"What the fuck is going on now?"
Hope didn't flinch. "What does it look like?" she asked without bothering to look up.
"Like you trashed the place."
Maddox ought to know. His father used to do it all the time when he was a kid. Maddox would come home from school to find the house in shambles, with all kinds of crap either broken or hauled off to the pawnshop.
But this wasn't the same. For one thing, he didn't detect even a whiff of anger in the air. Only annoyance and a hell of a lot of frustration.
"That's just because you came back before I was done," Hope said, still stubbornly refusing to look at him. "I'm actually trying to fix the place up."
"Fix it?" Maddox snarled. "It was fine when I left this morning."
Finally, she shot him a look over her shoulder. "Well, it's better now."
Maddox grumbled some more, but Hope just rolled her eyes and got back to work.
What the hell?
The way Maddox understood it, omegas were supposed to be subservient, submissive, docile…not dismissive pains in the ass.
He suddenly remembered the way Gail had spoken to Randall when Maddox showed up with Hope. How she'd prevented him from following his instincts and killing Maddox.
Maddox remembered thinking that he'd never allow a woman to scold him like that. But it seemed like Hope was headed down the same road.
He wasn't going to put up with it.
"Put all this stuff back," he told her.
"I will," Hope said. "Once I'm done cleaning it all off."
"Whatever it is, it's clean enough," he said.
Hope's hand's stilled. Slowly, she stood up and faced him, holding an old pair of his boots in his hands. They were still caked with dried mud from early summer storms.
"Really?" she said, arching a brow. "These are filthy."
"They don't bother me," Maddox said with a shrug. As long as the inside of the boots were clean and dry, what the fuck did he care about the outside?
"Well, they bug the hell out of me," Hope shot back. She took the boots to the sink and began scrubbing.
Maddox gritted his teeth in frustration. He filled his lungs, ready to shatter the windows with his voice if he had to—but the scent of lemon and cedar oil stopped him.
He took another look around the cabin. Hope hadn't just cleaned his boots. She'd wiped down every shelf in every cupboard, refolded his shirts and stacked them by color, rearranged his books, organized the screws and nails in little jars, and polished all of his tools.
All the little things that he'd always meant to get around to. All the details he'd missed because there was something more important to take care of.
Annoyingly, Maddox felt his frustration began to dissipate.
Hope brought out plenty of familiar emotions. Lust, anger, vigilance—those were feelings Maddox was accustomed to. He knew how to react to them, how to let them run their course.
But this strange warmth he felt in the pit of his belly right now…Maddox simply had no idea what the fuck to do with it.
He was stuck, standing in the middle of his own house feeling like a goddamn idiot, with no idea what to do next.
Maybe that was why he found himself saying words that had never passed his lips before.
"Thank you."
Hope went still, and Maddox held his breath as he waited to see what she would do next. Slowly, she stood up and faced him, clearly caught off guard.
"You're welcome," she said.
For a moment, their brief exchange hung in the air between them. Didn't say much for their prospects, Maddox thought, that neither of them could come up with more than a couple words.
But then her scent of annoyance drifted away, replaced by respect—a scent that Maddox liked a hell of a lot more.
"I did it as much for me as you," Hope admitted. "As long as I have to be stuck in a one-room shack, I might as well make it as nice as I can."
Maddox bristled at her words. He'd never given a thought to what anyone else might think of his cabin. Why would he? After all, he was the only one who had to live in it.
But that wasn't true anymore. Hope lived here now, and this house was as much hers as it was his.
"You…don't like the place?"
"No." Hope dusted her hands off on her pants. "I mean, it's fine. It's strong and very well built, but…"
Maddox pressed his lips together. He didn't like the way she trailed off. "But what?"
Hope shrugged. "It's just a too rustic." She pointed to a shelf that used to hold his fly tying materials. Now there were three glass jars in different shapes and sizes, each one filled with wildflowers. "See, it's the little things that make a big difference."
Mystified, Maddox searched her face for clues. What things? What was the difference, other than that he had no idea where his fly stuff was now?
She held his gaze with her hands on her hips, her hair hanging in curly waves around her shoulders. Her shirt clung to the curves of her body, revealing the perfect swells of her breasts.
Breasts he'd buried his face in last night…something he wanted to do again. Like right now.
Maddox shifted his feet and tried to re-focus on the conversation. "You want more things?"
"I wouldn't say no to a rug for the floor, or some curtains," she said. "But what I really want is a bathroom."
"There's one right outside."
Apparently, that wasn't the right answer. "How long have you lived here?" she asked.
"Twelve years."
"And in all that time you've never once thought, You know what would be nice? Not having to go outside to pee?"
Honestly, the thought had never entered his mind. "No."
It had clearly entered Hope's, though, because she crossed her arms and shot him her coldest look yet. "Well, I'm not going to make do without indoor plumbing. I don't care if I have to hire the contractor myself."
"What the fuck is a contractor?"
"It's someone you hire to build a house."
Maddox shook his head. More crazy beta shit.
