“Where are the stagehands?” We were completely alone.
“I bet she told everyone to stay away from me so we could chat. Normally I’m being rushed by a bunch of people before I leave.” I pulled away from him, the need to go home to my cottage took over all other thought.
“I wanna go home. My cottage home.” He nodded in agreement that we needed space from this city.
My driver pulled up to the back after one phone call and took us to the apartment to grab our stuff before heading to the country. Singing the song with Maddox standing so close filleted me open, and memories I’d held onto bled out. Then the collector fucked my emotional state further. Maddox remained calm the whole drive to the house, but the air around him seemed thinner. I stayed as far away as I could in the tight quarters since every time I neared him I had trouble breathing.
As the dark cottage came into view, a peace blanketed me. I could be myself here and let go of my emotions.
I thanked the driver, then tried to grab my bags before Maddox told me to leave them. Maddox stomped toward the house. So many words needed to be said between us, but instead of going inside I took off my shoes and stood in my garden. I relished the dirt between my toes and the leaves rustling in the nighttime breeze.
After the driver’s taillights disappeared, I slowly released my power into the plants around me to take the edge off. Every chaotic emotion inside me ebbed slightly. I sensed Maddox’s presence in the garden before I heard his boots hit the dirt. Flowers around me blossomed from the relief he was here.
“I’m so fucking pissed you agreed to meet with her and didn’t tell me. Now that we know what we’re dealing with, I’ve grown into barely contained rage. What the fuck, Hazel?” His anger stirred the calming breeze to flow faster and in all directions.
“I could say the same to you. You met with her first. We both kept secrets.” I faced him and my attitude died. Pain etched his perfect face. He’d felt the same as I did when I sang our song, and the collector’s attack fucked with his head too.
“I shouldn’t have come back.”
He flung those words at me through gritted teeth. I shook my head, refusing to hear those words. “I’m glad you did. I don’t see how I could live the rest of my life without you. Which feels selfish because I still have pain haunting me from before. Now all of this muddles those emotions. I don’t know what to do, Maddox.” Should I admit I’d never stopped loving him and potentially cause greater harm if anything happened in a week with the Collector? Or will our past drive a wedge between us forever, without a way around it?
I looked down at the dandelions pushing their seeds out from my powers accelerating their life span. “When we were kids, we wished on every dandelion blow.” I picked one up and brought it close to my lips. I closed my eyes and silently wished for what my lips couldn’t say. He’d heard the lyric earlier and knew what I wanted.
“I always wished for you, too.” Wind caressed my cheek, like an extension of his hand comforting me, then his fingers replaced the breeze and finally his lips.
Chapter Twenty- Seven
Maddox
The anger inside me bled into the wind, swirling around us. Emotions I’d long tried to push down were slashed open when she sang earlier. The collector poured lemon juice on the wound, and seconds ago I’d been pissed enough to demolish a town. Now all I saw was her, like I’d been thrown into the fire and only she could soothe the burn within in.
Her fingertips dragged along my chest to grip the bottom of my shirt. We temporarily separated to pull my shirt over my head, then our gazes locked. A silent agreement passed between us. We’d wasted enough time denying ourselves what we truly needed. We’d both been stripped bare by her song, and the threat to take her away from me. We needed to feel this living, breathing, and ever-present connection we shared.
With a stable breath, I lifted her shirt, my eyes never leaving her face. I wouldn’t rush this, and neither would she.
“Don’t destroy my house.” She smirked, and I smiled for the first time in what felt like hours.
“No promises.” I wrapped my hands around her waist, pulling the front of her body to rest flush against mine. Our smiling lips connected as our hands moved to unbutton our jeans. Every slow touch had our giddiness mending into something powerful.
“House or the garden?” I asked, giving her the option to choose where I took her, even though I knew her answer already.
“Garden,” she moaned as her lips moved down my neck and chest.
She licked down to my opened denim. A hippie and her soldier making love not war in the garden, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I cursed as she unleashed my cock and licked the head. Her hands slid up and down the shaft where her mouth couldn’t reach. A delicate hand broke free from its torturous friction on me to cradle my balls, and I lost it. One minute she was sucking me off, the next I lowered onto my knees before her, one hand wrapped around her back while I gently laid her on the ground. I quickly removed our jeans and tugged off my boots before nestling myself between her thighs.
“Shit. A condom.” The box I had grabbed after our first taste of each other sat in my bag inside the house. I looked down at her face and my body loosened.
“I trust you. Do you trust me?” Her hands reached up and cradled my cheek. I only trusted a hand full of people in my life, my squad, and her. Always her. I was clean, and Hazel didn’t sleep around like many celebrities did.
“I trust you. What about birth control?” Despite the heaviness of our talk, I flexed my hips, rubbing her wetness with my cock. Her mischievous smile grew on her perfect face and I needed to be inside her like I needed to breathe.
“What? You don’t want to make a baby with me, Maddox?” She giggled and her hands roamed over my shoulders and biceps. Images of a little girl with brown braids, mischievous brown eyes, and her mother’s wicked smile had me even harder.
Hazel thought she gained the upper hand, and there was only way to bring her back to the reality. When we were together like this, I ruled her world, outside of sex she could conquer any land she wanted and I’d happily fight by her side.
In one quick thrust, I slid inside her. The giggle vanished into a wide-mouthed gasp.
