“Can you give us a sec?” I ask Maddi.
She blinks, a crease forming between her eyebrow. My heart jumps into my throat when she glances back at her brothers then nods her agreement. I hope like hell that she’ll continue for my car. It’s dashed in the next moment when she heads back to the crowd.
“Maddi, wait.” Reaching for her arm, I grind my teeth when she shakes me off without a word. Staring down at Nita, I take my anger out on her. “Are you happy now? Why couldn’t you have stayed away? All my work just went out the window.”
Nita shrugs and holds out her hand, palm up. “You owe me.”
I slip the baggie out of my top pocket, slapping it down on her hand as I snap, “Now, fuck off.”
“Gladly.”
Nita sashays her ass back to Benji. I search through the group for Maddi. She’s hugging Kyle—a turn of events that I never expected. He holds her longer than he should, not letting go until she pats his shoulders, and even then, he tries to stop her from walking back to me. I take one step in their direction before Maddi shakes her head and pulls away from him.
She starts to come over to me. As she approaches, I run my gaze over her face to gauge her mood. Has Kyle changed her mind? Is she coming here to tell me she’s going home with her brothers? The poker face that greets me stands up to my scrutiny. I haven’t an idea how to play this.
Maddi doesn’t stop when she gets to me. She keeps walking, tossing her next comment over her shoulder with elegant nonchalance. “Are you coming?”
It puts a spring in my step. I catch up to her and sling my arm over shoulder. Maddi leans into me. Her proximity sets every atom in my body on fire. My dick thickens in my pants and I stifle a grown when Maddi lays her hand on my stomach.
Forget showing Benji who’s boss by leaving with his sister. Just having Maddi next to me tonight is worth getting my ass kicked. Spending time with her plays havoc on my mind and I’ve found over the past few weeks that leaving her becomes harder the more time I spend with her.
When I’m with her, I start to forget my end game. It’s when I’m alone that I have to remind myself not to get sucked into her orbit.
Now that she’s publicly chosen me over them, the potential outcomes of my game have significantly lowered in number.
Maybe, just maybe, I can give into my baser urges and still win?
Maybe, just maybe, I can have my revenge on Benji and keep Maddi too?
NINE
“Frozen coke?” I say as we pass MacDonald’s.
“Am I that transparent?” Maddi replies with a laugh.
“Well, I have noticed that you have a slight caffeine addiction,” I drawl. “I’ve also noticed that hot drinks are for morning and cold are for after 3pm.”
She slaps her hands over her mouth and lets out one those giggles that I live for. Number four since I started seeing her. “Apparently, I’m more see through than a window.”
Pulling into the only twenty-four-hour fast food restaurant in our small town—technically the only fast food in town—I place a quick order for two cokes in the drive through. Tonight’s win needs to be consolidated immediately and finding a way to prolong the evening is my best chance of making this happen.
Our order is fulfilled quickly. I pass Maddi her drink, put my car in gear, and drive off in the direction of my farm. Maddi is slurping away for a few minutes, long enough for me to hit the outskirts of town before she realises I’m not taking her home.
I savour that time. I’m not stupid enough to think this is going to go my way without a protest.
“Hey, where are we going?”
There it is. Time’s up.
“My place.”
“Oh, no.” Maddi rolls her drink cup between her palms. “No, I said I wanted to go home.”
Gripping the steering wheel, I twist it in my hands. I close my eyes for a second, not caring that this road is filled with wildlife that can jump out in front of me without notice and pray to the dark lords above that I can keep my temper under control.
“I thought we could take some time together. Tonight didn’t really go the way I planned,” I say with a quick glance her way.
It takes superhuman powers of concentration to return my eyes on the road and not keep them on her face while I wait for her answer.
“I, uh.” Maddi stutters the beginning of an answer, then stops. In the time it takes her to formulate the rest of her response, I’ve already started mapping out different ways I could abscond with her.
One, I knock her out and keep driving until we hit the coast then charter a plane to a deserted island.
Two, I pull over, use my superior strength to subdue her, and peel those tight jeans off her…
“That’s a good idea,” Maddi says. I can hear the trepidation in her tone, but it begins to dilute the more she speaks. “I need some time to cool down. That scene back at the paddock was intense.”
Relief invades my veins. It cools the images of stealing her away from everyone. They don’t entirely dissipate, but I do file them away for future contemplation. One can never be too prepared.
I reach over and squeeze her thigh. “Your brothers are pretty protective.”
My casual remark sounds breezy. It’s not. The understatement is pretty clear to both of us. Maddi lays her hand on top of mine where it rests on her thigh. She lightly pats it, then sighs.
“Benji and Joel think they’re doing the right thing. I really should stop them, but it’s hard. I promised my mum before she died that I’d look after them for her. Letting them think that they’re looking out for me is my way of looking out for them. While they’re concentrating on controlling everything I’m doing, they’re not out there being stupid. Especially Benji. He was always the most likely to go off the rails.”
Maddi doesn’t realise that she’s just sealed her fate. I knew she was the key to my revenge. I knew she was the one person who could hurt her brothers. I just didn’t know how much. She’s handed me the key to her compliance.
