Page 29 of Cry Madness
I fall into the kiss, swallowing Alice’s hushed moans. Smile with wicked gratification when she wraps her legs around my waist and locks her ankles, trapping me against her…as if there is anywhere in this whole fucking world better than where I am right now. The heels of her Doc Martens bite into my ass, pressing my raging dick harder against her pussy as she gropes her way under my shirt and vest. Suck in a hard breath at the score of her nails across my back because my girl remembers I enjoy a sprinkle of pain with my pleasure for a little extra razzle-dazzle.
But Alice likes it rough as well, and when I slide my hand between our bodies to palm her breast, she tenses under my touch. Her gasp fills my mouth when I pinch her nipple through the annoying layers of her shirt and bra. I get the lovely nub good and hard. Then, just to be a devious tease, I give it a playful tug.
I flex my hips, dry humping her as she claws at me, and when she pulls her head away to gasp for air, she does it with my name in a frustrated moan pushed past swollen lips.
Because I’m not a total heathen, I remind myself that Alice deserves better than a quick fuck on a bathroom sink. She deserves more than me heaving into her with my pants around my ankles and the relentless knocking on the damn door. Hell, I’d give her poetry and flowers and the whole fucking moon if I could pull it from the sky.
I bury my face in the curve of her throat, inhaling her delicious citrus scent mixed with my cologne. “Iamgoing to fuck you,” I vow. At her protest, I lift my head and place a hand over her mouth. “It’s going to happen, Malice. We are inevitable. But I’m not fucking you in a bathroom like a savage.” I kiss the tip of her nose. “I’d rather torture you, making you wonder when and where I’m going to claim what’s mine. Make you think aboutme buried so deep inside you that you won’t remember a time when I didn’t own you, body and soul.”
As soon as I pull my hand from her mouth, she hisses, “In your dreams, Maddox.” God, she’s stunning in her defiance. She’s also beautifully disheveled from our kiss, and between her rumpled appearance and when she shoots daggers at the door because of the banging, I stifle a laugh lest she kill me right here in my home. “This”—she motions between us—“was me wanting one last stupid kiss because?—”
“You missed me. I know. It’s okay. I missed you, too.” I grab my hat and place it on my head as another loud knock sounds at the door. “You’d think there weren’t other bathrooms in this fucking house.”
“You’re so annoying,” she mutters as she slides off the sink, but her tone holds zero bite. She turns, fixing her hair in the mirror.
No use, though. Alice looks like a woman who’s been kissed—well.
I come up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist. “Yeah, but you like me anyway.” I’m careful not to use the L-word even though it’s sitting on the tip of my tongue. The feisty woman elbows me, and I throw my hands up in mock surrender. “Ow! Okay, fine. I’m leaving, but one thing before I go.”
Alice glares at me through the mirror. “What?”
“Next time I get you alone? It’s not your mouth I’m kissing.”
“You fucking wish!”
“Damn right, I do,” I agree with a wink as I walk backward toward the door.
“Maddox, wait.” At her demand, I freeze, my hand wrapped around the doorknob. “Not that it matters, but… I don’t hate you.I never did.”
“I know.”
“It was never about you,” she slowly, quietly adds. “It was aboutme.”
My smile is sad as I turn the lock. “I know that, too. But I’m in your blood, Malice, always was.”
She doesn’t deny it. “I just… I needed you to know that.”
Her admission, finally spoken aloud, has me grinning like a damn fool as I dip out of the bathroom. I close the door behind me, nearly colliding with a girl waiting impatiently for her turn. “Sorry,” I mutter, completely unapologetic. Then, louder, “Alice hit the sauce a bit too hard.” I make a drinking motion and a silly face, sticking out my tongue to feign exaggerated drunkenness. “Had to be a gentleman and help her.”
“Seriously, Maddox?” Alice yells from inside the bathroom. “Asshole!”
Still smiling, I stroll into the kitchen with the taste of Alice’s kiss lingering in my mouth. This time, when I fill a shot glass with Buffalo Trace, I’m in a much better mood than I was earlier because yesterday, Alice didn’t even want to breathe the same air as me. But tonight? She begged for my kiss. I’d call that a hell of a leap forward, and after downing the shot of bourbon, I’m already plotting my next sojourn into Alice’s domain.
I mean, fair is fair.
Alice played with fire, and now it’s time she got burned by the flames.
NINE
“No one does [play fair] if they think they can get away with it.”
—Cheshire Cat,Alice in Wonderland
“Watch where you’re going.” I can overlook the snide tone. However, it’s the muttered, “Stupid bitch,” Scarlett attaches to the end of the sentence that I can’t pretend I didn’t hear.
Fucking awesome.
Because dealing with Scarlett is precisely what I need after the debacle of Saturday night. After I epically left my dignity at Maddox’s feet in his bathroom like some pathetic Hathorne groupie. I shouldn’t have kissed him,which I swore would never—ever—happen again. But I got swept up in the moment. Surrendered to the loneliness and misery of having kept him at a distance all these years.