When We Collide (30 page)

Everything lit in a torrent of need when I tasted
what I’d lost.

Her hands trembled as she held my face, and she
kissed me back. There was no resistance, but complete surrender to
the indestructible bond that had been created between us so long
ago. The kiss was filled with a passion and loss that almost
brought me to my knees, but her hold against my face spoke of the
buried hope we’d always clung to.

“Maggie,” I begged as I edged back for a breath,
then dove into her again. Maggie.

I loved her. Oh God...I loved her. She was
everything, ripped me apart and made me whole.

Maggie whimpered and dug her fingers into my neck in
a bid to bring us closer. She kissed me back with every ounce of
desperation I felt, our worlds blurring and becoming one.

We collided, body and soul, mouths and hands and
whispered pleas.

Stumbling, we knocked into the wall. I was pressing
and Maggie was begging. A demanding rumble erupted deep in my
chest. Our spirits were frantic, a frenzied thirst as we struggled
to reclaim what we’d had.

“Jonathan?” I mumbled at her mouth as my fingers
threaded through her hair.

“He’s sleeping…at my sister’s. I snuck out after
everyone was asleep.”

Her heated palms caressed up my arms and over my
shoulders, and then rushed down to tug at the fly of my jeans. Her
eyes flicked up to meet mine as she pulled the buttons free, her
expression full of the same hunger that had never been satisfied in
me since the last time she’d touched me.

I sucked in a sharp gasp of air, my stomach
clenching in hesitation and overwhelming desire as my hands wrapped
around her wrists. “Maggie...stop.”

We needed to slow down, talk.

She rested her forehead against my chest, shaking
her head, before she pulled back just enough to look at me. “Please
William…let me feel you. I need to feel you.”

At her words, I came undone, unable to stop myself.
Sure I didn’t want to. “Maggie.” My answer was clear in the tone of
my voice.

Maggie fumbled through the rest of the buttons and
freed me of my jeans and underwear, and she pushed them down my
legs, her hands sliding back up my skin. I stepped from them and
peeled her t-shirt over her head as I did. Her hair tumbled over
her shoulders. My attention went straight to where it brushed along
a scar that began as a thick coil at her collarbone and thinned as
it angled across her chest.

A lash of fury whipped through my senses and spun my
head when I saw another scar ridging the length of the inside of
her right arm. My eyes flashed to Maggie’s face, and that shattered
place in my heart expanded.

“What did he do to you?”

Oh my God. I didn’t want to imagine what she’d gone
through when he’d inflicted these injuries, how terrified she must
have been. And I’d left her.

Tender eyes that had held so much sorrow now bore so
much more, shrouded secrets, loss and pain. She ran her fingers
down my cheek. “Don’t.”

She pressed herself to my body as if she could sink
inside, as if she could feel the guilt rolling through me.

I frantically covered her with mine, as if I could
somehow protect her from what she’d endured.

Each movement became charged, our mouths urgent.
Maggie dug her fingers into my shoulders to draw me near. A tiny
sting pricked at my flesh where her nails cut into my skin. It felt
like heaven—like something real. I wrapped my arm around her back
to hold her close, and the other I slid between us to palm her
breast over her bra.

She gasped a quiet hiss of pleasure.

I kissed her harder and caressed my hand up her
spine to free the clasp. She stepped back and tossed it aside.

Bending my knees, I leaned down to lift her from
below the hips. The soft swell of her belly pressed into my chest,
and a veil of her hair fell around us. Maggie clung to me, her feet
dangling above the floor as I buried my face in her scars.

It all felt like agony, like air.

I captured her breast in my mouth. Maggie’s hold
tightened. “William...please.”

I turned and laid her on the bed, dragging her jeans
and panties down in the same motion.

Maggie panted, her face flushed. She arched in
silent appeal.

Body quickened with strain, I climbed between her
legs. I slid my palms up her sides as I moved higher, and wove them
under her shoulders to cradle the back of her head. Her eyes were
wide, her lips parted, her heart pounding with the rapid rise and
fall of her chest.

