When We Collide (21 page)

Her expression told me it may have been the first
time she believed it.

I kissed the blush, soothed away her fear of the
unknown. A brush of my lips across her belly, gentle fingers in my
hair, a soft sigh from her mouth.

Rising up on my hands and knees, I hovered over her
and dipped my head to kiss her mouth. Our tongues danced, slow and
long. My lips traveled to the edge of her mouth, her jaw, and down
her neck.

“William.” Her hands fisted in my hair.

I gently took the rose of her breast in my
mouth.

Maggie’s breath caught. She slid her tentative hands
down my neck and shoulders, wandering my body. My muscles twitched
and tensed. Nothing had ever felt so right.

An unknown hunger rippled through me like shockwaves
when she ran her hands up the planes of my back and pulled my shirt
over my head.

I leaned back on my knees and hooked my fingers in
the sides of her panties. “Are you sure, Maggie? We can’t take this
back.”

Her brown eyes warmed in the moonlight. She touched
my cheek. “I will never regret you.”

Swallowing, I slid off the bed and watched as I
peeled them down her legs. My gaze swept up her body, my voice
rough when I uttered her name.

“Hold on a second,” I murmured in quiet reassurance.
I hurried to the closet and dropped to my knees. I dug through the
duffle bag stuffed in the back corner on the floor. Grabbing the
box, I tore it open, realizing how badly my hands were shaking. I
glanced back at Maggie who watched me, shy but curious.

Completely bared to me, she waited, her hair spread
out around her face, spilling over her shoulders and onto my
sheets, and again, I was hit with awe with what this meant to
her—with what this meant to me.

I smiled softly at her as I stood and made my way
back to the bed. I shrugged off my jeans and underwear while
watching her for any sign of discomfort, anything that would give
me an indication to stop.

But there was none, just a vulnerable trust alight
in her eyes as looked up at me.

I rolled the condom on and slowly climbed back
between her legs.

She sank back onto the bed as I did, reached for me.
She whispered, “William,” as our mouths met.

She was panting by the time I pulled away, and I
snaked my arm behind her back and up her spine to hold her head in
my hand, the other propping myself up. “It might hurt.”

She kissed my neck, trailed her mouth up my jaw, and
then rested her cheek against mine as she anchored her fingers in
my back. “I know. It’s okay...just...please.”

Emotion rushed me, love and lust and fear.

She whimpered when I pushed into her, her eyes
squeezed shut, tears gathering at the corners. Her nails dug deep,
drawing blood from my flesh.

I shifted to my elbow, swept her hair away, kissed
her tears.

“Shh...shh...Maggie, I love you...I love you...baby,
please don’t cry,” I pled as I brushed my lips across her face, as
I urged the tension away, hating that I caused her even an ounce of
pain.

My body burned in restraint as I held her and let
the shock pass.

She released the breath she’d been holding across my
face and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her chest to
mine. “Love me.”

I kissed her, loved her. Every touch overflowed with
devotion, repressed emotions that could no longer be contained. Our
bodies moved as if they knew the other, perfection, the best thing
I’d ever known.

“Maggie.” My breaths came in short gasps, and I wove
my fingers through hers, pressed her hand to my lips.

Maggie.

This girl who had undone me, tossed me from my
foundation, shattered every belief.

Maggie.

The only thing I knew.

“Maggie.”

I let myself go.

William ~ Present Day

I turned back to face Blake where he stood across
the room. He was right. I was a coward, but not for the reasons
he’d initially believed.

I was a coward because I ran.

I never should have gone. Never should have given
up. But I’d never lied.

There was no amount of time that could change what I
felt for Maggie.

William ~ Present Day

I sat on the edge of my bed, facing away from the
door when the small knock sounded against it. I didn’t respond,
though I wasn’t surprised to hear the sound of it creaking open,
the guilty presence emerging behind me. Her short breaths filled
the room.

“Do you mind if I come in?” Grace asked.

I shrugged, but didn’t look her way.

