Chapter 8 #2
“Oh, babe.” She hugs me closer, resting her head on mine.
“I love him, Luce. I love him so much and I don’t know how to stop.”
“You want it to stop? Because love doesn’t come around often, Nina, sometimes you have to be willing to swallow your pride.”
Leaning back, I take in a deep breath and close my eyes, knowing there isn’t a quick fix tonight. “I need wine and a job.”
“Well, I can help with the wine.” She stands and grabs my hands, pulling me up. “And there’s no rush to find a job.”
“I don’t want to dip into Ellis’s money, so a job is priority.”
“Of course, but the money is there to support him, and you need to support yourself to do that.”
I know Lucy is right and I will use the money to keep us afloat, but it still kills me a little inside knowing it comes from Mason’s pocket.
“Logan’s mentioned the gym to you on more than one occasion, maybe it’s time you looked into that.”
“It’s located five hundred yards from The Montwell, Luce.” I give her a pointed look.
“It’s also a job. And a good one at that—it’s your thing.” She holds her hands out, as if it’s simple.
“I don’t know.” I shrug, not knowing what I should do.
“Worth a look, at least?”
I nod. “I’ll call him.”
“Everything happens for a reason. And you couldn’t suck at a job any more than you did at the hotel.” She snorts, pulling me into the kitchen.
“True.” I laugh. “I really did suck at it.”
“Who’s sucking what?” Elliot asks from the kitchen island.
Lucy rolls her eyes and pulls me into a hug. “The butt slut is making a comeback, watch this space, assholes.”
“Butt slut? Should I warn Mase?” Elliot grins.
“Absolutely not,” Lucy tells him. “She needs to find herself again, then maybe she’ll work on all that other stuff.”
“Mase seems busy enough at the moment anyway,” I add.
Elliot pauses with his drink midway to his mouth. “You don’t honestly believe Mason would sleep with that woman, do you?”
I shrug. Feeling like a broken record for bringing it up again.
“He wouldn’t, Nina. I believe him,” Scarlet voices from her spot at the other side of the kitchen.
“You bet your ass he wouldn’t!” Elliot snaps. “Jesus, I don’t think he’s slept with anyone since you pulled him out of his apartment the night before Ellis was born.”
“What?”
My head snaps to Scarlet who is burning holes through Elliot’s head with her eyes.
“What?!” I repeat again.
Mase
“She thought I was sleeping with Jasmine?” I question, falling back onto my bed with my hand clenched tight on my phone.
“Yeah, I told her you haven’t though, and Luce had a chat with her, told her that she needs to find herself again. Whatever that shit means.”
“Find herself?”
“And then Nina still didn’t believe that you wouldn’t sleep with Jasmine, and I thought I was helping.”
“Elliot…”
“So, I told her you haven’t slept with anyone since Ellis was born.”
“What?”
“Specifically, since the night before he was born, when Scar kicked your ass into line.”
“Fucking hell. What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
“At the time, before the words came out of my mouth, I thought I was helping.”
“Jesus Christ.” I drag my hand through my hair.
“She seemed okay when I left. They went all girly bullshit on her ass and told her they would help her get back to her inner butt slut or something.”
“What?!” I bolt upright in the bed.
“No idea what that means. Oh, she’s looking for a job too.”
“Of course she is.” Nina’s never been one to sit around and do nothing, even when I sold the studio, she was trying to help everyone else.
“I feel like this is progress, mate. At least she’s actually talking about you now.”
“She lost her job, Elliot, because she thought I was sleeping with a fucking stripper. Again!” The fact she still thinks I’d do that… it’s a kick in the teeth.
Why do I care what she thinks?
“I’m now pulling into mine. That’s it, that’s all I’ve got, I’ll see you in the office tomorrow.”
“Yeah, thanks a bunch, mate!” I shake my head as he hangs up.
What a fucking mess.
It’s my night to have Ellis tonight and I normally pick him up once I finish work, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how Nina must be feeling. If it was me and I thought she had been sleeping with someone else, I don’t know how I would react.
I knock on the door and shove my hands in my pockets, waiting for her to answer.
The door swings open, and I watch as the light fades from her eyes. “Mason, you’re early.”
My eyes scan her body. Her yoga pants cling to her like a second skin and her cropped vest fits snuggly to her breasts. She has a sheen of sweat coating her body. My brows lift in surprise as I wonder what she was doing. “Yeah, I was hoping for a chat. Have you been dancing?” I ask.
She frowns, ignoring my question. “A chat about what?”
“Can I come in?” I look over her shoulder.
She pushes the door wide and stands off to the side to allow me access. “Ellis is napping. He was fussing and hasn’t long gone down.”
“That’s okay, I came to see you. We need to talk,” I tell her, smiling at her despite her folded arms and less than polite welcome.
“You should’ve called.”
