Taken by Storm (8 page)

MJ sat in the corner of the shower and let the hot water beat down on his skin washing her away. He could stay there forever in the steam and silence and never see her again.

He had to get away from this fucking house, and everyone in it.

Start over somewhere new.

But, where the hell did he have to go?

He lifted his face into the water. He knew where. He’d go with Rachael. She’d already mentioned it to him. He could take her up on her offer to go to Turtle Tear and be gone from this place.

He’d also get to meet his cousins he was never allowed to know because they’re little kids and little kids can’t keep their mouths shut. One of them would’ve outted MJ to Merrick, and Enzo couldn’t have that.

He stood and turned the water off, dripped onto the
bathroom floor and padded out into his bedroom in search of a towel. Out his window, he caught the back of Mr. Simcoe’s golf cart heading toward the lake. Maddie’s hair blew out behind her as she drove away.

Why was she spending so much time out there? It killed him to spend time at the lake where they spent their summers when they were young, where they made love for the first time in the dark with lightning bugs blinking around them in the tall grass. Where she told him she wanted to be more and kissed him for the first time.

MJ loved being home on break and he hated it. Hated being where his grandfather didn’t want him, but loved being with Maddie. Now high school was over and he’d start college in the fall. No more being hidden away at boarding school. He could do what he wanted, when he wanted and nobody could stop him. He hoped that included spending a lot more time with Maddie.

She looked incredible tonight, like always. Her skin was tan, her shorts were very short, and her dark hair hung loose and wild around her bare shoulders. Those shoulders in a tank top did something to him. He wanted to touch them. Taste and nibble them with his teeth.

“Don’t you think?” she said, laughing.

He had no idea what she’d said, but agreed anyway. “Yeah. Sure.”

She pulled the top of a fat, white wildflower off of its stem and set it in the water. They watched it float. “I have to tell you something,” she said, suddenly serious.

“What?” Her blue eyes grabbed his and held on. It was like being punched in the stomach. “What?” he asked again.

“I… um…” She blew out a big breath and shoved her hair away from her face. “Why is this so hard?”

“I don’t know. Just tell me.” Playfully, he punched her arm and smirked. “It’s me.”

She smiled and bit her lip. “It is you. That’s the thing. I don’t feel like your friend anymore.”

No. No, no, no. He couldn’t lose Maddie.

He gripped her arms and held her tight. “What are you talking about? You’re more than a friend to me, Mads. You know that.”

She could barely look him in the eye. “What if I want to be a lot more?”

It took him a minute to understand what she was saying, then he thought he’d misunderstood. He’d been in love with Maddie for as long as he could remember, but she never thought of him like that. He was her best friend. Her younger brother.

Wasn’t he?

“More, how?” he asked. The question sounded stupid, but he didn’t know what else to say. He needed to be certain.

Maddie looked up at him and saw right through him as always. She took his face in her hands, rose up on her toes and kissed him.

His arms immediately found their way around her and held her to his chest.

Finally.

He never thought it would happen, but now that it was, he wondered why it had taken so long. It was obvious they belonged together. Nobody knew her like he did, and nobody knew him like Maddie.

His Maddie.

How could he think he could seduce her and get her back? Did he forget how addicted he was to being with her like that? With her breathless and ready to bend to his will? Jesus, it was all he could do to keep control of himself, and he wouldn’t take her unless she was his. Not again.

Never again.

MJ shook his head and turned away from the window. He had to find Rachael and figure out what the plan was. He had to get the hell away from here.

After throwing on a pair of worn jeans and a blue GSU T-shirt with holes in it, MJ wandered downstairs. Rachael had to be there somewhere. She didn’t answer his knock on the guest bedroom door, and she didn’t have a car to get around. He knew she wasn’t with Enzo, because his grandfather was locked away alone in his office.

He passed the living room. It was empty, the TV dark on the wall above the fireplace. She wasn’t in the library or the sunroom either. Heading to the kitchen, he figured he’d check outside. That’s when he heard her voice.

“Shannon, it’s not like that. You don’t understand.” Hearing Rachael’s words edged with temper, MJ peered
around the corner into the kitchen. She stood against the counter with her back to him. “I never should’ve told you, I guess. I thought you’d understand.” She gripped the edge of the counter with one hand. “No. I’m not coming back.” She shook her head fiercely. “Because, Turtle Tear
is
my home now.”

MJ waited until she hung up her phone before entering the kitchen. “Hey, Rach. Hear any more from my dad?” He almost choked on the word. It sounded awkward, but he’d gotten it out.

Rachael’s eyes darted around the kitchen as she tip-toed to the entryway and glanced down the hall. She turned back to him with a small, secretive smile. “Yes. He’s in Miami wrapping up some business. He doesn’t want you with Enzo for one more second than you have to be. Have you thought about coming to Turtle Tear with me?”

This was perfect. He wanted out and Rachael would take him. MJ put a huge smile onto his face, making his dimples—his dad’s dimples from what he’d been told his entire life—dent his cheeks. “Consider me there, Rach. Thanks.” He hooked an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

M
addie’s heart lunged to her feet when she saw MJ’s car missing from the driveway. She’d spent all day at the lake and at the grave in the woods steeling her emotions and trying to figure out if she should talk to MJ and tell him everything, or just let him go. Either way, she had to face him. Now, after finally mustering the courage to find him, he wasn’t around.

