Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (39 page)

With one last look at a pitiful excuse for a man, Caleb turned and slammed the door on his way out.

Now, he had an infuriating woman to deal with.

THIRTY-FOUR

Maddie felt like she was walking to her own grave as the three of them entered their home.
 
When Caleb had stormed out of Peter’s father’s house following their confrontation, all he’d done was gesture for Maddie to follow his car back home.
 
Maddie and Peter had both been silent the entire way as they followed his black SUV and as Maddie gingerly stepped into the house, strangely enough, she felt like tucking her tail between her legs.

Caleb locked the door behind them, turned, and eyed them both.
 
The car ride home obviously hadn’t dulled his rage.
 
If anything, it seemed he’d worked himself up more.
 
After a silence so thick that Maddie thought she could cut it with a dull knife, Caleb reached around and pulled a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket.
 
He handed it to Peter and Maddie looked down at it the same time that he did.

A prick of joy went through her when she saw it was his birth certificate.

“You found it!” Maddie exclaimed.

Peter stared down at the document before meeting Caleb’s eyes.
 
“Thank you,” he said, tone grave.

Pointing down the hall to Peter’s bedroom, he grunted, “Go do homework.”
 
Translation:
get lost so I can rip Maddie a new one.

Peter glanced at her and said, “She was only trying to help me.
 
It’s my fault.”

Caleb only stared and waited until Peter slowly turned and shuffled to his bedroom.
 
Maddie squeezed his hand as he passed.
 
He looked worried, but Maddie knew that he had no reason to be.
 
Caleb would never hurt her.
 
He just needed to let off some steam and he’d be fine.

The moment his bedroom door shut quietly, Caleb grated, “Upstairs.”

Caleb followed her up and she was all too aware of how closely he followed her.
 
Maddie didn’t know where he wanted to have this argument, so she picked her own bedroom, which was the farthest away from Peter’s room.
 
At least he wouldn’t hear Maddie get taken down a notch.

The moment Caleb shut the door behind them, she sighed and said, “Look, I’m sorry.
 
I already know that I shouldn’t have gone there and that you wouldn’t like it, but it was really important to Peter.
 
I figured that it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

“So you decided to break into a drunk, abusive man’s house, who probably has about a hundred pounds on you, while you’re
pregnant
?” Caleb hissed, looming over her.
 
“And on top of that, you thought that you could hide it from me?”

Whenever he took that tone with her, she felt defensive.
 
“I know that what I did was stupid, but I wanted to do it for Peter.
 
It wasn’t like we were going to confront the man or anything.
 
Peter knew where his father kept his birth certificate and he knew that he passed out on the couch around a certain time.
 
It was going to be fine.”

“Where you ever going to
tell me
?”

“I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep it from you.
 
I knew you’d be upset, but yes, I was going to tell you once we got back.”

“And you expect me to believe that?” Caleb asked, eyes narrowed.

Maddie bristled.
 
“I’m not a liar.
 
I left a note.
 
And you’re just saying these things right now because you’re itching for a fight.”

“Looks like you’re itching for one just as much as I am, princess,” he sneered, backing her against the wall.
 
His gaze swept over her body and damn her hormones, but they reacted like he lit them on fire.
 
“Tell me
everything
.”

So, as Maddie looked up at him, all too aware that her sensitive breasts were pushed against his chest, she started from the beginning.
 
Caleb’s jaw clenched when she recounted her conversation with Peter, that he’d gone home after school, that his father had hit him, about the driver’s license, about how they waited outside until the all clear.

During her story, his hands came up to grip her arms a little too tightly, but she didn’t complain.
 
Maddie wondered if she’d worried Caleb more than he was letting on.
 
The thought softened her, at least until she saw that his knuckles were scraped raw on his right hand.

“Caleb, what did you do?” she demanded, snatching up his hand.
 
“I swear to God, all men do is punch each other!”

“It’s called communication.”

Was that a joke?
 
If it was, she wasn’t amused.
 
At all.
 
“That isn’t funny.”

He pulled his hand away, but Maddie always got the distinct impression that he liked it when she fussed over him.
 
“He swung first.
 
I didn’t start it.”

“Oh, and I’m sure that you were completely innocent.”

“He had it coming,” Caleb murmured darkly.
 
“I only wish that I’d gotten in more hits.”

“Caleb!”

“Don’t try and distract me.
 
I’m not done with you,” he said, shoulders bunching.
 
“If you
ever
do something this stupid again, I swear that I’ll—”

She didn’t know what prompted her to say it, but she found the words slipping from her lips before she could stop them.
 
“Tie me up with all your rope so I can’t leave the house?”

She knew that she shocked him.
 
All the breath left his lungs in a hiss, eyes widening slightly.
 
There was no mistaking the sudden lust in his gaze and it left Maddie reeling.

“
Don’t
give me ideas, princess,” he warned, his voice husky.
 
The mood in the room had changed so swiftly that Maddie grew dazed.
 
His body seemed impossibly hot against her own.
 
Her nipples pebbled in reaction, so much so that Maddie wondered if he could feel them against his chest, even through her bra.

“Why bother with rope when you have your nice, shiny belt?” she whispered, referencing the night he’d tied her to the desk in his office.

He sucked in a breath and then rasped against her ear, “Keep teasing me, princess, and I’ll have you bent over my knee so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

“Oh, trust me, I’ll know what hit me.”

His eyes narrowed and Maddie knew that it was
game over
.
 
She’d tugged on the tiger’s tail and now she would pay for it.

