The Scottish Bride (The Brides of Holland Springs Book 5)(15)

“It would take a lot longer than four months to get rid of...” He let his words trail away when she gave him a baleful glare.

“You’re just going to keep doing this, huh? Keep punishing yourself and me for what actually didn’t happen.” She sliced her hands through the air. “I can’t believe I came all this way. I used the last of my savings to pay for my hotel room, my plane ticket, my cab, and on that Warner guy so he would call in sick.”

“Are you saying it wasn’t a fluke?” he asked, grabbing her hands and bringing them to his lips. He kissed her knuckles, savoring the taste of her skin. “You planned this?”

“I said I Googled you, Maddox. Stop not listening to me and open your ears,” she said as her hazel eyes filled with tears of frustration and sadness. “I’m here because I love you, and I was tired of waiting for you to come to your senses. Let the guilt go; it has no place inside of you. You are innocent of everything but leaving me and breaking my heart.”

A lump the size of a boulder formed in his throat. “I didn’t want to leave, but I had to. I couldn’t make you chose. You didn’t need to choose.”

“I know, but it doesn’t make the hurt go away. Only you can do that by coming home.”

He honestly didn’t know why he was fighting her. It would be so easy to give in and sweep Cadence off her feet. Take her back to his apartment and spend the rest of the day and night making love to her. Hear her throaty cries, see the way her entire body flushed pink moments before she orgasmed. Feel how she gripped his hair when he drank his fill of the sweetness between her thighs.

His cock grew hard, letting him know his body agreed with his line of thinking.

“We waited for so long. You were so patient and stupid about it, thinking I needed time to make sure you were the man for me,” she said. “Here’s the thing, Maddox. This is your last chance with me. I won’t chase you again. I refuse, and—”

He covered her mouth with his, a simple kiss meant to assuage the hurt, but then everything changed. His hands were in her hair, her arms wrapped around his neck, and he was pressing her against the brick wall.

She let out a cry of pain.

“Fuck me. Your tattoo. I’m sorry.” He spun them around, putting his back to the wall, and started kissing her all over again, mindful of her shoulder. Their tongues rubbed together, curled and played until he was nearly mindless. She was his again.

She wrapped a curvy leg around his waist. He grabbed her thigh, keeping it there while he began to move slowly against her.

“Come back to my apartment, my love,” he said, blazing a wet path down the slender column of her throat.

“Yes,” she moaned. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

“Sure you don’t want to finish filming?” he asked, teasing the corner of her mouth.

Cadence practically growled at him. “Stop asking stupid questions.”

He’d take that as a no, and then he’d take her back to his apartment. Later, he would deal with Finn. He would make him pay.

***

Cadence barely got her clothes off before Maddox was at her side, fussing over the tattoo he’d given her. Once he was satisfied her skin wouldn’t rot off, his big hands came around and cupped her breasts, massaging them.

Her head fell back against his hard, broad chest as sensation after sensation turned her into a puddle. “Don’t stop touching me like that.” She loved it when he touched her. When he caressed and kissed her like he was doing now.

“I’ve missed these beauties,” he said, letting go of her long enough to move in front of her. “You are a bonnie lass, Cadence.”

Goose bumps rose as he raked his gaze over her. The first time he’d seen her like this, she almost died of embarrassment and excitement. Maddox was so intense, so thorough, that it felt as though he could see inside to her very essence by the time they made love.

“Don’t be scared. I won’t be leaving you again,” he said roughly, mistaking the way she fell into her memories for hesitation. “I shouldn’t have broken my vows to you in the first place.”

“Maddox,” she said with a sigh. “Stop beating yourself up. If I had been in your shoes, I might have reacted the same way. You’re human.”

“Aye, but you’re my... mine,” he said, and she had to stop herself from frowning. Why wouldn’t he say—?

Then he kissed her again, and all thoughts slid away.

His hands coasted down the sides of her body, as if he were reacquainting himself with her curves. She responded in kind, sweeping her hands down, pulling his shirt up and over his head. Somehow, they barely broke their kiss.

Impossibly wide shoulders filled her vision, followed by a broad chest with dark hair—she’d always loved that about his body. He looked like a man to her, and not like the boys she’d gotten so used to seeing strutting around with bird chests.

His flat stomach contracted under her touch as she counted his eight-pack and bent her head to lick his nipple. A sense of urgency filled her when his hands touched her once more. Soon, she was ripping at his clothes and he was helping, toeing off his shoes and socks. Then she was in his arms, falling on the bed, laughing as she bounced and he gave her a look of pure, male pleasure.

No words were needed between the two at that moment.

She explored his body, kissed and licked almost every inch of him until he sat up and returned the favor. Just like always, he was concerned for her pleasure, for her comfort... for her ridiculously low tolerance for pain.