Page 150 of Forbidden Heroes

“Next time don’t ask if you can touch. Just take. I’m already yours.”

He wraps my hair in his hand and tugs until I’m looking up at him.

“Lesson learned,” I husk, trying to understand his words but my brain is having a hard time catching up.

Resting against the hard plains of his ample chest, my body sways with each of his steps as he carries me to the couch. Gently he settles me on his lap as he relaxes into the dark, plush leather of the couch. This close, the warmth of the fire brushes against my bare body like a soft hug.

I lean into him and take in his clean scent, the feel of his strong thighs supporting me and the hard ridge of his cock.

His eyes never leave mine and I groan, swishing my hips a little. “Now. Now it’s my turn right? I reach between us and stroke his cock through his open zipper and the thin material of his boxers. Stubborn man still had his pants on but not for long if I have my way.

“Sleep, angel, there’s time for that. I don’t want you to do anything you will regret.”

He pulls a soft blanket over my pleasured, naked body. Tired, spent, and more relaxed than I’ve felt in forever, my eyes begin to drift closed.

“How could I ever regret the best night of my life?”

Mason

Idon’t know how much time passed as I sit holding her close to my chest. A light snowfall begins and a silent night of peace overcomes the library. No outside disturbances or invasions of Christmases past.

Just her and myself.

Innocent and so young. I’m a bastard for tying her to me. I was so close tonight and only a fucking miracle kept me from taking her on my desk. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. When I take her I want her to be sure it’s what she wants and I’m not some quick fix to a current problem.

Her face softens with sleep and it’s hard to think of her as anything but genuine.

She deserves better than to be treated like some trinket.

The idea of taking the choice from her when so many already have in her short life is the only thing keeping me from stirring her awake and claiming her sweet virginity and giving her my seed.

Morning will be here soon and when the light peels back the darkness and she’s had a chance to rethink her actions, then we’ll see. I’ve never allowed my fate to rest in another’s hands like this since I was a child, but this delicate woman does just that. Kind of fucking sobering. I cut checks and make deals handling more money than most people make in a lifetime. I also hold those same people’s futures in my hands with the delicate balance of my company and several smaller companies I own. Tens of hundreds of people depend on my fair hand. One mistake could cost me their trust, and Allison’s uncle is one mistake I’ll have to handle. But how to do that without hurting her in the process leaves me sleepless.

I’ll admit, the thought of her regretting me and going back with her uncle tears a hole in my chest. Hell, it makes my blood run cold.

I scrub a hand down my face before I stand, holding my sleeping angel tight to my chest, and make my way to my room.

I cover her in my blankets and feel a sense of pride to know I’ve provided the peace she must feel right now to sleep so soundly and press a soft kiss to her forehead. “Merry Christmas, angel,” I whisper.

Before I slip from the room I place another log on the fire and leave her to a peaceful sleep.

Back in the library I step over the mess of papers on the floor and pour a healthy amount of whiskey in a tumbler instead. Like most Christmas Eves I wait for the ghosts of my Christmas past to haunt my thoughts, and almost like damn clockwork, the last memories of my mom before she walked out on my father and me on a night just like this twenty-five years ago try to push out all the good of the evening.

I slam back the whiskey and hope the fire of the liquid will burn away the bad memories, but no such luck. Nothing is ever that easy.

The guests left hours ago and the grounds beyond my window are still. Only the flurries of snow are moving. But the quiet won’t last long.

I shove aside all the negativity and focus on the one good thing in my life. Allison. She’s the single best thing that has happened for a long time and I know it’s going to cost me to keep her.

Five

Allison

Iwake to find myself alone in a strange room. Embers glow from the hearth across the room and I immediately smell the masculine scent of Mason surrounding me. I take a moment and let the comfort of that truth settle over me and I pull the blankets to my nose and inhale.

Mason must have carried me here so I could sleep. Snow glides against the windowpanes and I’m tempted to let the night drift by like a fantastic dream in the comfort of his bed, but I can’t get the thought of him out of my head all alone somewhere in this big mansion with no one to love him. Maybe cold. Flickering light from the fire illuminates the massive room that swallows the small room my uncle allotted me in his home.

Again, like some dream I take in everything.

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