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Secrets. There were still things I wasn’t being told. The racing thing, the boss thing, the power thing—he’d explained those, but what about the weirdness with his friends? What about Angel? Why did everyone act like I was his possession?
“Can I have another drink?” I asked.
“That I can do for you,” Gina replied and pulled out a glass. Then, she put in ice cubes and poured vodka and soda water into the glass. When she handed it to me, she smiled. “Drink up!”
Cheering came from the other room.
I drank it down quickly and looked at the food, but I wasn’t hungry. I’d lost my appetite along with my date.
“I’m guessing you wouldn’t give me a ride?” I asked Gina.
She scrunched her nose and shook her head. “Sorry. I like you. But I can’t do that.”
Rose chuckled again from her seat.
“Madeline.”
Blaise’s voice startled me, and I spun around to see him standing just inside the kitchen entrance. He seemed tense, but I didn’t care. He motioned with his fingers for me to go to him.
I shook my head. “I’m good, thanks,” I replied and turned my back on him.
This time, Rose looked up from her phone. She looked at me like I was insane. Gina’s eyes went wide, and she put another chip in her mouth.
“Madeline.” His warning tone annoyed me.
I didn’t care how he said my name. I wasn’t going to go running to him.
I thought about telling him that just then when his hand clamped around my upper arm. I tried to pull it free, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he forced me to walk past Gina and Rose. We were headed to his cave, and I wiggled, trying to get free.
“Stop it. You’re hurting me,” I said as he used his free hand to unlock and jerk open the door.
He released my arm and pressed my back to the open door. “Calm the fuck down,” he ordered.
I felt the urge to cry again. This was frustrating. Everything about this was confusing. He was confusing. He was giving me whiplash with his mood swings.
“This was too much, too soon,” he said then, his tone and eyes softer now. “I pushed for too much, and I needed to give you time.”
Was this how he was going to end it and send me home?My chest started to ache, and the idea of this being over, my time with Blaise ending suddenly, felt much bigger than all the other stuff. Tears stung my eyes. That wasn’t what I wanted.
“Fuck,” he whispered, then picked me up and began carrying me down the stairs like a child.
I buried my face in his chest, wishing the tears would go away. I didn’t want to cry over this. Having sex with him had made me this way. I wasn’t mature enough to have a sexual relationship and not get attached. My emotions were involved now. I was beingthatgirl.
Blaise sat down while still holding me in his lap. I wanted to hit him for making me act like this. I had lived through bad things. Much worse than this. A guy should not have this kind of power over me. Yet I stayed there in his lap and let him hold me.
“I’m sorry I was gone so long,” he said.
I understood that Angel had issues. I got that. I had witnessed it. This wasn’t jealousy. It was more of the feeling that I was being held at arm’s length. Not allowed inside the world of Blaise. He wasn’t telling me things. His world was one I was hanging on the outside of, looking in.
I stayed silent, searching for the right words. To try to explain exactly what was bothering me. Also, the warmth of his body comforted me. I had never been held as a child, or if I had by my mother, I had no memories of her. My father hadn’t held me or hugged me. I hadn’t known what it felt like until now. This wasn’t sex or something sexual. It was simple comfort.
His lips pressed against my head. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was trying to get us away from an audience. I should have been easier with you.”
My arm wasn’t going to be bruised. He hadn’t hurt me that bad. I might have used that as an excuse to get him to let me go. Feeling guilty, I turned to look up at him. The concerned line between his brows eased some when my eyes met his.
“I had to deal with Angel,” he said gently. “She had known about you, but she hadn’t seen us together yet. I knew if I didn’t take her upstairs and talk to her, then she’d find the first fucking knife she could and start cutting herself.”
I sat up, and his arms stayed around me. I hadn’t planned on getting up, but his explanation of Angel wasn’t enough. He needed to expand on her cutting because of seeing us together.
