“But the absolute worst part is that I’m compromising your safety.” I take a step forward, waiting for her to look up at me. “Maddie, if anything happens to you, I won’t be able to live with myself.”
“Then stay. Don’t leave me with someone else.” She steps closer and twists her fists back into my shirt, holding tight. “What if you leave and something happens? You won’t be here to protect me. What then?”
I want to argue, but she has a valid point. Either way, I’d be eaten by guilt. At least if I’m around, I’ll know I did everything I could to keep her safe.
“Okay, Techy.” I swipe her hair over her shoulder, resting a palm on her cheek and stroking it with my thumb. “But no more crossing the line. If I even feel it going there, I’m handing you over.”
“Me and all my sweet assets?” Maddie wiggles her eyebrows and flashes me a grin, and I can’t help but pull her close, hands splayed possessively over her waist as I press her into me, Maddie’s breath catching.
“Damn it.” I sigh, stepping away from her. “Two hours. Stock up and rest, and then we’re out of here.”
“Okay. Go take a hot shower, and I’ll start on supplies.” She pats my chest and turns to the kitchen, looking like she’s limping.
“Why are you walking funny?”
“I’m trying not to sway my ass so as not to accidentally seduce you,” she answers with her back to me, and I just know she has that wily grin spread over her face right now.
I collect the clothes I picked out of the closet, heart racing and a million different emotions warring inside me. And one truth I know I should keep to myself but can’t because Maddie Jenkins has stripped me bare.
“Maddie?” She turns to look at me. “I wish it could be different.”
“Me too.” She smiles a sad smile and turns back to her assignment, and I go into the bathroom, not wanting to take a chance at igniting anything because if she so much as looks at me with want in her eyes, I won’t be able to stop myself.
Sawyer
“Maddie, time to get up.” I stroke through her hair, wishing I could let her sleep for longer.“Maddie?”
My knuckles smooth over the soft skin of her cheek, down over the curve of her neck before stopping myself and retreating to her buttercream hair spilling over the pillow under her. I wish I could indulge in her some more, that allowing myself to have her wouldn’t have come at the cost of ignoring the dangers of the outside world.
“I want to stay like this some more,” she mumbles and catches my wrist, tugging me down next to her and pressing her face into my chest. The rest of her body soon follows, turning into me and finding as many contact points as possible.
“Me too, Techy, but we have to get going.” I rub my nose into her hair and inhale. “That stunt you pulled is probably all over social media by now, which means we’re losing our head start with every second we aren’t moving.”
“Worth it.”
I shake my head at her decisive declaration. “Not to me, Maddie. Not if anything happens to you.”
“Dramatic.”
“Right.I’mthe dramatic one.” I stop short of rolling my eyes and disentangle from her body, or try to, at least. She’s holding me so tight, her silky cat eyes begging me for one more second, one more breath, one more heartbeat.
“Not yet,” she whispers, her soft curves so firm against me it’s almost as if she’s trying to mold our bodies together. I want nothing more than to lean down and capture the trembling breath off her lips, slow and soft, but I hold back.
“We have to go, Maddie. Now.”
She pulls back from me in agonizing slowness, keeping as much of us in contact for as long as she can until she rolls away and sits on the edge of the bed. A shudder causes goosebumps to erupt over her skin, and she rubs a delicate hand over her arm.
I hand Maddie a chocolate bar when she stands. “Here. You should get some food in you.”
She nods in gratitude, tearing the wrapper open.
“Do we have time to make coffee?” she asks softly, and I shake my head.
“I’ll stop at the first gas station if we’re in the clear.”
“Any reason we shouldn’t be?”
“They won’t have trouble tracking down the taxi we took.” Even as the words leave my mouth, I feel the self-reprimand rising like bile, the guilt at allowing myself to lose control and bring us to this situation. “Shit, Maddie, we shouldn’t have stayed here so long.”