“Maddox—leave it,” I almost beg. “He’s not worth you losing everything over.”
“No, but you are.” He swipes his hand desperately over his face like it’s the only thing calming him. “God fucking dammit, Andi,you are,” he repeats in an anguished tone. “If I’d just walked out of the fucking bar with you, you wouldn’t be hurt.”
“I’m okay,” I assure him.
The veins in his neck are straining. He bears his fingers down on his eyes and inhales a deep breath, and I hesitantly brace my hand against his cheek.
Frustration slides from his gaze as our eyes meet. Jaw clenching, he kisses the inside of my palm and closes his eyes as his forehead leans against mine.
“He’ll never touch you again,” he says. “That much, I promise you.”
“You can’t know that,” I whisper.
“I do,” he replies, and his voice seems to shake. “Goddammit, Andi, I do. I swear.”
His lips press to my forehead once again, and he tugs me into his chest.
“Do you need the hospital, Andi?” James asks, and his eyes appear as sorrowful as Maddox’s.
“Yes,” Maddox says.
“No,” I argue. “No. I think I just need a shower. I don’t want to make a fuss out of it. It’s just scratches. I’m more traumatized than anything.”
James meets Maddox’s eyes, and reluctantly, he nods. The bodyguard puts the car in drive and pulls out onto the street toward home.
As we’re moving away, Maddox reaches for my chin and tilts my head back so that I’m looking up at him again.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.”
“Actually, the pepper spray in your pocket saved me,” I tell him in an attempt to lighten his mood.
“Poor shot at humor,” he says, and it’s me that almost smiles.
There’s a bandage on his neck that I squint at, and I realize I haven’t seen him without the mask since the tattoo studio. “What’s this?” I ask.
“Take it off,” he tells me. “I need to put that ointment on it at home anyway.”
I reach for the edge of the bandage and tug it back, and when I see the tattoo beneath it, my eyes widen.
“You had my kiss tattooed on your neck?” I ask.
His thumb swipes across my cheek, the smallest of smiles in his dark eyes. “I did.”
My stomach unknots, body warming.
My kiss.
He has my kiss—my lips—on his neck for everyone to see.
I lean closer, but before I kiss him, my eyes drift to James, knowing we shouldn’t be like this in his presence either.
Maddox gets my drift.
“Hey, James?”
“Yeah?”
“You never saw what’s about to happen,” Maddox replies.
