by Roxie Ray
Maddox’s expression changed and lines of tension formed on his forehead. He closed his eyes as he held himself stiffly above me, opening a gap between us. He sucked his breath through his nose like he was fighting for control, but when he opened his eyes again, they showed no strain.
“I’m glad to hear it.” He lowered back toward me, pressing against me with just enough weight as he nestled himself between my legs. He traced his hand down my side, and I tensed to withhold my shudder.
“Tickles,” I ground out.
“Oh. Sorry about that.” But he did it again anyway.
His progress to where I most wanted him was excruciatingly slow, and I widened my legs in a blatant invitation. Cool air teased across my skin, and my arousal spiked.
Maddox breathed in and the look of focused strain crossed his face again.
“You okay?” I whispered the words because I needed him to be okay and finish this.
He nodded. “You just smell amazing.”
Before I could respond, he pressed a finger against my clit, and I gasped at the sudden stimulation. He rolled it gently, and I moved my hips towards him, gentle thrusts that I couldn’t have controlled if I wanted to. I lifted my head and kissed his neck, sucking the skin into my mouth.
He growled. “Yes, mark me.”
I gasped out a giggle because it had been a long time since my hickey days, but another low growl rumbled through his chest.
He dipped a finger into me, and his cock lay hot and hard between our bodies. I slid my hand down and touched the tip of it, and a tremor ran through him. I smoothed the bead of precum over the head, and his breathing increased.
“I’m not coming against your belly like a teenager.” The strain in Maddox’s voice had grown tighter.
“Well, good. You promised me more this time.” I grinned as I stepped up my stroking, contorting my body to reach the base of his cock before drawing my hand up the shaft.
He shuddered and gasped above me. “Do it again.”
I did, and he groaned as he thrust gently against the movement of my hand.
“You’re perfect,” he whispered.
“I want to taste you.” The idea sprang into my mind and the words came straight out of my mouth.
“Fuck. You got so wet when you said that.” He groaned again and seemed to gather his composure before rolling us both over, the movement smooth, so I ended up straddling him.
I looked down at the way his cock rested against his abs. “I like this view,” I murmured, and I teased the underside of his shaft with my fingers.
He shifted beneath me, and I grinned at the power I held over him. Then he reached up and pressed his palms to my breasts, using his thumbs to tease both nipples.
I shifted my position, dropping down into the space created by his spread legs, and I bent over his cock, blowing a soft breath over it.
“Fuck,” he ground out. “Stop teasing me, woman.”
I trailed my fingertip up and down him again. “Turn-about is fair play,” I murmured, but really, I was just buying time.
His cock was huge. Bigger than I’d really accounted for, and I leaned forward, allowing my hair to brush the tops of his thighs. I grinned as the muscles there tensed.
A pep talk ran through my head. It wasn’t my first time at oral. I could stretch my lips around that. Hell, I wanted it in my mouth, and what I wanted, I could achieve.
I licked slowly up the shaft, and he groaned. His hands were suddenly in my hair, fisting two big clumps like he was trying to anchor himself. When I reached the tip, I sucked it into my mouth quickly and briefly, releasing it, and Maddox let out a shuddered breath.
I took him into my mouth again, widening my lips around him, and bobbing my head down to take another inch inside. He groaned but stayed perfectly still, allowing me space and time to become comfortable with his size.
As I lowered my head further, allowing him to fill my mouth, I cupped his balls, gently rolling them between my fingers, and stroked his shaft where I hadn’t reached it with my tongue yet.
Just when I was at the point of having to choose between more cock or air, he tugged at my hair, lifting me away.
“I don’t want to come down your throat, either, Beth.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
“You have no idea the things you do to me.” His words were a low rumble, and he brushed my hair back from my face again, securing it behind my ear. “I want to be inside you.”
I heated at his words, anticipation making me wetter and more desperate. Maddox suddenly growled, securing me against him and rolling us over again as his cock nudged against my entrance. I parted my legs and tilted my hips toward him as urgency rode through me in a wave.
He chuckled at my silent insistence but gave me what I wanted most, and I let loose a soft sigh as he pushed gently inside, stretching me to my limits. I drew back before pushing forward again, the concentration on his face showing the control he was exerting.
“You can go faster.” The stretch felt amazing.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” Sweat glistened on his brow. “Ever.”
“I’m not so fragile.” Then I grinned at him as I thrust upwards, surging toward him and taking all of him in at once. I caught my breath, but the sudden sting subsided quickly as my body lubricated us. “See?”
He groaned. “Fucking hell. I didn’t know it could feel like this.” He waited another second. “It’s never felt like this before.”
Damn. That was one hell of a compliment.
His movements were slow at first, almost tentative, but I wrapped my arms around him and pushed my fingertips into his ass cheeks, then around his back as I draped my legs over his hips, allowing him deeper access.
He pressed against all the right places, and his breaths filled my ears as I searched for skin I could reach to kiss. Taken by a sudden urge, I pressed my teeth against his shoulder and bit down softly, although not hard enough to break the skin.
