Page 46 of Every Single Wildflower
“It’s a simple question.” I reach her, my hands landing on the countertop next to her.
Her eyes cast down.
“Ivy, look at me.” I lower my voice. “Not at the floor. Behind me, or at my chest.” I lean in, waiting for her eyes to lock with mine. When she lifts them, they’re swimming with tears. “Look right at me,” I whisper. “And tell me why you never slept with him?”
She sucks in a sharp breath, and I can see the second she contemplates lying, but something flashes in her expression, and she narrows those emerald orbs. “You want the truth, Maddox?”
“Yes.”I’ve waited a long time for the truth.
She’s not touching me, but I can feel the heat from her skin. The tension between us so close to snapping.Again.She raises up on her toes before slightly adjusting her posture forward. Her soft lips meet the shell of my ear when she whispers the words that are my complete undoing.
“He wasn’t you.”
The control I’ve kept locked down for four long years is officially obliterated right in front of my eyes. My hands move to cup her face, my lips crashing to hers with an urgency I’ve never felt. I’ve never needed anyone like this. She gasps against me when my tongue licks along the seem of her lips, silently asking her to open. To let me see if she’s tastes as sweet as I remember. Cause, fuck do I remember. I’ve never been able to forget. She groans, her lips parting, her tongue battling with mine. I press myself against her tight body while her nails scrape at my skin. She tastes like strawberries and temptation. She tastes like what I’ve been missing for way too long. My hands leave her face, anddrift down to grip her ample ass when I’m jolted back by her palms.
I blink my eyes as she brings her fingers to her lips, her head shaking.
“No,” she croaks. “I can’t.”
“Ivy...” My hands itch to touch her, but she bolts across the kitchen. “You hurt me, Maddox.”
My throat constricts. My lungs burning because she’s right. I did hurt her.
I reach for her, but she flinches back. I swallow thickly, my words lodged as I prepare to tell her my truth, “I lied.”
She slows her backward steps, her arms wrapping around her waist. “What do you mean?”
“That night.” I run a hand through my hair. “When you showed up at the cabin. The last time….”
She bites her lip with a frown, her face pivoting to look out the window.
Shame fills me at the pain she’s held onto.
“I lied about those things I said.”
She whips her head around.
“The night you stayed with me. Those things I said to you.” I slowly move into her space.
I won’t let anyone ever hurt you again.
I’ve wanted to hold you like this for so long.
I can’t breathe when you walk into the room.
Am I a bad guy for wanting you? When you didn’t belong to me?
“I meant every fucking word.”
Her hands drop. “You made me out to be a fool.” Her words are like a knife to the chest. “You said I wasdrunk.” Her voice grows. “You made me think I made it all up!” She shouts; her eyes wild. “That you would never feel that way about me, then you fuck me right after just to say it was a mistake.”
“I know.” I admit. “Fuck, I know baby. I’m sorry I hurt you.” I bring my hands up to the back of my head. “I was scared. I was scared that if you knew how I really felt, it would be real. If it was real, then…. It would hurt him. I had already hurt him enough.”
He’d barely forgiven me for the accident.
It’s not lost on me that I made her a promise to never let anyone hurt her again. Then there I was, the one inflicting her heartache.
“I was wrong. And you will never understand how much I regret it,” I admit.
