Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
Jesse
I’m not an insecure guy. I don’t hover or throw my weight around. I don’t puff my chest in the direction of every man who looks in Madeline’s direction. I don’t need to publicly stake my claim to her.
That’s not to say I can’t get a little possessive, though.
It’s a flaw, I can admit it. I want her near me.
I want her thigh brushing mine under the table.
I want my hand on the small of her back.
I want to be touching her, always. If I had it my way, she’d be sitting in my lap instead of across the table.
Watching her laughing with Lottie folded into her shoulder next to her sparks a warm feeling under my skin. I love to see her like this—happy, relaxed, with someone she loves and feels safe with. But I also want her closer to me.
I don’t often see Madeline like this—completely at ease and unguarded. It makes me wonder if anyone else gets this version of her, or if it only exists in her best friend’s orbit. I realize that as close as we’ve become, I’m still seeing Madeline through layers she hasn’t fully unraveled yet.
Wes sits beside me, beer in hand, watching the same thing with his usual quiet focus.
Lottie, on the other hand, is anything but quiet.
She is a lot of personality packed into one person.
She talks with her hands, with her shoulders, with the energy of someone who’s never learned how to sit still and has no interest in doing it now.
I shift my gaze back to Madeline to find her looking at me with an amused expression on her face.
“We’re going to order a drink at the bar, do you guys need anything?
” she asks. Wes shakes his head, lifting his full glass.
“All good,” I tell her. She smiles like she’s keeping a secret and disappears toward the bar, pulling Lottie along with her.
The second they’re gone, Wes exhales.
“She’s…loud,” he says.
I smirk. “Lottie?”
He nods. “Is she a lot or is it just me?”
I watch his eyes track Lottie, who is currently leaning halfway over the bar, shouting something into the bartender’s ear. “Yeah, she can be intense.”
“Incoming,” he says, taking a pull of his beer.
I look up to see that Lottie has abandoned Madeline at the bar and is halfway back to the table. She slides into the chair across from us and gestures vaguely toward the bar. “The bartender just asked me what my sign is,” she says. “I told him it’s leave-me-alone.”
Wes snorts quietly. “Did that work?”
“Not even a little,” she says, shrugging. “He followed it up with a wink and then told me he’s off at 11 and lives nearby. It’s a bold strategy, I’ll give him that.”
I laugh, but stop when she turns her focus to me, eyebrows raised. “So, you and Madeline. It seems like you really like her.”
“I do,” I answer, wondering where she’s going with this.
She taps the tip of her finger against her cheek. “Are you always this…laid back? I have to admit, it kinda surprises me.”
I nod. “I’m a pretty chill guy.”
“Madeline is not chill.”
“That, I know.”
“And yet, you two seem really happy.”
I don’t fight the smile that tips the corners of my mouth. “I like her a lot.”
“That’s good,” she says quietly. “I know you’ve met her parents, who are a big reason why she’s as guarded as she is.
For her entire life, love has come with conditions and consequences.
That’s why she doesn’t let a lot of people in.
So, when she does, it’s not casual. It’s a big deal.
Trust and honesty, that means everything to Madeline. ”
“I don’t take that lightly. Not for a second.” But in the back of my mind, I see an image of my dad last night, and the weight of the secret I’ve been keeping from my brothers and from Madeline lands heavy.
“Good,” Lottie says brightly. “Because if you hurt her, I will absolutely help hide your body.”
Wes’s gaze flicks between us, the corner of his mouth twitching in an almost-smile.
I laugh. “Straight to murder, huh?”
“Yup! I will bring a shovel, dig the hole, break a sweat, hydrate properly, maybe take a minute to meditate afterwards. This will be a whole wellness journey for me, and then I’ll tuck you in and sleep like a baby.”
Wes lifts his beer. “That’s a little terrifying, but it’s good to have a plan.”
“You don’t need to worry about me, Lottie,” I say sincerely.
Lottie studies me for a long second, then finally nods once. “Okay,” she says simply.