His entire body went rigid above me. “Christ.” He sucked in an inhale as if something had startled him. “I’m going to come. I need you to come, too, Beth.” He thrust into me, skin slapping against skin, his cock stroking all the right places, and my excitement built until he was my every thought, smell, taste.
I tensed around him, and he roared a final push as I pulsed, my body squeezing and relaxing around him.
“Holy shit.” His chest rose and fell with big breaths. “That wasn’t just sex.” He settled some of his weight on me as he rested on his elbows. We both panted for a minute, foreheads pressed together as we rode the aftershocks of the best orgasm I’d ever had.
A smile slipped across my lips. “That was very good sex,” I agreed, and I pulled him down for a kiss.
The rest of the night was filled with eating, feeding each other, and falling back into bed. We’d both been in such a hurry that the thoughts of condoms hadn’t occurred to either of us.
Completely irresponsible on my part. But I was on birth control. It helped with my periods and ensured if I ever did manage to find myself a suitable one-night stand, I was covered.
Maddox assured me he was clean and that he didn’t really live up to his playboy reputation.
I believed him.
The next day, it had taken us several false starts and several more orgasms to get out of bed, but eventually we managed it, parting ways after a late breakfast. He had a shift and I had to go get Tiffany. That didn’t stop us from texting each other repeatedly throughout the day with increasingly flirty innuendo.
Monday dawned bright and cheery, and I couldn’t help the smile still plastered on my face. Maddox had to work this morning, but he’d texted me on his walk to the station. I was already up getting Tiffany ready. We had to come to look at a new property and this one wasn’t in too bad of shape, so I didn’t mind bringing her. She loved to ride along with me.
My phone began to ring as I stepped out of the car, so I opened the back door so Tiff could get out and explore and a
nswered the call. It wasn’t a number I recognized, but that happened a lot in my business. Renters called from unknown numbers, property managers or realtors called to see if I had any interest in buying their properties, and so on.
“Hello, this is Bethany Leeds.”
“Ms. Leeds. My name is Martha Brennen I’ve been retained as counsel for the Bearth family.” My stomach dropped to the ground. They’d actually done it. They hired a lawyer. Those complete and total assholes. I opened my mouth to tell her to shove it, but she beat me and spoke before I could. “I apologize for calling you out of the blue, but since you have no lawyer for me to go through, I had no other option.”
“What do you want?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“The Bearths have officially filed for custody. I’d like to set up a mediation so we can all sit down and try to come to some sort of agreement to keep this mess out of court.”
My blood boiled with anger and outrage. “How dare they?” I seethed. “I am a good mother. I will not go to mediation. You can just sue me for custody. See you in court.”
I hit the button on my cell to hang up on her and wished for the old days with clunky house phones. They’d been so satisfying to hang up on someone with.
My anger boiled as Tiffany ran around the yard with a stick, completely oblivious to the phone call I’d just had, thankfully. At least this hadn’t affected her. The one meeting we’d had with Kyle’s parents, in the park, had been just a blip on her radar. She’d forgotten it almost as soon as it happened. Almost falling off the monkey bars had been a more lasting memory.
I found the key and walked the house, and tried to make notes that Kara would want, but I had to look at the same things over and over because I couldn’t focus. Tiffany ran from room to room once I gave the home a look-around to make sure there weren’t any missing pieces of floor or random nails. Once, in a property I hadn’t bought, I’d even found evidence of squatters, complete with old needles. Since then, I at least looked around first, and always had my pepper spray in my pocket.
After several minutes of trying to focus and failing, I gave up. “Come on, Tiff,” I called. “We’ll come back. Mommy needs to call a friend.”
“Who? Can I come?” She came careening out of the back bedroom and stopped in front of me. “What friend, Mommy?”
“I’m going to call my friend Maddox. He can give me some good advice. Let’s get you home first, okay?”
She nodded. “Maddox was nice, and he makes yummy soup.”
Since she didn’t ordinarily like soup, the fact that she’d eaten Maddox’s so well had been a miracle. I hoped it meant some of her picky eating habits were going to fade soon. The parenting books said picky eaters often got more adventurous as they got older. I sincerely hoped that was true.
After helping her buckle into her high-back booster, I headed back toward our house. Along the way, I changed my mind and decided I’d much rather talk to him in person. He’d told me he was on desk duty and would be at the station all day. “Tiff,” I called over my shoulder. “Do you want to go see a real police station?”
She squealed in excitement, as I’d hoped she would. “Yes!”
We drove past our road and on toward town. I couldn’t tell if Maddox was inside since he rarely drove, so I texted him. Hey, are you at the station?
His reply was only seconds later. Yep. Followed by, Bored to death. Mondays are the worst.
Well, good then. I got Tiff and hurried inside, anger still coursing through me. The thought of Kyle’s parents somehow possibly succeeding and taking my sweet girl away from me made me a mixture of panicked and terrified.
And beyond furious.
Maddox jumped up in surprise when we opened the door and stepped in. I’d never actually been inside. It was like I would’ve imagined a small-town sheriff’s office would look. A couple of rows of desks, with just a couple of doors leading off the main area. There was a reception area with a small wooden waist-high fence that blocked the office area of the station from the waiting area.
