Chapter 19 #2
On the Palais Garnier stage, I pull the box from my tux pocket, flipping the lid and taking her hand in mine.
“Before my mother died, she had this little Pixie.” Nina’s eyes bore into mine, transfixed and filled with untamed adoration.
“She kept it on her bedside table, and every evening I’d sneak in before bed and steal it.
The day she died, she told me to go and get my Pixie.
I did, but when I came back to her, she was gone.
” I pause, biting into my bottom lip and stealing a moment.
“Mase, you don’t have to—”
“My father told me she wanted me to keep it. Her little glass Pixie.” I smile at the ground as I’m taken aback. It’s been so long since I’ve let the memories in. Her hand squeezes mine, and my gaze comes back to her.
“I took it everywhere with me, never allowing it out of my sight. It became a thing. I was slightly obsessed.”
She laughs lightly, stepping into me. “You loved your mother’s Pixie,” she defends.
I shake my head, needing to finish. “When I was six years old, two years after my mother passed, Elliot—the big idiot that he is—broke it. He didn’t mean to, but I went mad, punched him in the face and swore I’d never forgive him.
So… he promised me that he would replace it, that he would find me another Pixie. ”
She shakes her head, finally understanding.
“I loved my Pixie then, Nina, and I love my Pixie now,” I tell her, my heart beating strong and sure in my chest.
I lift her bangle from the box and slide it onto her wrist. “This is from me.” I spin it around so she can see the added engraving on the back.
“I promise you forever, my Pixie,” she chokes out as her tears start to fall down her cheeks.
Nina
Reluctantly, I leave the opera house, feeling like I’ll leave behind a part of my soul forever. I curl into Mason’s side as we walk back to our hotel, knowing I will never get to experience it ever again in the same way.
The memory of this evening will be engraved in my mind for a lifetime.
“Mase?”
“Hmm,” he hums into my hair.
“Thank you. You have no idea how much this all means to me.”
“Maybe you can show me.” He smiles deviously down at me.
“You have to make love to me first, Bossman.”
“I have a lifetime for that. Tonight, I want to fuck you.”
My mouth drops open, and I slap his arm playfully. “Mase, how can you be so romantic and then that?”
“Forgive me,” he murmurs, taking my lips in a heated kiss and moaning against them.
We come to a standstill on the pavement, lost in the moment.
I go to pull away but he palms my cheek, pulling my bottom lip down with the pad of his thumb. “Forgive me at my worst and I will love you at yours.”
“I thought you said I was perfect,” I say, biting the pad of his thumb.
“Then I watched you dance,” he deadpans.
“Oh my god, Mase!” I step back in shock from his words.
His head drops back, and he laughs so freely it makes my heart soar. I’ve never seen him so carefree.
“Baby, I’m joking. You were unlike anything I have ever seen before. I wish the whole world could have watched you on that stage, but now it’s solely my memory, and that means the world to me.”
I roll my eyes, pulling him by the lapels and onto my waiting mouth.
I feel emotional as the plane starts to glide down the runway; my memories of Paris locked away in a special part of my heart. Mason is on his laptop catching up with everything he missed on Friday afternoon in the office.
I’ve been sat watching him for the last half an hour, unable to focus on anything but him.
Yet the farther we get from the hotel suite, and as the plane hurtles down the runway, my life back in London, the reality that will forever keep me on my toes, it screams at me.
My mother, the showcase, and my possible father situation. It’s everything I allowed myself to forget this weekend, and now I have to go back and face it before it drags me down.
“Nina.”
My eyes find his dark ones, and the promise they hold would be enough, but he doesn’t seem to care, choosing to slay my woes with his words. “I promised you forever. I’m here. Always—no matter what.”
I nod my head, not knowing how else to express what his declaration means to me. His key sits in my purse, and for the first time in forever, I feel excited about something that I haven’t earned myself.
He sees me coming and snaps his laptop closed, placing it on the seat next to him as I crawl into his lap. For the first time in my life, someone wants to shield me, protect me, and I believe it.
I believe him.
Mase
She’s giddy as she exits the lift and marches into the penthouse, chucking her key into the tray as she starts to unbutton her top.
“What are you doing?” I chuckle.
She fell asleep on the flight home, and since waking up has been a ball of energy.
“House rules. No clothes are permitted between the hours of five p.m. and six a.m.” She smiles triumphantly as she continues to strip down.
“Unless we have guests,” I add, unbuttoning my shirt.
“Of course.” She nods in agreement.
I’m in my boxer briefs and about to remove my socks when she tackles me to the ground and straddles my waist.
She rocks herself over me, my cock hard as it nestles itself in the line of her pussy. A scrap of material lies between us. “Baby.”
She takes her weight on her knees, allowing me room to lower my boxers. Wrapping her hand around me, she fists me, pumping me twice before sinking onto me.
“Fuck yes!” I groan.
Her hips roll over me at a tortuously slow pace, but I give her the time she needs, letting her take the lead.
It doesn’t take long before her whimpers turn into deep moans.
She lifts herself up and then sinks slowly back down, rotating then rolling her hips.
It drives me insane. I smooth my hands over her waist and her eyes spark, a glint that tells me she knows.
I flip us, holding my arm between her lower back and the marble. My other hand lifting her leg and placing it around my waist. I sink in deeper.
“Yes. Mase.”
My mouth finds hers as I move inside of her, her core already tightening around me. I rain kisses down her neck until I’m met with her breasts. I draw her nipple into my mouth, biting down on the hard nub until she starts to convulse around me, her moans fading as she loses herself in her climax.
I squeeze my eyes tight, stars invading my vision. My head bows back, and I let loose, pounding into her.
“Mine.”
Thrust.
“Mine.”
Thrust.
“Mine!” I still inside her, my body rippling above her as I empty myself, twitching with every spurt she draws from me.
Her head drops to the marble with a thud, and I waste no time pulling out of her and rolling to the side, unable to hold my weight any longer.
“It’s not normal is it, this?” She looks to me, her chest heaving.
“No, Pix. It’s definitely not normal. But it’s our normal now.”