Page 39 of Thirst Trap

No HelmetDaddy.

No Creams.

Just them.

Then, slowly, she tilted her face. Just enough to find his eyes, those glacier blue eyes usually unreadable, now swimming in something raw and unguarded.

And she kissed him.

Soft.

Certain.

Not lust.

Not power.

Just them.

Lucas froze for half a second. Then melted into it, hands clenching in the fabric of her blouse like she was air, water, everything. He kissed her back with quiet desperation, like he was letting her write something inside him he’d never dared let anyone touch. When they broke apart, breathless and close, Maddison pressed her hand to his jaw.

“I’m not leaving you.”

Lucas’s eyes flinched. “You should.”

“I won’t,” she whispered. “Your brother can shout. Bonnie can glower. Penny can snoop and the world can lose its mind but I know what this is. We’re meant to be.”

Lucas swallowed hard.

“Even if I’m bad for you?”

Maddison smiled. “That’s the fun part.”

He laughed, choked, soft, real. The sound startled even him and for the first time in what felt like days, Lucas Creams didn’t feel like the walls were closing in. He just felt Maddison’s hands, her heartbeat against his, and the strange, unfamiliar comfort of hope curling into his chest.

Chapter 20

Come Up

Lucas sat astride the matte black motorbike, parked just across the street from her apartment building. The engine was off. The helmet rested beside him.

He wasn’t stalking.

At least, that’s what he told himself.

This wasn't an obsession.

This was protection.

It was quiet out here. The kind of quiet that made him itch. But he needed to be here.

Needed to know she was inside, safe, untouched by Creams Tower, the press, Bonnie, Logan. He lit a cigarette with shaking fingers and stared up at the windows until he found hers. The soft light of her kitchen. Movement.

Maddison.

He didn’t know how long he sat there for ten minutes? An hour?

Then his phone buzzed.