by Force, Marie
“You don’t owe me anything, Brayden. I told you the things I did because I wanted to, not because I expected anything in return.”
“I know, but the thing is…” He raised his head so he could see her face and lifted his left hand to cup her cheek. “I want to be more than friends with you, Maggie. I look at you, and I just want… well… everything with you. I’ve never wanted to go all in with anyone else, so I’m willing to take the risk, to trust you.”
Maggie leaned in to kiss him. “Thank you.”
“But it’s super important to me that this stay between us. You can’t even tell your sisters.”
“I understand, and you have my word that it’ll go no further.”
“When I left lockup, my lawyer was very clear with me. If you don’t talk about it, your past can’t be weaponized against you. I took that advice very seriously, and I haven’t told anyone. When I went to college, I left everything else behind, made new friends and had a fresh start that I’ve been living off of ever since. Only my mom knew about my life before college.”
“And then you lost her.”
“Yeah. I really wanted to talk to her the last few days.”
“I’m so sorry you couldn’t and that you’ve been so tortured over this. Maybe I shouldn’t have made such a thing of it…”
“No, you were right to look out for yourself, especially after what happened to you.”
“I’m well aware that if you weren’t working with me, I’d never have known there was something I should be asking about.”
“Yeah, and I want to be clear, if you hadn’t found out I had a juvie record from the background check, I never would’ve told you, no matter what happened between us. I drew a line in the sand years ago that divides my life into before and after, and I never, ever cross that line.”
Maggie took a deep breath and released it slowly. “My stomach hurts.”
“Mine, too.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “I have this feeling that you’re going to be worth crossing the line for.”
“You have my absolute word that no matter what happens between us, I’ll never repeat what you tell me. Ever. I’ll take it to my grave.”
His sinfully sexy lips curved into a small smile, but she still saw torment in his warm brown eyes. “I never knew my dad. My mom said it was a short-lived thing, and he wasn’t worth knowing. For most of my childhood, it was just me, my mom and my grandpa. He ran a small ranch about fifty miles from here, and my mom helped him with the books, the housekeeping and chores. When I was old enough, I was expected to help out, too, which was fine with me. I loved being with my grandfather. I followed him around like a pesky little dog, and he was always endlessly patient with me. He’s the one who taught me everything I know about horses. People tell me I have a gift with them. If that’s true, it came right from him.”
His eyes went soft with affection when he talked about his grandfather. “He died suddenly when I was thirteen. We found him in the barn where he’d collapsed. They said it was probably a massive heart attack and that he hadn’t suffered. But I suffered over losing him. Oh, how I suffered. In some ways, I was never the same.”
“I can totally relate to that. It’s the most incredibly difficult thing to discover the people you love best can be taken from you with no warning.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“Thanks. I still miss him every day. I think all the time about what would’ve been different if he’d lived.”
“It’s amazing how one incident can set off a chain of events that changes everything.”
He glanced at her, seeming less tortured than he had just a short time ago. “That is so, so true. About a year after my grandfather died, my mom decided to start dating for the first time in years. What a shit show that turned out to be. She quickly learned not to tell them about the ranch she’d inherited or her teenage son, both of which became either pros or cons, depending on the guy. Then she met Clive.”
His entire body tightened with tension that radiated off him. “He was a retired rodeo star. Had made his name as a bull rider. Won a lot of awards and money and acclaim. All the money was gone by the time he met my mom, and he saw dollar signs when he eventually found out about the ranch. My mom was crazy about him for reasons that I never quite understood. He wanted nothing at all to do with the teenage son, but he put up with me to get his hands on her land. I hated him the first time I met him, and my opinion of him never changed.”
“God, Brayden. That’s so awful.” All Maggie could think about was how lucky she and her sisters had gotten when Andi and Aidan came into their lives. Brayden had had the opposite experience.
“It was. He knew I hated him, and he sort of got off on pushing my buttons.”
“What did your mom say?”
“She pleaded with me to help her make it work because we needed help running the place, and she fancied herself in love with him for a while. That didn’t last long, but by the time she woke up to who he really was, she’d married him, he was in charge of my grandfather’s ranch and wanted nothing to do with me. And vice versa. I started getting into a lot of trouble around that time. Skipping school, drinking, smoking pot, basically acting out in every way I could, which I can see now only justified his dislike of me.”
He cradled her hand between both of his, caressing her skin with callused, scarred hands from a lifetime of hard work. “I only came home to take care of the horses and see my mom. Otherwise, I crashed with my friends and generally stayed away. I was fifteen and getting around on a motorbike that had belonged to my grandfather. The bike made it so I could get out to the ranch to tend the horses. I tried to time my comings and goings for when I knew he wouldn’t be there. But this one day, I went home after school. He… he had all the horses in the paddock and…”
Maggie cradled his head against her chest the way she might a child who’d had a bad dream. But this was no bad dream. It was Brayden’s life, and her heart broke for him as she waited to hear the rest of his story.
