The taxi cruised to a halt outside my former home, and I gazed out of the window. Six weeks had passed since I’d moved to Scotland, and with my arm out of plaster and feeling pretty good, I’d returned to California.
But not alone.
“Ye ready?” Maddock’s fingers touched mine.
“As I’ll ever be.”
We climbed out and grabbed our bags. At the front door, I turned my key in the lock, an odd sense rising of being a stranger here.
In many ways, I was. I didn’t live here anymore.
From the bare rooms and air of disuse, neither did Mom.
“Hello?” I called, the memory returning of coming home to an open front door and fears for Mom’s safety.
No answer came. The house was desolate.
While I dawdled, agog at the empty shelves and missing furniture, Maddock moved more purposefully. He closed the door behind us and strode down the hall.
“Where are you going?”
“Your bedroom. There’s something I’ve wanted to get my hands on for months.”
I followed him, my sandals quiet on the wooden floor.
In my room, nothing had changed. Mom’s boyfriend had clearly emptied out everything else from the house, now my mother lived with him, but they hadn’t touched my space.
Maddock made a beeline for my nightstand. From inside, he extracted a case.
Ohhh. Now I understood.
I propped a shoulder against the doorframe and regarded him. “You missed Little Maddock, huh?”
He opened the box and pulled out my vibrator. With an evil glint in his eye, he flipped the switch.
It buzzed to life.
“Still has charge.” He waggled his eyebrows, turning it off again.
We’d just travelled for almost a whole day, with long flights over the Atlantic then across the States to Los Angeles. Stuck in too-small plane seats, we’d joked about joining the mile-high club, but it hadn’t been an appealing thought with the miniscule plane bathrooms and Maddock’s over six-foot height.
Yet at his hint, my body flushed warm, displacing my tiredness.
I moved to my bed and climbed onto it. “Don’t brandish that at me unless you plan to use it.”
Maddock kissed me, once, and packed with meaning. “Ah, brèagha, I plan to. How long do we have until we need to leave?”
We were having dinner at Mom and Sean’s place, then spending tomorrow packing up my room so Mom could sell the place.
She’d moved fast.
I checked my phone. “An hour, but it’s only a five-minute walk.”
“Then get on your hands and knees.”
My throat tightened, and I gave an excited squeak, obeying him. Maddock stalked about the bed and kicked the door closed before lowering the blinds.
He turned back around. “Why are your clothes still on?”
“Sorry.” I grinned and tore off my top and bra before struggling out of my skirt and kicking away my sandals. “Panties, too?”
“Leave them for me.”
He prowled over. Almost completely naked, I got back into position, my heels and ass at the edge of the bed.
The vibrator buzzed once more. From behind, Maddock pushed my legs open, his jeans rough against my smooth skin.
“Remember what I told ye once, that I wanted to fuck ye with this while your lips were wrapped around my dick?” he said.
Alongside his words, he pressed the dildo between my legs.
I gasped then moaned, instantly so turned on. “I remember. Can we do that?”
He didn’t answer, instead just teased me with light touches right where I needed him.
At the airport, I’d freshened up, changing clothes, too, and I was glad for it. Because I wanted his tongue in on the action.
As if he read my mind, Maddock ducked and kissed my backside. He hooked my thong to one side, moving the vibrator around me, glancing over my belly but not touching any lower.
Then he kissed me at the apex of my thighs. I groaned and pushed my ass higher, getting rewarded with a lick in the same spot.
“Your taste,” Maddock said, rough. “Fucking addictive.”
He licked me again, sliding down to run his tongue over my clit. At the same second, he reached to press the dildo to my breast, directly against my nipple.
A zing of delight shot through me.
With his tongue and the dildo moving on my sensitive flesh, I arched into the touch, heat curling inside me.
“God, yes,” I chanted. “How about you lie on the bed, too, and I get to play with you.”
Maddock swore and pulled away. “Turn around. Undo me.”
I quickly twisted to face him and, in a second, freed his rock-solid cock from his pants. Still on my hands and knees, I guided him into my mouth and tongued the end.
Maddock gave up a sound almost of pain and dug his fingers into my hair. “Ye have no idea what a fucking beautiful sight ye make.”
“Yeah?” I slid him into my mouth, hollowing my cheeks as I took him deep.
Every time we came together, it was like this. A celebration of life. We’d lived together for weeks, and it had been perfect bliss. Even if we argued, neither of us sulked for long. And make-up sex was always the answer.
