I was relieved to discover the bar served real food, although I worried that a meal for two would wipe out my remaining cash. I didn’t want to skip New Orleans, especially after I’d already told Maggie I would take her, but I couldn’t ask her for money. So, before I headed to the room, I called one of the guys from the shop, hoping he’d be able to send me enough to get me to Florida.

“Dude,” Martin said after he answered the phone. “What the fuck did you do?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I didn’t have the time to fill him in on what had happened. “Listen, I need a favor. I’m almost out of money. Do you think you could wire me some if I tell you where to send it?”

“Are you fuckin’ nuts, man? The cops are looking for you. I don’t need to get wrapped up in that shit. It’s bad enough they’ve had this place closed for days, combing every square inch with a fuckin’ magnifying glass.”

“You won’t get wrapped up in it. No one even has to find out. I’m with someone, so you can just send it to her, and the two won’t be connected.”

“Yeah, right. You’re wanted for murder, bro. No thank you. I ain’t touchin’ that with a ten-foot pole. Call someone else. Just my luck, they’ve tapped the phones and can hear everything we’re saying.”

“Fine. Thanks anyway,” I said and then immediately disconnected the call. He was right, there was a chance they’d use phone records to locate me if it was as serious as he made it sound. If the cops found me, fine…but not until I got Maggie to Florida. Once she was safe, I would happily turn myself in. Not a moment earlier.

I opened the door to our room, and it didn’t take long to notice it was empty. For a second, my chest ached, as if I’d been hit with a steel pipe, and then I remembered seeing my car out front, so she couldn’t have gone far. And as soon as I found her bag hidden in the closet, I realized she hadn’t left.

It took all of two minutes to find her once I noticed the pool located off the parking lot near the front desk, on the opposite side of the bar. Going out in the rain and getting my clothes wet wasn’t ideal, although I couldn’t just leave her there until I knew why she’d choose to lie on a lounge chair in the dark beneath the torrential downpour.

“Are you okay?” I called to her as I approached.

Without opening her eyes, a wide grin split her lips. “Yeah.”

“Any particular reason you’re out here in the cold?”

She cupped her hands over her eyes to see me. “Not really. I was bored and didn’t wanna be cooped up in the room. Plus, there’s something about playing in the rain that makes me happy. Maybe you should try it. You look pissed off.”

I turned in a circle, convinced she was playing a prank on me. When I found no one else in sight, I moved closer to her. “How does getting your clothes soaking wet make you happy?”

“Here, try it. Lie down on this one”—she pointed to the lounge chair next to her—“and close your eyes. Don’t think about it; just do it.”

Rather than list all the reasons why this was a bad idea, I knelt on the soft plastic straps between her legs and held my body over hers, shielding her face from the rain. “Were you one of those kids who was never allowed to play in puddles?”

Her laughter consumed me, reeled me in one giggle at a time until nothing else existed. “Sometimes we need to be reminded of the simple things in life.”

Drops of water fell from my hair into her face, and it compelled me to shake my head like a wet dog until she squirmed beneath me in a fit of hysterics. She lifted her legs, hooking them over my thighs, and our innocent moment became a little more serious. I wanted to pull away—told myself I needed to end it before anything else happened—except I couldn’t move. I was hypnotized by her laughter, consumed with her stare, and when she ran her fingers through my hair, I was trapped in her touch.

“Talon…” It was practically a hiccup. “Stop thinking.”

“If I do that, what do you think will happen?”

A smile lingered on her lips, though not in the sensual way I would have expected. “You’ll feel free. Lighter. Maybe you won’t continue to worry about things you can’t change, and instead, learn to live in the moments you’re given.”

“Is that what you’re doing?”

“Yes. Well, at least, that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“Am I interrupting?”

“No.” She hadn’t removed her hands from my hair. At this point, she more or less held my head still. “I’m quite enjoying my moment with you.”

I released my hold on the chair with one hand, keeping my other in place near her shoulder, and traced the soft lines of her face, making sure to avoid the bruise near her temple. She closed her eyes, yet her grin remained, and I grew even more lost in the sight of her.

“Maggie…” It was nothing more than a whisper, but she heard it, opening her eyes to find mine. If I didn’t put an end to this now, I wasn’t sure I would be able to. “You’re going to get sick. It’s cold and we’re soaking wet.”