I spread my fingers wide and cupped her bruised face
in my hands, my thumbs running over her cheeks. The marks had
faded, but not the magnitude of what they meant. I trembled in
restraint when I settled over her.

“Tell me,” I said as I brushed her lips with
mine.

Gentle fingers fluttered up to my face, and Maggie
traced my jaw. Her eyes filled with understanding, with the same
tenderness that had initially caused me to fall in love with her.
“I don’t know how to stop loving you.”

I closed my eyes and let the mirrored words wash
over me. Neither time nor circumstance had changed what we’d
shared. My smile was soft as I looked down at the same broken girl
who’d captured me, both of us so different yet somehow exactly the
same.

I shook as I filled her.

“I love you, Maggie.”

She gasped and encircled me with her arms. The
tremor that rolled through her body became mine. Maggie whispered
in my ear. “Every second.”

I shifted to my elbows to watch down over the girl
who still stole my breath while I stole hers. Her eyes were open
and wide, flitting over my face, memorizing, remembering this.
Pleasure rippled and danced with the heartbreak. Soft moans and
promises neither of us were sure we could keep filled the tiny
room.

Everything we’d hidden inside was revealed, six
years of pent-up desire and loss poured out between us. Holding her
was ecstasy, every touch perfection.

Her delicate hands pressed into my lower back, her
mouth hungry for mine.

“William.” Maggie strained against me, her back
tensed and bowed. “Please.”

“Maggie.” I rushed, a desperate hand gripping the
softness of her hip.

Maggie fell.

Her face filled with the same expression that had
haunted me for years, something so free and full of trust. Pink
flushed her neck, tinted her cheeks, and my name rolled from her
lips.

It was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever
seen.

I lost myself in her, in the tiny murmurs that
continued to slip from her mouth, in the tremors that shook her
body.

I shuddered, hit with the most intense pleasure I’d
ever known, need amplified by a flood of devotion. I was determined
to never let her go.

Maggie nestled into the pillow of my arm, her head
resting on my shoulder. Her heart still thundered against my
ribcage, my breaths still short. Fingers intertwined, I held our
hands up between us and studied them in the darkened room. Maybe if
I stared long enough I would see a visible bond holding us
together.

Maggie released a stuttered sigh. “This doesn’t feel
real,” she said.

I dropped my chin to see the wistful smile on her
face, her fingertips playing with mine.

I kissed her forehead and whispered against her
dampened skin as I tightened my hold, “This is the first time I’ve
felt real in six years.”

Her hand dropped to press at my bare stomach when
she shifted. Warm brown eyes stared up at me with a tenderness and
insecurity I’d almost forgotten. “I love you, William. You always
knew, didn’t you?”

I swallowed and averted my gaze to the ceiling.
Shadows crawled along the surface, like secrets fighting their way
out. I played with a strand of her hair, needing something to
ground me to the present as I struggled through the past.

“I tried to forget.” I glanced at her, and then
away. “You broke something in me that night, Maggie.
Subconsciously, I knew you were hurting just as badly as I was, but
another part of me couldn’t handle it. I spent a long time trying
to hate you.”

Maggie stiffened in my arms, and I looked down to
see the pain my admission caused. I caressed the tear from her
cheek.

“Maggie…it didn’t work. The second I saw you at my
mom’s…it was like I was standing in front of you in our spot all
those years before, and you were telling me to leave again. Nothing
had changed. It still hurt just as bad, and I still loved you just
as much. And then there was this little boy…” I trailed off. How
could I describe what that had felt like?

Lines creased between her brows as she squeezed her
eyes shut and seemed to try to block out memories. She rolled to
her side and propped herself up on her hand. I reached up to cradle
her face in my palm. The six years we’d been apart had wiped out
the little innocence she’d had left and added a new darkness I
wished I could erase. But beneath it all, I saw she was still the
same beautiful girl, the one who’d opened up to me and shared her
secret life. The one who, as scared as she’d been of it, had loved
me. Tears swam in the depth of her eyes and slid down her face.

