She sighed and seemed to relax slightly. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.” What had it taken for her to come to him? He’d broken her heart. He wasn’t going to make it hard for her. “I’m going to help you. That’s not even a question, so put it out of your mind. Now take a breath. Feel it inside your chest. Nothing else matters but that breath.”
She took a shaky breath, but he could feel her start to steady. She leaned against him and breathed in and out, each breath slower and more deliberate than the last, each one bringing her closer and closer to the calm she needed.
“You’re okay. You’re safe here,” he promised, trying to keep his voice soft.
Maddie was here. Maddie was here and she needed his help, and damn if his stupid heart didn’t thud at the thought.
Maddie’s shoulders came down as she continued to breathe, and for a moment he could feel them synching up, their breaths matched and in harmony, as though she could breathe in that placid piece of himself and it soothed her.
She might not be calming down if she knew there was a part of him that hoped her situation was really fucking bad, like end of the world, throw them together for weeks at a time and if the world’s going to explode, we might as well sleep together bad.
Because he wanted her. Maybe it was the fact that he’d attended a wedding this evening and that had him thinking about his shitastic love life, but he didn’t care. He’d thought about Maddie for the first time in forever and she’d shown up on his doorstep looking like the sexiest, slightly rumpled lady genius he’d ever seen.
Fate. That was what had happened tonight. Pure fate.
I need you to be my Dom.
The words had gone straight to his dick. It was a damn good thing that he hadn’t hugged her or she would have felt what that sentence had done to him.
Careful. He needed to be careful with her. From what his sisters had told him, she wasn’t married. She’d been engaged a couple of years back, but they hadn’t even sent out invitations. She might have a boyfriend.
He didn’t care. If she was here, he was going to do his level best to work his way back into her life. He’d been a decent boyfriend to her in high school—dumb assholery not withstanding—but he was so much better now. Smarter. More open. He’d learned lessons from all his dumbass friends.
Slow down, man. You cannot just throw her on the couch and fuck her. Not yet.
“Okay, I think I’m good.” She took a step back and brushed the tears off her cheeks.
“I’m glad.” He was the one who needed control now.
He had the sudden urge to grab his phone and ask the women in his life how he should handle this. Not the guys. They were mostly dumb, even the ones who were already married. Big Tag would yell at him about condoms. Michael would overthink the whole thing. But the ladies would take it all seriously.
He might have gotten too invested in the McKay-Taggart carpool text group. The fact that he was the only male on the list and he had zero children probably had gone to his head.
First he needed to figure out what the problem was.
“I’m so sorry. I’m exhausted. I’ve been up since…” She glanced down at the smart watch around her wrist. “It’s over twenty-four hours now. I couldn’t sleep last night. My flight to Sedona was at six this morning, and then I had to meet my cousin, get her and her boyfriend checked into the resort and get to my flight to Chicago by noon, and then I turned around and came here.”
“Why the extra flight?” He moved to the couch, offering her a seat.
She yawned behind her hand. “In case someone was physically following me. I thought I would be able to recognize if someone was on all three planes. I picked seats in the back of the plane and made sure I didn’t get on until right before they were closing the doors.”
“They don’t have to physically follow you. They could track your records.” He hoped she’d truly thought this through. Yes, she was a genius, but that was in science and technology. Sometimes an Ivy League education didn’t translate into street smarts.
“Which is why I bought fake identification,” she replied.
What the hell was Maddie Hill doing buying a fake ID? He had about a million questions. “Let me see it. Maddie, that’s dangerous. You can get into real trouble. If TSA figures out you’re flying with false ID, you can get put on a no-fly list for the rest of your damn life.”
She huffed and slung her backpack off her shoulder. She was still sniffling but seemed better than before. “I paid for the best. I did a ton of research and found someone good.”