Maddie and Wyn (37 page)

“It’s a good plan,” she told him, determined to lift his spirits and make him as happy as she possibly could. “And I’m looking forward to dinner.” Guiding him into the bathroom, she looked him over from top to bottom, and his savage magnificence made her belly flip flop. She ran her finger up his hard, flat stomach and across his chest, circling him halfway so she could continue her journey down his wide back and across the tight globes of his buttocks. “Let’s see what we can do to soothe that sweet ass of yours.” She grazed his taint, and he gasped. She moved to his side, lifted on her toes, and whispered at his ear, “I want to make sure you’re happy and eager for me to have another go at your backside in the future.”

Wyn stayed stock still, but she noticed his chest lift with a visible jump. “I look forward to how you’ll convince me.”

Oh my goodness.
Maddie didn’t know how, but already her pulse kicked in and her pussy flared with need for him.

She moved back in front of him, letting her bared breasts scrape across every inch of his skin she could reach. “Then let me show you step one right now.” Against his lips, she said, “I love you,” and pressed a soft kiss to his hard lips.

Wyn made a ragged, choking noise, backed her into the shower, and kissed her as if he planned to put his brand in her mouth for good.

Under the spray of water, Maddie rode Wyn, braced against the shower wall, and promised him wicked delights just like this for the rest of his life.

The moment she said forever, he came in her arms.

Outside Maddie’s garage, Wyn paced a path into the pavement, knowing he needed to go inside and talk to her about their future, but his gut twisted with sick fear about what she would say in return.

It’s day fourteen, the end of the two weeks she gave you to solve the mystery going on in her house.
And Wyn had failed. Nothing had come of the cameras he’d convinced her to install, and his lab friend had been slammed with work and hadn’t been able to get him results back from Nico’s water bottle. Wyn had nothing to show Maddie for fourteen days of living under her roof in an effort to make her home safe again. And maybe tomorrow she would kick him out.

Five days had passed since she’d told him she loved him. For five days they’d continued to have the best sex he’d ever experienced. And to his mind, for five days they’d continued to grow closer, eating and sleeping and waking up together, becoming a part of each other’s lives. But never once did they talk about what would happen at the end of the fourteenth day when his invitation to live in her house expired.

You didn’t exactly bring up the topic either, so you can’t put everything on her
. Wyn knew why he hadn’t said anything, even though the date lived just below the surface of his thoughts all the time. He was scared. He’d failed her, yet again, and maybe she wouldn’t think he was good enough to be her boyfriend for more than two weeks, let alone a husband for the rest of her life.

Wyn’s chest ached, cracking down the middle, fear pouring into his heart.
Christ
. More than anything he wanted to be the man she turned to for everything: when she had her best year at the shop and wanted to brag about it to when she needed someone to hold her when something in her world went dark or bad. Right now, Wyn didn’t even know if she wanted him to be in her house cooking dinner for them when she got home from work tonight.

And you’ll never know if you keep standing out here like a chicken instead of going inside and asking her.
Now.

His heart still pounding too fast for his liking, his hands shaking, he muttered, “Time to put up or shut up,” and yanked open the door to the garage.

The blast of air conditioning hit him, putting goose bumps on top of the ones he already had. Right away, Jayden, at the reception desk, said, “Hi Mister—ah, Lieutenant. Feels weird to call you Mister Ashworth; that’s how I think of your brother.”

Wyn dipped his head at the kid, saying, “Call me Wyn,” as he passed by the outer area of the garage.

“Not allowed to do that.” Jayden’s response had Wyn doing a left face, catching a profile of the kid as Jayden added, “Long story; has to do with my mom and respect.” Heat filled his face, highlighting the strong cuts of his cheekbones.

“Then Lieutenant is fine.” A fuzzy sense of déjà vu clouded Wyn’s brain, and he studied the boy’s features more closely. “Have we ever talked before last week?” His thoughts churned, wondering if he’d ever had to give the kid a warning while out on patrol or even bring him down to the station. Jayden didn’t have a record, but maybe Wyn had given him a stern talking to once upon a time. “Have we ever talked in a professional capacity before?”

“No.” Jayden stepped backward and pushed up with one foot to sit on a stool against the wall. “Just saw you at the school, like I said before, but we didn’t talk or anything.”

