When Jada left Tiffany’s, she wasn’t planning on driving straight over to Maddox’s house—which was why it was sort of funny that she did. But she didn’t turn in at the drive. She crept down between the trees on the far side of the houses, like she had when she delivered the pie.
After she turned off her engine, she sat there, staring at the stars peeking through the leaves here and there as they waved in the warm breeze. Five minutes turned into ten, at which point she decided she needed to do something, couldn’t sit there all night.
She pulled out her phone to see if Maddox had texted her since leaving the Blue Suede Shoe. Although she’d been checking all night, she hadn’t heard a peep from him. And there was nothing waiting for her now.
Was he upset?
Although she’d deleted him as a contact, she easily remembered his number. She typed it in before sending him a message. What happened tonight?
No response. She figured he was asleep.
All the more reason to leave him in peace and go home. She was crazy to make the tug-of-war between them any worse.
She started her car, intending to back up. Instead, she turned it right back off. She was going in. Maddox could send her away if he wanted to...but she didn’t think he would.
If you come over, I’ll give you a back rub—and let you dictate what happens from there.
Taking a deep breath, she opened her door and shoved her phone and her keys in her pocket as she got out.
She’d wanted to be with him again for thirteen years...
She was going to do it. They could always go back to fighting the attraction tomorrow.
Maddox had finally dozed off. He thought he was dreaming when he heard a knock at the door. He imagined it was his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, that it was midmorning, sunny and warm outside. They must be going somewhere, he thought, feeling only mildly surprised, as if he should’ve known they were coming.
Then reality pierced through all of those strange and not entirely consistent images. He was alone in his house, it was late in the night and whoever was knocking on his door probably wasn’t his brother. Chances were far greater it was his landlord.
Was Uriah having problems?
Maddox sprang out of bed, just in case. He was anticipating another trip to the ER when he opened his door, so he was shocked to find Jada standing there, wearing the same silky black sleeveless top and tight-fitting jeans she’d had on at the club and rubbing her bare arms as though it was cold, even though it was actually hot and sultry, so hot that he’d been sleeping in his boxers with only a sheet.
They stared at each other for several seconds without speaking. Then he held the door and stepped aside so she could come in.
She edged past him as though she was afraid to touch him. But he knew why she was there, understood what she wanted. She’d told him via text before she’d quit communicating with him, and he’d felt her response when he was kissing her earlier. She’d been as aroused as he’d been.
“Does this have to go according to the script?” he asked.
She blinked at him. “What script?”
Obviously, her mind was traveling in a different direction than his. “The one you laid out on the phone? Because I’m not sure my brain will be functioning well enough to remember every detail.” He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to think at all, not once he started touching her. Whatever happened from there would be instinctive.
“The details don’t matter.” She stepped forward, caught his face in her hands and rose up on tiptoe so she could reach his mouth. “I can’t wait that long to feel you inside me, anyway.”
He heard a guttural sound and realized it had come from his own throat as her body came into full contact with his.
Jada’s restraint had snapped completely; she felt oddly reckless. Now that she was no longer holding back, she was going to make sure she got everything she’d ever wanted from Maddox—at least in a physical sense. Maybe she thought it would satisfy her beyond tonight. Put all the temptation he posed behind her. Who could say? She couldn’t figure out what was going on inside her head. She just knew that she’d never been quite so aggressive, quite so eager to experience a man’s body, to touch and taste him and luxuriate in the way he touched and tasted her.
Fortunately, Maddox didn’t seem to mind. His kisses turned frantic and deep almost immediately, and his hands were everywhere—under her blouse, in her pants. When he worked his left hand between her legs and slipped a finger inside her, she felt her knees go weak and had to pull away long enough to gasp for air.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I can hardly breathe,” she admitted.
“I know the feeling. We have to get rid of these clothes.”
He managed to pull her blouse over her head with only a small interruption to the way he was kissing her neck, and she helped him by wiggling out of her jeans while he unfastened her bra.
She felt it come loose as soon as she kicked her jeans aside, so she let it drop at the same time. Then, like him, she was in her underwear—only hers was a black thong.
“That’s better,” he said.
Jada felt a moment of self-consciousness. It had been a long time since they’d seen each other like this. She’d had a baby since then—his baby—which had changed her body in subtle ways. Her hips were a little wider, her breasts larger, fuller. And she had some fine stretch marks along her lower abdomen.
Fortunately, he didn’t focus on that, didn’t even seem to notice. His nostrils flared slightly as his eyes swept over her. “God, you’re even more beautiful than I remembered.”
“So are you,” she admitted.
He stepped close again, and this time when he touched her, it was with less emergency and more reverence. “I thought I might never have this opportunity again.”
She ran her hands over the firm contours and smooth, warm skin of his chest. “I thought the same thing.”
