My heart stops. “Well, he’s just quite the little player, isn’t he?”
I look at Sayler and her wide eyes. She looks like a terrified bunny. That’s cute. Poor thing. “Gabby, we did not have sex. I swear. Riggan was there. He reminded Maddox of sex with you when Riggan told me to ask him to come in me where Maddox could hear. Said you used to have blonde hair. Maddox was angry. It was mostly payback to Riggan. Shit. I’m not helping.” Her eyes gloss over. “I promise I don’t have feelings for Maddox. I never have. We’re just friends. Please don’t be mad at me.”
I laugh out and give her a hug, disregarding the fact that we’re topless. “Oh, my God. Stop it.”
“Uh, ladies, are we gonna piss off the Hulk and Godzilla or what? They weren’t far behind me. I gave Maddox the last of the weed to take a piss.”
Presley walks toward Konnor and digs in his pocket, pulling out his phone. “I have a better idea,” she says, kissing him. “We’re going to have a little fun with him. He played with Sayler. Gabby gets to touch someone in the house. What’s fair is fair. Sayler, take the photo.”
Sayler grabs the phone. “Wouldn’t fair be me letting her touch Riggan?”
“Riggan is too uptight. Konnor knows how to have fun and then leave it behind. Maddox isn’t threatened by Riggan. He’s threatened by Konnor. Him and Gabby have a personal relationship.”
She grabs my hand and pulls me in front of Konnor, turning me around to face him, my pelvis brushing against his crotch. My eyes widen. This feels way more sexual than any time me and him were alone and joking around. Even the night Presley walked in felt more like a setup than this. “Pres, you tryin’ to get me killed? What are you doing? I was talking about tit pics.”
She smirks at him. “Let’s just say this is me gifting you back after Ryland.”
“I don’t need payback. I don’t even think about that anymore.”
She rolls her eyes at him. “My God, Konnor. Relax. You’re supposed to be the fun one. I’m telling you it’s fine. I’m right here. I got your back. I’m getting in the photo too. I’m not going to get mad at you if you get hard against her. It’s science. It doesn’t mean you’re cheating on me. No one will see this but the ones in the house.” She walks up beside me and positions me so that my breasts are on one side of his body while she gets on the other side. “Leg between his, Gabby.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or blush, and that says a lot for me. Not much rattles me anymore. I do as she says and push my thigh between his. She shoves her hand down his pants and starts rubbing him. “Jesus,” he says, and within seconds I can feel his dick.
She grabs my hand and wraps it around her body, positioning it on her boob. I move the other one around his waist. “Now grab an ass in each hand and hurry up.”
My breathing gets heavier when he does, surprising me by clenching a cheek tight in his grip. Presley runs her hand through the back of his hair, forcing his head down. “Now kiss us both.”
Within seconds three mouths connect, Presley instigating it, and suddenly the awkwardness leaves and it’s just lips tugging lips, skimming and brushing and rubbing occurring, a tongue slipping in here and there, but whose it is I don’t know. Ragged breathing lingers between each pullback, until many moments later, when Sayler says, “I got it.”
I pull away, somewhat feeling like I just kissed my brother and a little weirded out by it. He smiles at me, probably because my nose is scrunched. “Totally get that sister comment now.”
He laughs as he wraps his arms around Presley, pulling her close. “I tried to tell you. Maddox never has to know.”
Presley laughs. “Did I make things awkward for you two?”
“Maybe just a little. You have zero to worry about there. Ew.”
“Guys, I sent it in a group video,” Sayler says.
“On that note, might wanna suit up,” I tell them, already walking in the closet and grabbing the first matching swimsuit that looks like it’ll fit. “You’re about to see a side of Maddox you’ve never seen. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Fourteen
Maddox
“Where the hell is Konnor? I thought he was coming back to finish this weed. I don’t really want it.”
“Knowing him he went to piss and ended up fucking his wife. Just finish it. Or save it.”
I dab it out on the bedliner side of my let-down truck tailgate I’m sitting on and hop down, shutting the tailgate of my Ford Raptor. My phone vibrates in my pocket. Riggan pulls his out at the same time I do. “Did you get a video from Konnor?”
