Sanctuary Found_Pelican Bay [Book 2]
Page 23
The final box was a little bigger than the first few. In it was what looked like a normal set of white lace panties, similar to what I already owned, but when I turned them over, there was a large opening running right down the middle of the back side.
I nearly choked as I realized what it was for.
So the wearer could easily be fucked while still wearing the beautiful panties. My eyes lifted to Maddox. He was watching me hungrily and my dick instantly responded. “There’s more,” he said as he nodded at the box. I looked down and carefully pulled a layer of tissue paper away and saw a pair of silk stockings that were completely sheer except for a wide band of lace at the top that matched the lace of the panties.
“I wasn’t sure if you liked wearing something like that,” Maddox began nervously. “But it was part of the set so I figured why not and if you didn’t like them you could just get rid of them—”
I lunged forward and threw my arms around him. He caught me as I kissed him. “I love them,” I said. “Thank you.”
“I got you other things too,” Maddox quickly added. “Some clothes and some gift cards. Some makeup from the brands you already use, but I can return any of it you don’t like and we can pick out something different. I figured you could open all that stuff at Dallas and Nolan’s tomorrow but that you should open this stuff here.”
His verbal diarrhea was so cute I wanted to cry.
“I can’t believe you did this.”
“Newt helped.” Maddox blushed and quickly added, “Not with the underwear of course, but some of the other stuff. He definitely has better fashion sense than I do.”
I laughed at that.
Maddox nuzzled my neck. “Try something on,” he said as he motioned toward the packages between us.
Oh, I had every intention of trying them all on. And I was going to enjoy every second of it.
So was Maddox.
I kissed him and then leaned back and looked over my selection. I started with the first ones he’d given me. I slowly took my time getting undressed and then sliding the scrap of silk up my legs. Between the luxurious material and the way Maddox was hungrily watching me, I felt like the most powerful person in the world. I let my hands run indulgently over the material and reveled in the way Maddox watched my hands move.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my reflection in the large windows that overlooked the back yard, so between Maddox and the mirror-like windows, I could tell what a sensual picture I made.
I’d never felt more beautiful in all my life.
It was like that with each pair of underwear.
When I got to the final pair that came with the stockings, I took my time running the sheer material up my legs. I loved the contrast between the silk and the lace band that hugged my upper thighs where the stockings came to rest about halfway up. The combination of the sexy panties and the stockings made me feel like a million bucks. I moved closer to the window so I could see myself.
I couldn’t stop touching the fabric.
I saw Maddox come up behind me in the reflection. He kept moving forward until I was practically pressed against the glass. I put my hands out to steady myself and let out a rough sigh when Maddox ran his fingers over the front of the panties, then the back. He paid particular attention to the opening that exposed my crease. The material was snug around my body, hugging my hard cock. But there was enough give that it wasn’t uncomfortable. Maddox let his fingers slide over the stockings as he crowded me against the window with his big body. He nuzzled my neck and whispered, “So beautiful, Isaac. So fucking beautiful.” Then he was kissing me. His hands roamed all over my chest, back, and sides and within minutes, I was writhing against him.
“Fuck me, Maddox,” I practically demanded.
He growled in my ear and then pushed me forward so the cool glass was pressed against my bare chest. I heard the telltale sign of his zipper being drawn down, then foil tearing. Some lube was swiped over my hole a moment later and I smiled at the fact that Maddox had probably started carrying condoms and lube packets in his wallet. It’d likely only been a recent thing after I’d searched him out in the electrical room of one of the animal buildings at the sanctuary a few days earlier. I’d been particularly horny and Newt had been napping, so I’d taken advantage of the privacy to hunt my man down. Unfortunately, neither of us had had condoms, so we’d ended up blowing each other and then Maddox had taken us both in hand and gotten us off at the same time. For someone who’d never had his mouth on a man’s junk, Maddox was a quick study. His lack of inhibition when it came to sex was so freeing for me.
