The Competition

by Riley Rollins

He leaned his face into the softness of my breasts, and I cradled him. “I was lost, until now…,” he answered. He reached his hands under the sheets and ran them over my flesh, as if to reassure himself I was real. I pushed his shirt open and pressed my face against his muscled chest…

  There were a thousand questions… how and why… But as I listened to the steady beat of his heart, none of them mattered. “I love you,” he said softly. “From that last moment until the storm took me… I could hear you, sweetheart. I could feel you.”

  “I followed you as soon as I could,” I said, stroking the hair back from his eyes. ‘I didn’t know where to start… I just knew I had to find you.”

  “You’re the most obstinate and maddening woman I’ve ever met, Maggie. I don’t think you’ve ever met a line you didn’t have to cross.” His voice was broken and harsh. “You could have gotten yourself killed…”

  He reached down and slipped off my underthings. Then he shifted to strip off his jeans and shirt. “But I need it all, sweetheart.” He pulled me to him with that familiar sizzle of flesh on bare flesh. “I need your skin… your maddening, delicious skin.” He cupped my ass and used the curve of my belly to cradle his cock.

  “You need to rest,” I argued, pushing uselessly at his chest, even as my body responded. “You’re hurt… this isn’t the time…” I touched the bandage on his arm.

  He chuckled softly as his mouth tasted the hollow of my throat… the curve of my shoulder…

  “Ahhh… no… That’s where you’re wrong…” He licked at the skin underneath my breast and moved slowly upwards… He looked in my eyes and my skin tightened… tingled. “A very wise woman told me there is no perfect moment. There’s only now.” He teased my nipple with his rough thumb. “And I plan to be ever so gentle…”

  He touched every inch of my skin tenderly, exploring as he moved, finding every tiny mark and bruise. He kissed them all, one at a time, making sure he didn’t hurt me. He dragged his lips between my breasts and down my belly… he flicked his tongue over the top of my mound, spreading my lips with his fingers…

  He enveloped my clit with his mouth, his tongue… he let my pussy lips close around his lips and he rocked his head back and forth. His tongue pushed on me, creating the friction I needed so badly. And his lips sealed against mine formed a suction that left me aching for the heat of his cock. It pounded against my leg impatiently as he took his sweet time, making easy circles against me until I was frantic with desire. I reached down and took his girth in my hand, pumping his length…

  Fair is fair, I thought darkly. I gathered his dripping slickness in the palm of my hand and spread it over the velvet head of his cock. Two more strokes and his entire length was slippery. I pushed him to the very edge as he pushed back. We battled bravely, each secure in our own approaching victory…

  By the time he touched the tip of my clit with the head of his cock, I was so sensitive and desperate, I spread my legs wide and lifted my hips. He groaned as he slid his length into me… His mouth was against my ear, his breath harsh and demanding…

  “You didn’t… answer… my question…,” he said, between long, deep, maddeningly slow thrusts.

  “God… oh, my God…,” I moaned as my only response. He was pulling my climax up and out of me… it hovered over me like a sweet promise. I took his ass in my hands and shuddered as he drove himself deep…

  “I asked you… to marry me, Maggie,” he panted with the heat of his own need. “I never heard your answer…”

  “God, yes,” I gasped into his lips. “Only you…,” I panted. “It’s only ever been you…”

  He groaned in pleasure and took the curve of my shoulder in his teeth. Brilliant sparks of flame ignited behind my eyes, and I felt his body stiffen. What was gentle before turned into a fury of hard, driving passion. He took me with every ounce of his strength and I met him, thrust for thrust, demand for demand. We drove each other on in a fury, sweat made our bodies slick and mingled with the slippery gush of my own juices. I felt his ass tighten… his balls were hard against me… “Maggie…,” he called out and I felt his cock stretch my walls beyond imagining… “My love…”

  My climax hit, and I felt his cock explode in response. He pumped his seed inside me, so thick and hot, I could feel it spilling underneath us. His mouth took my mouth, his chest to my breasts… we drove our hips into a frenzy that burst like fireworks and lit the whole world. Then a scatter of sparkling trails spread and trickled down… every nerve was alive… tingling and bright… And as our breathing finally began to slow… and our bodies to relax… the fire eased to a deep and penetrating warmth. His head rested heavily against my chest… I sighed, complete… and the world slipped away…

  36

  Joe

  “Oh, my… heavens!”

