The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (98 page)

“WOW, BABY,” MASON breathed on the nape of my neck as I put the finishing touches to my make-up in the floor length mirror. I was wearing the dress I had bought that afternoon; a simple little black dress with spaghetti straps but it had a deep ‘V’ down the back and front and the whole midriff section was a sheer see-through material that started just above the lowest part of my breasts, so you could determine the outline of them and it finished across my navel. The skirt was made of flowing segments and was knee length.

I couldn’t wear a bra with it so I was hoping Mason wouldn’t kick off at the risqué style but, it seemed he liked it.

“You like it?” I asked him, locking his gaze through the mirror.

“You look stunning,” he whispered in my ear as his finger traced the contour of my breasts over the gauze.

“You look hot,” I told him huskily as I took in his appearance. He was wearing black fitted trousers that clung to his strong hips and thighs and a simple fitted black shirt with white piping detail along the edges. It showcased his powerful chest and arms. His hair was its usual messy but short style and his designer stubble was trimmed a little bit shorter than normal; he made my mouth dry and my insides throb.

“Wow,” I sighed as he pushed his erection into my back. I groaned and pushed back against him.

“Fuck, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to watch you all night without bending you over and fucking you raw,” he growled, his teeth nibbling my neck and his thumb sweeping over my erect nipple. I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the side, giving him better access to my neck as I slipped my hand behind me and cupped his erection, caressing him lightly.

“Ready guys?” Greg shouted and tapped on the door.

“That bloody man,” I snarled.

Mason chuckled. “Come on, baby.” He took my hand as I slipped into my black heels and led me downstairs as the others were already waiting for us.

“Sorry,” I grimaced as they tapped their feet impatiently.

“You two were at it again?” Courtney laughed.

“No,” I answered, affronted.

“We would have been if Greg hadn’t come a’ knockin.’” Mason laughed as he kissed my blushed cheek and we all piled into the waiting limo.

* * *

The nightclub was hot, heaving and loud. We found a corner booth and the men went to fetch drinks. Almost immediately Courtney, Marcy and I were approached by a couple of men in suits.

“Hey ladies.” A tall blonde haired guy grinned and slid in beside me as his eyes swept over us and settled on my chest.

I rolled my eyes. “Up here!” I groaned as I pointed to my sarcastic fake smile.

My mood had darkened on the way to the club, my pregnancy hormones making me surly. I was tired, my swollen feet hurt. I was worried about what was to come and I wasn’t relishing a night out with no alcohol. Mason had frequently asked what was wrong but I shook him off. He was frowning at me, completely baffled by the time we entered the club.

The bloke’s eyes rose to my face. “Sorry gorgeous, your friends just caught my attention there.” He smirked, gesturing to my chest.

I pulled a ‘What the hell?’ expression and shook my head in astonishment. “Piss—off!” I growled at him and he held his hands up.

“Whoa hot stuff, I’m only saying hello.”

“Saying hello to me or my tits?” I scoffed. Courtney sniggered and leaned into Marcy.

“Here we go.”

“Well aren’t you a fiery little thing,” he said huskily as he swept a finger down my arm.

“Fuck—Off,” I snarled slowly as I took his finger in my hand and snapped it backwards with force.

“Fuck!” he cried, “Okay, okay.” His friends all laughed loudly and I let go. He slid back out of the booth and bumped into Mason’s solid chest as he stood.

Mason was glaring at him, that familiar malicious glint in his eyes. “Don’t. Fucking. Touch. Her. Again!”

Blondie held up both hands. “Sorry mate.” He cowered and stalked off.

“Thank you, Darling.” I grinned at Mason, fluttering my eyelashes at my hero.

“Why didn’t you tell him to fuck off?” he snapped, narrowing his eyes on me.

I blinked, wide eyed at him. “I did.”

He slammed my drink on the table. “Before he sat down?” he demanded, placing both of his hands on the table and leaning into my face.

I flicked a glance at Courtney who was staring at Mason, her eyes wide and bulging. “I didn’t get the chance,” I upheld with a tip of my head.

He glared at me and I shrank back slightly at the coldness in his eyes but then they softened a little. “Next time tell them to fuck off
before
they sit down!” he barked at me.

