by Aliyah Burke
“Well that’s just it, son. We’re seeing that she’s not even reading these. From what we can tell, she sees a preview line and moves all of them to a folder. She’s not opened them to fully know how these have escalated.”
“Have you told Agatha?”
Ray cocked an eyebrow at him. “I’m crazy for Aggie but I’m not crazy, Sam. What she saw months ago was enough for her to call me, and those threats were tame compared to these later ones. No, Agatha need not see them. I’d fear that she would be both upset with me and Madelyn for keeping them from her. But we need to figure out a plan of how we’re going to handle this freak.”
“I’m in deep, Ray. I really care about her. Maddie’s a good lady, fun, sweet.” He laughed with chagrin staring down at his boots. He ran a hand through his hair. “She causes me to have a primal reaction -- protection and a fierceness. I can’t explain it.”
“My dear, boy…” Ray looked at him with a gentle smile. “I’ll explain it to you: you’re falling in love with her.”
***
Sam tried to stay focused on his job. He ran some of his typical errands -- post office to mail signed books to fans, computer store to pick up more ink cartridges, grocery store for healthy lunch food. And the entire time he pondered Ray’s proclamation.
What did he know about love? Had he known Maddie long enough to care about her like that? He wanted her with a drive he’d never known before -- but he assumed it was due to her being a client and not mixing business with pleasure.
He headed back to Maddie’s. He still needed to trace a few more the IP addresses associated with the stalker’s email. The stalker wasn’t ignorant. Each address so was far hijacked from unknowing middlemen.
As he brought his bags into the kitchen, he heard a noise.
Going into SEAL alert mode, Sam slowly scanned the rooms ahead of him, hearing water. He realized someone was in the seldom-used pool. He moved to the double doors behind the kitchen.
Sam stood mesmerized behind the partially open blinds, watching Maddie’s strokes part through the pool’s topaz surface with grace and laziness. He was unable to take his eyes off her arms as they rose and fell over her head.
He was still standing there several minutes later when she methodically climbed up the stairs, hips swaying in a feminine gesture as old as time. She stood drying herself. He was transfixed by her robust caramel body in the simple black one-piece bathing suit.
Sam was a big man, and he liked a woman who was healthy in size -- and in sexual appetite. Now that he was older, he also needed some brains. A lot of brains. He was too old for that love ‘em and leave ‘em crap, and craved a woman who was after the same kinds of things he wanted: family, home, traditions they’d create together, vacations with a tribe of his own. Ten years ago that definitely wasn’t the case, but since leaving active duty – and maybe because of the things he’d seen during that duty -- he was singing a different tune.
Maddie had the body of a goddess. The kind of goddess who beckoned him. He could picture her growing big with his seed. Where the hell had that primal thought come from??
Sam shook his head out of his reverie. Maddie stared at him. He didn’t even realize he’d stepped out through the door to get a closer look at her swimming.
Her hands slowed in toweling her hair. She saw a tent at his crotch, and not being shy, Maddie looked Sam up and down with blatant sexual interest.
Sam shook his head again. He closed his eyes, and tried to clear the sexual energy from his big head so it would hopefully affect his smaller head.
Maddie watched Sam watching her. Unease and insecurity began to wash over her.
“You know, I can easily add workouts to your schedule.” Looking somewhere over the top of her hair, he started counting backwards from 1000 in his head, employing military stall techniques to get his body back into sync with his brain.
“Oh, umm not necessary. It’s fine. I just swim to help me think...but umm.” Maddie flustered, rambling on, “I know I need to lose about 30 pounds and tone up. All that sitting all day doesn’t help me, and my eating habits…” She trailed off, pulling the towel she gripped in her hand tightly around her body, shielding herself from any further scrutiny.
He looked at her, incredulous at her excuses. “Maddie…” he stepped forward, erection be damned. “Trust me, your ah, your curves, aren’t an issue.” Sam cleared his throat. He dipped his heads down to capture her wandering eyes. “I’m just advocating for health, m’kay? That’s what’s most important. Sedentary lifestyles -- which writers naturally have -- aren’t good for the heart or the muscles, or even for your bones. A little exercise and toning will work wonders for you.”
Sam was pinning her in place with those green eyes. She stood frozen, looking up and him and wondering if he was sincere, questioning his motivation if he was giving her the truth. His gaze dropped to her chest, fixing on her nipples, straining against the black suit.
Maddie wanted his hands on her and for Sam to kiss her like he had earlier that afternoon. She wanted to pick up where they left off, tasting him and dueling with that tongue. Unconsciously she felt herself swaying toward him, urging him on in that ancient dance of mating and desire.
Sam’s eyes found hers again. He took a small step forward, closing the gap between them. His hands easily landed on her full hips, the tips of his fingers touching her skin at the top of the high cut swimsuit legs.
Her eyes searched his face, gaze going back and forth between his lips (Those lips!) and his eyes.
“I work for you.” Sam tried to capture their sanity.
“Uh huh.” She licked her lips as his head came closer.
