by Chiah Wilder
“Was Alicia from Pinewood Springs?” Maggie’s voice dragged him back from the past.
Flux quirked his lips while shaking his head. “No. She was from Johnson City. That just fuckin’ blew us away. We were both from the same town in Texas, but we didn’t know each other until we met in Pinewood Springs. She used to say it had to be fate because it was too much of a coincidence.” He shrugged. “I don’t know … maybe it was. When I first saw her at a country western bar, I had to have her. She felt the same way about me and we started dating. Six months later, we got hitched. The brothers thought I was fuckin’ crazy for settling down with one woman at such a young age, but Alicia was everything I ever wanted or needed. She was the perfect old lady, the perfect woman, she completed parts of me I didn’t know were busted and broken open.”
Flux darted his eyes around until they landed on Maggie’s. He ran his knuckles softly over her cheek. “Shit, I shouldn’t be talking about this with you. Forget I said anything, okay? Just … fuckin’ forget it.” He jerked his hand away and made to get up before Maggie’s fingers cupped the side of his face in a gentle gesture that soothed his demons.
“Don’t shut down on me now,” Maggie said.
“Shit, Maggie. You don’t need to fuckin’ compare yourself to a ghost, and I’m a damn bastard for making you.”
“Shh, that’s not what this is about, baby. I asked you to share, and Alicia was a part of you.”
For a beat, Flux searched her face and traced the lines of her expression for any kind of pain. When he was satisfied there was none, he nodded and coughed before starting again.
“Alicia liked the biker lifestyle, and she was cool if I hung out at the club or went to the parties as long as I didn’t fuck around and made time for her. We had a real rhythm going.” Flux shut his eyes tightly, fending off his unshed tears that burned his eyes. “A couple years later, we had Emily.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Fuck, she was cute. She was more perfect than both of us combined. I couldn’t stop holding or kissing the little one. I felt so lucky to have Alicia and her in my life …”
“Something happened to them,” Maggie spoke softly, kissing him lightly. “Tell me.”
“The sick, fuckin’ bastard slaughtered them. Alicia and me had been going through a rough patch a few weeks before. She had a problem with one of the new club girls—Rosie. Now, Rosie’s a flirt and she’s a looker, and Alicia got it in her mind that I wanted her, which I didn’t. I never wanted anyone but my wife. Anyway, I don’t go in for cheatin’—I’m not that type, and Alicia knew it, but she was being insecure about Rosie and I don’t know why.” Flux glanced over at Maggie.
She shrugged. “Us women sometimes get insecure, especially if things are too ordinary. We think that a man may be getting bored and want some variety. Maybe that’s what she was feeling.”
“Maybe. When the charity poker run came up, I told Alicia I was going. She was cool with it at first, but then as it neared, she told me she didn’t want me to go. When I asked her why the fuck not, she couldn’t give me an answer—just told me I couldn’t go. I don’t like anyone telling me what I can do, so I told her I was going. Period. I was actually looking forward to getting away for a few days and putting some brakes on our bickering. So I left—we didn’t even kiss goodbye that day ’cause we were both too pissed off. When I came back they were gone. Butchered.”
He choked on his pain and shook his head, unable to continue. The visions of their bodies assaulted him and he couldn’t get enough air. Maggie’s voice faded in and out. In and out. He couldn’t make out what she was saying to him anymore. Everything was melting together—his pulse skyrocketed, he felt his chest being squeezed like a vice, and he was going to burst or suffocate.
“Oh, Flux …” Maggie’s cool hands stroked his face, his neck, and his arms.
Flux blinked and Maggie’s touch disrupted his flashback and slammed him abruptly back down into the present moment as if he’d been squished by a hammer. Their gazes caught again and he licked his lips, still wrestling with what his heart and his fucked-up brain were telling him.
“You couldn’t have known what was going to happen to your wife and daughter,” Maggie said.
“If I was there it wouldn’t have happened. I fuckin’ abandoned my family because I was too damn proud to have my woman tell me what to do. I let the fucker do horrible things to them.”
