Choosing Happy (Madison Square #2) (27 page)

“Seany,” she squealed and slapped at his chest. “You’re awful.” Sean set her back on her feet, and she turned toward me. “Isn’t he bad?” she asked.

“The worst.” I forced a smile, hoping that no one had caught on to my bitchy tone. It seemed to go right over Barbie’s head, but Sean turned toward me, the corner of his lips twitching in a wicked smile. The bastard was enjoying this.

“You ready?” he asked, his hand coming to rest on her hip.

“Ready as I’ll ever be. I’m a little nervous,” she said as she bit her lip.

“Don’t worry,” he said, pulling her into a hug. “I’ll be right there with you all night.” His eyes met mine over her shoulder, and he winked. The fucker winked at me. He was unbelievable, bringing that girl to rub in my face.

I felt incredibly stupid and beyond pissed, not to mention completely heartbroken.

The happy couple smiled at each other and Sean slung his arm around her shoulders and led her toward the door.

“Don’t wait up,” she called over her shoulder, and I fumed, wanting nothing more than to snatch every last perfect blonde hair from her head.

Once they were gone, I grabbed a bottle of wine from the pantry, bypassing the glasses all together, and headed upstairs, dropping heavily into the downy softness of the bed as the angry tears began to fall.

I reached for my phone on the night stand and scrolled through the contacts. I tapped Margot’s name and hit call. The crying intensified as the phone rang, and rang, and rang.

“Hello.”

When I heard her voice, I lost it. A sob ripped from my throat and tears filled my eyes until the room disappeared into a blurry mess of colors.

“Madison?” Concern laced her voice.

“I screwed up,” I choked. “It’s all my fault.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I love him,” I said. Relief flooded through me at finally saying the words.

Margot sighed. “I know, honey. I know.”

Chapter 26

Sean

I’d gotten in late. Dad and Madison were already asleep, hopefully in separate rooms. The gallery was a hit. Chris was beaming all night. She smiled for the pictures with the press and some big name art critics who’d shown up in droves to see her, not the art. They all had come for Chris.

I’d spent the evening getting to know the bartender while I tried not to imagine Madison back at the house with my father, no doubt having some romantic dinner on the deck, drinking wine and listening to the ocean. Fuck. I shook my head to clear the image that just fueled my anger and bitterness.

The next morning, I woke up and stared at the ceiling for a while, trying to put off the inevitable. My plan was to sneak downstairs, grab some coffee, then grab my stuff and hit the road without having to speak to either of them. The plan was childish, sure, but I couldn’t take seeing them together, having breakfast, talking, laughing. There was no way I could handle that. No fucking way.

I headed down the stairs. The house was thankfully silent. I headed toward the kitchen just as Madison turned on the coffee maker. She stared down at the machine, lost in her thoughts. She looked tired and sad. Her soft pink skin was pale, and a deep purple color had settled beneath her swollen eyes.

I resisted the urge to hold her, to comfort her, and instead I headed to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of OJ, taking a swig from the carton and putting it back on the shelf.

“He still asleep?” I asked as I reached around her for a coffee mug.

“He left,” she said.

I nodded. “Wow, bailed on you already. That’s a record, even for him.”

She stared down at the machine, watching the coffee dribble down into the pot.

I leaned against the counter and folded my arms across my chest. He left. I can’t believe the fucker just left her there.

I shook my head. “At least he’s consistent.”

“What?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Leaving is what he does best. It’s something you two have in common.” I could hear how petty and childish I sounded, but I just couldn’t turn it off.

She turned toward me, her eyes narrow and angry. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” She paused, her shoulders slumped in defeat, then turned back to the coffee and grabbed a hold of the pot before it finished brewing. “This is what I was trying to avoid. It’s childish bullshit like this that just proves it never would have worked between us.”

She poured the coffee into her cup, and I stepped up close behind her. “That’s where you’re wrong,” I whispered, my lips brushing against the soft skin of her ear. “We didn’t work because you were too scared to admit that what you felt for me was real.”

She turned to face me, and I stood my ground. We were close, our eyes locked as we breathed the same electrically charged air.

I watched her, a dangerous mix of anger, hurt, and desire coursing its way through my body. I stepped forward and rested my hands on the counter behind her, boxing her in.