She sat in the manicured grass and slipped off her shoes, reveling in the feel of the slick, cool blades prickling her toes.

She should call Talan. Not because she was guilty for what went on between her and MJ. She and Talan were on a break, so she shouldn’t feel guilty. Still, she should call him because… well, because she wanted to hear his voice.

Maddie took her phone from her pocket and hesitated before dialing his number. When her thumb came down on the call button, it wasn’t Talan she dialed.

“Maddie? Is everything okay?” Her roommate—now ex-roommate since she’d gotten married last weekend—always worried like a mother hen. She knew Maddie had avoided going home to see her dad since last Christmas, she just didn’t know why.

“I’m fine, Mrs. Kara Bridges. I’m sorry for interrupting
your honeymoon. Is it everything you ever dreamed it would be?”

Kara laughed. “Oh, definitely. Steven’s sunburnt and peeling everywhere. I can’t even touch him without him batting my hands away. It’s quite the lover’s getaway.”

Her laugh sent a wave of warmth through Maddie. “Good thing you two covered that ground before you were married.”

Kara sighed. “I’m afraid it’s already a well-worn path, my friend. We’re beyond the sexy lingerie phase and stuck in yoga pants and stained T-shirts.”

“Don’t forget the granny panties.” Maddie laughed with Kara and wound blades of grass around her pinkie finger.

“How’s home? Is your dad thrilled to see his little Peach?” Kara always used her nickname against her, like it was the most embarrassing name Maddie could be called. When they were out with friends, Kara would let the nickname slip and Maddie would have to tell everyone how she became Peach and MJ was Mario.

Everyone always thought it was adorable.

“Of course he’s happy I’m here.”

“Have you come to your senses and told Talan yes?” Kara’s wedding planning bug was still in a feeding frenzy. She couldn’t wait to get Maddie in a bridal shop.

“No. I haven’t decided yet.” Something hard and shaped like regret shifted in her stomach.

“What did your dad say?”

Maddie squeezed her toes together, ripping out grass by the roots. “To take my time and make the right decision.”

There was a pregnant pause and Maddie knew what was coming next.

“And how did
he
take the news?”

Maddie should’ve never told Kara about MJ. “I didn’t tell him. There’s nothing to tell.” Maddie rubbed her throat. It was dry and getting sore.

Kara sighed. “
Yet
. Tell me what’s going on between you two.”

Maddie sank down onto her side. “Nothing anymore.”

“Tell me anyway.”

Maddie rolled to her back, rested her wrist on her forehead and gazed up at the blazing blue sky. “MJ and I…” Are explosive together. Are not meant to be. Are perfect. “He hates me.” Maddie shook her head. “I left him. I promised him I’d stay, and I left. He’ll never understand.”

Kara was silent for a second. “Why did you leave? You never did tell me.”

“I can’t tell you,” Maddie whispered.

“I won’t tell him. You can talk to me.”

“I can’t tell anyone.” Maddie swallowed her tears. She wanted to tell her. Needed to tell someone. But didn’t have the courage. “I can’t.”

Enzo Rocha’s strings were tied too tightly around her neck. If she breathed a word about what she knew, her father would lose his job, and he needed his job. If he didn’t, he’d already be retired. After student teaching in college, Maddie found out it was the last career on earth she wanted. Since then, she’d bounced from job to job and was
currently without one. She couldn’t take care of herself, let alone an aging father. If something happened to her dad—if he needed to be hospitalized for some reason—Old Man Rocha would pay the bills. She couldn’t lose that and risk her father’s financial stability for her own love life.

But, it wasn’t just her love life. It was MJ’s entire life—who he was. Didn’t that deserve to come first?

“Hey, Peach?” Kara said. “Don’t do anything stupid. Okay?”

Maddie’s mind immediately went to MJ licking gelato off of her. “Define stupid.”

Kara groaned. “Do what you have to do to get him out of your system. Trust me. You’re just nervous about having that ring on your finger.”

“You’re probably right.” She couldn’t imagine the ring on her finger. It was making her a nervous wreck just being around her neck. “I’ll talk to you soon. Hope Steven’s sunburn fades fast.”

Maddie hung up feeling marginally better. She stretched in the grass under the sun like a cat. Kara was right. In a couple days, this situation would look much better. She’d get MJ out of her system, have a level head and make the best decision she could. Even if that meant being alone.

It was an option that was looking better by the second. MJ, with his crazy family and terrible temper, wasn’t a good choice no matter how her body and heart responded to him. Her mind knew better. And Talan might be perfect on paper, but her heart and body failed to respond the way it should to him.

It was all wrong and backwards.

The only decision that was logical was to cut them both out of her life and strike out on her own again.

MJ stuck some tokens in the pitching machine and took his stance in the batter’s box. He needed to blow off steam and whacking baseballs at the batting cage was the best way he could think of without getting in trouble.

The balls came at him and he hit as hard as he could. They crushed into the back of the fenced-in cage.

Since he’d been booted off the GSU team, he had to settle for the run-down, slow-as-hell pitching machine at the mini golf course a few miles from the Rocha Estate. The group of middle school boys hanging out at the cage beside him wouldn’t shut the hell up, there was a half-dried puddle of soda making the soles of his tennis shoes stick to the concrete, and the huge lights throwing a yellow glare across the entire place buzzed so loud, he couldn’t concentrate.