Fortitude (Heart of Stone) (21 page)

“I…” I shook my head but refused to turn to him.

“YES!” His close voice made me jump as his fingers curled
around my wrist, denying me my escape. “Sit down.” I didn’t have much choice
when he dragged me across the room and kicked out a chair from under the table.
“Sit.” He repeated.

I slammed my arse into the chair, my own anger now
bubbling away furiously. How dare he! How fucking dare he do this!

“That’s it, you sit and simmer while I make coffee.”

“I don’t want coffee.”

“Tough. You are getting coffee.”

“Well, your bloody coffee is worse than the northern oil
rig.” I raged at him, my face now turning red. “I said I don’t want your damn
coffee!” I picked up the vase of flowers from the middle of the table and slung
it at him. Water splattered over him when he ducked and the vase hit the
cupboard door, the pot shattering and splintering fragments of ceramic over
him. The flowers plopped onto the floor beside his feet.

He spun round, his face furious and his chest heaving as
his teeth clasped the tip of his tongue. “Better?”

“No!” I hissed as I reached right across the table and
picked up the small bowl of potpourri.

“Oh,” he scoffed. “Why not, might as well go the whole
hog, Ava.”

The contents of the bowl scattered on the floor as the
bowl sailed across the room. Mason was ready this time, his hand snatching out
as he caught it perfectly. He whirled round and flung it at the back door, the
shatter loud in the quiet room. “Thought I’d save you a job!” he shouted as he
turned back to me. “Is there anything else you want to throw at me? The table?
Your fist maybe?”

“Fuck you,” I spat back when I knew he was taunting me,
my shoulder stopping me from throwing any punches. “Fuck you.”

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?”

My mouth dropped open at his audacity. “You insensitive
bastard!”

He pulled in a deep breath and stormed towards me. I
pushed back into the chair before he hoisted me up and took me in his arms.
“Put me down, Mason.” I raged at him as I tried to pummel him with my left
hand. “Mason!”

He stamped through the house and carted me back upstairs
where he gently dropped me onto the bed.

As I tried to get up, he was suddenly sat on my stomach.
He grabbed my hands and pulled them by my sides before he quickly captured them
between his thighs. “Hold still.” He barked at me as I struggled beneath him.
“Ava! Hold still, I want to show you something.”

My breath stilled, the air freezing in my lungs as my
chest started to crush my heart when he took my nightdress in his hands and
tore it open, straight down the middle.

I bucked underneath him, my body thrashing wildly as I
tried to remove my arms from his grip and cover my chest. A tight whimper left
me when he placed both of his palms on my chest. He was silent, his eyes fixed
on mine with a stern stare as I cursed him and writhed uncontrollably, my body
fighting against him furiously as I spat and hissed at him like an animal.

“I love you.” He stated calmly.

“You bastard!” I cried out as I continued to squirm.

“You are beautiful.”

“I hate you!”

“I love you.”

“Get the fuck off me.” I snarled at him.

“You are fucking beautiful. I love you.”

“I’m not!” I cried at him. “I’m ugly. I’m a fucking
freak!”

“You are beautiful. You take my breath with every one of
your stunning smiles.”

“I… I hate it…” I choked out.

“And I love you. You are beautiful. Your eyes steal my
soul every time you look at me.”

“I look… wrong!”

He smiled softly at me as I started to calm, my energy
depleting with my fight. “You look perfect.” He dropped forward so his forehead
rested on mine. “You’ve always been perfect to me, Ava. And you will always
look perfect to me, even when you’re eighty and have no teeth and a fucking
beard. You will still make my heart skip when you look at me, you will still
take my soul in your hands and hold it tight, and you will always,
always
make me desire you, because I love
you
, not your breasts, Ava, or even
your hair for that matter. It’s
you
that turns me on, it’s
you
that
makes me want to worship your body, just to see the pleasure on your face. Not
how you look but how you feel beneath me. How I pleasure you, pleasures me. How
my body pleases you, pleases mine and how you fucking love me, makes me love
you harder. You, Ava.
You!
”

I stared at him, my throat clogged with grief as my heart
swelled with love.

