by Kaylea Cross
Blah, blah, blah. “The land sold to the people you thought it would? Avery’s boyfriend?”
His eyebrows contracted in a fierce frown. “Yeah, him and Avery’s partner.” His jaw clenched. “It’s all over. And now those heartless assholes are up there right now, gloating over their victory.”
Shannon froze in the act of bringing the glass to her lips. “What? Who is?”
He waved a hand, growing agitated. “Them. Tate’s friend.”
To hell with Tate. “Who?”
“Avery’s boyfriend.” He shot her an annoyed look. “Mason something-or-other.”
Her heart beat faster. “They’re up at the property?” He’d told her all about it last time they talked. She knew exactly where it was, and how to get to the entrance.
“Yeah. Passed his red Jeep just before it turned onto the access road up there a while ago.”
Shannon grabbed his arm, and his gaze snapped to hers in surprise. “When? How long ago?”
He frowned in confusion. “I dunno, maybe…twenty minutes ago?”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.” He pulled his arm free, giving her an odd look. “What the hell do you care?”
“No reason. I just hate that they’re up their gloating. Rubbing salt in your wound.” It was perfect. A totally isolated location, and it was getting dark out. No one would even hear the shots up there. She had to get up there before they left.
Ray’s face fell, his expression dejected. “It ain’t right. It ain’t right, but it’s all over now.”
It’s not over. Not yet.
She left cash on the bar and hurried out to her vehicle. No one was in the parking lot when she got behind the wheel.
She glanced around once to make sure no one was watching before taking out her weapon. Her hands shook a little as she loaded a full magazine into it, and slipped an extra one in her pocket.
“Calm down,” she ordered herself. She had to do this. For herself as much as for Mike. If she went to jail for killing Avery, so be it. She was prepared to go to jail to prove to Mike how devoted she was to him.
No, it wasn’t over yet. But it soon would be.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“So what did you want to show me?” Avery asked him as they walked back to his Jeep.
Mason was glad they’d decided to come up here. The evening air was cool and damp, the scent of the forest filling their lungs, and he hoped it had taken Avery’s mind off everything else for a while. They’d just played fetch with Ric for forty minutes, and he was finally getting tired, panting like mad as he trotted in front of them, his prize stick in his mouth.
“Not here. Up at the barn.” He opened the back hatch and whistled for Ric, who leaped inside the back with a single bound. “Okay, buddy.” He took the stick from him and tossed it aside. “You have some water and then sleep it off. We’ll be back in a while.” He shut the hatch and locked the vehicle, his pistol holstered on his hip in the unlikely event they ran into a bear or a cougar out here.
Avery glanced over her shoulder as they walked away from the Jeep up the slope. “He doesn’t look tired anymore.”
Mason looked back and grinned. Ric was sitting in the driver’s seat, peering anxiously through the windshield at them with an expression of betrayal, his ears perked. Dad, how can you leave me here by myself? “He’ll be fine. A few minutes and he’ll curl up on his bed in the back for a nap.”
“No, he won’t. He’ll stay on sentry duty the entire time we’re gone.”
Probably. “He’ll be okay.” He reached for her hand, her skin chilly compared to his. “You cold?”
“Just my hands.”
He stopped and took her hands between his, rubbing them to warm them. “Hmm, I’ll have to figure out a way to warm them up.”
“In the barn, I’ll bet,” she said dryly.
“That’s a great idea. Come on.”
He led her up the incline toward the trail that cut through the trees, the changing deciduous trees glowing gold and orange amongst the verdant evergreens. The trail widened where the forest ended at the edge of the clear land, revealing the old, weathered barn a hundred yards or so in the clearing.
“You sure you need to demo it with machinery?” Avery said. “Looks like you could push it over by hand if you wanted.”
He chuckled. “It’s over a hundred years old, but she’s still a sturdy old gal. I kind of wish we could keep her, but it’s cheaper to pull it down and build new.” He slid the panel door open and ushered her inside, then slid it shut. “Hang on a sec.”