I lift my beer and take a slow sip, and out of the corner of my eye, I catch Wes looking at Lottie with a subtle sort of curiosity. I almost choke because I know that look. I’ve seen it before, and it throws me because Lottie definitely isn’t his type.
I only have a second to think on that before Madeline slips back to the table with drinks, squeezing in next to me.
She giggles when I hook my arm around her waist and pull her straight into my lap, which I’ve been wanting to do all evening.
“So,” she says, looking from me to her best friend.
“Should I be nervous about whatever Lottie came over here to talk to you about?”
I huff out a laugh. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
She studies my face for a second, like she’s checking to see if I’m being honest with her.
I kiss her forehead. “She’s just looking out for her friend.” I glance back at Lottie. “And we’re on the same page.”
Madeline settles back against me, and I bring her hand to my lips, nipping my teeth against her knuckles. Then I squeeze her ass cheek, earning me a giggle. “You’re not going home tonight, Mads,” I whisper in her ear. “You’re staying with me.”
“Look at me,” I tell her, my voice low and steady as my hand slides up the slender column of her throat just enough to tilt her chin back. “Eyes on me.”
She does it instantly. She’s always a good girl for me.
The moment our gazes lock, something controlled and demanding settles in me.
I feel it everywhere, in the way my grip tightens on her hips, in the way my body takes over.
She’s on her back beneath me, legs wrapped tight around my waist, her body open and flushed and shaking as I pump into her in slow, deliberate strokes.
This has been building for far too long.
I spent all day with her at work, pretending I didn’t want her the second she walked into Cove.
Then at the brewery with her sitting on my dick, her ass rolling over me again and again like she had no idea what she was doing to me.
Every slow grind, every quiet breath in my ear, all reminders that she was right there, and I still couldn’t have her.
The second I got her through my front door, I took her.
I had run out of patience so there was no easing into it. I just needed to be inside her after too many hours of wanting, and too many hours of behaving. I needed her in a way that borders on desperate.
I brace one arm beside her head and drive harder and deeper into her, setting a pace that has her body answering without hesitation.
Little gasps and broken moans she’s powerless to stop fill the room.
I feel her everywhere in the way she arches her back and clings to my shoulders, the way she gives herself over to me completely.
Being inside Madeline feels better than anything I’ve ever felt in my life. She’s warm and soft, gripping my cock like a tide that won’t release its pull. Needing to be deeper insider of her, I slide my hands to her hips and flip her over until she’s on her hands and knees for me.
“I want to fuck you like this so I can go real deep.” I grip the base of my pulsing cock and nestle it between her ass cheeks.
A strange guttural sound leaves my lips at the sight of my dick jutting between her creamy, warm skin.
Fuck, I could come in buckets just by doing this.
The change in position makes her breath hitch when I push inside of her, her back bowing naturally, her spine a smooth, perfect line beneath my palms.
I drag my hands slowly down her back, tracing every inch of her, letting my thumbs linger at the curve of her waist before sliding lower. God, her skin is flawless. She looks back at me over her shoulder, eyes blown wide with want, lips parted, flushed, and breathing hard.
“That’s it,” I murmur. “Show me.”
I spread her open with my hands, slow and deliberate, my thumbs pressing into her hips as I line myself up behind her.
“I want to be the only one who gets to do this,” I say quietly, firmly. “The only one who ever comes inside you.”
Then I push into her in one deep, unbroken thrust, pressing forward until my hips are flush to her body. Until my pelvis is against her ass and there is nowhere left for either of us to go.
She cries out my name as her neck arches and her hands tremble against the mattress.
“Damn, baby girl,” I say, feeling her arousal coat my shaft. “This is going to get rough. Can you take it?”
“I can take it.”
“If it hurts, you need to tell me.”
“I will.”
“Good girl,” I say, pressing my palm onto her lower back so she arches for me. “Fuck, I love the feel of you.”
I rut into her from behind in long, relentless strokes, my pelvis slapping hard against her ass as her breathing fractures and her legs start to shake beneath her.
