Page 88 of Monsters

A leg stepped over either side of me, boots crunching the gravel.

He was here.

This time, I couldn’t escape him. This time, I had to face whatever Mason Carter wanted to dish out on me. Even if that meant I wouldn’t make it out alive. Mason wrapped my long, loose hair around his hand and yanked my head back. I groaned against the pain, my scalp burning. His face loomed above, donned with a sinister smile.

“And here we are just over ten years later,” he said joyfully. “In the same position, except…” he considered our respective positions. Unsatisfied, his knee smashed mercilessly into my ribs leaving me sprawled on the ground, winded and gasping for air.

“Ahh,” he said, now pleased. “That’s more like it.” Mason lowered himself on top, pinning my hands above my head just like he had a decade ago at Little Wren. It was in that movement, I noticed the leather bands around his wrist. The same leather cuff B wears. My heart sank further than I ever knew possible.

Help was not coming.

Mason’s familiar cologne was heady. The same scent I had smelled in the carpark stairwell and in my bedroom that night. Mason grinned, eyes gleaming with the ease of it all before looking languidly over my bare breasts that now bore vicious red cuts and scrapes.

“You two sure did put on quite the show back there,” he started. I cringed, and he noticed. “You like your hands pinned while being held down and fucked? Baby, I could have done that for you back when we were teenagers. I could have been your first.” He demonstrated his spite by thrusting his pelvis hard against mine, his restrained cock begging for release. Gritting my teeth, I refused to take the bait.

He considered this a challenge.

“Gotta say, though…” he said, bringing his lips down to graze my ear, “… hearing you orgasm never gets old. Watching how you handle yourself is always a thrill.”

Heat flooded my cheeks even though my blood ran cold. My body stilled momentarily with shock before I erupted. Screaming, I bucked and writhed trying to dislodge Mason, but he remained on top straddling me. The rocks beneath angrily stabbing into my back making me even more livid.

“How dare you, Mason. How dare you think this is okay!”

“Don’t you wanna know how many times I’ve watched you pleasure yourself? I’ve been watching since I first moved in next door to you when you moved to NYC. I know your favorite positions. I know how you like to arch your back every time you come. I particularly like how you can do it multiple times before you collapse in exhaustion.” His grip around my wrists tightened, and the smile faded. “So how about it, Gem?” Mason grappled my breast with his free hand. His fingers dug deep, coaxing a cry from me. “How about you give me what you have left? Let me take what’s owed to me.”

His mouth crushed mine in a possessive kiss driving my pounding head into the unforgiving earth beneath. Mason bit down hard on my bottom lip and despite my wails and the blood, he persisted. Again, I bucked, tears spilling down my temples, willing the excruciating pain to ease. Finally, he pulled away, blood smeared over his face like he was some rabid dog feasting.

I sobbed.

I was hurting all over.

Lucas was either wounded or dead, and Mason wasn’t giving up the fight.

“You win.”

This pissed him off.

He recoiled and then became enraged. “You don’t get to say that, Gem. You don’t get to surrender when you’ve spent years pining after my brother. You don’t get to tell me when I’ve won before I’ve taken what’s mine.”

Using his knee, he pried my legs open and unzipped his pants. My mind was already compartmentalizing what was transpiring. I was forcing myself to become numb while Mason took what he felt owed. It was like the world had slowed while it translated defeat. But I still had one question.

“Why do you hate me so much?” It was a weak question. But after so long, I needed to know. It wasn’t just because he wanted me for his own. This level of hate ran much deeper.

He paused to consider me through narrowed eyes, his erection pressing against my belly, ready and waiting.

“You always came between us, Gemma. Lucas wouldn’t leave Delaware because you were still there. I tried on so many occasions to get him away from that bastard, but he stayed every time. And every time we’d both receive another beating for our efforts. He stayed all for a bit of pussy that you never gave until now. You fulfilled his wish, now it’s my turn.” With a swift motion, Mason pushed his length all the way in, thrusting hard as if the movement contained all the hate, spite and anger he’d carried with him for ten years.

I cried in pain, and he groaned in both delight and victory, but it was all short lived.

The world around us exploded with a sudden gunshot, the sleeping birds erupting in a frenzy as they wailed into the dark night seeking sanctuary once again. There was a sharp jolt, and a thick coat of blood sprayed over my face and into my mouth. Mason groaned in pain, baring his teeth, nostrils flaring with fury as he collapsed further onto me.

“Get off her, Mason,” came a voice that caused my heart to soar.

Lucas.

Mason laughed maniacally, refusing instruction.

“I said get the fuck—”

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