Page 23 of It's Never Not Been You

My hands automatically sunk into his hair, and my eyes immediately began to sting. This shouldn’t feel so damn right. This should feel wrong for all kinds of reasons, but it just didn’t. Maybe it was just familiarity that was making me feel things that weren’t really there. Maybe a year without sex was making me miss this more than I would have had I been dating other people. Honestly, my emotions were conflicting with one another enough that it hurt my head to even think about all the possible reasons why.

I laid on the table with my eyes closed when Raddix finally righted himself, still refusing to pull out of my body. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know that he was undressing, that’s how well I knew the man. He was going to remove as much clothing as possible before he finally had to free himself.

Seconds or hours later, Raddix was pulling me upright, and when I opened my eyes, he was completely naked, and I wanted to weep with how gorgeous he was. Raddix McKay was the type of gorgeous that made a woman’s knees weak, and I was no exception.

Without saying a word, Raddix began removing my suit jacket, then my blouse. I didn’t stop him, and he was gracious enough not to gloat or claim victory aloud. In truth, this wasn’t even a real victory for him. Me spending the night didn’t mean that we were in a good place now. It just meant that we had some unfinished business that we needed to work out, and sex was one of them. Emotions were too high for sex not to be part of the fucked-up equation.

When Raddix finally pulled out of me, I felt some of his cum slide down my thighs. Had this been any other time, he’d be rubbing the mess into my skin, a branding of sorts. However, he was wise enough to recognize that he was in a precarious position at best right now. So, instead, he set me back on the floor, removed the rest of my clothes, then lifted me bride-style to carry me back to the bedroom.

As Raddix laid me on the bed, I had to squeeze my eyes tight to keep from crying. Every single thing in the house was the same as the day that I’d left, and that included the bed set that had always covered our bed.

“I’m not letting you get any sleep tonight, Madison,” he said as his lips found my left hip.

I could only squeeze my eyes tighter.

Chapter 15

Raddix~

My alarm was going off, and I almost chucked it against the wall for waking me up. Though I was used to not sleeping, I wasn’t used to not sleeping because of hours upon hours of sex. Though Madison and I had always had a healthy sexual relationship, we’d left those all-night marathons back in our mid-twenties. Once we’d gotten closer to thirty, it’d been three times in one night, max. Those three times had also been limited to the weekends when we hadn’t had to wake up early in the morning.

Reaching for my phone, I turned off the alarm, then rolled over to wake Madison. Granted, the alarm had probably already done a good job of that, but still. However, when I rolled over, Madison was no longer in our bed, and when my hand found cold sheets, it was clear that she hadn’t been in our bed for a while now.

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised, but I was still mad about it. While I hadn’t expected her to curl up next to me as if these past twelve months had never happened, I had wished…well, that’s what I had wished for, so who was I trying to fool?

Sitting up, I grabbed my phone, then dialed Caspian. Though it was early as hell, I knew that he’d be up. While he might not put in as many hours at McKay Engineering as I did, he lived his life after work.

“What’s up?”

“I need you to take my nine o’clock with Maurice Vanek,” I told him.

“Uhm…I have a ten o’clock with the Beckham Group, so is it supposed to run more than an hour?” he asked, the man already rearranging his day in his head.

“No,” I assured him. “He’s just dropping off some amendments that Ludwig Beneficial wants us to look at.”

“Okay, not a problem then.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh, no, Raddix,” he huffed. “You don’t get to make this phone call without telling me why I’m taking your nine o’clock.”

It was rare for me to cancel, so his demand was valid. “I have an unscheduled appointment at House Marketing.”

Caspian let out a cheer like we were at some damn football game. “Gonna burn the place down?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I replied as I stretched my back.

“Oh, please,” he snorted. “What other reason would you have for storming the castle?”

“Madison snuck out of our bed this morning, and I just want to ask her about it.”

“I’m sorry, what?” he practically screeched. “She did what?”

“We came back to the house to talk last night, and things…things got kind of out of hand,” I admitted, not really wanting to share the intimate details. Still, this was my brother that I was talking to. “While we didn’t really…resolve anything, she did spend the night.”

Usually a smartass, Caspian sounded serious as hell as he asked, “Raddix, do you really think that sleeping together was wise? I mean…seducing a woman that hates you is probably not the best idea in the world, Rad.”

“For her or me?”

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