Page 12 of Safe Haven

“Are you asking me, or telling me?” There’s an edge to Maddox’s voice I haven’t heard before. It’s sharp and dangerous and a little scary. “Because you should probably know who you’re looking for before you start knocking on strange people’s doors on a Saturday morning.”

I almost gasp.It’s Saturday. I’m supposed to be at work in an hour and I totally freaking forgot.

“I’m sorry I interrupted…”—the guy looks Maddox over—“whatever it is you’ve got going on here.” He starts to step back and I pull my hand away from the gap, tucking the phone close.

I wait for Maddox to close the door, but he continues standing there, tall and imposing, a hard expression on his face. After many long seconds, he finally closes us in. After flipping the deadbolt into place, he turns to me. “Are you okay?”

Not, ‘Did you get the recording?’ Not, ‘I can’t believe you’re too big of a coward to answer the door yourself.’ Not, ‘Way to be a pain in the ass and make me do everything.’

It’s weird not having blame piled on my shoulders when I don’t live up to someone’s expectations. Not bad weird. Just weird.

I hold his phone out. “I think I got what you wanted.”

“Great.” Maddox barely glances at his cell as he steps closer, bringing the mostly naked line of his body toward me. “How are you doing?”

I’m really not used to someone showing concern for me in general, which is why I ignored his question in the first place. It makes me want to feel like he cares, and that seems like a bad idea since he’s being paid to be here.

“I’m good.” Shoving the phone at him, I start to back away from all the bare skin and tight underwear trying to steal my eyeballs. “But I should get a shower. I’ve got to be at work soon.”

Maddox’s brows lift. “Work?” His head tilts. “It’s Saturday.”

“I manage a clothing store, so I work almost every weekend.” Even when I worked for myself I went in on Saturdays, so I’m used to the weekend hours. It’s not like I have anything else going on.

Outside of trying to stay alive.

“Okay.” Maddox props both hands on his hips, fingers resting right along the V-shaped groove framing his abs. “Then I guess you get a shower and I’ll finish our breakfast. We can head out whenever you’re ready.”

I force my eyes away from that deeply distracting area of his body. “You’re coming with me?”

Maddox’s lips curl into a hint of a smile and it makes my belly flutter. “I go where you go.”

I mean…technically I’m about to go into the shower…

Clearing my throat, I blink hard a few times. This poor man has been nothing but nice to me. Outside of that littlemisunderstandingwe had, he’s been completely appropriate.

And here I am wondering what he looks like naked and wet.

Spinning away, I go straight for the bathroom. “I’ll hurry so you can jump in after me.”

Rushing through the process, I quickly scrub down and dry off. After rubbing on some lotion, I wrap on my robe and hustle to my bedroom.

One of the perks of the job I have is that, thanks to the employee discount, I’ve been able to build a new wardrobe relatively quickly. The clothes hanging in my closet are a lot different than the ones I left behind, but they fit the life I live now way better than the designer labels and red-bottomed heels would have.

Picking out my favorite pair of wide-leg jeans and a cropped sweater, I hurry to get dressed. Once that’s done, I duck into the bathroom to fix my hair and apply a little makeup. I’m running at hyper speed, but Maddox still finishes making breakfast before I’m done. When I reach the kitchen, my eggs are plated with a piece of buttered toast and a fresh cup of coffee, and he’s packing a bunch of random stuff into the soft-sided lunch box I use to take leftovers into work.

His eyes lift to mine before dropping back down as he tosses a granola bar in. “I figured you might need some snacks.”

Am I caught in some sort of alternate universe? It sure seems like it, because I’ve never had a man take care of me like this. Not the ones I dated. Not the one I married. And sure as heck not the one who contributed to my DNA.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Once again I’m unsure how to react to his thoughtful gesture. I’ve never been presented with this sort of a scenario before. “But thank you.”

Maddox flashes me a smile. “Don’t be too grateful.” He zips up the bag and sets it on the counter. “I packed some stuff for me too. I tend to get snacky.”

“I bet.” All on my own, my eyes fall back down his frame, getting stuck on that spot at his hips again. “You’ve got a lot of muscle to feed.” Speaking of muscles… I point to the area I’m embarrassingly obsessed with. “What muscle is that?”

Maddox looks down, poking the ridge with a few fingers. “This? Not a muscle. It’s the inguinal ligament. It anchors the muscles of your abdomen to your pelvis.”

I’m not sure it’s anchoring much on mine, but that thing is working overtime on Maddox. “Interesting.”

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