by Cameron Dane
Wyn gave Maddie an easy smile, even as every invisible hackle on his body rose straight on end. “I’m not gonna say no.” He took what he could get and stole a fast kiss from her still way-too-red lips. “I have to go back to the house and change,” he looked down at his rumpled and torn beyond repair clothes and made a funny face, “and then I have to get to the station.”
“Sounds good. We have a deal.” Maddie walked him to her office door and waved. “Bye.”
“I’ll see you tonight.” With one last visual drink of Maddie’s sweet yet alluring-as-hell beauty, Wyn waved, unlocked the front entry, and strode out of the garage as if he didn’t have a care in the world. But in truth, like hell he was walking away from Maddie when this was over. He growled and snarled a bit at the world in general, but outside there was nobody to see or hear him so he didn’t try to hide it.
He had to make sure that, by the end of his time in her house, she didn’t want him to leave. Wyn had less than two weeks to catch a thief so that Maddie would be safe again. In between, he had to win over one very wary, still-wounded heart.
Chapter 10
“Oh God, Wyn, please…” Unleashed pleasure coursing through her body from top to bottom, Maddie braced herself against the back porch stairs as Wyn drove his cock deep into her pussy from behind. Already a slave to the needs he brought out of her so easily, Maddie begged, “Fuck me,” and rocked back on his thick, hot shaft, moaning low as he split her folds and filled her to the root once more.
Wyn growled in response and covered her completely like an animal in heat. His hard, scorching chest and belly seared themselves to her back, branding her flesh in yet another way. He pressed his face in her hair and pumped his length in and out of her cunt over and over again, whispering at her ear, “Jesus, Maddie. I can never get enough of you.”
On all fours, her knees on a lower step than her hands, Maddie curled her fingers into the painted wood and planted the side of her face against the porch landing. She nodded against the wood, responded, “Me too,” and lost herself to the steady, deep thrusts of Wyn’s claiming while the last rays of the evening sun broke through the trees and painted an ever-changing sun-dappled mosaic across their naked bodies.
So quickly, only a day and a half into their truce, and already Maddie could not keep her hands off Wyn. Her only saving grace was that he seemed to possess the same weakness.
She’d walked across the field from the garage just moments ago, wondering if Wyn had made them dinner, as he’d done last night, or if manners and protocol dictated that she should make something for him tonight. Instead she’d spotted him coming out of the back gate of the garden, his shirt off, arms full of debris, sweat slicking his short hair and covering his upper body. The ruggedly masculine sight stopped her in her tracks. Wyn, almost as if he’d caught her scent, had glanced in her direction, and without pause had thrown the refuse in a pile and began striding emphatically in her direction.
As if he were a magnet pulling her to him, she’d started running, drawn in a way she could not deny. They’d met at the foot of the porch, where he dragged her to him and she’d equally aggressively wrapped her arms around him. He’d swooped down and crushed his lips to hers, and she’d kissed him back just as hard, all enthusiasm and no technique. He hadn’t seemed to care. He’d torn at her clothes and she’d ripped at his jeans, and within moments they were both naked and wet and hard and on the stairs. She hadn’t been able to make it more than three steps before she’d folded to her knees and told him she couldn’t wait a second longer. He’d pushed into her quivering channel and she’d groaned her acceptance of his invasion, needing this melding of their bodies more than she’d needed the comfort of a bed or even a roof over her head.
Right then Wyn ran his hands down her arms, buried his nose in the crook of her neck, and brought Maddie back into the present. He inhaled and hummed against her skin. “Damn it, you smell good.”
Laughter bubbled up through her middle unexpectedly, and she grinned against the wood. “I smell like motor oil and sweat.”
“No, it’s you.” He licked her neck and trembled against her, and his voice went husky. “You smell like heaven to me.”
A trill of panic rushed through Maddie’s system, all the way to her core. She reared up to her knees, dragged Wyn’s hands to her chest and forced him to squeeze her breasts. She needed them both to be lost in purely sexual heat. “Touch me.” Bucking back against him, she pleaded, “Touch me everywhere. I need to feel you all over me.”