“Admit it,” I said.

She looked up at me, her blue eyes cold and hard. “Admit what?”

“That you felt something for me. That it wasn’t just a fling.”

“Why?”

“Because I can feel it. I know that what I feel for you isn’t one sided. I need to hear you say it.”

She swallowed. Angry tears pooled in her eyes. The reaction caught me off guard. She looked hurt.

My muscles tensed, but I didn’t move. I waited.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“It does.”

“You’ve moved on,” she said.

“Jealous?” My lips twitched. I liked that she was jealous. It gave me hope.

Madison scoffed, pushed hard on my chest, and stepped away from me. “Don’t flatter yourself,” she snapped. “I don’t care who you sleep with. It’s none of my business.”

She pulled open the fridge to hide her face behind the door. I heard a muffled sob, and my heart broke all over again. Shame settled deep in my chest. I was hurt, but so was she, and I’d done nothing but make her feel small.

I sighed, dropped my head, and leaned back against the counter in defeat. “I didn’t sleep with her,” I whispered.

“What?”

I gripped the edge of the counter, furious that I’d let my anger get this far. “I said, I didn’t sleep with her.” I looked up to meet her eyes. “I couldn’t do that to you.”

Relief spread across her beautiful face. I sighed and clung to that last shred of hope that I was right, that she felt something for me, no matter how small.

Her face fell and she cleared her throat, going back to fixing her coffee. “Like I said, it’s none of my business.”

I could feel her slipping away again. “She’s gay,” I said. Madison stopped cold, frozen, her eyes focused on the spoon in her hand. “We’ve been friends for years. She just opened a gallery in town and asked me to come for support. Nothing happened.”

She slowly set the spoon down on the counter and stared down at the marble, letting everything sink in.

“I may have played up the flirtation a bit to get a reaction out of you. I was hurt and seeing you with someone else, especially seeing you with him…” I ran a hand down my face. I felt like a complete asshole. “I’m sorry.”

She looked up. Her eyes were bright with tears as she watched me, regret and pain written all over her face.

“Just the thought of you with him. His hands on you…fuck, seeing you together was enough to send me over the edge.”

“Nothing happened.”

“I know, but he invited you here for the weekend and then I end up here at the same time. It’s fucking torture knowing he…” I shook my head, trying to clear the image of them together, of his hands on her face, on her skin.

“I told him,” she said. “That’s why he left.”

My head snapped up. “You told him?”

She nodded.

I pushed off the counter. “What did you tell him?”

“The truth,” she said.

I brushed my thumb against my bottom lip and shook my head. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She’d risked her career, her reputation, everything, for me.

Before I knew what I was doing I’d closed the distance between us, my hands framing her face and my forehead pressed to hers. She melted into my arms, and I sighed as a wave of relief washed over me, but I held back. I needed to be sure that she wanted this, wanted me.

I couldn’t handle losing her again. I didn’t think I would survive it. I had to be sure.

“If you don’t feel it, Madison, tell me. Tell me and I will disappear from your life completely.” I leaned back and stared down into her eyes. “Just say the words.”

She searched my face, tears welling in her eyes. “I can’t,” she whispered.

I stepped forward, aligning our bodies perfectly together. I leaned in close. Her breath felt warm against my lips. “Tell me to stop,” I said as my lips brushed lightly against hers.

She stayed still, breathing me in.

I smiled, and a soft sigh escaped from her lips. “Last chance, beautiful.”

“Just kiss me,” she whispered.

The moment our lips touched, we ignited. She whimpered as my lips crashed against hers, hungry and heated.

I pressed her back against the counter and threaded my fingers through her hair. I let go, kissing her with everything I’d felt. I poured it all into that kiss.

I nipped and sucked at her bottom lip. I slid my hands beneath her shirt, gripping her hips as I lifted her onto the cool marble counter top. I tugged at her knee, guiding those perfect legs to wrap around my waist as I deepened the kiss.

Fuck did I miss this: her taste, the feel of her skin, that soft little moan she makes when I nibbled at the sensitive flesh behind her ear. I’d missed everything about her, about us.

A deep moan rumbled in my chest as her delicate fingers slid beneath my shirt. She tugged at the hem, her fingers brushing lightly against my skin.

Our mouths parted only long enough to rid me of my shirt before they crashed back together.

