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He pushed them away, not wanting to bring on that kind of pain, even if that meant it would help him get rid of some of his hatred and hurt.
“But then I found Asher, talked to the first person about it all, and realized that with death comes release.” He hadn’t realized he looked away until Sparrow placed her much smaller hands on his cheeks and urged him to look at her once more.
They stared at each other for several long seconds, and the pain she felt for him, for what he had gone through, speared him right in the chest like a hot, sharpened blade.
“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.
“Wait,” she murmured against his mouth, but Mason fucking wanted her badly and broke away from the kiss only to trail his lips along the line of her jaw. “Mason, it feels so good—”
“Yeah, baby. It feels really fucking good.” She made a small noise in the back of her throat, and he wrapped his arms around hers, trying to pull her closer to his body. Fuck, he wanted to feel her big breasts pressed against his chest, feel her softness, and get lost in everything that was Sparrow.
“No, wait. We have to stop.” She added pressure to his chest and pushed him back enough that his mouth broke the seductive suction from her jaw and neck. She was breathing just as heavily as he was, and Mason couldn’t help but stare at the way her breasts rose and fell and pressed against the thin material of her shirt. She changed when they got to the cabin, and he just now realized she wasn’t wearing a bra under that T-shirt. Holy. Fuck. Rubbing a hand over his jaw, he felt the scrape of his stubble along his palm.
“I’m sorry. Shit, I am really fucking sorry.” He pushed himself up farther on the bed and hissed out a curse when he applied pressure to the arm that had been shot.
“Hey, hey, just relax. You’re going to make things worse.” Her focus was on his shoulder again, and she gently ran her fingers over the gauze. “You’re not bleeding through, so that’s good.” She leaned back and twisted her hands in her lap. “I didn’t mean to upset you or stop what we were doing.” Her cheeks became pink, and she looked away for a second before she looked at him once more. “It’s just…” She paused. “You and Asher…” She shrugged. “I don’t want to get between you two, and I certainly don’t want to deceive anyone. You guys are a couple, and I don’t want to mess that up.”
Mason didn’t know what to say, and for a moment, all he did was stare at her, trying to explain that Asher wanted her just as badly as he did, but he jumped forward when he should have taken a step back. But things changed when the world ended, civilization crashed, and Sparrow had been taken from them.
Things were put in perspective, and priorities were shifted. All it had taken was this little bird to be in danger, for the threat to present itself in the form of motherfuckers wanting to take something that wasn’t their right to take. “I care about Ash. He was there when I was at my breaking point, but he helped bring me back a little and helped me realize life still goes on.” He heard her swallow. “But I think there are a few things we should discuss concerning the three of us. Things that will change a lot, Sparrow.”
Chapter Twelve
Asher stepped off the stairs and made his way into the kitchen. The cabin was dark aside from the lone candle, which he found in one of the drawers and then lit. He stepped into the kitchen, and the single flame from the candle that he placed in a rusted cup sat in the center of the small four-person table.
He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on Mason and Sparrow, but he had gone upstairs to see how he was doing and to see if Sparrow needed anything.
That was when he heard Mason telling her about his past, and something in Asher cracked over the fact that his hard, very reserved lover opened up to Sparrow. That meant Mace truly did feel something more than tolerance for the female, and that meant a hell of a lot.
But soon, that deep and painful conversation turned heated, and he heard the clear sound of the two of them kissing. He had gotten hard instantly, and even if it was only that one sound that had gotten him erect, he had a lot of filthy images moving through his head.
So, like a fucking pervert, he leaned around the doorframe and watched with restrained arousal as Mason and Sparrow kissed. It certainly wasn’t anything erotic, but fuck was it hot to see the man he cared about finally giving in to the woman he was growing to care for.
But then they had broken away, and Sparrow expressed her concern about the two of them in a relationship and not wanting to come between them. Bless her heart for thinking so genuinely, but what she didn’t know, and what Mason hadn’t divulged to her, was that it wasn’t just the fact that they wanted to protect her.
They wanted to fuck her, claim her, and make it about the three of them. It had been him and Mason for several months, but now they had this delicate woman with her dirt-smeared cheeks and strong soul that made her able to take out two infected alone. She was strong, and Asher wanted her as much as he wanted Mace.
It had been at least twenty minutes since he had come downstairs, but he heard Sparrow moving around upstairs. He went over to his pack and crouched before it, grabbing the small bottle of whiskey he scored several weeks back when he and Mason scouted out a convenience store. He had been saving it, not sure for what occasion, but right now seemed like a good enough time.
With no shot glasses available, he took the bottle over to the table and sat his ass down. He was really fucking tired, but it wasn’t just about their long journey he had been on with Mason and now Sparrow, or the fact that he couldn’t remember the last time he slept in an actual bed. It was also because he was trying to wrap his head around his wants and needs, what was realistic, and how everything would play out.