  “Cover your eyes, Mother.”

  I woke to the creak of the door and Gus’s astonished voice. I threw the sheet over us and shielded Maggie with my body.

  “Now I don’t know just what in damnation you think you’re doing,” he shot me a fierce look from under his bushy grey brows, “but I won’t have this under my roof… not for one more minute…”

  “He’s my husband,” Maggie said gently, peeking out from under the sheet. “You must be Elsie’s husband.” She smiled beguilingly, appealing to the old woman. “This is my husband, Joe… He’s the man I was searching for…”

  “Go back downstairs, Elsie,” he grumbled, giving her a gentle push. Gus cleared his throat awkwardly and averted his eyes politely. “Pardon, missus,” he apologized with a nod. “Mother told me you were callin’ out a name all night long.” He clucked his tongue and his eyes brightened. “Imagine that… The two of you windin’ up right here…”

  He suddenly seemed to remember himself, and hurried to close the door. “Just came up to say the doctor’s here. Your friends, too. I’ll send them up, if you’re feelin’ strong enough.”

  “No,” we said in unison. “I’ll be down shortly,” I added, as Gus closed the door.

  “If that’s Dean downstairs…”

  “Then he’ll be relieved to find you safe and sound,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. “He can’t possibly think the worst of the situation when he finds out what’s happened.”

  “He will if he finds out everything that’s happened,” she said, biting her lip.

  “Mmmm….,” I groaned, watching her. “That’s my job…”

  I kissed her and took that swollen lip between my own teeth. The sheet fell away and I crushed her nipples into my chest. “I should go downstairs,” I said with difficulty.

  “They’re waiting,” she agreed. “I could go with you…”

  “It’s better if I go alone, Maggie. Especially if your brother’s here. There’s already a fucking hell of a lot for the two of us to work through.” I could hear voices coming from downstairs. “Let me talk to him…”

  I moved to get out of bed and she pulled me back. “One more kiss,” she begged. “I feel like I only just got you back… I’m not ready to let go…”

  I smiled and kissed her, pushing her body back down on the bed. I stretched my length over her naked body and felt her lush curves mold to fit me. She wrapped her arms and legs around me, holding me tight, and I kissed her, losing myself in the pure sweet pleasure of loving her.

  Any other time, I would have heard the warning signs. I’d have heard the voices growing louder… and the footsteps on the stairs. There might have been enough time, if I hadn’t been lost in the energy building again between us. But I heard nothing but her voice, nothing but my name on her lips...until it was too late. The door flew open…

  “...You fucking bastard…!” Dean stood in the open doorway, his face was red with fury.

  “It isn’t what you think,” Maggie cried out, as he grabbed my bandaged arm, tearing the stitches underneath and half dragging me out of bed. Maggie scrambled to cover herself as Dean shot daggers with his eyes.

  “I asked her to mar
ry me, Dean. You have to know that I love her. I’d give my life for her…”

  His fist shot out and caught me hard in the jaw. I stood naked and bleeding, but unwilling to strike back. He was my friend, and I understood his anger.

  “The people downstairs said you’re already married,” he spat out. “How many more lies have you told, Joe? I trusted you to keep her safe, and I find you here… like this…

  Get the fuck out of my sight,” he ground out. “So fucking help me… if you ever lay so much as a finger on Maggie again…”

  “He saved my life, Dean,” Maggie said angrily, clutching the sheet up to her chin. “He asked me to marry him and I’m going to. He’s the only reason I’m alive right now… the Walker’s, too. Did you find them? Are they all right?”

