Page 15 of Adore Her

“It’ll be okay. I promise. He just needs time.”

Maddox’s confidence makes me feel a little more hopeful. But I also know that it’s something we can’t force. If my brother refuses to accept Maddox and I being together, that’s his choice.

“Hey,” says Maddox, lifting my chin with his fingers. “Itwillbe okay. No matter what it takes to prove to him that you and I belong together, I’ll do it.”

Emotion wells up inside of me. I don’t even think twice before saying what I say next.

“I love you, Maddox. I know it’s crazy to say that so soon, but it’s how I feel.”

A huge, gorgeous smile spreads across his lips. “I guess we’re both crazy, then, Cora. Because I’m in love with you too.”

And then he pulls me, fully clothed, into the shower with him. At first I’m laughing and screaming in protest, and then he’s kissing me, and yanking off my clothes, and then hoisting me up so my legs are wrapped around his waist and I’m pinned between him and the shower tiles. When he enters me, he presses his lips to my ears and tells me he loves me, and keeps saying it as he claims me all over again.

* * *

As the day goes on, I feel like I’m floating on a cloud. I can barely keep my lovestruck happiness contained. I’ve been hoping and wishing for true love my whole entire life, and now that I’m finally experiencing it, it feels like the most incredible dream just came true.

Every time I look at Maddox, my heart surges with emotion. All I want to do is leap into his arms and kiss him. I wish so bad that it was just the two of us here at the cabin, and that we had an endless amount of time to talk and eat and sleep and make love and justbetogether.

But we don’t have the place to ourselves. And despite what has happened between the two of us, it’s still a guys’ weekend. I haven’t forgotten that, and I’ve made sure Maddox hasn’t forgotten it, either. This morning, before we left his bedroom, I made him promise me that he wouldn’t let our newfound connection dominate the rest of the weekend.

“I don’t know how I’m going to keep my hands off you, sugar,” he’d said. “But I’ll try.”

So far, he’s made good on his promise. Any time the other guys are around, Maddox steers his attention toward them. He’ll do romantic little things to let me know that I’m on his mind, like touching the small of my back as he walks by me, or smiling at me from across the room, but he’s been careful to keep it restrained.

But wehavegotten careless once. It happened right after lunch, when I was at the kitchen sink washing dishes. Just as I was lathering up a drinking glass with soap, Maddox came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist, and kissed my neck. The sensation of his lips on my skin and the heat of his body was too much for me to resist; I leaned back against him and sighed with relaxed pleasure.

“Let me touch you,” he murmured.

I laughed. “Here? Now?”

“Nobody’s around.”

He was right. My brother, Graham, and Kurt had all gone outside. I doubted they’d come back into the house anytime soon.

“Okay,” I said, my heart rate fluttering.

The minutes that followed were a blur of pleasure: Maddox’s hand sliding into my pants, his fingers stroking and circling my clit, my own hands squeezing the soapsud-covered drinking glass so hard that it probably should have shattered.

Afterward, catching my breath, I looked up at him in amazement and said, “Where have youbeenall my life?”

It’s been a few hours since then, and I still feel like I’m glowing from it. As I relax on a cushioned chaise lounge on the back deck, enjoying the sunshine with my eyes closed, I daydream about what my future with Maddox holds. Marriage, babies, growing old together…

…yeah, I know. It’s a little much to be thinking about all of that when I’ve only just begun a relationship with the guy. But it doesn’t feel wrong. It already feels like we’re so deep and far into what we have. If he were to get down on one knee right now and ask me to marry him, I’d—

“Come on, dude! Ease up, will you?”

At the sound of Maddox’s voice, I open one eye and look out across the yard to see what’s going on. A few minutes ago, when I settled back on the chaise lounge, the guys were on the lawn playing touch football with a ball that Graham had found in one of the closets in the cabin.

I don’t know what just happened, but Maddox and my brother both look pissed.

“You’rethe one who needs to fucking ease up,” Jude roars back at Maddox.

I sit up, both eyes now fully open. That anger boiling between Maddox and Jude—there’s no way it’s just about their football game.

I watch, in horror, as my brother takes an aggressive step toward Maddox. He’s right up in his face now, their chests practically colliding.Fuck. They aren’t seriously going to get in a fight, are they?

A second later, my stomach clenches as my question is answered for me. My brother shoves Maddox, who barely tips back from the blow. The next thing I know, Maddox has my brother in a headlock.

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