“For what?” I asked as I squinted my eyes at him.
“You said a bad word.”
I smiled when I remembered the moment right before I’d carried Newt into the ambulance when I’d said the word damn and he’d called me on it. We’d both agreed my punishment could wait until Isaac was home.
“I gotta tell Isaac.”
“Hmmm,” I said as I began carrying him toward Isaac. “Any chance you can forget that happened?”
Newt slowly shook his head. “No, ’cause I’ve got a big memory,” he said as he pointed at his head. He was wearing his soft-padded helmet, but I loved that he didn’t even seem to notice.
“Okay, what about a deal?” I asked. “What do you want for your silence?”
He thought about it for a long time.
Too long.
I saw the moment he came up with his evil plan because his eyes went bright and he grinned.
“Oh no, what? I don’t have to go near Jerry, do I?” I asked.
Newt shook his head. Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear. I was laughing by the time he was done.
“What are you two whispering about?” Isaac asked as he came up to me. He held his hand out to me and I immediately took it.
“Oh, nothing,” I murmured.
He eyed me suspiciously. “Okay, then. Aaron’s going to come over for dinner,” he said as he motioned to where Aaron was talking to Nolan, Sawyer, and Dallas.
“Good.”
“I thought we could invite Ford. Cam too, maybe.”
I eyed him. I’d told Isaac the day before about the weird friction between the good-looking sheriff and the troubled younger man. “Yeah, not sure that’s a good idea,” I said.
Isaac gave my hand a squeeze. “You and I didn’t seem like a good idea, either. And look at how well that turned out,” he said.
“Touché.”
Newt began wiggling in my arms as we neared Nolan and Dallas and I quickly put him down and watched as he ran up to my brother. He motioned them along with Sawyer down to his level, then began whispering in their ears. All three laughed as soon as he finished talking.
The little traitor.
“What is all that about?” Isaac asked.
Since I knew my secret was going to get out anyway, I pulled Isaac to a stop and then tugged him close enough so I could brush my mouth over his. “Are you wearing them today?” I asked.
Ever since Christmas, Isaac had taken to wearing his pretty underwear every day. He blushed prettily at my question.
Which was answer enough.
“Which ones?” I asked so only he could hear.
“Maddox,” he groused under his breath.
“Fine, just tell me the color. The rest can be a surprise for when we’re alone tonight.”
With that, his cheeks heated for a whole other reason. “The bright pink ones… with the white flowers.”
My dick immediately responded because those were a personal favorite of mine. Oh hell, who was I kidding. Anything the man wore on his person was a favorite. I kissed him softly, then called to Newt, “Newt, I know what color I want. Bright pink… with white polka dots!”
“Okay, Mad!” Newt called, then he was following the guys out of the courtroom.
Isaac laughed. “What was that all about?”
I took his hand in mine to lead him from the room. “Oh nothing, I just have an appointment at Newt’s Nifty Nails tonight, that’s all.”
Isaac pulled me to a stop and eyed me. “What did you do?” he asked.
I tugged him forward and wrapped my arms around him. “I got smart and fell in love with you, for starters,” I said, then I kissed him until we were both breathless and he completely forgot what we were talking about.
So did I, for that matter.
“Take me home, Maddox,” he murmured against my mouth. Then he pulled the dog tags out from beneath his shirt and began rubbing them between his fingers as he put his free hand in mine.
I pulled his hand up to my mouth for one final kiss and then did exactly that.
Epilogue
Isaac
Six months later
Okay, I’ll call you every day from the road. Make sure you do everything Dallas and Nolan and Grandpa tell you, okay?” I said.
“’Kay,” Newt said dutifully. He spit in his hand before I could stop him. “Spit on it.”
“Maddox,” I growled.
Maddox appeared from where he’d been putting our bags in the back of the SUV. He kissed my temple and said, “It’s Dallas’s fault.”