His hands came up to hold her head so she had to look at him. “So what does this mean? Anything?”
She wished she could look away. “A time-out from regular life. A break from the resistance. One night of whatever we want.”
“Just one night.”
He didn’t seem to like that she was putting strict limitations on their contact, but as far as she was concerned, something was better than nothing. This was the only way they could be together. “That’s all I have to give.”
“Then I’d better make it count,” he said, and she felt his hands slip around her waist to cup her ass as he brought her back up against him, more possessively now that he understood the rules, and that there weren’t any—at least for tonight.
“I can easily get this part of the fantasy right,” Maddox said as he swept Jada into his arms and carried her to the bed.
She laughed as he put her down. “That’s the only part you remember?”
He remembered a lot more than that. “No. I remember the way it made me feel, knowing you were the one saying those things.”
“And how was that?”
He guided her hand back to his chest, where his heart was beating like a drum. “Like this.”
One finger from her other hand outlined his erection through the fabric of his boxers. “And this?”
Her touch nearly stole his breath. “And that.”
“You don’t think we’re making a mistake, do you?”
“Hell, no,” he said, “but I’m not sure I could admit it, even if I did. Not right now.”
She laughed again, until he lowered himself on the bed beside her. Then she sobered as she stared up at him.
As difficult as it was, he refrained from removing her panties. He didn’t want this to end too soon. Just being with her, just seeing her so drunk on desire, was intoxicating for him, too, especially after jealousy had nearly eaten him alive at the club.
“It’s been thirteen years,” she said, her voice wistful.
“Thirteen years too long,” he responded and watched her lips part as he cupped her breast and flicked his thumb across the hard nub of her nipple. “You like that?”
The goose bumps that sprang up indicated she did. “Definitely. But please tell me you have protection. I haven’t been with anyone since...well, since my divorce. So I’m not on the pill. And I didn’t stop and buy anything along the way. I was too busy pretending I wasn’t going to do this.”
He loved the idea that she hadn’t been able to stop herself, couldn’t help hoping that if she had a good time, she’d be back for more. “I’ve got what we need. It’s in the nightstand.”
“Thank God you’re prepared.”
“I wasn’t when you texted me, but I bought a whole box the morning after.”
She grinned as she indicated that she wanted him to remove his boxers. “Then what are you waiting for?”
He felt a fresh deluge of testosterone as he peeled off her panties first. “What if I wasn’t prepared?”
“Maybe I would’ve left.”
He ran his lips up her neck. “You’re not getting out of here that easily.”
She slid her hand inside his boxers. “You have other plans for me?”
“Absolutely.” After kicking off his own underwear and rolling on a condom, he used his leg to spread hers and lifted himself on top of her. The prospect of pressing inside her made him a little jittery, a little weak, which was new for him.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“This is going to be good,” he replied and heard her groan as he pushed inside her.
It was late and Maddox had drifted off, but Jada didn’t plan on sleeping. She wasn’t going to waste a moment of her time with Maddox. She smiled as she watched his chest rise and fall. She’d given him quite a workout, but she couldn’t seem to get enough of him. Each time they made love was different. After the first time, which became frenzied and intense very fast, they’d made love twice more, once so slow that the climax that finally washed over her was one of the most powerful she’d ever experienced, and the other with her on top. She’d loved the expression on his face when she’d rolled him onto his back. He’d looked a bit surprised that she’d be so assertive. But then he’d given her that sexy smile of his, the one she’d dreamed about as much as anything else where he was concerned, and he’d given up control. As she straddled his hips and took him inside her, he’d whispered, “Oh God,” and closed his eyes—and she’d closed hers and abandoned any thought of holding back.
That was the last time. And she wasn’t sure there’d be another. The sun would be coming up soon. She couldn’t be seen leaving his house.
When she shifted, trying to see the clock on the nightstand, he stirred and muttered, “You’re not leaving yet, are you?”
“Not right now, but I have to go soon.”
“Tonight was amazing,” he said, his words slurred from sleep.
She smiled into the darkness. “Yeah, it was.”
He pulled her closer. “Say you’ll come back.”
“I can’t come back.”
“No one will know, Jada.”
“The more I see you, the greater the chances someone will find out.”
“We could meet in LA or Santa Barbara.”
“I can’t leave town.” Especially for that. “I have Maya.”
He said nothing for a few minutes. When he spoke again, she could tell he was wide-awake. “Are you going to let her come to New Horizons?”
“No.”
“Because of me?”
She had her head on his shoulder, so they were still physically very close, but she could feel the emotional distance widening. “Because of my family.”
“It’s a school, Jada. That’s all. Her best friend will be attending. It’s not fair to split them up because of something that happened in the past, something that had nothing to do with them. I’m the principal. It’s not like your family will have to deal with me one-on-one. I’ll just be in the background.”