Her hands fell from my hair, but instead of pulling them away, she placed her palms over my chest. “I don’t care. How many opportunities do you get to lay in the rain, practically in the middle of nowhere, without a single care in the world? Who knows when I’ll get another chance to do this. I’m not ready to give it up.”

Time slowed, making every movement drag on like they would never end, until my lips met hers. It was like a magnet had pulled our mouths together, because I couldn’t have resisted if I wanted to. Hell, I didn’t want to.

The kiss was unhurried, soft, nothing at all like any I’d ever experienced before. We weren’t panting or desperate to take it further. And after what felt like minutes, I parted her lips with mine and slowly dipped my tongue inside her mouth. Even then, it was much more of an exploration than a race, and neither of us seemed to care that we were outside, in the rain, where anyone could walk up.

However, I needed to slow things down. Just because it hadn’t progressed into anything more, didn’t mean it wouldn’t. It was only a matter of time before this became carnal. And I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop it. As much as I hated pulling my lips from hers, I had to. Yet the second I did, I couldn’t ignore the emptiness that crept into my soul, a feeling unlike any I’d ever felt before.

“Tell me about your grandfather,” I whispered close to her lips.

She giggled softly and turned her face away. “Really? That’s what you want to talk about right now?”

“Not really.” I let my laugh brush along her wet cheek. “But I need to.”

She returned her eyes to me and lightly touched my face with her fingertips. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

“I don’t care. Anything. Aside from one mention of your mom and dad, I don’t have a clue about your family or where you came from.”

“Well, my dad died in combat when I was thirteen, and after that, things were really hard for a while. Mom was depressed, and then she lost her job. I tried to help her as much as I could, but I was just a kid, so I couldn’t do much. And just after my fifteenth birthday, we lost the house. We were going to move to Florida and live with my grandparents—my dad’s parents—except my grandmother got sick. She was in and out of the hospital, so my mom decided it would be best to move in with her brother. A little over a year later, she just disappeared.”

I waited for more, but she stopped speaking. I halfway expected to see tears in her eyes. Yet I didn’t. She just stared at me, almost through me, lost in thought without much emotion or expression on her face. Her teeth were barely chattering, except I was far too consumed with her story to make her stop and go inside.

“Just like that? Up and left? Where’d she go?”

Maggie shrugged and then blinked, as if breaking out of the spell her memories had placed her under. “I don’t know. I wasn’t home when it happened. My uncle told me she was upset and he couldn’t calm her down, so he told her to go for a ride to cool off, and she never came home.”

“You never heard from her again? Has anyone heard from her?”

“My uncle works at the sheriff’s office, so he filed a missing person’s report. He ended up closing the case about two weeks later when she called him. She wouldn’t tell him where she was, only that she was okay, alive and well, and asked him to take care of me.”

I dropped my forehead to hers, feeling her pain as if it were my own.

“I’ve always pretended that my dad was still alive, that he discovered some top-secret thing overseas and the government put him in witness protection. I made up this whole story in my head that she found him and they ran off together, and they couldn’t take me because it was too dangerous.” Her voice was so soft and low that it barely registered over the pounding of the rain on the pool deck, yet I heard every word clear as day.

I knew exactly what she was talking about, the fantasies and daydreams children come up with to cope, to keep from drowning in a sea of fear and desertion. I’d had my fair share when I was younger, even when it took more effort to believe them because I knew the truth, saw it, lived it. And as much as it comforted me to have finally found someone who understood, comprehended the pain I’d lived with for years, someone I could relate to and empathize with, it killed me at the same time. No one should ever understand what that’s like. No one should ever have to live in a make-believe world because their own reality is too dark, too haunting, too…real.

“Then why didn’t you go to your uncle about the money?”

She closed her eyes, and that’s when the chattering grew worse. If I could see the color of her lips, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were blue, and if I didn’t get her inside and in dry clothes soon, she would definitely get sick.

“Come on, sweetheart. You’re freezing. Let’s get you to the room and warm you up.” I climbed off the chair and reached for her hand, which she gave me without question. And ironically, once we were both on our feet, we ran through the parking lot as if trying to avoid the rain we’d sat in for the last ten or so minutes.