“Yeah,” Riggan says.
I open it and it starts to play. When I realize exactly what it is I’m looking at, every bone in my body goes rigid. Not a damn muscle is relaxed. My chest expands like someone shooting air underneath my skin. My arms bow out. I’m so mad I feel possessed. Tattooed arm wrapped around her. Hand clenching her ass. Lips on her fucking lips. I’m going to kill him.
“You’re too calm.” I take off toward the garage. “Maddox.” Footsteps come up quick behind me and a hand grips my shoulder. “Calm the fuck down.”
I jerk out of his hold and throw my phone at the brick as hard as I can, shattering it. Nothing but a blur of red is there with every blink. I can’t think about anything but tearing him apart. With each exhale comes a growl and every word ends on a roar. With every head twitch more rage engulfs me. I’ve never felt more like an animal in my own body than now. “I’ve warned every fucking one of you. I’m done. One goddamn trigger. One. Get out of my line of fire.”
I rush forward and bolt through the door. Before I can even think of which direction to go, I’m coming into Konnor and Presley’s room and his neck is in my hand against the wall, my teeth bared and veins pumped so full of testosterone and adrenaline I feel like a damn junkie. My name is shouted around the room. “Hit me,” he taunts. “You know you want to. Those girls seem worth it now?”
“I’m going for blood, motherfucker. Then I’m going to beat you with your own goddamn limbs.”
An arm comes around my neck and jerks back. “That’s enough. You’re out of control.” I drive forward swinging. He pulls back harder. It becomes a tug-o-war. I inhale more strength and gain a foot. “Maddox, stop.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him.” My body throttles forward.
“Gabby! Calm him the fuck down. I can’t hold him much longer. He’s stronger than everyone here.”
A body mounts the front of my body and a hand grips my chin. My chest is heaving so hard it’s starting to ache. Dark eyes. I focus on them. “Stop, Maddox. Your face is blood red.”
“I told you I was fucking done,” I grit. “I warned you at the bar. Everybody keeps pushing me and testing me. I’m not watching another motherfucker lay his hands on you, Gabby, or look at parts of your body that are mine. You’re about to earn someone a cracked spine.”
“Were you going to tell me about you hooking up with Sayler? Or is it okay for you to do it but not me? Huh? How many more, Maddox? I don’t play that bullshit and you know it. I’m a tit for tat kind of bitch.”
Another round of anger pushes through and I jerk forward. Riggan pulls me back again. “That’s no one’s goddamn business but ours. It had nothing to do with me and her. That was between me and Riggan. It always comes back around to you.”
“I love you,” she says, melting away some of my anger. “You better be fucking done.”
“So fucking done,” I tell her. The second her lips come down on mine and my hands grip onto her ass, Riggan lets go of me, and out of my peripheral vision, unable to completely look away from her, I find my way out of the room and navigate to mine. If I don’t suspend some of this energy the walls are going to have holes.
Riggan
I shake my head as Maddox leaves the room, sweating from holding his big ass back. He has a large frame with nothing but solid, work-made, cornbread fed muscle. He has more strength in one arm than probably me and Konnor put together. The girls are on the
bed in bikinis and Konnor is standing by the wall with a smile on his face, surprisingly. Little shit. “Have you lost your damn mind? Jesus. I’m getting too old for this shit. Never underestimate the nice guys. You’ve never seen him fight. If he gets on you, you won’t get him off.”
“Uh, Riggan, that was my bad. Not Konnor’s. It was seriously a joke,” Presley says. “I had no idea he was hiding that side.”
“For the love of God, no one touch Gabby!” I point at Konnor. “You, no jokes for a few days. Let it blow over. There was no such thing as Gabby and guy friends. He has to figure that shit out, because you and her are already a thing. He’s a damn bear. Do not provoke him. Do you understand? Next time you can learn the hard way.”
He laughs. “Scouts honor.”
“Give me a pair of shorts. We can go to the pool. I’m not going upstairs for a little while.”
