When We Collide

by A. L. Jackson

  The softest hue of pink spread over her creamy skin.

  I watched her face, the modesty in the way she blinked, waiting for my reaction. “You are so beautiful, Maggie.”

  Her expression told me it may have been the first time she believed it.

  I kissed the blush, soothed away her fear of the unknown. A brush of my lips across her belly, gentle fingers in my hair, a soft sigh from her mouth.

  Rising up on my hands and knees, I hovered over her and dipped my head to kiss her mouth. Our tongues danced, slow and long. My lips traveled to the edge of her mouth, her jaw, and down her neck.

  “William.” Her hands fisted in my hair.

  I gently took the rose of her breast in my mouth.

  Maggie’s breath caught. She slid her tentative hands down my neck and shoulders, wandering my body. My muscles twitched and tensed. Nothing had ever felt so right.

  An unknown hunger rippled through me like shockwaves when she ran her hands up the planes of my back and pulled my shirt over my head.

  I leaned back on my knees and hooked my fingers in the sides of her panties. “Are you sure, Maggie? We can’t take this back.”

  Her brown eyes warmed in the moonlight. She touched my cheek. “I will never regret you.”

  Swallowing, I slid off the bed and watched as I peeled them down her legs. My gaze swept up her body, my voice rough when I uttered her name.

  “Hold on a second,” I murmured in quiet reassurance. I hurried to the closet and dropped to my knees. I dug through the duffle bag stuffed in the back corner on the floor. Grabbing the box, I tore it open, realizing how badly my hands were shaking. I glanced back at Maggie who watched me, shy but curious.

  Completely bared to me, she waited, her hair spread out around her face, spilling over her shoulders and onto my sheets, and again, I was hit with awe with what this meant to her—with what this meant to me.

  I smiled softly at her as I stood and made my way back to the bed. I shrugged off my jeans and underwear while watching her for any sign of discomfort, anything that would give me an indication to stop.

  But there was none, just a vulnerable trust alight in her eyes as looked up at me.

  I rolled the condom on and slowly climbed back between her legs.

  She sank back onto the bed as I did, reached for me. She whispered, “William,” as our mouths met.

  She was panting by the time I pulled away, and I snaked my arm behind her back and up her spine to hold her head in my hand, the other propping myself up. “It might hurt.”

  She kissed my neck, trailed her mouth up my jaw, and then rested her cheek against mine as she anchored her fingers in my back. “I know. It’s okay...just...please.”

  Emotion rushed me, love and lust and fear.

  She whimpered when I pushed into her, her eyes squeezed shut, tears gathering at the corners. Her nails dug deep, drawing blood from my flesh.

  I shifted to my elbow, swept her hair away, kissed her tears.

  “Shh...shh...Maggie, I love you...I love you...baby, please don’t cry,” I pled as I brushed my lips across her face, as I urged the tension away, hating that I caused her even an ounce of pain.

  My body burned in restraint as I held her and let the shock pass.

  She released the breath she’d been holding across my face and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her chest to mine. “Love me.”

  I kissed her, loved her. Every touch overflowed with devotion, repressed emotions that could no longer be contained. Our bodies moved as if they knew the other, perfection, the best thing I’d ever known.

  “Maggie.” My breaths came in short gasps, and I wove my fingers through hers, pressed her hand to my lips.

  Maggie.

  This girl who had undone me, tossed me from my foundation, shattered every belief.

  Maggie.

  The only thing I knew.

  “Maggie.”

  I let myself go.

  William ~ Present Day

  I turned back to face Blake where he stood across the room. He was right. I was a coward, but not for the reasons he’d initially believed.

  I was a coward because I ran.

  I never should have gone. Never should have given up. But I’d never lied.

  There was no amount of time that could change what I felt for Maggie.