“He had a bullwhip and was beating them.”
Maggie gasped. “Oh my God.”
“They had nowhere to go.” He spoke in a flat-sounding tone, devoid of inflection. “They couldn’t get away from him, and obviously, it’d been going on for a while, because all of them were bleeding, especially Dancer, my grandfather’s horse, the one I’d learned to ride on. He’d focused on him because he knew I loved him the best.”
Maggie sniffed as tears ran unchecked down her face. “Brayden…”
“I don’t really remember a lot about what happened next. But I vividly recall climbing the paddock fence and going after him and the whip. From what I was told, I beat him until he was unrecognizable. My mom came home in the middle of it, pulled me out of there, called 911 for him and the emergency vet for the horses. Everything after that was a blur. The cops came, they took me in. Later, I heard Clive was on life support. I didn’t care.”
Brayden looked up at her, his gaze fierce. “I want you to know if I had it to do over again, even knowing how it would fuck up my life, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“I wouldn’t want you to. Those poor horses. Were they okay?”
“They recovered from their wounds, but I’m sure they were never the same.”
“You don’t know?”
He shook his head. “My mom rehomed the horses and sold the ranch to pay for my attorneys.”
“Oh, Brayden… God, I’m so sorry.”
“She did the right thing. She couldn’t handle it all on her own anyway, and the horses needed care we couldn’t give them.”
“But still… It must’ve broken your heart to lose your home and the horses.”
“It did, but I had bigger problems by then. I was charged with attempted murder, and there was talk of trying me as an adult. My mom got me the best lawyers money could buy, and they eventually got the charges reduced to felony assault and kept the case in juv
enile court, which was a huge break. I spent three years in juvie and five years on probation after I was released and have been trying ever since to get my record expunged, but it hasn’t happened yet. My mom managed to keep the story locked down. She told people I went to live with my uncle in Colorado, and no one questioned her story because my friends knew how much I hated Clive.”
“And what about him?”
“He survived. I was told I should be thankful for that. If he’d died, I probably would’ve been charged as an adult and would still be in prison.”
“Tell me he was charged with something.”
“Misdemeanor animal cruelty with a provision that he sign the divorce papers, relocate and never speak of or to me or my mother again.”
She wiped the tears from her face. “I’m so, so sorry, Brayden. I’m sorry that happened, that I forced you to talk about something so painful, that—”
“Hey.” Brayden tipped her chin up to meet his gaze. “It’s okay. I’m glad you know. It feels right to talk about it to you.” He held her gaze for a long, charged moment before he leaned in to kiss the tears off her cheeks.
Maggie tipped her face ever so slightly, her lips meeting his in a soft, sweet kiss that quickly became heated and desperate. After hearing his story, she no longer feared falling for him, as it was far too late for such concerns. The fall had already happened.
His arms encircled her, his tongue rubbed against hers, and Maggie moaned as she tried to get closer to him. “Brayden,” she said, gasping as she broke the kiss. “Wait.”
He dropped his head to her chest as he fought to catch his breath.
“Let me up.”
Brayden pulled back, running his hands through his hair as he seemed to search for composure.
Maggie stood and held out her hand to him.
Seeming surprised, he looked up at her as he took her hand.
She gave a gentle tug that brought him to his feet.
“What’re you up to?” he asked, smiling.
“Moving this somewhere more comfortable.”
Chapter 22
Maggie led him into her bedroom, feeling completely confident that she was doing the right thing, regardless of their professional situation, which she had to believe would work out even if they didn’t. As she watched him untie the belt of her robe, work was the last thing on her mind.
“Are you sure about this, Maggie?”
She smiled up at him. “Yes, Brayden. I’m sure. Are you?”
“Oh hell yeah. I was sure about ten minutes after I met you, and when I caught you sleeping on the job…”
“I wasn’t sleeping!”
His low chuckle rumbled through him. “If you say so.”
“I say so.”
He cradled her face in his hands and stared down at her. “You are so, so pretty. I couldn’t stop thinking about you while I was away. I wished I’d had a photo of you because I missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too, and it felt silly to miss someone I’d only just met.”
“It’s not silly.”
There was nothing silly about the way she felt as she unsnapped his shirt and pushed it off his shoulders. “The day you built the platform in the yard…” She ran her hands over his muscled shoulders, arms and chest.
“What about it?”
“All the women on the staff were watching you through the kitchen window.”
“No way.”
“Way.” Maggie stepped forward to kiss well-defined pectoral muscles, his dark chest hair tickling her nose. “You put on quite a show that day.”
“Sorry,” he said, sounding embarrassed.
“Don’t be. I haven’t been able to get the picture of you, shirtless and sweaty, out of my mind ever since.”
“Is that so?”
“Mmm.” She continued to pepper his chest with kisses and little nibbles that had him gasping. “How lucky am I to get to be able to do this?” She licked his nipple, and he startled, burying his hands in her hair to anchor her to him. Maggie fiddled with his belt, trying to figure out how to release it.
