I swallowed, feeling the lump in the base of my throat. I dare you to be my girlfriend, little dragon.
“I’m his girlfriend,” I finally confessed out loud.
Holy shit! I. Was. Maddox. Coulter’s. Girlfriend.
The realization finally hit me, like an arrow straight through my heart. My head swam, the room became blurry and the world tilted, catching me off balance.
“Lila? Lila!” Riley grabbed my elbow, and I realized she was shaking me. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“Maddox is my boyfriend,” I choked.
“Oh. It looks like it finally hit you,” she deadpanned, with a trace of humor.
“I lost,” I mumbled.
“Huh?”
“Remember when I first bumped into him at Berkshire? I told you I wouldn’t fall for his charms. So, I basically lost.” My head fell into my hands, and I sucked in a shaky breath.
Four years later… I had fallen hard for the Maddox Coulter. Star quarterback, reckless bad boy, infamous playboy. Who was once my nemesis but now my best friend.
Riley fell back against the couch, howling with laughter. Tears spilled down her cheeks, as she choked back on her maniacal laughter when I glowered. “Oh, shut up!”
“I’m sorry,” she wheezed. “But this is actually hilarious. I remember how stubborn you were. You were so determined not to fall for him. Remember those days? Ah, the good ole days.”
I shoved my middle finger in her face, and she laughed even harder. Rolling my eyes, I elbowed her in the ribs.
She gasped and then grinned. Mischief flashed in her wide grey eyes. “How’s the sex? Please tell me his dick game is as good as it has been hyped up to be.”
I flushed, feeling the heat go up my neck and on my face. “Better than the hype,” I admitted hoarsely, my lips twisted in a rueful smile.
The sex was… mind-blowing.
But it was the intimacy that had my heart clenching and stomach fluttering like a silly teenage girl with a new crush.
It wasn’t just physical with Maddox; it wasn’t just sex – no – it was more. Maddox took his time to learn how I liked to be touched and to know my sensitive spots.
I was naked, vulnerable, and opened to him, body, scars and all, but he made me feel like I was the most beautiful, the most desired woman on the whole damn planet. The intimacy between us transcended the physical… it was all about the feel.
That made the sex mind-blowing.
That and his… very thick, very long, very girthy… distracting cock.
My sex clenched, at the reminder, and I squeezed my thighs together, feeling the pulsing need in the pit of my stomach.
“Well, at least you’re getting some,” Riley said, reaching for her popcorn again. She placed the bowl on her lap and shoved a fistful in her mouth. “My vagina is as dry as the Sahara Desert.”
“Maybe Colton can help with that.” I shot her a shit-eating grin, knowing full well it would grate on her nerves.
Riley was visibly outraged by my suggestion “Colton is going to keep that thing between his legs to himself.” Her nostrils flared, and she grunted in irritation. “If he brings his north pole anywhere near my south pole, he might have to say goodbye to his babymaker.”
“North pole?”
“Yeah, because it points up,” she explained, as if I was dumb.
I waggled my eyebrows at her. “I’d love to read a smutty scene of yours.”
Riley cleared her throat, straightened her shoulders and started in her best narrating voice, “As his north pole came close to my south pole, my center pooled with warm, creamy liquid. Our copulation was sweaty and hard. My rhythmic wails could be heard across the city as the wet friction of our sex grew louder. His bulbous rod jumped inside my sacred tunnel, as he found his release.”
I hollered. “Ew, no, stop!”
Riley winked, before bursting into laughter. “I think I cringed so hard my face is twitching.”
I nodded in agreement. That was absolutely awful. “Never mind. I don’t want to read your smutty scenes.”
She patted my knee, before turning back to the TV. “So, what are you going to do?”
“With Maddox?” I asked, although I already knew what she was asking. “I want to give us a chance. Maybe he’s right; maybe we could be good together.”
“Two souls don’t find each other by simple accident,” Riley murmured. “You two were meant to cross paths, Lila. As enemies, as friends… as lovers.”
“Since when are you a champion for Maddox?”
Her grey eyes snapped to mine, but they were smiling. “He makes you happy. I think that gives him plenty of bonus points.”
Maddox did make me happy. I curled my feet under me and settled back on the couch. “Thank you, I needed this talk.”
Riley offered me a handful of popcorn. “My pleasure, babe.”
She started episode nine of YOU, and we settled in, finishing up season one and starting season two right after.
Five hours later, although time had seemed to fly by, there was an insistent knocking on our door. Riley turned down the volume, and I walked over the door. I barely had it open before someone rammed into me.
Maddox–
My thought came to screeching halt at the raw expression on his face. Something akin to crazed desperation and…fear. His emotions wrapped around my chest and squeezed, until I couldn’t breathe.
His frantic gaze landed on mine, and they darkened almost dangerously. “You,” he accused, sounding out of breath. “You left.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I came to see Riley.”
He prowled forward, his jaw hard and his expression tight. Maddox only had his boxer shorts on. He hadn’t even bothered to wear his clothes in his attempt to hunt me down.
“I wasn’t running away,” I whispered, pressing my palms over his chest.
His heart was racing, too fast, too hard, too wild. Oh, baby. I stood on my tiptoes, and my lips brushed against his, in my attempt to calm him down. “Take me back… home.”
Maddox let out a ragged breath, as if he could finally breathe again. His arm curled around my waist like a band of steel, and he practically dragged me back to his apartment next door.
His mouth moved with mine, and I kissed him. Taking control of the kiss, I nipped on his lips and then slid my tongue inside his mouth. He hoisted me up in his arms and closed his door, before slamming my back against it. He wasn’t careful, he wasn’t gentle, and, in this moment, I couldn’t find myself to care.
Maddox groaned into my kiss, and I could feel his thickness against my stomach. Could feel how hard…warm, how… heavy he was.
“I didn’t have a good dream,” he grunted like the words pained him.
My heart dropped, and my arms tightened around him.
“Woke up to an empty bed. It made it worse.” His confession surprised me.
Maddox had never let himself be vulnerable around me, not willingly. Sure, I had seen his bad sides, his worst sides. I had seen him at his breaking point, but he hid his pain with a perfected mask and would never admit to something like this. His tightly put together defenses were down.
Right now, Maddox Coulter was the rawest and truest version of himself.
Open to me and vulnerable in my arms.