  Chapter Thirteen

  William ~ Present Day

  I sat on the edge of my bed, facing away from the door when the small knock sounded against it. I didn’t respond, though I wasn’t surprised to hear the sound of it creaking open, the guilty presence emerging behind me. Her short breaths filled the room.

  “Do you mind if I come in?” Grace asked.

  I shrugged, but didn’t look her way.

  “Blake’s really pissed off at me right now.” She said it almost casually as she moved across the small space. She fiddled with the faucet on the kitchen sink, grabbed a sponge and began wiping down the miniature countertop, an obvious distraction from her discomfort. “Guess you probably are too.” This time the words didn’t sound so casual.

  I finally looked over my shoulder at my brother’s wife. “I just don’t get it, Grace. You know me…how could you believe I would have pulled something like that?”

  From behind, I watched as her shoulders sagged, her head drifting lower. Her voice was soft when she spoke.

  “You don’t know what it was like here, after you left. You didn’t come home for Christmas, you stopped calling, made excuses when Blake begged you to come back for the wedding the next summer. I was so angry at you for doing that to him. You hurt him, Will.” She paused, seeming to search for the right words. “Jonathan must have been about five months old the first time I ran into Maggie in town. I swear to God, my heart stopped in my chest. I’d already chalked you up to being an asshole who cared nothing about anyone but yourself. It was easy to add that to it. I tried to talk to her…tried to dig for answers and asked her if she needed help.” Grace peeked over at me. “Of course, she said she was fine. I should have known better than to have even tried.” She blew the air from her lungs.

  I fought against the bitterness and resentment that worked to take hold of my heart. I’d considered Grace a friend—considered her family.

  “Will, I’m so sorry.”

  I nodded, facing away. “So am I.”

  I stepped out the front door of the little guesthouse and into the darkness. The night was suffocating, heavy and dense, the world quiet and still. Breathing in the silence, I stuffed my hands in my jacket pockets and wound around the side of Blake’s slumbering house. Gravel crunched beneath my boots, echoed as isolation as I made my way to the sleepy street and walked to its end.

  Sucking in the cool night air, I took in my surroundings, the town asleep, and gave heed to the longing in my chest.

  Stupid, I knew. Torturing myself this way. But when it came to Maggie, I always had been. Stupid from the moment I’d seen her. It was crazy how, for years, I had lived in denial, pushed it all aside, and it had just taken me coming back for it all to take hold, to take me over. I snorted at myself. More like it had come after me when I’d refused to listen.

  Running a hand through my hair, I contemplated for only a second before I slipped into the darkness behind the lumberyard and into the lush woodland that always seemed alive, no matter what time of year it was. We’d taken this shortcut what felt like a million times, so many of them walked in our own denial, as two people who could never stay away, even though neither of us had been brave enough to give in.

  But for two weeks, she had been mine.

  I passed the immense tree growing just off the worn path. It stretched to the heavens, lost in the canopy overhead. I imagined her pressed up against it, her heart pounding with mine as our worlds spun with desire and laughter and a future we’d been foolish enough to believe we’d have.

  Pushing myself forward, I glided through the trees and underbrush, felt her spirit suck the air from my lungs, the me
mories so thick, I felt as if I could no longer breathe. Just at the edge of our sanctuary, I stood frozen, held captive in the echo that had once been my freedom. This once trampled refuge was now dense and overgrown. With heavy feet, I forced myself forward and folded myself onto the soft, high grasses slicked with dew.

  I thought it might be too much when I leaned against the fallen oak. I could almost feel her resting against my chest, her fingers woven with mine, the freest smile on her face.

  In the calm, I could hear her laugh.

  William ~ September, Six Years Earlier

  I held her, never wanted to let go. Her body burned into mine, the warmth of her bare skin a blanket that covered me whole. So many months had been spent dreaming of this, of what it would be like to make her mine, imagining what it would feel like when I heard those words fall from her mouth. I knew now those dreams meant nothing compared to this truth. Our connection was perfection.