“You wouldn’t have agreed.”
She answers me with her eyes, glaring at me. “Go on then. Say what you have to sa—”
Soft whimpers come from the hallway and her head quickly snaps in the direction before she huffs and drops her arms to her sides.
“I’ll go. You can carry on.” I gesture to the yoga mat that’s laid out on the floor. “I’ve got this.”
“I don—”
“It’s fine, Nina.” I nod, walking off towards their bedroom before she can stop me. Ellis is standing in his cot when I walk into the room, and my heart soars as his face transforms—dimples and all.
“Da, Da, Da!”
“Shhh. Sleep time now.” I kiss his head and reluctantly place him on his back.
“Mummy’s busy, little guy.” I sit in the chair that’s placed beside the cot and look around at the room.
It feels weird being in her space, which strangely surprises me.
Maybe it’s because it’s so impersonal. Other than a picture of Ellis with the girls on her bedside, there’s nothing here that means anything.
Once Ellis is sleeping again, I slip from the room and make my way to the living area. The sight that greets me has me stopping in my tracks. Nina has her legs spread wide, her back is arched off the ground and she groans as she stretches her arms above her head.
My eyes are glued to her. Every perfect inch—which pisses me off, because it’s totally inappropriate to get hard for your kids’ mum when it’s three o’clock on a Thursday.
Bitch.
I clear my throat, and she instantly sits up. “He went back quickly.” She flushes, her cheeks turning a deep crimson. She stands and starts to roll the mat. “Sorry, just a second.”
“I thought you were dancing.”
“No.” She shakes her head, frowning. “I don’t really get the time anymore,” she says, lifting her hand to her collarbone subconsciously before realising and dropping it.
“Don’t lie to me,” I bite out.
She recoils, putting her hands on her hips. “Excuse me.”
I take a step closer to her. “Don’t lie to me. You have all the time in the world to dance, you choose not to.”
She steps away, putting distance between us again as her face grows sour. “That’s not true and it’s none of your business.”
Reaching out, I grasp her arm before she can turn, pulling her into me. I go to speak but the words die on my tongue the minute our eyes lock. We’re close, too close. She wets her lips as her eyes drop to my own. This is the closest we’ve been since Ellis was born, nearly eight months ago.
My hand instinctively goes to her waist, resting on her hip with a tight grip. I feel like I’m physically restraining myself from kissing her.
“I shouldn’t want you.” I grimace, flexing my fingers against the smooth skin.
“You don’t want me, Mason, trust me.” She grasps my wrist and pulls it from her waist. “What do you want? Why are you here?”
She spins and moves to the kitchen. I rearrange myself in my suit trousers, pissed at myself for being so weak to her. “Elliot, he told me about last night—”
“What about last night?” She doesn’t meet my eyes and I know she knows exactly what I’m talking about.
“When you left me, Nina… It was a hard time for me. You left, and with Dad being gone, I couldn’t find anything to bring me…”
“Are you trying to tell me the only thing that kept you sane in the months after you cheated on me was sleeping with an endless number of women?”
Fuck. “I—”
“Because if you are, you should stop! You have no idea what I went through, what I continue to go through.” She steps forward, pointing her finger into her chest. “I spend my weekends in this apartment alone, and then get judged for the friends I keep when I choose to fill the void.”
“I’m struggling to see the difference here. You think I enjoy living at the penthouse without my family. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you during your pregnancy, but that was your choice. I did what I did to keep myself fucking going. You did this. You broke us, Nina, not me!”
“Are you fucking serious!” she roars, her eyes like saucers.
“Deadly! I never fucking touched another woman and you know it. I couldn’t then and I fucking can’t now!”
She sniggers, looking anywhere but at me. “But there were five months where you found it really fucking easy apparently!”
She won’t ever understand this, why would she? She thinks I slept with Jasmine and now she knows I slept around after she left. “I couldn’t be at the penthouse alone.”
“You could’ve gone and lived with your sister.”
I scoff at her, turning. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“I don’t know why you did. Did you really think you could explain yourself and convince me to feel sorry for you when you were balls deep whilst I was in labour with your fucking son? You’re damn deluded, Mason.”
I move quickly until I’m in her space, my eyes like fire as they burn through her. “Do you truly think I slept with another woman whilst I was with you, the day after we got home from Bora Bora, you honestly believe I cheated on you?”
Her eyes don’t leave mine, her throat working on a swallow. She doesn’t answer me.
I nod my head, my body losing the fight it had moments ago. “Do you know why I don’t want you, Nina?”
Her eyes fill with tears, but they don’t affect me like they once did. She looks to the floor, not answering me. I lift her chin with my finger, bringing her face up to mine.
My lips brush her ear. “Do you know what a whore does when she’s finished?”
She says nothing, her body rigid.
“She leaves.”
I step away from her, my eyes dropping down her body.