He was Honor and grace with the best of intentions...

but could he hold himself together?

[james-masterson-blog]

[james-masterson-blog]

What then Remains?

[james-masterson-blog]

susan-masterson:

Susan got out of the car with him, annoyed slightly. When he spoke, she settled and nodded. “You won’t have to see them until you say so. Also… to answer your question from before… I do have an extra room here so you can stay as long as you need.” She wiped her tears. She heard him about taking it slow. She knew that was smart. It was the safe decision. “I agree. It’s been so long and I don’t want to rush anything.”

She set her purse down over on the counter in the kitchen, going to the fridge to grab water. “Would you like anything to drink?” She called, wanted him so badly but restraining herself. She wanted them to just fall back into how they used to be but… she knew that would take time. But having his scent engulf her whole world once more would be excruciating. Although, having him far away again would hurt her heart too much. It was almost like she couldn’t bare to have him around for fear she might pounce on him and yet, thinking of him in a hotel or something that wasn’t here… it tore her apart once more. 

“Are you hungry? I can order us something. Because I’m sure you know I don’t cook still. Never cared to learn. Never wanted too. I can’t mess up my manicure, can I?”

{James fell in tow with his sister easily and right up to the refrigerator and he leaned against the counter before gently reaching out and taking her wrist into his hand... the feeling of her skin. This was his life. Not always... He’d remembered when Susan’s mother had married his Father, after his mother had died, and then a few years later he remembered holding his baby sister in the hospital... looking into her eyes and watching the world change before him. That was one of things about being purebred wolves that was convenient... once they got to adulthood the aging nearly stopped.}

{He shook his head gently and looked up to meet her eyes, his crystal ones all but digesting her.} “If you have any of my blended Scotch still I could go for a glass on the rocks. I’ll cook if you’ve even got anything in the house. You know the way I take care of you Susan.” {He drew her in close, all but holding Susan to his chest as he looked out the window towards the Ocean.}

“You know, I thought about you constantly. I hoped you’d be looking out at the ocean like I was. You would have loved, Sicily. It wasn’t the best as far people but I did hope one day you would just show up. Did you ever thinking about coming out to see me?”

[james-masterson-blog]

What then Remains?

[james-masterson-blog]

susan-masterson:

When he spouted off about taxes, it made her smile to have him back again. “Ah, no wonder the IRS hasn’t shown up at my door with handcuffs. Good to know.” She giggled. “Thank you for that. You’re a doll.” His massaging on her neck was much needed. His hands were expert and always knew how to make her feel so good. 

When he brought up the reason he’d married Arianna, she froze, still driving and getting closer to her place. She sighed. She didn’t know all of that. “So… they knew about… us?” She asked glancing back at James and then again at the road, feeling like some sort of light was shed on the whole situation. She remembered how she felt on that night. It had been like her whole heart was torn out of her chest and thrown into a blender. She swallowed her impending tears and stayed quiet until she got to her place, parking in her garage next to her smart car and 1965 corvette. She turned off the car and sat there, looking over at him.

“You would have never left me had they not made you?” she asked, letting a few tears break free. They stained her cheeks, reddening her eyes. Her hand was still on his thigh as she massaged the skin there. “I missed you, Jay.” Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She didn’t know what to do.

“I don’t think they knew everything but they knew that I wasn’t going out with my Mates and I wasn’t hanging out with my coworkers either. I think they feared the truth and never looked at it all the way. Arianna and I grew up together... I mean dad and her family go way back. He said it was what had to happen to keep everything the way it needed to be.”

{He had this piercing stare when he wanted to and it was leveled on her. Her tears... he knew Susan and rarely had he seen tears of emotion from her. She was cool and calculated with a fire underneath... a fire he lacked. Finally his eyes broke away from her as he unbuckled his seatbelt and lifted himself from the seat and looked towards the other cars. He needed to refocus and find his center or else he’d be right there again... right in her grasp.}

{He turned slowly, walking to the entrance to the house and opening the door for her. He watched her come closer until they both stood close in the doorway. His crystal blue hues looked deep into hers and he spoke softly... the way he used to when they were put in a closet together for seven minutes at a party when Susan was in highschool.} “I’m not ready to be what we were again quite yet, Susan. I need some time but more than anything I need to be here with you and Mom and Dad can’t be here. I’m not ready to see them and I’m afraid of what could happen if they did show up...”

{His tone often drifted towards this one when he spoke of that one shameful secret he harbored... that white hot rage that scored his belly and made him want to kill and eat anything that stood between him and the things he desired. That rage that he did so much to contain that right upon it’s edge he spoke so softly that a pin drop would be louder because all of his energy was keeping that fury from exploding onto the things he loved.}

[james-masterson-blog]

What then Remains?

