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That only added to the whirring confusion, telling me I’m being the stupidest person who’s ever lived for not staying in Madden’s apartment and letting him explain everything.
“Maddie.” Kelly walks over to me, softly placing her hands on my arms. “Whatever it is, we can work it out. Just come and sit down, okay?”
I push back the annoying unproductive tears that try to rise up again, making me feel like a little kid, my mind replaying the way he stared at me, the blue fire in his eyes, as he said all those wonderful impossible things.
He wanted me the second he saw my letter. He wants to be with me forever. It’s just going to be me and him, me and him, for the rest of our lives.
No…
He said he wanted a family, as though all the lust and need in my womb is true after all, as though I don’t have to keep second-guessing the impulses rising inside of me.
Kelly sits me down on the couch, sitting across from me with her legs folded, the same way she would when we were kids talking about our own personal slices of damnation.
“Tell me what happened,” she says, with a subtle note of firmness in her voice. Behind her, the window is open, the curtain pulled aside, showing a grayish view of the city just after sunset. “Please?”
“You’ll think I’m crazy.”
I giggle softly at the irony of my comment. It’s exactly what Madden said to me before he dropped the nuclear bomb of his possessive need right on top of my head and he threatened – no, pledged – to change my life forever.
Forever.
I want to claw onto the word so desperately, to sink my fingernails into it and never let it go.
Forever, forever.
But what if it was a trick?
“Maddison.” Kelly’s tone is even firmer now, telling me she isn’t going to let this go. “No more drifting off into the clouds. Tell me what happened so we can fix the problem together.”
I nod, forcing away my annoyingly childish tears, and tell my best friend everything that’s happened.
Kelly stares at me with her mouth wide open, which has pretty much been her fixed expression ever since I started the story. I began with going to his apartment, the kiss, the bedroom stuff – but not in detail – and then ended with how he told me he’s going to claim me forever.
When I got to that particular bit, she gasped, and now she’s looking at me like I’ve grown not one, not two, but about five separate heads.
“So he looked at the letter,” she murmurs, “and then he fell for you.”
I nod. “That’s what he said. He said he knew it the second he saw my handwriting. He said it was fate, destiny, something like that. And I want to believe him so freaking bad. But I’ve read his books, Kelly. I’ve read every single one, several times, and he never talks about fate or destiny or any of that stuff.”
“So…”
“So he’s clearly freaking lying to me.”
“But why would he do that?” she asks softly.
“I don’t know,” I snap. “Maybe that’s how he gets his kicks. Maybe it’s what excites him. I’m not pretending to know why he’s doing it. But ask yourself what’s more likely… that this is a trick, or that Madden Mitchell really wants me?”
“Oh, Maddie,” Kelly says exasperated. “How many times do I have to tell you? I hate when you put yourself down like that. I really hate it.”
“So you’re saying you think he’s telling the truth? You’re saying you think somebody can feel all of that stuff just from looking at a letter?”
The only thing I haven’t told her is about him coming to our apartment because I know she might not understand. There are women who would be so offended and freaked out by that, but the thought of Madden waiting in the hallway for me, with all that possessive fire burning inside him…
It makes me want to scream in release.
“Let’s start with the stuff we can prove,” Kelly says. “When you were… you know, being intimate… did he seem excited?”
I’m about to ask what she means when it hits me.
She’s asking if his manhood was hard.
“Yes,” I tell her. “Very freaking excited. He, um, he put my hand there, and yeah, there’s no doubt about that.”
“So at least you know that part wasn’t fake, right?”
“But there are drugs for that.”
She groans. “Are you really telling me this famous writer lured you to his apartment, popped a few dick pills, and then went down on you for a prank? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know it doesn’t,” I snap. “But surely that’s more likely than any of this being real.”
“We know he wants you physically. We know he’s taken an interest in you. And what if he’s telling the truth, Maddie? This could be all your dreams come true.”