  “They’re fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “Get dressed, Maggie. The doctor is going to make sure you’re all right, too… then I’m taking you home.

  You can find your own way back,” he said to me, gathering up my clothes from the floor and tossing them at me in a ball. “You fucking stay away from both of us,” he said, grabbing my blood-streaked arm and pulling me into the hallway. He closed the door against Maggie’s shrill objections. “Get the hell out of my sight.

  I don’t ever want to lay eyes on you again.”

  37

  Maggie

  By the time I’d recovered from being caught naked with Joe, I was dressed and buckled into Dean’s rental car like a child. And I was livid.

  Most of the crew had already headed back for home. Only Ryan and Jackie had come along with Dean. We’d left them behind as my brother had hustled me into the car.

  “You’re treating me like a child… and you’re not listening,” I argued. “He didn’t take me with him, I went on my own. And when that storm hit, he was the one who got us all to safety. He could have been killed, but he took care of us all. You wanted him to protect me… and he did.”

  “I wanted him to keep his goddamned hands off my sister,” Dean shot back as he drove. “He’s a decade older than you are, Maggie. He’s got a whole lifetime of experience on you.” He snorted derisively. “You’re a kid out of college.

  Did he offer to fund the foundation?” he asked.

  “He’s mentioned it…,” I replied.

  “And he doesn’t like the risks you take by heading up operations like this yourself?”

  “He understands how important my work is,” I shot back. “He loves me…”

  “He’s trying to control you, Maggie, and you don’t even see it. I’ve watched him with women for a lot of years. He doesn’t bend to them, honey. They bend to him. He’s lived for TexStar since he graduated college. That’s where his drive is… that’s where his real passion lies.”

  I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and looked out the window. Everything about this was wrong. I should have been driving back home with Joe. But I was here listening to this…

  “He’ll control your foundation, Mags,” Dean said more gently. “And he’ll control you, too. I trusted him not to cross the line with you… and he did it anyway. I don’t want you to be hurt, honey… and I think it’s already too late. He’s got you convinced that he loves you… but it’s just sex. You’re looking at him as some kind of hero… but he’s never stayed with any woman, Maggie. He’s left every one… That grandmother of his would take his company away before she’d allow him to permanently link their family to ours. We were always the charity kids.” He glanced at me. “If it comes down to a choice… you know where he’ll land.

  You can’t really believe he’d give it all up for you…?”

  We made the rest of the trip in silence. I was too tired to argue any longer. Deep in my heart, I knew he was wrong. He had to be. It was Dean who was seeing the circumstances through the eyes of a child. He couldn’t see me as an adult… and he refused to see that people might grow and change over the years.

  We reached the cottage long after nightfall. Dean stretched out on the couch, refusing to leave me alone. I closed the bedroom door on him and collapsed in utter exhaustion. I needed a shower, but I settled for stripping off my filthy clothes and splashing water on my face. I climbed into bed and could smell the blend of Joe’s body and mine. What if Dean is right? My conscience whispered. What if none of it is real?

  I was worn too thin, in body and spirit, to fight off the wave of fear that washed over me. In the darkness, it grew like the childhood monster… hiding in the closet…

  If Joe had been beside me, I could have leaned on his strength, borrowed his courage. But as tired as I was, sleep wouldn’t come. The years of our history flew past in my mind. Joe and I had spent so many years apart… And as close as we’d gotten since I’d been home, Dean was the one who had been his friend… and at his side for the last four years…

  Nothing in my gut told me Joe was that guy. The one who can’t resist taking what a girl shows up offering…

  But I’d thrown myself at him. Pretty shamelessly, as I remembered. I felt my cheeks burn with the memory. I’d fallen in love with the man I’d remembered… how could I be sure I even knew the man he was today? I’d been a virgin, throwing myself into the arms of a memory. It had happened so fast, and I’d been so sure he would feel the same… Who could blame him for responding and giving me what I’d begged him for…? Jackie’s crude words of wisdom came back, ringing in my ears… Their brains and their dicks often don’t share clear lines of communication…

  We’d been caught together in the most extraordinary circumstances. It would hardly be the first time love and desire had tangled in a snarl of confusion. Maybe what we shared was just the kind of thing that happens between two people, under desperate circumstances…

  I turned over and buried my face in the hot pillow. My heart was screaming to be heard, telling me all my fears were wrong. But the truth was, my fears were growing… I’d never had a real relationship with a man before… any man…

  How could I possibly know for sure… what was truly real?