*
   
*
   
*

Caleb couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but he was reacting to Maddie’s words as if she were whispering dirty, filthy things into his ear.
 
His cock pulsed in anticipation.

The woman in front of him had put him through the wringer.
 
Not just tonight, but ever since they’d first moved in together.
 
Living in such close proximity to her and not being able to do anything about it was the purest form of hell.
 
She’d made it all too clear in the beginning that she wasn’t interested in pursuing anything physical with him.
 
Caleb had understood.
 
She’d been overwhelmed with her changing situation, with the pregnancy, with school, so he hadn’t pushed her.

But he was nearing his limit.
 
He’d fantasized about all the wicked things he wanted to do to her, imagined tying her up in such a way so that her perfect breasts were at his mercy—and oh, he’d be
merciless—
and her sweet pussy was on display for him.
 
He’d stroked his cock to release so many times these past couple months that he couldn’t even fathom keeping count.
 
Every time he saw her, or brushed against her, or smelled her soft scent, he wanted to rip her fucking clothes off and bury himself inside her to the hilt.
 
On the counter in the kitchen, against the hallway wall, on the hood of his car, on the bench in the garage, he didn’t care.
 
He was like a man possessed.
 
He had never been more attracted to a woman in his entire life.

He’d pushed himself to work harder as a distraction.
 
He’d tried to tire himself out at work so that the moment he stepped foot in the house, he went straight to bed.
 
Then he’d wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

He’d never made a move because she’d never given him any indication that she was ready for something more.
 
But dammit, she was flirting right now and if that wasn’t a suggestion, he didn’t know what was.

The feeling of Maddie’s soft, warm body pressed against his own, knowing that she could feel the way his cock hardened against her stomach through his jeans, was almost his undoing.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, princess,” he warned, his voice barely more than a growl.

“But I never got the chance to finish last time,” she quipped, big brown eyes staring up at him.
 
When the true meaning of her words hit home, shame made him flush.
 
No, she hadn’t
finished
last time, indeed, because he’d been too busy coming his brains out to make sure that she did.
 
“Why, Caleb Montgomery, are you blushing?”

Fuck
.

She was teasing him and enjoying it.
 
And Caleb didn’t know whether he should spank her until her ass was bright red or make
her
come her fucking brains out just to prove a point.

There was only so much a man could take…

So he settled on option two.
 
She was finally giving him the sign he’d been looking for.
 
Now, it wasn’t only about his desire, but his masculine pride.

The corners of Maddie’s lips were turned up in a sexy little smile that drove him crazy.
 
But he watched those lips part, her pink tongue darting out to wet her lips, when he unbuckled his belt and tugged it loose from his belt loops in one swift motion.

“Did you mean this belt, princess?” he murmured, watching her eyes widen as they traced the strap of black leather.
 
He craned his neck down, bracing one arm on the wall above her head, so he could suck and bite on her earlobe.
 
A sharp intake of breath and a feathery moan made him smirk.
 
“Now, be a good girl,” he whispered in her ear, “and give me your lips.
 
I need to taste you.”

She obeyed almost immediately.
 
Her head turned and then he captured her lips in a brutal, punishing kiss.
 
And she gave just as good as she got.
 
By the end of it, her delicate hands had made fists into his t-shirt and her lips were red from his bites and he was grinding his erection into her, unconsciously seeking relief from the constant, unyielding ache.

Looking down at her, he murmured, his breathing labored, “If you say yes to me right now, there’s no going back.
 
Do you understand?”

“
Yes
,” she said, quirking a brow.
 
There was still a bit of sass left in her, which Caleb really fucking loved.

Biting back a growl, he pulled her over to the full length mirror, throwing his belt on the bed for later.
 
He positioned them so he was behind her, so she could watch as he undressed her.
 
Their size difference struck him.
 
Maddie looked so small compared to him, which worried him because he knew that he could be rough in the heat of the moment.
 
He didn’t want to hurt her.

Gently, he trailed his fingers down the nape of her neck, watching her eyes flutter closed before snapping open.
 
Caleb made quick work of the buttons of her blouse and she shrugged it off her shoulders, exposing her pink lace bra underneath.

Honeyed cream
.
 
That was what her skin looked like.
 
Flawless and smooth and Caleb couldn’t stop his roaming hands.
 
Maddie was already beginning to show, evidence of that night months ago, and Caleb had never seen anything so beautiful.

“You’re so fucking soft, princess,” he murmured, trailing his lips over her neck.

She was trembling beneath his roughened fingertips as they rasped over her arms, her waist, the soft roundness of her belly, ending at the button of her jeans, which he made quick work of.
 
She kicked her flats and jeans off, shortly followed by her panties, until she was standing in his arms clad only in a delicate pink bra.

Caleb swore his hands shook as he unclasped it and he groaned the moment her breasts sprung free.
 
His eyes devoured them in the reflection of the mirror and Maddie let out a soft little sigh, leaning her head back against his chest, when he brought his palms up to cup them.
 
She bit her lip when his fingertips swiped over her pebbled nipples.

He’d dreamed about these tits.

“
Oh
, that feels good,” she breathed.
 
Caleb’s cock pulsed at the pleasure in her voice and he moved around her, not wanting to wait one more second to suck on her sweet, perfect breasts.

“Damn, I love these,” he rasped.

“I c-couldn’t tell,” Maddie gasped as he closed his lips around one nipple, plucking at the other relentlessly with his fingertips.
 
He sucked as much of her tit into his mouth as he could and he still wanted more.
 
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her hands come up, as if to grasp his hair to steady herself, but at the last moment she paused and brought them down to her sides.