"He won't tell you," the girl said right behind MJ, scaring the h.e.l.l out of him.

"Do you always sneak up on people?" MJ laughed. "What's your name then?"

"Holly. This is Sam."

"You weren't supposed to tell!" Sam screamed.

These two were going to give him a headache in about two more seconds.

"MJ! You're here!" Heidi ran to the pool, knelt and hugged him. Her long, black hair was tied up on top of her head. Everyone in his family looked so much alike-just like the Old Man. "Rachael said you guys got in a couple hours ago. It's so good to see you. We need to catch up."

"Did you introduce yourselves to your cousin, MJ?" she asked her kids who were busy trying to dunk each other underwater.

"We met," he said, hoisting himself up onto the side to sit. Roger was making his way over, holding a drink above his head.

Rachael had taken the lounge chair next to Heidi's and was pretending she wasn't watching the touching reunion. He almost laughed. She might as well come over with them, it wasn't like she'd interrupt a big private family moment. h.e.l.l, he was blood to these people, but didn't feel like a family member at all.

MJ raised his hand and motioned for her to come over. She pretended not to see him, but he knew she had.

"MJ," Roger said, propping his elbows on the side next to MJ, "good to see you. How's your grandfather doing?"

"Same evil b.a.s.t.a.r.d as always." He kicked his feet, splashing Holly and Sam. They squealed and swam away, shoving each other.

Roger gave him a sideways glance. "He does what's best for you."

MJ turned and looked back over both shoulders with exaggerated movements. "I don't see him anywhere, so you don't have to worry about kissing his a.s.s."

Roger chuckled and took a sip of his drink. "You are just like him."

MJ knew who he meant. His dad.

"That's enough from both of you," Heidi said, sitting and slipping her legs between them to dangle over the side into the pool. "We have enough family drama to deal with without you two creating more."

"Nothing here to deal with." Roger took another sip and waded away from the wall, back toward the bar.

"Sorry," Heidi muttered, "he can be..."

"Merrick will be here soon," MJ said. He scooted his feet out of the water and stood. "I know that's what you were implying."

Roger quickly recovered his shocked expression.

"Yeah," MJ said, "he came to the Rocha Estate. We met. Everything's fine, so you can stop gloating that you have something you're holding over me. You don't. Not anymore."

Roger gave him a calculating smile. "No? I wouldn't be so sure of that. One meeting with Merrick Rocha doesn't reveal all of his secrets."

"Whatever. I'm not playing games with you." MJ ran his fingers through his wet hair and strode over to where Rachael was laying, tanning, with her eyes closed. She'd gathered his shirt, hat and phone and set them on the chair beside her. "Thanks for grabbing my stuff." He stuck his hat on backward and threw himself down on the lounge chair.

"You're welcome. Looks like you're a hit with Sam and Holly."

He snorted a laugh. "Yeah. They love me."

"They're kids. They'll warm up to you fast."

He wasn't too sure about that, but wasn't worried about it either. He'd probably never see them again after this week.

MJ dried his hands with his T-shirt and tapped his phone's screen to see if he'd missed any calls.

His chest constricted. Nothing. Not one call, and Christ, Maddie had to be p.i.s.sed. Why hadn't she called to argue with him more and call him an a.s.shole?

Then the internal battle began. He wanted to call her. Maybe he shouldn't have pushed so much. Maybe he should've just left the ring and let her go.

Wasn't that what he wanted after all? To be free of Maddie? He was beginning to doubt himself. It rarely happened, but when it did, it was never good.

Sixteen.

Maddie had cleaned her dad's apartment from top to bottom-not that it needed it in the first place-and paced a path from the living room to the kitchen and back again at least a hundred times.

All afternoon she'd warred with herself over calling MJ and screaming at him, calling him every name she could think of and telling him she never wanted to see him again.

He brought out the very worst in her.

Maddie winced. Her head ached. She was sick of all the thoughts and feelings torturing her day and night. Ever since Talan pulled that ring out of his pocket her world turned upside down.

