The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  He snatched at the roll of kitchen paper and started to mop up the spilled contents as I stared at him. He scooped and piled, wiped and cleaned, picked and shifted as I just stared at him silently, my body in lockdown as my mind refused to let him in, rejected what he wanted of me.

  I stepped over him and slowly walked across the room to the door. “Don’t—you—fucking—dare!”

  I closed my eyes and swallowed back the lump of fear growing in my throat. “Don’t do this, Mason.”

  “I will do this!” he growled out, his anger simmering just below the surface. “And so will you.”

  “I . . .” I shook my head but refused to turn to him.

  “YES!” His close voice made me jump as his fingers curled around my wrist, denying me my escape. “Sit down.” I didn’t have much choice when he dragged me across the room and kicked out a chair from under the table. “Sit.” He repeated.

  I slammed my arse into the chair, my own anger now bubbling away furiously. How dare he! How fucking dare he do this!

  “That’s it, you sit and simmer while I make coffee.”

  “I don’t want coffee.”

  “Tough. You are getting coffee.”

  “Well, your bloody coffee is worse than the northern oil rig.” I raged at him, my face now turning red. “I said I don’t want your damn coffee!” I picked up the vase of flowers from the middle of the table and slung it at him. Water splattered over him when he ducked and the vase hit the cupboard door, the pot shattering and splintering fragments of ceramic over him. The flowers plopped onto the floor beside his feet.

  He spun round, his face furious and his chest heaving as his teeth clasped the tip of his tongue. “Better?”

  “No!” I hissed as I reached right across the table and picked up the small bowl of potpourri.

  “Oh,” he scoffed. “Why not, might as well go the whole hog, Ava.”

  The contents of the bowl scattered on the floor as the bowl sailed across the room. Mason was ready this time, his hand snatching out as he caught it perfectly. He whirled round and flung it at the back door, the shatter loud in the quiet room. “Thought I’d save you a job!” he shouted as he turned back to me. “Is there anything else you want to throw at me? The table? Your fist maybe?”

  “Fuck you,” I spat back when I knew he was taunting me, my shoulder stopping me from throwing any punches. “Fuck you.”

  “What do you think I’ve been trying to do?”

  My mouth dropped open at his audacity. “You insensitive bastard!”

  He pulled in a deep breath and stormed towards me. I pushed back into the chair before he hoisted me up and took me in his arms. “Put me down, Mason.” I raged at him as I tried to pummel him with my left hand. “Mason!”

  He stamped through the house and carted me back upstairs where he gently dropped me onto the bed.

  As I tried to get up, he was suddenly sat on my stomach. He grabbed my hands and pulled them by my sides before he quickly captured them between his thighs. “Hold still.” He barked at me as I struggled beneath him. “Ava! Hold still, I want to show you something.”

  My breath stilled, the air freezing in my lungs as my chest started to crush my heart when he took my nightdress in his hands and tore it open, straight down the middle.

  I bucked underneath him, my body thrashing wildly as I tried to remove my arms from his grip and cover my chest. A tight whimper left me when he placed both of his palms on my chest. He was silent, his eyes fixed on mine with a stern stare as I cursed him and writhed uncontrollably, my body fighting against him furiously as I spat and hissed at him like an animal.

  “I love you.” He stated calmly.

  “You bastard!” I cried out as I continued to squirm.

  “You are beautiful.”

  “I hate you!”

  “I love you.”

  “Get the fuck off me.” I snarled at him.

  “You are fucking beautiful. I love you.”

  “I’m not!” I cried at him. “I’m ugly. I’m a fucking freak!”

  “You are beautiful. You take my breath with every one of your stunning smiles.”

  “I . . . I hate it . . .” I choked out.

  “And I love you. You are beautiful. Your eyes steal my soul every time you look at me.”

  “I look . . . wrong!”