“Hey!” Dallas called in his raspy voice. He flipped Maddox the bird when Newt wasn’t looking. Nolan laughed and patted his fiancé’s stomach.
Newt was still waiting expectantly, so I spit on my hand and shook his. And immediately vowed to google alternative pact-making methods. After the shake, Newt threw his arms around me. I got down to his level and tugged him into my arms. He was wearing his helmet, so I kissed his cheek. “Be good,” I said as I put some distance between us so I could look him in the eye.
“I will,” he responded, then he put his arms around me for an extended squeeze. Loki’s big tongue lapped over both our faces and while I sputtered to get the doggie spit out of my mouth, Newt laughed and hugged Loki’s neck.
“Have fun with Justin and Emily today,” I said.
“I will,” he said again.
“And make sure to clean Snot’s litter box every day.”
“I will.”
“And no riding your bike past the sign in the driveway.”
“I will.”
I frowned at him and he smiled. “Oops. I mean, I won’t.”
“Go say goodbye to Maddox,” I said.
Newt hurried around the car and I wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear spitting sounds. I shook my head as I went up the walkway to say my goodbyes to Nolan and Dallas. The couple had only recently gotten engaged and were planning to marry once Maddox and I got back from Oklahoma.
The call had come in the previous day that Jett’s grandmother had taken a turn for the worse and wasn’t expected to last more than a week. It’d been the woman herself who’d called Maddox a couple of weeks earlier and begged him to look out for Jett once she was gone. The man had continued his decline over the months and both Maddox and Jett’s grandmother feared what he’d do after his last reason for living was gone. Maddox had told me I didn’t need to go with him, especially since I’d only recently started up with some online college courses, but I’d quickly disabused him of the notion by yelling a couple of non-Newt-friendly words at him for the ridiculous suggestion. Fortunately, Newt hadn’t been around to hear me and buying Maddox’s silence had been incredibly easy… and pleasurable. I was seriously considering tossing the occasional swear word out there now and again when only Maddox was within hearing range to see what it could get me.
Neither Maddox nor I expected Jett to come easily, but he also wasn’t going to get much of a choice in the matter. Between his grandmother making it her dying wish that he return to Pelican Bay with us and Maddox planning to blackmail the man by threatening to have him declared unfit to make his own decisions, we were sure we’d manage to get Jett to agree. However, once we got him here, it was a different ballgame.
The plan was to have him stay with us in the house we’d only just finished building on some of the vacant land that bordered Dallas and Nolan’s property. Our houses were so close that Maddox and I were fine with Newt walking the short path between the two homes on his own. We’d made sure to build a house that was wheelchair accessible on the off chance Jett would be coming to stay with us at some point in the future. Dallas and Maddox had also started paving some of the trails around the sanctuary so it would be easier for Jett to use his wheelchair, since the man hadn’t made use of the prosthetics the military had offered to fit him for. That was on our to-do list too, but our biggest concern was just getting him somewhere that he could hopefully start the healing process.
We’d ended up
living in the apartment above the garage while our house was being built because Maddox had sold the house his parents had once owned to my grandfather. Newt and I had taken things with Aaron slowly. It’d been almost two months before I’d even told Newt that the man was our mother’s father. He’d been confused at first, and had had a lot of questions, but he’d eventually gotten excited about the idea that he had even a bigger family than before. Aaron had initially gone back to Texas, but he’d been coming up to see us every other weekend in the beginning, then every weekend. After a while, he just hadn’t gone home again. He’d retired a few years before Gary had found him, so there’d been nothing tying him to Houston. His company was run by other people and Aaron just collected the substantial profits.
Profits he’d tried to share with Newt and me on numerous occasions. It had taken him a while to accept that we really just wanted him and not his money. After Gary had been arrested and prosecuted for assaulting Newt and me, I’d been named the trustee for the money our mother had left Newt. But Maddox and I had decided to leave it all in the trust for Newt when he was old enough to decide what he wanted to do with it. Maddox hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he had more money than he knew what to do with. I hadn’t liked the idea of him supporting us, but since we were both still helping out at the sanctuary, he didn’t see it that way. In fact, we’d bought into the business with Nolan and Dallas so we could split the costs with the other couple, since there were no actual profits to be made. It had literally become a family business that made no money whatsoever, but that brought us so much more than dividends.