He’d left a battery-powered lamp on the shelf next to the door. He switched it on, giving them a little bit of light.
Avery turned in a circle, studying the space. “It looks more solid in here than the exterior does.”
“Yep. A hundred years of weather will age a building. Now.” He set his hands on her hips and spun her to face him. “I believe I promised to warm you up.”
“You did.” She looped her arms around his neck. “What did you have in mind?”
He brushed a kiss on her lips. Then another. Lingered as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her flush against him, one hand sliding into her hair.
Avery hummed and parted her lips. He delved his tongue between them, touching hers. She squirmed and gripped the back of his head, sending a streak of heat straight to his gut.
He ran his free hand down her back, cupping one ass cheek and pulling her tight to the ridge of his erection. She moaned into his mouth and parted her legs, adding pressure and friction. But when he slid his hand up her shirt, she stopped him.
“My turn,” she murmured, nipping at his lower lip before grasping the sides of his face in her hands and trailing kisses over his jaw.
Mason’s pulse kicked hard as her hands roamed over his shoulders and chest, down his ribs to the waistband of his jeans. She gripped his erection through the denim, earning a low growl, then undid the fly and peeled the fabric down his hips. He sucked in a breath when her hand wrapped around the hot, throbbing length of his cock, her lips busy on the side of his neck.
His instinct was to take over. But the way she explored him, so intent on her task as she shoved his shirt up with her free hand and set her mouth on his bare chest, made him stay perfectly still.
He eased a hand into the silky strands of her hair, his fingers flexing. All his muscles pulled tight as her mouth moved lower, his heart thudding hard against his ribs. He’d imagined her on her knees going down on him at least a thousand times, and could hardly believe it was about to happen.
Her hand felt good on him, but when she nipped at his abs and sank to her knees in front of him, looking up at him with those pretty golden eyes, her lips inches away from the swollen head of his cock… She was his every fantasy come to life.
He stared down at her, dying a little as she leaned forward to touch her tongue to the flared head. His muscles grabbed, the air locking in his lungs. The hand in her hair tightened, the anticipation pushing the hunger higher and higher with every heartbeat.
Her lips parted. He felt the silky caress of her tongue as it swirled around him, then warmth as her mouth engulfed him.
Mason growled low in his throat as fire streaked up his spine. He clenched his fingers around her hair, pulling it. In answer, Avery sucked him deeper, her hand stroking up and down his shaft in the slow, decadent rhythm she set with her mouth.
The urge to close his eyes and throw his head back was strong, but he refused to miss a second of this. She was too gorgeous, too sexy as she sucked him off in the glow of the lantern, the wet sounds mixing with his harsh breaths. Pleasure flooded him, rising in an unstoppable tide.
“Does sucking me make you wet?” he murmured, his heart pounding out of control.
Her gaze flicked up to him but she didn’t answer, flicking her tongue across the spot that made him shudder.
He tightened his hold on her hair. “Does it?”
She hummed around him,
her head bobbing in a nod.
He gripped her hair and tugged gently, bringing that gorgeous, sultry gaze up to his, already on edge. “Stop,” he commanded, his voice little more than a guttural growl. He was too close. A few more seconds and he’d be lost.
Avery eased off him, her expression confused. Mason grabbed her by the elbows and hauled her to her feet, crushing his mouth to hers. She opened for him, stroking his tongue with hers as he shoved her fleece and shirt up. He tugged the lace cups of her bra down, one hand splayed across her back as he bent to take a hard nipple into his mouth.
Her moan lashed across his nerve endings, his cock throbbing, desperate to plunge into her. But not until she was as hot as him.
He kept his mouth exactly where it was while he undid her jeans and shoved them and her underwear down her thighs. She parted them as much as the fabric would allow, gave a shaky moan when he cupped her.
