Page 28 of Mason

And it fucking scared the shit out of him.

Jo had the ability to crush him, and he’d never recover. He understood what Nik meant when he told him that too. Mason had laughed it off, thinking no one could destroy you with a simple glance or a softly spoken word, yet here sat the one woman who could do that to him.

She could also make him fly higher than the mountaintops back home in Russia. She gave him a reason for being, for breathing, for simply living. To love her.

“Then let me show you how beautiful you are to me,moye dragotsennyy. Please.”

Mason watched the indecision war with need on her face. She looked haunted as she tried to fight back her insecurities. He doubted six months ago she’d even have been able to do that. As much of a fighter as she was, he knew Ray had worn down her own sense of self-worth. He never brought that fact up, though. Instead, he’d focused on bolstering her self-esteem and teaching her it wasn’t wrong to put herself first sometimes.

And that time and attention paid off in this moment.

She closed her eyes and nodded. He wanted to jump up and throw his fist in the air in victory, but he contained all that excitement. Instead, he took her tiny hands in his. They were so small, dwarfed compared to his. Delicate. He brought the knuckles of one hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across each one.

A low shudder went through Jo, and his cock swelled in response.Don’t get ahead of yourself, Mason, he told himself.Slow and steady wins the race. She deserves slow and steady so she can feel loved and beautiful.

He started by removing both her sneakers and peeling her socks off. Tiny feet with pink toenails curled when the cooler air in the basement caressed them. Pink toenails. None of his sisters-in-law painted their toenails. He’d seen them all in flip flops enough to know this. He found it damn cute on Jo.

“Don’t tell Delia you paint your toenails.” He massaged the bottoms of her feet. “She’ll have you on the floor painting them every color under the sun.”

“Good to know,” she whispered, her voice small and tight.

“Open your eyes, Josephine.”

She shook her head, and he rubbed slow circles into the bottoms of her feet with his thumbs. She was terrified.

“You don’t get to hide from me,moye dragotsennyy.”

“I’m not hiding from you. I’m hiding from me.”

Now, that made no fucking sense. “Either way, open your eyes.”

“I don’t want to.”

He tickled the bottom of her foot, and she squealed, trying to jerk it out of his hand, but he only held on tighter. “Open them, or the tickle monster continues to attack.”

“The tickle monster?” she gasped out between her laughter.

“Ask Delia. He’s notorious for getting what he wants.” He skirted his fingers up the insole of her foot.

Her eyes opened, and he grinned. “There’s my girl.”

“You’re rotten.”

“I’m adorable, and you know it.”

She shook her head, but the smile on her face was priceless.

“See,moya dusha? This is what we’re about—love and laughter, not fear and insecurity. Every time you get afraid, I’m going to be here to make you laugh, and when you start to feel insecure, I’ll be here to bring out those giggles I love so much.”

“What does that mean?”

Jo leaned forward, and Mason swooped up to kiss her. Only when she was breathless did he answer. “It means my soul.”

“Mason…”

“You are. You mean everything to me, JoJo. Everything.”

Footsteps on the stairs interrupted him, and he shot to his feet. He went to the door and opened it. One of the girls from earlier was standing on the stairs. Jo had claimed the only room down here with a door, and it happened to be right beside the stairs.

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