Blown (Elemental Series Book 2) (21 page)

Her feet carried her down the hall, around a corner, and past a staircase that she’d never used. She was unintentionally walking toward the main staircase, not giving any thought to where she was going, when she nearly walked into Logan.

“Easy,” Logan said with an almost-laugh as he reached out with one hand to steady her gently.

Madison felt her face heat up for an instant as she mentally berated herself for not paying attention. “Wow, I’m sorry,” she said awkwardly. “That’s what I get for walking and thinking at the same time.”

Logan’s lips lifted in a brief smile before he asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” she assured him. “Nate’s on the phone so I thought I’d take a walk… apparently.” She blinked up at him for a second before realization dawned and she moved to step aside, saying, “I’m so sorry. You were probably trying to get somewhere!”

“It’s all right,” Logan replied with a faint shake of his head. “I was actually coming to talk to you.”

Confusion settled across her face as she asked, “Me? What for?”

“Nate mentioned earlier that your mother’s moving to town, but she doesn’t have a job set up for herself yet,” he said calmly. “I don’t know what her qualifications are, but I’ve got a receptionist position coming open. If you think she’d be interested you could give her my email address, as long as you understand that I can only promise her a fair chance.”

Madison blinked at him for a long minute.
Have I hit my head recently?
But his expression remained patiently expectant, and she realized she must not have hallucinated his words. With a faint, embarrassed, shake of her head, Madison replied, “That would be great. I’m sure she’d be interested. I’ll tell her to email you. And, I promise, whatever happens after that is between the two of you and has nothing to do with me.”

“Okay, then,” Logan replied, inclining his head.

****

Sunday came around too quickly for anyone’s tastes, and Angela met Vaughn at the door less than half an hour after breakfast. Her parents joined them in the entry before they could leave, and Christopher said, “Remember, home by seven.”

Angela did her best not to roll her eyes, saying, “Yes, Dad, I remember. And that won’t be a problem.”

“And call immediately if anything happens,” Christopher insisted.

“I will,” Angela promised. She hiked her purse—loaded with her wallet, cell phone, pepper spray, and sunglasses—higher on her shoulder and asked, “Can we please go now?”

Lillian laid a hand on her husband’s bicep and smiled softly at her daughter. “Have fun, sweetheart. And good luck.”

“Thanks,” Angela said, flashing her mother a smile before she turned to Vaughn and added, “Okay, let’s go!”

The door had barely closed behind them when Nate stepped up beside his mother and asked, “Did she tell you what car she’s looking for?”

Lillian was smiling with amusement as she turned, intending to go back to the living room, and said, “No. She’s very insistent on surprising us.”

Nate sighed, frowning exaggeratedly at the door before turning to follow his parents. “Well that’s annoying,” he grumbled.

Ignoring his commentary, Christopher asked, “Where are your brothers?”

“In the backyard,” Nate replied easily. “Dean thought it’d be best if he wasn’t in earshot when she left.”

“And Madison?” Lillian asked curiously, noting that her son’s girlfriend had disappeared shortly after breakfast.

“Library,” Nate supplied. “She had to call her mom, and she’s a little behind on checking her email.”

“Perfect,” Lillian said quietly as she moved to her chair. Christopher silently took a seat on the couch, crossing one leg over the other knee.

Nate paused now, arching a brow at his mother’s response. “Perfect?” he repeated carefully. “Perfect how?”

Lillian gestured to the couch across from her seat, saying, “Sit, Nate. I want to talk to you.”

Oh.
She wants to have
that
talk.
He took a deep breath and sat down in the indicated seat, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. Playing dumb, he asked, “What’d you want to talk about?”

From the other end of the large, curved couch, Christopher clucked his tongue. “Don’t you think you outgrew that game a little while ago?”

Before Nate could respond, Lillian asked a question of her own. “Have you given any thought to what it might mean that Madison’s actually stuck around through all of this?”