He walks to a drawer and tosses me a pair. “Now go get the damn alcohol. Princess wants drunk sex later and I’m not punishing her for your fuck-up. Your ass is going to drink too and think about what you did or I’m cutting your tattoo session tomorrow.”
He laughs again, already making his way toward the kitchen as I walk into the guest bathroom to change. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only damn adult around here.
Gabby
I get down and run up the stairs to the second floor, Maddox on my heels, but when I get halfway up the staircase between the second and third floor, he wraps his arm around my waist and jerks me back. With my balance offset I go down, my hands catching me on the step. My knee hits the wood. “Dammit, Maddox.”
I put my foot down to stand back up, but he comes down over me in a straddle, caging me in, and then jerks his shirt off. “You’re going to learn when to stop pushing me.”
“What are you going to do? Ground me? Put me in timeout? I’m not the innocent fourteen-year-old with the big bad eighteen-year-old anymore.” He laughs manically, already unbuckling his belt. Then his zipper sounds. He shoves his pants low. “What are you doing? Let’s go to the bedroom. This is uncomfortable.”
“Hell no, Gabby. You wanted an animal, you got one. I’m going to fuck you like one too.”
He jerks my swimsuit bottom over my ass and shoves it down to my thighs. Seconds later his head is pushing and rubbing at my entrance. He thrusts forward, his large size filling me completely. “Shit.”
He leans over my back, placing his palms on the wooden step beside mine for leverage, making sure I’m good and uncomfortable, and then he lets me have it, his pelvis striking my ass so hard I’ll have a bruise there. He’s done it before. I whine with every harsh thrust as he stretches me to his size. “You like pissing me off so I’ll punish you with my cock? Knowing I’ll feel guilty about it after for not making love to you in a bed like you deserve.”
I clench around him, getting wetter by the second, and closing my mouth to hold in the long, uncontrollable moans. He comes at me harder, faster, shoving me forward on the stairs. “I like all of you,” I whisper.
“Yeah?” He grabs the triangle of my top and jerks it over until my boob is exposed, rubbing my nipple in a harsh manner. His other hand comes between my legs until his finger is pressed on my clit, knowing when he starts to stroke me fast and hard I’ll push my ass into him. “My baby likes being fucked like a whore on the stairs?”
He is two different people with sex. Sinner and saint. Good and bad. Dirty and clean. It never gets old. I’ve missed this. I didn’t want to have sex with someone else because I knew I’d already had the best. “Yes,” I say, already coming.
He bites my ear. “You ready to take my cum?” I nod. “When I’m done with you it’s going to be coating every wall of that tight pussy, layered on those pretty little lips of yours, and running down your thighs. You’re going to smell like me.” I moan. He reaches down and laces his hands on the back of mine and speeds up again, slapping sounds filling the narrow staircase. “Now kiss me, bitch.”
When I turn my head to give him my mouth, he strikes against my G-spot, making me come a different way this time, our lips grazing and licking and sucking each other’s, and he finally presses hard against me, making me take it deep.
He starts rubbing his lips side to side over my cheek. “I love you. Don’t give my shit away. If I can’t have you no one will.”
A shiver runs down my spine with such a dangerous threat. “That’s a two-way street, baby.”
He runs his hand over my butt cheek, squeezing and kneading, and then continues up until it’s gripped around a boob, leaving chills in every place he touches. Regardless of how rough he is in sex, he always worships my body after. He smiles against my cheek. “Yes, I’m well aware I fell in love with a crazy bitch. I wouldn’t want her any other way. Now get your ass in the bed so I can love you right,” he says, and quickly pulls out of me to give me a head start.
I smile, not wasting any time. Fifty percent bad, fifty percent good. One hundred percent perfect.
Fifteen
Maddox
“Why are you staring at me?” she says groggily, her eyes still closed, making me smile from where I’m lying on my side on my edge of the bed. If I scoot over any more I’ll fall off. She’s sprawled out on her stomach with her arms and legs spread wide, pushing me into a small sliver of space, reminding me how much of a bed hog she is. I’ll gladly take a damn corner if it means I get to sleep with her. I’m still trying to make myself believe she’s really here, and that I can actually wake up beside her without us having to lie and sneak around to stay the night with each other.
