Chapter 10: Rhydian

WHAT WAS HAPPENING?

There were absolutely no other thoughts running through Rhydian's mind at that second other than his initial one.

Maddy was kissing him. Actually kissing him for the first time since she had come back. Now that he thought about it, for the first time ever with her initiating it.

And yet he was standing there like an absolute lemon and not reciprocating. If he ever did survive this mortifying ordeal, he may very well ask Tom to knock some sense into him for not kissing her back.

And so he does the only thing that he can, and gives in.

Her initial kiss had been forceful and so he could only follow at the pace she set, finally relaxing his mouth to claim her own. Maddy was clearly surprised by this considering the squeak she let out, and Rhydian used that opening to swipe his tongue inside her mouth. She quickly got over her shock and met his tongue with her own, battling for dominance as her hands dropped from around his neck to push against his shoulders.

For one terrible second, he thought she was pushing him away, and was going to claim this was all one big mistake, but before he could apologise, his back met the rough surface of the tree that Aran had climbed up on not five minutes earlier.

A gasp escaped him at the impact, eyes groggily opening to take in her determined look for a moment before she started kissing him again. If he were not so preoccupied by this sudden change of events, then Rhydian would have noticed the outline of another figure approaching from over Maddy's shoulder.

Instead, he closed his eyes again at the overwhelming onslaught of Maddy's lips against his own, only now realising how his hands were still waving uncertainty at his sides. That was quickly remedied by Maddy clasping a hand around his wrist to pull it to her waist. He didn't need to be told twice and took the invitation to wrap his arms around her, pulling her body into his own, sandwiching himself between her body and the tree.

More than willing to fulfil all orders that his alpha relayed to him, Rhydian couldn't muffle the groan of reluctance that escaped him when she started to pull away a second later. Nonetheless, he let her go, catching the look of utter shock in her eyes before his eyes were drawn to the red of her cheeks and her swollen lips. He swallowed deeply before talking, the question still not fully formed in his mind as he opened his mouth. Her eyes followed where his throat bobbed and a shadow of something indescribable that flashed across her irises was enough to make all thoughts of words disappear again.

"OI, YOU TWO! What the hell are you doing in my Dad's field?"

A voice finally caught up with his delayed brain, and an instinctive growl leaked quietly out of his gritted teeth as his eyes fell to their spectator. Maddy gave him another shocked look at the growl that only she had heard, before turning to Liam.

"Oh hi Liam!"

Is she serious?

She just made his legs fail him with just a kiss and was now cheerfully welcoming the person that interrupted them from continuing that. What the hell?

Still dumbfounded by what on earth had just happened, Rhydian stayed in his prostrate position against the tree trunk. Maddy was now talking to Liam, but he was so preoccupied with ironing out his jumbled thoughts that he barely took in their conversation.

"So you're saying that you and Rhydian are together?" Liam asked incredulously to whatever Maddy had just said. Now Rhydian's head snapped up at that.

"Yep." Maddy replied, popping the P between her lips. Rhydian was aware that his eyes might just be popping out of his head at this admission, but Maddy still wasn't looking at him.

"But you can't tell anyone. Please!" Maddy continued, putting on a pleading tone, "We've already had to resort to making out here of all places so that no one else catches us."

We were what now?

Rhydian only got more confused with every utterance that Maddy made. What was she playing at? Why was Liam here again? He was still caught up on the fact that she had kissed him not two minutes ago.

He sucked his abused lips into his mouth to remind himself that it had actually just happened.

"What? You use my dad's field as a secret rendezvous to hook up? You seriously expect me to believe that?!" Liam's scepticism was met with the blank wall of Maddy's raised eyebrow and gesturing hand. She pointed to where Rhydian was standing as if to say, did it not look like that was what we were doing?

"Well we didn't exactly expect you to set traps for us. This was as good a place as any before you went all Bear Grylls!" Maddy was staring at Liam like he was the crazy one in this situation, while Rhydian watched wondering whether he should get his head examined.

"That still doesn't explain why it was Tom's planner I found here. You may be trespassing doing…" he waved his hand vaguely between them and Rhydian's face rapidly heated up at the insinuation. "But that still doesn't take Tom off the hook. It doesn't make any sense!"

Maddy rolled her eyes, "Oh come on! I accidentally picked up his the other day and dropped it here after school. We sit next to each other so it's an easy mistake to make. What's so difficult to understand?"

Watching her wheedle her way out of this situation was really something to behold, if he didn't know that it was all rubbish, her no nonsense annoyed tone would have sold the lie to even Rhydian. She may be crap at acting out Shakespeare, but boy could she improvise.