For a long moment, Maddock let me blow him, then he stretched to take the vibrator back to my core. But he clearly didn’t like something, as he snapped his hips back.
“Lie out on your back,” he demanded. “New position.”
I loved it when he got bossy.
On my back, with my knees bent, I grinned, and he knelt over my chest, astride me, with a rude grab of my tits on his way.
“Now suck on me again, sweetheart, and spread your legs.”
I moaned and opened my mouth for his cock.
Maddock trailed the vibrator down my thigh and rubbed it over my clit. I closed my eyes at the intensity, bringing my hand to help me work Maddock’s dick while he played with me.
Then he pushed it lower, over my slick heat and directly inside me.
Fuck.
I choked, dizzy with sensation.
“Don’t stop. I’m going to fuck ye with this while ye blow me,” he uttered. “Do a good job, aye?”
A good job? I could barely keep my brain engaged so incredible did he feel. With one hand, I gripped his thick thigh, like I needed a lifeline, and kept the other tight around his girth.
Maddock drew the vibrator in and out, slow at first, then speeding up. Inside, I throbbed, an explosion pending. The whole time, I sensed his attention on me.
Then he flipped the button to increase the intensity of the vibrations. The tone changed, the powerful rhythm had me trembling.
I slid him out of my mouth, needing to suck in air. I had no chance of staying focused now. All I could do was feel.
The buzz at my core. The way his big body pinned me to the bed. The strength of how he charged me up.
The heat inside me coiled tight, undeniable now.
“Fuck,” I gritted out.
Then my orgasm smacked into me. I moaned low and long, riding the fake dick. Maddock didn’t immediately turn off the device as I would’ve but kept it going.
Stars swirled behind my closed eyelids. Shocks travelled down my limbs.
“Too much,” I begged.
“Aye?”
With a flick of his wrist, he withdrew it, still buzzing, then he climbed off me and moved so he was directly behind me, both of us on our sides.
Then Maddock lined up and thrust into me. God! I’d always loved the feel of him. He was thicker than my dildo, which still buzzed on the bed, but the stretch of him after a mind-blowing orgasm only felt right. He held my breast and fucked into me, his forehead to the back of my shoulder.
“Am I too much?” he asked on a groan.
“No, that feels incredible. Fuck me,” I commanded.
He did, jacking his hips to glide in and out of my sensitive body.
“I love this so much. Ye. Every moment we’re together,” Maddock said.
“I love you,” I managed to reply.
Maddock’s fingers carefully turned my head so he could kiss me. With my eyes open, it was a full-on experience of him. While his mouth moved over mine, his hand moved to grasp my thigh, drawing it back over his leg. Once more, I was exposed to his touch, and he picked up the vibrator again.
Now, he brought it to my clit.
“I’m about to explode and I need ye to come again,” he demanded.
I reached back and brought our lips together. His tongue in my mouth, his dick deep inside me, his fingers pressing the dildo to my clit, I splintered fast.
In a second, Maddock gave up a raw growl and pumped his hips one last time before stilling. Inside, he pulsed into me while I clamped down on him.
Our kiss didn’t stop. Our love never would.
So perfect. So utterly satisfying. So us.
We were a little late making it to dinner.
Outside Sean’s house, my mother’s new home, I hesitated. Last time I’d come here, I’d yelled at Sean for bothering my mother. I’d had no clue he was romancing her. Then Mom had hurt herself and Sean footed the hospital bill, and now bam, they were living together.
With her depression and dependency, I’d long assumed Mom would need my care for life, trapping both of us, but she was here and I’d relocated thousands of miles away.
I drew in a breath. “I’m crazy nervous.”
“When we get home to your place, I have something I want to ask ye.” Maddock ducked and kissed my cheek.
I swung around and raised my eyebrows. “What is it?”
“You’ll have to wait and see.”
“Are you for real or is this a distraction technique?”
He pulled a smug smirk, then the door swung open and Mom appeared, Sean behind her.
“Aurora, my sweet girl,” she said in her soft, gentle voice. “And Maddock. It’s so good to see you again.”
I uttered a cry and ran to her, ducking to carefully hug her in her wheelchair. Pink spots decorated her cheeks, and she held herself upright, no pain apparent. We’d talked on the phone several times, but Mom wasn’t a huge communicator. Seeing her healthy and well settled a knot of anxiety inside me.
