I waited, but Maddox never called.

So that left me pacing around my apartment.

I knew about the second shop. I knew about the ownership deal. Tate paid me in advance to be at the new building and take pictures. And he warned me that Maddox and change didn’t work out so well. That I could sense with ease. From the second I met him. But this was good change. Exciting change. I was happy for Maddox to have gained that kind of trust from Tate.

I forced myself to organize more files on my computer, and I typed in the address for the new building so that I could see as many pictures as possible. To research the history of the building. There was nothing exciting about the building at all—it had been a small packaging factory that was then sold to a shipping company, which used it to house supplies and shipments. That company went under, and the building ended up owned by the bank.

Until now.

Now, it was owned by Tate and St. Skin.

The business itself, though, would be structured as ownership of all the guys.

It was so cool.

I tried to envision what I wanted to capture. The change. The excitement. The new business opening. The new people they were going to hire. And Tate already told me that the vetting process for new artists were going to be held with everyone’s input, not just Tate. Talk about a grueling interview process.

I checked my phone a hundred times.

Nothing was going to calm my nerves until I got to touch Maddox.

The man had set me on fire. He knew parts of my secret, but not the whole picture. And the same for me about him. I never thought that deep, dark secrets could bring two people together.

But it was happening right before my eyes.

It was something-

A knock at the door abruptly ended my thoughts.

I turned on my heels and stared at the door. My phone was behind me, on the dining room table.

Maddox was supposed to call.

But someone was at my door.

I thought about hiding in my closet.

I was grown woman, though. I was stronger than anything in the past. The proof? I survived the past.

I could handle anything that waited on the other side of the door.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t fucking terrified.

* * *

Maddox was standing there with a brown paper bag in one hand and a six pack of beer in the other hand. He held them up, looking right at me, no expression on his face.

I let out a sigh and felt like kicking him in the balls.

Asshole.

“Was that a joke?” I asked.

“Shit. No, sugar, it was a surprise.”

“Maybe I don’t do surprises so well.”

“Well…surprise,” he said. “Come for a ride with me.”

“A ride?”

“I got us some subs and beer. It’s a perfect night to be outside.”

“What are we doing, camping?”

“No, sugar. Talking.”

“You look like you’re pissed at me.”

“You knew about St. Skin and didn’t tell me.”

“I couldn’t. Tate made me swear…”

“I know,” he said. “I just…I’m tired of secrets, Hazel. Whatever we’re doing here, I really don’t want any more secrets. I hope by now you realize I’m never going to judge you. No matter what.”

You think that, Maddox? Because if I ever told you my darkest secret ever…the one secret that could put me in jail…

“Let’s go for a ride then,” I said, blurring out the voice in my head.

That voice that had been following me for years. That voice that took over from the other voice the moment it all happened. A split second decision and…

SLAM!

“Whoa, did that door offend you?” Maddox asked.

I looked back and realized I had shut my door really hard.

Then I realized I had no phone, no keys, no hoodie, nothing.

“Uh, gimme a second.” I rushed back through the apartment to gather everything I needed. But the one thing I left behind? My camera. I couldn’t remember the last time I went somewhere without my camera. It was like leaving a piece of me behind or going outside naked.

But I didn’t want to hide behind that lens tonight.

I didn’t need to hide in front of Maddox, either.

He wanted to know my secrets? Fine.

We ended up in his pickup truck, and he drove us way out of Hundred Falls Valley. Opposite the direction of where I grew up. Away from where the darkest of secrets still haunted a mostly empty road. Although, there was a chance that a ghost resided there, if you believed in that kind of stuff.

“I always drive out in a different direction,” Maddox said. “I grew up about an hour from Hundred Falls Valley.”

“Me too,” I said.

“Yeah? You go to Chesterbrooke?”

“No. Dallersvin.”

“Oh, okay, I get it. You were about twenty minutes away from where I grew up. Holy shit, sugar. How did we not run into each other?”

I laughed. “I’m sure our paths were very different.”

“Is that judgment I smell?”

“How many times were you picked up by the cops, Maddox?”

“At what age?” he asked with a wink.

“Exactly. I barely left the house. When I turned sixteen, my license was freedom, but things were a little crazy in my life by then. My…”

I swallowed hard and lost the words.

Maddox looked at me but didn’t push me.

I sort of loved him for that. I was used to getting pushed around, but Maddox had this magic ability to know the right times to push me around and when to back the hell off.

I slid my hand across the seat and grabbed for his hand.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

“No need.” Maddox took a sharp left, taking us off the road. “Time to get wild.”

With that, the truck sped up a little as we bounced over rocks, branches, and anything else on the ground as he carved out his own road.

“Maddox…”

“I had no parents,” he said. “Father wasn’t around and never wanted anything to do with me. My mother could never get over that fact. She ended up putting herself in hell to track him down and they both wound up…gone. I was going to get tossed into the system. But my great aunt Ada showed up at the last second and took my ass in. And while she wasn’t maybe fully capable of handling a teenager like me, I never went homeless. I never went without food. I did cause a lot of trouble. But that was influenced by the people I hung out with.”

