Search Me(47)

I surveyed his pained expression with disbelief. “Excuse me? Do you realize how twisted that sounds?”

“But it’s the truth. I knew I wasn’t any good for you.” Brushing a thumb across my cheek, he smiled sadly. “I’ll never forget the look on your face or your tears. For three years, I carried around this guilt about how much I’d hurt you. I hoped that you’d gotten over it—that you had stopped caring about me entirely. But when you reacted so icily to me that first day at Maudie’s, I realized you hadn’t. But I still couldn’t bring myself to tell you how I really felt that night because I didn’t want to hurt you anymore than I already had.”

It took a few moments for his words to sink in. “Wait a minute. So you lied allegedly to spare my feelings? How f**king selfish is that? What about what I felt—what I feel?” I demanded.

“I promise I wasn’t doing it to be selfish.”

“Oh please.”

His face darkened. “Dammit, I’m telling you the truth! For the first time in my life, I wanted to be fair and honest with a girl because I cared about her. I wanted you to forget about me. I wanted you to wake up and realize that you were stupid to have feelings for me.”

I glared at him. “Lemme guess, I was ‘stupid’, as you claim, to care about you because you could never feel anything for me, right? I didn’t party or hook-up with guys, and I was just an uptight little princess that you had to put up with since you were a kid.” I pushed out of his embrace. “Not to mention when it comes to looks, you were totally out of my league.”

Maddox stared at me like I’d grown horns. “How could you actually think those things?”

“And why wouldn’t I?” I demanded as anger and hurt swirled within me, sending stinging tears to my eyes. I shoved him away from me and started stalking over to where West was pouring drinks. Smacking my palm down on the bar, I shouted, “Give me two more shots.”

West rolled his eyes at me. “You think you can call any more attention to yourself, Miss Underage?”

Knowing how to appeal to a man like him, I leaned over the bar, letting him get a good peek down my shirt. I batted my eyelashes and shot him a winning smile. “Please?”

With a lecherous grin, West poured two shot glasses and slid them over to me. “There you go, sweet thing.”

“Thanks, handsome.” I gave him a flirty wink just as Maddox walked up.

“I wasn’t through talking to you, Lane.”

“Yeah, well, your little declarations made me need more tequila.” I tossed back the shot glass, letting the liquid burn down my throat.

“You payin’ Mad Dog or do I need to work some payment out with her?” West teased.

Maddox’s face reddened from his cheeks all the way down to his neck. He tossed a twenty in West’s face. “I think she’s covered,” he growled.

West snorted before pouring another shot for Maddox. “Here ya go, buddy. You obviously need something else to take the stick out of your ass.”

I giggled as I downed the second shot. The jolt of tequila caused me to shudder from head to toe. Sweeping my hands to my hips, I cocked my head at Maddox. “So are you just gonna stand there staring at me, or are we gonna dance some more?”

The band had switched to an upbeat, somewhat sultry song. Even with all the truckers and backwoods peeps, the dance floor looked like something out of the opening scene of Dirty Dancing with all the bumping and grinding. A wicked gleam flickered in Maddox’s dark eyes. “All right, Princess. You wanna dance? We’ll dance.”

Taking my hand, Maddox dragged me behind him to the dance floor. He jerked me forcibly against his body to where we were pressed flush against each other. His fingers dug into my h*ps before he ground his groin against mine to the beat of the song. I gasped at the heat that began stirring beneath my waist at the contact. My br**sts rubbed harshly against Maddox’s taut pecs, causing my ni**les to pebble beneath my shirt.

His hands left my waist to travel down to cup both cheeks of my ass. When I squeaked at his actions, he kneaded my flesh in his hands. “You wanted to dance, didn’t you?” he demanded.

“Yes,” I murmured.

One of his hands left my ass and snaked up my back. His fingers tangled in the sweat-soaked strands of my hair, jerking my head back to look at him. “I didn’t hear you, Lane. Didn’t you want to dance?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Then I hope you’re enjoying this.”

Considering his half-mast erection was rubbing against my stomach, I cocked my head at him. “I would think you were, too,” I countered before lowering my gaze to his crotch.

His eyes drilled into mine. “Frankly, I think it’s bullshit that you’re the one running this time, not me, but my dick has a mind of its own.”

Salty rivers of sweat poured down my back at our exertions. Maddox’s breath scorched against my ear. “So are you going to let me finish talking to you now?” Although he had asked, I could tell he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Mmm, hmm,” I muttered, my mind lost in the fog that Maddox’s body was causing me.

The band changed songs, and Maddox pushed me away from him. We stood staring at each other, our chests rising and falling, as we tried catching our breaths and coming out of our sex haze. While couples slow-danced around us, we still stood apart.