by J. S. Scott
Breathe, Mia. Breathe. You aren’t dead…yet.
Trying to shake off the momentary paralysis caused by the terror of the fall, she tried to assess the situation. And it wasn’t easy. Hanging perilously, with very little between her and a very long, deadly fall, didn’t exactly help her to clear her head.
“Mia!” Max’s tortured bellow brought Mia back to reality.
Slowly tilting her head, she could actually see Max’s head above hers, the proximity of him comforting. His anguished gaze met hers as she carefully let go of the bush with one hand and reached out her arm. Max lowered his body and reached for her, but there was still too much distance between them.
So close, but not close enough.
“Fuck. I’m coming down,” she heard Max say harshly.
Panicked, she gripped the bush again. “No, Max. Go for help.” The vertical drop would kill anyone who fell. She’d looked down on this view enough times to know there was nothing but rock beneath them. There were very few decent handholds on this rocky cliff, and she was clinging to one of them, the rocks beneath her feet unsteady. “You can’t climb down. You’ll go down. Please.”
Mia no longer cared if she plunged down the cliff, but she could not bear to see it happen to Max.
“Like hell,” Max replied rigidly, swinging his lower body over the edge. “You can’t hang on that long.”
No…she probably couldn’t. The bush was the only thing keeping her on the face of the rocks. The ledge under her feet merely took some of the weight from her arms. “Max! Damn it. Stop.” Seeing him start to carefully descend made her heart skip a beat, the organ stopping for a torturous moment as he found unpredictable footholds.
“You’re not fucking dying here, sweetheart. Not today. Not on any day. I just got you back,” he replied, his voice guttural and raw.
She couldn’t see his face, but he was determined, and at the moment she was cursing his tenacity. “This is crazy. We’ll both die.”
“Nobody. Is. Dying,” Max grunted, moving slowly down beside her, grasping another small branch hanging from the rocks as he came level with her body.
Mia gasped for air, her fear getting the best of her. Max was barely clinging to the rocks, his grip even less stable than hers. Her terrified eyes met his, and his hazel eyes held a liquid fire—a driven, feral, and resolute look that she’d never seen before on his handsome face. “Max. Please.” Tears streamed down her face, her whole body quivering from the knowledge that Max didn’t give a damn whether he died trying to save her sorry ass. She’d gotten them into this situation by stupidly stepping too close to the edge, but Max hadn’t hesitated to come after her. “Stubborn, pigheaded man,” she whispered desperately. “You’re supposed to be the cautious one.”
“Not when it comes to you,” Max answered grimly. “You’re going up, sweetheart.”
“Max. You can’t—”
He put a hand under her ass and hefted her body upward, moving to take her place as he pushed. “Climb, dammit,” he demanded, spotting her from underneath her body.
She wasn’t far from the top, and Max’s stern voice made her scramble to find a hold above him to keep him from falling. One final mighty push from beneath her sent her upper body over the top of the cliff, and she clawed her way over, panting and breathless as she collapsed on solid ground.
She swung her body around awkwardly, hanging her head over the edge of the cliff and gasped as she spotted Max just as the foothold she had been standing on gave way, collapsing beneath his foot. He’d put too much weight on the wobbly rocks when he’d shoved her over the edge, and his body swung insecurely for moment, the longest moment of Mia’s life, until he found purchase again.
Please. Please. Don’t let him die.
She nudged her upper body slowly over the ledge, trying to get closer to him.
“Get your ass back over that edge now,” Max commanded gratingly, finding another handhold and inching his powerful body upward.
Mia inched back, but not much, determined to help Max. “You can grab my hand.”
“Just. Move. Back.” Max’s voice was rough, his powerful body moving up the cliff from pure male strength and stubborn will.
Realizing that her immovable husband wasn’t going to risk pulling her over, Mia moved sideways, leaving him space to launch himself over the edge as he found a foothold to help him mobilize. She grabbed the waistband of his jeans and tugged with all her might as his upper body hit the rim of the cliff.
She gasped as he grabbed her around the waist and rolled, protecting her with his body as they moved away from the edge of the jagged rock wall. He didn’t stop until they hit grass, coming to rest against the trunk of a tree, her body sprawled on top of him.
He got up and pulled her to her feet, his eyes shooting fire. “Are you okay?” he asked abruptly, his hands everywhere on her body at once, checking for injuries.
Mia expelled a pensive breath, her body still shaking. Max was scraped and scratched, but he was all in one piece. “I’m fine. I was just afraid you’d kill yourself. What were you thinking?” she asked, adrenaline firing through her body as she shot him an angry look. “That was a stupid, risky thing to do. Don’t you ever do that again, Maxwell Hamilton. You took at least twenty years off my life and scared the shit out of me.” She punched him in the shoulder. And then did it again, relief coursing through her that she was punching the solid muscle that was Max.
Max picked her up calmly as she continued to punch at him, carrying her flailing body down the incline, stopping about halfway down and setting her gently on her feet. He captured her wrists and pinned her against an enormous tree, subduing her with very little effort.
Her adrenaline still high, she stopped punching at him and started to sob, her fear overtaking every one of her emotions. “What would I do if something happened to you, Max? I couldn’t stand it.”
