But as they made their way out of the building and into the waiting Tahoe, Maude knew why she wasn’t offended. Because Edmund helped her even when she had thrown him out of her apartment. He helped her as if it wasn’t about her sleeping with him or him believing her to be a deadbeat. He helped her, she felt, because he actually cared about her. Could it be as simple as that?
She got on the backseat and leaned back. She wasn’t at all sure if that was what it meant. But a part of her was elated. Not because some man had taken the burden of paying rent off of her, but because the man she was catching serious feelings for cared about her. There was no other answer for it.
And that action, in a way, was what she was looking for. A sign of something more than just doing something that could benefit him too.
Wyatt glanced in the back seat as they rode to Atlanta, and she was smiling. Which oddly enough, made him smile too.
Maude was the only woman Edmund had ever had that he and Don both actually liked.
They were pulling for her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Edmund could not believe how badly he wanted to see Maude again. He was in his hotel suite at the Ritz-Carlton having another drink and looking out the window when word came from Wyatt that they had arrived and Don was bringing her up.
He went to the door in anticipation. Which was so weird for him that it baffled him. But he had to see her again. Overnight he was so worried about losing her that he ordered Don and Wyatt to go back to Dillon the next morning and bring her to him. He would have gone himself, but it would have been too much like begging her to him. But had she turned Don down, he would have taken his ass right back to Dillon.
And when she finally entered his suite and he closed the door and looked at her, that feeling of love came over him in such a rush of emotion that it overtook him. And in that very moment he could no longer restrain himself. As she was about to head for the sofa, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her against him. She looked into his eyes and he looked into her eyes. And both of them were saying the same thing. They both had had a sleepless night. They both had a need greater than their divide.
He pulled her even closer and began kissing her. And it was such a long, lingering smooch that it had both of them so heated that there was nothing that was going to quench their fire.
And suddenly it was as if they were picking up where they left off yesterday morning and Edmund was lifting her into hisarms and she was wrapping her legs around him and they were kissing so passionately that it bordered on desperation. And then he was carrying her to the bedroom without breaking their kiss even for a second. He would not tear his mouth away from hers.
And when they got in the bedroom, he threw her across the bed, removed his clothing, and then began taking off her blouse and bra and kissing her mouth and then her breasts and all with a ferociousness that had her moaning even before he moved down her body.
And when he moved down her body, removed her clothing down there too, she was writhing with joy as he did her. It was as if she’d never experienced such euphoria. Until he moved up and entered her. It was next-level joy when he entered her.
They made love with an urgency that was lacking in Baltimore. It was as if the south brought out the animal in them because their ferociousness did not let up. They were wrapped up into each other, holding on for dear life, and were going at it the hard way. They were moaning and groaning and that bed was shaking and bouncing in ways they knew had to be overheard by other guests, but they couldn’t help themselves. Edmund wanted her even before she walked into that suite, and his need never let up.
And when they finally came, it felt seismic. Edmund poured into her for so long that she could not stop her orgasm even as she tried. They came almost as long as it took them to get there.
And then, when it was all over and they had done all they could do to sustain their euphoria, they crashed. Edmund fell on top of her, and then rolled off of her. He was done.
But Maude, younger and feistier, turned onto her side and looked at him. She had never had such urgent sex beforeand it felt like another world to her. And she smiled. “Not bad for an old guy.”
Edmund smiled too. She expected him to object, even if playfully, but he didn’t. He seemed to already know his skillset. “I’ve been told,” he said.
Maude, surprised by his comeback, hit him playfully. “Very funny,” she said, and Edmund laughed.
Then they just laid there. And then he pulled her on top of him. “I have something to say to you,” he said.
Maude was pleased. An apology, she felt, was overdue. “Say away.”
“I want you to move.”
That was not what she expected to hear. “Move? Why?”
“I don’t like that landlord, and I don’t like that area.”
Maude was floored. “What’s wrong with the area? There’s little to no crime where I live.”
“I don’t care. You aren’t staying there.”
“But why not, Edmund?”
“I told you why not.”
“No you didn’t. You just said I can’t stay there and I want to know why.”