Tickles still working his thoughts, Wyn stepped closer. “Are you sure?”

Suddenly, “You harassing my people again, Ashworth?” thundered from behind Wyn and cut through his ear like a knife.

Son of a mother.
“Shit, woman.” Even though he knew it was Maddie behind him, as he turned, his heart rate still skyrocketed out of control. “You scared me.”

She smiled all big and silly. “Well then now we’re even.” She studied him for just a moment and the grin fell away. “Is everything okay?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Did you figure something out?”

Crap.
When he’d jogged over from the house, anxiety hadn’t exactly been the vibe he was hoping to instill in her. He blurted, “Nico’s almost finished at the house. He’s grateful and he’s going to come over and invite you out to dinner as a thank you. In case you didn’t feel like it I wanted to give you a heads up so you could come up with an excuse to bow out.”

“Really?” Cocking a hip, Maddie arched a brow. “You walked over here just to tell me that in person?”

Taking her hand, he muttered, “Come with me,” and tugged her toward her office.

And she steered him right back away from it. “Nope. G’s in there on the phone working on a special refurbish deal with a long-distance client.”

Wyn strode to the break room, found Robbie eating, exchanged a glare with him, and veered toward the back of the garage. “Damn it. What the hell?” His pulse rising, he growled as he passed Bill and Ernie working on cars. “You have a full house today.”

At least a dozen feet away from everyone, at the back of the garage, Maddie stopped on a dime, grabbed Wyn’s hand, and turned him to face her. Grabbing his upper arms, she gently shook him. “You’re starting to make me nervous. What is going on?”

Wyn glanced at the guys in the garage, and his stomach twisted.
Fuck.
This hadn’t been a good idea. He should not have come to her work to discuss this topic. It was just—
damn it
—he truly didn’t know if unspoken, per their agreement on day one, she expected him to be out of her house by the end of the day. He’d psyched himself up this morning during breakfast to say something, but he’d never been able to make the words come out. Now…

“Wyn.” Maddie pinched his arm. “Talk. Now.”

His throat getting rusty fast, Wyn whispered, “It’s day fourteen.”

“What?” Looking up at him, Maddie scrunched her brows. “What are you talking about?”

Oh fuck, please let her confusion be good news
. A butterfly of hope fluttered in Wyn’s chest, and his heart seized. “You gave me two weeks to live in your house and catch your thief, and today is the last day.”

Maddie’s face fell and some of the pink left her cheeks. “Oh.” She crossed her arms under her breasts but then immediately unfolded them and tucked her hands in her coverall pockets. “I guess I knew, but maybe I didn’t want—” Her face looked pinched, and she asked, “Are you saying you’re ready to go?”

“No!” The guys all jerked their heads up and looked at him.
Damn it.
Wyn lifted his hand to let them know everything was all right, and lowered his voice, reiterating, “No. Absolutely not.”

Wyn couldn’t swear, but he thought he saw light come back into Maddie’s eyes—
she still wants me
—and the wings of belief inside him grew, and his breathing started coming easier.

“Then I guess…I don’t know…” Maddie’s voice wavered, and she rocked on her work boots and shrugged. “I guess since we made a truce and started working together, I thought you’d keep staying with me until we figured everything out. Not only about the intruder, but about whatever Mrs. Corsini wants us to know.”

Yes!
Elation and relief and love flooded through Wyn’s system, and he swooped in and took Maddie’s lips with a hard, claiming kiss. Just as fast, she squeaked, even though she nipped him too, and he immediately let go of her and stepped away.

“Sorry.” Wyn held up his hands. Thank goodness he’d only made her lips a little bit red. “This is your place of business. I’m sorry.”

“No, I just—” She shrugged and rolled her eyes, but eventually muttered, “Yeah.”

He brushed her warm cheek with his knuckles. “It’s fine. I understand.” Acknowledging the guys working in the garage, Wyn glanced in their direction and spotted Ernie shaking Nico’s hand and Bill slapping him on the shoulder. “Oh, there’s Nico.” Robbie exited the break room, soda in hand, and Jayden stood back at the other side of the garage, watching from a distance.

Nearly all of Wyn’s suspects were in front of him at once, all in the same room. His focus shifted from one to the other to the next, and as it did the peculiarity of the evidence along with Wyn’s two weeks’ worth of instincts and brain teases coalesced into one big ball.
Could it be?

