Page 24 of Forever Your Touch (Manwhore #4)

Mason grabbed his phone and pulled up pictures of a very healthy Sasha and showed it to her. “This is Sasha.” Then he scrolled to Ava’s photo in the “toaster” with all her tubes and wires. “Ava is hanging in there. She’s our little fighter. I think I’m gonna nickname her Rocky.”

“She needs a tough name. Rocky’s good.”

“Becca didn’t think so.” Mason chuckled, remembering her horrified reaction when he said he was going to start calling her that.

“Well, Becca is her mom, and moms can get a little testy about these things.”

“She’ll get used to it. I called one of my frat brothers, and he’s going to bring over my gaming laptop for you to use while you’re stuck in here. At least you’ll have something to do.”

“You don’t have to, Mason. I have my own laptop.”

“True, but I’ve seen your laptop. It’s shitty. Mine’s an ASUS Republic of Gamers laptop. Seventeen-inch display. You’ll bow down and worship at my feet later.”

“Hardly,” she scoffed. “I’ll just beat the high scores on your shit.”

“You can try. I don’t play fluff games. Hardcore, baby, hardcore.”

She gave him a what-the-fuck look. They both knew she could kick his ass any damn day of the week on any game she chose. He was just trying to get her to smile. The pain on her face was a mixture of physical aches and the emotional pain Ray had caused her.

“We need to lay down a bet on that.”

“Uh, no. I like to keep my hard-earned money, thank you very much.” He stood to throw his now empty coffee cup away, and he heard her gasp. “What’s wrong?”

“Your shirt…it’s all bloody.”

Oh. She’d scared him for a minute. “You asked me not to leave you, and I didn’t, Josephine. That meant no going home to change.”

“You stayed all night?”

“Yeah. I slept on the floor. Nik needed the lounger more than I did. Fucker doesn’t get much sleep since Rose came home.” He came back over and sat down, finally catching the expression on her face. It was filled with shock, wonder, and something he couldn’t put a name to.

“No one’s ever done something that nice for me except my family.”

Mason leaned up and kissed her forehead. “You deserve a little nice here and there.”

His phone buzzed again, and they saw it was Ray. He was tired of the fucker calling his phone, so he answered it. “Ray.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you.” He hardened his voice. “Now, stop calling my fucking phone.”

“Asshole, let me speak to my girlfriend.”

“Why the fuck aren’t you down here at the hospital instead of calling my damn phone?” Fucker didn’t know when to quit.

“Because I had to clean up the mess in the front yard.” He said this like he was talking to a five-year-old. “Mom said the neighbors had been gawking at it since yesterday and gossiping. Mom hates to be gossiped about.”

“So, your mom’s feelings came before your worry for Josephine?” This time the anger was hard to hold back. “You fucking shit-faced bastard. When Keith and I get our hands on you, you are going to learn how to treat a woman instead of being some pansy assed little mama’s boy.”

“Mason!”

He glanced at Josephine. Her face was screwed up with worry.

“Not a word, moye dragotsennyy . It’s time someone taught him to be a man.”

“Is that Jo?”

“Yeah, and she doesn’t want to fucking talk to you.

Come on over here, I dare you. Keith and I will be waiting.

” He hung up on the bastard and tossed his phone back on the bed.

Fuck, he needed a good fight. If Jo went to sleep later, maybe he and one of his brothers or Keith could hit the ring.

Anything to get rid of this pent-up anger.

“Don’t hurt him, Mason. Please.”

She was crying, and it wrenched his heart apart. She still loved the bastard. Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to teach Ray the lesson of a lifetime.

“Don’t cry, JoJo.” He jumped up and sat with her on the bed, pulling her close. “It’s going to be okay.”

“No, it’s not.” Tears spilled, and great heaving sobs came out of her chest. “I have to leave him, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I love him, but I don’t think he loves me as much as I do him.

It’s not right, Mason. I try to ignore how much it hurts because I love him, but him putting his fishing trip ahead of being here with me, this time it was too much.

I gave him an ultimatum. He chose fishing. ”

That fucking bastard. He was going to beat him bloody.

“Josephine, I need to ask you something, and I hope you’ll be honest with me.”

She nodded, her face scrunched up.

“Like I told you before, I make my own decisions about people based on my own experiences with them. When it comes to Ray, your family is right about him. He’s shit.”

Her face crumbled, but he didn’t let it sway him.

“I need you to explain to me how someone as smart, independent, and honest can stay with someone who treats them like Ray does you. You know better than that. You were raised like I was, to respect yourself and everyone else. I talked to your parents and to Keith yesterday, thinking maybe you’d had a boyfriend before Ray who treated you the same way.

I thought maybe you had it in your head that was how women were treated or something, despite the very good relationship your parents have.

