The Beginning of Us (182 page)

“Actually, I think this is the last one for the fall. It’s starting to get a little too cold for them, but it’s a good thing you’ve got me to keep you warm.” He looks at me seductively and chuckles. When he says, “I’m not sure what they’re playing, though. I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” I see the mischievous glint in his eyes. He’s up to something.

When the movie starts, I immediately recognize it as the one I described earlier –
Pretty in Pink
– my favorite movie
EVER!

“What the hell? What are the chances? Did you set this up?” I glare at him. “There’s no way that of all the movies in the world, they’d play this one.” My questions are rapid-fire. He just shrugs his shoulders and laughs at me a little.

It had to have been Mel, that little stinker. I can’t be mad, though. This really is amazing.

“Well, Mel told me about your favorite movies, and when I found out that this was the last ‘movies in the park’ for the fall, I
might
have convinced the operator to show this particular film.”

I’m in complete and utter shock. I wrap my arms tightly around his waist and tell him, “Reid, you have been simply amazing. Thank you so much. Tonight is a night I will never forget.”

We watch the movie cuddled together on our blanket, and when he drives me home later, he walks me to the door and kisses me goodnight. I physically have to restrain myself from turning into a puddle of mush when he tells me, “Goodnight, Maddy, and sweet dreams. Make sure you dream of me. I know I’ll be dreaming of you.”

Chapter 10

Reid

Maddy’s face hovers over mine seductively. I’m on my back in my bed and she is sprawled, naked and beautiful, on top of me. Her breasts crush into my chest – so soft and supple, I can’t help but sit up with her on my lap and touch her. It’s an instinct – a magnetism like one I’ve never experienced. I reach out and graze my palms over her pebbled nipples. She moans and arches into my hands. Holding their weight in my hands, I brush over her nipples with my thumbs and pull on them slightly. She grinds her pelvis down onto mine. She likes it, so I pull just a little harder, extending her already elongated peaks between my forefinger and thumb.

Leaning closer to her, I kiss the expanse of creamy porcelain skin between her breasts before pulling her pink nipple in my mouth. She nearly shrieks in response, and when I take it between my teeth and nibble lightly, she all but convulses on top of me. She is grinding into me, and I can tell she’s on fire. I can feel her heat; it’s scorching me. I kiss a path up from her breast to her neck. I kiss and lick every inch that I can reach. She leans her head to the side to give me better access. Burying her face in my neck, I can feel her hot breath at my ear. She’s mumbling incoherently, though occasionally I hear something that slightly resembles my own name.

She pulls herself back up to a straddling position and rocks back and forth over my arousal. I almost lose it. She’s so fucking sexy and so turned on. She can barely control herself. Placing her hands on my chest, she lightly traces her nails over my pecs and across my nipples. My eyes roll back. She moves her way down my body and grabs my cock, stroking with an intensity that I can’t endure much longer. Lying next to me on her side, my length firmly in her grasp, she whispers in my ear, “I want to do this with my mouth, Reid. I want to lick and taste every inch of you. Will you let me do that?” At that, all thought processes elude me.

She’s moving down the length of my body now and settling between my legs. I can feel her warm breath on me. I can’t take much more. She pulls me up to her mouth and leans down. Her golden, silky hair creates a veil around us. I reach down to move it out of the way. I want to see her mouth wrap around me, see myself disappear in between those sweet, hot lips.

When I have her hair pulled back and fisted in my hand, she licks at my tip before taking the first few inches in, and in that instant I know this is what heaven on earth feels like. She’s tentative at first, unsure – so I guide her with my hand, never forcing her to go further than she can. She catches her own rhythm, and I am lost to it. My back arches off the bed, and my head falls back. I try to open my eyes, but I can’t. The pleasure is too intense. My heart swells with joy having Maddy love me like this. It’s a feeling I’ve never known, one that I never want to go away.

But when Maddy lifts her head, my bliss evaporates instantaneously. Maddy’s face is replaced with one I had hoped never to see again. Her silky yellow locks are replaced with a short, severe black bob. Green depths with shimmering, vibrant flecks vanish, and cold, empty almost black pools of pure evil stare back at me.

Alex.

I shoot upright in bed. Oxygen will not enter my lungs. I gasp and nearly scream at the image that ended my nightmare – or was it just the beginning? I am sweat drenched and shaking at the thought of
her
mouth on me, of
her
body touching mine. Bile rises in my throat, and I have to sprint to the bathroom before I empty the contents of my stomach onto the carpet. Purged though I may be of this vomit, I will never be clean of
her
.

Alex is the last person who ever got close to me, and she’s the reason my family is gone. She’s the reason my world fell to a million pieces at my feet. Five years should be long enough to erase her from my memory, to absolve myself of this overwhelming guilt. Yet occasionally she makes an appearance in my dreams, which promptly turn into nightmares.

This one is different, though. Images of Maddy morphing into Alex aren’t just haunting; they’re terrifying. On some level, I know this is my brain’s way of telling me I need to share my past with Maddy. In all honesty, it’s killing me to keep it hidden. Part of me wants to tell her, wants to open up to her, wants her to help ease my pain. The other part of me is scared shitless. If Maddy knows the truth, if she learns about Alex and how fucked up I am, she’ll leave me. Of this, I’m certain. No one as sweet, loving, kind, and caring as Madeleine Becker would ever stay with someone who killed his own brother, all because of a girl. The world just doesn’t work that way.

*****

The night after our first date, Maddy has plans with the girls, so the guys and I order some pizza and grab some beer. It hasn’t been just the guys in a long time. There always seems to be a party going on or a revolving door of girls set up for the weekend. Well, now that I’ve got Maddy, the number of girls strutting through here has diminished considerably.

