Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 146548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“Because I stopped myself from even moving my arm.” Maximoff tugs at the collar of his Philadelphia Eagles crew-neck. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel, but all I could reach was anger when Akara said this has happened before.”
I frown. “When?”
He tries to roll his taut neck. “A few weeks ago at Charlie and Beckett’s apartment. Apparently Sulli thought it was some fluke happening since she only drank three beers and conked out. Not asleep, but fucking unresponsive.” He holds my gaze in a tight vice. “And I keep thinking…Maximoff…” His eyes redden. “You had a chance to keep her away from alcohol. You stupid fucker. Why’d you let her drink at all?”
I take the strong breath that he can’t take. Staying at ease when he can’t be at ease. “Because despite loving to be in control, you’re not a controlling fucker, Maximoff. You don’t make other people’s choices for them. You’re just there for them.” And when he needs to be reminded of that, of anything, I’ll be the first to tell him every time.
He pinches his eyes.
I move off the counter. Please let me wrap my arms around you. I stop when he backs up for a second. “Maximoff.”
He lowers his hand. “And I keep thinking about how you just spent forty-million hours working nonstop to come back to this.”
I almost smile. “Thirty hours,” I correct.
He scrutinizes my unruffled state of being. “I don’t get how you’re okay with this.” He gestures from his chest to my chest. “I’ve taken so much away from you, and I can’t stop it. I can’t change the fact that my family is chaotic, messy, and bizarre-as-fuck because I love them as they fucking are, and I feel selfish wanting you to be a part of that.”
I inhale. “The media took my privacy; you haven’t taken a thing from me, Maximoff. You’re giving me something so fucking precious: your chaotic, messy, bizarre-as-fuck family, and I also love them as they fucking are. Plus, I look forward to coming home and putting out wildfires with you. It’s not that complicated.”
I knew we’d need to talk this through again. It’s different now that I’m finishing my residency and not working directly for his family yet. He thinks he needs to give me peace and quiet away from the chaos.
But I want everything that comes with him.
Maximoff stands still, taking deeper breaths. His gaze fastens tight to me, and love is written all over his eyes. “I was excited to see you,” he admits. “Like stupidly excited.”
I picture that, and the corner of my mouth rises. “Your infatuation is showing.”
“I don’t care.”
It swells my chest, and my eyes burn. I give him a once-over before I move closer.
He steps back. “Wait.”
I stop a few feet from him, and I comb my hand through my hair.
Maximoff pinches his eyes one more time, then stares upward like he’s wracking his brain. When he looks down at me, he asks, “Did April call back?”
“Yeah.” My older stepsister never used to dial my number, and in the past few days, April has bombarded me with phone calls and texts. “It’s why I was late.” I run my tongue over my molars, almost wincing.
“That bad?” he asks. Now Maximoff looks like he wants to hold me.
But we wait a little bit longer to bridge the space.
“It’s not good,” I say. “She said she still doesn’t feel safe at her house. Someone threw a bouquet of flowers over the gate.”
Maximoff shakes his head. “We can hire more private security for her.”
“We’ve already hired three around-the-clock security guards, plus installed security cameras, plus we had a gated fence put up.” It all happened after April called me. Panicked about how people kept ringing her doorbell and asking her questions about me and Maximoff.
My stepsister’s home address in Palo Alto was leaked when I was doxxed.
Maximoff nods. “Then she needs to move houses if she still doesn’t feel safe. I’ll pay for any costs.”
“That’s exactly what I told April.” I raise my brows. “And she started screaming at me about how I don’t have to move out of my house, and it’s not fair since I did this to her.”
His eyes flash hot. “Jesus Christ, you didn’t ask to be doxxed. This isn’t your fault.”
“No shit,” I say, and I catch him smile-grimacing at that. I almost laugh, and after a short pause, I tell him, “I don’t feel that guilty anymore. Right now she has more protection around her house in Palo fucking Alto than your townhouse in Philly.”
Maximoff nods again, and it’s taking all of my energy not to walk forward and close the gap that separates us.
I feel my lip piercing beneath my tongue. “Still stupidly excited to see me?”
He smiles, his eyes welling. “You have no goddamn idea.”