“You can’t blame yourself, Flux.”
He jerked back and narrowed his eyes. “But I do. I don’t want to forgive myself. I think if you’re guilty of something, you should live with it. All this bullshit talk about getting rid of it blows. How the fuck can a person—can I—get rid of a real guilt? I need to live with it and face up to it.”
Maggie grasped his hands and squeezed them. “But you didn’t do anything on purpose. I can see what you’re saying if you did something that would purposely hurt your family, but this was just a horrible, senseless murder that you couldn’t control. Even if you’d been there that day, who’s to say that they wouldn’t have been killed at a time when you were away at work or at the clubhouse?” Maggie brought his hands to her mouth and kissed them tenderly. “Was the one who did it a stranger?”
Anger shot through Flux. “No. The fucker was the boyfriend of our next-door neighbor. Alicia was friendly with Barb, and the no good bastard moved in with her a few months before he destroyed my family. The SOB was at Emily’s second birthday party the week before. Fuck! I wanted to tear him apart, and give him a million times more pain than he gave my family.”
“Is he still in prison?”
“The fucker killed himself while in the pen.” Flux clenched his jaw.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve been through, but I’m pretty sure your wife wouldn’t have wanted you to torment yourself for the rest of your days. You knew her. Do you think that’s what she would want from you?” Maggie kissed his hands again.
Flux bristled and winced, unable to look her in the eyes. His thoughts and emotions were a mixture of pain, bitterness, tenderness, and joy all melded together and infused in his heart, warring with each other.
“Flux …” Maggie spoke his name on a whisper, bringing her lips to his and doing her best to erase the pain.
Flux groaned into her mouth wanting to leave the past behind and to lose himself in the present. He took Maggie’s mouth with all the passionate longing that swept through his body, channeling all of his anger and frustration into a consuming desire as he locked his arms around her waist and ground her down onto his hard cock beneath the fly of his jeans. To let her understand exactly what she did to him, regardless of the situation.
“I fuckin’ need you, Maggie,” he grated out against her lips in between their heavy make out session that left him lightheaded and growing even harder by the second. “Ride me. Let me make you feel good.”
“Are you sure?” she moaned against his mouth as he captured her bottom lip with his teeth. “I don’t know if it’s—”
“Don’t fuckin’ say it, Duchess. Don’t make me ask again. Put your pretty pussy on my cock and ride me like there’s no tomorrow, understood?”
Maggie whimpered and drew away from his lips, panting as her tits and pebble-hard nipples pressed into his chest through her bra.
“All right, big guy, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when your eyes roll back in your head and you’re begging me to ease up. I ride stallions like you for a living, you know.”
With a cheeky little wink, Maggie slipped off him and he groaned, mourning the loss of her heat smothered across his body. She tossed her clothes in the grass and was back next to him, unzipping his fly then pulling him out of his pants.
“Fast and dirty, huh?” Flux grated out, biting her neck.
“That’s how I want it.” Maggie threw him an impish, sexy grin and his cock twitched in her hand. “Ready, big guy?”
Flux dug in his pocket and took out a packet, and Maggie snatched it away from him and tosse
d it on the ground.
“I want to feel you,” she said without breaking eye contact.
A slow grin cracked his face. “Just so you know, Duchess—I’m clean.”
“Me too.” She bent her head down and swept her tongue over his dick’s head. With a wicked glint in her eyes, she cupped her breasts and lightly pinched her nipples as she slowly climbed on top of him.
Flux licked his lips, mesmerized by her as she straddled him.
Damn.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Flux
Flux watched in awe as Maggie lowered herself down until he was deep inside her wet heat, his back arching up to meet her at the same time that she flung her head back with a moan.
“I didn’t think it was possible to miss that so much. Didn’t we just do this?” Maggie murmured, tugging on his hair to arch his neck. Her hungry lips demanded his in a dominant act that made him growl with pleasure.