Nate’s eyes snapped back to his mother when she spoke, and he swallowed heavily. “That she’s … open-minded?” He knew that wasn’t the answer his mother was looking for, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to talk about what she was asking about.

Lillian’s lips dipped into a frown and she said, “Nate.”

Cringing, Nate leaned back into the couch and looked away as he mumbled, “Yes, I know what you’re asking. And
yes
, I’ve thought about that. But can we not have this conversation?”

Concern in his voice, Christopher asked carefully, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Nate replied, glancing briefly at his father before letting his gaze fall to the floor. “We’re just … not talking about that yet. This is all hard enough as it is, you know?”

His parents exchanged understanding frowns before Lillian said, “I think everyone would understand that. But ask yourself if you really want to leave tomorrow without getting everything off your chest.”

He didn’t have much to say to that. She wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t been thinking. He really didn’t want to leave in the morning without at least telling Madison how he felt, but at the same time a part of him was still afraid she wouldn’t be able to reciprocate his feelings. Or that, if he actually said it, she might panic. The last thing he wanted was to have her awkward, or negative, reaction dancing around in his mind while he was fighting for his life.
And when did I get so insecure, anyway?

The object of their musings stepped into the room a moment later, entirely oblivious to the conversation that had just taken place. She paused when she realized she was likely interrupting, her lips curving into a self-conscious smile. “Sorry,” she said with a glance toward Lillian and Christopher. Her eyes flicked to Nate and she added, “When you get a chance…?”

“Oh, please,” Lillian said quickly, waving one hand in a lazy, dismissive gesture. “We were done, don’t worry.”

Nate nodded and pushed to his feet before looking over at Madison and asking, “What’s up?”

“I was just on the phone with my mom,” she began, “and she’s really excited about Logan’s offer. She wants to come up as soon as possible, which means I need to get back out and keep apartment hunting. Think I could talk you into coming with me?”

Nate wrapped his hand around hers, tugging gently as he said, “Walk with me.” He wasn’t sure how to say what he was thinking, and he had absolutely no idea how she would respond to it. But he was going to say it anyway.

Madison gave Nate a curious look as they came to a stop in the hallway, well out of earshot of any curious family members. “Is there … something I should know?”

Releasing a breath, Nate gave her hand a quick squeeze and shook his head. “Not like that, no,” he assured her. “It’s just that … I’ve been thinking about something. And I don’t know how you’ll react to it, so don’t feel pressured or anything. It’s just an option I think you should keep open.”

“You’re stalling,” Madison said quietly. Nate fell silent for a beat, before finally declaring, “It’s about the apartment hunt. I know you said she had a bad experience with renting a house, but … what if she took the guest house? I could give her a real good rate, and I think I’m a pretty amazing landlord.”

Confused now, Madison tilted her head slightly and slowly asked, “And … what about me?”

His voice lowered, the slight uncertainty returning, and he offered, “You’d have to move in with me.”

She swallowed heavily, her eyes widening. But she wasn’t silent nearly as long as he’d expected she’d be. “Okay.”

Nate’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected her to agree so quickly. In truth, he hadn’t expected her to give him an answer in the moment at all. So it took him a second to regroup enough to form a smile and manage a teasing, “Don’t you think you should check with your mom first?”

A similar teasing glint lighting her own eyes, Madison replied, “I’m a grown woman, thank you. I can make my own decisions. But obviously it’ll be her decision whether or not to take your offer.”

“So,” Nate began, voice low and thick, “does that mean you need to call your mother again?”

Madison’s hands lifted to land lightly on his chest as he stepped into her, and her voice was equally hushed when she replied, “I can call her in a couple of hours.”

He leaned down, nuzzling her ear and brushing his lips over the side of her neck before murmuring, “Good, because there’s definitely something we should be doing.”

“And what’s that?” Madison asked, her eyes fluttering shut at the light, teasing pressure of his lips on her skin.

Grinning now, Nate lifted his head enough to see her face and replied, “Boating.”

