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“I know, Penelope. I know.” Gently, I press my lips to her forehead. “We can take things a bit slower if that’s what you really want, but right now, I just want this.” I pull her closer to my chest. “I just want you.” I simply hug her, wrapping her in my arms.
We sit there in silence, my arms encircling her, making me feel warm, comforted—safe. I don’t know if she’s ever felt this way, but I want to be the man who gives that to her.
I want to be the man who gives her everything.
My realization slams into me like a freight train, but I can’t deny what my intuition knew long before my brain did.
She finally starts to relax, and a weight lifts from my shoulders. “I can’t believe you denied me orgasms,” she says, breaking the silence.
I can’t help but laugh. “It was one of the only things I could think of to get you to talk to me.”
“Well, it worked.”
We grow quiet again, but I don’t want to lose the progress that we’ve made, so I do what I do best. “What does one saggy boob say to the other saggy boob?”
She leans back and stares down at my smile. And fuck, that look in her eyes is everything I’ve been looking for—like she wants me, appreciates me, andlikesme back.
“I don’t know, Maddox. What?”
“‘If we don’t get some support, people will think we’re nuts.’”
The laughter I pull from her is like a bright light, alleviating some of the darkness I felt myself being pulled into just a few seconds ago when I wondered if I made the right decision to come here today.
But as I hold her and we laugh together, I know my gut didn’t steer me wrong. Now let’s hope I can continue to move forward with her without too much more whiplash.
Chapter14
Penelope
“It’s a good thing we didn’t bring Oliver today, or we would definitely be going home with a dog.” Amelia comes up beside me as I answer an email on my phone.
Ethan, her brother Nick, Damien, and Jeffrey all went off to get something to drink, leaving her and me alone for a few minutes. Charlotte is running around somewhere as well, and Noelle told us she would be late, so right now, it’s just the two of us standing around as the Puppy Palooza event gets underway.
It wouldn’t be a true community event if our whole gang wasn’t here.
“No shit, huh? And here’s the thing—since he’s the cutest kid ever, I would be giving him tips on how to convince you to let him take one.”
She laughs. “I know you would.”
“By the way, how did my little man like his present?”
Amelia smiles. “He loved it, but I have to tell you, I took the gnome out of the T-Rex’s mouth before I gave it to him.”
“Probably a good call.”
I recently saw a Facebook ad for a garden T-Rex that had gnomes crawling all over him, so naturally I had to buy it for my favorite little boy in the world: Oliver, Ethan’s son. It looked like the dinosaur was trying to eat some gnomes as a snack, but I figured any little boy would be tickled pink to have a dinosaur in his yard. And after Amelia went to great lengths to feed into his belief in magic with her own gnomes, I wanted to give him something from his Aunt Penelope, too.
“He loves it, though, and he loves you. But like I said, it’s a good thing his grandma took him today, or the T-Rex and gnomes would be fighting off a puppy, I have no doubt.”
All around us, puppies and full-grown dogs are barking up a storm, stealing the hearts of anyone who walks past at the annual Puppy Palooza, a charity event thrown every year to raise money for the no-kill animal shelter in Los Angeles.
Charlotte’s magazine,Revision, is a sponsor every year, which is how I found out about the event. But since my new role is to gain positive exposure for the Los Angeles Bolts, this year, some very physically fit and charming football players are going to be washing dogs and helping with adoption paperwork in hopes of worming their way into the hearts of football fans in southern California.
Amelia nudges me with her shoulder, forcing me to look up at her from my phone. “I haven’t heard much from you lately on the Maddox front. How’s that going?”
I sigh and shove my phone into my back pocket. “Um?” I can’t fight my smile. “Things are going well. I mean, if giving you an orgasm in front of a sunset is the sort of thing that’s on the top of your bucket list.”
Amelia’s eyes go wide, and her lips curl up in a smile. “Holy shit, Penelope.”
