I ran into Jace at the end of the corridor, which was deserted otherwise.
“Landon, hey! How did the meeting go? Val was stressed about it.”
“It went about as good as it could have gone without her there. I’ve decided to stay in LA until her cast comes off, oversee the project for her.”
“You’ve.... You can do that? With the whole partnership going on in San Jose?”
“I’ll manage. And I’ll see about arranging for her to be comfortable at home. She’ll need help moving, so maybe a live-in nurse—”
“I’m going to handle that, Landon. There’s no stopping you when you go into doing-shit mode.” He gave me a shit-eating grin. “Take a breather. You don’t have to do everything by yourself. Focus on the business, leave the rest to us. Now, elevator’s behind me. Get in before you start discussing the details with me.”
I grinned back, because he was right. We had a lot of details to go through, but we could deal with all that in the morning. Right now, I needed to see Maddie.
Chapter Seventeen
Maddie
I looked in the mirror for the millionth time, wondering if my outfit was appropriate. Landon had texted me earlier, saying he’d come straight to my house after he visited Val. Considering I had no idea what the plan was for the evening, I’d opted for a dark green top, which fit me snugly with straps crisscrossing on my upper back, and a black skirt that flowed to my knees.
When I heard a car pull in front of my house, I hurried to the entrance, skidded on the tiles, and lost my balance, nearly pelting headfirst into the front door. Whoops.
Straightening up, I pushed my hair out of my face and opened the door. My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth as I took Landon in.
Sweet heavens.
His suit had to be custom-made. There was no other way it could fit him so perfectly over his shoulders and muscular arms yet be tapered at the waist.
He’d meant it when he’d said the suits he wore over the past week were business casual. This... this wasn’t casual. He looked one hundred percent the CEO he was, and one thousand percent handsome. Landon had dressed to impress. And while I knew he’d put the suit on for the meeting and not for me, well... count me impressed.
It wasn’t his suit that spurred butterflies in my stomach, though, nor his smile. He was carrying a bouquet of orange lilies and roses.
“I didn’t know what your favorite flowers were, but these looked beautiful.”
When I took them from him, my fingertips brushed his nails, but the small contact was enough to make my skin tingle.
“Are you going to invite me in?” A lazy smile spread on his face.
“Yeah, of course. Come in. I’ll put these in a vase. Thank you so much. They’re gorgeous.”
My voice sounded strange even to my own ears. A little high-pitched, but also gruff. I busied myself finding a vase, which took some time, because I was too scatterbrained to focus. When I finally did find it and held it up under the running faucet, I felt Landon come up behind me.
“Maddie, did I read this wrong? Do you not want me here?”
In the time it took me to inhale, he moved his hand from the edge of the sink to my waist, as if he couldn’t help touching me, even though he wasn’t sure if he should.
“No, no, I want you here. I do.” I placed the vase on the counter, arranged the bouquet in it. Only then did I turn around to face him. I didn’t like the creases on his forehead, much less that I’d put them there.
“I’m sorry. It’s just... been a while since I received flowers. They make me feel special.”
He studied me, bringing a hand to my face, caressing my cheek with the back of his fingers.
“You are special to me, Maddie. It’s been a while since I bought flowers, but I wanted to do this for you. I want so many things with you. Buy you flowers, take you out, make you laugh.”
His words reached so deep inside me, I knew they’d take root there and I wouldn’t be able to forget them after he left. But I didn’t care about that. All I cared about was right now. A little bit of time with Landon was better than no time with Landon.
“I like the sound of that,” I whispered. He was close enough for me to smell his body wash. I touched my nose to his Adam’s apple, and his grip on my waist tightened. He smelled so good. I wanted to lick every morsel of skin I could find. But I pulled away, hungering even more for his words. His scent and general sexiness were a feast for my senses. But his words went straight to my heart, and I wanted more.
“I went to see Val after the meeting.”