Maddie and Wyn (7 page)

Wyn held his rigid military position, but Maddie swore the slightest hint of a wolfish grin briefly appeared. “So you want me to envision a scenario where tonight you were twenty-one, and had spent the last few years going out and meeting people, letting yourself get to know what it feels like to date and get to know somebody, learning along the way more about what makes you tick. You want the unvarnished truth about what would have happened if that was the situation we were in tonight?”

Her throat and mouth suddenly feeling like it was filled with cotton, Maddie still managed to murmur, “Yes.”

Wyn dipped down, put his mouth next to her ear, and said, “I would have stripped you naked, gotten you under me, and spent the whole night living inside you. Then I would have taken you home, put you in my bed, and spent the daylight hours fucking you too.” He moved just the slightest bit, and in doing so grazed his stubbly cheek against her smooth one. Suddenly they were eye to eye, the tips of their noses touching. “In between learning every inch of your body,” his warm breath fanned across her face, “I would have spent every other waking minute getting to know even more about you. And at the end of twenty-four hours I’m sure I would have decided that I wanted to keep doing the same with you every day for the rest of my life.” He straightened back up to his full height then and took a step back, but he did not crack a smile or look away. “That is how tonight would have gone down if the circumstances had been just the slightest bit different than they are right now.”

Oh my Lord.
Forget the pleasant throb that had developed between her thighs when he’d kissed her, Maddie now understood what becoming wet for a man meant in reality in a way she’d only gotten intellectually before. “Well then.” She fanned herself with her hands. It didn’t matter if he saw; he had to be better at reading her response than she was at hiding it. “That would be,” she cleared her throat and tried again, “that would be a clear explanation.”

The intensity in his stare didn’t diminish one bit. “You asked for the truth.”

Maddie’s neck was sweating and her heart drummed in her throat, but at the same time the depth of his confession, the
“at the end of twenty-four hours I’m sure I would have decided that I wanted to keep doing the same with you every day for the rest of my life”
, something he probably hadn’t even realized he’d let slip free, filled her, and a happiness grew from her core.

A measure of confidence slipping back in, Maddie flashed Wyn a smile. “So I guess when I’m twenty-one we have a date.”

His returning grin was lopsided. “By the time you’re twenty-one, you’ll have done so much living and met so many new people you won’t want the extended director’s cut of the kiss we just shared.”

Maddie kept standing taller, back to feeling fully alive. “You let me be the judge of that.”

“Right.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I wouldn’t presume to tell you how you feel now or in the future.”

A burst of laughter shot out of Maddie; she couldn’t help it. “Sure you would, but you can’t seem to help it, so I’ll forgive you.”

He blew into his hands. “Thank you.” His teeth suddenly chattered, and he rubbed his arms, covered only by the hoodie sweater.

Starting to walk backward toward the house on instinct, to someplace warm, Maddie waited the heartbeat for Wyn to follow and then said, “In the meantime, I’m going to try to be better around you. I won’t let my nervousness and uncertainty get the better of me, and hopefully that will help keep the jabs and punches I throw at you in control.” Forcing complete honesty between them, she added sheepishly, “I can’t promise perfection, and the truth is I kind of like poking at you, but if I can stop calling you names so much when I get scared, maybe you’ll let yourself get to know the real me better too.”

True softness finally cleared the last of the hardness from Wyn’s eyes. “I know you don’t mean harm when you call me names. Just like I hope you know it was never my intention to hurt you when I called you M and M.”

“I do.” She studied him for a long moment, and as she did, every part of her being called at her to embrace him. Answering the cry emotionally rather than physically, she said, “But maybe between us it’s time to attempt something new.”

Both of Wyn’s dark brows shot halfway up his forehead. “Like a real friendship?”

“Yeah.” He held back giving her more, and a claw of doubt scratched at her, making her voice drop to a whisper. “If you want it.”

Coming upon the steps to the cabin, Wyn paused, braced against one of the bottom posts. In the background Maddie could see the party still going at full swing behind the curtainless windows, but she stayed focused on Wyn, trapped, her breath held while waiting for his response.

