Page 24 of Talon
Talon shook his head again.“We take care of family.This might be new between us, but there’s something there.More than a fling.”He watched her face, trying to see how she felt about what he was saying.Was she upset that he saw this as more than a fling?Did it make her more comfortable?He thought it was the latter, but it was hard to tell for sure.All he could do was hope for the best.
18
Asshebrushedherteeth and got ready for bed, Madison once more found herself thinking about everything Talon had said earlier.Not just the parts about Billy, which she suspected was going to circle around in her brain until she was ready to scream or until she could put together whatever it was in the back of her mind that she couldn’t quite remember.
Pushing Billy from her mind, she rinsed her mouth and leaned up to stare at her reflection.
Should I trust him?she asked her mirror self.Her reflection didn’t answer, not that she’d expected it to.In fact, if it had, she would have freaked out.Still staring at her reflection she thought about it.She wanted to trust him.Her instincts told him he was trustworthy, but then, until her father’s death, she’d trusted Billy.
That was her problem.She knew it.She’d trusted Billy and somehow, things had gone wrong.Possibly far more horribly wrong than even she had realized until now.
“You all right in there?”A soft knock sounded on the bathroom door, followed by Talon’s gentle question, drawing her out of her thoughts.
She shook her head then scrubbed her hands over her face.“Yeah.I’m okay.I’ll be right out.”
“No hurry.I just hadn’t heard anything in a bit and started to worry.”
“Sorry.I got lost in thought,” she said as she opened the door.But he wasn’t there.She frowned and went in the bedroom.He wasn’t there.Wondering where he’d gone, she turned and checked the rest of the apartment and found him in the kitchen, leaning against the sink as he drank a glass of water.
“There you are.”She stepped close and wrapped an arm around his waist as she leaned in and rested her head against his shoulder.She loved the warm and peaceful sensation that filled her as his arm came around her shoulders, keeping her close.It reminded her of the safe, comfortable feeling she had when she would snuggle up next to Dad as a kid.Not that it was the same feeling.She didn’t feel the same for Talon as she did for Dad, but they both made her feel cared for, almost taken care of.That part she liked.There were other things she liked too but they weren’t because they reminded her of her father.
No.That would just be weird.She had never thought about Dad like that.Not even when she was a teenager and starting to see boys in a different light.She’d wondered what her mother had seen in her father that hadn’t been good enough for her, but then she’d determined that Madison wasn’t good enough either.
That was the only reason Madison had been able to come up with as to why her mother would have left them.Personally, Madison couldn’t imagine having a child, raising her for a few years then just walking away and leaving both her husband and her daughter without ever looking back.
As far as she knew, after leaving, her mother had never contacted her father again.She’d never spoken with Madison again.Madison had spent years wondering what she’d done to drive her mother away.It hadn’t been until after her father’s death, after Madison had moved away from the only home she could remember living in that she’d realized that there was nothing a child could do to drive a parent away.Especially not a child as young as she’d been.But she’d been barely seven when her mother had disappeared from her life.
“I didn’t mean to rush you.I was just making sure you were okay.I dumped a lot of information on you tonight.I just wanted to be sure it wasn’t haunting you.”
“I’ve thought about it some.I mean it’s kind of big, who wouldn’t think about it?But that wasn’t where my mind was.”She debated for a moment whether or not she should tell him, then decided why not.She wanted to trust him, and she had gone a long time trusting her gut.So, it was wrong once that was still a pretty good track record.But how would he feel if she told him what she’d been thinking about?She had no way to know except to tell him and find out.She took a deep breath then spit it out.“I was thinking about you and how much to trust you.”She didn’t look up at him.She didn’t want to see the hurt there if she’d hurt his feelings.
His arm around her tightened, but not enough that it was uncomfortable.
“That’s good, little warrior.I want you to trust me, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to or to go into it blindly.If I need to earn your trust, I have no problems doing that.I want you safe.I want you with me if that’s what you want.The rest we can work on.I’m not in a rush.We can take things as slowly as you need to.”
“Slowly?”Madison tilted her head up and looked at him with surprise.“I’ve known you what?Two?Three days?You woke up in my bed this morning.That doesn’t sound like slow to me.”
“Don’t judge our relationship by anyone’s standards but your own, little warrior.We are the only ones who matter in that equation.Not what your neighbor thinks, not your boss.Not my boss, nor my brothers.The only people whose opinions matter between you and me, are yours and mine.I don’t give a flying fuck what anyone thinks about me, though I realize you might.I’ll do my best to be the kind of guy you want to be with, but I’ve got to tell you.I don’t know how well that will work.I’ve never seen a relationship where one person tries to be what the other wants, instead of each accepting their partner for who they are, that worked.Or that worked and was a happy relationship.”
She started to say something, she wasn’t sure what, but she felt the need to say something.Madison opened her mouth to do that, but Talon silenced her with a single finger across her lips.
“I’m not quite done.Give me a sec, then you can tell me what you’re thinking.”
That was the rub, even she wasn’t sure what she was thinking.
“I don’t know if this will last a few days, a few weeks, or the rest of our lives.And I don’t care, not right now.What I care about right now is that I’m here, you’re here and for the time being, you’re mine.That means I protect you.If I’m protecting you, my club’s protecting you.It’s a little old fashioned and more than a little overwhelming sometimes, I’m sure.But it’s who we are.”
She stared at him for several seconds, not sure what to say.
“I’m done now.You can tell me what you’re thinking.”
She stared at him for several seconds.Her mind spun out of control, a billion thoughts seeming to pop in, then out again before she had a chance to grab hold and figure out how she felt about any of it.Eventually, she gave up.She shook her head and dropped her head, so her cheek rested against his chest again.His arm around her shoulder held her against him while the other hand came around to rub up and down her back.
“It’s all right.We’ll figure it out.You’re not alone anymore and you can take a break while I stand strong to defend you for a while.”
19
TalonheldontoMadison, wondering what she was thinking.What was haunting her.He wanted her to tell him.To let him carry that burden for her.But he couldn’t force her to tell him what was wrong, he knew.He’d have to wait until she was ready to share with him.That was harder than he’d anticipated.
