Well, what can I say,” she laughed. “Apart from Holy
hell, I’ve already seen enough naked male flesh to last me through the whole of
my four years study here.”

I laughed with her, picturing the look on my quite prim
daughter’s face with all the university and campus activity. “But you’re okay?”

“I am, I’m fine mom, stop fretting.”

I rolled my eyes at her tone, “Okay.”

“And you and dad,” she probed finally. I knew she had
been heading this way and had been eager to delve. “Are you okay?”

“We’re fine.”

She paused and sighed, “I take it by that you mean you’re
both still being stubborn.”

“Katie,” I warned fiercely when she started her usual
reprimand.

“Mum, listen to me,” she cut over me. “You are beautiful.
Dad loves you with hair or no hair, why can’t you accept that?”

“Katie…” I sighed as I rubbed at my temples in exhaustion
to her persistent push. “Your dad is… well, he’s your dad but he’s also a man,
a man that…” I cringed, talking about something like this with your daughter
wasn’t exactly
nice
. “A man that has desires and expectations.”

“What?” She scoffed. “Are you telling me you don’t meet
his expectations because you lost your tits?” I blinked and shook my head at
her bluntness. “Are you saying that your husband, and although he’s my dad and
this stuff freaks me out, that your husband doesn’t desire you after twenty
years of barely keeping his hands off you just because you lost your hair and
feminine curves?”

“Well…”

“Well,” she spat at me through the phone. “That tells me
more about you than it does dad. Christ, mother, he adores you. He would die
for you. And believe it or not, sex is not the be all and end all of a
relationship.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” she huffed. “Because from where I’m looking in
on all this, you pushed away a man that would ride hell for you just because of
the physical side to your marriage. I can tell you without a doubt that my dad
would love you if you never made love ever again. He would cherish you if he
never felt that connection ever again because you two have the most amazing
relationship I have ever seen. You’re bloody soul mates, mom. Don’t drive each
other away because of something neither of you can control.”

I fell into a chair and stared at the wall. It was all
such a mess. A stupid, twisted mass of horrors and foolishness. My daughter was
right… as always. Mason loved me despite our turbulent sex life, even when he
wasn’t inside me, he showed me love and adoration that went beyond any
physicality or sexual gratification.

We pleasured each other in more ways than sex, from the
moment we woke and started the daily routine of life, from the sweet kisses as
we both went on our usual paths that day, to when we would laugh and talk over
dinner, to being laid out together on the sofa watching something on TV that
made us laugh, and to just holding hands as we strolled along the beach,
talking, laughing and loving.

“Mom?” Katie whispered.

“I’m here,” I whispered back. “I’m here, baby.”

“Then go get him.”

“I can’t, it’s too late.”

“No,” she whispered back, her voice gentle but full of
authority. “It’s never too late. It
was
never too late. It’s time to
begin again.”

“He… he found me with someone else.” I told her and
winced, readying myself for her anger.

“And you found him with Rebecca…”

“How do you know about that?” I gasped.

“It doesn’t matter how I know, what I’m saying is, you
found him with Rebecca, yet you still want him. You’re sat there, readying
yourself for getting him back. I can guarantee, even if you slept with the
devil himself, my dad will want you back just as hard.”

“I’m not so sure, Katie.”

“Well I am.” She said urgently, “Don’t let the doubts
ruin this. Don’t let the what ifs destroy your chance at happiness, mom. You
deserve this, you deserve to be happy, and you deserve my dad a lot more than
you think you do.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay.”

Her sob clenched my heart making me realise just how much
I had put everyone through because of my denial. “Go, go.”

“I’m going,” I laughed as I stood up and pulled on my
pumps. “I’m going.”

“I love you!” she shouted before she disconnected our
call.

I was still laughing as I pulled open the front door, but
that ceased pretty quick when I found who was stood on my doorstep.

“Rebecca?”

She stood rigid and tense, her whole body giving off
waves of animosity. Her pupils were wide and animated, her nose constantly
twitched as she sniffed frequently but it was the glare in her expression that
made me strengthen my stance, my fists squeezing tight in readiness as the rage
bubbled in preparation.