that what he wanted after all? To be free of Maddie? He was beginning to doubt himself. It rarely happened, but when it did, it was never good.
Sixteen
Maddie had cleaned her dad’s apartment from top to bottom—not that it needed it in the first place—and paced a path from the living room to the kitchen and back again at least a hundred times.
All afternoon she’d warred with herself over calling MJ and screaming at him, calling him every name she could think of and telling him she never wanted to see him again.
He brought out the very worst in her.
Maddie winced. Her head ached. She was sick of all the thoughts and feelings torturing her day and night. Ever since Talan pulled that ring out of his pocket her world turned upside down.
No, it was already upside down thanks to the Old Man. She wouldn’t even have been with Talan at all if it hadn’t been for Enzo Rocha and his secrets and lies.
Maddie wasn’t sure how she felt about that. If things could’ve been different, would she want them to be? If she could turn back time and find an alternate path that didn’t have Talan in it, would she?
It didn’t matter now.
She’d made her decision.
She slumped down onto the couch, leaned her head back against the soft, worn upholstery and closed her eyes. Thinking about a past that never was and never could’ve been was a waste of time. Enzo Rocha had run her off and that led her to here and now.
Maddie leaned forward and rubbed her temples, groaning. She needed to erase MJ from her mind, but how could she when so much was left unspoken and unfinished between them.
It wasn’t just MJ who had suffered when she left him.
She needed closure. There was no getting around it.
Faced with only one option for getting her life back in order, she slipped her sandals on and jogged down the steps. Once outside, she hopped in the golf cart and headed to the one person who could help her get to Turtle Tear.
Standing outside the guest cottage, Maddie breathed in the sun-warmed scent of honeysuckle that climbed a trellis by the front door. She and MJ used to pick the flowers, sit on the ground and suck out the sweet nectar. But their scent would always bring a flush to her face remembering the taste of honeysuckle mixed with sex on MJ’s tongue.
“It’s hot,” MJ said, stripping his T-shirt off and tossing it on the ground. “Take off your clothes.”
Maddie laughed and gave his chest a shove. “I’m not getting undressed out here for the entire world to see.”
“No, not the entire world. Just me.” He grasped the hem of her baby doll tank and tugged it over her head. It was so hot, she hadn’t worn a bra. MJ stepped in to her and closed his hands over her breasts, kneading while he lowered his lips to her neck.
She let her head fall back and closed her eyes against the sun. It lit up behind her eyelids like fire—like the heat that rushed between her legs. He unbuttoned her shorts and they fell to her feet.
MJ ran the back of his fingers down her sides, his touch so light, it brought chills to her skin. He grabbed her hips and kissed her harder, down her throat, across her collarbone and over the swells of her breasts. If he hadn’t been holding on to her, she would’ve crumpled to the grass.
When his lips left her skin and he stepped back, she whimpered. “Keep your eyes closed,” he said. “Don’t move.”
A moment later, she heard him return to her. He didn’t touch her, but she felt the heat of his body, so close, but never close enough. Not even when he was inside her.
A light, fluttering tickle ran over her nipple. Her eyes popped open to find him teasing her with a silky honeysuckle stamen, leaving behind dewy nectar droplets. MJ flicked the stamen over her shoulder and lowered his mouth to the peak of her breast, his lusty, dark eyes locked on hers. His tongue circled her nipple before he took it in his mouth and sucked, making her moan with pleasure.
MJ lowered her to the ground and opened his hand revealing a palm-full of yellow and white flowers. “Honeysuckle never tasted so sweet,” he said, trailing another stamen down between her breasts to her belly button.
Maddie was intoxicated by the lush scent of nectar, the wet tip