Chapter Two
“I’ve been waiting for this all day.”
The soft-spoken words tickled the skin of Maci’s rib cage as the feel of warm, calloused hands on her waist made her shiver. She writhed as those hands slid down to her hips, pulling her closer, and those lips climbed to brush her neck and shoulders. She couldn’t stop her groan at a soft swipe of a tongue along the hollow of her throat.
“Maci, you taste so good.”
Chance’s voice was so low it was barely a sound, and the heat of his breath on her skin gave her goose bumps. Threading her fingers through his hair, all Maci wanted to do was feel.
Here in her room there was no work, no clients, no danger. There was only the two of them surrounded by darkness. The pressing weight of him on top of her, the slow glide of their bodies coming together, the touches that anchored them together as they climbed.
Everywhere he touched, her skin burned. It had never been like this with anyone else. She shouldn’t have been surprised. There was no one else in the world like Chance Patterson. Even when he drove her mad, he made her feel more than she ever had before.
It always made her wonder how hard it would be to survive when he eventually got tired of her, when he realized how bad she was for him.
He nipped his teeth against her collarbone, his palm warm against the side of her throat. “Stay with me, Maci.”
He knew her. He may not have known the details of her past, but he knew her need to overthink things that could get the best of her during inopportune moments.
She pressed her lips to his temple. “I’m here. I’m here.”
He pressed a kiss over her throat, then continued along the side of her neck, driving her higher until she was gasping for breath. Her nails dug into Chance’s back as she found herself falling over the edge. He whispered praises with every sweep of his hips until they were calling each other’s names.
As always, there was a moment afterward where they clung to one another. Their breaths mingling, their bodies soft and warm and pliant.
Their hearts unguarded.
It was both too much and never enough for Maci when Chance looked at her then. She had too many secrets to guard, and he was too close to discovering them. Too close to walking away once he did.
Sated and relaxed, Chance pressed a kiss to her head, rolled to the side and tugged her into his arms. Maci tried to pull away, to give them some sort of space so the lines wouldn’t blur come morning.
She needed a minute. Just one to rebuild the walls he so easily broke through every time they were together like this. Usually, he let her have some space, but this time he was having none of it.
“Stay with me,” he whispered into her hair.
She wanted to. How she wanted to. No matter how short this passion with him lasted, she wanted him with a fierceness that made her feel weak.
Maci Ford was weak for almost nothing, but Chance Patterson was the exception to that hard-won rule. It was as surprising as it was oddly delightful.
When he squeezed her tighter, she smiled and let him drag her close enough that there was no space between them. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She didn’t want to go anywhere.
She wanted to stay with him.
She rested in his arms and let contentedness wash over her.
But as he fell asleep and the darkness around them became heavier, she knew she couldn’t stay. Knew she should’ve never let this happen again, no matter how much she wanted it. Knew she had to walk away from him—from this.
It was the only way.
Wakefulness came in fits as Maci reached her arm across the bed, expecting Chance’s warm skin. At the feel of cold cotton sheets, she frowned and pried her eyes open.
She was alone. Of course she was. She hadn’t been with Chance in that way since she’d snuck out of his bed two months ago. She’d made sure he’d known the physical aspect of their relationship couldn’t happen again. Even though that had been damn near the hardest thing she’d ever done.
Second only to seeing him every day at the office and trying to pretend like she wasn’t interested in him. That they were nothing more than professional colleagues.
She peeked at the alarm clock on the bedside table and groaned. 5:45 a.m. Not enough time to go back to sleep if she wanted to get to the office on time. She spent five minutes glaring at the ceiling—frustrated and wishing that dream had been real—before she tossed the covers off her body. She made her way out of bed and to the kitchen and started the coffee with half-opened eyes.
At least the coffee would give her enough energy to get through the day. Another day with Chance.
Maybe she should get a new job.
She shut down the thought almost immediately. She couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t. She owed the Patterson brothers for being so good to her. Who else would have hired a twenty-five-year-old with a shiny new GED and no experience?