Fuck. She was hot and wet, melting against his fingers, and he wanted everything she had to give.
He caressed her clit, making her even wetter, then slid two fingers into her. Teasing the spot he would hit when he was finally inside her.
Avery gripped his head and rocked into his hand, demanding more. He withdrew to stroke her clit, switching to the other nipple and lavishing the same attention on it until she was squirming in his hold.
He couldn’t wait another second.
Straightening, he spun her around and pushed her forward until they came to the low cabinet built into the wall. He set a hand between her shoulder blades and pushed with firm pressure. “Down,” he rasped out, and dug into his pocket for the condom he’d brought.
He rolled it on, desperate to get inside her, and the sight of her like that, bent over with her ass in the air, exposed and waiting for him made him dizzy. Stepping up close behind her, he spread one hand over the small of her back, then reached his other around to cup her silky folds.
“Mason,” she said on a groan, rubbing her ass against his rigid length.
“Let me,” he whispered, bending over her to kiss her shoulder, the curve of her neck, his tongue stroking while his fingers played with her clit. He was so damn hard, his whole body tight with a need that only Avery could quench.
When she was panting and moaning, he straightened and grasped her hip, his fingers sinking into her soft flesh. With his other hand he guided himself to her folds, staring hungrily at the way she enveloped the thick head as he pushed forward.
She gasped and tried to push back for more but he stilled her with a solid grip on her hip and cupped her with his other hand, finding her swollen clit once more. Her plaintive moan went straight to his cock as he surged forward.
With one thrust he buried himself as deep as he could get, groaning in mingled relief and pleasure at being enveloped by her body. Slowly he withdrew and eased forward again, his shaft slick and shiny in the lamplight as he angled himself to stroke over her sweet spot, his fingers caressing her in a slow, steady rhythm.
He’d never felt anything this intense. The way she gave herself to him was so incredibly sexy, her needy moans rising with each stroke. His breathing was uneven, his heart racing as they both neared the edge.
She clenched around him and started coming, her soft, ecstatic cries of surrender filling his heart until he thought it would burst. Mason bent forward again, covering her back with his chest as he rode her, milking every ounce of pleasure he could out of her release before allowing himself his own.
He locked an arm around her waist and plunged deep, a shout tearing free as pleasure bombarded him, white hot, searing every nerve ending. Gasping, he rested his forehead against the top of her spine and just breathed her in, while the pulses gradually faded.
Their uneven breaths were the only thing that disturbed the silence. Mason kept his eyes closed and absorbed the blissful peace he felt, still buried inside Avery. He kissed her silken skin, up to her soft nape, his heart overflowing. “I love you.”
Her muscles contracted as she turned her head to look back at him. “What?”
Shit, he hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that, especially while he was inside her. But he wasn’t sorry, because it was true. He nodded, trailing his fingertips over the side of her face. “I do.”
She straightened, forcing him to withdraw from her warmth, and turned to face him, her eyes searching his. “You do?”
He cupped the side of her face. “Yeah.”
A startled smile tilted her lips. “I—”
Something flickered in his peripheral vision. They both glanced to the left.
She tensed, inhaling. “Do you smell that?”
The blood congealed in his veins, his heart seizing.
Smoke.
Mason whipped around, his heart in his throat as that smell flooded his brain. Flames were already licking at the outside of the single window in the side of the barn, smoke pouring in through the boards.
Heart in his throat, Mason turned back to Avery as she got her holster in place, and shoved her toward the door. “Get out now.”
She ran for the door, glancing back to make sure he was following. He was right behind her, adrenaline pumping through his system as past and present collided. The smell of the smoke, the hungry flames eating through the wood transported him back in time. He was pinned in place, wounded, every movement agony as he listened to his fellow soldiers’ screaming as they burned in the shattered Chinook.
He shook it off, his heart slamming against his ribs. He had to save Avery. Had to get her out safely.
