I glance over at Maddie, who's now sitting up on my bed.Our bed. She rubs the sleep from her eyes and stretches her arms out above her head. She’s looking like a fucking angel with darkness behind those copper eyes that only makes me want her more.
Fucking exquisite.
“What, this?” I point toward the monitor with her and fuck face, his arm snaked around her waist in a tight embrace.
“Yeah. What does Austin have to do with any of this?”
“He’s a fucking suspect, Maddie. You can’t honestly tell me you haven’t thought about it?”
“I haven’t.” She crosses her arms in front of her and tilts her head with attitude. “I don’t have a reason to. He’s my best friend.”
She says it so matter-of-factly that it almost pisses me off. Best friend? Yeah, no. He’s fucking in love with her. I can see it in the way he looks at her and not the camera.
“You’re really going to sit here and tell me you really don’t believe this guy's in love with you?” A sharp laugh escapes me like a complete fucking asshole and I instantly regret it.
“Uh, no, I know he is. But that doesn't mean he’s a suspect.”
I rear my head, shock written clearly on my face. I wasn’t expecting her to openly admit his feelings towards her like that. Has he told her before? Does she feel the same way for him as he does for her? I shouldn’t be thinking like this, I know she doesn’t. It’s me she’s with, but why does her nonchalance make me feel so damn insecure?
“What do you mean you know, Maddie? What exactly aren’t you telling me?”
She gives me a look I can’t place, but it’s not exactly giving the warm and fuzzies. What did I do wrong now? She gets up out of the bed and walks over to me before snapping.
“I’m not keeping anything from you, Miles. And even if I was, you’d just look into me anyway to figure it out, so what’s the fucking point?”
“Fuck Mads, I’m sorry. I didn’t–ahh, fuck.” I run my hand through my hair, a nervous tick I can’t seem to get rid of. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, the thought of losing you scares me. This guy, he’s clearly important to you and he has feelings for you that you apparently already know about. I lost you for a month, baby. I can’t do that again. I won’t.”
Her eyes soften instantly, and all I can think to do is bring her into me. I hold her tightly, laying my head against her stomach. I can’t fucking lose her again. One month was too fucking longand I’ll say and do anything just to keep her here with me. Right where she belongs.
“You’re not going to lose me.” she whispers, running her fingers through my hair, giving me a comfort I didn’t know I needed until now. “Austin was just there, ya know? Everything I went through, he was always by my side. He was the only one who knew. I just can’t picture him doing all of this when he knows what I’ve been through. All the pain and abuse I endured. It just wouldn’t make any sense.”
She gently pulls my head away from her stomach, and I look up at her with puppy dog eyes, my lip jutting out into a pout to really sell it. She laughs and climbs into my lap, my dick immediately standing at attention.
“Calm down, boy. There’s no way in hell I could go for round two right now. I’m still a bit sore from earlier.”
I love that she’s sore because of me. I smirk at her and raise my eyebrows a few times, biting my lip and raking my eyes down her torso while gripping her ass in my palms.
I let out a long breath, admiring her perfect fucking body as it sits on my lap. She’s wearing nothing but a pair of my boxers and one of my t-shirts and I’d fuckingloveto rip them off of her. My clothes be damned.
She wraps her arms around my neck and I look up into her eyes, brighter now, like pools of glowing amber, completely enraptured by her beauty. I lean in and kiss her delicate lips, slowly but passionately. I rest my forehead against hers and tell her a truth I’ve been too scared to say out loud, but there’s just no way I can hold it in any longer.
“You scare me, Princess.” The words come out quieter than I planned, but I know she heard me. She scrunches her eyebrows together, urging me to continue. “From the moment I met you, I knew there was something different about you. Now that you’re here and you’re mine, I can’t fucking stand the thought of losingyou. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. It’s like you’re directly hot-wired straight into my fucking soul and every breath you take just breathes more life into me. I’m falling so goddamn hard for you.”
Cupping her face, I stroke her cheek with my thumb, watching the tears she tried so hard to hold back stream down her face. “You’re it for me, Princess, and I’m going to do everything I can to find whoever is haunting you, andI willendthem.”
Maddie’s phonehas been vibrating every five fucking minutes since yesterday afternoon. I kept expecting the stalker to text her again, but no. It's just Kaitlin. Honestly, she's becoming a bigger pain in my ass than the guy threatening our lives.
I don’t understand what her problem is with me, but her texts are a little fucking excessive. I don’t want to bring this up to Maddie with Kaitlin being the only friend she’s made since she’s been here, but her behavior not only angers me, it’s starting to freak me out, too.
Her phone buzzes with what could be the hundredth text, and she picks it up to read the message.
“Ugh.” Maddie sighs, rolling her eyes as she locks her screen, tossing the phone onto the couch next to her.
“How many times is she going to text you?” I scoff. “I think she could be the stalker now with how fucking obsessive she is.”
Maddie rolls her eyes at me. “Ha ha.” She laughs sarcastically. “Very funny. Besides, the video showed a guy. Ahugeguy. There’s no way it could have been Kaitlin.”
“I’m just saying Mads, what kind of friend sends this many texts when you aren’t even responding in the first place? It’s like she’s in love with you or something. It’s fucking weird.”