“We got interrupted earlier. I won’t be able to stop once I start.”
“Who’s stopping you?” His mouth was a hair away from hers.
“I’m just making sure you know what yo…”
“Sam?” she murmured.
“Hmmm?” he breathed out a moan as her breath tickled his chin.
“Shut up and kiss me.” She closed the gap between them, her mouth on his, her hands resting on his chest.
Sam’s lips poured over Maddie’s, nibbling, taking, lapping. She moaned deeply as his tongue swept through marking her with his taste.
“Damn, girl,” he made his way down her jaw, then down to her neck, licking a path back up to her ear.
Maddie felt her knees give out, and she leaned more heavily into Sam’s warm, strong body, her arms wrapping around his waist. Her heart hammered in her chest. Her breathing was labored, as she moved to capture his mouth away from her collarbone.
This time Sam moaned, and took their kiss to new heights. He was hungry for the feel of her, for her to touch him, for her to surround him. He wanted to be in her. He stopped and his green eyes looked into her brown ones.
“Bedroom.”
***
Maddie felt the insistent drive to have Sam between her legs, and she wanted to feel him. She grabbed at his belt and snap, unzipped his pants, and pulled open his briefs to see the object of her sexual speculation. Sam’s breathing increased in her ear as he nibbled on her lobe, his hands pulling the bathing suit straps from her shoulders, trapping her arms, baring her breasts. He sucked in a breath, pulling back to look as his fingers discovered her large, dark nipples. The contrast of their skin was erotic to her eyes -- and the way he was gazing at and touching her, she thought he felt the same.
Maddie had a bit of a complex about her nipples. Despite having wonderfully large breasts, she wore padded bras to hide her equally proportioned nipples through her clothes.
“Ummmmm... they’re like ripe raspberries. I love them,” he murmured taking one into his mouth, laving at the pert sensitive tip, before filling his mouth with more of her breast and sucking.
Her doubts melted away at his words and actions, and she moaned with passion, her hand moving rapidly over his dark blond hair, and the other stroking his length through his jeans.
His head moved to her
other breast as his hands began peeling the swimsuit down her hips and over her ass. His large hands ensconced a globe in each palm. He squeezed her tightly, pulling her closer to him as he began moving his tongue down between her breasts and over her stomach. Maddie could only moan in ecstasy, her hands grabbing at his ears and holding him closer.
He travelled down to that part of her that was weeping for his attention. Sam kissed the soft skin on the inside of her thighs, working his way up to her apex and circling the sensitive bud causing ecstasy to flow over her.
“Oh my … Oh Sam… Oh… don’t. Don’t. Don’t stop!”
His tongue continued to swirl around her epicenter, her tremulous reaction garnering a unexpected pride and possessiveness in him. He licked his way back up her pelvis, stomach, breasts, to her mouth. He delved against her tongue, taking and sucking and letting her know how desirable she was to him. “Now. I’m taking you now. I’ve been wanting you, needing to be in you. There’s no turning back.”
Sam pulled back, and quickly stripped while she watched with hooded eyes, suddenly shy with her desire for him. When he stood before her proud and strong, he took her breath away. He watched her reaction, her eyes widening, the light in them reflecting her approval of his body. He pulled a packet from his wallet, and sheathed his length, his eyes barely leaving hers. He stalked towards her, and she lay back on the bed, waiting for his ministrations.
“This first time, it’s going to be fast but I’ll make it up to you, babe.” He watched as her breasts rose and fell with her rapid breathing. He put her legs over his shoulders and slide into her wetness with one smooth move. Maddie’s breath hitched, as she accepted his girth into her body. Sam began a steady, forceful pace of loving her, and Maddie began to meet his thrusts as they moved in synchronicity. She began squeezing his shaft, causing him to close his eyes, concentrating to stave off his explosion so she could join him. “Darlin’, you can’t do that to me and expect me to last long! I want you to come first or with me.”
Maddie looked up into those lush green eyes and began to feel an eruption in the core of her body upon hearing his tender words. Her eyes slide closed as the feeling of being possessed overwhelmed her as Sam moved faster to meet her in ecstasy.
“With me. With me, Mads. Withhhhh me… now!” he groaned as his head collapsed to her breasts, his hips still pumping into her womb with the last of his ejaculation.
Sam took a few deep breaths, loving the feel of Maddie against him, underneath him. His head popped up to look at her face. She lay there, eyes closed with a smile on her face. His laugh started low in his belly, and he curled his arms around her and rolled them to their sides, alleviating his weight on her.
“That good, huh darlin’?” He grinned at her.
Maddie’s eyes lazily opened, focusing on him, grin still fixed on her face. “That was amazing,” she sighed in satisfaction. She reached out and traced his scruffy jawline. Sam turned and kissed her fingertips.
“Yes, you were.” His smile twinkled into his eyes. “We were.” Sam leaned in to sip at her swollen mouth. He felt himself begin to grow hard again, still deep in Maddie.
She met his gaze when he pulled back, her eyes widened in surprise.