“Dance” Courtney said and grabbed my hand, pulling me out and across to the floor as she waved Marcy over.

“What the hell was that?” she asked as we started to move to the music.

“He gets like that,” I admitted, a little embarrassed as I started to sway beside her, the beat of the music controlling my hips impulsively.

“Jesus, control freak or what?” she shouted in my ear.

I shrugged. “He just gets a bit possessive,” I shouted back.

She scoffed with her brows high and haughty. “A bit?” I scowled at her and shook my head, telling her to leave it as Marcy joined us and we danced like lunatics.

An hour later I was hot and exhausted.

“I’m going to find the loo!” I shouted. Courtney and Marcy nodded as I teetered across the room on my impossible, now regretful heels.

I found the toilets easy enough and was amazed they were empty, expecting a queue a mile long because I was bursting. Locking myself into a cubicle and relieving myself I closed my eyes for a few moments, utterly shattered. This pregnancy was tiring me out; god knows what I would be like at nine months.

The outer door opened and closed and I frowned when I didn’t actually hear anyone enter. Shrugging, I flushed and straightened my dress out and opened the door to be shoved back harshly into the toilet wall by Blondie.

He grabbed my face roughly. “Hey bitch,” he snarled. I froze, he was a picture of pure viciousness; his blue eyes glinted in anger, veins pulsed in his temple and his jaw was clenched.

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck! Think Ava!

“Have I pissed you off?” I asked between my squashed teeth trying to buy some time to think.

He laughed coldly. “Oh yeah, I think you need to be taught a lesson in manners.” He slid his hand down to my throat and tightened his grip.

Shit! He was gonna choke me to death in a fucking toilet of all places!

He pressed up against me and licked my cheek, as his other hand grabbed my breast roughly.

What was it with men assaulting me every time I was pregnant? Think Ava!

I closed my eyes and took a huge breath. “Remove your fucking hand now!” I growled out. He sneered and squeezed my boob harder. “I will ask once more . . . move your hand,” I warned. His hand tightened on my throat this time.

“And what you gonna do, whore?” he laughed.

I brought up the rage that I had been managing to control since Katie’s revenge, bubbled it up inside me and felt it course through me and empower me.

Bringing my knee up sharply into his groin, I grabbed his hair and slammed his face into the heavy porcelain toilet cistern and smashed it again for good measure.

He roared at me and I sprinted to the door but as I opened it he slammed it shut from behind me.

Fuck!!

He grabbed my hair and dragged me over to the sink unit, pushing me against it and bending me over.

“NO!” I shrieked as he held my head down on the vanity by the back of my neck and started lifting my dress at the back. I was wearing a thong and as soon as he got my dress over my hips he chuckled merrily.

“Merry fucking Christmas, Tom,” he praised himself.

I was struggling and trying to ram my shoe heel into his leg but he gripped both of my legs between his thighs, clamping my legs tightly between his as he ran a finger up me, his intimate touch turning my stomach.

“NO!!” I screamed.

The door opened and a startled Courtney froze, wide eyed in the doorway. “Courtney, get Mason,” I yelled.

She screamed, “SHIT!” as she flew out of the door.

Tom wasn’t waiting for no-one, he unzipped his fly and I fought and thrashed as he tried to enter me. “Keep fucking still bitch!” He grabbed my hair and held my head down further into the unit just as Mason charged through the door, closely followed by Greg and Sam.

He froze in the door and Tom whined at the sight of the pure vehemence and ferocity displayed on Mason’s face, Hell, even I whimpered.

Mason stood very still and closed his eyes against the scene before him. “Let. Her. Go” he said slowly with an eerie calmness, but the level of ice, vehemence and malevolence in his voice froze every single drop of blood in my body, my bones cracked under the sheer wrath rolling off him. I stand corrected; it was
this man
who was the epitome of evilness.

I swallowed heavily. Everything in the room appeared to still as the air seemed to be sucked from the room under the rage and pure fury of my man.

Mason opened his eyes slowly. I recognised the white haze over his eyes, the twitch in his tight jaw, the white knuckles in his clenched fists and the rhythm of his ultra-steady heavy breaths.

Oh Fuck!

He took one step forward, his cold eyes rooted to Tom, who was still stupidly holding me against the vanity. Mason took another step forward and I heard Tom gulp.

