Page 14 of The Criminal’s Cure

The house looks nothing like it did when I left.

Laundry put away. Toys picked up. Jesus, the floors even look clean enough to eat off of.

Maddie is a magician, and I have no idea how she balances things like she does.

On days I’m alone with Ty, I get nothing done, and the house looks like a war zone, and I’ve had much more practice than she has.

I almost feel guilty for all the slack she picks up.

Maybe I’ll take Maddie and Ty out for a nice dinner tonight. A thank you, not only for all the help she’s been, but for picking up on Russ’s made-up story. She’s proving herself to be a valuable asset on every front.

“Hello?” I call, winding my way through the house. There’s no sign of them in the living room or the kitchen and a twinge of panic sparks in my stomach until I glance out the patio doors.

Maddie has her back to me, sitting on the edge of the pool as Ty floats in the water on a giant tube and shoots a super soaker into the air.

Even through the thick glass, I can hear them laughing; the sound is music to my ears.

Any bit of tension I brought home quickly vanishes, and I inch the door open, joining them.

Neither of them notices me at first, and as I get closer, my heart pounds in my chest. Maddie’s got a sheer lacy cover up on, and I can see the shadows of a barely there black bikini underneath.

The small tease is enough to send me into overdrive as I walk toward her.

It’s hard enough to hide my attraction under normal circumstances, but it’s damn impossible when she’s got her long tanned legs dangled in the water like she does—painted pink toes splashing around, coverup draped on her bare thighs threatening to inch higher with every little kick she does.

I stifle a moan, imagining the masterpiece I’d unwrap if I could rip that delicate fabric right off of her, and finally put all of that chemistry between us to rest. And if Ty wasn’t around, I might have.

“No way you can do a backflip…” Ty smirks as he floats by her.

“Yes way! My brother taught me when I was about your age.” Maddie laughs, tilting her head to the side.

“Prove it,” he taunts, egging her on.

Ty notices me out of the corner of his eye and waves wildly, his tube teetering back and forth. “Daddy!”

Maddie whips her head around, startled by the interruption. Her blonde curls are tucked back with a pair of sunglasses and there’s a blinding smile on her face. She’s got no clue how beautiful she is, and that kind of humble confidence is hard to come by these days.

“Hey Bud.” I grin, waving as I pull a lounge chair up next to the edge of the pool a foot or two away from Maddie.

I love seeing him active again. It’s been a tough few weeks of recovery. When you’re used to a kid who is usually bouncing off the walls and regularly risking his life in his latest dangerous hobby, it’s hard to see them so down. Today, he looks like his old self and that’s a welcome relief.

“Hey.” Maddie turns her smile to me, a flush in her cheeks. “I wasn’t expecting you home so soon. How long have you been here?”

“Long enough to hear you promise my son a little backflip demonstration.”

Maddie laughs, shaking her head. “I didn’t promise a demonstration…I promised I could do one.”

“Prove it!!!” Ty calls.

“It’s been a long time, buddy. Maybe another day.”

“I double dare you,” he taunts. The kid sure likes his trash talk.

She glances up as if she’s looking for some backup, but she won’t get it from me. Ty wants to see Maddie’s cool trick, but I’m in favor of it for an entirely different reason. If she’s getting in the water, that means she’s taking her cover-up off and I can steal a glimpse of her body.

“That’s not something you just casually mention in conversation.” I shrug. “I think Ty’s right. Better put your money where your mouth is.”

“Yeah! Come on, Maddie!”

“Fine.” Maddie stands, inching the cover-up over her head and tossing it at my feet. “One time.”

“Yeah!” Ty cheers as she makes her way over to the diving board. He maneuvers his tube to the side of the pool.

Jesus Christ. Maybe this was a bad idea. Every bit of her is fucking delicious. The dangerous curves, the sway of her hips, the determined look in her eye. I’m into a bit of torture, but it isn’t even fair at this point.

She takes a band off of her wrist and ties her golden honey hair into a ponytail. As she walks out to the edge, she flashes a playful smile at us. “I’m only going to do this once. Understand?”

I can’t help but laugh, and Ty nods enthusiastically.

Maddie turns, edging her heels to the end of the board.

With a bend of her knees, she jumps and launches herself into the air, her smoke-show body spinning into a backflip so precise and perfect that it looks like it could win gold in the Olympics.

I shouldn’t be the least bit surprised, because the girl doesn’t seem to do anything halfway.