Uttering an epithet to a higher power, he scraped his teeth across her shoulder and rolled her breasts under his hands, awakening her nipples and skin with the calluses on his palms. Maddie shuddered and slammed back against him, filling herself with him to the root. Wyn groaned and teased her nipples harder, plying the berry-red discs and tugging on the tips until they were tight points of screaming sensitivity.
Out of control, Maddie pumped herself back against Wyn over and over again, loving the way his thick length filled her past capacity and sent her aching for a release that would spin her out into the emerging stars.
Against her nape, Wyn spoke her name in a broken crack, and at the same time shoved his hand between her thighs and found her clit. With first contact, Maddie cried out and covered his hand with hers. She held him in place, but she needn’t have bothered; he flicked and feathered the tiny ball of sensitivity with his rough fingers, touching her so perfectly she’d swear he had silk covering his digits. Maddie keened and creamed for him more, slickening his cock and fingers with her excitement.
Wyn grunted and buried himself deep in her pussy. Next to her ear, he said, “I only have another second, baby.” He cursed and she felt his cock impossibly thicken in her body. “You’re killing me so good. Come for me, baby.”
As soon as he spoke, he ran his fingers down her slick folds, running them with shiver-worthy precision around his deeply embedded length, playing just inside her cunt, filling her with him even more. Her channel went into spasms, and she shouted and started to shake. Not giving her an inch, Wyn pushed his other hand down the front of her body and plied her nerve-rich clit like a string master playing a high-end Stradivarius and catapulted her straight into the sky.
Screaming his name, Maddie bowed back against him, threw her head on his shoulder, and exploded into a thousand pieces of perfect pleasure. Behind her, Wyn shouted something animalistic, shoved them both forward onto the stairs, and plunged into her hard. Just as her pussy clenched in a series of spasms all around his cock, he shot his load into her channel. For long moments suspended in time, out of her control, Maddie squeezed inside, as if pulling his essence from his very being, and with each clutch her pussy put around his prick, Wyn dumped more semen into the recesses of her body, soaking her inside with his seed.
Once they were both fully spent, under him, pressed uncomfortably into the stairs, Maddie exhaled and bumped him up off her. She created enough space to roll over under him, but remained trapped in his arms. Oh my goodness yes.
Twinkles brought out the lighter shades of brown in his eyes, and Maddie couldn’t stop the tug in her heart or hold back from reaching up to cup his cheek. “Good heavens.” Looking at him, she blew upward, trying to get a flyaway hair off her cheek. “That was a fine ‘how do you do’.”
Wyn turned his head sideways and pressed a kiss to the inside of her hand. “Best I’ve ever had.” Brushing the hairs off her face for her, he grinned big and added, “And here I thought last night’s Olympic-grade session on the hallway floor was a thank you for making dinner. If I’d known it was just my stunning good looks that did it, I might have passed on the barbecue I already prepped for a meal tonight.”
Smiling back, Maddie lifted up, pressed a soft kiss to his lips, and grazed her tongue across his cheek to his ear. “There’s no reason we can’t have a hello out here and then a thank you inside later.” She tried to put a purr in her voice, and told him softly, “I always reward people who do a job wel
l.”
His voice husky at her ear, he said back, “You’ll find I’m capable of all kinds of household tasks if this is how you’ll praise my work.”
Maddie pulled back and gave him her most serious face while looking him right in the eyes. “If you’re serious I have some wicked gnarly knick-knack dusting you could do.”
Wyn’s eyes widened for a heartbeat, as if stunned by this turn of events, and then he finally reared up to his knees and roared with laughter. Maddie fell into peals of laughter too, as much for how silly he looked kneeling naked on her back steps while laughing as for how her heart lifted over having a fun, giddy moment with him again. She’d missed this. She’d missed him.
As soon as that thought went through her mind, and a hint of pining hit her in the chest, a frisson of cold slid down her spine too.