“Blake’s really pissed off at me right now.” She
said it almost casually as she moved across the small space. She
fiddled with the faucet on the kitchen sink, grabbed a sponge and
began wiping down the miniature countertop, an obvious distraction
from her discomfort. “Guess you probably are too.” This time the
words didn’t sound so casual.

I finally looked over my shoulder at my brother’s
wife. “I just don’t get it, Grace. You know me…how could you
believe I would have pulled something like that?”

From behind, I watched as her shoulders sagged, her
head drifting lower. Her voice was soft when she spoke.

“You don’t know what it was like here, after you
left. You didn’t come home for Christmas, you stopped calling, made
excuses when Blake begged you to come back for the wedding the next
summer. I was so angry at you for doing that to him. You hurt him,
Will.” She paused, seeming to search for the right words. “Jonathan
must have been about five months old the first time I ran into
Maggie in town. I swear to God, my heart stopped in my chest. I’d
already chalked you up to being an asshole who cared nothing about
anyone but yourself. It was easy to add that to it. I tried to talk
to her…tried to dig for answers and asked her if she needed help.”
Grace peeked over at me. “Of course, she said she was fine. I
should have known better than to have even tried.” She blew the air
from her lungs.

I fought against the bitterness and resentment that
worked to take hold of my heart. I’d considered Grace a
friend—considered her family.

“Will, I’m so sorry.”

I nodded, facing away. “So am I.”

I stepped out the front door of the little
guesthouse and into the darkness. The night was suffocating, heavy
and dense, the world quiet and still. Breathing in the silence, I
stuffed my hands in my jacket pockets and wound around the side of
Blake’s slumbering house. Gravel crunched beneath my boots, echoed
as isolation as I made my way to the sleepy street and walked to
its end.

Sucking in the cool night air, I took in my
surroundings, the town asleep, and gave heed to the longing in my
chest.

Stupid
, I knew. Torturing myself this way.
But when it came to Maggie, I always had been. Stupid from the
moment I’d seen her. It was crazy how, for years, I had lived in
denial, pushed it all aside, and it had just taken me coming back
for it all to take hold, to take me over. I snorted at myself. More
like it had come after me when I’d refused to listen.

Running a hand through my hair, I contemplated for
only a second before I slipped into the darkness behind the
lumberyard and into the lush woodland that always seemed alive, no
matter what time of year it was. We’d taken this shortcut what felt
like a million times, so many of them walked in our own denial, as
two people who could never stay away, even though neither of us had
been brave enough to give in.

But for two weeks, she had been mine.

I passed the immense tree growing just off the worn
path. It stretched to the heavens, lost in the canopy overhead. I
imagined her pressed up against it, her heart pounding with mine as
our worlds spun with desire and laughter and a future we’d been
foolish enough to believe we’d have.

Pushing myself forward, I glided through the trees
and underbrush, felt her spirit suck the air from my lungs, the
memories so thick, I felt as if I could no longer breathe. Just at
the edge of our sanctuary, I stood frozen, held captive in the echo
that had once been my freedom. This once trampled refuge was now
dense and overgrown. With heavy feet, I forced myself forward and
folded myself onto the soft, high grasses slicked with dew.

I thought it might be too much when I leaned against
the fallen oak. I could almost feel her resting against my chest,
her fingers woven with mine, the freest smile on her face.

In the calm, I could hear her laugh.

William ~ September, Six Years Earlier

I held her, never wanted to let go. Her body burned
into mine, the warmth of her bare skin a blanket that covered me
whole. So many months had been spent dreaming of this, of what it
would be like to make her mine, imagining what it would feel like
when I heard
those
words fall from her mouth. I knew now
those dreams meant nothing compared to this truth. Our connection
was perfection.

Maggie shifted closer beneath the covers of my small
bed and drew my arm tighter around her. A shiver rolled through her
body.

I buried my nose in the vanilla warmth of her hair,
then laid my cheek against hers as I hugged her to me from behind,
brushing my lips just under her ear. “Are you okay?”