My eyes rolled closed when his perfect lips found mine in
one of his perfect kisses. His tenderness and gentle rhythm wove inside me,
wrapping me in warmth and love as his fingers slid up my face to nestle against
my head.

I moaned and arched into him when his tongue slid between
my lips and effortlessly danced with mine, his expert kiss making his
domination soft but unforgiving, driving a need in me I hadn’t felt in a long
time. There was only Mason that could direct this much desire into me, only
ever him that could have me panting within seconds of his touch. My body
belonged to him, every fibre of me bowed to him and granted him anything as I
succumbed to his passion.

His fingers tickled my skin as they skimmed down the
front of my throat, his mouth flowing their route as he touched then tasted. My
breathing sped up as he moved across my collarbone, his tongue trailing across
my shoulder blade before making his way back.

I whimpered as he nudged my legs apart with his knee and
slid his thigh between mine. He deepened his kiss as I shamelessly rode his
thigh, rubbing my sex furiously on him, but he suddenly pulled back.

I watched him, my arousal so intense I was struggling to
breathe. He slid out of his shorts and t-shirt, my eyes appreciative of his
nakedness before he positioned his body back between my legs. There was no more
foreplay, just amazing bliss as he pushed inside me slowly.

“Oh Christ, Ava. I missed you so much.”

I murmured a reply unable to give him coherent words when
his cock glided in and out of me deliciously, his hips rocking against mine
perfectly as we joined for the first time in eight months.

His mouth found my neck as he nibbled and sucked on me,
his own arousal prompting deep erotic groans from him as I lifted my hips
further to him, bringing him into me even deeper.

He sat up and knelt back onto his knees, pulling me with
him until I was straddling his thighs, his cock driving into me when he thrust
and I fell. He was kissing me heatedly, his mouth devouring each of my groans
of ecstasy but I stilled when he started licking a trail down the centre of my
neck.

“Keep going, baby,” he pleaded with a whisper. “Please. I
need you.”

I pushed back the nausea and started to move on him
again. I growled when he slid a hand around and teased my anus with his finger,
intensifying my lust as I rode him harder. “That’s it, Ava. Fuck me hard.”

I clasped his shoulders, working us both into a sweat as
his lips continued their worship. He groaned deeply as he slid a finger in my
backside and ran his tongue across my chest, tracing the scars delicately as
his finger drove into me as hard as his cock, sending me further towards
oblivion with each stroke.

I exploded around him when his teeth nipped at my chest,
his tongue lapping after the bite as he pushed into me brutally and roared my
name when he filled me with his cum.

“Fuck…Jesus Ava….”

I clung to him, trying to come down from the high he had fucked
into me. My chest heaved heavily as he carried on depositing tiny kisses over
my skin, his soft lips idolising me as his hands slipped around my back to pull
me into him further.

I copied his pose, sliding mine around his and holding
onto him for dear life. I wanted to absorb him, take him into my soul so he’d
never be without me again.

“I’m so sorry, Mason.”

He leaned back and looked at me, his eyes sad and tired.
“I’m scared Ava. I don’t know how to hold onto you. I want to hold onto you
forever, possess you and own you so you can’t ever leave me.”

“I won’t ever leave you, baby. I won’t.”

He swallowed back his anguish and I watched in dismay
when a tear rolled from his eye. “But you did, Ava. You did and there was
nothing I could do to stop you, nothing I could do to help you.”

“You couldn’t help me, Mason.” I smiled softly and held
his face in my hands. “No one could. I wanted to die.”

“But why?” he choked out as another tear bled free.

“Because I was scared. I was terrified of becoming this…
this invalid that would consume your soul and drown your spirit. I could never
do that to you.”

He shook his head slowly as he kissed my palm, “But don’t
you see? You did that when you left me. You crushed me, Ava, like never before.
You tore out my heart with that letter.”

“I know,” I whispered as my tears joined his. “But it
would have torn mine out to have you watch me go through that. It was evil…
I
was evil. It wasn’t just the sickness, Mason. I wanted to die, over and over
and I screamed and shouted that I wanted to die, over and over.
That
would have torn your soul from you. I did what I had to, to save you from
that.”

