Reed considers him one more time before slapping the side of the vehicle twice. “Okay. You can wake my sister up for a ride if you don’t want to call a car. Or Mom—”
“I’ll text you when I’m on the way there,” Maddox says.
Reed rolls up the window, and Maddox disappears through the side fence as the Escalade pulls out of the drive.
Weird.
I throw my towel on the ground and grab a flimsy, long-sleeved tee from my suitcase, along with a pair of underwear just to sit around in. I wish I had coffee up here. I could use a cup to read emails and get some work done.
The thought of going downstairs right now makes me pout. Tina is so chipper in the morning, and I’m not ready for her yet.
I love mornings, but I also like my mornings to myself to listen to music, drink coffee, and work in peace.
A knock sounds on my door.
My heart feels like it drops to my feet. The knock is from the outside door, meaning it’s not my dad or Tina checking on me from the other side.
It’s…
Hurriedly, I try to do something with my hair so it doesn’t look like a flat mop on my head.
“Andi?”
The sound of Maddox’s voice awakens every inch of my still-tingling skin. I open the door slightly, finding him standing with his hands in the pockets of his slim black joggers, those piercing green eyes staring at me.
Yet all I can think about is how satisfying his beard tickled my inner thighs and how that tongue ring sent pulses through me that I didn’t know were possible.
“Maddox.” I swallow. I can’t discern the look in his eyes, and it nearly sends me into a panic. I open the door wider and step back to let him in.
“I needed to talk to you,” he says as he quietly shuts the door.
“Oh… Okay.”
I’m not sure I like where this is going.
He runs his hand anxiously behind his neck, and I have to shift on my feet. It’s a far cry from the Maddox that railed me sideways the afternoon before.
“Mads?”
“Last night was a mistake,” he says, and my heart flips.
He held back from going to breakfast with his friends to tell me…
“Or that’s what I should tell you,” he continues.
Fucking hell.
He’s trying to kill me.
I don’t know whether to breathe yet or not.
“That’s what the dick move would be, wouldn’t it? To tell you that last night was nothing, and we shouldn’t see each other again. That your brother means more to me than you ever could.”
“It would,” I manage.
His jaw tightens, and he advances a single step. “I love your brother, Andi. But dammit, I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember, and last night… last night, it felt like all the gaping spaces in my heart were healing. Like your touch was mending the broken pieces of my shattered soul.”
Goddamn songwriter.