“I know. That’s how I felt for over two years when I thought you were dead, baby,” Max answered, his voice coarse and raw.
Mia stopped struggling, the truth of the hell Max had really been through hitting her straight in the gut. She’d had a few minutes of agony, wondering if Max was going to die. He’d had over two years of not knowing, thinking she was already dead. She’d been lonely, mourning Max, but at least she’d known he was still alive. “I couldn’t have borne it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” The full force of what Max had suffered filled her with remorse, anguish, and grief.
“I don’t care about the past anymore, Mia. I care about us now. If I have you now, nothing else matters. I get that you were trying to protect me. I get that you didn’t know what else to do. I contributed to the whole mess with my own fucked-up way of handling everything. Let it go. Right now I need to be inside you,” Max growled, grasping the bottom of her sweater to pull it over her head. “We’re alive, we’re together.”
“I can’t believe you came down that cliff after me,” she told him, still stunned.
“It doesn’t matter where you are—I’ll always come after you,” Max vowed gruffly.
She looked up at Max’s crazed, anguished, and yearning expression, and her entire body went up in flames. Max was feeling the rush of adrenaline too, but his needed to be vented in an entirely different way.
Mia’s core flooded with heat, her need answering his, and they were suddenly clawing at each other to get naked, get closer. Clothing hit the ground as they disrobed each other in a frenzy, both of them perfectly aware that they could have just died and never experienced this closeness again.
“Be still,” Max told her harshly, pinning her hands over her head against the tree when they both were finally naked.
Mia was panting heavily, her pussy flooding at the command in Max’s voice. She complied immediately, her body relaxing as she looked up at his fierce expression with feminine longing. Her husband might have been reluctant to admit his
alpha tendencies toward her, but there was no mistaking the possessive, protective, and insanely covetous look on his face right now. All of the dominant emotions were there in glorious abundance, contained in her hot, muscular male standing directly in front of her, the testosterone seeping from every pore of his sculpted body.
His skin was scratched and sweaty, droplets of perspiration rolling down his face as he pinned her with a hungry look. “I need you to need me,” he said huskily, one hand gripping both her wrists as the other caressed one of her breasts, circling the nipple with his thumb.
Mia whimpered, both nipples hard and incredibly sensitive, the slightest touch jarring her nerve endings. “I already do. Fuck me, Max. Please.”
“Do you know how I felt when you went over that cliff, sweetheart?” he asked gruffly as his fingers moved to the other breast, pinching it lightly before soothing it with his fingers.
“Yes,” Mia cried out. “The same way I felt when I saw you hanging there.”
“I felt like you were dying all over again.” Max’s hand moved slowly between her breasts and down her quivering belly. “And I died for a moment too.”
His voice was harsh, but his touch was gentle as it moved between her thighs, tenderly parting her folds and stroking lightly.
It wasn’t enough, and Mia’s body started to protest, her hips moving forward, needing more pressure, more Max. “I need you,” she said longingly, moaning as his fingers brushed her clit, teasing her.
“You’re wet for me, sweetheart. But I want you needier,” he said quietly against her ear, nipping at the lobe and running his tongue along her flesh. “I want you to come for me. Because I know that once I’m inside you, I won’t last. Not this time.”
Mia moaned, needing his touch more than she needed anything else on earth. Max wanted her to be satisfied, and he was putting her needs first. But she wanted him inside her, needed to be connected to him. “Then make me come. Because I have to have you inside me now,” she shouted at him, not caring who heard her.
Max shuddered, as though he had lost control, and took her mouth, his fingers playing between her thighs like he played the piano: strong, confident, and absolutely perfect. He searched and found the engorged bud that needed his attention, sliding over it with powerful strokes as his tongue plundered her mouth, never letting up on the pressure until she detonated, her whole body shuddering as her climax hit her with an explosive intensity that shattered her completely.
Pulling his mouth from hers, Max unshackled her wrists and cupped her ass. “Put your arms and legs around me,” he ordered, not even letting her take a breath before he buried himself inside her with a masculine groan. “Nothing between us this time. You feel incredible. So damn good.”
Mia obediently wrapped her legs around his waist and put her arms around his neck, gasping as he plunged inside her, burying himself to the balls. She knew he was trying to keep her back off the tree to keep from hurting her back, but she couldn’t have cared less if she got a few scrapes. The feeling of having him deeply embedded inside her was all-consuming and she was too impassioned to care. “Yes,” she encouraged him, running her tongue over his neck and nipping his skin, glorying in his savage growl of approval as he pulled back and entered her again. Harder. Stronger. Deeper.
Mia gasped with every powerful stroke of his cock, his groin pumping against her sensitive clit as he hammered her with thrust after thrust, every forward movement more frantic and furious. She felt her orgasm rushing up to meet her, raw and forceful, so overwhelming that she screamed, “I love you.”
Max groaned and shuddered as he pumped his hips desperately inside her, the walls of her channel clenching his cock, milking him as she came helplessly.