  Maggie shifted closer beneath the covers of my small bed and drew my arm tighter around her. A shiver rolled through her body.

  I buried my nose in the vanilla warmth of her hair, then laid my cheek against hers as I hugged her to me from behind, brushing my lips just under her ear. “Are you okay?”

  She rolled to her back, and I propped myself on an elbow to look down at her. Her eyes swam with affection. I touched her cheek, felt the hint of a smile beneath my skin as she slowly nodded. She swallowed, her gaze wandering over my face. Chewing at her bottom lip, she seemed embarrassed, before she soothed my worry with hushed words.

  “I never imagined it would be that way.”

  I leaned down to kiss her, a gentle brush of my lips against hers. Sliding my hand down, I cupped the back of her neck.

  It was everything that I wanted her to know, that it shouldn’t hurt to be touched, that it was okay to be adored.

  “I love you, Maggie,” I murmured at the edge of her mouth as I wound my fingers through her hair.

  A soft hand wrapped around my neck, and she kissed me back.

  ~

  The next day dragged by at too slow a pace, the hours agony as I silently begged them to pass. Grace and Blake had stayed near me the entire day. I knew Blake was standing guard as my protector, ready for the backlash he was sure was going to come. He continually looked out the front window as if he were expecting an attack.

  Yeah, I had woken this morning with my eye throbbing, the flesh black and blue, but I couldn’t even bring myself to care about Troy or any threat he might make. The only thing that mattered now was Maggie was free—and she was mine.

  It was really hard to find anything negative in the situation when I was just so damned happy.

  I couldn’t wait for the moment when I could sneak from this house to see her again. Anticipation wrapped me tight, thoughts of what tonight would be like now that our walls were down and admissions had been made.

  Grace was curled up on the opposite end of the couch from where I sat. Her knees were bent with her feet on the cushions, her head supported by her hand with her elbow on the back of the couch. She searched me as if she could reach out and pluck the thoughts from my mind.

  “Would you sit still, William? You’re making me nervous. Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.

  I sighed. “I’m fine, Grace…really.” I looked at my brother who pulled back the drape to peer down the road again. Apparently the two read my anxiousness as something else entirely. “Blake, would you just stop? Let the asshole come. I don’t really care.”

  Blake turned around. “You don’t get it, do you, Will? You’ve just created a shit storm, and you’re sitting there acting like it doesn’t matter.”

  I scoffed. I would be happy to take anything Troy brought my way. Welcome it. He hit her, and as far as I was concerned, the broken jaw and fifteen stitches weren’t nearly enough. In the light of day, the really sick part of me wished I’d just finished it.

  “What do you want me to say?” I inclined my head when I spoke. “Because I don’t regret anything about what happened last night.” Not the part Blake knew about and definitely not what happened after.

  “I want you to say you get that Troy isn’t going to let this go. He will find a way to make you pay for what you did.”

  “I’m not twelve, Blake. I don’t need you to protect me anymore.”

  Blake dropped his head and released a small laugh under his breath. “Well, you made that pretty clear last night.” When he looked back up, his expression was once again urgent. “Just lay low until you’re out of here, okay? For me?”

  My nod was pensive. I really didn’t need a reminder that I was only here for two more weeks. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, Blake. I’ll be careful.”

  Just before ten, I slipped out the back door. Impatience quickened my steps—quickened my pulse. I couldn’t wait to see her.

  Mom and Lara had cornered me a couple of hours before, ambushed me with questions about my eye, demanding answers there was no way in hell I was going to give. I’d made up some convoluted story that was barely believable about some guys I’d never seen before at the next town jumping me when Blake and I had stopped for gas. Only after I’d convinced my mom and Lara that I was fine and I’d spent the next two hours listening to them chat over hot tea was I able to escape. I imagined the late hour was my only salvation.