No one. The Patterson brothers were all upstanding, honorable men. Even before she’d slept with Chance and they were bickering all the time she’d still respected him. She respected all of them. She didn’t want to give up her job.
She would have to find a way to continue working for San Antonio Security despite her very nonprofessional feelings for Chance. Which she thought was becoming easier until whatever had happened yesterday when the guys went to meet with Nicholas LeBlanc.
Chance had come back staring at her, even more grumpy with her than usual. No explanation, just a demand that she pull everything she could on the real estate tycoon and his company.
It had been all Maci could do not to tap her heels and salute. She was trying her best not to pick fights with Chance. Jabbing at each other at the office had been fun at first but now had taken a turn for a little more bitter since she’d snuck out of his bed.
She took her shower and got ready for the day, washing the memories of Chance down her drain like she tried to do every morning. Some day she hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. But she wasn’t holding her breath.
By the time she was ready to go, she was already half a coffee pot into her day and desperately in need of some food before the shakes took over. Still, it was nice pulling into the lot of San Antonio Security as an employee. She loved her job. Loved sorting the guys’ paperwork chaos into systems that were tidy and manageable. Loved taking things off their hands and greeting and helping customers.
It was nice to be needed and feel like she was capable . That was definitely a first.
She turned off her car and glanced at her cell phone. Swiping away the notifications from her calendar and news apps, she froze. Two missed calls and a text, all from her mother. She stared at the phone, wishing she could toss it out the window.
Delete. She didn’t listen to the voice mails. Nothing good came from her mother’s mouth before eight in the morning.
Nothing good came from her mother’s mouth any time of day.
She glanced at the text from her before deleting it also.
Need to talk to you.
“Of course you do.” Maci tossed her phone back into her bag, yanked her keys out of the ignition and opened up her car door.
She fought not to let the text ruin a day that hadn’t even started yet. Her relationship with Evelyn had been strained for years. Suffering from addiction her whole life, Evelyn treated Maci like a glorified ATM, showing up just long enough to get cash for her next fix before leaving again.
Taking a fortifying breath, Maci got out of her car, holding the handle up—the only way to get the door to stay closed on this vehicle that had seen better years. Evelyn wasn’t her problem today.
“Hi, baby girl.”
Or...maybe Evelyn was her problem today. The sound of her mother’s voice was enough to snap Maci’s spine straight. Turning quickly, she put her back to the car and stared at the slightly older reflection in front of her.
Evelyn Ford had once been the type of beautiful that people gawked after. Long blond hair that hung in silky waves, icy blue eyes rimmed with thick lashes and an hourglass figure that didn’t care what she ate.
Back then, she’d been movie star beautiful. Now, she just looked tired. Almost thirty years of addiction did that to a person. Her hair was still long, but fried and stringy, her eyelashes sparse around dulled eyes. Now her body was thin with scabs from itching. It was like the disease had eaten away at her.
It was everything Maci was terrified of becoming. Everything she’d come way too close to becoming.
It was Evelyn who had sent Maci into such a horrific tailspin that she’d ended things with Chance. A single text threatening to show up had been enough to send Maci packing.
Chance didn’t need someone like Maci dragging him down. He had a good family, a job he loved and a great life. There was no room for a high school dropout who’d spent her formative years following in her mother’s footsteps. The drugs, the men, the mistakes. Not exactly the type of daughter-in-law Clinton and Sheila Patterson were used to.
No, Chance was better without her and her messy history. No matter how painful it was for Maci.
“You can’t be here.” Maci leaned against the car door, blocking her mother from view of anyone coming into San Antonio Security. The office wasn’t open yet, but the urge to keep this part of her life hidden was stronger than ever. The Pattersons—Chance especially—didn’t need to know what Maci came from and who she had to fight not to become.
“You didn’t answer my calls.” As if it was normal for Maci to be on the phone at 3:00 a.m.
“I was sleeping.”
Her mother huffed. “Well, I need your help.”
Maci stared at her. If Evelyn wanted help in the form of rehab or counseling, Maci would do whatever was in her power to assist. But that was never the case.
