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“I don’t know. I only noticed that somebody had broken into my car, and I guess they weren’t gone yet. All I remember is being shoved forward and falling and then falling asleep. When I woke up, Cooper was there.”
His throat bobs. The air pulls tight around us.
“I’ll take care of this, I promise. Whoever did this won’t get away with it,” he swears.
I nod, wishing I could pull his face toward me without hurting my hands. He’s fighting some sort of inner battle, and I want to dive into his mind and be included.
“Cooper could have watched me tonight. You didn’t have to come. I don’t want you to get in trouble,” I murmur.
He drops his forehead to mine, rolling it side to side. “I will always choose you. Nothing else matters to me but you. Nothing.”
I tuck my lip between my teeth and breathe him in, ignoring the less-than-appealing smell of his gear and focusing on the hint of his body wash.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t answer my phone when you called. I was already on the ice for a final practice,” he grits out.
“It’s okay. How did you find out?”
“Cooper called my dad. Dad called Coach. Coach told me. I left as soon as the words were out of his mouth. If it weren’t for Bentley, I would have left with my skates on I was so out of my head.”
I laugh softly, bumping our noses. “Thank you for coming.”
“Don’t thank me, sweetheart. Just please, I never want to have someone tell me you were hurt again.”
“I’ll try my best,” I attempt to joke.
His jaw pulses. “I’m serious. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared. I can’t lose you again, okay? Just seeing you here, like this . . . it’s taking everything in me not to go out there and find this guy.”
I press my lips to his jaw, on the bushy beard covering it. The one I’ve grown to love. “I’m okay, Dox. I promise. Can you just take me home, please? All I want is to cuddle and watch TV.”
He traces my bottom lip with his knuckle before kissing me softly. It’s a cautious kiss, like he’s scared he’ll break me, and while there’s no possible way for that to happen, I accept the gesture with open arms.
“As long as you let me hold you in the shower and wash the blood out of your hair first,” he says. I pretend to think about it, and he nips at my bottom lip. “Please. Don’t make me get on my knees and beg.”
“Oh, see, that’s a tempting picture. You made a mistake offering that to me.” I waggle my eyebrows.
“At home, baby girl. Cooper could walk in here any minute, and while I owe him my life for getting to you as fast as he did, I’m not about to let him see me on my knees for you,” he says, voice dropping into a growly whisper.
“Sounds fine by me, although I’m sure it would make his entire year to find you in that position.”
Maddox shakes his head, smiling as if I’ve said something ridiculous. “He’s been waiting our entire lives to see me on the ground at your feet, Braxton. It would make more than just his year to see it. Now, let’s go home.”
Home.
I don’t know whether he means my place or his, and it doesn’t seem to matter. Home is wherever he is.
I grin like a fool as he flashes me a dimple and moves to let Cooper in so we can leave.
36
MADDOX
There have only beena handful of times in my life where I have been angry enough to lose my temper in public. Unless I’m on the ice, I keep that shit locked down tight. But the minute Coach pulled me off the ice at practice and told me Braxton was in the hospital, it was like someone else took over my body.
Suddenly, I was stripped of everything but anger. A burning rage that whispered in my ear, ordering me to go find who was responsible and show the universe just how little I enjoy it putting my woman in danger.
There was a desperation thrumming deep inside of me that I was unfamiliar with, and it turned me on my ass. It didn’t matter where I was, I knew from the second Coach pulled me aside that I was leaving. My vision tunnelled, and then there was only Braxton.
And as we lie in bed hours later, her cheek pressing against my chest, her fingers carefully curled in my T-shirt, I know that being benched next game was worth it. Without a doubt.