[james-masterson-blog]

susan-masterson:

She laughed, shaking her head with her nose scrunched. “Oh, you poor thing.” When he laced their fingers together, she smirked, feeling safe and secure once more. When he commented on her hair, she smirked darkly. “Well, when one goes through a heartbreak, one normally decides to do something drastic with their hair. You understand.” She bit her lip, opening her car with her clicker and opening the trunk for James. 

She let go of his hand and got in the driver’s side, putting her keys in the ignition of her custom baby pink 2018 Lexus LC and waited for him to get in. Once they were all set, she peeled out of the parking structure and turned on the radio. She turned on the 80s station on Sirius XM especially for James. “How does it feel to be home? She asked, looking over at him and placing her hand on his thigh as she drove one-handed. She looked over at him every once in a while, handsome as ever. She was so unbelievably happy to see him. 

When he asked about their parents, she was snapped back into reality. “They are fine. Asked when you could come by for dinner. I told them I’d ask you. Really, I just want to keep you to myself as long as I can.” She smirked. My place is in Malibu now. I got it four years ago. It has an excellent view of the ocean, you’ll love it.”

“So your hair’s been red for seven years, Susan?” {As he always did his pain was covered by a smile so debonair that the Devil himself would blush but a hint of that razor sharp pain bit through on the last notes. He gently placed his suitcase in the trunk and shut the trunk lid with a gentle precise movements as he could. That was always James’ issue... everything he did was riddled with precaution and pretense and a great deal of surgical precision. That was everything except for his relationship with his Sister. He slid into the Lexus with a grin and buckled his seatbelt as they started off.}

{He couldn’t help but look out the window as the city rolled by. Her hand on his thigh brought a gentle rolling growl from the wolf’s chest as his left hand snaked up around her shoulders to massage her neck at the base of the skull the way he had when they would lay out in a field on those endless summer afternoons.} “I’m not sure yet. It’s all so... familiar and yet I feel like I couldn’t find my way to a McDonalds without using my nose around here. The City hasn’t changed alot but it’s enough to make me think about all of it...”

{The James special. That’s what Dad used to call that diatribe James just had... it was like he didn’t answer your question just talked about some thought he couldn’t quite control. Susan had that effect on him... this errant thought pattern. He nodded about her place in Malibu and looked towards her with a roguish grin.} “I bet you have an extra bed just for me, yea? I uh... I hadn’t been thinking ahead and I didn’t even look for a condo ahead of time. I knew that you had a place down there though... Dad’s been having me do your taxes for the entirety of your life you’ve been getting taxed. Speaking of we really need to work on where you’re putting your investments, Duchess. I could be making you a few hundred thousand more a year but you know Dad... ‘If you never let her learn on her own James, she won’t learn at all...’, and ‘Stop meddling, James, she’s your sister, not your wife!’”

{James looked back out the window, some form of a thought cresting on him... did she know? He took in a deep breath and looked over to his sister again.} “You know Mom and Dad made me marry Arianna to get me away from you, Suze... I never wanted to leave but they wouldn’t let me stay...”

[james-masterson-blog]

What then Remains?

[susan-masterson]

james-masterson:

{It had been so long since he had been to the United States again and it had been even longer since he had felt so… electrified. James looked out the window of the plane as it descended graceful and hurtling like a silver bullet towards the airport beneath them. His crystalline hues darted about the plane’s cabin, memorizing faces as he often did, before he finally took a deep breath and took his fifteenth drink of water in the last thirty seconds. Nervous? Never.}

{He remembered the night he’d left like it was yesterday… every letter he’d written home to Susan and every moment that he had longed to be home where he knew he truly belonged. He looked down at the plain golden band on his left ring finger that he hadn’t had the courage to take off yet and he simply thumbed around it, smudging that glittering surface so as to quiet it’s lustrous draw once and for all. That’s what this all had been after all… Father had convinced him that this marriage was for security, binding one powerful family to another, but it was simply a gilded cage to keep an animal that was out of control from focusing on the fact that the Master didn’t have a lock.}

{He drew in a short breath through his nose before the pilot announced their safe landing at LAX. James stood and straightened his buttoned up tee and smiled softly at the Abuelita that was seated behind him as he allowed her to go ahead of him and stepped out behind her, making sure no one would bump into the old woman as they slowly made their way off of the plane. It was all a blur really… Baggage claim was quick, he’d only packed a suitcase with his laptop and back up hard drive, two changes of clothes and a copy of ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde. He seemed aimless to the untrained eye as he followed the scent he knew to his very core… that scent that had been his light and life… and then he saw her.}

{Her golden tresses… her fair skin. His sister. His Susan. He stood almost in shock for so long looking to her… What would he even say? What even remains of the sibling he’d not seen in Seven years? Slowly he approached her, the wolf in him nearly stalking her like she were his prey, and then stepped up beside the woman from behind before leaning down slightly to speak softly to her.} “Are you waiting on someone in particular or am I just lucky enough to find you unattended?”