Maddox then turned the truck to the right and worked into an opening. He parked the truck and grabbed my hand and kissed it.

“Maddox…”

“She’s still alive. I check in on her when I can. I’m telling you this because the past is always fucked up, sugar. That’s why it’s the past. It’s behind us. And also because there are things that not even she knows about me. So whatever is holding you back, don’t let it.”

And just like that, I stopped holding back.

I jumped across the seat and grabbed Maddox…

* * *

He carried me in his strong arms, my feet dangling, my arms around his neck. I looked up and saw all the beautiful stars twinkling in the sky. He opened the hitch and set me down on the bed of the truck. A second later he kissed me. His mouth devoured mine, stealing all my breaths, kisses, groans. I gripped the edge of the truck, already shaking with a need that dug deep into my core. His hands moved fast, grabbing my pants, commanding them off without having to say a word. A man like Maddox knew what he wanted and how he wanted it. And I liked that.

I leaned back, breaking the kiss, watching his hands grip the sides of my pants and panties. In one pull, my ass popped up and he was stripping me. My ass hit the bed of the truck and I shivered, groaning. Next thing I knew my pants and panties were thrown into the bed of the truck. I then sat there, naked from the waist down except for my socks and shoes.

“Fuck,” I whispered with my chin trembling.

Maddox made a feral growling noise and slid a hand to the back of my neck. He pulled me close and kissed me again. His other hand reached between my legs, feeling my desire. I was so ready for him. Instantly ready from the second he was near me. His rough fingers against my softness was a feeling better than anything else in the world.

I groaned again into the night, my hips thrusting forward, wanting more.

But Maddox didn’t give me more.

Instead, he grabbed his jeans.

I watched as he wrestled with the zipper. A moment later, he emerged, fully erect. He slid his hand up his thick cock and let go. He was standing tall, ready to take me. His hands touched the small of my back, pulling me right to the edge of the bed of the truck.

In a last-second move, I stretched out my right hand and touched him. My fingertips grazed his steel shaft, inching down to the solid base. There I tried to grip, realizing just how big he was compared to my hand. I tugged at him, needing him more than he could ever possibly realize.

As he moved toward me, I realized I had never done this…outside, the stars as witnesses, in the bed of the truck.

Maddox was against me one moment, and with a hard thrust, he was inside me.

My hands were back at the bed of the truck, holding tight. I leaned back just a little and wrapped my legs around him. He pulled back and thrust, sending another wave of intense pleasure throughout my body. We kissed, half-missing, extra sloppy, making it all that much hotter.

“Yeah, sugar,” he said in a rough voice. “You’re so fucking beautiful. You need to know that. You need to see that. You need to fucking feel that. Every day, for the rest of your life.”

I moved my right hand to his face, scratching at his cheek. I gritted my teeth, grinding my hips as he started to move harder and faster. The more of himself he gave me, the better it felt.

I dug my nails into his cheek and scratched again, then slapped my hand back to the bed of the truck. I put my head back and looked up to the stars. I felt Maddox kiss my neck, that wild tongue of his working magic, giving me goosebumps one second and sending heat everywhere the next.

The stars started to move, but it was from the movement of Maddox’s body to mine.

His hands holding my lower back and ass as tight as he could, pulling as he thrust forward. Making sure there wasn’t an inch of my core he didn’t explore and satisfy.

I groaned, louder, listening to my voice carry into the night.

“Don’t worry, sugar,” he said, his breath tickling my throat. “Nobody will ever hear you.”

Maddox started fucking even harder and faster…

But I knew his comment meant more than just the amazing sex.

* * *

I sat in arms, nestled tight, my hoodie as a blanket. His strong arms around me. A beer in my hand. A beer in his. I was aching between my legs from him, remembering his touch and wanting more of it.

I put my head back and let out a sigh.

“It’s so quiet.”

“Quiet is good,” Maddox said. “Quiet is really fucking good.”

“Are you excited for the new shop? The ownership?”

“Damn, sugar, Tate told you everything, huh?”

“Yeah. He was nervous about you, Maddox.”

“That’s okay. He knows how I feel with some things. Other things I keep secret. But the TV thing? That’s not me. I just want to tattoo people and live my life.”

“What about cameras bothers you so much?”

I turned my head and looked up at him. He stared off into the distance. And that right there would have made an amazing picture for sure. That chiseled jaw with scruff showing, painted by the moonlight. Everything so dark and powerful.

I smiled, knowing that the picture would be mine and only mine.

“I just don’t like them,” Maddox said.

“Yet you’re dating a woman who makes a living with a camera.”

“Dating? Is that what this is?”

“What would you call it?”

“Sex and beer,” he said with a laugh.

“Wow. Way to make me feel…”

“Beautiful,” Maddox cut in. “That’s all I want you to feel. Beautiful.”

I sucked in a breath and growled.

His words did something to me.

I grabbed for his free hand and looked at his fingers. His knuckles. His hands. Those hands gave people a piece of art. A piece of Maddox’s own heart.

I ran my finger over his middle knuckle, the biggest one.

I swallowed hard. “Maddox…”

“Yeah, sugar?”

“I want to tell you something.”