by Cameron Dane
Wyn swung in, but this time an equal force wrapped around his arm. A sharp, “Stop it right now,” rang through the room, both stopping Wyn cold and preventing his knuckles from coming into contact with the wall.
Wyn fought to free his arm, but with a second command to stop, Ethan spun Wyn and pushed him up against the wall, holding him in place with a forearm across his chest. Snaps of blue fire lit Ethan’s eyes, and although slighter in height and build, right now Ethan looked like a golden giant to Wyn.
“Can I let you go,” Ethan asked, “or are you going to fight me some more?”
Glaring, breathing like an exhausted animal, Wyn nonetheless raised his hands in surrender.
Ethan released Wyn, but he barely stepped back and didn’t give Wyn an ounce of breathing room. “What’s going on with you, man? What the hell just happened to you?”
Slipping again, Wyn banged the back of his head against wall, searching for release from the terrible, ugly knots twisted up inside him. Ethan pulled him away and backed him against the sinks, his frown another stab to Wyn’s middle.
“What?” Cuffing Wyn’s neck, Ethan held him close. “I’m your brother. You know you can talk to me.”
Wyn didn’t want the words to come out, didn’t want anyone to know what a pathetic weakling he was, but he’d never lied or misled his brother before. Unable to do so now, he blurted, “I choked.” Shame burned Wyn’s throat, and he could barely look Ethan in the eyes. “I needed to save her, and I choked.”
Ethan’s brow furrowed into a crinkly point. “What are you talking about? You both had a scare, but Maddie is going to be fine.”
“It wasn’t me.”
His features scrunching even more, Ethan frowned. “I don’t understand.”
Spilling his guts, Wyn explained how he’d been unable to think clearly enough to help Maddie, and that if not for Gwen and Teri finding them, Wyn would likely still be crouched in the snow, incoherent, uselessly pleading for Maddie, who’d likely have died by that point, never to wake up.
So very raw inside, Wyn choked on his failure, the taste so bitter and vile he could not swallow it. “Maddie has saved me from falling into bad head spaces dozens of times, but literally the one time she needed me to save her life, I couldn’t do it.” His fear turned even more rancid, leaking into his system like acid, eating away at him. “I panicked. I was so scared she would die that I couldn’t think and ended up doing nothing.”
Ethan squeezed Wyn’s forearm, and visible empathy filled his ocean-blue eyes. “So you freaked out. It’s not the end of the world—”
“It is for me!” Wyn raged, shoving Ethan away from him. “This is my job. I’m trained to keep my head in a crisis. I’ve worked for years to maintain my cool under pressure and get a tight situation to a successful end. But the one time I needed to perform, the one time I was the only one there to take charge, I couldn’t think clearly enough to act.”
In fast response, Ethan rushed at Wyn and shook him. “Because you were too close to the situation, and it came up on you fast. There’s a reason surgeons don’t operate on their own family, genius. It’s because they’re too close to the situation and might not be able to think clearly if a crisis occurs. You were too close, and you had a blip. You panicked. But now you have experience with what it feels like to be in a boiler situation with someone you care about, and you won’t lose your cool again.”
His head spinning, bleak through to his core, Wyn fell back against the wall, his legs wobbly. He looked across the bathroom at his big brother, and whispered weakly, “I couldn’t deal with the pressure with Mom.”
Snaps of fiery blue instantly ignited Ethan’s stare. “That’s not true.”
Wyn nodded in the face of Ethan’s denial. “When it was my turn to sit with Mom, to take care of her, to sit there and watch her die…” His voice cracked, and he blinked back wetness threatening to fall. “I called you all the time because I was weak and it was too hard to deal with by myself.”
“And I called you too,” Ethan reminded him quickly, pointing at him. “Don’t forget that part. We helped each other. Don’t twist this in your mind to something that it isn’t.”
As if he could see through walls, Wyn looked in the direction of Maddie’s room and a lump knotted in his throat. “I can’t even look at Maddie now. I keep thinking about how I failed her. I keep seeing her unconscious. And that image morphs into her being dead.” A shudder rocked through Wyn, icing him to his bones, and he hardened against himself even more. “Which she would have been, if it had been left on my shoulders to save her.”