While Maddox and I had been setting up house together, my grandfather had been redesigning the mansion overlooking the town of Pelican Bay. When he wasn’t dealing with the renovations, he was working on various volunteer projects around town. And he spent several nights a week having dinner with us, either at our house or Dallas and Nolan’s house.
I gave Dallas and Nolan a hug and reminded them not to get married without us, then hurried back to the car. I saw Maddox was holding Newt in his arms and saying his final goodbyes on the other side of the SUV. When he put Newt down, my brother came running toward me, Loki on his heels. He gave me a final squeeze around my lower body.
“Love you, Isaac.”
“I love you, too, Newt,” I said as I lifted his chin so he’d be forced to look at me. I knew for all his show, it was hard for him to watch me go. We hadn’t ever been apart more than the few days after Gary had shown up and I’d been arrested. All those charges had been dropped and my record had been cleared. Right after that, I’d gotten legal custody of Newt. Maddox and I were looking into adopting him once we were married.
I couldn’t help but glance down at the dog tags around my neck. Maddox had asked me to marry him the night of my birthday a couple of weeks earlier, and while he’d gotten me a ring that I loved and was currently wearing on my left hand, it was the dog tags that I saw as the proof of our commitment to one another and our desire to spend the rest of our lives together.
“I’ll be back soon, okay?”
Newt nodded. I leaned down and gave him one last kiss on his cheek, then sent him up the walkway. Nolan and Dallas embraced him and then he was turning and leaning back against them as Maddox and I got in the car. Maddox had only recently started driving again and it had taken a lot of work on his part to get that far. He was still meeting with his therapist every week, and while he had the occasional episode that was linked to either loud sounds or when he had a nightmare, they were happening further and further apart.
Maddox got the car started and in gear, then his hand was searching out mine. I waved to Newt until we were out of sight. Maddox looked a little tense behind the wheel, but I knew he’d relax eventually. But I also didn’t mind helping him along.
“I spy with my little eye…”
Maddox smiled and looked at me.
“…something black.”
Maddox glanced around the interior of the car and began guessing things.
“I spy with my little eye something that’s sheer.”
A grin tugged at his mouth as heat filled his eyes. “Babe, I think you’re kind of breaking the rules.”
“No, I’m not,” I said.
He looked pointedly at my pants, since he was assuming I was talking about my underwear, which wasn’t visible. Of course, my body reacted.
“Fine,” he said and began guessing again. Ridiculous guesses that had me smiling. He finally gave up and asked for another hint.
“I spy with my little eye something you might have seen on the internet one day, but they didn’t have it in my size.”
Maddox jerked the wheel just a bit before he caught himself. “No,” he said in disbelief.
I glanced down at my arm where my sleeve was pulled up just a bit. There was a tiny bit of sheer black material peeking out.
“Got an email a few days ago that they had it in my size,” I said with a wink.
“Show me.”
I shook my head. “Nope, sorry, can’t. Wouldn’t want you to be a distracted driver.”
He eyed me, then suddenly he was veering off onto a side road. “What are you doing?” I asked with a laugh.
He didn’t answer as he pulled the SUV beneath a line of trees bordering a field and jammed it into park. “Show me,” he demanded.
“Someone might see,” I said coyly.
“The windows are tinted and you know we own this land,” he said impatiently. “Now off.”
I eyed him and then reached for the door handle and stepped outside. The weather was still on the cool side, but it was a sunny day. The line of trees provided enough privacy that we wouldn’t be seen unless someone was practically on top of us.
Maddox had picked well.
