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Sam was silent for a few moments before replying, “Now? Hell no. I’d strap you to my side and protect you myself. But I didn’t have the resources or connections then that I do now. So yeah…I probably would if I was in the same situation that I was then. Your safety comes before anything else.”
His answer was so honest, so sincere, that it brought tears to Maddie’s eyes. How had she ever been so lucky to have the love of a man like Sam? “I love you so much it scares me,” she whispered.
“Don’t be scared. Just love me as much and as often as you want. It will never be enough for me,” he rumbled, pulling her body on top of his as he spoke.
“No more regrets, Sam. Not for either of us. This is our time. All of the pain of the past has led us to this moment,” she told him wistfully.
“Then it’s all been fucking worth it because you make me so happy that I’d walk through fire to be with you,” he answered gruffly as he caressed her ass and brought her core against his raging erection. “I’ll make you happy, Maddie. I swear I will,” he pledged earnestly.
Tears spilled from her eyes, his vow spoken like a solemn promise that he would rather die than break. “Oh, Sam…you already have.”
A lone teardrop fell, landing softly on his face. “Don’t cry, Maddie. Please. I don’t ever want to see you cry again,” he said, his voice desperate.
“They’re happy tears,” she informed him as she swiped a hand over her face.
“Don’t care. I don’t like it,” he grunted, stroking his hand soothingly up and down her back. “I’d much rather hear you moaning with pleasure.”
Maddie smiled and slid her hands into his hair, sighing as the silky texture caressed her fingers. “I kind of like that myself.” Her core heated and flooded with moisture at the thought of him taking her. Again.
He rolled, trapping her beneath him, his large, muscular body covering hers as he told her wickedly, “I could have you making those needy little noises in seconds,” he boasted arrogantly.
She bit her lip to keep from laughing, amused by how quickly he could switch from tender lover to alpha cave-dweller. “You could try, I suppose,” she told him in a teasing voice.
“I don’t try. I do,” he growled. “I’ll have you begging for it.”
Her nipples hardened and her channel clenched, his dominant tone arousing her. “Neanderthal,” she accused, her body more than ready for him to make her beg.
“You love me. You know you do,” he answered confidently, but with a tiny hint of vulnerability.
“Oh yeah. I definitely do,” she responded immediately.
“I love you, too, Sunshine,” he answered tenderly, his hand fisting in her hair to bring her mouth down to meet his for a hungry, greedy kiss.
Words were halted as their bodies met in primitive communication, their love consummated in the most elemental, feral, and carnal ways that words couldn’t express.
Moments before Maddie completely lost herself to the madness of Sam’s fierce need, she acknowledged that sometimes...love really was worth the pain.
It was the last coherent thought she had before she gave herself over to the only man she had ever loved, the man she had waited forever to have and to hold, knowing that Sam had been well worth the wait.
~The End~
The Billionaire’s Salvation
The Billionaire’s Obsession
Max
February, 2011
Max Hamilton stood on the sandy stretch of beach at the back of his home, shivering as he stared blankly at the ocean, and scowling at the water crashing to the shore as though it were the enemy. The night was nearly pitch-black, but there was enough illumination from the moon and stars to see the churning ocean in front of him. In a very elemental way, itwashis nemesis, the body of water that had taken Mia away from him. And at the moment, he resented every drop of water in the Atlantic Ocean. Somewhere, his wife was lifelessly floating in this body of water, buried in a watery grave, and he could feel her moving farther and farther away from him. It was as though she had torn his heart from his chest and carried it with her, and he was standing here helplessly, bleeding out from the gaping wound.
He put a hand to his chest and rubbed, but it didn’t stop the excruciating pain.
No…dammit. She can’t be gone. I thought I had plenty of time to figure out my irrational emotions. I thought I could work everything out of my system and love her the way she deserved to be loved.
His legs weak, he dropped to the sand on his ass, the moisture sinking into the denim of his jeans, but he ignored it, his gaze fixated on the water. He was too numb to feel the external elements, too devastated to care, his whole being focused on Mia, as though he could bring her back by sheer force of will. He ignored not only the chill of the wind buffeting his body, which was clad only in a t-shirt and jeans, but the mosquitoes making a meal of his exposed flesh, and the excruciating sense of loss that was so painful he had to block it or go insane.
Every muscle in his body was tense, his fists clenched, his brain trying to keep his emotions in check. To mourn would mean that he was accepting the fact that Mia was gone forever, and he didn’t want to believe it. Screw it. He’d stay in denial. If he accepted that she had drowned off the shore of this very beach, he’d never live through the agony of it.