Hands tucked into the pockets of his sweatshirt, the zipper tucked all the way up to his chin, in that moment a bear of an imposing, brash guy became just a real, true imperfect but genuine human in Maddie’s eyes.

“I’d take a stab at friendship with you in a heartbeat, Maddie.” The light in Wyn’s steady stare backed up his words. “You already took the first step with me tonight. You saw me in a bad place and you helped me out of it.” He cleared his throat, and his shoulders went rigid as he looked toward where the benches would be beyond the trees. “I won’t forget how you came looking for me tonight to help. And you did. A lot.”

For one reason only, the revelers inside became important to Maddie. “Do you feel okay enough to face the party again?”

Wyn swung to look at the cabin, took a moment, and then nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

“Good.” Nodding too, Maddie took a position at the center of the stairs and crooked her arm to him in welcome. “Let’s go.”

Looking skyward again, Wyn muttered something she couldn’t decipher, and then linked his elbow to hers. “You’re a special person, Maddie. A rare find.” He laughed out loud, something from deep in his gut. “I knew it the first time you called me a douche.”

Waggling her brows, soaring on the inside, Maddie regally escorted Wyn up the steps. “Here’s hoping you still think that when we kiss again in three years.”

“Good Christ.” Wyn crossed himself, but she knew he wasn’t religious or truly offended by her cheekiness. “You are too much.”

“I know.” One last time to sustain her for the next one thousand and ninety five days ahead she would have to hold back, Maddie leaned up and pressed a fast kiss to Wyn’s stubbly jaw. “But that’s why you like me.” Before he could protest that she’d broken any rules, Maddie pushed open the front door to Aidan and Ethan’s party and dragged Wyn back inside. “Come on. Let’s get you a drink.”

They entered the wave of partiers and pushed through the wall of music and people, without a soul looking up at them, nobody the wiser that Maddie and Wyn had ever been gone. But Maddie knew. And Wyn did too. Everything had changed tonight. The world ahead for the two of them was wonderful. Neither one of them would ever be able to go back. They couldn’t…

* * * *

…Wyn’s voice broke through Maddie’s memories and wrenched her back to the present.

Standing at the entry to her kitchen, in sweats and a faded Redemption Police T-shirt, Wyn watched Maddie with an intensity that quickened her pulse.

“Your cheeks have the same pretty coloring on them right now as they did the first time you kissed me.” Scratching his hand over his heart, something almost wistful softened his blunt features. “Christ, you were sexier and more tempting to me in those ten layers of clothes that night than any picture or movie I’ve seen with a woman in a bikini since. You were captivating, Maddie.” His Adam’s apple moving hard, Wyn stepped into the kitchen and took a seat across from her at the table, his voice rough as he added, “You still are.”

A different picture from the past flashed before Maddie’s eyes, and the too-vivid sight from four years ago stabbed at her soul.

She shot up, his flattery already a distant memory. “You have a funny way of showing it when it matters.” Dinner forgotten, she rushed to get away.

“I fucked up big time.” Wyn’s words stopped Maddie dead in her tracks, one step outside the kitchen. “I’m sorry about what happened that night. Truly I am.”

Maddie’s chest squeezed unbearably, with what exactly this time she didn’t know. She closed her eyes, as if doing so would block out the pain. “That’s the first time you’ve said that to me.” Her back to him, her throat was so dry and tight it barely produced sound. “I always thought your apology would make me feel better, but I still hurt. Maybe more than it should to you, but it’s real for me.”

A chair scraped across the tile floor. “Maddie—”

“Good night.” With that Maddie ran up the stairs to her room, too raw to deal with Wyn tonight. By morning she would have her guard back up. She had to. She wouldn’t be able to live with him and keep her distance, especially if he was issuing real apologies. She would not crack and let him into her heart again. She couldn’t.

The next afternoon, after having checked the various traps and baits he’d set throughout Maddie’s house—to which he’d found nothing to indicate an intruder—Wyn loped down the front steps, swung toward the rundown garden, and did a second evidence search within the wrought iron fences.

Maddie wasn’t home, but Wyn had worked an early shift today, which allowed him to return to the house earlier than usual. It wasn’t quite five o’clock, so he didn’t think Maddie was avoiding him—yet. He’d have to wait another hour to see if she’d come home on time, and if she did, if she would look him in the eye.