No, it was already upside down thanks to the Old Man. She wouldn't even have been with Talan at all if it hadn't been for Enzo Rocha and his secrets and lies.

Maddie wasn't sure how she felt about that. If things could've been different, would she want them to be? If she could turn back time and find an alternate path that didn't have Talan in it, would she?

It didn't matter now.

She'd made her decision.

She slumped down onto the couch, leaned her head back against the soft, worn upholstery and closed her eyes. Thinking about a past that never was and never could've been was a waste of time. Enzo Rocha had run her off and that led her to here and now.

Maddie leaned forward and rubbed her temples, groaning. She needed to erase MJ from her mind, but how could she when so much was left unspoken and unfinished between them.

It wasn't just MJ who had suffered when she left him.

She needed closure. There was no getting around it.

Faced with only one option for getting her life back in order, she slipped her sandals on and jogged down the steps. Once outside, she hopped in the golf cart and headed to the one person who could help her get to Turtle Tear.

Standing outside the guest cottage, Maddie breathed in the sun-warmed scent of honeysuckle that climbed a trellis by the front door. She and MJ used to pick the flowers, sit on the ground and suck out the sweet nectar. But their scent would always bring a flush to her face remembering the taste of honeysuckle mixed with s.e.x on MJ's tongue.

"It's hot," MJ said, stripping his T-shirt off and tossing it on the ground. "Take off your clothes."

Maddie laughed and gave his chest a shove. "I'm not getting undressed out here for the entire world to see."

"No, not the entire world. Just me." He grasped the hem of her baby doll tank and tugged it over her head. It was so hot, she hadn't worn a bra. MJ stepped in to her and closed his hands over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, kneading while he lowered his lips to her neck.

She let her head fall back and closed her eyes against the sun. It lit up behind her eyelids like fire-like the heat that rushed between her legs. He unb.u.t.toned her shorts and they fell to her feet.

MJ ran the back of his fingers down her sides, his touch so light, it brought chills to her skin. He grabbed her hips and kissed her harder, down her throat, across her collarbone and over the swells of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. If he hadn't been holding on to her, she would've crumpled to the gra.s.s.

When his lips left her skin and he stepped back, she whimpered. "Keep your eyes closed," he said. "Don't move."

A moment later, she heard him return to her. He didn't touch her, but she felt the heat of his body, so close, but never close enough. Not even when he was inside her.

A light, fluttering tickle ran over her nipple. Her eyes popped open to find him teasing her with a silky honeysuckle stamen, leaving behind dewy nectar droplets. MJ flicked the stamen over her shoulder and lowered his mouth to the peak of her breast, his l.u.s.ty, dark eyes locked on hers. His tongue circled her nipple before he took it in his mouth and sucked, making her moan with pleasure.

MJ lowered her to the ground and opened his hand revealing a palm-full of yellow and white flowers. "Honeysuckle never tasted so sweet," he said, trailing another stamen down between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to her belly b.u.t.ton.

Maddie was intoxicated by the lush scent of nectar, the wet tip of MJ's tongue sliding down her body, his hands slipping her underwear down her thighs. Being with him like this was more than she ever dreamed it would be. He set her on fire, melted every thought in her mind and had her begging and panting underneath him every time they were together.

She'd never get used to it. Never get enough. She was addicted to the taste of his kiss, the sound of his husky voice whispering all the dirty things he wanted to do to her. Addicted to running her hands and lips over his firm, sculpted body, the sensation when he pushed inside her and she knew she was on the verge of losing control.

MJ lazily traced a honeysuckle stamen down from her belly b.u.t.ton. Spreading her legs apart with his shoulders, he continued the path, brushing her very center with the silky strand.

Maddie arched her back at the sensation. Too light, too soft, too torturously erotic to handle. "MJ," she whispered. "Please."

"Please what, Mads?" He nibbled and kissed the inside of her thigh.

