Page 46 of Ravaged For You

I’m tempted to answer the phone. We are fake dating, after all.

“Hello?” I immediately regret answering as soon as I pick up.

There’s a pause on the other end.

“Who’s this?”

It’s a woman, probably middle-aged.

“Maddie. I’m Axel’s girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend? I didn’t know he had a girlfriend.”

She seems amused by her tone, not angry or shocked at all.

“Well, I’m kinda… new,” I try to explain.

“I see.”

“Axel is asleep, but I can pass on a message if you’ll like.”

There’s another pause.

“Tell him his mother called him. I’m Astrid, by the way.”

Oh. His mother.

Crap.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“I can’t wait to meet you in person, Maddie. Axel having a girlfriend is a surprising development…”

The phone is yanked from my gasp. Axel has woken up, and he’s wordlessly taken the phone from me.

“Hello Mom,” he whispers.

“I’m sorry,” I say to the rockstar as he holds the phone to his ear. “You just weren’t waking up, and I thought…”

He walks straight past me and out of the room. Gone.

Is he annoyed with me?

God, why does his moodiness affect me so much? This is exactly why I’ve been so wary of relationships. I’ve always been deeply afraid of turning into my own mother, reliant on her husband to the point of an emotional breakdown. I can’t let that cycle continue.

I grimace and sit down on the bed where Axel just was a moment ago.

Even if he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen, I need to be careful with the rockstar. Every day I going to have to remind myself that this is a fake relationship. I can’t let him affect my feelings. I can’t fall for him. I know it’s a real risk.

I can’t let his sweet words from yesterday imbed themselves in me.

There’s nothing average about you, Maddie. I mean it.

No. No. No.

I best protect my heart before I get hurt.

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