His heart rate kicked into a new gear, but not from fear this time. Suddenly one, two, three, four pieces of information popped out from the rest spinning in his brain, coming right at his face like heavyweight punches, and everything made a strange kind of sense.

“Son of a bitch,” Wyn muttered softly, full of awe if he was right. “I think I know. I think I figured it out.” So close to solving a mystery, his blood started to pump faster through his veins. “Fuck, Maddie.” Wyn slipped his hand in hers, needing her close. “I think I know what’s going on.”

*

“What?” Maddie swung around and looked up at Wyn, shock making her voice rise ridiculously high.

Wyn had his attention aimed squarely on the group in the middle of the garage. “Go get Jayden,” he told her, his lips barely moving. “Don’t spook him. Bring him to the break room.”

“Jayden?”
No.
Her heart rejecting the implications of Wyn’s words, Maddie tugged on Wyn’s hand. “What for?”

Still Wyn didn’t look at her. “Please trust me.” He gently squeezed her fingers. “Okay?”

Intensity hummed visibly through Wyn, and Maddie sensed this was who he was when he was at his best on the job.

Taking a breath, leaping again with faith, Maddie said, “Okay.”

“Thank you.” Wyn pressed a kiss to the back of her hand and let her go.

So very uncertain, but not wanting to tip Jayden off and ruin whatever plan Wyn had, Maddie leaned in and kissed Wyn’s cheek. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.” She hoped with everything in her that to anyone watching she was just saying goodbye.

Maddie strolled across the garage, even peeked in on Garrick in her office, said something insipid to him, got a weird look in return, and shut the door again. Then she called, “Hey, Jayden,” as throwaway as she could, and added, “Let me talk to you about your schedule for a second.”

Jayden ran up to her like an eager, gangly puppy. “Sure.”

Jayden’s pale brown stare was so full of light and curiosity and trust that Maddie’s heart started to squeeze unbearably. Every sort-of-motherly instinct in her screamed to hug him and whisper in his ear to run and hide as fast as he could before he got in trouble for something he surely didn’t truly do. Wyn’s
“please trust me”
and the way he’d squeezed her hand twisted in Maddie’s heart too, and her gut could not ignore the gentle plea in his tone.

Nudging Jayden with her elbow, Maddie said, “Garrick is still on the phone in my office, so let’s go to the break room,” and hoped like hell that whatever Wyn intended to do didn’t damage Jayden’s future for good.

The two had not sat down for more than a minute alone in the break room, where Maddie told Jayden she wanted to increase his hours for the rest of the summer if it was okay with him and his mother—which was totally true—to which lit Jayden up like a Fourth of July fireworks sky, when Wyn entered the room with Nico and shut the door.

Nico? What the heck?

Jayden shot up from his chair, the creamy coffee color draining from his face. Nico looked as blind in the dark as Maddie felt.

Wyn said, looking ten feet tall from his standing position, “Take your seat, Jayden.” Wyn sat down at the head of the table and Nico remained just inside the door. “It’s time to set a few things straight.”

His eyes giant pools of caramel, Jayden turned to Maddie. “Ma’am?”

Unable to remain disconnected, Maddie reached across the table and took Jayden’s hand. “Let’s hear what the lieutenant has to say.” She tugged him back to his chair.

Looking every bit a trapped animal, Jayden sat down. He pulled away from Maddie’s hold, clutched his hands in his lap, and Maddie’s heart cracked at the kid’s retreat.

As intimidating as if he were the president taking over the break room, Wyn leaned his forearms on the table, zeroed in on Jayden, and clasped his hands together. “Let’s talk about the break-ins at Miss Morgan’s home and the items and money that were taken.” He took a long pause, the silence sucking the air out of the room, and finally finished, “That was you who did those things, Jayden, is that right?”

Jerking upright, Jayden cried, “No!” and backed into the refrigerator, cornering himself in the room.

Wyn compressed his lips to a tight line, but then leaned back and sighed. “Miss Morgan isn’t looking to jam you up, Jayden, and I’m not here as an officer.” He took his badge out of his pocket, faced the shield down, and set it on the table. “I’m just here as her friend who wants to help her out.”