“Go with what?”
“This…” Her lips were on mine, kissing me softly. Jesus, my head whirled in delight.
I pulled her onto my lap and took control, plunging my tongue into her sweet mouth. We groaned as our tongues warred for dominance. This was what I’d been missing, what I needed. She was who I wanted. Angel was my heaven on earth.
Abruptly, Madeline pulled away and looked back to where Josh had been.
“He’s gone. Thanks.” She was off my lap faster than I could stop her. “I need to go. I’m meeting friends for breakfast.”
“What the hell, Angel? You can’t kiss me like that and then leave.” I was fuckin’ hard as steel, dick aching, and she was leaving me?
“It wasn’t a real kiss. It was acting, so Josh would see I wasn’t available. He wants to take me to dinner.”
“The fuck it wasn’t real. We weren’t acting, and you know it as well as I do.”
She shook her head and removed her sunglasses. “Just stop. I know what I want, and you’re not the man to give it to me.”
“Fuck,” I hissed low as a woman passed us pushing a baby in a stroller. Worst timing ever, considering what we were talking about. “How can you be thinking long term when we barely know each other?”
“Because I want to fall in love, get married, and have babies.” Her eyes teared up as she revealed a part of herself.
Dammit, I blanched at her wants and felt deep in my bones how much they meant to her. None of it was anything I ever wanted before, but I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit I’d thought about the very same things as of late.
“Jesus, Angel,” I muttered on a sigh.
“It’s what I’ve always wanted, Storm.” She looked away. “I need to go.”
“Not like this. Give me your phone number. Let’s have dinner. Shit…” I rubbed my hand over my beard. Why the fuck was I pushing this with her? “We’ll figure it out, Angel.”
“No, we can’t. Big Bad Wolf, meet Easter Bunny.” She patted her chest, tossing my words back at me. I could see her fighting to stay in control of her emotions, to not let any tears fall.
It gutted me to see her this way. “Angel…”
“No.” She took off running, and I let her go.
13
Madeline
I bit my lip before licking it. It had been four days since I saw Storm in the park. Four days of remembering the kiss I gave him. How could I be so stupid and kiss him?
“Sunbathing in the front yard sucks. We should be on a beach in Mexico or Fiji,” Tara complained.
I didn’t bother lifting my head to see her pouty lips. I was confident they were jutted out, as always. “Agreed.” I’d do just about anything to be anywhere else.
“Maybe we should take a little vacay. We have all summer free to do whatever we want.”
“Maybe.”
“Where do you want to go?”
I shrugged my shoulder closest to her. Anywhere. I would go anywhere so long as Storm wasn’t there.
“A cruise could be fun too.”
I sighed with longing for the vast open sea. “Yeah.”
“Will you talk to me? One-word responses aren’t doing it for me. I’m tired of trying to figure out what flew up your ass since you returned from the lake. What happened with the nice guy you met at The Wild Hog? Josh, right? Has he called you? Texted you. Talk to me, Mads. What’s going on with you?”