“Doesn’t fuckin’ matter, we can keep doing it all day, every day,” Flux groaned into her mouth and anchored her hips with his hands.
Maggie was smooth and burning hot against his palms, and when she started to rock against him, he let her set the pace. She ground down on his lap and the friction from his jeans must have teased her clit, because her eyelids fluttered and she licked her lips, increasing her thrusts while her hands explored every inch of him.
“That’s right, Duchess, take what you want from me,” he said, arching up to meet her frenzied thrusts.
Maggie’s wet heat contracted over him as she plunged herself down and her thighs tightened on either side of him. Flux held on for the ride, loving how Duchess used all her skills from riding a horse to buck all over him.
“Fuck, darlin’,” he rasped as her walls molded around him.
Maggie’s cheeks flushed and her lips parted as she slipped her hands under his T-shirt and ran her nails down his chest—hard and demanding. Flux’s gaze roamed around each delicious curve, dimple, and bend on her body, reveling in the fact that they were so in tune with each other. She knew how to fuck him, and the way she cried out and writhed when he made her come told him she was more than satisfied with the way he fucked her too. The thing that blew his mind was how much he craved her. It seemed like he could never get enough of Maggie and was always left wanting more. Yeah, there was no doubt about it … he was fucking addicted to her body, the feel of her, the way she smelled, the way she tasted … all of her.
With a possessive noise deep in his throat, Flux gripped her hip until she cried out, biting her lip and thrusting her down even harder. His other hand glided over her tits before he cupped one and sucked her peach-colored nipple into his mouth with a tight tease of his teeth. Maggie arched into him allowing him better access. Flux slid his palm in between where they were joined as she went up and plunged back down. When she hit his palm, he rubbed her sweet button with his thumb. Small, short strokes. A wolfish grin tipped up his lips as their stares caught and her breathing hitched with a secret smile.
Maggie moved harder, faster, edged on by his teasing into a frenzy as her nails bit in the back of his shoulders. Flux traced her mouth with his tongue, loving the small whimpers that escaped from her parted lips.
“Tell me when you’re about to come, baby.” He nipped her neck and kept up the pace with his thumb, gauging her for any sudden movements indicating he needed to switch it up.
Fuck, he was delicate with her and treated her like a prized possession, showering her with compliments and taking her pleasure into account over his without missing a single, fucking beat. When was the last time he’d done that? The answer alluded Flux—he’d been utterly selfish in bed for the past six years. He only needed a woman for one night, to get his stones off, and then to pass the fuck out. Hell, he couldn’t even remember half his encounters with all the women he’d fucked. But here and now with his Duchess, none of his past mattered, so long as she came long and hard, passing out on top of him.
“Soon, Flux. Soon,” she cried out, breaking her rhythm and strokes down into his lap.
Each time Maggie came down onto his cock he could feel her tense up around him, her muscles begging for release as she milked him. Her juices were starting to soak through to his jeans as he gritted his teeth and used his grip on her hip to help her out, slamming her down harder onto him.
“Fuck, Duchess. You’re tight as hell. Keep going, I wanna make you come,” Flux murmured against her tits as he flicked one nipple and then the other. Maggie bucked, threw her head back and moaned, and he reveled in how responsive she was to his touch.
“Please, Flux … please, so close …” she begged as his thrusts upward became more brutal, rougher with her little pleas ringing in his ears.
He loved doing new things to every inch of her and watching her reactions. The small jerks, movements, and intimate facial expressions made something in his chest tighten every time he looked at her, cherishing her while she took what she deserved from him. He wanted her on the edge, ready to topple into a million pieces. All because of him.
Without a doubt, Flux wanted to be the one to make her see pleasure the way she’d never seen it before because he’d given it to her for the first time. He wanted her to never forget him the way he’d forgotten countless other hookups. Flux wanted to burn every second of their time together into his memory bank so he could dig it out when he was alone. Once he moved on, he’d need it to help him through the shit times when he’d want to take one more drink or one more hit.