"And what?" Liam scoffed, "Shannon and Tom are just willing to take the blame for you at school so that you can keep it a secret that you're dating? What's the big deal anyway?"

Rhydian watched as Maddy paused her tirade, clearly not able to come up with her next lie in time. "Jana is back and staying with Maddy." He finally chipped in, watching both heads swivel around to take in his admittedly hoarse voice. He cleared his throat, "There's so much going on around her house that it would just freak out her parents more if we told them at the moment. Plus my foster mum wouldn't like the thought of us together after I lived with her for a while. We're trying to ease people into it."

It was absolute rubbish, but seemed realistic.

"So you're saying that you all had absolutely nothing to do with the poaching?" They both quickly shook their heads, guilt churned in Rhydian's stomach as he did. "That's ridiculous that Shannon would embarrass herself in front of everyone just to divert suspicion from you."

There was a pause. "She's a good friend." Maddy's only response was, and Rhydian had to wholeheartedly agree.

Something shifted in Liam's gaze and it looked like he'd accepted their story for now, "Okay fine, but you can't keep coming here." Maddy and Rhydian both nodded frantically, relieved that they had got off the hook. He glanced down at the mess of the net, clearly also looking for the camcorder hidden in the grass. "And I would start telling people," he looked back up, flicking his gaze between them, "About you two. Believe me, no one would be shocked."

Rhydian felt his neck grow warm again as he blushed, doing everything he could to not look at Maddy. To distract himself from replying, he walked towards her, snatching the empty camcorder from behind her back to chuck it at Liam. He caught it and sneered at them.

"Awfully clumsy, me," Rhydian reasoned, "Managed to set off a poaching trap and trip over this thing all in one go." He continued talking as Liam snapped open the machine and noticed the sim card missing. He opened his mouth to angrily ask for it back, but Rhydian cut him off, taking Maddy's hand in his in a spur of the moment, "We'll keep that if you don't mind. Wouldn't want a video of us in the hands of a… what was it again? Oh yes, a 'massive creepy weirdo'."

Liam went purple as he snapped his mouth shut and Rhydian used the opportunity to drag Maddy away by the hand that he was holding. It wasn't until they reached the edge of the field before they separated. Nervously, Rhydian clenched the now empty palm as he glanced towards Maddy.

Were they going to talk about it?

After a pause, she looked back up at him, that fake confident look back on her face, "Good thinking back there." She laughed nervously in what he was sure was meant to be a joking way, "Great acting, sorry to just throw that at you. It was all that I could think of to explain what we were doing there."

"Right, yes." He agreed, "Good plan." As if he knew that it was an act at all during their kiss, he had just been enjoying it while it lasted. You just couldn't act a kiss of that magnitude, could you? He glanced back over to her, where they had begun walking back to her house. She appeared deep in thought, and absent-mindedly raised her hand to touch her now swollen lips.

No. That couldn't have all been acting. Rhydian was sure of it.

By the time they arrived at her house, Rhydian had just about composed himself in order to appear normal in the next conversation.

Tom and Shannon were already at the house when they got back, both with panicked looks on their faces. Rhydian felt another stab of guilt at the reminder of all they had done for him, and how much they truly cared. By the time that Maddy had explained what had happened, heavily excluding a lot of the detail, Rhydian's red face had returned in full force.

"So all my friends are going out together? Like a couple?" Jana asked with a laugh in her tone.

Shan sighed, "We were just pretending!"

"I'm not sure…" Jana laughed, glancing towards where Maddy and Rhydian were standing, not looking at each other, "I'm starting to feel a bit left out here!"

"Yeah, the things we do for our friends." Tom pointedly said, frowning at the distant look on Maddy's face.

"Really, thank you." Jana said with sincerity and Rhydian nodded in agreement towards Tom and Shannon.

"Oh and we should let you know," Rhydian cut in, turning to Jana, "We had to tell him that you were here, it was the only thing I could think of at the time." He tried to ignore the real reason why he had had trouble thinking at the time.

Jana just sighed in acceptance, "I guess that's fine, it would have happened sooner or later. Now we'll just have to wait and see how long till everyone else finds out. I'll give it till tomorrow morning!" She laughed and everyone agreed, knowing the power of the Stoneybridge rumour mill.

"I'm not so sure…" Tom cut in, "I reckon the news of you two getting together might come out first!" He gestured between Rhydian and Maddy and Rhydian immediately opened his mouth to disagree.

Fortunately he was saved from his excuses by Shannon, "Just wait till you see what I've got planned for our grand breakup tomorrow, Tom. No one will be talking about anything else for at least a while after that!"