Primitive Fix Read Free

stop. Unless you think you can physically stop me, you better head south.”
    A moment’s hesitation flickered on her face before she took the south ramp onto the interstate. He didn’t let out the breath he was holding until the exit came into view.
    “Turn in here.” Kenyon had noticed how quiet she’d been since guiding the car onto the interstate. That was unusual for Sage and meant only one thing—she was over-thinking the situation. As much as he hoped she was thinking about him, he knew nothing good could come from her prolonged silence.
    As she turned into the motel parking lot, pulling her little car past the eighteen wheelers that had parked there overnight, she finally spoke. “After this, I’m through.”
    “Through?” He knew silence equaled ultimatum. It always had.
    “Yes. Done with all of it. You. Your family. My family. This connection we are supposed to have. The way I’m assumed to be at your beck and call. Through.”
    She couldn’t mean that. Even though it had been a while since they’d seen each other, he still wanted her the way he always had and always would. If she did mean it, he knew it would kill him. He’d never known a pair of mated second-borns to live without one another.
    “You can’t walk away from me.” Pain clenched his gut as the words came out sounding more like a growl than English. The full implication of her words hit him. If she was really through with him, he would live the rest of his life in mourning for her. She was his. Meant to be his. Decreed to be his by her birth. There was no way he could let her go. He always knew she would come back to him due to either her family loyalty or tradition, but if she cut the ties with him and walked away…he couldn’t bear to think of it.
    “I want out. I don’t want to be called back here every time you get into trouble, every time you need a quick change artist to cover your ass. Find someone else. I want my own life.”
    He grabbed her hand, pulling her wrist to his, lining up the tattoos on their skin, tattoos which had been there since they turned sixteen and marked them as belonging to one another. “Your life is here. Your life is bound up in this, with me, with our families.”
    “Then my life is a lie. This obligation is a lie. I want more.”
    “What do you want, Sage? To go blow up whaling ships and set fire to puppy mills? If you want a fight, there’s one right here in this state. There’s enough legal mumbo jumbo and wildlife causes that need a vigilante to keep you busy forever.” And there’s me. The last was right there on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t say it. He wouldn’t beg her to stay, but he had to find a way to convince her nonetheless.
    Sage pulled away from him, ignoring the heat from his fingers as they grazed against her skin, ignoring the way her heart hammered in her chest and the way her body wanted nothing more than to lean into him, press against him and forget she’d ever told him what had been on her mind. But she had to get away from him, from this thing between them that would never be more than just obligation. Her tattoo practically burned under his touch, the bastardization of the Fleur de lis , a symbol of the land shared by the Maddux and Villalobos families, a land they had vowed to protect. The symbol also marked her as the second born, belonging to Kenyon Maddux, second born of his line, a fact she’d heard ad nauseum since she turned thirteen.
    Even so, she would never forget the first time she had gone to Lafayette to meet Kenyon. Her grandfather had brought her to the Maddux compound a few months after she’d turned thirteen, and even then the dark haired boy whose tiger stripes were just now beginning to come into view fascinated her beyond belief. She had watched him the entire week she’d been there, catching his golden stare on her until they had finally spoken to one another. What followed was her first kiss, a peck on the cheek that ignited a fire