I know how to control her.
I know how to keep her all for myself.
I need to be the only thing that stands between Benji and serious trouble.
After I flip the indicator and complete the turn into the long drive that leads to the mansion, I take the opportunity to pull her closer to me. Maddi slides as far across the seat as she can and, after a token show of reluctance, snuggles under my arm.
“I’ll deal with your brothers as long as you promise me that you won’t listen to any of the crap anyone says about me.” We crest the rise that brings the mansion into view. I need to get this out before she meets my mother. “The person I was three years ago isn’t who I am today.”
Coming to a stop in my parking spot, I pull the handbrake into the place. Maddi sits up straight and gazes out the windscreen at the monstrosity in front of us. Her eyes widen, and she lifts her eyebrows.
“Wow. Some house you live in.”
“It’s okay.”
Maddi giggles. That’s number five in the bag. Despite the extra occurrences, my body’s reaction has remained the same—she giggles, and I’ve overcome with raw need. Butterflies and an overwhelming wave of serenity, followed hot on its heels by the need to possess her in the most elemental way.
“I’d hate to see what you find better than okay,” she quips.
With a slightly jaded smile lifting my lips, I get out of the car and come around to her side. Opening her door, I help Maddi out of the vehicle. The lights over the wide front door is lit. This means that my father is still out, and my mother is still up. She likes to passive-aggressively show her annoyance at his absence by having the front lights switched off when she turns in for the night.
“We have two options,” I say, carefully. “We can enter through the front door and you can endure the third-degree, courtesy of my mother. Or I can walk you around to the French doors that lead into my wing where you’ll have to wait for me to open them after I’ve gone inside alone and survi
ved her wrath.”
Maddi bumps her shoulder against mine. She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the front door. “Considering both my brothers hit you tonight, I think the least I can do is accompany you through the upcoming Spanish inquisition.”
Inclining my head in agreement, I hold the door open for her. “Come on in. Welcome to the den of iniquity. Home to nefarious plots and dastardly deeds. Foundation of a political dynasty that demands the blood of the innocent to maintain its unholy reign.”
As I’m talking, I follow Maddi inside. She spins a circle in the foyer, then stops to laughs at me. “I can see the evil seeping through the wallpaper. Must be a terrr-iiible place to live.”
She can think I’m joking as much as she likes. What she can’t say is that I didn’t warn her.
“Let’s go,” I usher her forward. Even the butler hasn’t realised that we’re here yet. This could be my opportunity to slip Maddi into my wing without anyone knowing she’s here.
“Quick. Quick.” Maddi mocks me.
She continues to act like this is a joke. I don’t deter her from her delusion. Someone like her wouldn’t understand how my world runs.
Footsteps echo through the formal lounge. Either Stanley, our butler, has heard our entrance, or my mother is taking a late saloon in the room that houses her beloved gin. I don’t know which occupant it is, but I do know that I want this easy grace between me and Maddi to continue, and that won’t happen if anyone in this house gets the chance to interfere.
“Come now.” I point up the stairs, then walk up two steps.
The door to the lounge begins to open. I reach down and take hold of Maddi’s shirt. Tugging her after me, I run up the steps and straight into my wing. Once we’re through the door, I slam it shut behind us and flick the lock up.
“You’re kinda weird,” Maddi presses her lips together and tilts her head to the right. “But it’s pretty funny. See, I thought I was the only one with a family that needs hiding.”
Our eyes meet. I see kindness and understanding in her gaze. That stupid fluttering she always creates in my stomach starts again. It’s almost unbearable, this reaction I have to her.
While I’m mentally struggling with my physical symptoms, Maddi rubs my arm and dances away from me.
“So, this is your part of the house?” she asks.
I cough, followed by a shrug. I’m trying to buy myself enough time to deal with my reaction to her. It doesn’t work. The way my cock responds to her is easy to deal with, it’s how she affects the rest of me that I can’t handle.
Maddi checks out my bookcase. She eases one of the books off the shelf, then runs to my bed and dives on it. Shedding her boots as she goes, she settles herself against my pillows and pats the spare side of the bed.
“Stop standing there like you’ve never had a girl in your room before. I’m not going to bite.”
The stunning girl before me is so far from the truth that it would be mean to tell her.
This room has been desecrated by acts she couldn’t even imagine, dozens of times over.
I toe off my leather loafers—completely inappropriate footwear for a bonfire, but class should never be sacrificed for comfort—and join her. Sitting as close as I can to Maddi, I shuffle myself down the bed until I’m the same height as her.
Maddi leans against me, seemingly at ease.
“What are you reading?” I ask. She’s lazily flipping pages. I don’t know if she’s reading or browsing.
“Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.”
“Why am I not surprised?” It’s my turn to laugh.
Maddi continues turning pages. She frowns and then lets the pages slip through her fingers until she’s back to the first page.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Maddi reads aloud. She snaps the book shut. “Imagine living in those times. Thank God we’re alive today.”
I push myself upright and lean my head back against the headboard. “Times haven’t changed all that much, Maddi. Only I won’t be able to have just any wife, she’ll need to be someone with the perfect pedigree and the appropriate seal of approval from my parents.”