She rolled to her back, and I propped myself on an
elbow to look down at her. Her eyes swam with affection. I touched
her cheek, felt the hint of a smile beneath my skin as she slowly
nodded. She swallowed, her gaze wandering over my face. Chewing at
her bottom lip, she seemed embarrassed, before she soothed my worry
with hushed words.

“I never imagined it would be that way.”

I leaned down to kiss her, a gentle brush of my lips
against hers. Sliding my hand down, I cupped the back of her
neck.

It was everything that I wanted her to know, that it
shouldn’t hurt to be touched, that it was okay to be adored.

“I love you, Maggie,” I murmured at the edge of her
mouth as I wound my fingers through her hair.

A soft hand wrapped around my neck, and she kissed
me back.

~

The next day dragged by at too slow a pace, the
hours agony as I silently begged them to pass. Grace and Blake had
stayed near me the entire day. I knew Blake was standing guard as
my protector, ready for the backlash he was sure was going to come.
He continually looked out the front window as if he were expecting
an attack.

Yeah, I had woken this morning with my eye
throbbing, the flesh black and blue, but I couldn’t even bring
myself to care about Troy or any threat he might make. The only
thing that mattered now was Maggie was free—and she was mine.

It was really hard to find anything negative in the
situation when I was just so damned happy.

I couldn’t wait for the moment when I could sneak
from this house to see her again. Anticipation wrapped me tight,
thoughts of what tonight would be like now that our walls were down
and admissions had been made.

Grace was curled up on the opposite end of the couch
from where I sat. Her knees were bent with her feet on the
cushions, her head supported by her hand with her elbow on the back
of the couch. She searched me as if she could reach out and pluck
the thoughts from my mind.

“Would you sit still, William? You’re making me
nervous. Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.

I sighed. “I’m fine, Grace…really.” I looked at my
brother who pulled back the drape to peer down the road again.
Apparently the two read my anxiousness as something else entirely.
“Blake, would you just stop? Let the asshole come. I don’t really
care.”

Blake turned around. “You don’t get it, do you,
Will? You’ve just created a shit storm, and you’re sitting there
acting like it doesn’t matter.”

I scoffed. I would be happy to take anything Troy
brought my way. Welcome it. He
hit
her, and as far as I was
concerned, the broken jaw and fifteen stitches weren’t nearly
enough. In the light of day, the really sick part of me wished I’d
just finished it.

“What do you want me to say?” I inclined my head
when I spoke. “Because I don’t regret anything about what happened
last night.” Not the part Blake knew about and definitely not what
happened after.

“I want you to say you get that Troy isn’t going to
let this go. He will find a way to make you pay for what you
did.”

“I’m not twelve, Blake. I don’t need you to protect
me anymore.”

Blake dropped his head and released a small laugh
under his breath. “Well, you made that pretty clear last night.”
When he looked back up, his expression was once again urgent. “Just
lay low until you’re out of here, okay? For me?”

My nod was pensive. I really didn’t need a reminder
that I was only here for two more weeks. “Yeah, don’t worry about
it, Blake. I’ll be careful.”

Just before ten, I slipped out the back door.
Impatience quickened my steps—quickened my pulse. I couldn’t wait
to see her.

Mom and Lara had cornered me a couple of hours
before, ambushed me with questions about my eye, demanding answers
there was no way in hell I was going to give. I’d made up some
convoluted story that was barely believable about some guys I’d
never seen before at the next town jumping me when Blake and I had
stopped for gas. Only after I’d convinced my mom and Lara that I
was fine and I’d spent the next two hours listening to them chat
over hot tea was I able to escape. I imagined the late hour was my
only salvation.

Besides, I figured this town had enough gossips that
either of them could have just asked and they’d find the answers to
their questions. As it was, I was wondering why they hadn’t already
heard. I guessed since the only ones who had been there last night
were Blake and his small group of friends and that fucking coward
Troy, no one had uttered a word. A part of me wanted the whole
damned town to know what Troy had done, even if it meant I would
bear the consequences of it, while the other part of me wanted to
protect Maggie from any more shame.