“That was the worst night of my life, William. I
could barely look at you.” She paused. Her bottom lip blanched when
she bit it, but her gaze was unwavering. “Troy ruined me that
night.” She blinked twice and slightly shook her head. “He found me
when I was walking back to my parents that evening and dragged me
into the forest. He forced me.” Maggie pressed her face into my
hand as if she needed the support, her tone desperate, “I never
would have chosen him over you. Tell me you believe that. I loved
you...you were the only thing I ever wanted.”

Horror pierced me straight through. That sick
bastard had known what would harm her most, where her deepest fears
laid, and used it as an easy manipulation. Hatred pumped old rage
through my veins.

Blake had been right.

Troy had found a way to make me pay.

I lifted my other hand to her face and tightened my
hold.

“God, of course I believe you. Why didn’t you just
tell me? I would have taken care of you. Gone to the police
or...something.” I closed my eyes, trying to block out the cruel
images. They came at me mercilessly, penetrating to the darkest
places of my soul.

He will find a way to make you pay.

“He should be in prison, Maggie.” Or dead. Men like
that didn’t deserve to live.

Regret colored Maggie’s face, and she reached out to
gently wrap her hand around my wrist. “I was sick with shame. I
couldn’t stand you knowing what he’d done to me.”

“I could never be ashamed of you. No matter what he
did, it doesn’t change who you are or how I feel about you.”

“I understand that now, but you also knew me,
William, and you have to know how hard it was for me to believe
that then. You were the only one who ever understood how scared and
lost I was, and then Troy knocked me lower than anyone ever had. He
kept me in that place for years.” Maggie ran her fingers over the
stubble that coated my jaw, and she inclined her head in emphasis.
“I didn’t want to be there, but I was helpless to get away.”

Wrapping an arm around her waist, I slowly rolled
her to her back and climbed back over her. The urge to protect her
was too great, the need to make up for what I’d allowed to happen
too strong.

I laid low on her body, my arms a cage at her sides.
I rested my head below her chest, near the scars that taunted the
mistakes I’d made.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered into the warmth of her
flesh. “I never should have walked away that night. I did know,
Maggie. I knew you were lying to me, to yourself, to us. I didn’t
know how to handle it. You have no idea how much I wish I could
take it back.”

Her chest expanded with each panted breath she took.
I relished in the sensation, her life beating below me. I ran my
hand down her side and over the swell of her hip, wondering how it
was possible to love someone this much.

“It’s not your fault, William…he did this to us.”
Her fingers gentled through my hair, scraped over the stitches
hidden behind my ear. Maggie froze.

I lifted my head, and her hand moved with the motion
to rest on my cheek.

I felt the way her fear made her hand shake against
my cheek.

“He knows there’s something between us, Maggie. I
don’t know how much, but he suspects something.”

A tremor rolled through her, although she nodded as
if she wasn’t all that surprised. “He hurt you,” she said with a
heavy sadness.

“Maggie—”

She cut me off. From her expression, she already
knew what I was going to say. “When did it happen?”

“Last weekend. Blake and I were at the bar. I didn’t
see him, but I know it was him.” I left out the warning, the stench
of derangement that had seeped from his being.

Reaching out, I traced the marks littering her face,
drawing a line back to that night. What scared me most was I didn’t
know how much he knew or if he suspected Jonathan belonged to
me.

“Maggie, we have to—”

She silenced me with two fingers on my lips. “I’m
already gone, William. He keeps calling and demanding that I bring
Jonathan home, but I’m not going back. He thinks I’m going to, but
the second I can sneak away, I’m leaving.”

“Where?” I scooted up, holding my weight with my
hands.

“I don’t know…I’m just…going. Somewhere far. As far
away as I can get.” Her expression shifted, insecurity lighting in
her eyes, her voice soft. “Come with me?”

Maybe she expected me to say no, to give her reasons
why it was insane like she’d done to me before. But my answer was
easy and given without question.

“Of course.” I refused to be anywhere else.

Her expression didn’t soften. If anything, it
saddened.

“I…I need to know.” She searched my face. “If it
turns out Jonathan isn’t yours, can you still love him?” Words
laced with pain, but resolute. She’d put her son’s wellbeing before
her happiness. I knew that’s what she’d been trying to do all
along. This time, she was doing it right.