“And you know that if this is ever too much for you, we would totally understand if you needed to go?”
She wilts slightly, her expression changing. Apparently these are the words she did not want to hear at all.
I realize there isn’t really anything I’m going to say to make her happy, because only one thing would make her happy right now. And I’m a little irritated that she wasn’t more honest with us before. She’s been swearing up and down for three months that she’s not a relationship kind of girl. She’s not looking for marriage. She’s not trying to be Ned and Matthew’s mother.
I guess all of that was more or less bullshit.
Jack catches my eye and sends me a message I understand immediately: he is going to take care of this. He wants some time alone with her.
“Maddie, you mean so much to us,” I say by way of goodbye. “I’m sure we can find a balance here.”
Chapter 4
Jack
Chance and his “balance” crack me up. We don’t need balance. Maddie just needs to get what she wants… or to be convinced she is already getting what she wants.
And right now, she is not convinced. She’s standing there like she’s armed for battle, ready to throw down.
This may be my fault. Before Chance got home, I might have teased her past the point it was smart to tease her. What? How was I supposed to know she meant it when she told me to tell her she is the prettiest woman we’ve ever banged?
She didn’t say banged. Not exactly.
And she’s not the prettiest, even. I don’t keep a precise record of ladies from most to least, but I know she is not the prettiest.
So she asked me all saucy, coming over after the little guys were in bed, letting that flimsy robe fall open as she sashayed across the room. I like it when she shaves her bush into a heart, and I could see it whenever the robe billowed out a certain way. Drove me crazy.
So when she knelt over me on the sofa, splitting that heart at the bottom into two pink petals begging for a lick, I was not exactly in a clear frame of mind.
“That’s so pretty,” I think I said.
“Prettiest you ever saw?” she asked right back.
“So pretty,” I repeated as I slid down the leather cushions, positioning myself below her.
“Come on, Jack,” she pouted as she hovered above me, swaying. “Tell me I am the prettiest.”
I had to force myself to tear my attention from her glittering, serpentine snatch, just inches away from my face.
“Prettiest… like… woman?” I asked, and unfortunately my actual thoughts were plain as day in my voice.
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Even I could hear them. No, I was clearly saying. Not the prettiest.
And that is not my fault! I was distracted by her pretty pink snatch, and also there is a prettiest, and Maddie isn’t her either. In fact, we never even banged the prettiest one. But it didn’t seem like a good idea to expand on any of that information.
I didn’t get the chance anyway, because she vaulted off me right away, cinching her robe closed over her belly, eyes flashing.
“Jesus, Jack, can’t you even pretend?? Can’t you even—for five seconds—think about what I want?”
“I’m sorry, baby… I thought I was just about to give you what you wanted when you were about to sit on my face.”
“That’s not—”
And then we heard Chance open the door.
As soon as he came in, I knew he was going to make it worse. I love my brother, but he is not much of a manager, if you know what I mean. He doesn’t know how to torque a situation that needs a solid twist. He’s more the… How can I say this…