Before a fear of being hurt again could take root in her, Wyn muttered, “Who the hell is that?” and shot to his feet. In two quick moves he tossed Maddie her clothes and jerked his head toward the garage while grabbing his jeans. “Get dressed. We’ll have company in a minute.”
Crap. Her heart leaping into her throat for a whole new reason, Maddie scrambled upright and wiggled into her shorts and tank top, all while squinting toward the garage, focusing on a male starting to cross the field to her house. “Aidan or Dev would assume I’d be home by now and come straight here.” Maddie strained to see, but too many shadows from the early night sky shaded the man’s face from view. “And my customers know what time I close up shop.”
His lips twisting, Wyn raised a brow in her direction. “Maybe it’s someone new.” His frown turned fierce and a rough noise rumbled through him. “Maybe it’s someone who doesn’t respect your hours of business.”
On their timer, right on schedule, her porch lights flickered on and the floodlight on the side of the house lit the field. Yellow tinted light bathed a swath of grass more than a dozen feet away, illuminating a dark-haired, olive-skinned man in a gray suit. Oh my goodness. Unwittingly, the sight of the familiar figure raised the hairs on Maddie’s neck. Wyn’s going to growl even more in a minute.
Straightening her clothes one last time, Maddie told Wyn, “Not a customer,” and braced herself for hurricane winds from him. She looked at him from the corner of her eye and shared, “It’s Nico.”
Wyn hissed. “What the fuck?”
Already focused on her silent partner, Maddie stepped forward, stretched out her hand in welcome, and put her business face on. “Nico, it’s so good to see you. Welcome home.”
*
Nico? Wyn had seen some old pictures of the guy, but seeing the man in person, elegantly imposing with an air of wealth about him, instantly set Wyn on edge. Son of a bitch. This man’s sudden presence in town, with these things happening to Maddie, couldn’t be a coincidence.
Wyn opened his mouth, the intent to interrogate burning a hole in his throat, but at the last second Maddie’s voice penetrated his skull and he snapped his lips shut. He’d just reached a truce with her, and within that agreement she’d opened herself to a wider pool of suspects, which she knew included Nico. If Wyn was serious about proving his commitment to this partnership, he needed to have faith as well as expect it, and there was no time like the present to demonstrate his loyalty and faith in Maddie Morgan than right now.
Letting her take the lead, Wyn said hello and shook Nico’s hand when Maddie made the customary introductions, then shifted to an at-ease military stance, and merely observed.
After giving the man a quick hug, Maddie said, “Nico, I’m shocked to see you. You didn’t mention visiting Redemption when we last spoke.”
The suave-looking man shrugged, his expression sheepish. “I didn’t plan to come home the last time we Skyped. I talked to my dad a couple of nights ago though; I wanted to check on him and see how the trip is going, and in our conversation he mentioned the stuff still here at the house. Again. I put him off, told him I’d get around to it when I have some down time, like I always do.” Nico’s jaw hardened for a heartbeat then, and a hint of red stained his cheeks—a response, maybe embarrassment, that Wyn didn’t think a person could fake.
“Anyway,” Nico slid his hands in his pockets, “I started thinking about how long I’ve put off going through Mom’s stuff, and then someone at work reminded me I have vacation piled up that I’m going to lose if I don’t take it, so I let everyone know I’d be gone for a while and booked a flight.” His shoulders lifted, and he glanced around at the property in a half-circle motion. “Here I am.”
Maddie moved in and linked her arm with Nico’s. “Well I’m glad.” She steered him to the steps and back porch. “Not that I mind having your family’s stuff here, but I know it’s important to your dad that you do this, so I know you’re going to make him very happy.” She gave his arm a visible squeeze. “And you’ll probably feel a weight off your shoulders too.”
“Agreed. I drove out straight from the airport to talk to you about scheduling some time to get in the house and the shed, but I didn’t realize how late it was.” He paused on the landing, just outside the door that led to the kitchen, frowning as he looked over the darkness descending around them. “I should have paid more attention to the time and come out in the morning.”
