Maximus (Boys of Wynter Book 2) Read online

  "I did. I'll tell you all about it. Let's just get you out of here."

  Fifteen

  Maximus

  I'd carried Walt on my back all the way to the special portal his family had used for decades to get in and out of the underworld. Rikki had stashed the cloak and veil on the ferry. We used it to shield them from view on the way back over the river. We managed to slip by Catch and Steemer without notice. Rikki and Walt waited while I snuck a metal hoof pick out of Catch's tool shed. Then I pried off the leg shackle. Once I saw them safely through the portal, I went back to get Barq and left Wynter.

  I rode my motorcycle in the direction I thought I would find Rikki and her dad. They were walking slowly along a thin forest trail, one that seemed to be worn by centuries of the ferryman walking from his home near the marina to the pass through to the underworld. Walt was steadier on his feet and seemed to be getting his bearings.

  I stopped the bike and got off. "I could take Walt home and then come back for you, Rikki."

  Walt lifted a shaky hand to tell me no. "I haven't gotten to stretch my legs or breathe in the ocean air for two months. I prefer to walk. You've done enough tonight, Maximus. Go have one of Jemma's beers. I'm sure you've got your usual Wynter Fare friends waiting for you, wondering where you are." It was strange to think that after all these years, Trex was really just a local fisherman, a human walking amongst us who knew exactly who we were and what we did for a living.

  I looked at Rikki as her father spoke. She held back a smile. Dirt streaked her face and she looked exhausted, but she looked thoroughly happy. I hadn't truly expected the night to turn out as well as it did. I was relieved as hell.

  "Yes, Max, you've done enough. It's only a short walk from here. And if I know my dad, he'll want to stop by the marina and say hello to his third favorite lady, Traveler, before we get home."

  "My daughter knows me too well." Walt laughed. He had come out of his ordeal amazingly well, just proving that he was a tough old ferryman and fisherman.

  "I'll be on my way then." I nodded to them both and headed back to my motorcycle.

  "Maximus, wait," Rikki called just as I reached the bike. I turned around, and she hurried toward me.

  She glanced back at her dad who was so busy taking in the fresh scented air from the towering pines and ocean breeze that he didn't look our direction.

  Her eyes were glassy as she gazed up at me. "I don't know what to say because thank you is hardly enough."

  I looked over her head. Her dad was still occupied with the scenery. I quickly leaned down and kissed her. "No thanks needed. I'm just glad he's all right. After he has rested, we'll find out exactly what happened."

  "Yes, I'm going to get him home to a shower and a warm meal. I'll let you go. Like Dad said, I'm sure the Wynter Fare are waiting for you."

  I pressed my hand against the side of her face and kissed her once more. "Wynter who?" I turned around and climbed on my motorcycle.

  Sixteen

  Maximus

  The Seven Sins was basically empty. Only Wilder's bike remained in the lot, but I needed a beer or two before I went home to bed. And my refrigerator was as dry as the desert.

  It was still an hour before Jemma normally closed up, but she had turned down all the lights except two sconces over the counter and one copper light fixture hanging over the table closest to the bar. Wilder was sitting at the table with Jemma and a pitcher of beer. The sound of my footsteps pulled their attention quickly to the door.

  "Just me." I held out my arms. "Where the hell is everyone?" Jemma shot a look at Wilder that assured me something was up. I walked to the bar and reached over the counter for a glass and then sat at the table.

  They both watched me fill my glass and drain it. I smacked the glass down and reached for the pitcher again.

  "Where the hell have you been?" Wilder asked. "And don't feed me any bullshit about meeting with Steemer."

  "I was busy, that's all. Just cuz we grew up together and we work in the same place doesn't mean we have to share every detail of our lives."

  Wilder lifted his hands. "Whatever. So did you hear the news or were you too busy with your new secret life?"

  I looked over at Jemma and noticed for the first time that she looked stricken, as if something had upset her.

  "What happened?"

  "The local police paid Jemma a visit earlier this evening." Wilder looked at Jemma and waited for her to elaborate.

