Page 42 of Mad Rivals (The Bradley Legacy #1)

Feels Fitting

I don’t know where to go, and so I walk down the block as tears freefall down my face.

I should’ve known from the start that Madden Bradley would never have any interest in me.

Of course he wouldn’t. He’s a pro football star.

He could have any woman he wants. He only ever wanted to get a look inside Van Buren Construction, not actually get inside Kennedy Van Buren.

That was just a hazard of the promise he made his father, I guess.

It feels like my heart is breaking. I wish I knew him well enough to read what the look he gave me was, but my heartbroken brain interpreted it as pity. Pity for the poor, stupid girl who believed he actually had feelings for me when he was secretly working for his dad all along.

I should trust in what we have. Something deep down tells me that. He brought me with him to make that discovery this morning, after all. Or maybe that was all part of the plan, too. Who knows? His dad kicked me out, and I wasn’t about to stay as an unwelcome guest.

I should believe he was being honest and genuine with me and that he misled his father for whatever reasons he had.

He’s not close with Thomas Bradley, just like I’m not close with Walter Van Buren.

We had each other to rely on for a couple months there, and I thought we had formed something special.

But he has a legacy to protect, and so do I. It might do me good to remember that.

I feel a single raindrop as it splashes down on my head.

It’s not surprising that the sky is crying along with me.

I heard on the radio on the way to the warehouse this morning that we weren’t going to see the sun today.

Feels fitting. There was only a thirty percent chance of showers.

I guess this is it. I spot more drops on the sidewalk ahead of me, and I debate what to do.

I don’t have my car nearby. I could walk to the VBC office from here, or I could grab a cab and take it to… where?

My parents’ house?

Clem’s new place? I don’t even know where she lives.

I pull out my phone to send her a text when the skies seem to freaking open up, and rain starts to hammer down on me.

Great. Just fucking great.

I slide my phone back into my pocket to try to keep it dry, and I find myself stuck in the middle of an empty sidewalk.

I could run for cover, but I can’t seem to make my legs move.

It’s like I don’t care if I’m wet or dry.

All I can feel is the slice in my chest at the fact that Madden was just using me that entire time.

Starbucks. There’s a Starbucks a few blocks from here. I’m exhausted after getting up early to essentially spy on the Bradley patriarch and uncover his illegal secrets, and coffee will put all this into perspective. Coffee always puts everything into perspective.

I trudge in the rain toward Starbucks. A couple with an umbrella rushes past me, but I can’t be moved to walk any faster.

I’m within a few yards of the door when I feel a hand grip onto my bicep.

I whip around and find myself face-to-face with Madden.

My traitorous stomach flips at the sight of him.

I’m squinting up at him through the rain that’s pouring down on us. He might’ve betrayed me, but goddamn, he’s gorgeous. Those dark eyes look relieved as he pins his gaze to me, and the rain has flattened his hair as little droplets cling on, refusing to let go. I can relate.

“How’d I know you’d wind up at Starbucks?” he asks. There’s a teasing quality to his voice, and honestly I’m not sure I’m quite there yet.

I blow out a breath as I try to yank my arm from his grasp, but I’m no match for a pro football player.

“What my father said…” he says, trailing off.

He pauses as if we’re not standing out here in the pouring rain in the middle of the sidewalk. We could go inside and get a respite from the storm, but somehow this feels like it suits us just fine. It’s been a bit of a stormy path anyhow.

“It’s true. I told him I’d get close to you. But it was never my intention to steal sensitive information, Ken. You have to believe me.”

“How can I trust you after what he said?” I ask.

“Because you know how we feel. You know this is real.”

“And how do I know it’s not just some act on your part?” The rain seems to pick up as a rumble of thunder shakes the sky.

“I’m not that good of an actor. You know I fell hard and fast for you.

I’ve never felt like this, and I don’t know what I need to do to prove that to you.

Ask you to stay with me when you’re in California?

Done. Stand in the rain begging you to take me back?

” He holds his hand up to indicate that’s what he’s doing right now.

“Tell me what to do.” There’s an edge of desperation in his voice, and the intense sincerity in his eyes tells me everything I need to know.

That twinge in the back of my mind telling me to trust in what we have starts to speak a little louder.

Maybe I need to put my walls back up a bit, but with Madden, I don’t want to.

I don’t want to hide.

We have to—not from our fathers, necessarily, because honestly, fuck those family ties that don’t really mean all that much to either one of us—but because of our clients and our positions as the future heads of our own companies.

It’s complicated, but what relationship isn’t?

We’ll figure it out.

His eyes move back and forth between mine as he searches for the answer he’s looking for, and that’s when I crash into him, set my hand on the back of his wet hair, and pull him down for a kiss.

It’s not even nine in the morning. What a fucking day this has been.

His mouth opens to mine, and as his tongue batters into my mouth and butterflies flap around my stomach, I can’t help but give in. This feels good. It feels right. It feels like it’s exactly where we are meant to be.