Ty looks back at me with shock and amazement when she hits the water with barely a splash. “That was so cool! She really did it!”

“Yeah, it was awesome!” I agree.

Maddie surfaces and swims to the edge.

“I told you I could do it.”

“That was so cool, Maddie! Do you think you can teach me?” Ty beams. He thinks Maddie is a superhero, and I can’t blame him.

“Sure! Let’s give your chest another week to heal and we can start practicing.” She grins, lifting herself out of the pool.

Ty is thrilled with her answer, and starts paddling around the pool again.

I reach for the towel on the lounge chair and offer it to Maddie, mostly for my own benefit.

Seeing her wet has my mind wandering into some treacherous places, and I’m still aching from the erection she gave me this morning.

If I have to look at her like this much longer, I’ll be in some serious pain again.

Maddie takes the towel, standing only inches away from me as water droplets race down her body.

She shakes her hair out, propping her foot up on my chair and rubbing the towel up and down those long, toned legs to dry off.

I have to turn away to keep any semblance of composure.

She has to know what she’s doing to me, and judging by the way she keeps at it, she likes it.

When she wraps the towel around her body and covers up, I can finally breathe again.

“What did you think?” she asks, demanding my attention back.

“That was very impressive.” My mouth is so dry I can hardly speak. “I didn’t think you were actually going to do it.”

Maddie sits on the other side of the chair. Now I’m positive she knows what she’s doing, because there are empty chairs on either side of me, yet she chose to set her nearly naked body mere inches from me. If the sun hits it just right, the thin material is practically see through.

Fuck me . Keeping this professional was hard enough, but with her putting the full court press on, it’s next level. Her confidence only makes her sexier to me. No man should be expected to have the amount of restraint I do.

“Well, he dared me.” She shrugs. “I’ve got two older brothers and I know you never back down from a dare. Especially a double dare.”

I chuckle, rolling my sleeves up a bit. Whether it’s the weather or Maddie, I’m about to work myself into a heat stroke.

Although maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea, because if I’m unconscious, Maddie will have to give me mouth-to-mouth, in a purely professional way.

“Thanks for hanging out with him this afternoon,” I say. “It looks like he’s had the time of his life.”

“He’s a good kid. Did your meeting go okay?”

I nod. “Went fine. But, uh, I wanted to tell you…I had Joe look into Russ’s story a little more.”

Maddie raises a curious eyebrow.

“You were right. He was stealing from us and tried to cover the whole thing up.”

“Really?”

“Yep. There’s surveillance of the whole thing. He cut his leg on the door of my storage unit while he was loading shit up.”

“Wow.” She bites her lip. “I’m really sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I shake my head. “In fact, without you, I would have been down a lot of money before I knew what was happening. Let me take you to dinner tonight to thank you. You, me, and Ty.”

“Oh.” Maddie’s face falls a little, and she tenses. “That’s really sweet of you, but you don’t need to do that.”

“I want to. Plus, you stepped in for Ty today. Dinner is the least I can do.”

“Well, the thing is, I’ve got dinner plans with somebody...”

Her words hit me like a fucking freight train. She’s going out with somebody? Did I misread all of this? After all the sexual tension, the banter, the signals and she’s got a boyfriend?

Suddenly I feel like an absolute fool. It never occurred to me to ask her, and now I’ve had myself so tightly wound over a girl who is even more unreachable than I thought.

A twinge of jealousy twists through me, and all that does is make me angry.

I shouldn’t feel as jealous as I do. I shouldn’t feel as possessive as I do.

I shouldn’t feel a lot of the things towards Maddie that I do.

And it needs to stop. She’s every color of forbidden, and I need to get a hold of myself before I have a real mess on my hands.

Before I forget the entire basis of our relationship.

A job. A contract.

“No problem. Come on, Ty. It’s time to go inside.”

“Ten more minutes!”

“No, now!” I call, clenching my jaw. “Maddie has a date and I have to get some work done.”

“Roman, it’s not—”

“You better go get ready,” I cut her off. “I’m sure you’re even more behind schedule now that we made you get into the pool. Have a good time. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Maddie narrows her eyes at me, her confusion quickly turning to anger. “You know, you can’t…”

“Bye Maddie!” Ty climbs out of the pool before she can finish.

She swallows whatever she was about to say to me and turns to him. “Bye buddy. I’ll see you later.”

I turn in frustration, heading for the house, before I can make an even bigger ass of myself.