Mia grasped his head and kissed him, moaning into his mouth as her body exploded in a blast of heat that felt like she was combusting. She was delirious and drunk with pleasure as Max’s tongue met hers, entwining and joining them together in every possible way, their bodies rocking as they stayed locked together in a world that belonged only to the two of them.
Max lowered them to a patch of grass, keeping her on top of him, their lips still touching and tasting as he speared a hand into her hair and kept the other possessively on her ass, absently stroking over her tattoo.
Completely spent, Mia rested her head on Max’s shoulder, murmuring softly, “You scared the hell out of me. Don’t do it again.” She tried to put some kind of conviction in her voice, but she was too tired.
“Sweetheart, if it sends you into that kind of passionate rage, I think I’ll do it every day,” he said with a masculine chuckle.
“I’ll divorce you,” she claimed weakly.
“No you won’t,” he answered in a cocky tone, stroking her hair gently.
“How do you know?” she answered cheekily.
“Because you love me,” he reminded her confidently.
“Yeah. I do.” Mia was so satiated that she didn’t even want to argue. He was right. No matter what happened, they’d always be together. She kind of thought it had been fated from the moment she had ruined his expensive suit, looked up at Max, and saw her destiny in his gorgeous hazel eyes. “Do you realize we’re actually outside and naked? This really isn’t good for your image, you know.”
“You shot my famous Hamilton control all to hell the moment I met you,” Max grumbled. “No more Mr. Perfect for me.”
“Do you care?” Mia asked him curiously, wondering if he resented losing a little of his old image—the reasonable, calm, respectable Max that he used to be.
She pulled back to look at his face. He had a happy, silly grin on his face that made her heart skitter.
“Hell no. I’m starting to learn that being a little bit wicked is a lot more fun.” He kissed her gently and brought them both to their feet.
They dressed quickly, laughing as they brushed grass and leaves from each other. Max took her hand as they descended the rest of the hill and helped her into his new car.
He drove the speed limit all the way home. Mia teased him about being a grandpa, but when he answered that there was only so much a man like him could take in one day, she smiled.
Max wasn’t perfect, but he was damn close. And he was hers. A woman couldn’t get much luckier than that.
Leaning back in the plush leather seat with a sigh, Mia realized that after all the pain and heartache of the last few years, she was finally joined with Max the way they were always meant to be together. And if she was with Max, wherever they happened to be geographically, she would always be home.
One Month Later In Tampa
Max looked at the file on his desk with a frown, wondering if what he saw in the information it contained was even feasible. Was it really possible that he and Maddie had another sibling? He’d been digging, trying to make sure he didn’t have more family out there somewhere in the world. Although he was completely satisfied with his life now, he didn’t want to have another sibling out there who he didn’t know about. If he hadn’t checked every possibility, he’d always wonder. So he’d let investigators continue to dig for answers. His natural mother had been married two more times after his father had died. It had been entirely possible that she’d had other children. The information was sketchy, but he needed to investigate this possibility, check out the information his agents had recently uncovered.
“Yeah. No problem. I can check it out,” Kade said casually, his voice emanating from the speakerphone on the desk of Max’s home office.
“It’s pretty unlikely, but I have to check, and I’m not ready to leave Mia again so soon. I can’t,” Max admitted in a husky voice to his brother-in-law. “And she has projects that she has to complete.”
Kade’s groan echoed through the room over the phone connection. “You two need to knock that crap off eventually.”
Hell. Max hoped they never did. Even though he knew exactly what Kade was
talking about, he asked innocently, “What?”
“The disgustingly in love stuff. It’s getting nauseating,” Kade answered in a disgruntled voice.
Max looked up as Mia entered the room, looking gorgeous in a sexy red dress that made his cock instantly hard. “Mia’s ready. We’re out of here. We need to get to a charity function. Thanks for helping me out. I’ll have what I’ve got sent over to you,” Max told Kade absently, reaching out to disconnect the call.
Coming to his feet, Max brushed the arms of his tux, never taking his eyes off his wife as he met her in the middle of the room.
The last month had been a time of exploration and discovery for them. Every day he thought there was no way he could love his wife any more than he already did. But every single day, he tumbled just a little deeper in love with the incredible woman standing in front of him, a woman who had bared her soul to him over the last month, and allowing him to do the same. They were close in a way they had never been before, sharing the joy and the gut-wrenching emotion of a love so strong it was almost terrifying. Almost…but not quite. The ecstasy was definitely worth a little fear. For him, Mia was worth everything.
“You look beautiful.” He knew the words were inadequate. She looked amazing. The red silk cocktail dress flirted with her knees, the material hugging her curves intriguingly.
“You’re looking pretty gorgeous yourself, Mr. Hamilton,” Mia said flirtatiously, straightening the bow tie of his tux. “Are we ready?”
“Whenever you are, sweetheart. Are you sure you’re okay with this? I know you aren’t particularly fond of these events. But if somebody irritates you, tell them exactly what you think.” Honestly, Max didn’t think his wife had much of a problem doing that anymore.
Max knew that Mia only agreed to go with him to these types of events because he had to go, but she attended with him anyway. He was grateful that she stayed at his side, but he didn’t want her to continue doing something she didn’t like to do to please him.
