Page 131 of Mad As Hell

“One day,” he replied, turning his face to kiss the side of my throat.

“Promise?” I needed to hear him say the words so I could believe that one day we wouldn’t be controlled by our fathers and what everyone else wanted.

“I promise, Madison,” he vowed, his arms tightening around me.

I leaned against him and fell silent as night crept across the ocean. We didn’t move until the stars had begun twinkling overhead and the sea disappeared from view, swallowed by the darkness. The sounds of the waves churning and crashing against the beach filled the air.

When I yawned hard enough for my jaw to pop, Ryan straightened and tugged me back inside.

I glanced down at my dress. “I didn’t plan for a sleepover.”

“There’re extra toothbrushes in the bathroom,” he told me while walking to a distressed white wood dresser. He opened the middle drawer and pulled out a black By the Edge concert tour shirt. “Second drawer in the vanity.” He tossed me the shirt with a smirk. “You can sleep in that.”

“Mind if I take a shower?” I held the shirt to my chest, feeling oddly vulnerable.

He waved a hand at the door. “Go for it.”

I slipped into the bathroom but didn’t bother closing the door. After stripping out of my clothes, I tossed them aside and turned on the shower. Glancing around the bathroom, done in more shades of gray and white, I caught my reflection in the large mirror over the his-and-hers sinks.

On the surface, I still looked like me. My hair was blonde and longer, thanks to bleach and extensions. My eyes were still the same shade of cornflower blue, but they held a lingering sadness that I couldn’t seem to blink away.

I could see the outline of my ribs and the sharp angles of my shoulders and hips. My stomach had a soft swell from all the pizza I’d eaten. My belly wasn’t used to that much food anymore, and it actually showed.

I never thought I’d be a girl who cared about how she looked, but I couldn’t stop picking apart the ways my body had changed the past few weeks. I’d thought Gary’s asshole diet was just his way of being a dick, but I was seeing it for what it was—he was proving he could control every aspect of me, including my body.

Nothing was mine. He’d stripped it all away, taking more and more. And now, standing in the stark white lighting of the vanity, I saw the proof.

Disgusted, I turned and caught Ryan watching me from the door. I froze and waited for him to say something as steam started to fill the room.

“Want me to wash your stuff so you have it for tomorrow?” he offered.

I nodded, grateful I wouldn’t have to wear dirty underwear. “Thanks.”

He came in and paused in front of my discarded clothes. His gaze swept across my naked body, heating as it lingered on places that started to tingle in anticipation of his touch.

“You’re fucking gorgeous, Maddie,” he told me as his eyes met mine.

A brittle laugh slipped from my lips. “Am I? Because I barely see the girl I used to be.”

“I see you,” he replied, his tone fierce. “I see the woman I love, and nothing will change that.”

The smile that tugged on the corners of my mouth was genuine and buoyed my heart. Ryan Cain was amazing for a girl’s confidence.

He gathered my clothes and left me to shower in peace. I hurried through washing my hair and body, using his products and low-key loving that I smelled like him when I got out and dried off enough to pull on the shirt.

Ryan was sitting in bed, his shirt gone and a whole lot of skin and muscle on display, as he scrolled through his phone. He turned it off and set it aside when I came in.

I pulled back the sheets and dropped into the bed, another yawn stretching across my face.

With a chuckle, Ryan turned off the light with a remote and pulled me across the bed to his side. He tucked me against his chest, sniffing my wet hair.

“Is it weird I like that you smell like me?”

I laughed quietly. “I think it just proves you really are in love with yourself.”

He pinched my ass. “Fucking brat.”

“You love it,” I teased, smiling into the dark.

---