As soon as we were inside, I released her hand and went straight for the heater, cranking it as hot as it would go. Maggie stood in the middle of the room, hugging herself and shaking from head to toe. Putting her in the shower wasn’t ideal, but I couldn’t think of another way, so I grabbed the bag with her underwear and sweats and led her to the bathroom.

I started the water, and while waiting for it to warm up, I helped her out of her wet clothes—not daring to remove her panties. Granted, they were white and completely soaked through, so it didn’t make that much of a difference—yet in my head, it did.

“What’s with you and your need to get every pair of jeans wet? I hope the others have dried by now, because if not, you’ll only have sweats to wear. And I was hoping to take you to dinner at the bar next to the front desk.”

“Oh, yeah? Why? To get me drunk? At least it won’t cost you much.”

I laughed and tugged her shirt over her head, only to choke when I realized she hadn’t worn a bra. Thank God for the hoodie she’d had on all day, or I wouldn’t have been able to focus while driving.

“Trust me, I’m definitely not buying you any alcohol. They serve actual food—not sure why they call it a bar, though. I browsed the menu and it looks pretty good.” I checked the water temperature again, and finding it warm enough, I helped her over the ledge of the tub. With the shower curtain in my hand, I said, “Hurry up and thaw out. I’m starving.”

She wrapped her fingers around my wrist, preventing me from pulling the curtain closed. “You’re freezing, too. Get in here and we can kill two birds with one stone.”

“Nah-uh. Not gonna happen.”

“We won’t do anything.”

Even if I believed her, I didn’t trust myself—especially not after kissing her. “Hurry and I’ll get in when you’re done.” And with that, I whipped the curtain shut and stepped out of the bathroom.

After changing into my sweats and standing in front of the heater, I no longer needed a shower to warm up. And within a few minutes, I was perfectly fine with just a blanket draped over my bare shoulders. Maggie came out in nothing but a white T-shirt. No bra. No sweats. And I only prayed she had on panties. Suppressing my groan, I slipped the blanket off my shoulders and wrapped it around her, to which she rolled her eyes.

She grabbed her bag from the closet and sat in the middle of the bed. I watched her for a moment, and something about the way her wet hair framed her face made it difficult to focus on anything else. But when she pulled her phone from the front pocket on her bag, I snapped out of it and headed to the bathroom.

I needed out of here if I planned to make it to Florida without giving in. Granted, she hadn’t pushed me, and the kiss we shared earlier was much tamer than I was used to. However, now that I’d tasted her lips, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the other places on her body I longed to explore. And it reminded me of her offer to stay with her after she got to her grandfather’s house. For reasons I couldn’t understand, I found myself giving it real consideration. I wanted to believe it was because I didn’t really have anywhere else to go—other than turning myself in. Regardless, I couldn’t deny that my need to stay with her surpassed selfish desperation.

I flushed the toilet and washed my hands before heading into the room, where I found Maggie exactly where she was when I left. This time, her backpack was on the floor and her phone no longer in her hands.

“Are you gonna put some pants on?” I asked, leaning against the edge of the dresser opposite her. Actually, I was almost sitting on it, needing to grip the ledge to keep from going to her and gathering her in my arms.

“What if we ordered and ate it in here? We have cable, so we can eat in bed while watching a movie or something.”

“Is that really what you want? Didn’t you just tell me you were feeling trapped, and that’s why you went to lay out in the rain?”

“Well, yeah…but now I’m just feeling lazy. That hot shower relaxed me.”

“Okay, let me see if we have a menu.” I found a few flyers sitting on top of the table near the door. It was farther away from Maggie than the dresser, so I took a seat in one of the chairs to look over the lime-green paper. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Anything. I don’t really care.”

I continued to browse the options without paying much attention to what they offered. Maggie climbed off the bed and came toward me, probably to take a look at it with me, and because of that, it was like I’d lost my ability to read.

To my surprise, she had no intention of looking at the menu. She slipped it from my grasp and then set it on the table, her eyes never leaving mine. And in them, I found a fire so hot I was sure to get burned.

“M-Maggie…” I mumbled, unable to catch my breath.

