“I keep thinking about you on Wonderland’s brand. I really do think you’re the perfect Alice,” he said.
“You saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.”
He faced her, brushing her knee with his. A hand stroked her cheek. “I only saw what everyone else has. What I want you to see too. That you are amazing and special. That you deserve every good thing life has to offer.”
Keeping his hand around her, he lowered himself to the pillow beside the darkened, open window. Adelie’s muscles were supple and willing. She lowered herself to face him, resting at his side, keeping her ear to his chest to hear the steady thrum of his heartbeat.
Maddox cradled her hand in his near his sternum as he rubbed soothing circles along her back. “Suzie told me about your dad.” His voice was calm.
She nestled in closer. He was so safe, the safest she’d ever felt before. She liked his company, the assurance of his arm around her, of his masculine, no-nonsense voice rumbling in his chest. He gave her the sense that no matter what happened, she could face it with him.
“I know. She told me.”
He rotated, resting his hand at her waist and lying on his side beside her. His feet tangled with hers at the bottom of the bed. Darkness looked good on him. It accentuated the line of his jaw and nose, deepening the intensity and softness in his eyes, which stared directly into hers as though nothing else existed.
“And you’re okay with me knowing?”
Adelie scooted away. She’d never lain this close to a man before, and this man was her husband. “I am. Everything happened so fast between us, I—I don’t know. I guess it never came up.”
“I’m not sure there’s any easy way to share something like that with anyone,” he said. “You didn’t owe me the explanation, but I’m glad I know.”
She propped her head onto her elbow. “You are? Why?”
“Because I feel like I finally understand. I want you to know I’m a good person, Adelie. I—” He closed his eyes. “The idea that anyone could do what your dad did to you boils my blood. I wish I could take that away from you. I want you to know I’d never—never—do that to you. Or to our kids.”
Adelie blinked. “Our—kids?”
“You know. Should we have any.”
The warm cocoon that had settled around them burst. Adelie sat up. She wasn’t sure how to process her confusion. “Then you—you’re saying you want this to be a permanent thing between us?”
He sat up too, resting his weight on one hand. “I think it’s something we can talk about. I’m open to that. What about you?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“What do you want from me, Adelie?”
She looked directly at him, ready to be her bold, new self. “I want you to mean what you say.”
“I do.”
“How…” Her voice broke. “How can I believe you?”
“Why don’t you?”
“You’ve been pushing me away since we said our vows. There have been moments between us where I think you’re genuinely into me, but then right when I think we have a connection, you push me away.”
She needed to be blunt. They had to have this out.
“I’m sorry,” he said, brushing a lock of hair away from her face. She gazed into his night-shrouded eyes, and the gleam there shouted with sincerity.
“After the way those men treated you in Coleman’s, I was trying to show you I would never force anything on you. I never meant to hurt you.”
His admission circled in her chest like steam rising from a warm mug of cocoa. Her joints melted like wax.
He scooted closer. “I think I know a way that might convince you that you can trust me. I want to take things slow. But being here with you now, having you this close to me and seeing the way shadows are dancing on your skin, makes me want to kiss my bride.”
“Maddox.” Her voice was as weak as the rest of her body.
“I promise, I won’t push you to go farther than you’re ready to. If you’re not up for that, then I just want you in my arms. But I think sometimes kisses have a way of speaking to the heart in a way nothing else can.”
“You’re not saying this because I’m your Alice, are you?”
He scooted closer still. His hand slid to her waist, and he pulled her onto his lap. Adelie gasped at being this close to him, being held by him in the darkness, having him touch her so intimately and look at her with such desire.
“You’ll always be my Alice,” he whispered. “But I’d want you even if you weren’t.”
She didn’t protest this time but, instead, sensed every sliver of movement he made as he inched toward her. The way his heat radiated through her frame. The press of his chest against hers. The beat of his heart, the pulse of his fingertips on her jaw, gentle, so gentle. The last-minute gleam in his gaze and the moment his eyes closed just before his warm breath struck her, before his lips parted just enough, the perfect distance, to fold themselves over hers.
Their soft feel ignited awareness across her entire body. His arms tightened around her, enfolding her in a layer of safety and desire. The kiss was deliberate and slow and ended too soon before he pulled away to gauge her reaction.
She met his every glance, and he took it as the invitation it was. His head angled, his hand slid up to her neck, and he guided her back to his mouth, kissing her more insistently this time. Every motion was a flutter in her chest, a spark in her mind, and a promise. It seeped in a trickle at a time, until it filled her to the brim. She was wanted. She was safe. He’d meant what he’d said—he was like no other man she’d ever met.
Gradually, the kiss slowed, and she