Shaking his head, Ethan looked toward the ceiling, sighing long and hard. “You don’t know that, man. You’re not a fortune teller; don’t act like you can predict the future. For all you know, even if those women hadn’t come along, one second later your head might have cleared and you would have done everything you needed to do to get Maddie to a hospital.”
Wiping his eyes with the heels of his hands, Wyn sharply shook his head. “No.”
“Yes.” Ethan said, “Use your brain,” and tapped Wyn hard on the side of his head. “Does the possibility, just the mere possibility exist, that because you do have that vital emergency information stored in your head, is it possible that you could have gained clarity and helped Maddie on your own?”
Unable to forgive himself, Wyn could only admit, “The information is there.”
Light came back into Ethan’s eyes, and he cuffed Wyn around the neck. “So the possibility does exist. You cannot spend your life beating yourself up over this. You cannot live a life where you must be perfect one hundred percent of the time or face the firing squad. If you put that kind of demand on yourself it will kill you as sure as Mom’s cancer killed her. And I will not lose you too.” Ethan dragged Wyn in, touching their foreheads, as his voice went rough. “Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Brother to brother, Wyn wouldn’t let Ethan suffer another loss. “You won’t lose me too.”
“Good.” Ethan switched from holding Wyn’s neck to putting an arm across his shoulders and guiding him to the exit. “Now let’s get back to Maddie before Aidan and Dev begin to ask questions that maybe you don’t want to answer yet.”
His heart rate spiking, Wyn reared and spun away from his brother.
Not giving an inch, Ethan settled a steady, penetrating gaze on Wyn. “I see you, man. I know what’s in your heart without you having to spell it out for me. I’m not blind to the charms of the Morgan family either.” Red stained his cheeks then, which considering how long Ethan had been with Aidan, was sweet. “So maybe I have a little more insight than most.”
“Nothing has happened yet,” Wyn swore, and even raised his hand as if making a pledge. “We’re just friends.” Maybe not emotionally one hundred percent true, but technically it was correct.
This time Ethan held up his hands in surrender, but he grinned as he did it. “That’s between you and Maddie. It’s not my place to speak on whatever the two of you share before you’re ready to do it yourselves.”
“Thank you.” A roller coaster of a day already, Wyn wasn’t ready to deal with possible blowback from Maddie’s brothers.
“No problem.” Ethan slung his arm around Wyn’s shoulder again. “Let’s go.”
As they walked out of the bathroom, Wyn’s focus slid back inside, and the sight of the mess hit him, highlighting everything he’d failed to do today.
“I should talk to someone about what I did in there,” he murmured, shame flooding back into his being. “I should pay for the damage I did.”
Ethan jostled him a bit at his side. “Sounds good.”
On the way back to Maddie’s room, Wyn stopped at the nurse’s station, explained that he’d done some damage to the bathroom, and left his information to pass along to the hospital administration. He was also given some gauze to wrap around his knuckles. He then entered Maddie’s hospital room with Ethan, and even managed to smile when Maddie looked at him. Cold still went t
hrough him though, and all he saw was her lying in the snow covered in blood.
Wyn’s breathing thickened, and he silently started reciting police codes in an effort to control the fear-drenched chaos living inside him. Every muscle in his body screamed at him to flee, but somehow he managed to stay…
* * * *
Steeling herself for a battle, Maddie entered her home, tense, hoping to avoid conflict but ready to face Wyn head-on if need be. With an exhale, she kicked off her sneakers and smoothed her hands down her tank top and jeans shorts, even though both had been protected under coveralls all day and were in perfectly good shape. That done, she strode down the hall and entered the living room, prepared to toss her keys on the table, but the sight before her stopped her at the entry in her tracks. Wyn lay on the couch asleep, on his side, his jeans riding low and his T-shirt bunched halfway up his stomach, revealing taut, ripped abdominal muscles.