  Jemma fingered the napkin under her hand. "Yesterday morning the police found a body out in the woods, about a mile from the highway. It was pretty mangled, but they identified her today. It was Kay."

  I sat back against the seat. "Shit. Do they know who did it?"

  Jemma shook her head. "No, but I've got a strong hunch about it."

  "Those motherfuckers of Mayhem?" I asked. "Did you let the cops know that she rode off with them?"

  "I sure did."

  Wilder sat forward. "Here's the weird thing though. As you can imagine, the police around here know every local MC. But they've never heard of the Masters of Mayhem."

  "We haven't either. They might be from out of town."

  Jemma rested her arms on the table. "The local police cross referenced the name with databases from across the country. No mention of that MC in any of the law enforcement lists."

  "Strange." I looked around at the empty bar. "Is that why it's so quiet in here?"

  Jemma sighed and slid out from the table. "Murder isn't exactly great for business. Supposedly there are two other unsolved murder investigations going on up the coast too. Same MC name comes up with those. The Wynter Fare decided to stay clear of Cliffmoor until the police figure out what's going on."

  "I'm heading home." Wilder clapped me on the shoulder. "Could you hang out and make sure Jemma gets safely to her car?"

  "Yeah, I'll stay. I need one more beer anyhow."

  Wilder stood in front of the table and stared down at me trying to read my face and figure out just what the hell I was up to.

  I lifted my glass in a toast. "You can stand there all night looking at me, buddy, but you're just never going to guess where the hell I've been tonight."

  "Well shit, now you've got me more curious than ever." He waved to Jemma and headed out.

  I finished the last of the beer as Jemma shut off all the lights and locked the cash up in her office safe.

  She grabbed her coat off the hook, and we walked to the front door. "This is going to hurt me financially," she said. "Sure hope they catch those guys fast. I knew something wasn't right the first time I saw them."

  "That's really shitty about Kay. I warned her more than once that she seemed to be pushing the boundaries. She was smart as hell, but she also seemed determined to go to extremes in her social life."

  We reached Jemma's car, and I opened the door for her. She looked up at me with that gracious smile she was so good at. "I guess I'm lucky the Boys of Wynter like to frequent my bar. I feel much safer when you guys are around. Like having my own personal set of hunky bouncers."

  I leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Damn right. Anybody stupid enough to mess with the Seven Sins or its incredible owner is going to end up in a big fucking pile of regret. Drive safely and keep aware of your surroundings, Jem. I'll see you later." I shut the door and waited until she got the car started and turned out onto the highway.

  The long shift of work coupled with the side adventure into Vapour's realm had finally gotten to me. I was ready to collapse into bed. I started up my motorcycle, pulled out onto the deserted highway and headed home. As I reached the turnoff that led to the marina and the stretch of beach cottages where most of the fishermen lived, I decided to take a quick detour just to make sure Rikki and Walt were safely inside for the night. Especially after hearing the news about Kay.

  Not wanting to wake everyone, I coasted the bike along the road where the fishermen’s cottages sat like a row of crooked teeth, each one more weather-worn than the next. They weren't b
eautiful, modern homes, but they had one hell of a view of the ocean and the surrounding coastline. Who needed stainless steel appliances and cavernous rooms when you had the deep blue ocean, an endless horizon and the salty breeze right outside your front door?

  Every house was quiet, including the small tan house with blue shutters that I'd already spotted as Rikki's house because her car was parked out front. She'd lived right there, just a short highway drive or a long beach hike away from my place. It made me realize just how fucking small my world was. My life was a perfect, never changing triangle. I went from my beach house and the waves, to the ugly shithole of Wynter, to the Seven Sins and then back home again. I really needed to smash that triangle, but there was never a break from work and Jemma's beer, the Wynter Fare and surfing helped me keep my sanity.