Pulling open the screen door with one hand, Maddie waved his comment aside with the other. “Don’t even think about it. You’ll stay with us.” Wyn’s heart seized on the natural way that word, us, passed Maddie’s lips. His gaze jerked from Nico to her, so pretty and at ease and in charge, as she finished, “It would make it a lot easier to organize and go through everything if you’re living at the house.”
She tried to nudge Nico over the threshold, but the man tensed and shook his head. “This is your home now; I’m not going to impose.”
Maddie kept a loose hold on his arm. “It wouldn’t be an imposition, I promise.”
Pulling back a step, Nico frowned and tension knotted his fit frame. “It might feel weird to live under this roof again. The house never felt quite like the right fit after Mom was gone.”
Instant visible empathy welled in Maddie’s eyes. “I get that.” She reached out and laid a comforting hand on his arm, but didn’t try to pull him into the house this time. “You’re welcome to come and go through boxes and the house whenever you want; your dad only sold a few pieces to me outright, the rest still belongs to your family.” Her focus slid to Wyn just then. She only held him for a second, and then shifted back to Nico and jerked her thumb toward the kitchen beyond the screen door. “Do you want to come in right now and have a drink?” She tried again, and a swelling of pride burst forth in Wyn. “We’re getting ready to have dinner. You could join us, and we could at least get a few days set up right away.”
“Thanks,” Nico started walking back down the stairs, “but I’ve already booked a room at a B and B in town. I’d like to get set up there tonight and nail down a plan for how I want to tackle this job before I begin anything out here.”
Rather than chase him down, Maddie remained on the landing, leaning against the porch rail support. “I understand. You’re welcome to get started tomorrow. Just come by the garage in the morning and I’ll give you a key so you can let yourself into the house and have at it.”
At the bottom of the steps, Nico looked up at Maddie, hands in his pockets once more. “Thanks. It is good to see you in person, Maddie. And thanks for being so cool about my unexpected visit.”
Maddie smiled down at Nico, and Wyn could see a hint of wetness coating her gaze. “You and your dad are always welcome on this land and in this house.” The wistful look still exposed, she ran her fingers along the white-painted railing. “I’m grateful to be a small part of the legacy.”
“More than a small part.” Arching a brow, Nico’s mouth lifted in kind. “You’re the son he wished he had.”
With those words Wyn’s sensors went on alert, but just as fast Maddie replied, “Not for a second, Nico. Never doubt that your dad is crazy proud of y
ou. He brags about how smart you are. Maybe you don’t know that, but he does.”
Nicos’s shoulders pushed back and he tilted his head. “Yeah?”
Maddie nodded. “Big time.”
Seeming a little lighter, he said, “Thanks, Maddie. See you tomorrow.” He spun and dipped his head in Wyn’s direction. “Nice to meet you, Wyn.”
“Likewise.” Wyn closed the distance and shook the man’s hand one more time. “Good night.”
Just as Nico took a step back in the direction of the garage, a bang thundered from inside the house.
Nico spun and whipped his focus up to the second level of the house. “What the hell was that?”
“Cat,” Maddie replied without missing a beat, with just the right playful frustration mapping her pretty face. “I just got her. She’s as cute as all get out but a menace to my property. Probably broke something again.”
Nico made a face that was more akin to a reaction of Maddie saying she had a Saint Bernard running and drooling all through her house, and Wyn began to wonder if the guy had ever even attempted to take care of a fish, let alone something furry or human.
“Good luck with that then.” He lifted his hand in a small wave. “Good night again.” That said, he strode across the yard, the gravel road, and back across the field at a good clip toward the garage.
Wyn waited, not a word said, and Maddie did the same, until Nico cleared the grass and was around the building, presumably heading toward a rental car.
Finally Maddie exhaled loudly and sank down to sit on the top step. “How did I do?”
Taking the steps two at a time, Wyn joined her, pushing to lean back against the railing. “You did good,” he told her, not pandering one damned bit. “I think you got as much out of him as you could without coming across as pushy. We don’t want that with your relationship with him. He needs to feel he can relax with you, and you did a nice job with that.”