Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
“You’re not with Emily?”
I shake my head. “She’s not even a factor.”
“The boys deserve better than what they got,” she says.
“I couldn’t agree more, but lucky for them, they have something ten times better. That is if you’re willing to accept it.”
She shakes her head, that delicate tremble once again in her chin. “You’re fighting dirty.”
“We’re a package deal.”
“And if I only want the boys?”
“You’re stuck with me, Madison. Might as well accept it now because I’ll never give up on the idea of us.”
“I’m supposed to make you grovel more,” she mutters, her hands coming up to rest on my chest.
“Say the word,” I challenge.
“I’ll come back and help with the kids,” she says.
“That’s not enough.”
“That whole employee-with-benefits thing isn’t going to work for me.”
“I don’t need you to be their nanny.”
I curl a finger under her chin when she tries to look away again. The woman is so damned stubborn, but I love that part of her, too.
“If you need what this is between us to be platonic while we work everything else out, then that’s something I can attempt to do. I’ll understand because I know a few apologies and handful of words aren’t an instant fix, but I want you to know what I’m working toward and it isn’t a live-in nanny.”
I watch as she mulls over my words, her jaw working as she chews on the inside of her cheek.
“I want a life with you, Chase,” she says and my chest swells with all the possibilities. “But know that it terrifies me to be that vulnerable with someone.”
I press my sweat-covered temple against hers.
“A chance is all I need. I’ll spend every breath I have left in me, proving that you made the right choice.”
***
“Really? This is how you want to prove your words to me?”
Madison is less than impressed as we pull up outside the hotel on the highway.
“We stayed here that first night. Neither of us had expectations. We drove back home the next morning, thinking it was the only time. I want to correct every single mistake I’ve made. When we leave the room tomorrow, we’ll do so knowing that we’re a unit. There will be no doubts, no dark clouds hanging over us. If we feel it, we need to say it. I know I have to stop assuming you can feel my emotions in my touch, that you understand what I’m trying to say with my body because I’m too scared to say it with my words.”
She draws in a deep breath, and I can tell she’s gearing up to say something I’m not going to like. I prepare for the worst, and inwardly wonder if that doubt will ever fade with time.
“I don’t know that I like what your body tells me.”
That is not at all what I thought was coming.
“I’m not into degradation.”
“What?”
“That last time we were together, your goal was to humiliate me. You came on my skin. It made me feel like a whore. Used and—”
“Madison, what the actual fuck?”
Her eyes are glistening when she looks over at me.
“You wanted honesty, and now I’m being too honest? Seriously, Chase, just take me home. I can’t handle all this back-and-forth. You say you love me then it’s conditional? I swear you’ll never change. This is why—”
Her mouth clamps shut when I reach out and cup her jaw.
“There was no degradation intended when I did that, baby. I want to own you. To mark you as mine. I want to spit fire at anyone who looks in your direction. I want them to know that you’re untouchable, that I value every breath you breathe.” I lick my lips when her eyes drop to them. “I hate that it caused you pain, and I do want to know what you’re thinking. If you don’t like something I do, then I won’t do it. If you don’t want me to mark you—”
“It’s a little different now that you’ve explained it. I don’t know that anyone has ever felt so territorial over me before.”
“It’s a good thing,” I growl, annoyed at the prospect. “It would be hard to make love to you from prison. Conjugal visits don’t really appeal to me.”
“Conjugal visits aren’t a thing in Texas, and besides, we’d have to be married for it to even happen.”
“Don’t ruin all my plans in one day, Madison.”
I kiss her before she can argue.
As cheesy as it sounds, her lips on mine are like coming home. Her knowing that I love her, that I have plans for us, makes all the difference to every other kiss we’ve shared before.
“Take me inside before Sheriff Hodson arrests us for indecent exposure,” she whispers against my lips when we come up for air.
Ten minutes later, we’ve acquired a room and we don’t waste a second ripping at each other’s clothes.