“The cabin we are heading to was something I had been working on for years, right after Tyler died. It was supposed to be a place I took Molly, hoping that nature, solitude, and the peace of being out in the open with me might help her come out of the darkness that was slowly consuming her. The cabin used to be my father’s, but he willed it to me after he died. Ever since then, I have been stocking it with food and making it so that when I did have Molly there, she would have time to heal, and we wouldn’t have to worry about anything.” He looked at the ceiling and exhaled. “But none of those plans happened.” When he looked back at her, he felt her sorrow, but that hadn’t been why he told her about his past. “Now, I am trying to look at the future and make sure nothing happens to you and Ash.”
She was silent for a while, and he wished he could read her mind. “I don’t know what your beliefs are, but what I can say is that mine are that your wife is in her own personal heaven, holding both of her children tightly in her arms, and looking down on you with a smile on her face, because you are so strong and have such a good, warm heart, even if you can’t see it. You helped me when you had nothing to gain. Where others would have taken from me repeatedly, you let me join you and Asher.” She smiled softly. “In your own way, of course.” Mason found himself lifting his uninjured arm and placing his hand over one of hers. “You did what you had to do, and I know when I had to end my brother’s life, I did it because I couldn’t stand the thought of him walking around aimlessly with no purpose, and of him suffering in his own personal hell. That isn’t how someone should live, and if my brother and your wife were still alive, they would tell you the same thing.”
It was eerie how similarly she and Asher thought, because Ash said almost the same thing. It had been those words that pulled him somewhat out of the bleakness he found himself trapped in. Neither said anything for a long while, but it was a comfortable silence. His pulse pounded in his ears, in his throat, and had him feeling lightheaded. She dragged her tongue along her bottom lip, and Mason watched the act. He was hard, had felt his dick throb as soon as she placed her hands on his face.
“Mason….” She was looking at his mouth, and he knew she felt this pull between them as well.
“Yeah, baby, I know. I feel it too.” He leaned in close enough that they shared the same air. “I really want to kiss you, little bird.” Mason had never been the type to give fair warning to what he did. He took what he wanted, when he wanted. Some had called him arrogant, but he liked to think of himself as determined.
“I want you to kiss me.” Fuck, his heart was thundering so hard, and his mouth watered for a taste. “But you’re hurt, and I should let you rest—”
Mason didn’t let her finish that sentence. He slammed his mouth on hers and speared his tongue between her soft, succulent lips. He slid his hand behind her head and curled his fingers into her hair. She told them she swam across the pond, and the strands were still damp. He tangled his fingers in them and tugged her head back, baring her throat.
Mason had his lips on the arch of her throat, had his tongue moving up and down the delicate column, and groaned deeply. He should have talked this out with her, had the three of them discuss where this was going to go, because as it was, she probably thought it would just be her and him, and he couldn’t do that. He cared for Ash far too much, knew the other man wanted Sparrow just as badly and had some kind of fantasized delusion that the three of them could be together.
She breathed heavily, and when he looked up with just his eyes, he saw she had hers closed. Her mouth was slightly parted, and he moved her head back down so he could take control of her mouth once more. The sound of their heavy breathing and of her moaning softly had him so fucking hard he could have driven nails through steel with his damn cock.
She placed her hands on his chest and curled her fingers into the flesh. He grunted in pleasure. Her touch, smell, and taste were so different from Ash’s but not any less pleasurable than the man he cared for.