Page 7 of Adore Her

“For fuck’s sake,” I mutter. I yank my shoes off as fast as I can.

And then I’m off, running over the stony beach and into the water.

5CORA

My heart pounds like crazy as I watch Maddox dive into the lake. The only thing keeping me from completely freaking out is the fact that Maddox is a strong swimmer—his stroke is fast and confident, and he doesn’t show any signs of fatigue as he propels himself out to Kurt.

In fact, he makes it look effortless.

I exhale a huge sigh of relief when Maddox reaches Kurt. He spends a few seconds calming his friend down, and then the two of them get the jet ski turned upright. Kurt climbs back up onto it and restarts the engine, and at a more cautious speed, he takes off.

A few minutes later, Maddox has swam his way back to the rocky shore. He emerges drenched from the lake, his clothes clinging to his large frame.

I don’t mean to stare, but it’s hard not to.

I can easily make out the hard ridges of his abs and the bulge of his biceps. If I dared to let my eyes drop below his waist, I have no doubt that I would get a very good sense of, um…Maddox Junior. But I don’t. I don’t want to risk having that tantalizing image seared into my mind.

Not when it’s so forbidden. And not when the chance of something happening between us is so very much zero.

I’m too young for Maddox. Too chubby. Too ‘little sister.’

Yeah, I know, he dropped that bomb of a compliment on me when we were talking.Mind-blowingly beautiful.God, what a thing to say! I was so stunned when those words came out of his mouth. I’mstillstunned by it. But I’m forcing myself to be level-headed about it. Just because he complimented me, that doesn’t mean he wants me. People throw out compliments all the time. Not everything means something.

I swallow back the lump of longing in my throat as a very wet and extremely hot Maddox approaches me.

“Are you okay?” I ask, restricting myself to only taking a single step toward him.

“I’m fine.” He sighs. “Gonna go change, though.”

“Yeah. No, of course.” My eyes reflexively start to slide down his sculpted body again, but I force them back up. “I’ll come with you. I’ll make some tea to help you warm up.”

When we get back up to the cabin, Maddox disappears into one of the bedrooms to dry off and change, and I poke around the kitchen for tea-making supplies. I find a stainless steel tea kettle tucked into one of the cabinets, along with several sleek tins of expensive-looking tea. I choose one of the black teas, get the kettle on the stove, then investigate the other cabinets to see what else this place is stocked with.

There’s bags of fancy-shaped pasta, jars of various sauces and condiments, nuts and dried fruit, steel cut oatmeal, and…bingo! I spot a box of chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies and rise up on my toes to grab it. It’s on the topmost shelf, just barely too high up for me to comfortably reach. Frowning, I nudge the edge of the box with my fingertips, urging it forward.

I’ve almost got ahold of it when I hear Maddox come in.

“Let me help,” he says.

It’s more of a command than an offer. But I refuse to be the kind of girl who needs a guy to do things for her. With a grunt, I stretch my hand as far as I can and grab onto the end of the box of cookies.

Victory! Lowering down from my toes, I turn to look at Maddox and give him a triumphant smile.

“Did you say something?” I ask, pleased with myself.

“Nothing important,” he says, stepping around me to grab the kettle, which has started whistling.

It occurs to me then that while I was so focused on getting the box down, I must have exposed a few inches of bare skin—my stomach, that very soft and imperfect body part of mine, was on full display for him to see.

Spectacular.

Thankfully, I’ve got the cookies and tea to preoccupy myself with. I get the tea steeping, arrange the cookies on a little plate, find two cups from another cabinet, and carry everything into the living room. I can feel Maddox’s eyes on me the whole time, but I don’t meet his gaze.

Once we’ve moved into the living room, I take a seat on one end of the oversized couch. Maddox sinks down into the other end. He’s changed into a pair of dark jeans and a cloud-gray t-shirt whose sleeves cling to those stupidly sexy biceps of his.

“Thanks for making this,” Maddox says, nodding at his cup. “You’re right. It’s warming me up.”

“You’re welcome.” I clear my throat. “That was pretty crazy, watching you help Kurt. You made it look so…not-a-big-deal. But itwasa big deal.”