Page 91 of Heartless
Madison’s alarm went off and reached for her phone to stop it. Six a.m.? We had less than four hours of sleep and my head was spinning. Madison groaned beside me and placed the covers over her head. I didn’t mind her hiding under there as long as she stayed right where she was, which was plastered against me.
My hand found her bare thigh and I slid it down to her knee, then back up until my fingertips brushed the lace covering her center. Madison stood still for a moment, then twisted under the covers and pressed her back to my chest in an obvious invitation.
I wanted her so fucking bad, I pressed my hard-on to her ass and rubbed against it. She kicked the covers down and brought one of her legs over mine, spreading herself wide for me. It took all my restraint not to dip my hand under the lace to check exactly how ready she was. By the way she panted as I stroked her naked thigh, I would say a lot.
“I know we should talk first, but I can’t stop touching you,” I growled in her ear.
“You seem to do a good job avoiding touching me where I want you to,” she quipped.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I swear, love, once we get past our emotional baggage, I'm going to make you scream.” Placing a quick kiss on her temple, I leaned back a bit. “Now. Let’s focus on getting through today. How bad is your hangover?”
“Not as bad as I expected.”
“Good. Any important meetings today? Could we reschedule and take a day off? Last night you wanted us to talk.” I hoped she hadn’t changed her mind about that. “I want to make sure we’re on the same page before we move forward.”
She moaned in annoyance. “Fine.”
I smiled and asked again. “Can you take a day off?”
“Yes,” she said hesitantly.
“But you don’t want to.”
“I’m just not sure what happens next.”
“Neither am I, love. But we’ll figure it out.”
Chapter Thirty
Madison
Parker snuck out to The Blue Diamond and my heart squeezed with the knowledge that the first thing he would see there was Franny’s face. The way he pushed me away from his villa last night didn’t escape me. He didn’t want me there. Not that I really wanted to stare at his gorgeous dead wife’s face, but the way he kept his past separated from me, was indicator enough. I was here temporarily and that hadn’t changed.
We agreed to meet atmyvilla at ten. I managed to do everything I had to by nine and was left with an hour to overthink.
Instead of spending that hour pondering over the important stuff like what would happen with my job and did I even want to return to New York, I competed mentally with a dead woman. I compared me and Franny on every possible level I could think of.
She had been drop-dead beautiful. And while I had never worried about my own attractiveness, the difference between us couldn’t be more obvious.
There was an aura about her that I didn’t have. She wasn’t just a pretty face like me. She had that approachability and sunshine personality I definitely lacked. And I gathered that from watching her wedding videoonce. I could only imagine what Parker must have been thinking. He had known her. Lived with her.
She had probably been the domestic type of woman, cooking and transforming a house into a home, while I was pretty sure the last time I prepared a meal for someone was when Clem was eight, had the flu and I made her an instant chicken soup because Sylvia was too busy ignoring her youngest.
And that brought up the even bigger issue. From what I knew Franny had been really tight with her family. And I was emotionally crippled. I couldn’t even bond with a freaking baby. Daphne hadn’t done anything to me. I bet Franny loved children and wanted to have a bunch.
So knowing all this, why would Parker want to have anything remotely serious with me?
A click came from the front door and put an end to my internal self-torture. Seconds later Parker walked in and I stood up from the couch, tilting my head to the side in not at all mock offense.
“You could have knocked, you know?”
He didn’t say a word. His eyes didn’t leave mine, as he stopped right in front of me, grabbed my face between his big, warm hands and kissed the hell out of me.
I fisted his suit jacket, pouring all my desperation into that firm hold I had on him because who knew how long I would be able to keep it? How long would he want someone like me?
Parker tore his mouth from mine as abruptly as he had kissed me and smiled at me. My heart almost burst out of my chest at his sincere happiness to see me.
I guess I’m not that heartless after all.