I groaned when it was Maddox’s cock I felt at my entrance a moment later, rather than his fingers. His thick cock breached me just as his hands closed over my hips. I let out a harsh cry of satisfaction as he split me open. He took his time filling me, but when I felt his jeans rub up against my ass, he grabbed my hair and forced my head back. “Look at us,” he practically snarled. I looked up and gasped at our reflection. Him fully clothed and looking larger than life behind me. Me, my face alight with pleasure and my body splayed out for him, the gorgeous white panties and stockings framing my body so beautifully. My cock was hard enough that the tip was peeking out from the waistband of the panties, but then Maddox’s hand was there, forcing my dick back down beneath the material. He palmed my cock as he began fucking in and out of me and I knew what his plan was.
He wanted me to come in the panties.
With one hand wrapped around my hip and the other working my cock, I knew I wouldn’t last long. Maddox’s shaft pulsed inside of me as he fucked me hard and fast. His clothes scraped over my exposed skin while the stockings and underwear added a level of softness that made my throat hurt.
I couldn’t stem the tears as I realized the depth of what this man had given me by just letting me be me. And not even with just the damn underwear.
With everything.
“It’s okay, Isaac,” Maddox whispered as he leaned over my back and wrapped an arm around my chest. His strokes were still hard and deep, but they slowed just a little bit, dragging the pleasure out until my whole body felt like it was one raw, exposed nerve. “You’re so perfect, my love. So beautiful.”
I let out a harsh sob at his words and reached one arm behind me.
Because as he’d spoken those words, I’d seen his eyes in the window and I knew in my heart why he’d called me that particular endearment. I was afraid to believe it, but he wasn’t even trying to hide it.
I wanted to say the words back, but they got stuck in my throat. I turned my head to kiss him and hoped he could feel the things I couldn’t say. Nothing between us was resolved, but in that moment, they didn’t exist.
It was just him and me.
And he loved me.
Me.
I clung to him with one arm and kept the hand of my other against the glass to support my body as he increased his thrusts. His fingers rubbed up and down my shaft. The material of the lace panties tempered the normally rough pads of his fingers but exposed me to a whole other kind of sensation.
Maddox began fucking me harder as he changed the angle of his hips. He nailed my prostate and I gasped at the white-hot pleasure that singed my every nerve ending. My whole body shook with the need to come. Between Maddox’s hand on my cock and his dick shuttling in and out of me, I couldn’t move. His free hand moved from my waist up to cover my hand on the glass. When he linked our fingers and bit down gently on my shoulder, I was a goner. The orgasm ripped through me, threatening to send me to my knees. I locked them so I could stay upright. Warmth surrounded my cock as cum filled the panties. Maddox fucked me through the orgasm for a few more seconds, then roared my name in my ear as he came. His fingers dug into mine on the window and I managed to look up to see him covering my body with his. Him fully dressed, me in nothing but the panties and the stockings. It was so incredibly beautiful.
I watched him long enough to see his face contort into a mask of pure pleasure as he cam
e deep inside of me. In that moment, I wished more than anything that he could have been bare, so I could have felt his cum burning my insides. But I had to settle for the warmth of his juices through the latex barrier. His body jerked now and again as the aftershocks rippled through him and seeped into me. I was still trembling all over and trying to catch my breath when Maddox eased his hand from my cock. I looked down and gasped at the sight of a little bit of cum in his hand. When he pulled his hand back, white fluid began seeping from the fine openings of the lace and dripping onto the floor.
“Don’t worry,” Maddox said as he leaned over my shoulder to watch my cum pool on the floor at my feet. “We’ll wash them. Oh, and I’m buying you one of these in every color they have available,” he added with a kiss to my shoulder.
I laughed and then angled my head so I could kiss him. He eased out of me and then led me to the shower, where he proceeded to wash me from head to toe and then just held me under the spray of water for a while. Then he was getting us under the covers of what seemed to be a new duvet. The mattress itself felt like heaven compared to the sleeping bag, but I also kind of missed it.