The glow was already brighter, the flames racing across the old wood, devouring it, feeding off it. Avery reached for the metal lever holding the sliding door shut, only to jerk her hands back with a cry of pain.
“What’s wrong?” Mason demanded, pulling her back to look at her hands. The palms and fingers were bright red, seared by the metal.
“The lever. It’s too hot.” She grimaced.
Mason ripped off his jacket, wrapped it around his hands and reached for the lever. He pulled it, but nothing happened.
He set his jaw and leaned back, the muscles in his arms and shoulders standing out as he strained to open it. “Shit, it’s stuck.” His heart hammered against his ribs, fear gripping him.
Then he met Avery’s gaze, and resolve hardened in his gut like steel. She was counting on him. Those men had burned to death in that helo because he couldn’t get them out.
He would get Avery out of here alive, even if it meant sacrificing himself to save her.
AVERY SPUN AROUND, frantically looking for another way out. They couldn’t get out the window, the flames were already too high and too thick. “Is there another door?” She hurried to the opposite side, searching for an exit in the wall. Her hands stung like hell and she could already feel the blisters rising. How had the fire started?
“No.” He ran to the far end.
There was no gap in the wall, no loose boards that she could find to get through. The smoke was pouring in now, boiling in a black cloud against the ceiling. She coughed and bent over, putting the crook of her arm across her nose and mouth.
Mason was feeling along the end wall, trying to find a way out. She rushed to him, her eyes watering from the smoke. It was already burning her throat, filling her lungs. She coughed, sucked in a ragged breath and coughed harder.
“Here.” Mason pulled off his shirt, ripped it in half and handed her one. She took it, wincing as her blistered palms and fingers burned while she tried to tie it around the back of her head.
He pushed her hands away and did it for her, then tied his half around his face. “Gonna have to break our way out. Stay back.” He set her away from him, leaned back and drove the sole of his boot into the wall with a loud thud. The wooden boards shuddered but held.
Avery moved in beside him and timed a kick with his next, hammering at the old boards. Wood groaned and cracked, but held. Jesus, and here she’d thought the barn was in jeopardy of falling over.
Togeth
er they beat at the wall, over and over. Avery’s eyes were streaming, sweat slicking her spine. She could barely see through the haze now, both of them coughing as the lethal smoke boiled around them.
Mason stepped back a few paces, then took a running start and drove his foot into the wall with a guttural snarl. This time a small hole appeared.
Avery’s heart slammed in a desperate rhythm as she moved close and started kicking at the weak point with him. Together they managed to punch out a hole about three feet tall and two feet wide.
Mason grabbed one of the broken planks and started pulling on it with all his might, his muscles standing out, his forehead and temples streaked with sweat.
The board snapped free.
He staggered back a step, dropped it, then grabbed the next. Avery grabbed one too, but released it with a cry. Shit, she couldn’t hold anything.
“I got it,” Mason said, grunting as he pried another board loose.
Hurry, hurry, she urged him, desperate to get out of this deathtrap.
The board came loose. Mason grabbed her wrist and shoved her toward the opening. “Go, now,” he ordered.
There was barely enough room for her to squeeze through it. She struggled through the opening while Mason pulled on another board, the wood scraping at her.
Avery gritted her teeth, a cry locking in her throat as the wood suddenly snapped and sent her tumbling forward. Instinctively she threw her hands out to break her fall, wrenching a cry of agony from her as her blistered palms scraped across the ground.
She staggered to her feet and pulled the makeshift bandana off, turning just as Mason came through the opening. He yanked down his bandana and grabbed her shoulders, his watering eyes searching hers. “Are you okay?”
She was alive and mostly unharmed, so she nodded.
He put a hand on the middle of her back and started rushing her forward. “Jesus,” he muttered.
She looked to the left, shocked to see how much of the barn was already engulfed in flames. A cough wracked her. She kept walking, a sense of numbness invading her. “How did it start?”