Page 48 of Cry Madness

“But I’m also a man of my word. Isn’t that true?” When she remains stubbornly silent, I inch my hands up to her thighs and widen her legs.

“Yes!” she whimpers.

“Good girl,” I praise. “Tell me what promise I made you.”

She cringes but says, “The next time we were alone, you weren’t kissing my mouth.”

I lay one hand on her belly. I remove my hat and toss it to the floor with my other hand. “See, now that’s where you’re wrong.” Kneeling, I force open her legs and fit myself between them. “Lie back, Alice.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“If you didn’t want this, you wouldn’t have dared me to come here tonight.”

Her hard swallow is audible, and I can almost hear her internal battle. Years ago, she didn’t have to fight this war with herself, but now… Now, everything is changed, and although she’s almost there, Alice teeters on a razor’s edge. One side of the blade is me, and the other is misery. She fears that she’ll get cut no matter how she leans. I see that truth in her eyes, and when I give her a gentle push back, her elbows give. She flops back on the mattress in surrender, a little whimper escaping her lips.

“I’m afraid,” she whispers.

I trail my hand down her body, resting it on her abdomen. “Of what?”

“That my heart will break all over again.”

Smiling, I shake my head. “No, baby, not this time.”

It didn’t have to shatter last time, but I don’t say that out loud.

“Promise,” she rasps.

I cross my heart. “I swear it on my life.”

With her eyes locked on the ceiling, Alice nods. “Okay.”

“Okay, what, Alice?”

She licks her lips, her body stiff as a board. “Okay, to whatever you want to do.”

I snort out a laugh. “Baby, you look like I’m about to slaughter you.”

Alice pops up, bottom lip caught between her teeth, and with a cringe on her face. “Sorry.”

I crawl back on the bed and give her a long, hard kiss. Then I push her back down. “Relax. Don’t complicate this.” I lift her shirt and kiss her navel. “It’s just a kiss.”

I watch, fascinated, as Alice runs the tip of her tongue along the seam of her lips. I feel it like a physical touch up the shaft of my rock-hard cock. Her entire body shudders, and on a broken sigh, she whispers, begging so prettily, “I don’t want just a kiss.”

If this woman asked me for every drop of blood from my veins, I’d bleed myself dry for her. “What do you want, Alice?”

“You, Maddox.” She looks down at me, tears in her eyes. “I want you.”

“You have me. You’ve always had me.”

She covers her eyes with her hands, as if she can’t bear to look at me when she pleads, “Please, Maddox, never let me go.”

Jesus…

Fuck.

“Never.”