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True, and thank God she thought so too.
“You’re a beautiful woman, Madison. Why haven’t you dated anyone since you moved to Angel Creek?” Or had she? She’d said Angel Creek Hospital, not Angel Creek. Was this his way of asking what she’d been up to the night before? Hell, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.
A pleased pink hue touched her cheeks at his compliment. She toyed with her bottom lip, teasing him with the fact that he’d like another taste of that lush fullness.
“I haven’t dated anyone because when I arrived at Angel Creek, I took one look at you and didn’t want anyone else. I still don’t.” She paused, momentary hesitation shining in her eyes before she continued, “But I don’t want to share you.”
Share him?
“I’m not willing to go on if you’re not willing to commit to just me for however long whatever this is between us lasts.”
Stunned, Levi stared at her. Her steady green gaze didn’t waver. She was serious.
And she was telling him exactly what he wanted to hear, treating him as if she wanted more than just a one-night stand from him, as if he was capable of a real relationship, as if he wasn’t his father’s son. Maybe he’d misunderstood what he’d overheard her saying to Karen.
Since he wanted a committed relationship with her, wasn’t this like Madison offering him what he wanted? Only…
“Uh, Madison, I want you, but feel compelled to tell you that I don’t do for ever.”
Her eyes widened, filling with horr
or. “Oh, get over yourself. I’m not talking forever—yuck, no.” Her face pinched with mock disgust. “That’s not what I want. But my health is important to me. When you’re with me, you’re just with me. That’s all I’m saying.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
KNOWING she was the biggest fool who’d ever walked the face of the earth, Madison inwardly cringed. Had she really just told Levi that she wouldn’t share him? That when he was with her he was just with her? What the heck had happened to her player mentality?
Players didn’t put such stipulations on relationships. They didn’t even have relationships. They had one-night stands, flings, encounters that meant nothing and had no power to hurt afterwards. But, then, she wasn’t much of a player, was she? Her first go at it and, boom, a total disaster.
Still, even if she hadn’t been a dating guru in the past, she’d not had a relationship suicide wish either.
Okay, so she’d tried to make a swift recovery with the “Yuck, no”. Maybe Levi should have just let her choke on that piece of ice at the picnic. That would have been a much less humiliating obituary than one that read “Died of shame and mortification”.
She paused in her self-recriminations, realizing that, player or not, she wouldn’t share Levi. Been there, done that, and wouldn’t go back. She deserved a man who wasn’t seeing other women. A man who valued her as a person and as a woman.
Neither would she be made a laughing stock the way she had with Simon. The next man in her life would treat her with respect. Or else he wouldn’t be in her life.
Not even Levi.
After her text and now this, he’d probably run away as fast as possible, anyway.
She glanced at him. He wasn’t packing up his fishing gear and running for the hills. Yet. He was smiling at her. As if he liked what she’d just said. As if he liked what he saw. As if he knew something she didn’t.
Why did that smile worry her? Make her feel like he’d spotted his quarry and was ready for the kill—her.
“Okay,” he said slowly, his smile not lessening one bit but her nervousness ratcheting up a few more notches. “For however long whatever this is lasts…” He tossed her words back at her, his dark eyes glimmering almost inky black. “It’ll just be you and me. No dating other women.”
Wow. Ask and you shall receive. Happiness welled within her, pressing against her ribcage.
That was happiness thumping wildly in her chest, right?
She must be dreaming. Real life didn’t happen this way. Women like her didn’t have men like Levi promise to be faithful for however long their relationship lasted.
Of course, that might be the catch. Maybe he wasn’t expecting their relationship to last long.
Regardless, she’d take each day as it came, wouldn’t worry about when the end would come. Instead, she’d enjoy every moment with this man who made her feel giddy inside.
Happier than she should be, Madison smiled sweetly. “Not a problem as I’ve yet to meet a woman who interests me that way.”