  He smiled softly at me as I started to calm, my energy depleting with my fight. “You look perfect.” He dropped forward so his forehead rested on mine. “You’ve always been perfect to me, Ava. And you will always look perfect to me, even when you’re eighty and have no teeth and a fucking beard. You will still make my heart skip when you look at me, you will still take my soul in your hands and hold it tight, and you will always, always make me desire you, because I love you, not your breasts, Ava, or even your hair for that matter. It’s you that turns me on, it’s you that makes me want to worship your body, just to see the pleasure on your face. Not how you look but how you feel beneath me. How I pleasure you, pleasures me. How my body pleases you, pleases mine and how you fucking love me, makes me love you harder. You, Ava. You!”

  I stared at him, my throat clogged with grief as my heart swelled with love.

  My eyes rolled closed when his perfect lips found mine in one of his perfect kisses. His tenderness and gentle rhythm wove inside me, wrapping me in warmth and love as his fingers slid up my face to nestle against my head.

  I moaned and arched into him when his tongue slid between my lips and effortlessly danced with mine, his expert kiss making his domination soft but unforgiving, driving a need in me I hadn’t felt in a long time. There was only Mason that could direct this much desire into me, only ever him that could have me panting within seconds of his touch. My body belonged to him, every fibre of me bowed to him and granted him anything as I succumbed to his passion.

  His fingers tickled my skin as they skimmed down the front of my throat, his mouth flowing their route as he touched then tasted. My breathing sped up as he moved across my collarbone, his tongue trailing across my shoulder blade before making his way back.

  I whimpered as he nudged my legs apart with his knee and slid his thigh between mine. He deepened his kiss as I shamelessly rode his thigh, rubbing my sex furiously on him, but he suddenly pulled back.

  I watched him, my arousal so intense I was struggling to breathe. He slid out of his shorts and t-shirt, my eyes appreciative of his nakedness before he positioned his body back between my legs. There was no more foreplay, just amazing bliss as he pushed inside me slowly.

  “Oh Christ, Ava. I missed you so much.”

  I murmured a reply unable to give him coherent words when his cock glided in and out of me deliciously, his hips rocking against mine perfectly as we joined for the first time in eight months.

  His mouth found my neck as he nibbled and sucked on me, his own arousal prompting deep erotic groans from him as I lifted my hips further to him, bringing him into me even deeper.

  He sat up and knelt back onto his knees, pulling me with him until I was straddling his thighs, his cock driving into me when he thrust and I fell. He was kissing me heatedly, his mouth devouring each of my groans of ecstasy but I stilled when he started licking a trail down the centre of my neck.

  “Keep going, baby,” he pleaded with a whisper. “Please. I need you.”

  I pushed back the nausea and started to move on him again. I growled when he slid a hand around and teased my anus with his finger, intensifying my lust as I rode him harder. “That’s it, Ava. Fuck me hard.”

  I clasped his shoulders, working us both into a sweat as his lips continued their worship. He groaned deeply as he slid a finger in my backside and ran his tongue across my chest, tracing the scars delicately as his finger drove into me as hard as his cock, sending me further towards oblivion with each stroke.

  I exploded around him when his teeth nipped at my chest, his tongue lapping after the bite as he pushed into me brutally and roared my name when he filled me with his cum. />
  “Fuck . . . Jesus Ava. . . .”

  I clung to him, trying to come down from the high he had fucked into me. My chest heaved heavily as he carried on depositing tiny kisses over my skin, his soft lips idolising me as his hands slipped around my back to pull me into him further.

  I copied his pose, sliding mine around his and holding onto him for dear life. I wanted to absorb him, take him into my soul so he’d never be without me again.

  “I’m so sorry, Mason.”

  He leaned back and looked at me, his eyes sad and tired. “I’m scared Ava. I don’t know how to hold onto you. I want to hold onto you forever, possess you and own you so you can’t ever leave me.”

  “I won’t ever leave you, baby. I won’t.”

  He swallowed back his anguish and I watched in dismay when a tear rolled from his eye. “But you did, Ava. You did and there was nothing I could do to stop you, nothing I could do to help you.”

  “You couldn’t help me, Mason.” I smiled softly and held his face in my hands. “No one could. I wanted to die.”

