Page 46 of A Promise For Tomorrow

“Madison. What’s going on, sweetheart? Talk to me.” I follow her, picking up my strides through the kitchen and down the hall to the guest room.

“I just need some rest. I…I don’t understand what I feel right now. You were here…earlier. And then Diego… he… I woke up to him andyou…we were…I was dreaming of…” She throws her hands in the air exasperatedly. “It doesn’t fucking matter!” she shouts. “It was just a dream…” she quietly trails off.

I lean against the door frame and cross my arms over my chest. “What did you dream of, Madison?” My voice grows deeper, downright huskier with the need to strip her naked and remove all of her anxiety—and quite frankly—mine.

Her only focus would be me.

I would take away all the chaos swarming her beautiful mind.

“So your speech earlier, about wanting to protect me and feeling defenseless when you couldn’t find me in the club. Your apology for not staying with me. That was all real?”

She sits at the edge of the bed, kicking off my slides that are way too big for her sexy feet. The ones I can’t stop thinking about hanging over my shoulders.

“Yes. That was all real.” I slowly approach her until I am standing between her legs that are draped over the bed. “What am I missing here, Maddy?”

She lifts her head to stare up at me, gnawing on her lower lip. “I must have fallen asleep after. I had an interesting dream and it made me question whether parts of it were real or not.”

I place my bent index finger beneath her jaw and press the pad of my thumb to her chin.

“Ya wanna talk about it?” I ask hoarsely.

Cherry red paints her cheeks as her eyes dart from mine to land on my lips. I hover over her as she leans back on her elbows, my arms extended on either side of her head.

“No,” she whispers in the most agonizingly sultry voice.

I lower my body until there are only inches between us, her warm breath fanning my face, her breast pressing against my chest.

Adrenaline always does this to me. I can imagine she’s looking to escape in the throes of passion. I would be fully invested as well, no questions asked, if she wasn’t just freaking the fuck out. Not to mention the fact that she’s injured.

Warm hands run through my beard and up higher until they are tangled in my hair. Her thumbs rub the apples of my cheeks as she lowers my head the rest of the way.

The second our lips touch, I know we aren’t going further. That usual spark we always have isn’t there. It’s flickering, but there isn’t any wick left to burn.

Madison must notice, too, pulling back as she recognizes her fantasy or that dream she had isn’t comparable to this moment. I roll over and land next to her on the bed, lying on my back. My hands come up to wipe over my face as I release a massive sigh the same time she does.

A good long shower is in order. The fact that she even kissed me with another man’s blood caked on my skin is traumatizing in itself.

“Liam.” She doesn’t look at me as she says my name, drawing it out, eyes focused on the ceiling. There is a wobble to her voice that I don’t like.

Not one fucking bit.

I tilt my head to watch her.

This is it. I feel it down to my bones.

The end of her and I.

The words she is about to say are going to have a ring of finality to them. After the night she had, I should be the one to do it. Make it easier on her. She is struggling to get the words out, I can see it in the way her eyebrows are scrunched together; the way her lower lip trembles.

But all I can whisper is, “Madison.”

Because I am a fucking pussy and don’t want to let this go. Let her go. Doing so would only give her a reason to really end this.

“This isn’t working,” she says solemnly, her voice breaking.

“I know, baby.” I grab her shaking hand glued to her stomach and bring it to my lips, kissing it gently before entwining our fingers and laying them between us.

We lie there for a while. Sniffles fill the space as my thumb rubs the back of her hand.

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