Thankfully, he helped her, and when the two halves fell apart, she batted his hands away so she could release the button and zipper herself.
He groaned when her hand brushed against the head of his cock, which had breached the waistband of his boxer briefs. “Maggie…”
“Yes, Brayden?”
His grunt of laughter made her smile.
He pushed the robe off and found the hem of her T-shirt, whipping it up and over her head so quickly, she had no time to prepare herself to be completely bare except for bikini panties.
Brayden looked at her with sexy brown eyes that heated as he took her in. “So fucking beautiful.” With his arms around her, he backed up to the bed and brought her down on top of him and then quickly turned them so he was on top, looking down at her. His gaze shifted to Froggie.
“Who do we have here?”
Maggie glanced at her beloved stuffed animal. “My oldest and dearest friend. Froggie, meet Brayden.”
Brayden charmed her forever when he reached out to shake Froggie’s shabby hand or fin or whatever it was. “Pleased to meet you, Froggie.”
Maggie reached out to turn Froggie so he couldn’t see what was about to transpire. “Now, where were we?”
Smiling down at her, Brayden pushed his hard cock into the sensitive notch between her legs. “Right about here.”
“I remember now.”
“Tell me if anything is too much?”
She appreciated his respect for what she’d been through, but that was the last thing on her mind with sexy Brayden Thomas in her bed. “I’m okay, but thanks for checking.”
“Always.” He touched his lips to hers in a teasing caress that had her arching into him, looking for more. “Easy, sweetheart. We’ve got all night, and I’m in no rush. We’ll never again get to do this for the first time, and I plan to fully enjoy it.”
Maggie exhaled and tried to relax as he kissed her neck and chest while cupping her breasts and running his thumbs back and forth over tingling nipples.
“I’ve been thinking about these beauties constantly since the other day.” He dipped his head and took her left nipple into his mouth. “I wanted another taste so bad when we were in your office. So, so bad.”
She felt like she was floating outside herself, watching someone else be kissed and caressed and utterly transported by desire for the first time in her life. Nothing had ever been like this, like him. He covered her abdomen with kisses as he moved down until his face was pressed to her core, the heat of his mouth scorching her sensitive flesh.
He reached under her with both hands and lifted her closer as her legs fell open in welcome.
Dear God…
Then he was tugging at her panties, trying to get them off, and Maggie could barely move to help him. Turns out he didn’t need the help, and when he returned to his place between her legs, he set out to absolutely destroy her with his lips, tongue and fingers. She came twice in rapid succession, which had never happened. Before she could begin to come down from the incredible high, he was pushing into her, stretching and filling her.
“Brayden…
He nuzzled her neck and kissed her lips. “What, honey?”
“Condom.”
“All set.”
Somehow she’d missed that in the orgasmic frenzy he’d worked her into, and now she needed all her wits about her to deal with the hot, full press of him inside her. The man was big all over. She raised her knees snug against his hips and flattened her hands on his back, her fingers digging into the dense muscles that flexed as he moved in her. Maggie couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t take him deep enough…
Propping himself on his elbows, he pressed inside her and held still as he gazed down at her. “Hey,” he whispered, his lips glancing over hers in a light caress.
Maggie opened her eyes and looked up to find him staring down at her intently.
“Hi.”
She smiled. “Hi yourself.”
“You okay?”
“Uh, yeah. You?”
“Never been better.” He flexed his hips, perhaps to remind her of what they’d been doing before he called a time-out—as if she needed the reminder.
Maggie reached down to cup his ass, to keep him buried deep inside her as she rubbed shamelessly against him.
He groaned and began to move, picking up the pace until they were both straining against each other in a race to the peak. Brayden went still above her, his fingers digging into her shoulders until he collapsed on top of her, breathing hard as tremors of sensation rocked them both.
He was quiet for a long time, so long that Maggie wondered if he’d dozed off. It didn’t matter if he had. She loved the weight of him on her as well as the scent of warm male skin, soap and spicy deodorant.
She found out he wasn’t asleep when his tongue nudged her nipple, which caused her to jolt as if he’d struck a match against her sensitive flesh.
Laughter rumbled through him and into her. “Is someone a little sensitive?”
“More than a little.”
He looked up at her, brows furrowed in concern. “You’re good, though?”
“Better than good. Way better than good.”
“That’s what I want to hear.” Propping his chin on her chest, he studied her face. “Am I crushing you?”
“No.” She tightened her arms around him to keep him right where he was for a little while longer. As he’d said, they’d never again do this for the first time, and she wasn’t ready to let him go yet.
He settled his head on her shoulder.
Maggie floated and dozed and luxuriated in a complete sense of relaxation that had been so rare lately.
Eventually, Brayden withdrew from her, got up to use the bathroom and then came back to stretch out next to her in bed.
Maggie looked over at him, propped up on an upturned hand, looking ridiculously sexy and confident while completely naked. Although, anyone who looked like him had every reason for ridiculous confidence. The thought made her giggle.