"Why would I hire someone for a job I can do myself?"
"Because it's been twelve years, and you never did it," Hope said, cradling her forehead in her palm. "Okay, let me try this another way. Do all the other houses in the Boundarylands look like this one?"
No, of course not. Maddox hadn't spent a lot of time on other alphas' property, but he'd seen a few. Samson had a decent-sized place. It wasn't a palace by any means, but it was larger than Maddox's. Troy fixed trucks, so he put in a garage a few years back, and he'd heard Kian had built a massive addition for his pups.
But what the hell did any of that matter?
He didn't like the way this conversation was going. Cleaning and organizing his things was one thing, but asking him to build an addition on the house was another. If he agreed to that, soon he'd find himself in Randall's shoes—living in a pointlessly sprawling monstrosity, catering to his omega's whims, and following her orders.
Fuck that.
"Things are fine the way they are," he said and stomped back outside.
* * *
The hell they were!
Hope felt her blood start to heat. Here she'd been thinking they'd turned a corner when Maddox had thanked her —actually thanked her—for working on the place.
She should have known better. Not five minutes later, Maddox was back to dismissing her outright.
Fine.
Hope knew she couldn't change his mind. He was too pig-headed. And there was absolutely no way that she could force him to do a damn thing…but that didn't mean she was powerless.
Gritting her teeth, she snatched one of his flannel shirts off the bed and pulled it over her dress like a jacket. Then she headed for the door.
She hadn't gone two steps before he stopped her, wrapping his hand around her upper arm and holding her in place.
"Where the hell do you think you're going now?" he asked.
She met his gaze with
out flinching. "Down to that bar you were talking about," she said. "I don't care if I have to walk all day and night. I'm going to call the cops about my friends, and hire someone to build me a goddamn bathroom."
Maddox's eyes narrowed. A dangerous intensity fired up their dark depths. Hope knew she should be afraid, but she wasn't. Instead, a now-familiar warmth started in her core and radiated out to every inch of her body.
"No, you're not," he growled, dragging her back inside the house.
Hope tried to wrench her arm away, but he held her fast. "I might be stuck with you as my mate, but that doesn't mean that you can tell me what to do."
Maddox's growl turned into a roar. The waves of sound shook everything in the house, making the crockery stacked on the freshly washed shelves clatter.
In an instant, he picked her up and carried her to the far side of the room. He pressed her back against the wall, cupping her ass as he ground against her. She spread her legs for him almost involuntarily, wrapping them around his waist.
Maddox's gaze held hers, hot and fierce. "You're wrong," he muttered in a voice like iron. "I'm the only one who can command you. And your body listens, whether you like it or not."
He slipped a hand beneath the waist of her pants. Hope gasped as his fingers slipped past her aching clit and plunged into her.
When he removed his hand to show her, his fingers were dripping with slick.
"This is mine," he said before sucking the slick from the tips. "All mine. No one else's. Do you understand?"
Hope nodded before she realized what she was doing. He was right…she couldn't help it.
Despite her anger and her frustration, her desire for him was winning out. Just like it always would, she realized.
Maddox ripped open her shirt, freeing her breasts. He flicked one nipple with his tongue, then drew the other deep into his mouth, sucking with a ferocity that made Hope cry out.
She pivoted her hips against him and felt the sweet friction beneath her soaking wet pants.
"Never talk about another alpha again," he demanded. "You don't need anyone but me. There's no else. Do you understand?"
She nodded again. Frantically this time, even as her fingers tangled in the fabric of his shirt, desperate to peel it from his body. To feel the heat of skin next to hers.
But he didn't want a nod. He wanted her words. "Say it."
"There's no one but you," she whispered.
No one had ever made her feel the way Maddox did. No one had made her feel so alive. So vital. So important.
As if she was the only thing holding him together.
Then they were kissing. Hope could taste what it cost Maddox to try to explain things to her. He was primed to act, not talk.
But he was filled with conflict. That, too, she tasted in the brutal kiss, his frustrated groan.
Hope knew that Maddox didn't want to want her this much. Didn't want to be filled with jealousy when she brought up another alpha's house or threatened to ask another alpha for help.
Hope understood because she felt it too. She hadn't chosen any of this. She'd won her freedom and planned for a life of her own.
But somehow, all her plans fell to pieces the moment Maddox touched her. He was the only thing that mattered. The only thing that was real.
Hope clawed at his pants, hungry to free his cock. To stroke it and feel the weight of it in her hands.
Maddox's tone changed, his groan becoming a growl of approval, and he set her down just long enough to pull her pants down. And then she was up against the wall again, the tip of his massive cock pressing against her pussy.
"Mine." He growled one last time before entering her with one insistent thrust.
Hope howled in pleasure, her body accepting him totally.
He rode her without mercy, hard and fast, until she was screaming to the rhythm he set. Orgasms came and went like waves. One after the other, until Hope lost count. Until she lost track of time and rational thought, and simply gave in to the barrage of bliss.
And when his knot swelled, she let finally let go of her old life.
