Page 54 of Since We're Here
“I forgot. I just . . . forgot.”
She laughs gently without humor. “It was really a mistake?”
But was it? Or was I coming to find Maddie? I was searching for her in the pub, in the hallway, and I must’ve remembered somewhere beyond the half dozen pints that she was up here. And that I had a key.
She groans. “And then I assaulted you. This time with a weapon.” Her voice is choked with a tinge of humor.
“No.” I grin in the dark. “That’s not what that was.” Against my better judgment, I grab her by her waist and pull her onto my lap. Instead of burying my face in her breasts, I wrap my arms around her in a giant hug. She hesitates for a second and thennestles into me, her cheek pressed against my chest. A glowing warmth fills me, and I kiss the top of her head.
“I’m pissed.”
“Huh?” She jerks in my arms.
“Locked. Trollied. Plastered. I’m drunk, Maddie.”
Her body settles again.
“Oh. Right. So am I. Which is why I left the pub.” She turns her face up to me and our lips are so close, it takes just a slight movement to join them again.
This time, it’s gentle, a pressing of our mouths together, just the slightest flicker of her tongue against mine.
I moan and pull away.
“This shouldn’t happen, for so many reasons. You know that, right, Maddie?”
“You keep calling me Maddie.” Her mouth turns up in a lazy grin.
“Do you prefer Madison?”
“You know I don’t.” She settles in the nook between my shoulder and my neck. Her hot breath on my skin makes my heart race even faster.
My self-control is about ready to break, but then she nods against my chest.
“Because we’re drunk.”
“Yes.”
“Because I work for you.”
I hesitate. God knows I don’t give a feck about that. Not with her.
“Because of a lot of things, love.”
She pauses, then says in a voice so low I almost don’t hear it as much as feel it, “Because I’m too much.”
Feck.
“No. You’re not too much.”
She sighs, and I want to say more, but her body is warm and soft against mine, and I don’t want to ruin the moment any more than I already have.
We sit that way until our hearts slow and her breathing steadies. Wish I could say the same for my raging hard-on.
“Lay down,” I whisper. I adjust my body so we’re in a horizontal position, and she stretches out on the couch, our bodies touching in every spot. Her eyes are shut.
I should carry her to her bed. I should untangle us before we are hopelessly entwined in every fecking way.
Before I shut my eyes and wait for sleep to come, I have a realization.