“I know and I understand why you did it, but Ava, you
underestimate me. I married you because I love you, I love you because you are
you; healthy, stroppy, hurting, happy or even fucking… dying. I don’t care what
mood you are in each day, or how green with sickness you are. My love for you
is… it’s
there
, it’s real and powerful and nothing will ever change
that, evil or no evil. It’s engrained in me, burnt onto my soul so whatever or
wherever you are, that love will never disappear, ever.”

I rested my cheek on his shoulder, sighing contentedly at
the connection between us again. We stayed like that for a long while, both of
us just breathing in the other.

“Ava,” Mason whispered eventually.

“Mmm.”

“Umm, did you say there were pickles?”

I sighed but smiled. “You know, one day you’ll make me a
sandwich and I
will
keel over.”

His jaw dropped at my sick sense of humour but then he
tapped the edge of my nose and gave me his cheeky smile. “And cheese, baby,
that strong stuff… oh and some onion.”

I rolled my eyes and climbed off him. “”Yes sir,” I
saluted perfectly before I pulled on my robe.

“My God, you did it.”

“Miracles, see.” I shouted as I trotted down the stairs
and into the kitchen. “Let’s hope God is still dishing them out tomorrow,” I
whispered to myself.

“Oh, did I tell you,” I turned to Ava, grabbing onto her
hand as her fingers tapped rapidly against her knee and pulled it onto my lap,
grasping it tightly to calm the twitch. “Debora has persuaded George to go for
custody through the proper channels. Maybe just to share access instead of full
custody too.”

“How is Debora?” She asked as sadness and grief covered
her face but took her away from her current anguish.

I blew out slowly and nodded, “Getting there, slowly.”

We both watched as a nurse pushed a trolley of notes
along the quiet corridor. Ava leaned towards me with a frown on her beautiful
face, “Do they still use paper notes? I thought everything was now done via
computers.”

I shrugged and continued to watch the nurse struggle
through the double doors at the end, “Dunno.”

I jolted when a sharp sting burnt the top of my arm. My
head snapped towards Ava who was glaring at me after slapping me. “Did you just
check out her arse?”

“No.”

“You so did.” She glowered at me as her lips tightened
into an angry pout. “You so did, Mason.”

“I didn’t.”

“You did,” she persisted. “Although, she did have a nice
backside. The way it swung under her uniform. And she was really quite pretty.”

My mouth dropped open as I stared at her. “Oh, I can’t
check out her arse but you can.”

“Well, that’s different.” She defended as she stared me
down.

I nodded firmly, “So I didn’t catch you checking out the
car park attendant this morning.”

Her eyes widened before she huffed. “Oh come on, Mason.
That guy is illegally hot. Godlike.”

I shrugged and sighed as I lifted my hands in defeat. “Of
course he is,” I answered haughtily as I rolled my eyes.

“Are you jealous?” She narrowed her eyes on me, “You are.
You’re jealous of the hot car park attendant.”

“Will you stop calling the guy hot!”

“And godlike,” she sighed dreamily. What the fuck! “His
arse is just….” She made a funny growling noise as she shivered and sighed
again. She looked at me and caught my expression then beamed widely at me.
“Only joking, baby. No man on earth is as hot as you.”

I grinned back at her proudly. “And my arse, Ava?”

“Your arse?”

“Well… is it as good as car park attendants?”

She paused and smiled sheepishly at me, her head bobbing
up and down slowly as she blatantly lied to me. “Yeah.”

“You could be a bit more convincing,” I pouted as I
flexed my backside. I thought my arse was quite firm and tight anyway.

She giggled and nudged me. “Your arse is the finest thing
I have ever seen, Mason. It is pure perfection and I have never felt anything
more glorious in my hands, or around my fingers.” She finished with a wink.

I gave her a proud smile once more as the door opposite
us opened. I swear in that single second as Dr Franks appeared in the doorway,
my whole life rushed past me at lightning speed. I could feel the thump of my
heart escalate as Ava scrambled for my hand. I held onto it firmly, trying to
absorb her anguish and fear.