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I couldn’t stop the tears burning my eyes and threatening to spill. They slid down my cheeks, and I choked back a cry.
“Maddox,” I breathed, my hands shaking in both fear and… something else, I didn’t know. Maybe in relief?
“Look out and feel the wind, Lila. I got you. You’re safe.”
I brought my head closer to the window and felt the breeze against my face. More tears spilled down my cheeks. My stomach churned with an anxious feeling. Panic and fear thrummed through my veins.
But…
I was in a car.
Maddox was driving.
I was… alive.
My lips wobbled with a smile. “Hey, Maddox?”
“If you’re about to confess your undying love to me, I’m going to tell you to stop right there, Sweet Cheeks,” he rumbled.
“Still an asshole, I see.”
Maddox chuckled, and my stomach fluttered. Thank you.
“Friends?” I asked, showing him my pinky. It was something so silly to do, but it was us.
He grinned and hooked his finger around mine. “Friends.”
Maddox drove for hours, until the sunset disappeared and the stars came out in the dark sky. He eventually stopped the car over a hill and cranked up the radio, which was ironically playing Lauv’s There’s No Way. He reached behind him to the backseat and handed me a small brown paper bag.
I peeked inside and smiled. A mint chocolate muffin. I took a bite, my eyes going to Maddox to find that he was already looking at me.
I didn’t have to confess my undying love to Maddox. What we had; it was an unspoken understanding with unsaid words and a feeling we couldn’t explain. Love was too simple a word to describe it because love was black and white. Love or don’t love – there was not really an in-between.
What we had… it was a kaleidoscope of colors.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Maddox
“I don’t like him,” I growled, folding my arms over my chest. I stayed rooted in front of the door, as if I could somehow stop her from leaving.
Lila rolled her eyes, bent over and touched her toes. She stretched, and I had to look away because, goddamn it, her ass looked good in those jeans.
I was pissed at my own reaction and this whole situation. And I didn’t exactly know why.
“It’s not up to you,” she said in a sing-song voice. Somedays, I wished she was intimidated by me. It’d make this whole friendship thing easier, but nope. Lila Garcia was fucking feisty, and she constantly butted heads with me. “You’re not going on that date with him. I am.”
Yeah, that was exactly my problem.
She was going on a date.
With someone. Grayson’s friend. A fucking date that Riley set up. Now that she had a boyfriend, she was under the assumption that Lila needed a man in her life, too.
Well, too fucking bad, she already had a man. Me.
“I don’t trust him,” I said again.
Lila faced me, hands on her hips. She was wearing makeup, which she rarely did. Ripped jeans, ankle boots and a black tank top that should be illegal. Sure, Lila didn’t have big boobs, but her tits looked juicy in that tank top. Juicy, sinful, forbidden… and–
Fuck, she even painted her nails. She looked… beautiful. For him.
“You never even met him,” she argued. My jaw clenched, and I was about to pop a vein.
“He could be a fucking murderer for all we know!” He could hurt her…
And he wasn’t me.
Lila’s eyes turned to slits, and she nudged her chin high, giving me that haughty look of hers. She really mastered that look that says – You’re not the boss of me and I can do whatever I want.
“I’ve met him twice, and he’s a gentleman, Maddox. Stop it.”
“I don’t like it. I don’t like him,” I said for the hundredth time tonight. “What if he touches you, and you don’t want him to?”
Touch… her. He could touch her and fucking kiss her…
She rubbed her forehead, her eyes looking bleak. Lila was already tired of my bullshit. “Maddox, stop it. You’re not going to ruin this date for me.”
“He could… hurt you.”
A smile ghosted her lips. “Daren can’t and won’t hurt me.”
Daren? Even his name sounded dumb. I imagined Lila moaning out that name, and the urge to pummel his face, someone I had never met before, was strong.
“Can you give me a guarantee that he won’t hurt you?” I shot back in my defense. “I won’t complain and let you go on this stupid date if you can give me a hundred percent guarantee.”
I was playing dirty because I knew she couldn’t.
I didn’t know why I was reacting this way when Lila told me she was going on this date. There was an uneasy feeling in my stomach and a heavy weight on my chest.
“You’re acting like a jealous boyfriend, Maddox,” she warned, her lips twisted in displeasure. Her words were laced with a warning.