I went to the front of the SUV and he met me there. I turned around so he could see the best part of my surprise when I took my shirt off. I heard him groan as I revealed the nearly see-through, snug tunic that was scooped low in the back. So low it revealed most of my shoulders. I took my time getting my pants undone and as soon as they cleared my hips and fell into a pool at my feet, Maddox whispered, “Oh, fuck.”
I’d only had a little time to look at myself in the mirror the night before when I’d tried the ensemble on while Maddox had been out locking up the sanctuary, but it’d been enough to see it fit me perfectly. The top piece was see-through material that hugged my body and ended at my waist like a normal top. The sleeves were long and went to just above my wrists. The sheer material meant Maddox could see the high-waisted panties that exposed most of my ass to him. But the best part were the long, thin garter straps that tied the bottom of body-hugging tunic to the tops of the thigh-high stockings. The stockings had lace bands at the top but the rest of the fabric was a sexy fishnet material.
I put my hands just slightly behind me so it would cause the muscles in my upper back to flex. I knew Maddox loved that and it had been part of the appeal of the outfit when we’d been looking through a lingerie webpage. We’d both fallen in love with the elegant piece but had been disappointed when they hadn’t had it in my size. As I felt Maddox press up against my back, the bulge of his cock riding my ass, I was glad I’d paid for rush shipping.
Maddox nuzzled my neck.
“You look gorgeous.”
I felt gorgeous and that was what Maddox loved more than anything. And that was only one of the many reasons I loved him. He turned me around and let his eyes roam over my front. “I know I should wait until tonight,” he said with a shake of his head, then his hands were on my outer thighs, playing with the garter straps. “But that’s just not going to happen.”
He kissed me deeply, then took his time sliding my panties off, which I’d had enough sense to put on over the garter straps, meaning he didn’t have to undo them at all. Maddox left my top on, as well as the stockings. He kept toying with the attached garters for the longest time before reaching into his pocket for his wallet. He removed a packet of lube and put
it on the hood of the car, then he was freeing his dick and pushing his pants down. I put my hands on the car so that my body was splayed out for him like some kind of offering. The hunger was hot in his eyes as he lubed up his bare dick, then he was lifting me and swiping the rest of the lube over my opening. Maddox used one arm to brace my back as I wrapped my legs around his waist. He used his free hand to place his cock at my hole and begin to push inside of me.
I was so turned on that I grabbed his face with one hand and said, “Hard, okay?”
He nodded, seemingly unable to speak. He sealed his mouth over mine and shoved into me deep. I cried out into his mouth as the pain and burn mixed. He was balls-deep within a couple of thrusts and then he was pounding into me. I was reliant on him not to let me fall because I had nothing on the car that I could hold onto. But I knew Maddox wouldn’t let me go.
It just wasn’t in his nature.
Not in any sense of the word.
His free hand kept stroking all over my body as he fucked me. Sometimes my skin, sometimes the softness of the material that hugged my body. It didn’t matter. I felt his touch no matter what.
Maddox supported my ass with one hand as the other pressed my upper body back onto the hood. He fucked me ruthlessly and I couldn’t stop crying out from the sheer pleasure of it all. I came hard and fast and without any kind of warning. My cum hit his chest and mine, as well as my chin. It looked bright against the black material. Maddox kept fucking me as he leaned down to lick the fluid off my skin and the lingerie. My ass was rippling around his pulsing cock and semen kept spewing from the head of my dick as aftershocks rocked my body. It wasn’t until my body seemed like it had been sucked dry that Maddox came deep inside me, roaring in satisfaction as he did so. I reveled in the heat of his cum as he filled me up. I clung to his neck as I tried to jam my hips down on him to prolong both his pleasure and mine.
When we were both spent, I collapsed against him and he used the car to help support me. He kissed my neck, then my mouth and I tasted myself on him. I could feel the mess we’d created, but I didn’t care. We could easily change clothes.
Sanctuary Found_Pelican Bay [Book 2] Page 27