Page 34 of Something to Believe In
She froze. "What?"
"Yes."
She folded her jeans and set them in the suitcase. "Yes, what?"
"Move in with me. You can't sleep in this loud place. We can create music, make love, and spend time together. It's perfect. We've waited for so long, why wait any longer to take the plunge?"
"Take the plunge?" she laughed. "That sounds like going swimming. Not moving in together."
Suddenly, the music downstairs turned on, and the volume was ridiculous. How could she even hear herself think down there?
Axel's lips turned up in a huge smile. "It's like she's in agreement with me."
Maddyn swallowed. "It's too soon. We've known each other for years, but we've only been together for a minute. Shouldn't we slow down?"
He sat up. "Why?"
"Because if I give this place up and things don't work out, I'm out in the cold."
"We live in Florida. It's never cold here."
She had to laugh at that one. "Then I'm out with the gators."
"Or, it could work out wonderfully and you never have to hear that God-awful music again."
She laughed. "Can we compromise? How about we see how a few days go?"
He shrugged. "I think you're delaying the inevitable."
"Maybe. Or being smart. Cautious. And maybe a little bit scared."
He stood and stalked toward her. "Scared of me? Because of earlier in the hotel?"
She shook her head. "No. Scared of moving too fast."
He kissed her forehead and nodded. "Okay. We'll give it a few days and see how that goes. Then we'll have this conversation again."
She could live with that. She could live with it more easily than listening to that music from downstairs, which had now turned into rap. She despised rap music.
"Speaking of conversations, we need to have one."
She sat at the foot of her bed. Axel's brows lifted, and his eyes looked wary. "Okay."
He sat on the side of the bed. She turned to face him.
"If we're together as a couple. That means to me, there are no other parties in the relationship. Or in your bed."
One side of his lips hiked up. He nodded. "I agree with that. Is this still about the groupies?"
She shrugged. "Sort of. I mean, we both know it happened. But now that we're together, tomorrow will be our first gig where you can't partake in what groupies offer. That's different than deciding you don't want to. But mostly, I felt we hadn't had that conversation, and we should, so we're on the same page."
He chuckled and leaned forward. "Mads, I swear to you I never would have done it if I'd known how much it hurt you."
"Would it have hurt you if you'd seen me with a groupie?"
"Fuck yeah. It about killed me when you started dating Dickbag Doug."
She laughed. The nickname he'd given Doug was hilarious. And he was a dickbag, so it fit. It just made her laugh right now.