If Flux could hold on to Maggie and hold on to himself for one more second, maybe there was hope that this was his reality: that he’d somehow been granted a reprieve in the hellhole that was his life and given a chance to grab on to this woman and keep her, not wreck her whole life like a house of toppling cards.
Maggie’s face was lost to bliss, her eyes rolling lightly in the back of her head as her hands skittered across his back, losing their grip on his shoulders.
“Now,” Flux whispered, watching as her legs quivered around him and her hands folded into fists at the fabric of his T-shirt hiked right above his chest. She whimpered and bit her lower lip, almost losing her rhythm. “That’s it, Duchess, let it all go.”
Maggie orgasmed around him, her inner walls drew up tight around him, and her moans rose to his ears. While she lost herself in the sensation, Flux drove his hips upward fighting her tight, slick heat in a bid to drive her even higher. Each inch seemed like heaven as he fought through her body’s orgasm and continued thumbing her sweet spot, landing small kisses along her neck and collarbone to balance out the epic sensations riding inside her flesh.
Maggie’s face lit up and glowed with pleasure. A grin spread across Flux’s face as she blinked back into reality, still arching her back and moving to his well-timed, quick, and deep thrusts from beneath her while she wrapped herself around his body.
She made a blissful noise in his ear, sitting up to kiss him as her nails gently teased down his inner thighs and she leaned back, deepening the angle. Fuck, she’s gonna be the death of me. There was no way he could hold on much longer when the view was this damn good.
“Fuck, baby. Your body’s so beautiful. Don’t stop what you’re doing, keep exactly like that, and I’m gonna come until I pass the fuck out,” Flux groaned and used his leverage to aid her swift hip thrusts downward onto him.
A shudder rolled up his spine and pressure mounted in the small of his back. His brain turned to fucking mush as his fingers gripped Maggie’s hips until she cried out, biting his lip at the same time that his orgasm flashed across his whole body. Strong jolts propelled through him along with the vague notion that his woman was still working herself on his palm between their legs as he rode out the exquisite sensation that wrung out of every pore of his body.
“I want … to go … for number two,” Maggie said, her voice strained while continuing to move against him.
“That can more than be arranged, Duchess,” Flux took his hand back and cupped her ass and he
r shoulder before he shifted so she landed in a surprised heap under him on her back. “Did you just squeak at me?”
“Maybe,” she looked down, sheepish, and suddenly shy.
“Good. I fuckin’ loved it.” Flux rose above her, surveying his territory and knowing full well he would enjoy finding out exactly which little spots, curves, and buttons did what to her extra sensitive flesh.
He crushed his mouth on her while easing his fingers between her legs. Fuck! Maggie was so damn wet against his fingers as he slid two of them inside her and started working her up again.
“Let’s see how many other sexy sounds I can get from your perfect mouth. It’ll be a game and it’s not stopping until I’m fuckin’ satisfied that you can’t get a single second’s more pleasure. Understand the rules, baby?” He bent down and flicked her hardened nipples with the tip of his tongue.
“Oh God, Flux,” Maggie breathed as she shimmied her hips to match his finger strokes. A wave of satisfaction broke over him so hard and so quick, he caught his breath looking down on the delectable woman spread bare before him.
Flux didn’t know what karma he’d earned to get her in his life, but whatever the fuck it was, fluke or not, he hoped he did it again and again so he never had to lose her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Flux
Two weeks later
Kremmling, CO
The roar of the Colorado River filled Flux’s ears as he cut through the canyons and entered into a lush valley surrounded by tall mountain peaks. Grazing cows and sheep blurred past him as he made his way toward Kremmling. Each August, the tiny town burgeoned with people as the annual rodeo got underway. RVs and tents littered the valley, and Wranglers, cowboy boots, Western shirts, and Stetsons became the normal attire.
Flux spotted the Super 8 motel sign and turned into the lot, scanning it for a cherry-red pickup. The only truck he saw was Chet’s, and he was the last person Flux wanted to run into at that moment. Flux slipped his phone from the pocket inside his cut and checked for any messages from Maggie.