When Evelyn said help , she wanted funds to feed her habit, to drown herself in her current drug obsession. “You need money.”
Evelyn nodded. She didn’t even seem ashamed. Why would she when Maci had been cleaning up her messes since she could hold a broom?
“How much?” It wasn’t how Maci would normally handle this but she needed to get Evelyn out of here now before someone saw her and started asking questions. That was the problem with working for a bunch of highly-trained security guys.
Her mother shifted on her feet, now looking sheepish. It was an act, one Maci was all too familiar with. Gritting her teeth, Maci wished she could just walk away from Evelyn. But she would follow. Telling her she shouldn’t be here would just ensure she showed up again.
“Three hundred.”
Maci sighed but was once again grateful she’d gotten her life together. Three hundred dollars was a lot, but Maci had made sure she had money in savings and enough in her checking to cover three months of bills if she needed.
There had been way too long when she had absolutely nothing.
“How’s Pop?”
Evelyn waved one bony hand. “Same old, same old.”
Hugo Ford’s drug of choice was alcohol. The last time Maci had seen him had been the week after she turned eighteen. He’d thrown her out of the house in a booze-filled rage, and she’d never returned. Still, she’d never been able to put him out of her mind. It was exhausting constantly worrying about people who didn’t care about themselves or her.
The rumbling sound of a familiar engine pushed Maci into action. She thrust her hand into her purse and pulled out her wallet, quickly counting out as much cash as she had. Maci held out the stack of bills, but didn’t let go when Evelyn grabbed it. “This is all I have, Mom. You’re wiping me out.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. This is the last time.”
Maci didn’t believe that even for a second. She let go of the money as Evelyn nodded then tucked the bills in her pocket and her hair behind her ear. Then without a word she was gone.
No hug, no thanks. It should hurt, but all Maci felt was relief that she was gone.
“Who was that?”
Everything in her body responded to the deep timbre of Chance Patterson’s voice. She’d been helpless against it from the very first day.
She spun, just as affected by his appearance. All long legs and broad shoulders, as if he could easily carry the weight of the world—and Maci knew for a fact he tried regularly to do. His face was too rough to be traditionally handsome—jaw and cheekbones hard and unforgiving.
The only thing soft about him were his eyes. Brown, but not a traditional brown—a lighter color, more of a molten honey.
She knew full well how those eyes could pin someone. Make them feel like they were the only person in the world when Chance’s attention was on them.
“Who was that?” he asked again.
“Good morning to you too,” she said, straightening her purse strap on her shoulder. There was no way she was going to explain the situation with her mother to him.
Those honey eyes narrowed. “Was that lady bothering you?”
She shook her head and started walking toward the office door. “No. Just wanted to know where she could buy tampons.”
Chance had three brothers and no sisters. Maci was betting on the fact that the word tampon would shut him up.
It worked. He let it go, walking with her toward the office.
“The Nicholas LeBlanc case might get messy,” Chance said. “Let one of us know if anything is happening out of the norm.”
She had no idea why he would think the LeBlanc case would affect her, but she nodded. She didn’t want to start the morning with a fight.
Chance unlocked the door and held it open for her. She walked through, heading toward her desk in the lobby.
“Maci,” he said and she stopped, turning to him.
Those eyes pinned her for a long moment. She wanted to be unaffected but knew that was the opposite from the truth.
“Yes?” she finally asked when he didn’t say anything else.
He still kept looking at her.
I’ve been waiting for this all day.
This morning’s dream came crashing back into her mind, as well as the heat that went along with it.
They were alone here in the office. Chance was always early. Nobody else would be here for at least another forty-five minutes.
She took a step toward him as if she was being pulled by a string.
“Chance?” she whispered.
He took a step toward her also.
She shouldn’t do this—shouldn’t let the moment build between them. But she was powerless to stop it. Powerless to resist those eyes. That jaw. Those cheekbones.
The man.
They both took another step, but then Chance blinked and stopped. He stiffened, backing away from her.
The moment was lost.
“Good morning,” he said. Then without another word, he turned and walked to his office, closing the door behind him.