She lifts my arm up and curls herself into my side. With her head laying on my chest, I feel her face move and I imagine that she’s frowning. The next second, she proves me right.
“I’m so sorry that’s your reality. That must suck.”
Reaching behind me, I turn the light switch to dim the lights. Stroking the top of her arm, I take my time to formulate the right response. Maddi snuggles further into me and I start playing with her hair. Touching her soothes me. Having this level of connection with her—courtesy of her brothers’ bad behaviour—calms me. When I’m with Maddi, even when we’re just hanging out at her house, peace flows through me.
It’s something I’ve never had before.
Something I didn’t know I wanted until I’d tasted it.
Something I’m afraid to lose if she sees the real me.
Thankfully, I understand the key to ensuring she stays with me.
Forever.
“Sometimes expectations aren’t meant to be met,” I murmur, continuing to stroke her hair. “There comes a time when a man has to walk his own path.”
She doesn’t answer me. I peer down at her and smile. She’s asleep. Long eyelashes brushing the top of her cheeks, she sleeps with her pink lips slightly parted. Part of my shirt is clutched in her hand, although the rest of her long form is relaxed.
I can’t help it. I need to touch her.
It’s with shaky fingers that I pull the hem of her shirt free from her jeans. I want to know if the sparks I felt the first time are still there. With a tenderness that no one else in my life receives, I skim my fingers lightly across her hip and down the small amount of her stomach I’ve exposed.
Electrical charges spark from my fingertips, following me as I trace my name on her skin.
Tiny shadows of desire spin in my mind—teasing me with promises of the illicit. Could I unbutton her pants while she’s sleeping and slip my hand inside the tight denim? If she woke, would she welcome my invasion? Could tonight be the night that I make her mine in the only way that matters?
A small beam of light invades the room. Someone has unlocked the door that leads to my wing and is heading to my room. By the determined stride, I figure it’s my father.
Urgent need to keep him from Maddi overcomes me. The resulting panic makes my heart race and my skin clammy. Everything he touches of mine he sullies. Everything I have, he ruins.
I need to keep Maddi safe from my father’s treachery.
Slipping out from underneath her, I stop only to lay her head gently on a pillow. Quickening my pace, I manage to head off my father before he enters the bedroom. I pull the door shut, and the wooden barrier between him and Maddi brings my pulse back under control.
“What do you want?” My enquiry is gruff, filled with venom and spite.
“Now Brendan, be nice,” he cautions. “I can take every inroad you’ve made with our guest and twist it into your worst nightmare.”
I lean back against the door with a mocking grin. “Once again, I ask, what do you want?”
His smirk is filled with smugness. My palm itches with the need to wipe it off his face.
Hitting my father might make up for the ass-kicking I received from the O’Brien boys tonight.
“Here,” he says, passing a small jewellery box to me. “I heard about your little confrontation in the paddock and Stanley informed me that you had brought a tall blonde into your room. Knowing your sloppy standards, I imagine that you think you have your plan stitched up.”
“I have everything under control,” I interject. Dealing with his current mood sets my teeth on edge. The progress I thought we’d made the other night feels lost. He’s back to doubting me again.
“Open the box.”
I snap out the blue velvet case. A sapphire
ring, my grandmothers sapphire ring, gleams back at me. With a decisive clunk, I close it.
“What the hell?” I ask, trying to pass it back to him.
He pushes it away, stepping into my space. “Keep. It.”
“No.”
Taking hold of the front of my shirt, he pulls me toward him. “I know you’re going to screw this up. That ring is your saving grace. The minute it looks like she’s leaving you, pull it out and spin a sob story that plays on her heart strings.”
“I don’t need it,” I grind out the words.
“Madelaine O’Brien is innocent,” he states it like it’s an undisputable fact. “The first man to break her in will be the man she stays with.”
I’m already shaking my head. Going by the last day of school, I’d bet the ring I hold in my hand on the fact that Maddi’s already had sex. You don’t greet a man by wrapping your legs around his waist unless you’ve been intimate with him.
Just the thought of Maddi with Mik Kennedy makes me homicidal.
God help him if he comes anywhere near her now that she’s with me.
My father continues offering advice, even though I’m no longer listening. I’m too busy planning how I can kill any man who’s touched her before me.
“If you’re not man enough to seal the deal quickly, that ring will save your ass when she gets sick of you. Which we know she will. Everyone does eventually.”
Angry shaking takes hold of me. He’s gone from offering his twisted brand of guidance to openly berating me.
“Before you lose your good sense and acquaint that poor girl with your particular tastes, I would make sure that ring is on her finger. I’d also caution that you make sure that you either have her worshipping the ground at your feet or you have something damning to hang over her head beforehand.”
What can I say? My proclivities are well known within my family. All because of one slight slip up with the daughter of the Mayor that could have brought my family down if knowledge of it had got out. A few bruises and a whining little bitch who kept saying that I wouldn’t stop when she asked was a scandal even my family name couldn’t withstand without paying a steep penalty, reputation wise.
Craving Control (Black Shamrocks MC Book 6) Page 9