“See, I can’t get enough of you, Mads.”
“I feel that.” She squeezed him a little. “I’m not sure I have it in me to go again right now…” she laughed nervously.
“No, you have me in you, ready to go again, “Sam teased. “Get ready for another ride, darlin’ And he dove in to kiss her.
-- Read more about Maddie and Sam, and Agatha and Raymond, in the completed novella, Between the Lines by newcomer Callie Fletcher, available this fall.
THE MEND
Cordelia Michelsen
Copyright © Cordelia Michelsen
2017
All Rights Reserved
Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or shared by an electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without proper written permission from the author.
Two broken people, who share a connected past. Their issues soon become a tangled web when they are thrown together under odd circumstances, to carry out the restoration of an inherited lake house. What neither of them expected was the restoration of their souls after so many years spent lost and alone. Follow the epic love story of Shaye and Abe in The Mend.
DEDICATION
To my human, if it weren’t for our entangled mess of issues this book wouldn’t exist.
There are six very simple words that say it all…
I got you, you got me.
Xoxo
MUSICAL INSPIRATION
Songs that touched my heart which coincide with certain chapters.
Feel free to check them out on Spotify.
https://open.spotify.com/user/cordelia_michelsen/playlist/5xAiiu6tbOBDI1UB6qQ4cL
“I Wanna Get Better”- The Bleachers (Chapter 1)
“Brown Eyed Girl”– Van Morrison (Chapter 1)
“Issues”- Julia Michaels (Chapter 2 – The hang-over)
“Say You Won’t Let Go”- James Arthur (Chapter 3 – The Watering Hole)
“Mercy”- Shawn Mendes ( Chapter 3 - Audience of insecurities)
“Remedy”- Adele (Chapter 4 - Sunrise)
“I Will Never Let You Know”- Nashville Cast, Claire Bowen, Sam Palladio (Chapter 4 - The Park)
“No Ordinary Love” - You+Me. Rose ave. (Chapter 4 – Detour)
“No One” – Alicia Keys (Epilogue)
PROLOGUE
I have lived my entire life as a fake. I know what you’re thinking, people should be genuine and real, but that’s not me. I was taught, no wait, make that trained, early on to smile and appear full of life on the outside, when that couldn’t have been further from the truth. I was broken inside.
The gory details of my childhood don’t need to be rehashed. All you need to know is that when the people you trust the most turn out to be monsters behind closed doors in ways you could never imagine, that changes you as a person. But then again, so do those around you when it’s swept under the rug. I’m talking about obliterating what you know to be true, neat and orderly, just enough so that the rug lies perfectly over the dirt hidden underneath. But none of that matters. What’s done is done, I’m an adult, I control myself, my environment, and my non-existent emotions.
To be honest, I’ve blocked most of that shit out and found my own way. I was the good girl to those I needed to impress. But to anyone else who knew me, I was “that girl,” the pretty girl who wanted to have a good time with no strings attached.
There was no way that I would ever let anyone in. Trust in anyone other than myself, which at times was questionable, was not happening.
I did what I did best to get by. I hid behind my smile and my talent. After high school I took off to New York for college because theater was my life. I did what everyone else who finally left the nest did, I fucked around and had nothing to show for it other than notebooks full of stories.
If it wasn’t for my old roommate Casey sneaking into my room and trying to pass off one of my stories as her own in her writing class (You may want to be sure and read the actual work you are stealing because maybe the author’s name just might appear at the beginning of the story) and being outed by her professor, who realized that Casey actually couldn’t write for shit, I might never have stuck my neck out.
The next thing I knew, a publishing company was interested in my work. So, like I said, if it wasn’t for Casey I wouldn’t be where I am today. Thanks?
I have ten novels, most of which have all been on The New York Times Best Sellers List and there is some interest in screenwriting for my most recent work. Who would have t
hought that Shaye Mitchell would ever become a household name? Well, sort of.
Shaye is just my pen name; my given name is Alison Shaye Mitchell. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not famous, but it pays my bills and I have somewhat of a following.
It’s been six months since my fingers have flown across my keyboard and I’m starting to lose my shit. Writer’s block is like a common cold at first, but can blow up into a full-on flesh-eating disease if you let it. My publisher is on my ass to produce something, anything, and my lease on my apartment is up. So when I got the call that my late grandmother’s lake house needed renovations and that someone from the family, which would be me, needed to be there, before it could be sold, suddenly I had a Plan B.
That was exactly what I needed. Three months hidden away upstate to clear my head and somehow get my mojo back, but I had no idea that I would get more than I bargained for. Instead, I found Abe with my heart in his hands.
FROM: shayewrites
TO: Chelsea
SUBJECT: CHAPTER 1
“NOTHING SAYS WELCOME HOME LIKE THE SMELL OF LILACS AND A GREAT ASS …”
“I still can’t believe you’re leaving New York,” my agent’s voice blared like a foghorn through the empty room in what used to be my overpriced, trendy, Lower East Side apartment. I laughed casually as I held my phone closer to my face so she could hear me.