  “But why?” he choked out as another tear bled free.

  “Because I was scared. I was terrified of becoming this . . . this invalid that would consume your soul and drown your spirit. I could never do that to you.”

  He shook his head slowly as he kissed my palm, “But don’t you see? You did that when you left me. You crushed me, Ava, like never before. You tore out my heart with that letter.”

  “I know,” I whispered as my tears joined his. “But it would have torn mine out to have you watch me go through that. It was evil . . . I was evil. It wasn’t just the sickness, Mason. I wanted to die, over and over and I screamed and shouted that I wanted to die, over and over. That would have torn your soul from you. I did what I had to, to save you from that.”

  “I know and I understand why you did it, but Ava, you underestimate me. I married you because I love you, I love you because you are you; healthy, stroppy, hurting, happy or even fucking . . . dying. I don’t care what mood you are in each day, or how green with sickness you are. My love for you is . . . it’s there, it’s real and powerful and nothing will ever change that, evil or no evil. It’s engrained in me, burnt onto my soul so whatever or wherever you are, that love will never disappear, ever.”

  I rested my cheek on his shoulder, sighing contentedly at the connection between us again. We stayed like that for a long while, both of us just breathing in the other.

  “Ava,” Mason whispered eventually.

  “Mmm.”

  “Umm, did you say there were pickles?”

  I sighed but smiled. “You know, one day you’ll make me a sandwich and I will keel over.”

  His jaw dropped at my sick sense of humour but then he tapped the edge of my nose and gave me his cheeky smile. “And cheese, baby, that strong stuff . . . oh and some onion.”

  I rolled my eyes and climbed off him. “”Yes sir,” I saluted perfectly before I pulled on my robe.

  “My God, you did it.”

  “Miracles, see.” I shouted as I trotted down the stairs and into the kitchen. “Let’s hope God is still dishing them out tomorrow,” I whispered to myself.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  New Memories

  Mason

  “OH, DID I tell you,” I turned to Ava, grabbing onto her hand as her fingers tapped rapidly against her knee and pulled it onto my lap, grasping it tightly to calm the twitch. “Debora has persuaded George to go for custody through the proper channels. Maybe just to share access instead of full custody too.”

  “How is Debora?” She asked as sadness and grief covered her face but took her away from her current anguish.

  I blew out slowly and nodded, “Getting there, slowly.”

  We both watched as a nurse pushed a trolley of notes along the quiet corridor. Ava leaned towards me with a frown on her beautiful face, “Do they still use paper notes? I thought everything was now done via computers.”

  I shrugged and continued to watch the nurse struggle through the double doors at the end, “Dunno.”

  I jolted when a sharp sting burnt the top of my arm. My head snapped towards Ava who was glaring at me after slapping me. “Did you just check out her arse?”

  “No.”

  “You so did.” She glowered at me as her lips tightened into an angry pout. “You so did, Mason.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You did,” she persisted. “Although, she did have a nice backside. The way it swung under her uniform. And she was really quite pretty.”

  My mouth dropped open as I stared at her. “Oh, I can’t check out her arse but you can.”

  “Well, that’s different.” She defended as she stared me down.

  I nodded firmly, “So I didn’t catch you checking out the car park attendant this morning.”

  Her eyes widened before she huffed. “Oh come on, Mason. That guy is illegally hot. Godlike.”

  I shrugged and sighed as I lifted my hands in defeat. “Of course he is,” I answered haughtily as I rolled my eyes.

  “Are you jealous?” She narrowed her eyes on me, “You are. You’re jealous of the hot car park attendant.”

  “Will you stop calling the guy hot!”

  “And godlike,” she sighed dreamily. What the fuck! “His arse is just. . . .” She made a funny growling noise as she shivered and sighed again. She looked at me and caught my expression then beamed widely at me. “Only joking, baby. No man on earth is as hot as you.”

  I grinned back at her proudly. “And my arse, Ava?”

  “Your arse?”

  “Well . . . is it as good as car park attendants?”

  She paused and smiled sheepishly at me, her head bobbing up and down slowly as she blatantly lied to me. “Yeah.”