As if the exchange last night in the kitchen hadn’t put Maddie on edge enough, this morning they’d crossed paths in the hallway, which would likely happen a lot since they would share a single bathroom on the second level. Wyn had not been able to hide an erection from her. He’d ached physically for her, and she’d witnessed it. While neither one of them had acknowledged the display of his attraction, Maddie hadn’t said a single word, no longer even giving him her terse hellos or goodbyes anymore.

This might be a lot harder to manage than I imagined it would be.
With that thought, Wyn winced and groaned. He was a thirty year old man, and could no longer control when he got hard and when he didn’t. It didn’t matter that Maddie was rightfully angry and antagonistic.
Not where I expected to be with her at this time of my life.

A half dozen years ago, Wyn had been mired in grief, still dealing with the loss of his mother more than a year after her death, the only parent he’d acknowledged or respected for over half of his life. He’d never thought his growing friendship with Maddie back then would have become one of the best times in his life, a beacon while suffering through the worst…

* * * *

…Having dragged himself to his door to let Maddie in after her incessant banging outside his small cottage, Wyn trudged back to the couch and dumped himself across its length, the way he’d done every night after work for nearly a week.

Before his head could hit the armrest, Maddie grabbed his hand and forced him to sit up. “Come on.” With her hip jutted and her sunglasses pushed into her wavy tresses like a headband, she tugged at his dead weight. “Get off the couch and go get dressed. I don’t care that you told me you don’t want to do anything. We’re going out.”

Digging in—they’d had this conversation on the phone last night after all—Wyn scowled at the chipper woman. “We closed the deal on the sale of my mother’s house. It’s gone forever. It’s a big deal.” Morbidly, Wyn had driven past his childhood home countless times since he and Ethan had accepted an offer for the place. This was the house where his and Ethan’s father had left them, the place where Jayne Ashworth had spent the bulk of her two bouts with cancer, the structure where Wyn had watched his mother slowly die but still love him and parent him and guide him until the very end. He had not been able to stop looking at the old place or stay away.

He glared at Maddie now, although at this point she’d seen him in bad moods and dark head spaces at least a dozen times since becoming friends; she rarely flinched at the sight anymore. “I’m allowed to be in a funk about the sale.”

Strolling the living room, Maddie said, “Of course you are. I don’t deny that one bit.” Pausing, she yanked open curtains with one rough pull and flooded half the home in light. “But what you’re not allowed to do is mope in your house with all the curtains and shades closed for one of the rare full weekends you have off from work.”
Riiippp.
She pulled another curtain across its rod with dramatic flair and washed the rest of the space with blinding brightness. “There is a gorgeous, rare March day outside where you don’t have to wear a coat or boots, but you do have to wear shades or you’re likely to get blinded by the sun. I’m not going to let you miss it.” Before he could blink enough to get his sight back, Maddie strode up behind the couch, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and pinned his head back against the top of the cushions.

Leaning over him from above, looking way too glowing with no makeup to sound like such a drill sergeant, Maddie tightened her hold in his hair. “While I didn’t know your mom, based on everything you’ve told me about her, I have to imagine Jayne would kick your ass if you didn’t get out and enjoy this weekend for her.” Dipping down even lower, her gaze glinting with hints of smoke, Maddie put them nose to nose. “So how about doing the right thing here by getting your ass off this couch?”

A pang hit Wyn’s gut hard. He reached up and tangled his hand in Maddie’s hair too. “Low blow, Maddie.” Even as he growled, pictures of his mother tending to her garden as well as his on early spring days expanded painfully in his chest. “Very low.”

Maddie stood up, crossed her arms under her breasts, and raised her eyebrows at him. “Did it work?”

Wyn’s lip curled. If such a thing were possible, steam would have puffed out of his flared nostrils, but he still muttered, “Yes,” and reluctantly pushed himself to his feet.

“Then get dressed and bitch about it to me in my truck.”

Just as he reached the door to his bedroom, he swung around and zeroed in on Maddie. “Where are we going?”