This is possibly the most romantic kiss of my life. The man just chased me down in the rain to make things right, and as he seems to intensify our kiss, making it more urgent as he tightens his hold on me, a crack of thunder roars through the sky.

It doesn’t faze either one of us. I don’t know how long we kiss there on the sidewalk, but I never want to stop.

Eventually he pulls back, resting his forehead to mine. “I fucking love you so much,” he says, and the tears falling from my eyes mingle with the raindrops as I cling onto him.

“I love you, too,” I say.

“We’ll figure the rest out. Okay?”

I nod as this feeling of confidence fills me that he’s right. We will figure this out.

We have to. It’s the most important thing in my life, and I’m not going to give it up…least of all for a job I wasn’t fully convinced I even wanted until a few weeks ago.

“Coffee?” he asks, and I chuckle as I nod.

We head inside, sheltered from the rain now but dripping on the carpet inside the store, and place our mobile order for our twin grande iced brown sugar oat milk shaken espressos, and then we walk slowly in the rain back to his place, hand-in-hand as we brave the storm we currently find ourselves in.

His front door has barely clicked shut behind us when his mouth is back on mine. We’re wet, I’m wet, our mouths are wet, and I can’t keep my hands off him anymore than he can keep his hands off me.

And just for the sake of logistics, we both finished our coffee on our slow stroll back here, tossing our empty cups into the trash can at the entrance of his building.

He starts tugging at my clothes, and we’re dripping in his front hall, but neither of us cares. Or maybe he does, the cute little neat freak, but he’ll clean it later.

I tug at his clothes, too, and before long, we’re both naked in his entry as we kiss desperately, hastily, sensually.

He thrusts his hips to mine, his hard cock settling between us.

I part my legs and reach between us, pushing his cock down so it’s resting between my parted thighs.

He’s not inside me, but his cock is close and warm, and I want nothing more than for him to slip inside me right the fuck now.

I claw at his back. “Fuck me, Madden.”

“I don’t have a condom here.”

“I don’t care.”

He lifts me up as if I weigh nothing, and he pushes my back against his front door as I wrap my legs around his waist. His eyes are hot on mine as he reaches between us and slides his cock inside me.

It’s not the first time he’s entered my body without a condom, but it’s the first time his cock has been in my pussy this way.

And it’s pure fucking heaven.

The way he slides into my body is a totally different sensation than with a condom.

He buries his head in my neck as he starts to move, and I claw at his back as he pushes me closer and closer toward a quick climax.

Even the way he’s making love to me now feels desperate, as if the last five hours have been this frantic path to push us toward this moment .

His body is pressed to mine, but then he pulls back, and my tits bounce between us. His eyes move there, and then they move down to where our bodies are connected.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” he says as he pumps into me over and over. “I love watching my cock move into you over and over.”

“It feels so good,” I moan.

“It looks good, too,” he grunts.

I grab onto him and pull him back into me, and he tips his head up to meet my mouth with his. He pulls his mouth from mine, and the look in his eyes is hungry as he pulls me away from the door, his cock still buried inside me, and he fucks me as he makes his way over to the couch.

He sits, pulling me down with him so his face is eye level with my chest, and he grabs one of my breasts now that he doesn’t need his hands around my body holding me up.

“I fucking love these tits,” he says. He sucks my nipple into his mouth as he squeezes the fleshy part, and I moan as I tip my head back, closing my eyes and balancing with my fingernails digging into his shoulders.

I ride him, setting the pace between us for a bit since he’s usually the one doing the work, and the way his huge cock hits inside me from this angle is nothing short of absolute perfection.

He continues working my nipple, and the feel of his mouth working one zone while his cock works the other pushes me into an orgasm far too quickly. It hits me out of nowhere.

“Oh, God, Madden, yes!” I cry out as I start to come, and he sucks my nipple harder as my body unravels around him as if he knows.

“Fuck yes, baby. Give me your orgasms.”

I moan my way through the peak as I freefall into bliss, his words washing over me and filling me with warmth.

As the contractions of my body start to slow, he lets go of my tit and flips me over so quickly that I’m on my back before I know what’s happening.

He manages to move us without ever pulling out of me, and it’s his athleticism on full display.

He shoves into me a few times from this angle before he pulls out of me.

He grabs his cock in his fist, and he pumps it a few times before his hot cum shoots out the tip, splashing down onto my stomach.

He aims a little higher, the next jet of cum landing on my tits, and as he comes down from his climax, he rolls the head of his cock around the cum.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous with my cum marking you as mine. ”

I reach up and pull his head down for another kiss. I’m wet from the rain, and now sticky from his cum, and I’ve never been more satisfied.

He kisses me deeply for a few beats before he lifts me and carries me to his bathroom, where he starts the shower, and we proceed to wash each other tenderly.

Questions swirl in the air about our discovery this morning, about his father, about our future…but now doesn’t feel like the time to talk about any of that.

Instead, we lie in bed and hold each other until we each fall asleep for a while, blissfully content for now as we both revel in the emotions we just shared.