Page 99 of Untroubled Heart

“You say that like it’s a hard thing to do.”

I rest my cheek against his muscled back. “My dad certainly made it feel that way. My ex, too.”

“What happened with your ex?” he asks, and my stomach clenches. “I know he went to jail, but how did your relationship turn out the way it did?”

I hug him tighter, dragging his mint and patchouli cologne into my lungs as I breathe him in.

“We got together when we were sixteen. It started like any other high school romance. We were together for four months, then broke up for a month, then we were together for three years. We broke up again when a girl he’d hooked up with during our separation said they’d slept together again. He said she was jealous, and I believed him because we were in a good place. I had no reason not to.” Mason’s hand tightens over mine, reassuring me of his presence. “Then he started hanging out with these guys I really didn’t like; crass, shitty values, just the kind of people you can tell aren’t really going anywhere, and they’re content to take you down with them.

“Derek stopped wanting to spend time together, and I saw him out one night, that same girl hanging around him, and he was not denying her attention. We broke up again, but it was hard to get myself out of his orbit. Sometimes it’s too easy to get comfortable in a situation, even if you see it’s not right, because you don’t know how to start over and see an alternative. I witnessed my mum doing the same thing for years.

“We were on and off again for the better part of three years, and that’s when I couldn’t deny the cheating. He had such a good way of using my emotions against me and convincing me that the good times outweighed the bad.

“I had been saving since high school for my own place. I wanted something I could undoubtedly call my own. Derek found out about the account I had, which I stupidly hadn’t changed my bank details for since the last time we’d broken up. I used the same passwords for everything. He drained nearly thirteen thousand dollars from my account. He owed it to some dealer in the city because he sampled too much of the product he was meant to be selling. I didn’t realise that was how bad the company he’d been keeping was, but he fell out with that dealer and found another. He wasn’t familiar with the city, fucked up, and got caught for possession. The week after he was arrested was when I found out I was pregnant. I’d like to say I was smart enough to be done with him before that, but it wasn’t until I realised I was bringing life into the world, one that I was solely responsible for loving and protecting, that I realised I had to cut him out of my life for good. Not just for Navie but for me too.”

Mason turns in my arms, his large, warm hands cupping my cheeks as he stares down at me with a soul-deep intensity I could never have imagined from anyone.

“You’re amazing,” he says. My lips twist, feeling awkward with the direct praise. “The way you never give up, never let people keep you down or tell you that you can’t go for something you want—that’s what I first noticed about you. You live so unapologetically. Messy, and real, and open. You teach me to do the same.”

“Pretty sure you were perfect before I came along.” I chuckle.

Mason’s gaze turns intense, his soft smile gone, replaced by desire. In a second, he’s gripping behind my thighs and lifting me over his shoulder.

I squeak before slapping a hand to my mouth, so I don’t wake Navie as Mason walks us into his bedroom.

When the door is closed, he crosses the room as he pulls me down his body, making every inch touch. Cool glass touches my back when my feet reach the floor, and Mason sinks to his knees in front of me.

He kisses the inside of my knee as his hands trail down my calf, lifting my ankle and placing it on his thigh.

“Are your feet sore?” he asks, tackling the buckle of my red heels.

I wasn’t sure what to wear for dinner tonight. I knew it was at his grandparents’ house, and my mind just kept going to movies I’ve seen where the rich folk wore suits to dinner, even in their own home. I couldn’t imagine Mason and his siblings like that, but just to be safe, I opted for fitted blue jeans and a pink off-the-shoulder blouse that cinched over my chest, paired with the heels I wore from our date night, that I know Mason loved.

I shake my head. “They’re okay. Thankfully, there was a lot of sitting tonight.”

He brings my foot to his lips, kissing my instep before setting it on the ground and switching to the other. I never knew having a man take off your shoes could be so erotic.

My head falls to the window I’m pressed up against, my hands searching for something to hold on to as Mason’s hands glide up my legs, his nose trailing up my body as he breathes me in.

His lips hover over mine, without giving in to the need to close the distance, and he lifts my blouse over my head, leaving me in a deep plum satin balconette bra. It’s not my normal, comfortable nursing bra, but Mason makes me feel so sexy, and I wanted to indulge in that.

He still doesn’t kiss me, just keeps tormenting me with his mouth a breath away, as if he’s about to give in at any second, then he pops the button on my jeans, easing the fabric down until he’s on his knees again. He tosses my clothes behind him, then props my leg over his shoulder.

His thumb teases my clit through the fabric. My knee tightens over his shoulder as one hand buries into his hair. One kiss, then another over the sheer lace before he’s hooking his fingers underneath and tugging it to the side, exposing me to him.

Mason likes to take his time working me up, but there’s no time for slow and steady tonight. He swipes his tongue from my entrance to my clit, sucking the hard bud in his mouth before pulling back, then painting his tongue all over me. He’s insatiable. Claiming. His hands pull at my arse, just so he can get closer. It feels as though he’s drowning, gasping for air, but that’s not what will save him. It’s my orgasm he needs.

Realising just how much I pushed love and affection out of my life before Mason has me desperate to claim him straight back. I need him like air. A frantic hunger igniting in my soul, determined to be bound to him irrevocably. Eternally.

“You’re such a good boy, eating me like this,” I praise. “Do you want me to come on your tongue, Mason?”

He looks up at me from under his lashes just as he makes a long, deliberate swipe through my centre, ending with rapid flicks over my clit.

I cry out, my legs growing weak the longer I stand. I grab his head with both hands, fucking myself over his mouth. Mason’s hands shift up my back, steadying him as he throws my other leg over his shoulder. I’m pinned to the window as he devours me on his knees.

“Oh fuuuuck.” My thighs shake around his head as my orgasm takes over.

I don’t even have a chance to catch my breath before my feet are placed on the floor, and Mason’s big hands are gripping my waist and spinning me around. I can hear him frantically undressing behind me as I rest my forehead against the cool glass.