30. Madi

Chapter 30

Madi

We made it to my apartment in a glorious haze of held hands and whispered promises, with the streets of Cozy Creek fading into the distance as we drove through them into our future.

“You got my flowers,” he said after we’d entered my front door. I’d stopped at home to drop them off before going to the fundraiser. I couldn’t leave the peonies behind in Colorado Springs or let them wilt in my mother’s car.

“They’re gorgeous. Peonies have always been my favorite. For as long as I can remember. Thank you.”

His mouth fell open as he stared at me, perplexed. “Say peony but like this, ‘peenie.’ I know it’s weird, but⁠—”

A quiver surged through my veins, he remembered. “It’s not weird, and I’ll tell you why. As a toddler, I used to sit on Gigi’s porch and watch you and your brothers play with my sisters, pouting because I was too little to join you. Sometimes, you would bring me a peony to cheer me up. My mother told me the story last night. I don’t remember that at all.”

“I don’t either, other than a hazy image of you on Gigi’s porch saying ‘peenie.’” He chuckled. “But it sounds like something I would do.” He traced a finger down my nose and then kissed it. “I never knew I could feel this much so fast for somebody. My heart is full of you, Madi, and I don’t want this feeling ever to stop.”

“I don’t want to lose this. Not ever,” I murmured as I slid his jacket down over his arms.

“I want you. I need you. I’m so fucking happy right now I don’t know what to do with it,” he growled against my mouth.

“Take me to bed,” I murmured.

He backed me into the door. His lips hit mine again, tongue pushing into my mouth, hands roaming everywhere, before tugging at the zipper of my dress until it loosened, then fell to the floor at my feet.

His hands dropped from my face to my waist, sliding lower, gripping my hips, and gliding down to grab me where my ass met my thighs. He lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist with my back against the door.

His lips trailed up my neck, and I shivered when he nipped at my ear and kissed my jaw. “How about I fuck you against this door right now?” His voice was like gravel, low, deep, and needy.

He shifted my body to press his hard cock against my center. There was no denying he wanted me, not when I could feel the overwhelming evidence of it, not when he was kissing me like this and touching me as if he’d die if I turned him away.

My body melted against his as he held me. The only word I could manage to say was, “Yes.”

His lips touched mine like a whisper. “God, you’re so fucking beautiful. You have to know what you’re doing to me. I know you can feel it.” He ground himself against me through his slacks. “Tell me what you’re doing to me, Madi. Tell me what you feel.”

My eyes met his. “Cole. Please.” I was desperate to feel him inside me again.

“I’m right here and never letting you go again. I want you so much. Tell me what you want, and I’ll do anything. Say it.”

“I want—” I ducked my head, too shy to tell him.

He kissed my forehead, letting out a dark chuckle as his lips pressed against my temple, then slid down to my ear.

“Say it,” he ground out. “Say anything, and I’ll do it. I’m yours, Madi. You own me. You steal the breath straight out of my body every time I’m lucky enough to get my hands on you.”

“I want you to take me right here.” Our eyes locked. “Right here, right now, Cole. I need you.”

My heels hit the floor, and he spun me around to kiss my nape. He kissed a meandering trail down my body, unhooking my bra on the way. The garment fell to the side and landed on the floor as he knelt at my feet.

“When I first saw you waving at me with your gorgeous hair blowing in the breeze, I knew.” His words, murmured hotly against my skin, left goose bumps on my spine. “I knew you would destroy me, consume me, be the end of the life I had known. It scared me, but I held on. Because somehow, I knew if I got lucky, you would put me back together again.”

“Oh god, don’t stop talking.”

“Tell me what you want to hear.”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t find the words, and why would I try when everything he came up with on his own was about to melt me into a puddle right here at his feet?

He chuckled against my right hip; then he bit me. My knees went weak, and I shivered as his big hands dug into my hips to hold me up. “Don’t give out on me now. I just got started.”

I twisted, reaching down to run a hand into his hair. “Get up here, Cole.” He stood, burying his face in my neck while his fingertips slid into the waistband of my panties.

“I need you naked right now,” he said as his insistent hands cupped my ass to shove them over my hips. I kicked them aside with a groan.

“God, yes.”

“I want to make you feel as good as I do.” He reached low, bringing my leg up to wrap around his waist before slipping a finger inside me. “You’re so wet. You want me. You really want me.” His voice broke with vulnerability. “This is real, isn’t it?”

“It’s real.” I cupped his cheeks in my palms. “I’ll always want you, Cole.”

“I love you.” He drew back, slipping his finger into his mouth with a dirty smirk.

“You—” An involuntary moan shot escaped before I could gather my thoughts enough to speak. “God, the cats are watching us. Let’s go to my room.”

He took my hand and pulled me after him.

I shut the door behind us with a decisive slam.

“Okay. Time to get naked,” I demanded.

“Condom?”

“I’m safe—I’m on the pill. Get inside me, Cole. I need to feel you again.”

“Anything you want…” He stood and quickly stripped off the rest of his clothes before slipping his hands beneath my ass to lift me against the door.

He entered me with one hard thrust, and I sighed against his neck as he pressed his chest against mine.

“It feels like coming home whenever I’m inside of you,” he growled into my ear, ruffling my hair with his breath. “I’ve never felt like this.”

I wound my arms around his shoulders as he drove into me. “I feel it too.” I was powerless in his arms as he made love to me, unable to move save for the rippling pulse of my impending orgasm. “I need more. I want to touch you too. Let’s go to bed.”

“Hold on to me.” I held him tight as he walked us across the room, put me down near the window, and spun me to face it.

“I’ve been fantasizing about seeing you like this. With me.” His big arm banded around my waist, hand digging into the flesh of my hip.

I twisted back to look at him. “Yes, anything.” I breathed.

He held my chin and took my mouth in a hard kiss. “This window is perfect. Look at us.”

I turned and saw us in the glass. A riot of lights from the street below dotted our reflection, and I gasped as his hand snaked around to cup my breast.

“Now you can see for yourself how much I want you. How fucking beautiful you are. And how I’ll never let you go again.”

He stood at my back, and I watched, rapt, as the hand at my hip caressed a path down my body over the soft curve of my belly to cup me between my legs while the other continued to play with my nipple. “Look at us, Madi. You belong with me.”

“Show me more.” The warmth of his body against my back was intoxicating. He surrounded me, and I was enraptured—so in love with him that I was drunk with it.

His chin dropped to my shoulder as he slid inside me again, pushing me forward with his chest against my back until my hands came to rest on the bench. His palm wrapped around my jaw, keeping my head up so I could see everything he was doing.

In and out, he drove into me until we were both out of control and panting. Our gasping groans fogged up the glass, leaving us in our own little world up here as we fell apart to shatter into shimmering starlight together.

He swept me up and carried me to bed. We stared at each other as he wrapped me tight in his arms. The light filtering through the window glowed against our bare skin while the shadows from the wooden panes tied us together in shadowy vines.

“I love you, Madi,” he murmured, pulling me closer to kiss the top of my head.

“I love you too. You’ve shown me nothing but kindness, love, and understanding every day since I met you, and I love you more than I can ever say.”

This was a new beginning, one I hoped would never end. I glanced down at his body as he settled beside me, and I finally felt completely at home here.

Home.

How could I leave Cozy Creek? I knew I’d found everything I could ever want with him.

I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

Hewas my home now.

I drifted off to sleep in his arms.

Everything else would sort itself out over time as long as we had each other.