Chapter Eleven
Hope's head was pounding.
So was every inch of her body. In fact, even the mattress was shaking with a rhythmic thunk thunk.
What the hell?
She forced her eyes open and sat up in the bed. Sure enough, she hadn't been imagining anything. The floor itself was vibrating. But this wasn't an earthquake. It was too steady and constant.
It had to be Maddox. He was the only person she knew who had the stamina to pound on something that long and that hard.
Just like he did to her. Hope's cheeks heated at the thought.
She had no idea what he was doing out there. She only wished he could have waited just a little longer before getting started.
Hope had always been an early riser. You had to be when you were responsible for making breakfast for six children and two adults. But after a night like the one she'd had, she could have used a little extra sleep.
She had no idea what time she'd finally fallen asleep. She'd been consumed with round after round of lovemaking.
They hadn't stopped once they were done against the wall. Oh, hell no. They'd gone from the wall to the bed to the porch, where Hope had ridden him under a blanket of stars.
All she knew was that at some point, Maddox had carried her back to bed.
Somewhere in the marathon session, something had broken between them. They weren't just fucking. They were communicating in a way they couldn't with words.
Before, whenever they talked, they always ended up shouting.
But their bodies knew better.
Their natures knew how to ask for what they needed. How to give it in return.
It was almost enough to make Hope forgive Maddox for his macho demands.
Or at least it would have been if he hadn't woken her up with this incessant pounding.
She threw back the covers and crawled out of bed. For a second, she considered grabbing a cast-iron skillet to knock him out with but figured the momentary satisfaction wasn't worth breaking the fragile peace they'd formed.
When she stepped out onto the patio, she expected to see him tossing boulders or chopping down every tree on his property.
But instead, he was hammering posts into the ground next to the side of the cabin. No wonder it had been so loud—some of them were only inches from the building's foundation.
"What are you doing?" Hope asked.
Maddox glanced up at her between blows. As usual, he looked like an angry god of myth, all sculpted flesh and straining muscles.
"My omega wants a bathroom," he said. "So, my omega gets a bathroom."
Hope was dumbfounded. Her mouth hung open as she blinked. Not in a million years would she have guessed that this was what he'd been working on out here so early.
But he clearly wasn't lying. Hope looked around and took in a pile of the lumber at his feet, freshly cut and smelling of sawdust, the can of shiny nails, the unopened bag of cement. He was really doing this.
For her.
Something inside Hope gave way. The protective wall she'd started building as a child began to collapse.
No one had ever made anything for her—just for her—before. Her parents had been too wrapped up in the church to focus on their children. That had been Hope's job. She'd been the one tasked with making sure that her siblings' needs were met. She was the buffer between them and the disappointment of their parents' neglect.
Everything Hope had ever owned was a castoff, from her clothes to her bed to her Bible. Even after she'd left the church behind, she'd had to make her own way in the world. Create her own happiness.
At least her childhood had taught her how to make a meager paycheck stretch. She knew how to thrift and budget. She was used to mending tears instead of buying new clothes. She could make rugs out of rags and polish the scars out of second-hand furniture.
But watching someone create something with their ba
re hands just for her felt overwhelming…tender to the point of pain.
For the first time, when she looked at Maddox, she didn't see a scowling alpha who was powerful enough to tear her in half if he wanted to. She didn't see the differences in their size or strength or nature.
She saw him as a man. An incredibly sexy alpha who cared about her. Who wanted to satisfy her needs. And not just in his bed.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one who'd felt the shift in their relationship. Maddox was meeting her halfway. He was building her a private room—one he didn't give a damn about—all because he wanted her to be comfortable.
Hope rushed from the patio to his side. Maddox put down the sledge and took her into his arms.
"Thank you," she said, squeezing him as tightly as she could.
But Maddox wasn't content with a simple hug. He lifted her up against his chest, supporting her with his strong hands on her hips. Hope's feet dangled above the ground as his mouth met hers, hungry and hard.
His tongue swept over her lower lip, demanding entry into her mouth. Without thought, Hope obeyed, tangling her fingers in his thick dark hair.
One of his hands swept up the length of her spine, while the other dove down to cup her ass. Hope moaned in approval.
Yes. This was what she wanted. Even though it had only been a few hours since the last time she'd taken him inside her, she still craved more. She always would. It would never be enough.
Far too soon, Maddox pulled back, breaking the kiss. Hope tried to nudge him forward again, but his body was like solid steel, refusing to budge.
His chin cocked up an inch. His nose lifted into the breeze, and for a second, his black eyes narrowed.
Then he threw her to the ground.
The impact jarred Hope's spine. The air in her lungs left in a rush, leaving her gasping.
What the—
Maddox's body crashed on top of her, his weight crushing her, making breathing impossible. She struggled as hard she could against him, but it was no use.
"Be still," he growled against her ear. His command was so powerful that even though she was desperate for breath, Hope couldn't help but comply.
Maddox (The Boundarylands Omegaverse Book 4) Page 8
