Page 112 of Maddox
Although I appreciate the gesture, pulling me in after backing away only hurts that much more which is why I say, “Why do you keep pushing me away?”
The silence that follows is deafening and I peek through my fingers to find him staring into space before he rubs his hand down his face and mumbles, “It’s complicated.”
Maybe it is but don’t I deserve to know more? Is this about Peter or me?
“Okay. How?”
With his head bowed, I can’t get a read on his expression which is why I flinch when he growls, “You’re related to pigs, Delaney…”
Pigs. Ah, so it is about Peter.
Eyeing the poster on the wall of a woman spread out in a bikini, I swallow.
Despite everything between us, I want to be the one who he tells his secrets to, who he holds when that desperate light shines behind his eyes.
I think I could love this man with his silly smile and killer dimple but for all my wishes, I can’t change my family, and I can’t change him.
This is why I don’t know what to say and silence descends between us once again, until he says, “I’m MC, Delaney. We don’t follow rules. We don’t get along with cops.”
He sneers the last word and I bow my head. I get it. MCs don’t operate within the same laws as the rest of us mere mortals.
Do I care? I don’t know but I’m sitting here in his bed so it must not be a deal breaker.
His sigh presses at my chest as he stands and says, “I can’t be what you need.”
Raising my head, I stare at his back, the muscles taught, and his shoulders bunched around his head.
With my heart in my throat, I stand and approach him, noting with a tingle of awareness that he exhales as soon as I place my palm against his skin.
The steady thrum of his heart soothes me as I say, “Maybe all I need is you.”
When those gorgeous dark eyes meet mine, covered in desperation, I press my lips to his, hoping, if nothing else, he feels what I do in this moment.
I’m not stupid. I know we can never be together because he’s right. I’m not only affiliated with cops but the Aces and surely if that wasn’t enough, the shit I’m running from is.
Besides…why would he fight for me with all my complications when he doesn’t have to fight for one of the other women he knows, at all?
Still, I can have this kiss before reality intrudes which comes all too soon when the faint buzz of his phone fills the silence between us.
His yummy lips graze mine once more before he pulls back and says, “You’re so fucking beautiful, Delaney.”
Despite the fervor of his words, my chest clenches when he steps back and the mask, I’ve come to hate drops over his face, blocking the real Maddox from view.
While he checks his phone, I summon a smile, albeit a wretched one because I can’t show my vulnerability in the face of his distance.
What’s he thinking?
“I gotta go to church. I’ll be back later,” he says, grabbing his shirt off the floor.
“You’ll be back?” I finally whisper, my cheeks warm when he pecks me on the lips before saying, “I will.”
Once he’s gone, I dress and run my fingers through my hair, all the while wondering why Maddox is hell bent on going to church on a Wednesday night.
He didn’t strike me as particularly religious but what do I know?
Now that he’s gone, I feel…cold and I still haven’t admitted to the real reason I’m here.
Is this a mistake?
