Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
He stopped talking for a moment, and I shocked even myself when I didn’t immediately say thanks, but no thanks.
He stepped into my space again, and this time, he reached out and gently wrapped his fingers around my wrist, as if he wanted to erase the bruises with just that touch.
I closed my eyes against the sparks that ignited every cell in my body.
“Madelyn,” he pleaded, and he waited until I looked at him to continue. “This is a deal that works for both of us, and you know it. Tell me you wouldn’t sleep better at night knowing that a six-foot-seven, two-hundred-and-thirty pounds and counting professional athlete has your back.”
My heart pounded harder, faster, the sound echoing in my ears.
Was I actually considering this?
“Besides — this would guarantee that I wouldn’t rush buying a house. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to get you your commission if I knew I could watch over you in the meantime.”
“I don’t need—”
“I know you don’t need me,” he said, cutting me off. His eyes flashed with something achingly familiar when he added, “But I need you.”
I swallowed past the wad of sandpaper in my throat, searching his gaze as I tried to find something, anything, to say to that.
“Come on, Mads,” he said after a while, one corner of his mouth ticking up mischievously. “What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
Kyle
It was a dumb fucking idea.
I knew it, and had I stopped long enough to consider what I was proposing before I actually opened my mouth, I likely would have shoved the idea down and never spoken it out loud.
As it was, seeing those bruises on Madelyn’s arm had my brain short circuiting.
I didn’t care about being logical.
I only cared about making sure she was okay.
The truth of that made me frown a little as I waited for her to respond, because the first time I’d seen her after all those years, I’d wanted to hurt her. I’d wanted her to feel the pain she’d put me through.
Now, I was trying to keep her from pain.
I was a walking contradiction.
“Well?” I probed again when she didn’t answer, the word echoing in the empty foyer where we stood.
Madelyn’s soft brown eyes flicked between mine, and then she blew out a breath, shaking her head and looking up to the ceiling.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… fine.”
Inside, I threw a fist into the air in victory.
On the outside, I simply smirked.
“But I have conditions,” she added with a finger pointed straight at my chest. She was using that thing like a damn weapon today.
“Name them.”
“No fighting with Marshall.”
Marshall.
So that was the fucker’s name.
Madelyn must have seen how tense my jaw was because she arched a threatening brow. “I mean it. If you go fighting him, it’s going to cause more issues for me. So, be the six-foot-seven bodyguard all you want, but do not goad him, do not call him names, and do not lay a finger on him.”
“I won’t,” I promise. “Unless he lays a finger on you.”
Madelyn’s brows tugged inward, just a little, as if she didn’t understand why I would care if he did. But she listed her next condition before I could think too much on that reaction.
“No one lays a finger on me. You included.”
It was my turn to cock a brow.
“We can… pretend all you want,” she said with a wave of her hand. “But let’s not forget the reality. We aren’t even friends, let alone anything more. Don’t go holding my hand or touching my back or trying to sneak in a kiss.”
The way she listed out those demands made it so hard not to laugh. Her little cheeks were growing redder by the minute, the blush creeping down her neck, too. She could barely look me in the eye when she said kiss.
“Madelyn,” I said, leveling her with a gaze that I hoped told her she was being ridiculous. I took a tentative step toward her. “Come on. We’re adults, and we used to be friends. I think we can handle some fake kissing.”
“Absolutely not.”
“No one is going to believe we’re actually together if you won’t let me touch you, least of all your ex.”
She chewed on that, then swallowed and crossed her arms over the binder she still had, crushing it to her chest like a textbook.
It made me flash back to when I was a sophomore and she was a senior, when I saw her walking the halls and had the irresistible urge to hold her hand, to claim her for everyone to see.
“Fine,” she gritted out. “But minimal, you understand? No tongue.”
“No tongue,” I conceded with a wry grin. “My turn to list a condition.”
“You don’t get conditions. This was your idea, remember?”
“Exactly — which means I get to make some rules, too. And my number one rule?” I cracked my neck. “I don’t want you around Marshall without me there.”