The way she falls apart is devastating—every tremor, every broken sound, every desperate reach for the edge.
I watch her come apart around me before pulling her back against my chest so we’re both on our knees.
Her spine is flush to my front as I keep pumping into her, my face buried in her neck, breathing her in while she rides out the last of it.
I try to hold on just a little bit longer, but when she turns around and catches my chin so she can kiss me, I finally lose it too, spilling deep inside of her with a groan.
I stay buried in her warm, wet body, emptying myself completely until there is nothing left but the two of us shaking together in the aftermath.
The rush fades and leaves something quieter but just as powerful in its wake.
My body is still catching up, my pulse still racing, but it’s my heart that feels out of control now.
The feelings moving through me are bigger than want, bigger than heat.
They scare me a little, if I’m being honest. I’ve never been the kind of guy who falls easily, who imagines a future with someone and actually means it.
But with Madeline, it’s already there, unfolding in ways I don’t know how to stop.
I don’t know exactly when it happened—when wanting her turned into something deeper—but I feel it now, clear as anything I’ve ever known. I can already see the version of myself who doesn’t want a single day without her in it.
I don’t know if this is love, but I’m pretty sure I’m standing right on the edge of it—and for once, I’m not afraid to fall.
The next morning, I’m lining up another screw when the screen door creaks behind me.
Madeline stands at the doorway in just my T-shirt, sleep-soft hair falling over one shoulder. She has both hands wrapped around a mug she must’ve found in the kitchen that I left for her. She looks like she belongs here.
“Have you built this all yourself?” she asks, looking at the in-progress deck.
“Depends,” I say. “Are you impressed?”
Her brows lift as she steps onto the deck, slow and careful like she’s still waking up. “Very. I didn’t know you were so good with your hands.”
I raise my eyebrows. “After last night?”
She blushes, shaking her head. “I meant…like this,” she says, gesturing around us. “I didn’t know you could build something like this.”
I laugh. “High school shop class. I was lethal with a table saw.”
“That’s deeply comforting,” she says dryly, but she’s smiling.
I set the drill down and cross the deck toward her. “It still needs railings obviously and I’m going to build steps down to the yard. Eventually, I want to put a table and chairs over there and a fire table in the corner.”
Her eyes light up as she turns slowly, taking it in like she’s already imagining it. “You’ve really thought this through.”
“I think about it a lot,” I admit. “I picture people out here having drinks while I barbecue something on the grill. I didn’t buy this place to sit in it alone. I want to share it with my wife and kids someday.”
Her expression shifts.
“What’s that look for?” I ask, hooking a finger in the hem of her shirt, tugging her into me so I can kiss her.
The mug is trapped between us, warm and awkward, but neither of us moves right away.
When I pull back, I roll my forehead against hers and palm one side of her ass. “Does that freak you out?”
She swallows, eyes lifting to meet mine. “No,” she says thoughtfully. “It surprises me a little, but it doesn’t scare me.”
I brush my thumb against her hip under the T-shirt. “Good,” I murmur. “That’s kinda what I was hoping you’d say. We should spend our summer out here.”
She squints at me, her brow furrowing. “Are you really talking about next summer right now?”
“I’m not planning an exit, Mads. I’m planning ways to spend more time with you. Tell me that’s not crazy.”
“It’s not crazy. I just don’t know how to believe it yet. I’m not very good at believing good things can stay. I just might need a little time to get there.”
She doesn’t need to believe it yet. I can be patient when something really matters to me.
Relief flickers through me and before I even know what I’m doing, I lift her up into my arms. She lets out a startled squeak before it turns into a full-on giggle as she wraps her legs around my waist, somehow balancing the coffee cup in her hand.
“Jesse,” she laughs, attempting to tug the shirt down over her ass with her free hand. “It’s a good thing you don’t have neighbors nearby out here.”
“I made you breakfast. We’re going inside.”
I walk us into the kitchen and set her gently on the cool granite countertop, stealing one more lazy kiss before I serve my girl breakfast.