My brain told me to push her away, except my body didn’t listen. I held her by the hips just as she straddled my lap, and when her lips covered mine, there wasn’t a single thought left in my head. She didn’t grind against me or move her hands below my shoulders. Her fingers remained locked behind my neck, as if holding on. Honestly, this wasn’t much different than what we did by the pool—other than the way we were positioned and the fact there was a bed ten feet away.

“Maggie, wait.” I pulled my head back to look into her eyes. “We said we wouldn’t do this.”

“We’re only kissing, Talon.”

“And then what?”

She shrugged and brought her lips closer, just enough to whisper against mine, “Whatever we want.”

I allowed her to lay claim to my mouth, telling myself I’d give her this one kiss. And while I tried to buy enough time to regain control of the situation, I grazed her outer thigh with my palm. It had been meant to grab ahold of her in a way to stay in the moment versus letting myself get lost in her touch. Except it backfired. As soon as my fingertips met the flesh of her ass, I realized she didn’t have on panties, and all my blood rushed south and settled into my groin.

“Maggie, sweetheart…I can’t do this. I can’t. I’m sorry…this isn’t just kissing. I’m trying to do the right thing here, and that won’t happen while you’re sitting on my lap in nothing but a shirt.” I couldn’t catch my breath, and the lack of oxygen practically made me dizzy.

She shoved herself off me so fast I didn’t have enough time to get my bearings straight and stop her. It was obvious she was pissed or hurt, probably thinking I’d turned her down, when really, I needed to hit pause before I hauled her to the bed. I reached out and wrapped my fingers around her wrist to keep her from taking off before I had a chance to explain—plus, my dick was so hard I doubted I’d be able to stand.

“Don’t be mad.”

“I’m not.” As convincing as her expression was, I could vividly hear the lie in her tone. “You said you can’t do this, so I stopped.”

“We’ve talked about this, Maggie. While we agreed we wouldn’t worry about the boundaries, we also said they were still there and we’d do our best to keep from crossing them. I can only handle so much before I cave.”

She stepped between my parted legs, held onto my shoulders, and brought her forehead to mine. “I refuse to be like all the other girls who throw themselves at you. And I really don’t want to make you feel like shit for being with me. I just need to feel something more than loneliness right now.”

My hands rested on the sides of her legs, just above her knees, and for some reason, this seemed far more intimate than when she’d straddled me. With my eyes closed, all I could do was feel her around me like she was the air I needed to breathe.

“Why are you lonely right now?” I whispered, unable to speak any louder.

“I guess thinking about my family has a way of doing that.”

“Then let’s talk about something else.” It was the only suggestion I could come up with that might help her situation without taking our clothes off.

“I can’t think of anything other than how it would feel if you touched me.”

“I am touching you.”

She shook her head against mine. “No. Higher.”

Somehow, I’d convinced myself that if I gave her what she needed, it would be enough. That I had control of the situation. I could do as she asked and then be done. It wasn’t logical; the problem was…I wasn’t working on all cylinders at the moment. So I slowly slipped one hand up her inner thigh, beneath the hem of her shirt, and then trailed my fingertips around the spot she needed me the most. Her breaths grew heavier and brushed across my face as desperation sank in.

“Talon…” she pleaded, and it was the most erotic thing I’d ever heard. Not waiting for me to fully give in to her, she moved her knee to my thigh, opening herself up more. “Please, Talon…please.”

I dropped my head back enough for her mouth to find mine, and the second I ran my finger through her damp slit, I swallowed her throaty moan. I now held onto her hip while she attempted to chase after what she wanted, rolling her bottom half toward my hand. Except, the moment I grazed her clit, I wasn’t interested in teasing her anymore. The sounds she made, the way she gripped my shoulders, the desperation in her kisses…they spurred me on until my only purpose was to make her come.

I slipped my middle finger inside her, cupped her mound, and pumped into her, as if I were fucking her with my dick. The faster I went, the hotter she became. And the harsher I stroked, the closer to her peak she got. I was so aroused it was almost painful, but I fought to push those thoughts aside long enough to get her off. If I had to finish myself in the shower, then so be it, just as long as Maggie got what she needed.

And then she came.

Hard.

Moaning against my lips and writhing against me.

It was the single hottest thing I’d ever witnessed.

We both panted against each other with our mouths close yet not touching. And just when she came down enough to move on, she surprised me again. And this time, there was no way in hell I could’ve turned her down.