Madison’s eyes blinked open and she dumbly asked, “What?”

“It’s a beautiful day,” Nate began, thumbs absently massaging her hips, “so my brothers and I have decided that we should spend it outside, doing something fun. We’re going to the beach. Of course, Logan and Dean aren’t likely to get on the boat—they’re not so fond of water—but you should definitely come.”

She stared at him for another beat before a smile lit up her face. “I’d love to.”

Chapter Seventeen

“Thanks again for helping me out today,” Angela said, a light smile lifting her lips as she looked over at her newest friend. “I know it was sort of short notice, and I’m sorry if you had to rearrange your schedule or something.”

Arching an eyebrow at her, Vaughn said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but if I’d already had other plans I would have just said no.” He paused, the corner of his lips twitching, and added, “But you’re welcome.”

She laughed faintly and inclined her head. “Fair enough.” It was her turn to pause, her smile fading as her eyes became distant and she added quietly, “Although, it might’ve been smarter for you to say no. It might not be such a good idea to be seen socializing with me right now.”

Vaughn scoffed, leaning back against the hood of his car, and replied, “I’m not so worried about it. I think I pretty much crossed into ‘bad idea’ when I threw a punch at the guy pulling
lightning
out of the sky.”

“Did I ever thank you for that, by the way?” Angela asked, another small smile tugging at her lips.

“At least five times,” Vaughn assured her. He was quiet for a moment, idly watching a cloud pass by overhead, before he carefully asked, “You said there was some sort of fight going down tomorrow?”

Angela released a breath and inclined her head. “Yeah,” she replied. “My brothers are supposed to face off against Eric and his family. Honestly, it sounds like something out of a bad movie, but … I’m still worried about it.”

“Of course you are,” Vaughn said, a tone of quiet understanding in his voice. “I’m pretty sure anyone would be.” Again, he paused a second before asking, “Would it be all right if I called in a couple of days to see how things went?”

Looking over at him again with widened, surprised eyes, Angela nodded. “Yeah, of course. I mean, you’re in enough to deserve to know what’s going on.”

He nodded, accepting her answer, but instead of continuing that thread of conversation he let his eyes slide past her, to her new car, and asked, “Think your family’s gonna like it?”

Angela blinked at him for a beat, before her lips lifted in a grin and she reached down, patting the hood of her recent purchase. “Oh, I think they’re going to be
insanely
jealous.”

He smirked and pushed off his own car, saying, “There’s only one way to find out, right?”

****

“You’re a
cheater,” Dean declared as the group walked up to the house shortly after five o’clock that evening.

Nate balked at his brother’s accusation, raising his free hand to his chest and exclaiming, “I am not!”

“Are so,” Dean insisted. “There is no way you could’ve caught that ball without cheating. None.”

“Ha,” Nate taunted, “just because I’m lighter on my feet than you doesn’t mean I cheated. Admit it. You lost, fair and square.”

As Dean followed Blake and Brooke into the entry, he turned around to walk backwards and stated, “Then I demand a rematch. Do you know what it would do to my reputation if it gets around that I lost at beach volleyball?”

“Oh, yeah,” Nate teased with a grin, “no one would look at you the same again. And the guys at the station would definitely never let you live it down.”

Good-natured laughter echoed around them, and the group was barely past the door when a car horn sounded from the driveway. Everyone paused, turning their attention to the door Logan had been in the process of closing. The horn sounded again, and Lillian and Christopher joined them in the entry.

Nate finally broke the silence, declaring, “I think Angie got her car.”

Logan immediately pulled the door open wide once more, and the group—joined by Lillian and Christopher—filed back outside, anxious to see what kind of car the youngest member of the family had chosen.

Sure enough, there was an unfamiliar Mercedes-Benz S Class parked in front of the porch, on the outside of Dean’s Camaro. And Angela was climbing out of the driver’s seat, a wide grin plastered on her face. As she eased the door shut and rested one hand on the silver roof, she asked, “What do you think?”