The time on her phone ticked by so slowly that it was almost maddening. Her car was parked in the visitor’s parking on the 4th floor of the parking garage. She tapped her freshly manicured nail on the screen of her phone, sighing and glancing at the time ever five seconds. He was coming home. Finally after all this time. Her heart had been so broken when he’d left and now… he was going to be in her vicinity within minutes. 

She elected to scroll through Facebook to occupy her time, looking over all of the posts and articles when suddenly, his scent filled her nostrils and it hit her like a ton of bricks. He smelled better than she remembered and felt an ache in her lower region. How did he still have this effect on her? Why did he have this pull over her entire being? 

She decided not to let it bother her in any way, playing it cool like she always did. So that when he attempted to come up behind her, she refrained from shivering at his voice. 

“You realize I knew you were here the moment I smelled you, right?” She smirked, shaking her head and kissing his cheek. She hugged him tight and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Welcome home, brother. I missed you.” She looked at him, seeing his long hair. She took a tress with her fingers and played with it. “I love the hair. Very 1990′s love novel cover.” She laughed. “My car is in the structure. It’s just out and across the street. How was your flight?”

[james-masterson-blog]

{She didn’t even hesitate. He could have nearly melted in that moment but instead head narrowly avoided brushing brows with her and wrapped his arms about her waist, pulling her into a tight hug. He’d missed this... the scent of her perfume and the pure nearly anxious but excited energy that buzzed around Susan like carrion beetles about a corpse. He breathed in the moment nearly missing her comments on his hair and his flight or her car... just lost in her smile.}

“How does one sum up a fifteen and a half hour flight with someone who I don’t believe had showered since they left Rome?” {He swiftly laced his free hand into her’s, their fingers twisting and wrapping like graceful ivory dancers on a field of pink satin. He grinned and started off towards where he knew the car was, keeping her gently in tow.} “As for the hair, Arianna always wanted me to keep it short and you know how my track record is with rules. You though... I don’t think anyone told you to dye your beautiful red hair, Susan.”

{James grinned gently and nudged into her side before he slid over to avoid what seemed like a rushing mother and several children. He had missed this sort of mindless boggle of humanity in many ways. No one paid attention here... no eyes to see or ears to hear their difference. The Old World had eyes and ears and they existed in every corner of everything. Here he didn’t have to run so hard from what he thought may be around the next corner. Finally the warm L.A. air greeted them and he took a deep breath of it to cleanse himself from the too clean air of the Mediterranean.} “You talked to Mom or Dad lately?”

[james-masterson-blog]

What then Remains?

{It had been so long since he had been to the United States again and it had been even longer since he had felt so... electrified. James looked out the window of the plane as it descended graceful and hurtling like a silver bullet towards the airport beneath them. His crystalline hues darted about the plane’s cabin, memorizing faces as he often did, before he finally took a deep breath and took his fifteenth drink of water in the last thirty seconds. Nervous? Never.}

{He remembered the night he’d left like it was yesterday... every letter he’d written home to Susan and every moment that he had longed to be home where he knew he truly belonged. He looked down at the plain golden band on his left ring finger that he hadn’t had the courage to take off yet and he simply thumbed around it, smudging that glittering surface so as to quiet it’s lustrous draw once and for all. That’s what this all had been after all... Father had convinced him that this marriage was for security, binding one powerful family to another, but it was simply a gilded cage to keep an animal that was out of control from focusing on the fact that the Master didn’t have a lock.}

{He drew in a short breath through his nose before the pilot announced their safe landing at LAX. James stood and straightened his buttoned up tee and smiled softly at the Abuelita that was seated behind him as he allowed her to go ahead of him and stepped out behind her, making sure no one would bump into the old woman as they slowly made their way off of the plane. It was all a blur really... Baggage claim was quick, he’d only packed a suitcase with his laptop and back up hard drive, two changes of clothes and a copy of ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde. He seemed aimless to the untrained eye as he followed the scent he knew to his very core... that scent that had been his light and life... and then he saw her.}

{Her golden tresses... her fair skin. His sister. His Susan. He stood almost in shock for so long looking to her... What would he even say? What even remains of the sibling he’d not seen in Seven years? Slowly he approached her, the wolf in him nearly stalking her like she were his prey, and then stepped up beside the woman from behind before leaning down slightly to speak softly to her.} “Are you waiting on someone in particular or am I just lucky enough to find you unattended?”