  38

  Joe

  “She headed out into this… on foot...? Jackie surveyed the broken landscape out the van window. “How the hell could she have known where to even begin looking?” Ryan was quiet as he drove.

  “I don’t know,” I answered. But we ended up in the same place, only hours apart…” I shook my head and leaned my forehead against the air conditioned glass. “She never should have been out here in the first place. Dean fucking ordered her not to… and she came along anyway. I should have stopped her. Willful is one thing… reckless is another…”

  “Maggie wants to save the whole world,” Ryan said, looking over at me. “She always has. Just like she’s always loved you.”

  I caught his eye. “You know, I always thought the two of you were the ones who’d end up together. You seemed so comfortable… you had so much more in common…”

  Ryan smiled. “Not so much as you’d think. Mostly, it was just you.” He looked back to the road.

  “It wasn’t easy, growing up under the weight of the Decker empire,” he sighed. “Dad, before he died… then Grandma Bess… We grew up with a narrow set of rules and a wide set of expectations, Joe. There were things I didn’t feel like I could tell a soul, but her. She got me through some awful times, growing up. She was my friend… But you were always the only man for her.”

  “I asked her to marry me…,” I said. “I want that more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. But the look on her brother’s face when he saw us… the betrayal in his eyes…” My bandaged arm throbbed with my heartbeat. “I don’t think he’ll ever fucking forgive me. I could live with that if I had to, but I could never live with coming between Maggie and the only family she’s got left. They were just finding each other again…”

  “Dean will forgive Maggie,” Jackie piped up from the back seat. “And whether he realizes it yet or not, it isn’t his decision… how two grown people live their lives.”

  “It’s not just
Dean,” Ryan added. “You know how Bess always felt about the Blake’s living in the guesthouse. She and Dad spent the last part of his life going at each other about it. She’s always used TexStar as a bargaining chip… a way to have and maintain total control over all of us. But she never won the Blake battle with Dad. Even after his death… He made her sign legal papers to allow Dean and Maggie to stay on after their father died.” He shot me a look thick with meaning. “She’ll take everything if you cross her on this. The money, the company… everything. She resented those two kids from the beginning, and if you marry Maggie…

  Bess will have the retribution she always wanted, one way or another. I know Maggie loves you, Joe. She has her whole life. And you’re a damned fool who doesn’t deserve her, if you don’t love her back. But there will be a price to pay. And you’d better make goddamned sure you’re willing to pay it before you put Maggie’s heart on the line. Because if you hurt her, Dean won’t be your only concern. You’ll have to answer to me, too.”

  I dragged myself up the stairs to my room, aching from head to toe. I’d seen Dean’s rental in front of the cottage and I knew he was there. Like a watchdog… keeping danger at bay.

  I ached for a shower, but settled for running a hot bath. My arm was throbbing painfully, and the doctor had warned me to keep the bandages dry.

  I settled in and turned on the water jets. Leaning back, I let the water pound against my back. I dipped my head and let the water stream from my hair. Slowly, my muscles began to unknot and I relaxed into the heat. The last few days had felt like an entire lifetime. I ran one hand over my gritty chest.

  The immaculate house looked just as I’d left it. The maid had straightened my room and made up the bed with fresh linens. The bath towels were perfectly folded and the suits in my closet perfectly pressed. I’d lived my whole tidy life in a perfect routine of organization and efficiency. Nothing had ever challenged that routine, and nothing had ever changed… Not in thirty-three years… Not until Maggie…