Page 151 of Raven

We make out lazily wrapped in each other for what seems like hours, like we are trying to catch up on kissing. Just kissing. It’s better than sex. Lasts longer, too. The longest kiss on record is fifty-eight hours and thirty-five minutes. I could top that. That is if Sonny wasn’t around to interrupt us.

I get lost in her taste, the softness of her mouth, the wild thought that she is letting me in. I kiss her in all ways possible. Long ravishing sessions, then soft kisses, then sucking on her lower lip, swiping my tongue against the seam of her mouth. Eventually, we slow down, sag against each other, and drift asleep for some time, though every time we move, we kiss again.

And then we are awake again, and I make love to her. She strokes her hand absently through my hair. I lose track of something she says, that’s how good her touch feels. She kisses my chest, then glances up at me and smiles, visibly embarrassed.

Jesus, does she know what she does to me?

She tries to pull away, but I catch her and kiss her, holding her chin up with a hand around her jaw to keep her from escaping.

My heart beats slowly and steadily at her touch.

Right, my heart. It’s a free-spirited beast. I built walls around it to keep it in check. With her? One kiss and the fucker jumped right over the walls, ripping on barbed wire, and darted toward her, howling like a werewolf at the blood moon.

I lie awake, wondering how it’s possible that my life went from hell to happy in less than two hours.

I stare at the ceiling for the longest time, then close my eyes and try to decipher how I feel, with her next to me, sleeping, both of us naked, and a promise of so much more tomorrow.

It starts getting bright outside, dawn light seeping through the windows. Maddy stirs.

“We don’t have to get up yet,” I whisper.

She smiles sleepily, her hand roaming along the center of my torso until it drifts lower, and my enthusiasm at her touch starts tenting the sheet over me. And then I’m shifting to get better access to her, and she is shifting to take what I offer, and we make love slowly, kissing the entire time until we both come and continue kissing for a while.

Eventually, she gets out of bed. “I have to go to work.”

I text Nilanski to come pick her up.

She wiggles her butt into her panties, then bra, then dress, then her tennis shoes as I watch her every move, savoring the sight. And I pray in my mind to whoever rules this mad universe, “Let me keep her.”

Finally, I swing my feet off the bed and pull my boxers on.

“I’ll see you at the medical center, right?” Maddy opens the door, turns to throw a last glance at me, and smiles.

She smiles like she doesn’t smile at anyone else. And that’s more than my dirty bruised heart can handle.

When the door closes behind her, I have this sudden feeling that she’ll never come back, so I dart to the door and throw it open.

She’s only several feet away, startled as her eyes widen at me in momentary surprise when I sweep her into my arms, and her legs instantly wrap around my waist. Her hands fly into my hair, and I crash my mouth into hers.

You are mine, beautiful girl, I want to say, but I don’t, because she is not—not yet. I’ll have to work it out, make sure of it, and be the best man I can be for her.

While my brain is working out the future, I kiss her madly, disregarding Nilanski only several feet away.

I shouldn’t let her go. I should lock us up in my bungalow for days. Because I can’t seem to get enough of her. And I desperately want to prolong this moment.

I tried to keep the door to my soul locked for so long, but she opened it and marched right in. I wanted to break her to see what she was made out of. Instead, she is breaking me. And I want to shatter into pieces at her feet if only her gentle hands would take those pieces and glue them back together.

M.

Maddy.

Madness.

57

MADDY

I am so happy I catch myself humming as I walk to work.

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