“Oh Briggs,” she whispers, turning around in my lap to where her legs are on each side of my hips as she cradles my unshaved face in her hands. “I am so, so sorry.”
I clear my throat, trying to unclog the emotion that has me almost choking. “The truth is, losing her didn’t faze me. She was never who I was meant to be with and this shit opened my eyes to that. But losing my brother? It killed me. It kills me to this day.”
Saying it out loud should bring me some relief, but all I feel is more hurt and hatred for Beau and everything he’s done to our family. To me.
“Needless to say, my trust is fucked. The two people I cared about more than anything in the world, betrayed me. I lost my shit, literally and figuratively. Hurt everyone I loved because I was hurting. You know that saying, “hurt people, hurt people?” That’s what my life was like for two years. I fucked up at every turn, and now… now I’m trying to fix those mistakes. It just seems like no matter which way I turn; I keep being reminded of those mistakes, which never allows me to move past them.”
A look passes across Maddison’s face, one that I can’t place. Pity? Probably. This is why I never wanted her to know who I was. This is why I haven't mentioned hockey, or the issues that can come with being in the public eye. I’m too scared that once she finds all the articles about my fuckups, and how shitty of a person I’ve been for the past two years that she’ll never look at me the same.
Without all of that shit dragging me down, she knows me. The real me, without all of that bullshit.
“Listen to me.” She turns my face in her hands, so my eyes are on her. “Your past does not define you. You are allowed to be hurt, you are allowed to do whatever the fuck you have to do to move past it, and those that love you won’t hold it against you as long as you learn. You grow. Don’t let them have another second of your life when they don’t deserve it.”
I don’t even pause to think, I lean forward and kiss her. I show her how much I needed to hear those words, to feel for the first time that I’m more than a giant fuck-up. That this pain and betrayal is only temporary and that one day I’ll be better than I was before it.
I lose myself in her. Shut out the rest and do nothing but feel her lips beneath mine. Her body commanding mine in a way that feels liberating.
“Shit,” she mutters against my lips, still pressed tightly against my body as we breathe each other in raggedly.
Pulling back, I see what she’s talking about. The sky around us has turned black, and storm clouds are rolling in quickly.
“We have to go. Now.” She leaps off my lap and grabs her bag, throwing it over her shoulder. I slide my hand in hers, and this time, we waste no time making it down the trail toward the boat. The last thing we needed to do is be caught out on the boat in the middle of another storm like yesterday when we arrived at the inn. A torrential flood.
Just as we reach the bottom, big, heavy fat raindrops begin to fall. We hop onto the boat, and while she starts the engine, I untie us free from the dock and push off with my foot.
Maddison quickly gets us back to the inn, even with the rain pelting us from every direction, soaking us both completely. I help her tie up the boat, and then, hand in hand, we run from the dock back toward the inn. The entire way, Maddison is laughing as we’re both drenched to the core. Her blonde hair is completely soaked and sticking to her face, and even though she partially looks like a drowned rat, she’s so fucking hot.
When we make it under the cover of the porch, we stop, trying to catch our breath as the rain pelts down beside us.
“Holy hell, the sky is falling.” She laughs, trying to wring out her hair.
“I know. Came out of nowhere.”
She nods. “Welcome to lake life.”
Reaching out, I haul her against my body. Beneath her tank top her nipples are hard and pebbled, straining against her top. I can feel the hardened peaks against my chest.
“You are so beautiful,” I tell her, bringing my hands up to cradle her face, swiping my thumb against her cheek. “So fucking beautiful it hurts.”
“Wouldn’t want to hurt you, Romeo.” She grins cheekily, then stands on her tiptoes and laces her hands behind my neck. The second her lips touch mine, the torrential rain around us fades away, the fact that we’re freezing in the cool summer rain, the fact that anyone could walk out here and see us making out like a bunch of teenagers. Nothing else matters but her lips, her moans as I slide my tongue inside her mouth and kiss her breathless.
“Briggs,” she breaks free from our kiss to mumble, “Upstairs. Now. Please.”
She doesn’t have to ask me twice. I’ve been dying to have her again since I devoured her this morning. There hasn’t been a second the entire day that I haven’t wished we stayed inside those four walls, so I can have my fill of her.
Her hand fumbles with the door, and she opens it, revealing an empty foyer. Thank fuck. As much as I want her, I would prefer to do it in private and not in front of her grandmother or any other audience.
The door slams shut behind us and her hands fist in my shirt, yanking me back toward her, taking what she needs. I kiss her hard, nipping at that bottom lip that’s driven me fucking crazy for the past forty-eight hours. When I roll it between my teeth, she moans into my mouth, sending a bolt of arousal straight to my cock.
"Quiet,” she whispers against my lips, and I nod.
At this rate, we’ll never make it up the stairs. Each step our kissing becomes more frantic than the last. Desperately unraveling as we make our way up to my room. Halfway up, I say fuck it, and lift her off her feet, hauling her ass up. She wraps her legs around my waist and rolls her hips, causing us both to groan.
When it echoes off the staircase, she pulls back, eyes wide, and places a finger over her lips. “Shh.”
Before I can even respond, her lips are back on mine, and her fingers are tugging at the sopping wet strands of my hair. Finally, some fucking how, we make it up the stairs to the top of the landing, and to my door. I set her on her feet to pull the key I stuffed into my pocket out and open the door. Pulling her inside, I shut the door and lock it, and it’s game over.
She lifts the hem of her tank top over her head and pulls the string loose from her bikini, letting it fall free. Her tits spill out, heavy and full. Her rosy, pink, hardened nipples stand at attention, begging to be sucked. To be bitten.
Her gaze darkens as she watches me drink in her body, and then she opens the button of her tattered shorts, and slowly drags them down her hips. Inch by inch, until they pool at her feet, leaving her in nothing but the tiny triangle of her cheeky bikini.
My mouth goes dry. Her body is fucking exquisite, and it’s taking all the restraint that I possess to keep my hands off of her and watch the show that she’s putting on. My hands itch to run down her ample curves, my fingers digging into her flesh as I fuck her.
Biting her lip, she slowly unties the strings at the side of her bikini bottom, and it falls to the floor in one swift motion, leaving her completely naked, and a sight to behold.
“Goddamn,” I curse, biting my fist.
"Your turn,” she whispers, running her hands up her body to cup her tits. I watch as she rolls her nipples between her fingers.