The compliment makes my heart pound heavily, my sex tingling temptingly and my clit giving an urgent pulse.
“It did feel real, didn’t it, in the game?”
“It was real,” he says, voice husky. “Maybe I was a bit cagey with wanting to share who I was, but that doesn’t change the adventures we shared.”
“But is that going to be enough for dad?” I say loudly, struggling to contain the fear coursing through me. “If we say to him, Hey, Dad, Maxton and I went on a bunch of quests together in Star Search and now we want to be together forever and have babies and…”
I hate the tears that are rising to my eyes, but I can’t stop thinking about dad’s face when we tell him, the disappointment and the resentment.
“We have to tell him before we…you know,” I say forcefully as if I’m trying to convince myself as much as Maxton.
Which is exactly what I’m trying to do.
Maxton’s eyes flicker. It’s like there is a barely contained fire in there, threatening to erupt.
I squeeze my thighs together as the needy energy captivates me.
“You’re right,” Maxton says. “So it sounds like we have a plan. Mission one, enjoy our date. Mission two, tell Steve. Mission three…”
A shiver makes me shift in my chair. My body has never felt so receptive, ready to be touched, eager for attention.
“Mission three,” I whisper. “We start the rest of our lives.”
Chapter Sixteen
Maxton
Maddie looks beautiful even as she takes a big bite from her burger, juice dribbling down her chin. She curses and grabs a napkin, but I get there first, dabbing at it with a smirk.
“Messy,” I tease.
She glows. I love how her skin turns red at the slightest provocation, as though she’s torn between being the shy virgin she is and the confident woman she’s going to become.
Love.
I almost said it earlier, but I pulled back at the last moment. If I tell her I love her, I won’t be able to let her go if Steve refuses to give us our blessing.
But that’s bullshit. I know I won’t be able to let her go no matter what.
I keep my hand against her face, fighting the urge to slip my finger into her mouth and make her suck it, the same way she’ll part her inexperienced lips and suck my dick once this no-sex ban is lifted. I agreed not to maul her until we told Steve, but I’m already rethinking that decision.
It hurts, being this close to her and not being able to make full use of her flawless body.
“How are you feeling about next week?” I ask, withdrawing my hand.
“It’s so sweet that you remembered. Or did dad tell you?”
“I remembered. I wouldn’t have even known about it if you hadn’t told me. Steve never mentions it.”
Next week is the anniversary of her parent’s divorce.
She told me – told Smolder – when we were hovering through space, keeping our thrusters low to save on fuel. As the glittering stars of the planetarium frame her, I experience another wave of disbelief that I can be this lucky.
My Genevieve, come to life.
“It’s okay. It was worse when I was a kid. I used to think…”
“What?” I urge when she turns her face away.
“It’s really nothing.”
I chuckle as I cut into my steak. “It doesn’t look like nothing.”
“Okay, maybe not nothing. Maybe it’s the most embarrassing thing ever.”
I grin. “Now I have to hear it.”
She looks at me from under her eyelashes, her cheeks completely red now. “You really, really don’t.”
“If you honestly don’t want to tell me, Maddie, then fine. But I promise I won’t judge, whatever it is.”
She runs her finger around the rim of her glass, biting down. She must have no idea how fuckable she looks when she gets like this, as though she needs her man to show her the way. She’s so sexy, it’s distracting.
I force myself to focus.
“Promise?” she says after a pause.
“Cross my heart.”
She nods. “When I was a teenager, I used to think I’d never get married or have kids. I guess seeing mom cheat on dad, and all the arguments, sort of soured it for me. I thought marriage was for idiots. But then…”
“What?” I ask, sensing something significant coming.
“And then I got this mega-crush on you, Max.”
She turns her face away. When she bites her lip, I don’t see anxiety, nervousness. I see a horny-as-fuck virgin dying to give her body to me. My mind is full of sex, full of Madelyn, no matter how hard I try to concentrate on her words.
But I owe it to her not to daydream about claiming her body every second of our date, even if I do want it, want her, every single moment.
“On me?” I ask. “I had no idea.”
She giggles. “Well, how could you? But yeah, I used to have a crazy crush on you. I used to do some pretty lame stuff, like fill notebooks with our names. And I thought, well, I can’t get married. I can’t have kids. But if Maxton Miller were to show any interest in me, I’d committed to him forever… So imagine how crazily shocked I was when you turned out to be Smolder.”