  I turned the bike around at the end of the road and headed back toward the highway. It seemed Rikki and Walt had made it home safely. I was more than curious to hear what Walt had to say. It seemed to me that Feenix had no clue what was going on right outside his realm, but something told me he might want to know about this. Once I heard the details of Walt's kidnapping, I'd be better able to decide next steps.

  As I passed the marina, I inadvertently glanced down the pier. A small figure was walking along the wood planks. I had already memorized her shape and the soft swing of her hips. My pulse raced at the sight of her. I was still having a hard time believing the impact she had on me. It was as if I was just walking along, minding my own business, going about my usual life of killing demons, fucking women and riding waves, and suddenly, out of nowhere, I get t-boned by a hundred pound brunette. She had knocked me not just off the road but over the damn cliff. I was done for. I was totally defenseless when it came to Rikki.

  She stopped halfway along the pier and watched as I parked the bike and climbed off. Boat pulleys clanged against masts and hulls thudded against the pylons as I walked toward her. The relief that her father was safe at home in his bed showed in her face.

  "How is he doing?" My voice startled one of the marina cats out from the shadows. It went scurrying past with a mouse clamped between its teeth.

  "After my mother cried in his arms for ten straight minutes, he ate a bowl of oatmeal. Believe it or not, that was what he'd been craving all this time. Then he showered and went to bed. He was snoring before I turned out the hallway light."

  My mind went back to the conversation at Jemma's. But tonight wasn't a night to bring up murder. Especially after the night we'd just been through.

  "You shouldn't be out here alone." I had no idea when I'd turned into an overbearing, overprotective fool, but I couldn't help myself with her. And she took the admonishment just as I expected her to.

  Her full pink lips pursed with disapproval as her cute fists rested on her hips. When she peered up at me with those big hazel eyes, my gaze didn't know which way to fall, on her eyes or on her lips.

  "I'll remind you that I managed to survive these past twenty-three years without you watching over me. I went to school, had friends and boyfriends and even had a few enemies. Not only that, but I spent many days on the deck of a fishing boat, occasionally in terrible squalls and rough seas." She held out her arms. "And yet, here I am. In fact, confidence wise, I was a damn rock until I started working on dad's ferry and the giant, in all his blond, muscular glory stepped on deck. Then all my years of character development and steadfast determination to remain independent frittered away in the gloomy river air."

  I raised a brow at her. "So I was right about why you’re always scolding me on the ferry? You want some of this." I pointed to myself.

  Rikki blinked up at me. "I want you to stop treating me like a kid."

  I nodded. "You got it, darlin'." I pulled her against me and slammed my mouth down over hers.

  Seventeen

  Rikki

  I had stood on that dock so many times, I knew every creak, every loose rusty nail, every splinter, but after Maximus's kiss, I felt as if I'd landed someplace I'd never been. My head spun with the thought of him. For months I’d tried to imagine what it would feel like to be wrapped in his powerful arms. I'd grown horribly envious of the Wynter Fare, women, who I'd never thought much about until they grew in my mind to be the women who had been in Maximus's bed, the women who knew him intimately. I wanted that. More than anything, I wanted to know what it felt like to be at the center of Maximus's attention.

  Maximus gazed hungrily down at me. The feral look in his eyes, a look I'd seen before when he came to the ferry in wolf form, made me sway on my feet. It was a mix of thrill and fear that no man had ever made me feel before.

  A low growl rolled up from his chest as he swept me into his arms. He carried me along the dock to the Traveler. With me still tucked in his arms, he leapt onto the trawler's deck. The vessel shifted enough to cause water to splash up against the hull.

  "The pilot house," I suggested.

  The self-assured smile that he wore so well turned up his mouth. "It seems you've done this before."

  "Hey, when you're a teenager and the boy you are dating doesn't have a car, you get creative."

  "I'm learning all kinds of stuff about the ferryman tonight. Not sure I want to hear more though because I'm getting jealous of some carless, scrawny, zit covered teenage boy who probably didn't even know what the hell he was doing." Maximus lowered my feet to the ground. I led him to the metal steps leading up to the pilot house. I stopped a few steps up giving him an unobstructed view of my bottom, a part of me that I'd always considered one of my finer features. "Jeff was neither scrawny nor covered with zits. But you might be right about the last part. I can't be sure because it was usually over in two minutes."