Dean whistled appreciatively and walked around the shiny new car until he could pull his sister into a one-armed hug. Arm wrapped around her shoulders, Dean leaned down and grinned into her hair, saying, “You did good, Sis!”

“Dean!” Angela cried, her voice muffled from the awkward angle.

“Nice ride, Ange,” Nate declared from the other side of the car, where he was bent over and peeking through the passenger window.

Angela pushed away from Dean just in time to answer the volley of questions that her family proceeded to throw at her. But she answered them all well, obviously proud of herself for the research and thought she had put into her choice.

****

Madison and Brooke hung back, watching from the porch as the family interacted. They didn’t speak, opting instead to listen and reflect. And Madison felt her heart clench as she watched the scene. It was so simple on the outside—just a family praising their youngest for taking another step toward becoming a real adult. But there was so much lying between the words and gestures they exchanged. There was a desperation for normalcy and camaraderie that would probably have been invisible to someone who didn’t know the situation. Each brother took a turn pulling Angela into a tight, lightly teasing hug, and each time, Angela waited a minute before playing along and pushing them away.

None of this was lost on Madison.

Nearly half an hour passed before everyone migrated back inside, still laughing and talking about light, surface things. They ordered several large pizzas for dinner, ate using their laps as tables in the living room, and left the dishes in the sink for later when they were done. After dinner the group migrated to the family room, drew the curtain and dimmed the lights before gathering on the sofas and settling in for a long movie of Angela’s choice. And even when that was done, it was a long time before they finally agreed to call it a night.

“Nate,” Madison said quietly as Nate flipped the lock on his bedroom door. She knew he was listening, so she didn’t wait for a response. “There’s … something I really need to tell you.”

Nate came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, tugging her back into his chest. “What is it?” he asked softly, his lips beside her ear.

Madison leaned into him, her throat constricting for a long moment. She had tried to avoid it, she really had, but one poisonous, heart-wrenching thought kept cycling through her head.
What if this is our last night together?
The idea terrified her. It had been hard enough for her to get over Doug’s death, despite the problems they’d been having at the time. But she knew that the pain she’d felt over Doug would be nothing compared to the pain she would feel if Nate didn’t come home. And she would hate herself for the rest of her life if she let him leave in the morning without even telling him.

Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Madison turned around in Nate’s arms and reached up, framing his face with her hands gently. She held his gaze, knowing her eyes were brimming with tears once again, and declared, “I love you, Nate Hawke.”

****

Nate felt his heart constrict at her words, and the sight of the unshed tears in her green eyes. And just as it occurred to him that he’d been an idiot to feel so insecure, he finally realized what had been holding him back. Once he’d realized the depth—or possibly the potential depth—of his feelings, he’d developed a fear of losing her. And while he suspected he would have to live the rest of his life with that fear, he could at least acknowledge that he didn’t need to let it hold him back anymore. He wouldn’t lose her as a result of how he felt. If she was able to say those words to him now, after knowing everything that she knew about him, then he doubted he could chase her away.

Dragging himself out of his thoughts, Nate dropped his hands to her hips and tugged her properly against his chest as he murmured, “I love you, too.”

Madison’s lips lifted in a faint smile, her hands sliding along his jaw until they were threaded loosely through his hair, and she said, “I want to make it clear what I expect from you. I fully expect you to make love to me tonight like it might be our last time. And, tomorrow, I expect you to come home to me.”

Nate’s lips twitched and he quietly teased, “Those are some high expectations, Maddie.”

“I know,” Madison replied. She leaned up, her lips just beyond his reach, and added, “That’s the kind of woman I am.”

“Well,” Nate breathed, tightening his hold on her hips. “Let’s see what I can do for you, then.”