Greg and Sam were now blocking the toilet door, hands fisted by their sides and feet spread apart. I now realised why these men were the most feared men in London. Even I was terrified and they were near enough my family.

“I said—let her go,” Mason repeated and I begged for Tom to release me but it seemed the senseless man had frozen to the spot.

Mason shook his head slowly from side to side and took another step. He placed his hand over the one Tom had on my hair and wrapped his fingers around it.

I winced as I heard Tom’s bones crunch under the sheer force of Mason grip.

Tom started making a high pitched rasping noise as the crunching went on and on until he started screaming.

“Go!” Mason snapped to me without even glancing at me, his eyes fixed hard and cold on Tom. I nodded quickly. Sam held the door open for me as I hurried through to find Courtney and Marcy on the other side of the door.

My knees buckled and Courtney caught me as Greg exited the bathroom and stood at the door in guard mode again.

I swallowed the bile as I heard Tom’s piercing squeals.

“Take her back to the table,” Greg told Courtney. She and Marcy held an arm each and practically dragged me back to the table. We weren’t getting any funny looks so I didn’t think anyone had noticed anything.

I was numb, scared and nauseous and after about ten minutes Greg came over to the table. “There is a limo picking you up in five minutes. We’ll meet you back at the cabin,” he informed us.

I frowned. “Why aren’t you coming?”

“Mason wants to take care of him.”

I sighed. “No Greg! He’s not worth the risk,” I pleaded, highly aware that they got caught then it was over for Mason. “You can’t . . . not in a nightclub toilet for God’s sake.”

He narrowed his eyes on me but shook his head. “Mason will take care of it Ava, he
has
to take care of it.”

“For God’s sake!” I raged and snatched up my bag and made for the exit.

“Ava!” Greg shouted. I turned to him, eyes blazing and my fists clenched painfully by my side. “If he doesn’t do this he won’t be worth living with, do you understand?”

I shook my head. “But here? Right in the middle of a God damn nightclub?”

He shook his head. “No, he’ll be taken elsewhere.”

I still shook my head in anger. “This is fucking suicide,” I declared but turned and left, my own rage still swirling my veins at rocket speed with Courtney and Marcy trundling along behind me.

I slammed my fist into the wall and then did it again and again to get rid of some of the adrenaline, my knuckles cracking and crunching under my own strength.

“Come on, babe,” Courtney begged, her eyes full of pain and worry. I sighed and nodded then clambered into the car. All of us were silent on the ride home, all of us thinking about our men, but in the end, I knew which man it would be that finished Tom; just for revenge that the sick bastard had dared to touch his woman.

CHAPTER 17

I CURLED UP in bed three hours later after a slug of much needed vodka and a swift apology to my babies. Courtney and Marcy had gone to bed a couple of hours earlier but the men still hadn’t returned and I was sick and tired of waiting for them. I had curled up in the bedroom chair two hours ago waiting for Mason to return but after waiting for three long hours I climbed exhausted into bed.

I was hurt, upset and angry that he wasn’t here for me; I needed him desperately, to hold me and tell me everything was okay, to stroke my hair and tell me he loved me.

I had sat looking in the mirror at the purple bruising around my neck; the desperate need to get clean had me scrubbing nearly all my skin raw in the shower and all I wanted now was my man.

I tossed and turned for at least another hour but was stirred from my chaotic dozing sometime later when Mason climbed in behind me and pulled me tight.

He nuzzled into my neck. I could smell whisky on him as his hands slipped around me and down into my shorts. He slipped a finger into my groove as he pressed a raging erection into my back.

What the Hell?!

“Move them, now!” I snarled and he froze behind me.

“Ava? What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.

I swallowed heavily and sat up. “Are you fucking stupid?” I was gobsmacked at his audacity.

His eyes narrowed on me and I realised from the look of him that he’s had much more to drink than I thought. “What did you say?” he demanded angrily, his eyes blazing brightly as his breathing steadied out.

“I asked if you are fucking stupid.”

He shot out of bed and snapped the light on then his eyes widened as he spotted my throat. “Jesus Ava,” he breathed as he shot towards me.

I reared back and held my hands up and he stilled, regarding me warily. “Don’t touch me Mason.”