“Um, don’t get mad, but I bought you something else that I want you to make use of tonight.”
“Not sure my ass can take another pounding like that right now, babe,” I said with a smile. Maddox chuckled and kissed me lightly.
“Not that… at least not yet, anyway.” He leaned across me to grab something off the floor. It was an envelope. He opened it for me. “Put out your hand.”
I did and as soon as he tipped the envelope, a key fell into my palm.
A car key.
My heart flip-flopped as I realized what it was for.
“It’s nothing fancy,” Maddox said. “It’s just an SUV, but it’s got all-wheel drive and good safety features. And a DVD player so Newt can watch movies in the car.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he kissed me hard. “It’s bought and paid for, Isaac. It’s in my name so you don’t have to worry about any kind of paper trail. I’m paying the insurance too, and I bought the maintenance plan that will cover everything under the sun on the car for five years, even the oil changes. All you have to do is say yes.”
“Maddox, I—”
“Just give me this,” he whispered. “I’m terrified you’re going to drive off in the middle of the night when I won’t be around, just so you won’t have to tell me I can’t come with you.”
My chest seized because that was exactly what I was planning to do.
“At least give me the knowledge that you’re in a safe, reliable car when you do that. I’ll store your car here and maybe someday you’ll come back for it.”
I felt like I was going to die. The way he was talking, it sounded like he was going to let me go, after all. But it was what I wanted, right?
“No, don’t do that,” Maddox whispered as he stroked my cheek with his thumb. “I’m still planning on being in the passenger seat of that car,” he said. “In fact, I might withhold sex until you agree to let me come with you.”
I let out a watery laugh at that because I knew he was trying to lighten the moment. I looked at the car key.
I couldn’t.
I just couldn’t.
But I closed my hand over it. “I’ll just borrow it for the few days we’re still here,” I said.
Pain lanced through my body at the crestfallen look on Maddox’s face. It clearly wasn’t the answer he’d wanted. But he nodded silently, then took the key from me and put it on the floor. “I have one more thing I want to give you.”
“Maddox, it’s too much,” I said.
But he ignored me and reached beneath the pillow I had my head on and pulled out a simple white box with a red bow on it. I was lying flat on my back with him on his side next to me so he could watch my expression as I opened his gift. I worked the top off and gasped when I saw what was inside.
“Maddox, no,” I cried in disbelief, then I was sitting up. I glanced at his chest to confirm what I was seeing was real.
It was his dog tags.
In the box.
Not on his chest.
He was giving me his dog tags.
“Maddox, I can’t,” I breathed, even as I reached into the box to take the tags out. “They’re so important to you,” I said. “They’re… they’re who you are.”
“Which is why I want you to have them,” Maddox said as he took the tags and eased the chain over my neck. “I want to know that a part of me will always be with the man who’s managed to steal my heart.”
I gasped at his words. He put his fingers to my chin and said, “If you won’t let me be with you, Isaac, then I want you to at least see me every time you look in the mirror, every time you feel the weight of these against your heart. That’s me there. Cherishing you, protecting you… loving you.”
I closed my eyes because it hurt too much to look at him. But it didn’t matter. He was there in my mind’s eye too.
He loved me.
Maddox loved me.
He wanted to be with me.
He wanted to take care of me and protect me and make it so I was never alone again.
He loves me.
I couldn’t say the words back.
I just couldn’t. But for once I was going to ignore my brain and follow my heart.
I wrapped my arms around him and whispered, “I love you so fucking much, Maddox. So much.” I wasn’t even sure he heard me because my voice was cracking so damn bad, but when he let out a little sigh and cradled the back of my head with his hand, I knew he had. I could feel the dog tags pressed between us, but the weight of them around my neck terrified me as one question kept repeating on a loop in my head.
