“I don’t see other people. I haven’t since the day I met you.” I brush my thumb across her cheekbone. “You could walk into a room naked, and I wouldn’t notice anyone else in it.”
Her lips twitch. “That’s a lie.”
“What?”
“You’d lose your mind if anyone else saw me naked.” She raises an eyebrow. “You get huffy when I wear shorts.”
I open my mouth to argue, then close it. She’s right. I hate when her legs are showing. Hate when other guys look.
“Fine,” I admit. “I’d notice. Then I’d kill them.”
She laughs, the tension finally breaking. “There it is.”
“Test me anyway.”
She laughs, a real one, and some of the tension breaks. “You’re impossible.”
“I’m yours.” I say it simply because it’s true. “Say you believe me.” I need to hear this from her, and I want her to hear it too.
She’s quiet for a long moment before she finally speaks. “I believe you don’t want them. But I don’t believe you weren’t looking.” I’m shaking my head no. She’s lumping me in with basic boy bitches.
“I was observing.” I drop my hands to her waist, pulling her closer. “They were boring. You’re real. You’re loud and messy, and you make shirts with my name on them.” I kiss her forehead. “That’s what I was thinking about. How fucking lucky I am.”
Her breath catches. “Luke.”
“I saw you in that crowd, and I thought,she’s mine. She’s actually mine. She’s getting it. And then you wouldn’t look at me, and I thought I’d lost you before I even had you.”
She reaches up, her fingers finding the back of my neck. “You didn’t lose me. I just... I got scared.”
“I know, but you’ll see. Like right now. I’m not letting you push me away. I don’t care what it takes.”
“It freaked me out how jealous I got. It was this flood of emotion.” Her voice is barely above a whisper. “Then I was thinkingthis is too fast. We can’t be feeling all of this so soon. If I’m this lost in you, how will I be a year from now?” She stares up at me.
“Well, in ten years maybe you’ll catch up to how crazy I am over you.” I watch her features soften and then her body too.
I kiss her then, softly and slowly, trying to put everything I can’t say into it. The fear. The want. How easily she rearrangedmy entire life without even trying. She makes me want to be better.
Madeline responds immediately, her body pressing into mine, her fingers tangling in my hair. The kiss deepens, turns hungry, and I lift her slightly so she can wrap her legs around my waist. Madeline pours all her passion into it, and I greedily take it all, starved for it, for her.
I carry her to the bed and lay her down, following her, never breaking the kiss. Her hands are under my shirt, nails dragging down my back, and I groan against her mouth. I start to push up her shirt, wanting to feel her skin against mine. Needing to be as close to her as possible.
“You know how fucking hot it was when I saw you in this shirt?” The shirt is simple, white with my number and name painted in Kingmakers gold. Handmade. Imperfect. Perfect.
“You better appreciate it. I spent three hours on it.” She smiles shyly now. “I’m not crafty.”
“I know. That’s why it means more.”
Her phone buzzes. I’m pretty sure it’s Georgia checking in on her.
“You should text her,” I say softly against her neck. “So she doesn’t send a search party.”
“You’re right. I don’t want her to worry, but I think she knew how this would go. You’ve grown on her, you know. Like a Cordyceps fungus.” She pulls out her phone, typing with one hand while I kiss her shoulder. “There. Told her I’m alive and I’ll be staying here tonight.” Her eyes flick up to meet mine, holding my stare.
“Are you staying the night?” We both know what that means. Spending all night in a bed together, we won’t be able to control ourselves. Madeline is filled with fiery passion, and I love to bring that out of her and feel the burn of it. She makes me feel more than anyone else ever has.
She looks at me, really looks at me, and her expression softens into something I don’t have a name for. “Yeah,” she says, licking her lips. “I am. Unless you don’t want me to. I can just go back to my roo…”
I cut her off with my mouth, kissing her again, harder this time. She makes a quiet sound in her throat that goes straight to my dick. I groan back, grinding against her, letting her feel what she does to me. She lets out a small gasp, her fingers digging into my shoulder. I love that she doesn’t hold back. She lets me hear it all.