“How do you know I’m staring at you if your eyes are closed?”
She opens one eye, confirming she’s right. “Every time I’ve stayed the night with you I’ve woken up to you staring at me.”
“Most of the time it was because I couldn’t sleep, scared I wouldn’t sneak you back home in time.”
She finally blinks her eyes open. “That was so long ago.”
“It ended too soon for me.”
“I know. Me too. Anything less than forever will never be long enough with you. If we hadn’t gotten so comfortable and tired of being secretive we probably could have made it longer, like a year. We got pretty close.”
“I was tired of feeling like it was just sex with you. Hiding all the damn time. Lying to everyone. Pretending I was single around people my age to avoid questions. Driving to another town to take you on dates and shit like you were my side piece. I wanted you to be my girl in public just like you were in private. But looking back, had I known I’d lose you altogether, I would have just kept things the way they were.”
She grabs the wrist that has her name tattooed on the inside and kisses the ink. “When did you get this?”
“The first time Riggan came to stay for a weekend after I moved in with my brother. He did it at the kitchen table. Micah forced me to ask a girl out from school to try to move on and make a new circle of friends. I hated it. The whole night she tried to talk to me and flirt and all I could think was she wasn’t you. I guess it served a purpose. I knew then I’d never be able to give another girl that part of me. I was emotionally unavailable.”
Her eyes well up. “How long were you gone?”
“I lived with Micah for two years before I packed my shit. He’d gotten me a job and all with him after I graduated making good money—pipeline work. I’d already been coming back for band stuff here and there. He could tell I wasn’t happy but still tried to talk me out of it. He’s making bank now; told me to stay with it and he could easily get me promoted. I saved a shit-ton of money I’m still sitting on, but I couldn’t take it anymore. My friends were back home. You were back home. I couldn’t touch you without going to jail but being close was easier than being in another state. Dad only agreed to let me move back if I worked with him where he could keep an eye on me and make sure I stayed away from you. Then Abby died. Riggan needed me. I guess it was just meant to be.”
“I remember hearing about that. It was
awful.”
“Yeah. He went nuts. I was always worried about what he’d do next. There were times we couldn’t find him for days or weeks at a time. It helped me deal and keep my mind off our shit, I guess. He has Sayler now, though. He’s finally in a good place.” Last night plays back through my mind and how I went apeshit on Konnor. “There was nothing going on between me and her, Gabby. I swear. I was pissed off at Riggan because of something shitty he did to me to fuck my mind up over you. It was like some sordid payback because he’s possessive over her. Beyond that, it was more about trust and fixing a friendship that’s been broken for a while. It’s not like you think. Sayler has her own issues that don’t matter enough anymore to sit here and explain it. It’s not my business to share. We just became closer friends from it is all.” Friends . . . “I want to know what the hell is the deal with you and Konnor. We didn’t do guy and girl friends back then. I’m losing my mind over what you were before him and Presley got together.”
She tugs at my arm. “Come here.”
I scoot closer. She turns on her side under the covers, giving me a full-frontal view of everything that’s ever made me hard in a nutshell. I grab her ass and pull her closer until our chests are pressed together. She throws her leg over both of mine. “You know how the clubhouse in my subdivision has a lot of parties and events for the residents and their guests? Just one more thing to make houses there sell for top dollar.”
“Yeah, so . . .”
“Konnor’s parents live in my subdivision. I met him at the New Year’s Eve ball last year, as in two years ago once this New Year’s Eve rolls around. Occasionally I show up at the parties in some cheap dress to embarrass my dad so all the people that know him can go back and tell him I must be crying out for attention and the like. Konnor propositioned me to make it look like we were about to have sex in the bathroom at the end of the night to piss off his date—insert Presley. I mean, I didn’t know her, so what the hell was it to me. He was hot.”
Finding Fate Page 10