She nibbled at her bottom lip. She wanted to let Maya go, but she was already struggling with her attraction to him. Look how badly she’d failed last night! Could she face bumping into him when she picked Maya up from school? Would increased exposure raise the risk that he might begin to wonder about Maya’s paternity?
He slipped his fingers through her hair. “I’ll look out for her. Make sure she has a good experience. I promise.”
Her stomach twisted into knots. She didn’t want to talk about Maya. It was so much easier when she kept Maddox and Maya in separate compartments in her brain, as she’d done last night so she could come over. “I’ll talk to my mother. See what she says.”
“What about Maya’s father? He should have some say.”
Jada’s heart jumped into her throat. It was all she could do not to pull away, but she didn’t want him to think something was wrong, just because he’d mentioned Maya’s father. “He does have some say,” she muttered.
“So he’s involved in her life?”
His fingers were still combing slowly through her hair. Normally, she’d find that kind of touch soothing, but the conversation was putting her on edge. Now that she could think beyond her own needs, she was beginning to realize how selfish it had been to act on her desires. “Not really. He’s an alcoholic as well as a workaholic. That didn’t leave a lot of room for us.”
“Surely he pays child support.”
Again, she barely refrained from pulling away. “Of course,” she said, although Eric paid nothing. She hadn’t asked him to; he wasn’t Maya’s biological father, so it was never an issue.
“Why don’t you talk to him about it? See what he thinks? It shouldn’t be up to your mother. It should be up to the two of you.”
She finally felt as though she’d waited long enough since the introduction of this subject that she could move away without setting off any alarm bells. “This isn’t a usual situation. You know why I have to check with my mother. Anyway, I’ve got to go,” she said as she climbed out of bed.
He leaned on one elbow while watching her dress. “Where’d you park?”
“In the orchard. I wasn’t about to pull down the driveway.”
“In the future, let me know you’re coming. We’ll hide your car somewhere, and I’ll pick you up.”
She kept her back to him. “I’m not coming back.”
“If you do.”
“Why?” she asked while pulling on her blouse and jeans.
He hesitated long enough that she paused before putting on her sandals. “Maddox?”
Although he answered, she could tell he was reluctant. “There’s a security camera on that side of the house. That’s how I knew it was you who delivered the pie.”
She felt her jaw drop. “You’re telling me Uriah will know I was here? He’ll see that I pulled in?”
Maddox winced. Obviously, the panic in her voice made him uncomfortable. “He might.”
“No! Why didn’t you warn me?”
“Because I didn’t know you were going to show up.”
“You could’ve told me when I did show up,” she said. “I could’ve left right away. At least then he wouldn’t think that we...that we...”
“Made love? Whatever he’ll think, in my mind it was worth it. I’ll never forget tonight.”
Neither would she. They’d created so many new memories—probably not a good thing, either. “I can’t believe I did this.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything that might scare you away,” he explained. “I wanted you here, in case that isn’t obvious by now.”
“But I’ve already hurt my family so much.”
“Not by choice.”
“This was my choice.”
“And I, for one, am glad you made it. Please don’t worry. It’s okay. Uriah’s cool. He won’t tell anyone.”
“He could!”
Maddox got out of bed and put on his boxers. “I shouldn’t have brought it up right now. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid.”
“That I’m being filmed coming here is, without question, something I need to know.”
“Which is why I told you. But please don’t regret coming. And don’t let it stop you from visiting me in the future. Just communicate with me beforehand, and I’ll make sure no one knows.” He reached for her, but she stepped away.
“Please...don’t tempt me. I don’t need that. And pray Uriah doesn’t notice it was me or, if he does, that he doesn’t tell anyone or... Shit.” What were the chances Uriah would keep silent with something that scandalous? Like most small towns, everyone loved a juicy piece of gossip.
She finished dressing and fished her keys from her pocket. She couldn’t get out of Maddox’s house fast enough.
Maddox shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t like that you’re upset, don’t want this night to end badly.”
“I’m not upset. I just... I can’t come back.”
“Because...”
“Because I can’t screw up my life again!”
He stiffened. “By being with me. I’m the big mistake.”
“No. Never mind,” she said, but she wasn’t convincing, and she knew it.
“You realize I didn’t pull that trigger, right? I’ve never done one thing to hurt you. Not on purpose, anyway.”
She could tell her words had cut him and she felt bad about that. What they’d just shared had been rare and intimate and fulfilling. He deserved some credit for being everything she’d wanted him to be, everything she’d craved. But learning that she’d been caught on tape going into his house and would be seen leaving hours later rattled her so badly she didn’t know how to react.
She had to get over him. At last. That was all there was to it.
“I’m sorry,” she said and hurried out.