  His booming laugh shattered the quiet. The metal rungs rattled beneath his weight as he climbed up right behind me. I could feel the urgency in his steps, and an unexpected squeal shot from my mouth as if I was being chased.

  I reached the landing and laughed wildly as he took hold of me and pulled me into his arms. His kiss smothered my laughter. I reached blindly back and found the latch on the door. We stumbled inside, our mouths still locked together. The captain’s chair swiveled and knocked into my back.

  "Ouch," I said against his mouth. The cramped quarters had not thwarted or slowed him for a second. He pulled my sweatshirt up and over my head. As he flung his arm around to drape the garment on the helm, his knuckles landed hard against the windshield.

  "Ouch." He rubbed his hand.

  "I think my brilliant pilot house idea is less than brilliant. I forgot to take into account that you are not an average guy. New idea." I pointed a finger at him. "And before you make any disparaging remarks, I have not tried this new idea. It's called problem solving on the fly."

  "Since my mind is completely occupied with the thought of stripping you naked, I have no remarks pending, disparaging or otherwise. Lead me to your next idea before I go so fucking nuts with wanting you, I toss this captain's chair right off the damn boat and take you over the helm."

  "See, I knew you were a romantic under all that muscle." I sidled past him to the storage bench at the rear of the pilot house. I rummaged through and found the canvas tarps we used when a storm blew in unexpectedly. They smelled of stale sea water, but something told me that wasn't going to dampen our spirits. "Follow me."

  We tromped back down the metal steps and I led him to the stern. We stretched out one sheet of canvas and hung the second, a large sheet with metal rivets along the sides, from cleats on opposite railings creating a makeshift, tent-like cover over the deck.

  I climbed beneath the cover and Maximus followed. He sat on his knees but still had to bend his head down to fit. Once again, he filled the space, but we'd created a cozy, private retreat that blotted out most of the lights around the pier.

  I waved my arm around. "See. All we need is some pillows. Pillows! Just a second. Don't move or you'll collapse the whole damn thing." I squirmed out of the canvas and raced to the storage bench. I pull
ed out two cushiony life jackets and returned triumphantly to the semi-tent.

  Maximus's dark eyes were no longer smiling. "Enough decorating, darlin'." He leaned back on his elbows. "Take off those clothes."

  "With you watching?" My earlier confidence had flitted away, and the reality of what was happening had finally dropped down on me like bricks. I was with Maximus, the man I'd been fantasizing about for weeks.

  "Suddenly, a glass of wine . . . or two sounds good," I said with a shrug.

  "We can stop right here, Rikki. Just say the word, and we'll take down the tent and I'll give you a ride home. I don't want you to do anything you're not ready for."

  "I'm feeling a little awkward. I've seen those women that hang out at the Seven Sins. I'm not delusional. I just don't want you to be disappointed."

  His long hair was pulled back, highlighting the hard angles and perfect symmetry of his face. "Not a chance of you disappointing me, Rikki. You've already exceeded my expectations in every fucking way, and I haven't even seen you naked yet."

  I hesitated and he seemed to understand. He reached forward and pulled me to him. "I'm pushing too fast. I'm sorry." He leaned back with me and turned to his side to kiss me. The gentleness with which he caressed me stood in sharp contrast to the tautness of the arms and body I nestled against.

  His fingers climbed beneath my t-shirt and along my back, drifting slightly beneath the waist on my jeans. And all the while, his mouth and tongue treated me to the most seductive kiss I'd ever experienced. I felt it all the way through my body and down between my legs. My pussy tingled as if his tongue was settled there between the hot, wet folds. And as he dragged his tongue along my bottom lip, I could feel it running between the intimate folds of my pussy. A moan left my mouth before I could stop it. The sound seemed to bring a growl up from his throat. I could feel even more tension build in his arms and body with each passing second.