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She’s shaking her head, but I stop her, moving my hand to hold her by the chin. Her eyes are wide and a little watery with pain, and I know that it’s my fault.
“Eden,” I say, speaking slowly so I don’t lose my words again. “I’m sorry.”
“I should have told you too,” she says after a beat. She wraps her arms around my waist so there’s nothing separating us, and she looks up at me. “I knew from that first night, but I was terrified. I’m so tired of being hurt.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and press my lips to the top of her head. The only thing I want to do is crawl into her past and remove everything that ever caused her pain. “I know,” I murmur, clinging tight to her. “I know, darlin’, and…”
“Don’t,” she interrupts. Her tone is fierce, and she’s holding me back like she’s afraid I’ll let go. The idea of that almost makes me burst into hysterical laughter because not even God Himself could pry me away from this woman. Not now. “It wasn’t just you, okay? I could have jumped out of that truck and told you how I felt and what I wanted, but I didn’t.”
I ease her back gently, just so I can look at her, and I see tears in her eyes, which kill me. She’s not crying, but I can tell she’s holding back. She has the look of someone who’s been taught to hold back most of her life.
I know that look a little too well.
Stroking my thumb over her cheek, I ask very softly, “What do you want from me?”
“This,” she says and gives a watery laugh. “I want you to hold me and kiss me and promise that this means something—that you’ll figure out a way to make it work. But I knew if you were going to reject me, you’d be sweet and kind about it, and that seemed worse than cruelty.”
And hell, I understand that too because I’d been thinking the same way. I thought maybe it was just me—my brain and how I’m not as in control of my emotions as I once was. But now I can see it’s because I was falling in love with her, and the crash could be either the most wonderful thing in the world or the thing to finally break me.
“What time is it?” I ask.
She blinks in surprise. “What? Uh, I don’t…” She glances behind her shoulder a little wildly, and her gaze spots the clock at the same time mine does. “Three fifteen.”
I bite my lip as my hand gently turns her chin back toward me, and I meet her gaze with purpose and intensity that I can feel burning in my veins. “We have an hour and forty-five minutes.”
She swallows thickly. “For what?”
I back her up another step, then another. The third one has her pinned to the wall next to a picture frame I don’t bother looking at because the only thing in this room that matters is Eden. “For me to do what you said.” I lean in and let my lips brush her cheek as I finish making my vow. “To promise that this means something—that I’ll figure out a way to make it work.”
Her breath comes out in a shuddering rush, and then suddenly, she plants her hands on my shoulders and jumps. It takes me a minute to realize what she’s doing, and I just barely manage to catch her by her ass. Another way my injury is inconvenient, but she doesn’t seem to notice or care. She just wraps her legs around me and leans back as I brace her against the wall.
Her backside is the perfect heavy weight in my palms, and I squeeze as I surge in to capture her mouth. She tastes like heaven. She tastes like home.
There are a thousand things to figure out in the future, but right now, the only thing that matters is pulling Eden apart and putting her back together in a shape that constantly reminds her that she’s worth fighting for. That she’s everything.
That maybe no one appreciated her before, but she now has a man who will spend literally the rest of his life doing whatever it takes for her to know that.
She moans into my kiss, and I feel myself harden behind my zipper. My jeans are stiff, and it’s uncomfortable, and it’s wildly erotic as I rub myself against her core. She’s all soft curves and so hot, and I know what it feels like inside of her. The thought almost drives me insane.
“Is there somewhere we can…” I start to ask.
She tips her forehead against mine, her breath coming in soft pants. “I have a room here. It’s…” She groans as I thrust against her again, unable to stop myself, and I kiss the sounds from her lips. “…down the hall.”
As she jerks her head, I let her slide down to the floor, but I don’t let her go. I spin her in my arms, pressing my front to her back, then lean in and lay kisses to the column of her neck. “Better lead the way before I say fuck it and pull your sweats off right here.”
Her head falls back, and she lets out a moan. “That’s not the threat you think it is, babe.”
Babe. My ex and I never used pet names—not even in the heat of the moment—and I hadn’t realized how much it would get to me. My hand snakes past the waistband of her bottoms, past her panties, and between her folds. I was right—she’s so hot and already wet, and she moves against my fingers with the breathiest moan.
“Oh god.Maddox…”
My name is like a hymn on her lips, and it’s all I can do to keep moving. We take it two shuffling steps at a time as my fingers brush over her clit and tease her opening, and she’s a shaking, needy mess by the time her hand reaches for the doorknob.
It takes her two tries to get it open, and the moment we step in, I grab the elastic at her waist and pull. The fabric catches on the curve of her ass before tumbling to the ground, and she kicks it away as I reach for the hem of her shirt. Her hair’s even more mussed by the time I get it over her head, and the moment I fling it away, I frame her face and kiss her as I walk her backward toward the bed.
The room is dim from the closed curtains, but the filtered light is kind of rosy and oddly romantic. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Sage had a hand in setting this up, but I prefer to think of it like the universe is finally rewarding the two of us for everything we’ve been through.
After all, if anyone deserves a perfect moment, it’s Eden.
