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I bite my lip and try not to read too much into that, but I can’t argue because he’s not wrong. At least, from the short time we’ve been together the way we are—lovers and friends—he’s lived up to the claim that he’s a simple man with simple tastes.
We haven’t done anything that we could sell as a porn plot—except maybe the whole trapped in a cabin thing. But the most adventurous thing he’s done with me is putting his mouth on me until I’m begging and a little dirty talk. And as wildly erotic as it felt in the moment, the only reason is because it was with him.
He engaged my mind, my body, and my heart, and no one’s ever been able to do that.
“Eden?”
I glance up and find Maddox looking at me with concern in his eyes. I realize I’ve been silent a long while, and god only knows what my expression is doing. I take a breath and find my throat’s a little hot and tight, so I clear it. “Sorry. Got lost in thought.”
His brows dip into a frown, but he digs his fork into his risotto and doesn’t grill me on it, which I appreciate. Maddox sure as hell deserves to know what’s on my mind and how I feel, but I don’t want to ruin this moment.
I take a bite of the risotto, and it’s better than anything I’ve had with Flor. I glance across the table at Maddox again and find him watching me. Normally that sort of thing makes me squirm, but not with him.
“You ever wonder how the most wild things happen to everyone else around you?” I murmur without thinking.
He takes a drink of his water, then leans his elbow on the table. He’s picking at his meal the same way I am, and I want to believe it’s for the same reason. “What do you mean?”
“A year and a half ago, Flor went to St. Aimee’s on a self-care vacation after she had some trouble at work, so she booked this super-elite resort to give herself some time to recoup.”
Maddox’s mouth twists. “Must be nice.”
I huff a soft laugh and shrug. “She works hard, but yeah, she’s always had that kind of money. Anyway, she shows up, and this guy immediately gets on her case. They have a couple of run-ins and give each other a ton of shit.”
Maddox is watching me for a long moment before realization dawns on him. “You’re talking about Sage.”
I nod. “He comes from old money too, but he’s way more down-to-earth about it. They spent the whole trip in each other’s orbit, talking shit, which led to hate sex that wasn’t all that hateful.”
He snorts a laugh.
“Then she called me half in tears about it, but I could tell she wasn’t going to stop. That she couldn’t. There was something about this guy that was different.”
“How long was she there for?” he asks.
I can’t help but smile. “Four days. Four days of it being both the best and worst vacation she’d ever been on, and she came home knowing she had met the love of her life.” I run my finger around the rim of my water glass and try not to feel an ache inside me knowing this will never happen for me. “He lived in the city too, but they didn’t make any promises or anything, so she didn’t know if she’d ever see him again.”
“I’m guessing he made some grand romantic gesture.”
I grin widely. “If you call showing up at her door that night with a bag of half-eaten McDonald’s a grand romantic gesture…”
Maddox’s eyes are filled with heat. “I think I do.”
I nod, glancing down at where he’s still tracing lines on my hand. “I do too. He proposed without a ring, then three months later, he took her back to St. Aimee’s and did the whole getting down on one knee, presenting her with a huge rock thing.” I pause, then shrug. “I think she keeps hoping it’ll happen for me.”
“So she brought you on a blind-date weekend,” Maddox says.
I sigh. “Pretty much. But believe me when I say all the men at Sage’s office are trash, so there was no way anything was going to happen with me and Monty.”
“I met him. I believe you,” Maddox says dryly.
I grin and turn my hand palm up, and he presses his hand down to mine. It’s so warm and rough and perfect, and I start to lose myself in his touch. “Anyway, I almost didn’t stay. I almost told her to come without me.”
Maddox’s fingers drag over the inside of my wrist, the pressure almost like a kiss, and I feel myself get warm and a little wet. God—the things he can do to me with such simple gestures. “Do you regret it now?”
“No,” I say immediately. “In fact, I…”
There’s no way I can actually tell him how I’ve spent the last several hours trying to figure out a way where I don’t have to go home and go back to my old life that doesn’t include him.
But there have been no solutions so far.