Their lips crashed together a heartbeat later, melding seamlessly as Madison curled her arms tightly around his shoulders. His arms wound around her waist, pressing her firmly into his body and sweeping his tongue into her mouth. As he braced a hand over her lower back he moved forward, their feet leaving the ground as he aimed them toward the bed. Madison had barely wrapped her legs around his hips when her back landed gently on the mattress. Nate’s hands ran up her sides sensuously, lingering just a little over every inch of exposed skin he could find.

The kiss broke as Nate bowed his head lower, dancing his lips and tongue over her jaw and down her neck. She moaned softly beneath him as he teased her flesh, one leg curving over his denim-clad hip. He let his tongue linger over the hollow of her throat before pulling back, holding her gaze for a long moment. Only the sound of their own breathing and their pounding hearts passed between them.

Their clothes hit the floor carelessly, their hands returning to the other’s naked flesh as quickly as possible. Lips found exposed skin and pressed themselves there, massaging and sucking before being joined by licking tongues and nipping teeth. Faint moans filled the air, dragged out of their throats as much by the lingering, hungry kisses as by the wandering, caressing hands.

Madison sucked in a gasping breath, Nate’s lips attached once again to her pulse-point, as he slipped a finger into her center. She retaliated by trailing a hand over his chest and down, down, until she had wrapped it around him. He tensed for a second before trailing his lips back up her throat, toward hers, and continued pumping his finger into her. Their lips met again, this kiss hungrier than before, and Nate braced himself above her with his free forearm as she squeezed and pulled in time to the motions of his hand.

She released him after a long minute, dancing her fingertips back up his chest until she had curved her arm around his shoulders. He took her hint and pulled his own hand back, lifting it just a bit and curving it around her hip. One of her legs lifted, looping again over his hip, and Nate swiftly plunged into her without breaking the kiss. Madison gasped into his mouth, her nails digging into his skin, and rolled her hips forward to greet his.

They moved together in an instinctive dance, keeping their pace as slow and controlled as possible. Madison kept her arms wrapped around him, one leg curved over his hip and the other looped around his calf. Nate held on to her hip, his other hand tangling in her long hair. The kiss remained deep, hungry but not desperate, their tongues sliding together in time with the rhythm of their hips.

Madison slid one hand slightly down his spine as she arched into him, and Nate broke the kiss in order to dance his lips along her neck, up to her ear. His hand released her hip, gliding over her sweat-slicked skin until he had curled his fingers around the pliable flesh of her breast. He nipped at her earlobe as he rolled her nipple between his fingers and her hands clenched over him again, their hips coming together a little harder. And when she breathlessly moaned his name he let his teeth graze the side of her throat, surging into her again. Her body arched as he moved, and he released her breast in order to return his hand to her hip.

And suddenly they had converged at just the right angle, their hips coming together and holding for a long moment as their vision went white and the built-up tension within them finally exploded. She gasped his name again at the same time as he choked on hers, his face buried in her hair.

She was still breathing heavily as Nate collapsed beside her, and she rolled into him without hesitation. They couldn’t afford to stay up all hours of the night. He needed to rest and build up his strength. He knew that. He knew she knew that. So he curled an arm tight around her waist as Madison tangled their legs together and threw an arm across his chest. She pressed her face into his collar, her head resting on his shoulder, and he pretended not to notice the dampness of the tears that soon followed.

****

Dean pressed on the brake, easing his Camaro to a stop as soon as he had turned onto the dirt road. “You’re up,” he said quietly, his usual natural humor gone from his tone.

Nate released a breath and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. He reached for the door and popped it open before looking back at his brother and adding, “Meet you there.” Then he climbed out, shut the door, and kicked himself up. As he lifted he caught Blake’s and Logan’s eyes from the mirrors of Logan’s truck, but he only nodded shortly to them as he continued on his way. He went up until he was practically trapped in the thick branches of the tall trees, undoubtedly obscured by those below, but still close enough to see what was happening beneath him.

Logan’s truck was in front, as it was better designed for unpaved terrain. He drove slow, maintaining a good, controllable pace, and Dean kept a safe distance back. None of them knew what to expect.