I felt crazed. I couldn’t stop. I needed more. I needed to bury myself inside her and claim her once again. Madison was mine and I was hers. Nothing felt more real or true than that.

Her shirt was the next to hit the floor. She was bare, those perfect pink nipples hard and brushing against my chest as I kissed my way down her throat. I slid my hands up her stomach, cupping her breasts, sucking the stiff peaks into my mouth.

Madison moaned and arched into me. She slid forward on the counter and rubbed herself against my cock, looking for any source of friction.

I’d almost forgotten what it was like to be with her. I felt alive and desperate and so fucking happy. It wasn’t the sex. It was her. Having her wrapped in my arms, her breath in my ear, the pounding of her heart in total sync with mine.

I loved her. It didn’t have to make sense. We didn’t have to make sense. We belonged to each other, and that was all that mattered. This was what true happiness felt like.

I smiled against her neck and slipped my fingers under the waistband of her pants. I pulled them quickly down her thighs and tossed them aside as I kissed her again and again.

Stepping forward, I forced her legs wide open and teased my fingers along her inner thigh. She gasped as I slipped my fingers through the slick folds at the apex of her thighs. I brushed my fingers gently over her clit, moving in slow punishing circles as she squirmed beneath my touch.

“Sean,” she breathed as she ran her hand down my chest as I slipped one finger inside her.

Madison gasped. A moan slipped from her lips, and I leaned into her, swallowing her sounds with my kiss.

She pushed at my pants, sliding them down my thighs to the floor. I stepped out and kicked them to the side as my cock pressed hard into her stomach. She reached for me, her delicate fingers wrapped tight around my shaft. She gave me a tentative stroke as her lips traveled across my throat. I dug my fingers into her hips as her lips traveled up my neck, to my ear.

When she reached my ear, she sucked the lobe into her mouth. I couldn’t hold back anymore. A growl ripped from my throat and I gripped the back of her thighs, positioned my cock against her entrance, and thrust into her hard, both of us crying out as I slid home.

The warmth of her body was almost too much. I stilled, our hips pressed together as I regained control.

Our eyes locked, and I brushed the hair away from her eyes and gently kissed her lips. “I love you, Madison,” I said. “So fucking much.”

It started slow, my thrusts keeping pace with our tongues. As the kisses intensified, so did everything else. My hips slammed into hers as her heels dug into my ass, begging for more. I was seconds away from losing control, but I held back. She leaned forward, as if reading my mind, and whispered, “Let go.”

I stilled and looked up, meeting her eyes. “Don’t hold back,” she said. A smile spread wide across my face and I pulled her off the edge of the counter, pulling from her body as I pushed her face down against the counter before I buried myself deep inside her again.

Madison cried out as I drove myself into her over and over. My fingers bit into her flesh, and I leaned over her, flicking my tongue out to taste the soft skin of her back.

I felt her body tighten around me. I groaned and wrapped my arm around her, pressing down hard on her clit as I slammed into her. She screamed, her body shaking. She milked my cock as she came.

I pulled from her body and turned her around fast. I crashed my lips to hers as I lifted her in my arms. I turned us both and pressed her back into the refrigerator, thrusting into her again. She felt so good, my knees almost buckled.

I pushed inside her, devouring her lips as her nails raked across my shoulders. I needed to feel her again. I needed to see her lose control just one more time. She dropped her forehead against mine, her body coiling as another orgasm built inside her. I sped up, burying my face into her neck, breathing her in as she let go.

I thrust my hips up, her eyes going wide as I made contact with that magic spot inside her that made her come completely unhinged. I rubbed myself against it over and over as she cried out, gripping my hair in her fist. The pain from her fingers tugging at my hair mixed with the pleasure of her exploding around me made me lose it. My body jerked violently as we came together.

I set her back on her feet and slipped from her body as I pressed my lips to hers in a slow, sweet kiss. “I missed you,” I whispered.

***

Eventually we made it upstairs. We spent the rest of the morning wrapped in each other’s arms.

The sun was high and bright when we finally decided to head back. I packed our bags into my car as Madison went through the house to make sure that the lights were off and everything was locked up.

The drive back was quiet. I looked at her and smiled, threading our fingers together as we headed down the highway. Things felt different between us, yet the same.