CHAPTER 18
Atlas
The house issettled in a way it never is during daylight hours.Grayce is down, Maddie went upstairs right after, and I’ve been parked on the man-cave couch for over an hour, pretending to watch some action flick I’ve already seen a dozen times.
Truth is, I couldn’t sleep if I tried.My brain keeps coming back to the kiss.To her taste, the shock in her laugh when I spun her, to the disappointment I felt when she said this couldn’t be done.
I’ve kissed a lot of women.More than I care to admit.
But that?
That was different.It wasn’t just heat—it was magnetic.Like a thing that had locked into place, and walking away from it feels impossible.
Is it because of Gray?Because we share him in memory, share Grayce in flesh and blood?Does that bind us in a way no one else could?
Maybe.
Probably.
But even as I turn the questions over, the answer that keeps popping back up is simpler.
It’s Maddie.
The room glows faint blue from the TV screen when movement catches my eye, causing me to jolt upright.
Maddie’s in the doorway, looking like a dream, all curves and shadows and those eyes that undo me.
Instantly, I’m alert.“Everything okay?”I push forward on the couch, ready to move if necessary.
She steps a little closer, caught in the TV glow.Her face is tight, lips pressed like she’s holding back.She shakes her head once.
I stand, closing half the distance without even thinking.Concern scrapes at my chest.“Talk to me.What is it?How can I help?”
Her eyes lift to mine, wide and shining, and what comes out of her mouth slams every thought right out of me.
“I can’t stop thinking about the kiss,” she says, voice low but steady.“About all the ways it could blow up in our faces if we let this happen.And I’ve decided—” Her chin lifts, her throat working.“I don’t care.”
I stare, stunned silent.
Her voice trembles, but the words are carved in stone.“The last few months, I’ve given everything to everyone else.To my clients in Chicago.To Gray.To Grayce.I left my life behind to move in with a stranger and try to be the best mother I can for a little girl who deserves everything.But I want something for myself.”She takes another step, close enough that I catch the faintest trace of her shampoo.“And that’s you.”
For a heartbeat, I can’t breathe.I don’t even know what the hell to do with the rush of heat coupled with disbelief.
Before I can respond, Maddie closes the last inch between us.Her hands slip around my neck, tugging me down, and then her mouth is on mine.
There’s nothing hesitant this time.No testing, no caution.It’s a spark catching fire instantly.Her kiss is all want, all need, and it rips through me like gasoline thrown onto a flame.
I groan, grip her waist, and drag her closer until we’re flush, chest to chest.
Sweet’s not even in the vocabulary.This is hungry, reckless, desperate—and I’m already gone.
The second my tongue touches hers, the rest of the world drops out.No sound from the tv, no clock, no game plans—just the soft give of her lips and the unsteady way she breathes when I deepen the kiss.I slide my palms down her arms, feel the shiver that ripples through her, and it hits me in the gut that she wants this as badly as I do.
I taste her, slow at first, then not slow at all.She opens for me and a hot and reckless need surges like a breakaway on the ice.I tip her head and trace the line of her jaw with my mouth, then lower to that spot beneath her ear that draws forth a deep gasp of pleasure.
I don’t remember deciding to undress her, only the blur of cotton over her head and the soft whisper of it landing somewhere on the floor.She’s left in a simple bra that celebrates how perfect she is.I drag a fingertip down the center of her chest, pause at the small clasp nestled there, and murmur, “What happens if I open this?”
Her eyes—wide, bright, refusing to flinch—lift to mine.She doesn’t say yes but then again, she doesn’t have to.The answer is in the way she stands her ground and lets me look.