Sean greeted us both with warm smiles, and we were ushered inside.
Over our meal of homemade tamales, Mom chatted and ate, a new animation to her I’d rarely seen before. Sean explained that he and his daughter had moved all of Mom’s things to his, and apologised over and over for our old place no longer looking like a home. Already, around his kitchen and dining room, I’d spotted family pictures of Mom and me, and even a couple of paintings I’d done as a kid. Sean had not only moved Mom in, he’d adapted his home fully for her. He so clearly doted on her, and I liked him all the more for it.
When she’d been married to my stepdad, Wade’s constant negativity had drained her. In contrast, she shone under Sean’s love.
After dinner, Maddock helped Sean clear up, and I drew Mom aside in the lounge.
Her bright eyes took me in. “You seem so happy.”
“I am, but I was about to say the same for you. This is such a surprise. A very welcome one, I mean.”
Mom gave a tinkling laugh, and her gaze flitted to the kitchen door. “Sean is wonderful. He’s so caring and kind. I never knew it could be like this.”
I’d wanted to demand answers—why she’d never told me she was dating someone new, when it had started, how long ago she’d finally moved on from my stepdad, and whether she’d done all this to set me free—but a realisation settled.
None of that mattered.
Maybe she hadn’t planned on falling in love, but it had happened anyway, and life was full of surprises.
Mom reached for my hands, pressing my fingers with her cooler ones. “You’re happy with Maddock in Scotland, aren’t you?”
“Beyond that.”
“I’m so glad. I can’t pretend I don’t miss you, but I only ever wanted you to be free to live a life that you chose. It was killing me to see you working so hard to support me, stuck in California when you were so clearly meant for something different. I regretted every day how I limited you. Sean and I are going to travel next year, so we’ll come to the UK for a visit.”
Emotion choked me. “I’d love that.”
She smiled and settled into her seat. “Then tell me. I want to know everything. About the freelance work you told me you’re starting next month. What the people are like you live near. Every single thing. Make your old mother happier still.”
I did, and we left late and with everyone yawning.
Under the cover of dark evening, Maddock and I walked home hand in hand.
“That went well.” He brushed his thumb over mine.
“It did. I feel fifty pounds lighter.”
At the end of the path to my house, I stopped. “What was it you wanted to ask me?”
He tilted his head in query, as if he had no clue what I was talking about.
“Before we went in, you said you had a question.”
Maddock gave up the pretence, his natural grin emerging. “Ye remembered that.”
“Oh yes. I’ve been wondering all night.”
Between concerns over Mom, all manner of ideas had presented themselves in the back of my mind. All good ones, and each bigger than the last.
Maddock drew me in and pressed his lips to my forehead. “First, I need to check something. Has coming back here made ye feel any different about living in Scotland? Do ye miss California?”
A hint of apprehension played out in his tone, and my breath hitched. “Oh God, have you been worried about that?”
He gave a short headshake. “Naw exactly. But ye changed your whole life to be with me, I wouldnae blame ye for any regrets.”
“Let me set you straight. No, I don’t miss home, because home is with you now. I love where we live. I want to settle there, start a new job, have babies, and most of all keep you.” Then I clapped my hands to my mouth. “I didn’t mean to say the babies thing out loud. We haven’t been together anywhere near long enough for that kind of talk.”
Except an interesting expression crossed Maddock’s gaze.
Of need and urgency.
“What if I told ye I’d thought about that, too? Of marrying ye, and building an extension to the cottage so we have space for bairns? Lochie and Cait are adding to their place, so we can do the same. I have this plan to take ye away for a week before ye start your new job. We’re going to travel around Scotland’s North Coast, stopping wherever we choose and exploring. Then I have another question to ask ye while we’re there.”
“A proposal?”
“Aye, perhaps. What would ye say?”
I spluttered a laugh, because this was us all over—too gone for each other to keep emotions like that hidden.
“When the time comes, I’ll say yes,” I told him, pushing up on my toes to bring my mouth to his with a kiss filled with promise. “Yes, a thousand times. Because you are the start and end of my world, and everything is better with you in it.”
“I love ye,” he breathed, tight.
“You stole the words from my mouth.”
We kissed again, and I dragged his hand to finish our journey to the front door. In my room, surrounded by my clothes and art materials, including a painting I’d done of Maddock what felt like a lifetime ago, I showed him exactly what he meant to me.
Maddock McRae owned my heart, and I’d never steal it back.