Jack tosses me a beer as he sets himself up on the other end of the couch. He props his legs up on the coffee table and takes a bite of his pizza.

Egging me on, he asks, “So how was your date with Maddy?” His tone mimics that of a middle-school student. Jerk.

“Tread carefully there, Jack. You don’t want to end up looking like me,” Logan warns Jack as he points to the yellow bruise on his cheek.

“It was good, great, actually.” I’m not going to lie about my feelings for her. I really, really like her, so fuck whatever anyone else thinks.

“Seriously? You, Reid Connely, the man who has never spent more than one night with the same girl, not only went on a date, but actually enjoyed it?” Jack is nearly beside himself with shock.

I’m pretty shocked myself, but it’s the truth. “Yeah, I know. But Maddy’s different. I really like her, and I don’t want to fuck it up.” I look over at Logan on that last part. He knows I mean business, so he just holds his hands up in defense.

“Hmm. Never would have thought it, but I understand. It’s like that with Cammie.” Jack may be a guy’s guy through and through, but he’s also been with Cammie forever, and he loves her more than life itself.

“Maddy will probably be around here more often, so I would appreciate it if you guys could hold back on the ‘Reid used to be a ladies man’ routine around her. I’m sure Cammie and Lia have already filled her in on all the gory details of my past. She shouldn’t have to come face to face with them every time she’s here. I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable.”

Logan surprises me when he speaks up instead of Jack. “Of course, man. Listen, I know I was an ass for what I did. I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry for the other day, and not just because you kicked my ass – again. I just honestly never saw you as more than a ‘hit it and quit it’ kind of guy.”

“Well, things change. Maddy makes me want to change. So cut the shit, and we’ll be good from here on out.” I do want to move past this with Logan, but I’d be lying if I said I’d already forgiven him.

“All right, you two. Can you kiss and make up already? I’d like to actually watch some of this game. Logan’s sorry, and you’re in love. Are we good now?” Jack has always had this fatherly air about him. It’s shining through right now.

Logan and I eye each other up, and we both speak almost simultaneously. “Yeah, we’re good.”

“Great, now quit your bitching, hand me another slice of pizza and another beer, and watch the freaking game.” Jack looks at us expectantly, and we hand over his demands.

The guys spend the night busting my balls. I don’t care, though. They can make fun of me for how I feel about Maddy all they want.

I’m happy for the first time in a very long time, and no one is going to take that away from me.

*****

The weeks pass, and the nightmares continue. I wonder if their occurrence, coinciding with the daily calls from a phone number with my hometown area code that I don’t recognize, have anything to do with one another. I push those thoughts into the depths of my brain, though. I have more important things to think about, more beautiful things – like Maddy and our relationship.

Things have been going beyond amazing with us. She’s fun and carefree, and we spend as much time as possible with one another. She spends most nights here, but I’ve also stayed at her place, too. We still haven’t taken it to the next level physically, and oddly, I’m okay with that. We stay up late into the night talking and getting to know each other. Falling asleep with her cuddled up in my arms, her cheek nuzzled against my heart, is pure perfection. I’ve fallen for her hard and fast, and I know it. I’m fairly certain that I fell in love with her that first time we danced, but over the last six weeks those feelings have definitely solidified and rocked me to my core. We’ve become so attuned to one another, and the closeness I once feared to be crippling and horrifying is now my life force, my next breath. I would do anything for this girl, and I know that she feels the same about me. We haven’t actually said the words yet, but it’s there in how she looks at me, in how I hold her close to my side in bed every night, in how her eyes crinkle in the corners when she’s laughing at me, in how I know that I would do anything to make her happy and to keep her safe.

So when she brings up her plans for Thanksgiving, which is in three days, I catch the sadness in her emerald eyes.

“What’s the matter, sweetness? Not a fan of Thanksgiving? How can you be sad over cranberry sauce and turkey?”

She sighs and pours her heart out. “It’s just that I never really got to do the holidays right. I know that my parents must have gone out of their way to make things special for me when I was a kid. I’ve seen the pictures, but it’s like when they died, they took my happy memories with them. They’re gone physically, and when they left, everything good associated with them went away, too. Looking at the pictures is like looking at someone else’s life. And then when I lived with Aunt Maggie, it was just her and me. There was no need to make a huge meal. There was no family to gather around the table and to share stories with.”

My heart hurts for her, and I wish I could give that all back to her. I would hang the moon for her if I could.

“Aw, baby. I wish I could change that for you, I really do. Come here.” We’re sprawled out on her couch at her suite, studying for finals, which start next week after the holiday. She moves in to my side and cuddles up against my chest.

“Aren’t you going home with Mel, though?” I ask.

“That’s the plan, but it just reminds me of how temporary everything is in my life. I mean, how many years am I going to go to Mel’s before something changes, before that’s no longer my home, either? Before we left to come here, I just had this distinct feeling that I was going to be on my own. So as much as Mel and Momma would love to have me there, I just feel alone.” She wipes a lone tear off her cheek and says, “The holidays are always rough for me, so I guess I’m just being emotional. It’s not really a big deal.”

A plan blossoms in my head. It’ll take some legwork and some cash, both of which I’m willing to spend on my sweet Maddy. As I’m lost in my planning, the girls stumble through the door, overloaded with shopping bags. You would think between the four of them, they would have all the clothes and girly shit they would ever need.

Melanie sees us on the couch and smiles warmly at us. We’ve been having lunch together every Monday since that first time and I really like her, and not just because she’s helped me with Maddy, but because she’s a genuinely nice person. Maddy’s grown used to our covert operations and more often than not, she just laughs at us, knowing full well that she’ll benefit somehow from our plotting. So when I ask to talk to Mel in her bedroom, no one bats an eyelash.