“I—” His phone starts to ring again. “Mega—” He rolls his eyes and I smile, knowing she will give him fuck. “Yes. She is fine.”
Leaning down, I manage to get the shoe off. I flex my toes and drop my head back, relishing in the relief. I don’t know why we wear them.
I need a pint of water and my bed, and maybe a shower. Yes, definitely a shower. I already know I will feel like the earth’s ending tomorrow. Without thinking, I grasp my dress at my waist and pull it down over my strapless bra, shimmying it over my hips.
“Uhh, yeah okay, bye.” Mason reminds me of his presence, and I look up to see him shoving his phone into his pocket. His eyes are wild with something carnal, but they hold anger too.
“Why are you angry?” I ask.
“What are you doing?” His jaw clenches tight as his stare drops away and to the floor.
“Once upon a time this wouldn’t have bothered you, Mason.” I throw my arms out at my sides.
He shakes his head, making me rage when he doesn’t lift his head to look at me. “Things are a little different now, don’t you think?”
My throat burns with a deep ache. “Then why are you here?”
His eyes finally lift to me and I’m momentarily paralysed in place.
I swallow thickly, my heart hammering in my chest. Letting my dress fall, I step out of it and then kick it to the side. Reaching around, I unhook my bra letting it fall to the floor. Mason leans against the doorframe, his legs crossed at the ankle, his muscular arms straining in his black shirt. He’s everything I remember him to be, and yet I crave his touch so I can be reminded of his love. Because I miss this man’s love above all else.
If we ever did anything right, it was the way we loved each other.
He doesn’t move, doesn’t blink. He just stands and watches me with his troubled eyes. And those brows, low and dark.
“Do I look different to you now?” I ask, popping an arched brow.
“Nina,” he warns.
“What? You don’t like the marks your son left me? They aren’t going anywhere, Mase.” I walk towards him, forcing myself to not cover my body. His eyes narrow as he looks down his nose at me.
“You have no idea,” he rasps.
I lick my lips. “No?”
Something passes between us, the air in the room becoming electric.
He shakes his head, not taking his eyes from my face as he pushes off the doorframe and walks over to my chest of drawers. “It’s late.” He pulls out a sweatshirt and comes back to me, slipping it over my head and pulling the hem down past my thighs. “Get in the bed, Nina.”
I swallow thickly as I look up at him, my chest aching with the look in his eyes. Nodding my head, I turn and climb into bed, sliding my pillow to the centre before laying my head down. I watch as Mason settles back into the chair beside Ellis’s cot, his eyes trained on me.
“Mase…” I pause, not really knowing what I want to say. “I’m?—”
He shakes his head, tipping his chin up. “Go to sleep.”
TEN
Nina
Stripping naked wasn’t my intention and looking back now, I wish the ground would have swallowed me up whole. So much needed to be said to Mason, but in my drunken state, I somehow believed I needed to be bare to say it.
Maggie sets a mug of hot water down in front of me. The only upside to going out last night is the Sunday dinner that Maggie has been prepping all morning. Mason was gone when I woke up this morning, and he’d thankfully already picked Ellis up from Maggie’s before I arrived. It’s his weekend with Mason, and I know that he will want the day with him after missing last night.
“So, tell me about this new job.” Maggie lifts my legs and sits at the other end of the sofa, then places them back down on her lap.
“It’s three days a week to start, which I know is more than I was doing at the hotel, but I can get Mason to help, still.”
“Nina, please. I want to help. Unless you would rather have Mason take the time off. But otherwise, let me help you. Please.”
