Home > Dare To Love(116)

Dare To Love(116)
Author: Lylah James

“I did, but he didn’t say anything and then hung up on me. This was five days ago. Brad is… He wants to see his son.”

His son – the same one he didn’t give a shit about before. But now that he was bedridden in a hospital bed, he needed to see his… son.

“I don’t know, Savannah. I haven’t seen Maddox in weeks. We broke up.”

“Please,” she begged, her voice cracking. “Please. He needs to be here. You don’t understand. Brad… I don’t know how long he has. Please, Lila.”

I glanced at Riley, and she gave me a questioning look. “I’m sorry, Savannah. I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t guarantee he’ll listen to me. If you want Maddox there and I can’t bring him to you, you’ll need to find another way.”

Savannah inhaled a shaky breath. “Okay. Thank you, Lila.”

We hung up, and I fell on the couch beside Riley. “What’s up? What did Savannah want?”

“Brad is… sick.”

Her mouth rounded with a shocked ‘o’. “She wants you to convince Maddox to go see his dad?”

“Bingo.”

“How sick is he?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It sounded serious, because she was crying.”

Riley nodded slowly. “I was on Colton’s Instagram two hours ago. They apparently have a party going on at his house, right now. I saw Maddox in one of the videos in his story.”

“Another party?” During Exams? What the hell?

“Last I heard, it was Maddox who decided to throw the party. Again. Which, by the way, the last one ended with a fight.”

This reminded me of four years ago. Back in high school, when Maddox didn’t give a shit about anything or… anyone. He was all about partying, drugs and alcohol… and letting his fists do the talking.

He was spiraling. Once again. Oh God.

My head fell into my hands, and I took a deep breath. Maybe it was my fault… An overwhelming sense of guilt filled my chest, and I almost choked on the taste of bitterness on my tongue.

“Do you want to wait until tomorrow?” Riley questioned, rubbing my back.

“No. I have to do this tonight. Maddox might be stubborn, but I am more stubborn than he could ever be.”

 

 

16

 

 

Lila

 

 

Riley and I parked three houses away and stared at Colton’s corner townhouse. After a few minutes of silence, we walked up to his porch and blinked. “Holy shit,” Riley breathed.

The party was loud and crowded. I cringed, as a couple stumbled out, practically mauling each other. He pushed her against the house, and they were practically humping over their clothes, too drunk to care that they had an audience.

It was in that moment when I realized how bad this situation was. I shouldn’t have come here tonight. If I found Maddox’s in the arms of another woman…

Oh my God.

I almost doubled over, because the pain of that was unbearable. This was the wrong decision. I should have waited until tomorrow morning, when everything would have been calmed.

But what if…

What if he still had a woman by his side in the morning…?

What would I have done then?

Shit. SHIT! I couldn’t even bring myself to think of it. I stalked forward, climbing up the stairs, into Colton’s fancy townhouse and weaving my way through the sweaty bodies.

I spotted him instantly. Through a crowd, many feet away. It was like my eyes knew where to look, my heart knew where he was, an invisible string tugging my body toward him.

Maddox.

He sat on a couch; his long legs spread out in front of him. He wore black jeans and a black shirt, with holes in it. It looked like he hadn’t bothered to shave for many weeks, and his hair was just as messy. Maddox looked completely out of it. High and drunk.

The two girls, one on each side of him, giggled. They were practically salivating for his attention, but his stares were empty, glazed over. Maddox tipped his head back and took a long pull from his joint, inhaling that shit and breathing out a thin layer of smoke. I took a step closer, my body moving on its own accord.

The blonde girl on his right stuck her face into his neck and her hand moved to his crotch. My heart was about to fall right out of my chest, when his fingers circled around her wrist, stopping her movement. He placed her hand on his thigh, a safe distance away from his dick.

My hand went to my throat, and I clenched our dreamcatcher. I exhaled the breath I didn’t know I had been holding.

He lifted his head, looking in my direction.

Our gaze met.

I halted.

He paused.

Time just fucking stopped.

My body twitched under his gaze.

He stared.

I breathed.

The dreamcatcher dug into my palm, as my hold tightened around it. Maddox’s lips curled, and there was nothing warm about it.

Maddox slowly got off the couch and stalked toward me. His eyes were angry, crazed. He still had a bottle in his hand, and he was half drunk. I could tell by the way he stumbled toward me. I never got a word out, as he grasped me by the elbow, and started pulling me up the stairs. His fingers were digging roughly into my skin, but I didn’t care in the moment.

Maddox pulled me into a room and slammed me against the wall, as he kicked the door closed. His body pinned me to the wall. “Mad–”

His lips slammed against mine, before I could breathe out his name.

The world shut off.

Time stopped ticking.

Everything just halted, and I was stuck in this moment, on a loop.

The colors faded away.

I stopped thinking… only feeling. This. Him. His lips.

His lips feasted on me, like he had been craving for my taste all along. It was all-consuming, and with a desperation so crazed, it lingered on my skin, and I could taste it on my lips, on my tongue. He took possession of my mouth, like he owned it. Like he owned me.

And goddamn it. He did. In this very moment, he owned me.

My skin hummed under his touch. His arm circled around my hips, and he pulled me up, my toes leaving the ground, as he kept me between the wall and his body. My hands landed on his shoulders, and his muscles clenched under my fingers. His body jolted, at my touch, and he bit me. Bit me hard enough that I tasted the metallic taste of my blood on my tongue.

This was no sweet reunion.

It was a battle cry. So much anger, so much hatred, so much… passion.

I bit him back, feeling his lip swell under my teeth. Maddox groaned, low and deep, and his body shuddered. Almost violently. I didn’t know where he started, and I ended. Our blood mixed on our tongues, but we didn’t stop kissing. Didn’t stop battling for dominance. Didn’t stop… touching each other.

This kiss.

This moment.

This… feeling. Torment. Love. Fury. Passion. Resentment. Longing. Pain. So much fucking pain.

The kiss slowed, and I wondered if Maddox could feel how much I didn’t want this moment to end.

“You taste like mine… and lies. You’re a fucking liar, Lila,” he rasped against my lips.

Furious, I tore away from him and slammed my fists into his chest. He was hurting, I told myself. He didn’t mean it; I whispered in my head.

But the anger was overwhelming and the final thin thread of my sanity snapped. I stabbed my finger into his chest, hard enough that he drunkenly stumbled back. “Me? ME? I’m a liar?” I screamed into his face. “You lived with me for months and lied to MY FACE, EVERY SINGLE DAY! You started our relationship with a lie. You. Kept. Secrets. From. Me.”

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