Oh my. Looking all around the room, everywhere but toward the couch, Maddie tried to focus on anything other than Wyn. Her pulse threaded though, and with just that one glance she felt like she was full of magnets inside and they were pulling her toward the power that Wyn exuded, even when asleep.
Studying the room, Maddie tried to gloss over Wyn but her attention landed on him again. Good heavens, he’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. She couldn’t help herself, she drank him in with one long look, and everything inside her sighed and bloomed as if given the nourishment needed to flourish.
Realizing she was alone, with nobody to observe her hidden voracious appetite for this one person, Maddie moved into the room and kneeled on the rug next to the couch. So close to Wyn now, as beautifully masculine and harsh as his features already were, Maddie noticed tension around his mouth and deep furrow lines between his eyebrows. He had his hand in a tight fist too, digging it into his thigh through his jeans. Suddenly he made a hoarse noise and jerked his head, clearly distressed. Maddie touched his shoulder, and she went cold inside. His skin was like ice.
“Wyn.” Forgoing a gentle tap, Maddie shook him, adrenaline spiking her blood. “You’re freezing. Wake up. Get up.” Up on her knees, she shoved him harder. “Now.”
Suddenly sucking in a great gulp of air, Wyn shot upright and zeroed in on her, his dark eyes unbearably bright. Uttering her name in a rough tone, he dragged her to him, whispering, “You’re okay, you’re okay.” He grazed his lips all over her face, and his fingers were unsteady, tangled in her hair. “You’re okay.”
Pulled to soothe this rare flood of exposed emotions in Wyn, Maddie brushed her thumbs over his blunt cheekbones and strong jaw, petting him as she would a skittish animal. “I’m okay.” She rubbed her forehead against his and pressed a kiss to the bridge of his nose. “I promise.”
Wyn pulled back a short distance, and his pupils dilated and his nostrils flared. As if he finally saw her from through a fog, and caught her scent again, he let out a ragged noise and dragged her back in, this time crushing his mouth down on hers, overpowering her with the force of his kiss. Instantly pressing into her with the full measure of his strength, he pushed her onto the floor and came down on top of her, his lips fused to hers the whole way. He scraped his lips against hers again and again, and his frantic need bled into her, fueling her own.
Instinctively rocking up into him, Maddie ran her hands down and up his arms and across his shoulders, marveling at how hard he was everywhere, and how quickly his body had warmed to a steamy inferno under his clothes. He bit her lip in response and shuddered, the tremble going straight through him and into her.
His eyes a blaze of black, Wyn uttered, “Don’t ever scare me again,” his voice raw to the bone. As if possessed, he shoved his hands between their bodies and ripped at his jeans and her shorts, tearing hers halfway down her legs and his to his thighs, freeing his thick, fully erect cock. “If I couldn’t save you this time,” an awful noise escaped him, “I would die.”
Pierced to her core by Wyn’s pain, focused solely on that, Maddie took his face in her hands, parting her lips to promise him again she was fine and to ask what was wrong. Before she could get a full word out, Wyn slashed his mouth across hers and stole her response with a rough kiss, marking her as deeply as he could get past her lips. At the same time he thrust his hips hard and plunged into her—oh my God, yes—driving into her body in a way no one had ever done before. Maddie bucked and cried out as she was taken by a man for the very first time.
Wyn immediately went stock-still; his focus cleared to pinpoint precision, fully on her. “Never?” A scratch roughened his voice.
Stuffed so very full with him, throbbing around him inside, Maddie dug her fingers into his shoulders. His threadbare T-shirt bunched in her fingers, the tactile sensation holding her to a new reality, one she’d never thought would actually transpire. It finally happened.
“Maddie?” Wyn’s features were pulled savagely taut, but he was still as stone, locked on her. “Have you?”
She shook her head. “Never.”
His pupils dilated like saucers. And the moment Maddie spoke that word, “never”, Wyn jerked his hips, and with barely a sound, he spilled his seed deep in the recesses of her body.