"I need more," she begged. "Touch me."

"I am touching you." He swirled the stamen through her folds.

"You know what I mean," she said, desperate to have his fingers rubbing and circling.

"Tell me."

She groaned, hating this game. He knew she wasn't good at asking. Instead, she reached down, ready to show him. He caught her hand before she touched herself. "No. This is just for me."

MJ gripped her wrist and licked her center, collecting honeysuckle nectar and her own dewy wetness on his tongue. Maddie jolted and lifted her hips for more. She needed relief, needed him to take her over the edge.

"Maddie?"

Startled from her memory, she jumped and spun toward the lake and Merrick's voice. He sat on the bank with khaki pants rolled up to his knees and a gray T-shirt that hugged his chest. If this was what MJ would look like in his early thirties, Maddie might never get the closure she wanted.

Internally, she rolled her eyes at herself. She needed to calm her overactive hormones. No more strolls down memory lane straight into MJ's arms. That had to end right now.

Which brought her to why she was standing there in the first place. "I need your help."

Merrick patted the ground beside him. "What's going on?"

She strolled over to him and sat on the bank. The breeze rippled the water. Cattails swayed. "I need to get to Turtle Tear. MJ has something of mine, and I need to get it back."

He frowned. "What does he have?"

Suddenly, she felt like a tattletale. This was MJ's dad and she'd never had anyone to run to when they were little to tell on him when he was being a bully to her. "A ring."

"A ring? Why do I get the feeling there's more to this than just a ring?" Merrick bent his knees, crossed his ankles and sat back resting on his hands.

Maddie cringed. "It's an engagement ring."

"MJ gave it to you?" Merrick was surprised. Probably because yesterday MJ gave no indication that he wanted anything more than friendship with Maddie.

"No. He took it from me."

Merrick shook his head. "You're engaged? And MJ took your ring? Why would he do that?"

This was all more complicated than she wanted it to be, and explaining it made her sound like a nutcase who couldn't get her head on straight. "I'm not engaged. I have a boyfriend in Michigan, where I live. He proposed. I told him I had to think about it. We're taking a break until I figure it out."

Merrick lifted his chin with a knowing smirk. "And MJ thought he'd make the decision for you."

"Something like that." The image of MJ hovering over her while she was bare-chested and sprawled across the kitchen table flashed through her mind. The way his eyes blazed and he held the ring in his fist like he wanted to shove it down her throat. "He and I used to-"

"I get it," Merrick said. "I wasn't buying the whole friendship thing between you two. Any idiot can see there's more."

"There's not," she said. "Not anymore. That's why I need to get my ring back and get him out of my mind." She took a shaky breath. "I need to tell him it's over and make sure he knows I mean it."

Merrick stretched out his long legs. "Are you going to rip his heart out? Because I can't help you do that."

Maddie let out a sad, incredulous laugh. "I did that over a year ago. He doesn't expect anything else from me." She met his eyes, so much like MJ's, and prepared to plead with him if she had to.

He sighed. "I know that desperation. It makes you do crazy things." He scratched the thick stubble on his chin. "Sometimes crazy things work though. Be at the airport in two hours. I'll have a helicopter waiting to take you to Turtle Tear."

A zing of hope rushed through her. She tried to trample it down by reminding herself this was a mission for closure. "Thank you. This is... thanks."

"You're welcome."

She jumped up and brushed off the back of her shorts before spinning around and taking a step toward the golf cart.

"Maddie?"

She glanced back at Merrick. His lips were pressed firm, his eyes thoughtful. "Don't force anything." He chuckled. "Take it from someone who's forced his way into everything his entire life. Don't make it hard on yourself."

She nodded. "Okay."

A few hours later, a helicopter was at the airport waiting to take Maddie to Turtle Tear.

A man with dishwater blond hair pulled back and muscles the size of a professional wrestler stood at the gate holding a sign with her name on it. She rolled her suitcase up to him and held out her hand. "I'm Maddie Simcoe."