Rolling over, I cupped his cheek, relishing the feel of his arms still wrapped around me. “I’m not a little kid, Maddox. In fact, I bet I’m older than you were after you’d made your first million. I might not be brilliant like you are. Maybe I’m not as insightful or as good with money—but I can feel who you are. I can feel the real you. And you’re not a bad man, Maddox.”
Even in the moving shadows, I could see the doubt in his eyes. “I’m not a good man, either. And I will not ruin you. All it takes is one rotten apple to destroy the entire bag.”
“I’m not an apple.”
“It works the same way. You have a bag of potatoes. One’s rotten. Soon the whole bag has turned. I refuse to ruin you.”
“It doesn’t work that way with people, Maddox.”
“It does. I know this from experience.”
My mind wandered back to the card in the book earlier today, wondering if Maddox had ruined the woman named Kate.
But I couldn’t ask.
“You don’t know me. If life could have ruined me, it would have already happened.”
“Ah, sweet Bailey. You don’t know me,” he said, repeating my words to me. “I can’t let you experiment while trying to see if you can survive me.” My eyes scoured his, hoping to discover what he was saying. “If you feel safe here, you can stay here with me—but I can’t allow this to happen again.”
I doubted he could stop it, but I wasn’t going to argue with him.
Instead, I continued looking in his eyes. I couldn’t see the monster he thought he was, and so I stroked his cheek again and, unable to stop myself, I moved my face closer, placing a soft kiss on his lips. He didn’t respond, and I didn’t care. The kiss was my small promise to him and required no acknowledgement.
And then I snuggled up next to him, pressing myself against his chest as his scent and warmth enveloped me in a haven unlike anything I’d ever known.
Nor had I ever slept that well in my entire life.