“Hey,” he called. “I didn’t imagine you’d be here after that text.” He shook his head. “Surprised I didn’t know,” he muttered.
“How could you have known?” I walked through the small swinging door toward him.
Tiffany bounded through then ran around me. “Hey, Maddox! Mommy took me to an old yucky house, and I saw three spiders and there was dirt everywhere.”
He squatted beside her and wiped a smudge of dirt off of her cheek. “I see that. Was it haunted?” Maybe I wasn’t as good of a mother as I thought I was. I hadn’t even noticed the dirt on her face in my preoccupation.
She threw her hands in the air and started making ghost sounds and twirling in circles. Maddox returned his attention to me. “What is it?” he asked.
I glanced at Tiff. “I got a phone call.” I spoke as quietly as I could while she ran around the desks making oooooh noises.
Maddox picked up on my reluctance to talk around Tiff. “Hey, Tiffany, do you want to see the jail cells?” he asked.
She squealed in excitement and jumped up and down. “I just cleaned them,” he whispered to me. “No prisoners here, and I’ll unlock the locks so she can explore.”
I nodded. He walked to one of the doors leading off the office area. I followed into a room with two cells and old-fashioned iron bars. Tiffany loved watching an old TV show about a country police officer and his bumbling deputy with her grandfather. This looked so much like that show that she recognized it immediately.
He opened the doors. “Here,” he said. He propped the doors open with a couple of chairs. “Now she can’t even pinch her fingers if she tries to close them.”
“Is this where you keep the bad guys?” she asked with wide eyes.
“You got it. They stay here until it’s time for them to go to a bigger jail or if they’re not really all that bad, they get to go home.”
Tiffany nodded somberly. “Wow.”
“Go see,” he said, and waved her toward the two cells.
She skipped forward and the first thing she did was push the button on the toilet to flush it in the first cell. “You cleaned those well, right?” I asked with a curled nose.
He chuckled. “With bleach. The worst thing that’ll happen is they might not be totally dry, and she’ll get bleach on her clothes.”
I could’ve lived with that. While Tiffany spun circles inside the cell with her arms out, I told Maddox about the phone call.
Maddox’s arm went around me from behind as soon as I started talking. A bit of comfort, and I was glad to have it.
“Don’t worry. I’m not a lawyer yet, but I’ve been researching it, just in case. They don’t have a case.”
Tiffany ran from one cell to the other and ignored our talking completely.
“Just in case they do, we can call one of the names I gave you, okay?” He squeezed my side.
I gladly leaned my head on his shoulder. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“In the meantime, let me have the number of the gal that called. She absolutely shouldn’t have contacted you that way. She was supposed to send you a letter, preferably certified.”
I nodded and pulled it up on my phone with my head still on Maddox’s shoulder. If Tiffany noticed her Mommy being held by a man that was supposed to just be a friend, she didn’t seem to care.
“We’ll go to the lawyer’s office together. I’m by your side on this, okay? All the way.”
I handed him my phone and wrapped both arms around his waist. How had I gone so quickly from not liking him very much to being so relieved to have him here with me? I wasn’t sure when that had happened, but however and whenever it did, having someone on my side fully was an enormous comfort.
“Everything is going to be okay,” Maddox said. “I promise.”
For whatever reason, the tension inside me melted nearly away. And I fully believed him.
14
Maddox
Flying with Artemis w
as always some of the most centered and focused times for me. Things seemed to fall away, and worries disappeared. We focused on the air and the smells of the forest, of going as high as we could, then diving down until the treetops brushed his belly. Everything was about adrenaline and ecstasy.
But not today. Today, I kept thinking about California and Bethany. I knew she’d get through the custody battle without losing Tiffany. There was no doubt in my mind, so though that was going to be a headache and definitely would be stressful for Bethany, I wasn’t worried. We already had a good lawyer who had agreed to take the case. Sometimes having the last name of Kingston was a real boon. As soon as I’d called, he agreed. That was fine with me because he was the best.
What worried me was losing her once I told her I was considering law school several states over. But while we were shifted, it was all too possible to project thoughts, which wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I tried to think about other things and focus on the flight.
It wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped. Artemis kept us in the air for a long time, though, and by the time we landed in the woods near the manor house, I did feel somewhat better. I’d been avoiding shifting and flying anywhere but our family land where we were extremely unlikely to find any humans wandering. Not only did we have no trespassing signs posted everywhere, but there was also something about the dragon and wolf territory that humans shied away from, especially human males. They would feel uneasy hiking in areas we frequented and would naturally find themselves heading away and back to their comfort zones. It was a rare thing for a human to stumble across dragon or wolf land, and here in Black Claw, we had both. Our agreement with Carlos and his wolf pack meant they roamed the land while we roamed the skies. It worked out very well for all involved.
I shifted back to my skin and walked out of the woods to find my grandfather leaning against the small outdoor shower he’d built just for us to use when shifting. We had a place for our clothes, showers, and everything we needed to clean up if we had a messy shift. Plus, it gave us some modesty.
“Son, you’re projecting some pretty deep thoughts, you know,” Grandpa said.