  Besides, I figured this town had enough gossips that either of them could have just asked and they’d find the answers to their questions. As it was, I was wondering why they hadn’t already heard. I guessed since the only ones who had been there last night were Blake and his small group of friends and that fucking coward Troy, no one had uttered a word. A part of me wanted the whole damned town to know what Troy had done, even if it meant I would bear the consequences of it, while the other part of me wanted to protect Maggie from any more shame.

  I tried to push those thoughts aside, told myself, it’s over…it doesn’t matter. Maggie was mine. Now I just had to figure out how to get her out of that house so she’d be completely safe.

  Maggie was already there when I emerged at the outskirts of our refuge. Her head snapped up when she heard me approach, that smile lighting her face when our eyes met. There was no hesitation as I rushed to her. I sank to the ground and pulled her into my arms.

  “Hi,” I mumbled between our frantic kisses.

  Maggie gasped then giggled against my mouth when I spun her and pressed her into the cool grasses.

  “Hi,” she said, grinning when I finally pulled away to let her up for air. The moonlight seeped through the ceiling of leaves and illuminated the joy on her face. That joy faded when she focused on the mark above my eye. She reached out and ran her fingers over it.

  I grabbed her hand and brought her fingers to my lips before she could say anything.

  “It was worth it, Maggie…you’re worth it. I need you to believe that.” I’d do it a million times over if what happened last night had set her free.

  I watched as disbelief and uncertainty twisted her face, and she closed her eyes and seemed to struggle against her past before she nodded her head as if maybe she understood.

  Her eyes fluttered open. “I love you, William.”

  “Do you know how long I have been dying to hear you say that?” I almost teased as I settled myself between her legs and hugged her closer. I felt the heavy breath ease itself from her lungs and her spirit sink into mine as she relaxed beneath me. She smiled at me, her eyes wide and awakened. I loved the way she looked right then, like the girl I’d fallen in love with over the last three months, although now exposed and without the barriers she’d erected between us.

  “I think I’ve known it for a long time,” she finally said, her fingers playing with the hair at the nape of my neck. “I don’t really know why I felt like I couldn’t admit it.” Maggie wet her lips, glanced into the distance before bringing her attention back to me. “I’m scared of this, of finally having something I’ve wanted so badly, but I’m more scared of losing it.
”

  I squeezed her, a gentle encouragement. She was never going to lose me.

  “I’m not a normal girl, William.” When she said it, her eyes burned into mine, as if warning me, giving me an out.

  I brushed the bangs from her face. “You think I don’t know you, Maggie?”

  Yeah, I knew she was broken, knew no matter where she ended up in life, her past would always be there to haunt her, knew she had so much to overcome. But I also knew, underneath it all, she was strong. I saw it in her eyes and felt it in her spirit. I knew she was kind and good, knew she was beautiful. And I knew I was never going to stop loving her.

  “I fell in love with you.”

  A tremor of a smile tugged at one side of her mouth. “I guess that’s the part I really don’t understand.”

  “Maggie,” I said as a whisper as I leaned down to kiss her. I pulled back. “You deserve to be happy.” And I’d do whatever it took to be sure she was.

  Cupping my cheek, she ran her thumb beneath my eye. “You make me happy.”

  I didn’t even try to contain the smile that spread over my face.

  With fall’s approach, the air had cooled, a tepid breeze winding itself through the trees. Leaves rustled, and the Mississippi night hummed low. I thought I might have found paradise when I leaned down to capture her mouth with mine, as our mouths danced in a languid fluidity and I undressed her in this place that was only ours, as I held her in our sanctuary. As I loved her and promised that I always would.

  I dug my fingers in the dirt where I braced myself with one hand. The other was flattened across the small of her back where I held our bodies close. Maggie cried out in a pleasure she had never known, her eyes squeezed shut tight before she opened them wide with shock.

  Her expression would forever be etched in my memory. I was sure it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

  I had spent my life believing I was happy. Satisfied. Until the day Maggie Krieger sent my world careening out of control. I knew then that having her was the only thing that could ever right it.