Chapter 35 Take Me In Your Arms
The words hung in the air between them, and Grace felt Maddox stop breathing entirely although his heart rate spiked.
Then slowly, so slowly, he turned over to face her.
The movement brought them even closer together on the narrow bed. Grace could see his face now, could see the war playing out across his features. His eyes were dark with pupils blown wide, and his jaw was clenched so tight she could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin.
"Grace," he said, and his voice was barely recognizable, rough with want and restraint battling for dominance. "You don't know what you're saying. You're not thinking clearly."
Maddox was looking at her, somewhere along the line he could no longer see his childhood friend anymore. Wasn't seeing the girl he'd grown up with, the one he'd taught to ride a bike and protected from bullies and helped with math homework.
She had matured into a woman, and that was what he saw.
What did she mean she loved him? How could she say those words so casually, like he hadn’t been dying to say it all these years
Grace saw the hunger in his eyes and that made something deep in her core tighten with anticipation.
"I'm scared," Maddox admitted suddenly, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. His hand came up almost hesitantly, cupping her face with a tenderness that made Grace's chest ache. "I'm terrified, Grace. I don't have what it takes to take care of you. To protect you the way you deserve."
His thumb brushed across her cheekbone, and Grace leaned into the touch.
"Look at what's happened," Maddox continued, his voice thick with self-recrimination. "I drugged you. I let your father's words get to me, I let it make me think that I was doing something right thus slowly becoming a part of his sick plan. And now you're hurt and in pain and running for your life, and I can't even take you to a proper hospital because we'd be found."
"You saved me," Grace whispered, her own hand coming up to cover his where it rested against her face. "You found me when I was drowning. You jumped off a waterfall to keep me safe. You carried me all that way. You're here now, when I need you most."
"That's not enough," Maddox said, but his hand was still cradling her face, his thumb still tracing those gentle patterns on her skin that made her shiver. "You deserve so much more than what I can give you—you deserve everything I can’t offer."
"You're everything," Grace said, and she meant it with a certainty that cut through even the heat-induced haze. "You've always been everything to me, Mad. I love you."
The last words came out almost as a confession, and Grace watched something shift in Maddox's expression. Watched as the last threads of his control began to fray.
“I love you too," Maddox admitted, his voice rough and raw. "I always have."
Then the distance between them disappeared entirely as Maddox's lips found hers.
He kissed her like he was starving and Grace returned each kiss with fervor. He had rolled on top of her and had made sure to slowly shift her bad leg to the side where it won’t bother her.
Grace arched beneath him as his hand found her breasts, he closed his hands around them, squeezing, as he kept kissing her, she ran her fingers through his hair and tugged at his shirt wanting to feel his skin.
Her body was so hot and Maddox’s mouth on her nipples wasn't doing anything to stop that heat rather, it made her hotter.
Grace shivered when his fingers slipped inside of her, whimpering when he kept pumping in and out of her.
“Is this okay?” Maddox asked as he added a second finger and Grace could only nod, not trusting herself to speak. She bit his shoulder as his fingers masterfully worked her insides. The pleasure was maddening.
“Take it off,” Grace said breathlessly as she tugged on his shirt, and with one swift motion, without removing his fingers from her or stopping their movements, he had pulled the shirt off. Grace sighed as she finally came in contact with his skin. She ground against his fingers, chasing her relief, and whimpered when he suddenly withdrew them.
No…
Maddox lifted her good leg, hooked it around his waist, and settled between her legs pressing himself to her. He was rock hard and it hurt.
Grace gasped when she felt it, she urged him to take off his pants and he did so without complaints, letting his cock spring free. She swallowed. It was huge.
She didn’t know which was bigger between him and Enzo.
‘What am I even thinking, making a comparison between them?’
Maddox chuckled as he saw her wide eyes, “It’ll fit, don’t worry.”
Grace’s eyes snapped to his, and embarrassment flooded her cheeks as she tried to look away. But he didn’t let her, he took his fingers to her chin and turned her head to face him.
“Don’t look away from me,” he said, kissing her. Grace snuck another peek and saw his cock throbbing as it waited, just outside her entrance. “Is it okay? I don’t have a condom—”
Grace threw her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his. “Please, just… I want you to…” she pleaded.
Maddox lifted her head to look at him, “I want to see your face when I bring you pleasure.”
And in one swift motion, he entered her. Grace gasped, her body shaking widely, he held her and slowly began moving.
Grace had tears in her eyes, he was gentle with her, more gentle than Enzo, though she liked how aggressive and wild he could be. But, with Maddox, it was like making love.
And she loved it.
They had fallen into each other multiple times that night and into the next day, the heat driving Grace to seek him out again and again, with Maddox unable and unwilling to deny her.