How the hell am I supposed to walk away now?
Chapter Twenty-One
Maddox
Lieutenant Kent!”
I stiffened at the familiar title and turned around to see who was calling out to me. Most of the people in town called me by my military title, though I’d asked them repeatedly just to call me by name.
It was Ford Cornell who was calling to me as he hurried to catch up to me on the sidewalk. I felt a shimmer of anger go through me when I saw that Ford was once again bruised, this time on his neck.
Much like Isaac had been bruised the day Jimmy had attacked him outside the thrift shop. I’d wanted to hunt Jimmy down and beat the shit out of him, but my fear of exposing Isaac in any kind of way to the authorities had kept me from doing it. As it was, Isaac was avoiding going into town whenever possible. The only thing he’d done that had anything to do with the residents of Pelican Bay besides interacting with those who were still occasionally coming out to the shelter, was to arrange some playdates for Newt with Justin and Emily Knapp. I’d been shocked when he’d reached out to the mother of the kids from the urgent care clinic waiting room a few days after Christmas, but he had. He’d ended up taking Newt over to the Knapp house and had stayed and chatted with Brenda Knapp as Newt had played with his new friends for a couple of hours. The Knapp children had come to the sanctuary the day before for a personalized tour and for Newt to show off Loki to them. Then they’d watched all the Cars movies in Dallas and Nolan’s house and had even ended up making it a sleepover.
If that event hadn’t been enough to have me thinking that something might have changed for Isaac in regard to leaving Pelican Bay, the fact that it was the day after New Year’s was a pretty big indicator that he wasn’t in the same rush to leave. He’d been so adamant about leaving right after Christmas, but when that day had come, the issue hadn’t even come up.
I liked to think it was a combination of things that were making it hard for Isaac to pack up and leave.
My biggest hope was that my admission that I loved him was one of the things holding him here. I also hoped that the taste of family he’d gotten Christmas morning had played a part too. I’d ended up spending Christmas Eve at Nolan and Dallas’s house, and for the first time ever, Isaac and I had gotten
to sleep in the same bed the whole night through. We’d woken up in each other’s arms when Newt had jumped on the bed and declared that Santa had come.
And Santa had come in a big way.
There’d been dozens and dozens of presents under the tree. And while most had been for Newt, there’d been plenty of others to go around. Even Dallas and I had exchanged gifts. But the best part had been when he’d hugged me that morning and in his raspy voice had said, “Merry Christmas, Maddox. Welcome home” in my ear.
Admittedly, I’d held him for a long time after he’d said those words.
And he’d let me.
When I’d finally let him go, we’d sat around and watched Newt rip into his presents. Isaac had opened the ones I’d gotten for him that I’d deemed “family-safe” and he’d loved every single one. He was also driving the SUV I’d bought him, though every time I saw him in it, he assured me he was just borrowing it. He’d started driving me home at night so we could have some alone time but then we usually ended up back at Dallas and Nolan’s house to actually spend the night there. I’d been leaving Snotrod at Dallas and Nolan’s because the kitten had become quite attached to Loki and usually ended up sleeping with the wolf hybrid and Newt every night.
Nolan’s mother had joined us on Christmas Day for the opening of presents followed by a huge breakfast of pancakes, French toast, bacon and eggs, and just about every other breakfast food imaginable. Mrs. Grainger had also cooked a virtual feast for dinner, too.
It’d been a perfect day and I’d been so sure it was the last. But when the next day had come and gone and Isaac hadn’t packed up Newt and left, I’d started to let myself hope a little bit. And that hope grew each day he stayed.
Since making his admission that in the eyes of the law he’d kidnapped his brother, I’d been quietly making calls to a couple of criminal and family lawyers to see what could be done. I was also in the process of hiring a private investigator to find out more about Gary. My hope was that there’d be something in his background to prove he was an abusive prick. Maybe that would help with the charges against Isaac.