Hold Me Close (Ryker Falls #5) - Wendy Vella Page 0,74

affair and Mom hadn’t seen, she wouldn’t have taken that overdose or left the note detailing exactly that.”

Maggie thought of the man who had lived with a woman who was clearly tormented. A man who wanted to look after his children. How he must have suffered too, losing his son and his wife.

“Did he say he was definitely having an affair?”

“I never spoke to him again.”

“What? Never?” She eased back to look at him, her hands still around his shoulders.

“No. Then I went a bit crazy. Stealing, not coming home. Disruptive in school. He came to my room one day and sat on the end of my bed. Told me he knew I was taking drugs, which I was, but I’d only dabbled at that stage, and that he was sending me away to a ranch. That he had to do it or I’d end up dead or in prison.”

“The same ranch Joe went to?” The memories had taken him back to those days. She saw the sadness in his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Do you think he suffered too from your mother’s behavior, Fin? He lost his wife and son.”

“He was having an affair, Maggie. She killed herself because of that.” The words were raw, filled with pain he held deep inside him.

“But do you know that he was? I mean, have you asked him?”

“Mom took a picture of the woman, and it was Mallory’s mother. She left it with the note.”

“How come your sister has forgiven him?”

Fin shrugged. “She said she couldn’t hold on to all that hate and anger anymore, and that she talked to him and he explained a few things.”

“But you don’t want to listen or forgive him?”

He looked at her. “You say that like you think I’m in the wrong here.” He was defensive.

“I didn’t mean it to sound that way, Fin, and I’m not judging you.” Maggie stroked the hair at the nape of his neck. “I have no idea what it was like to lose a parent… two parents, actually. No idea what it was like to live without the support of the people I love.”

“It hurts, but after a while you live with it.”

She ached for the boy who had “lived with it.” He had become a wonderful human who had scars so deep and angry inside him that one day surely they would consume him.

“I think you should speak with your father, if only for closure. You don’t have to forgive him but maybe it will make you feel better?”

“No.” His jaw clenched. “I won’t do that.”

“You can’t carry this anger around with you forever, Fin. It’s not healthy.”

“I’ve done all right so far.”

Don’t push any more tonight, Maggie. For now it was enough that he’d opened up to her. In time she’d work on the rest. In time? What did that mean? Friends, lovers, in a relationship?

She felt the strength in the thighs beneath her and heat from the warm skin of his body. A body she’d yet to explore fully.

“Thank you for telling me, Fin. I’m sorry if it hurt you.” Leaning closer, she kissed him softly. The breath caught in his throat as she moved to his ear. Biting down gently on his lobe, she felt his shudder.

“Welcome,” he wheezed as she moved to his chin.

Easing her hands under his shirt, she pulled it up and over his head, exposing all that lovely flesh.

“We could—”

“My turn to play.” Maggie pressed her lips to his briefly. “You just sit there looking hot.”

His laugh was more a grunt.

She kissed his shoulders, moved to his chest, and kissed every inch of that too. By the time she reached the waistband of his sweatpants, his breathing was choppy. Maggs looked at him as she ran a finger down his stomach. Watching his eyes darken as she slipped it beneath, stroking the smooth head of his arousal.

“You’re a wicked woman.”

Her smile was pure seduction. “I try.”

She made him forget, made him moan long and loud, and then when he demanded more, she straddled him again, taking him deep inside her.

“So good,” he said just before he took her mouth in a savage kiss.

And it was so good, Maggie thought. Too good, almost too much. Arching back, she felt his hands on her breasts and then she sailed over the precipice with him.

Chapter 31

Fin woke early with Maggie wrapped around him like a blanket. He had to admit, it was something he could get used to, but as he’d promised Chief Blake he would head up the