Chapter 7
Wet heat filled Maddie’s channel, tagging her deep inside her pussy. Gasping, she squeezed Wyn’s shoulders through his T-shirt, her mind and body a buzz of insane sensations and emotions. Wyn continued to lose himself to release, flooding her with his essence, all the way to her core. Oh dear God; it happened. It truly happened. She trembled and fluttered inside around his claiming.
A final tremor worked its way through Wyn’s frame. His grip loosened in her hair, and he grazed his lips across her temple, cheek, and nose, lingering as he found her gaze once more. “I’m sorry; it’s been so long; I couldn’t last. Christ, honey.” His jaw clenched, and he rocked on top of her, sliding his shaft along her inner walls in the most shiver-worthy way. “I’m still so fucking hard, and I can feel it’s not going away any time soon. Let me have a second chance.”
These little slips from Wyn, exposing the fallible human within, reached all the way into Maddie and twined with a poignant tug around her heart. The sensation was even more powerful than his claiming. “I’m not complaining about what happened or anything,” her cheeks heated, “but yeah, let’s do it again.”
A chuckle escaped Wyn, which jostled their bodies, and his soft laugh changed to a moan. “Clothes off,” he ordered. “I might not last much longer this time,” sliding a hand up her belly, he eased her tank top up her torso, “but I want to be able to feel you all over for however long it lasts.”
“Take yours off too.” Every cell within her still sparking with heightened awareness, Maddie pulled Wyn’s shirt over his head, scratching her fingers up his back along the way. Using her legs, she shoved his jeans and underwear down into a tangle at his feet, where she kicked them off along with her shorts and panties. “I want to feel you too.”
“Oh fuck, honey; that’s so good.” Still lodged firmly inside her, Wyn wrapped her legs around the backs of his, shifting them even more completely into position for intimacy, and eased her shirt the rest of the way off her head. Her bra hooked in the front; Wyn popped the clasp, brushed the white fabric aside, and her breasts, so heavy and achy, spilled free. He rubbed the pad of his thumb across one of the berry tips, and Maddie gasped as it beaded into a tight knot for him.
Wyn looked up, the brown in his eyes glistening bright. “Jesus, you’re beautiful.” His focus trained on her, he braced his forearms on the rug on either side of her head and pressed his weight more fully down on her. “You tell me what you want.” His cock, still so rigid, throbbed with its own heartbeat inside her pussy. “I’m yours to command.”
Lost in his gaze, for the first time in so very long not hiding her heart from him, Maddie slid her hands up his arms and shoulders, reveling in finally touching him, finally exploring his hardness and warmth without fearing what it would expose about her. “Do what y
ou feel.” Cracking emotions put a rasp in her voice, and she grazed her fingers along the edges of his hair, learning him everywhere. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted with you.”
“Jesus, Maddie.” Wyn’s fingers flexed in her hair, and he lowered his mouth to hers, whispering, “I’m always amazed by you.”
With that, he claimed another kiss and began to move. Ever so slowly, Wyn brushed his lips across Maddie’s and rocked within the confines of her body. His long thick shaft touched along every millimeter of her pussy with shiver-worthy precision, making every muscle in her tense and quake. Rather than invade her with the rough kisses of ownership he’d given moments ago, this time Wyn teased her with soft licks and the gentlest of scrapes of his lips against hers. He withdrew, and at the exact time he eased back into her, he dipped his tongue into her mouth. The focused, precise double penetration swirled all the way through Maddie and reignited fires simmering all the way into her fingers and toes.
With each gentle touch, Wyn coaxed Maddie’s entire being awake, somehow even more completely than when he’d plunged into her so thoroughly only minutes before. Pleasure-filled streamers unfurled throughout her body, marking her with his essence, with everything that was him. Oh yes, yes, please. Maddie curled her toes against Wyn’s thighs, and even the feel of the fine hairs on his legs against the soles of her feet awakened her arousal to another level. I never thought he’d feel this insane all around me, inside me.
Sinking into the heady sensations, Maddie moaned and bit Wyn’s lower lip, succumbing to a bone-deep need to put her mark on him too. She jerked against him and dug her fingers into his shoulders, clinging as she tried to push herself up onto his cock in an effort to stay fully connected to him everywhere.