  “You could be a bit more convincing,” I pouted as I flexed my backside. I thought my arse was quite firm and tight anyway.

  She giggled and nudged me. “Your arse is the finest thing I have ever seen, Mason. It is pure perfection and I have never felt anything more glorious in my hands, or around my fingers.” She finished with a wink.

  I gave her a proud smile once more as the door opposite us opened. I swear in that single second as Dr Franks appeared in the doorway, my whole life rushed past me at lightning speed. I could feel the thump of my heart escalate as Ava scrambled for my hand. I held onto it firmly, trying to absorb her anguish and fear.

  “It’ll be okay, baby. I know it will.”

  She didn’t answer but gave me a painful smile, her pretty face now white and blotchy as her eyes reddened and a few beads of sweat appeared on her brow.

  She blew out a breath and stood. Dr Franks nodded at her and smiled. Was it a happy smile? A smile that lied? Or a pitying smile? Was it a smile of nerves about what he had to do? Or was it a smile that gave him the best part of his job?

  “Come on in, Ava” he gestured as he opened the door widely. “Mr Fox,” he greeted as he held out a hand. “Great to meet you finally.”

  His knowing smile told me it wasn’t just mine and Ava’s relationship cancer destroyed but it also told me that Ava and I, like many others, had fought to get it back. I sighed when I realised some hadn’t been as lucky as us.

  Ava fell into the chair before Dr Franks had told her to sit down. I sat beside her, swallowing as her hand once again hunted for mine. Her clammy skin was cool as her fingers wrapped around mine. I clasped it between both hands to feed her some warmth.

  “How are you, Ava?” He asked as his soft gaze landed on Ava.

  She nodded and smiled. “I’m doing okay. I feel fine, but then again that could just be anything . . . I mean it isn’t an indication or anything about me . . . well . . .” she babbled almost hysterically. “I mean I didn’t have any symptoms before apart from the tiny lump . . . oh and come to think of it, I did sweat a little but I just put that down to female hormones, you know. But . . .”

  “Ava . . .” The Doc tried but she continued to ramble.


  “We all get to that age . . . well we hope to . . . some of us are never quite that lucky are we? I always thought I’d . . .”

  “Your results came back clear.”

  “ . . . make it to a hundred,” she giggled hysterically. “But some of us . . .”

  I stared at her as a sob erupted from me. I couldn’t hold back the cries as the tears poured from me but she went on and on. I snatched her face in my hands and pulled her face to mine. “You—are—clear.”

  She cried out as a long high pitched sound came from somewhere deep inside her. Her fingers clawed at my face as her forehead fell into my chest.

  I looked at Dr Franks again, needing to verify what he had said. He smiled and nodded before he pushed his chair back and stood up. “I’ll just give you a moment,” he whispered.

  I tugged her across onto my lap when he shut the door behind him and wrapped my arms around her. I rocked her and shushed her as she sobbed and sobbed, my own tears mingling with hers as they dripped onto her stunning face. She just cried and looked up at me, her eyes both questioning and relieved as we both supported and consumed from each other.

  “My God, you are so beautiful,” I whispered as I swiped at her tears.

  “Really?”

  “Really,” I laughed. “Even with tears and snot and . . . and blotches. You have never been more beautiful than right now, right this fucking second. You know why, baby?”

  She shook her head at me, her chest jerking with hiccups. “Because you did it, Ava. You fucking did it. You—kicked—cancers—fucking—arse and you’re alive.”

  She nodded at me then buried her face in my chest. I pursed my lips and tutted, “You’re doing it, aren’t you?”

  She pulled back and smiled guiltily, her eyes glistening happily before she pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped at the snot she had plastered all over my shirt.

  Ava

  Mason grinned at me again as he dipped a tiny green tomato into some weird oil and then popped it into my mouth. I beamed back, leaning across the rug to kiss him. He sighed softly against my lips as I tenderly kissed him, just enjoying and appreciating the feel of him. I was alive. It didn’t get any better than that.