Page 94 of Mace
He leans closer, the scent of his aftershave filling my nose. It’s like a drug, how good he smells. I could just lick him. Just a little taste…
“Do you think I let just anyone sleep next to me?” He scatters my thoughts with those words.
“I don’t know, Mace. We barely know each other. Idon’t know what you like, what you hate. I didn’t even know you have a brother until this morning.”
His hand wraps around the back of my neck in a firm grasp. “I have two foster brothers and a sister. Jack and Julie are fuckin’ cunts. I barely see them. Nathan is the only one who’s stayed at my side. You know about Maggie. She raised me in those years after my mum died. About a year ago, she started actin’ weird, forgettin’ shit, forgettin’ names. Docs say it’s some kind of dementia, and it kills me that she ain’t the proud woman I know. Julie stuck her in some shitty fuckin’ assisted living facility that ain’t even worthy of someone like Maggie, but she has all the legal power to do whatever she wants.”
My heart squeezes. His words are sharp, like a knife’s edge, but I still hear the hurt beneath.
“I’m sorry.”
“Bad shit happens to good people all the fuckin’ time, Maylie. It ain’t fair, but it’s how shit goes.” He blows out a breath. “I like pizza, don’t like fish. The fuckin’ smell of it turns my stomach. I love riding. My motorcycle gave me something I craved—freedom. When I’m on the back, I feel invincible, my mind empty of all the bad shit.”
“That sounds amazing.” His fingers sift through my hair to collar the back of my neck, and my skin tingles.
“It is. I’ll take you out with me.”
He wants to take me for a ride on his bike? The thrill that spreads through me is enough to make me suck in a breath through my teeth. “You’d let me go with you?”
“If you’re in my bed, babe, you’re on the back of my bike too.”
Warmth pools in my belly as I peer up at him. He’s so handsome, so perfect. I want to kiss him, and he must seethat in my eyes because he dips his head and crushes our mouths together. I immediately open to him, giving his tongue the access it needs to slide inside. If I was to die in the next few minutes, I could go happily, knowing I’d had these moments.
“That sounds amazing.”
“What else?” He considers for a moment. “I hate the beach. Sand gets fuckin’ everywhere.”
“I don’t mind it,” I say around a smile, “but we don’t have to ever go.”
“I love being around you.”
My heart swells. “There’s a lot to unpack there,” I fire his earlier words at him.
“And I love waking up with you.”
“I love that too,” I admit.
He leans in as a customer scurries past us to the bathrooms at the end of the corridor. My cheeks heat, and I expect Mace to move away from me, but he keeps his position, his eyes locked on mine.
Once we’re alone again, he says, “We have all the time in the world to get to know each other, but right now, I know enough to understand this thing between us is fuckin’ real, Maylie. And before you try to talk yourself out of this fact, just remember, I had my fingers inside your cunt this morning and your juices all over my tongue.”
The crassness of his words shocks me. “Mace!” My cheeks heat as I glance up and down the corridor, scared someone might have heard him say that.
“Baby, I know this thing has been fast, but I think we have something special. Something I want to explore. Tell me you want that too.”
“I do.” I don’t even bother lying—I want that and more.
“Good. Then I think I need to explain some things to you. When we’re together, you don’t pay for shit. I take care of you.”
I stare at him, trying to discern if he’s joking. He’s not. “Well, that’s kind of archaic. I don’t expect you to pay for me.”
He dips his head closer, his breath warm against my skin. “I know, but that’s how I am, darlin’. You’re gonna have to accept that for us to be together. If we go out for breakfast, dinner, whatever the fuck, I ain’t expectin’ you to pay.”
“Okay, but… I come as a package deal, and it’s not fair for you to pay for Ivy and Toby too.”
“Babe, they’re your family, which makes ‘em mine too. You and me datin’ ain’t gonna change anything between the three of you, understand?”
That pleasant sensation washes through me again. Most people would run a mile from me, but he wants to take on all of us, and I never thought I could find that. “I understand.”