I don’t understand how you can love Ray when he treats you like a second-class girlfriend on a daily basis. ”

“There’s more to the story than you know, Mason. Something I never even told my family about.”

“Will you tell me? Because I’m having a hard time here, Josephine.”

She was silent for so long, Mason thought she was going to say no, so he was surprised when she nodded.

“Ray and I had been together for about a year when I got pregnant. It was an accident. The condom tore, and the antibiotics I was on screwed with my birth control.”

“Did you have an abortion?”

“God, no. I don’t believe in that, but the miscarriage was my fault.” She took a shuddering breath. “Me, and my klutzy curse.”

“Josephine…”

She held up a hand to stop him, and he retreated into silence.

“We were camping, and I decided to hike up the hill. I was bored and wanted to do something besides sit and look at the lake. My feet got tangled together, and I fell, bouncing down the hill, and landed on a rock. Hard. The cramping started soon after that. By the time Ray got me to the hospital, I’d lost the baby. ”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”

“It was my fault I lost our baby, but Ray never blamed me. He took care of me. He was there when I needed him, stood by me through my depression and rage. He was sweet and kind even when I didn’t deserve it.

I’ll always blame myself for it. I owe him my loyalty, Mason, because he was loyal to me during the worst moment of my life. ”

Fuck. He’d never suspected anything like that. His heart broke for her.

“Jo, it wasn’t your fault. It was an accident. You may not believe it now, but it was. Ray was right to stand by you like he did, but that doesn’t give him the right to treat you like he does now. No one deserves to be treated like a flyaway thought.”

“I know.” She took a deep breath. “Being around you and away from my family has opened my eyes to a lot of things. Losing our child was awful and the guilt…my God, the guilt, Mason.” Jo shook her head, her heart shattering all over again thinking about the worst day of her life.

“I made up for loosing our baby by letting him treat me that way. I thought I deserved it for the longest time, but I can’t do it anymore.

I can’t keep letting him put everything before me.

I needed him here with me yesterday, and he chose his dad and their fishing trip over me.

Despite what happened to our baby, I deserve better than that. ”

Not knowing how else to comfort her, he pushed her over slightly and crawled into the bed with her, pulling her close. “It’s okay, moye dragotsennyy . Everything’s going to be okay.”

“I’m saying goodbye to the last three years of my life, Mason. It’s going to take a while before it’s all okay.”

“You’ve got me.” He leaned over and kissed her temple. “Your FIBB will always be here when you need a shoulder to cry on or when you get too lonely.”

“That may be harder than you think when I’m three thousand miles away. I don’t want to go back to California, but my parents are going to insist on it when I tell them I’m breaking up with Ray.”

“Do you have any other place you can stay besides Ray’s?”

She thought for a few minutes. “Maybe, if my sorority has a house on campus. They might have a room.”

“You’re in a sorority?” He was shocked to the bone. She so wasn’t that kind of girl.

“My friend Abby dragged me to Kappa during rush week our freshman year. They knew who I was and thought I’d be good publicity for them.

That’s what I figured, anyway. Who the hell would want the world’s biggest klutz as a member?

They realized how clumsy I was the first fundraiser we organized.

” She laughed and Mason thought it was the best sound he’d heard in days.

“After that, I got to sit and help out. No more accidents.”

“Kappa does have a house on campus.” He grabbed his phone and texted one of his brothers to haul Kappa’s president over to the hospital.

He was doing his best not to crow. She was leaving the bastard, and now he might have a chance with her.

Keeping the victory off his face was hard, but she’d just told him about the worst moment of her life.

Showing how happy he was right now wasn’t the best way to handle her baring her soul to him.

“I’m having one of my buddies bring the president over here to talk to you.

If they don’t have any room, we’ll figure something out. You’re not going back to California.”

“It can wait a few days, Mason. I’m not leaving here anytime soon.”

“Yeah, well, I’m getting this shit locked down today so you’ll have a plan when your parents try to get you to come home.”

“You’re intent on me staying in New York, huh?”

He saw something in her blue eyes that he pushed away.

He didn’t want to scare her. She was just getting the courage to leave Ray.

He couldn’t push her. Not yet, anyway. He’d keep his feelings tucked away for when she not only was ready to hear them, but when she could also be in a place where to respond to them.

“You’re staying right where you belong.”

“And where do I belong, Mason?” Her voice went soft and a little husky at the same time.

“Here.”

Before he could say anything else, the parade of his family started. He was grateful. If she’d kept pushing, he might have blurted out the whole truth despite his resolve not to.

He planned on showing her how he felt before he confessed how much he loved her.

If this had a shot, Josephine needed to understand her own self-worth. She’d begun her journey today by deciding to leave Ray, but Mason wasn’t stupid enough to think that was all it was going to take. He planned on teaching her the value of her .

And then he’d claim her.