Page 55 of Since We're Here
I really like this woman.
I like her sunny personality, her bright smile, the way she lights up any room she walks into. The way she’s not afraid of me, not even a little. I like her laugh and her dark eyes and the layers of her, the top one a cheery facade and deeper ones etched with the pain of a past I know little about.
I press a kiss to her head and breathe her in. I haven’t felt this way in a long time.
14
MADDIE
Sunday, March 9
It’s still dark when I wake up, but there’s the slightest hint of the approaching dawn coming in the window.
I’m not in my bed.
I’m not alone.
I’m in Patrick’s arms on the couch, my back pressed against his chest, his warmth touching me from my head to my toes. His knees are tucked in to the back of mine, his arm heavy around my waist.
It takes a few seconds for everything to come crashing back to me.
Keys in the door after I’d passed out, then Patrick standing in front of me, looking like he wanted to eat me alive.
But he stopped himself.
I turn my head and he’s wearing his t-shirt and boxers. He must have stripped out of his jeans after I passed out.
He didn’t want to sleep with me? No, that’s not right; he did. It was because we were drunk. And other reasons.
Patrick told me on the bike ride that he doesn’t do relationships. He doesn’t date. But why? Is he like me, with an ex who messed him up so much he doesn’t want to let another person in?
He deserves to have someone close, someone who really knows and appreciates him.
I want to be that person. I want to be close to him, in any way possible.
My pulse quickens and I’m aware of every spot where his body is touching mine. The hair on his legs tickling me from behind. Sturdy chest pressed to my back. His pelvis lightly against my ass.
I snuggle back into him, and he stirs.
“Maddie.” His breath is hot on my neck and his voice is filled with sleep.
“Yeah.” God, he feels good against me. I shift my hips again and he inhales sharply, pressing his groin against me, sliding his hand along my side. There’s proof he wants me in the form of a hardening cock.
“What are you doing?” he whispers.
I twist my body around so I’m facing him, our knees knocking together.
“I had a thought.”
“That sounds dangerous.” His hand drifts from my hip to the valley of my waist, then stops, so I move it up to my breast, which spills out of my tank top, my nipple barely covered. I wonder if he’s going to say no again, but he moves his hand, squeezing and pressing and rubbing his thumb on the hardening peak of my nipple.
Fuck, that feels good, and the ache between my legs intensifies. I rub my thighs together, but that doesn’t help at all. I look down and I can see his need for me, his cock fully hard and pushing up against his boxers.
“Madison, we can’t.” In one movement, he removes his hand from my chest and sits, pulling me to an upright position next to him and reaching for his phone. “It’s five o’clock in the morning. I should get home.”
I almost chicken out. But even though he’s trying to push me away and staring at a spot on the floor, I know he wants me. Heneedsme.
“Maybe we should be friends who kiss sometimes.”
