Search Me(52)

Tilting my head, I grinned. “I don’t know. I think we might’ve gotten a little bit better with time.”

“You might be right there, Princess.” Maddox grazed my bottom lip playfully with his teeth. “But I still think practice makes perfect,” he said with a wicked grin.

“Of course you do.” I eased off of his lap to snuggle against his side. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, drawing me nearer to him. We lay in silence for several minutes. Then I remembered what had me ticked off to start with and made me go to the bathroom. “By the way, where are my clothes?”

“I threw them in the grill’s washing machine downstairs after you puked on them.”

My brows furrows. “Wait, I puked on you.”

“The first time, yes. The second, it was all over you.”

Moaning, I rubbed my forehead. “How mortifying.”

He grinned. “Hey, it’s perfectly normal to toss your cookies the first time you get good and drunk.”

“If you say so.”

Maddox playfully trailed a finger back and forth across my collarbone. “I knew you’d be pissed that I stripped you down, but I kinda had to.”

“No, it’s okay. It would’ve been worse to wake up lying in puke.” Propping up on my elbow, I smiled at him. “Besides how can I be mad at you when you were only taking care of me?” I tenderly kissed the left side of his chest. “You really do have a good heart, Maddox.”

“It’s all yours, babe.”

“I’ll take it.” Leaning up, I bestowed a kiss on his lips. When I pulled away, I giggled. “Who would have thought it would take being on the run from treasure seekers to bring us back together?”

“Or that being in such shitty surroundings would get us so hot,” Maddox mused.

I took in our dismal surroundings and nodded in agreement. “Maybe when all the craziness has died down, we can combine our share of the gold and go somewhere really romantic?”

He groaned. “Now I’m going to have to be romantic too?”

I giggled and nuzzled my face against his chest. “Oh yes. And you’re going to have to be in a relationship. Just you and me.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of baby steps?”

“Not where this is concerned. It’s all or nothing. Better yet, I’m all or nothing.”

“Fine,” he huffed. But when I brought my head up to meet his gaze, he smiled. “Okay, I think it’s time for us to get some sleep.”

When I started to pull away for my side of the bed, he wrapped his arms tight around me. “No, we can stay just like this.”

I didn’t try to hide my goofy grin as I laid my head back on his chest. As I started to drift off into a contended sleep, I knew even if we didn’t find Pretty Fawn’s gold, this whole adventure had been worth it to hear Maddox tell me he loved me.

Chapter Fifteen

I woke the next morning to sunlight streaming through the broken plastic blinds and something warm and heavy draped across my chest. No wait, it wasn’t something—it was someone. Blinking my eyes, panic overcame me as I desperately tried remembering where I was and who could possibly be lying on me. Then last night’s events came flooding back to me, and I flushed from head to toe.

When I recovered from reliving every mortifying as well as delicious detail, I gripped Maddox’s shoulders and tried rolling him over. He was a lot heavier than I thought. With a grunt, I finally pushed him to where he flopped over onto his back beside me. I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips when he still remained dead to the world. In a sing-song voice, I said, “Maddox, wake up.” I tickled his left bicep with the Screaming Eagle tattoo.

His brows crinkled, but he didn’t open his eyes. I had a pretty good idea he was awake and testing me. I didn’t want to give him the upper hand, so I leaned over and started kissing a hot trail up his neck to his mouth. I reached his lips to find he was ready because his tongue darted out to meet mine. He brought his hands to my head, tangling his fingers through my hair and drawing me closer to him.

Maddox’s eyes popped open, and he grinned. “Morning beautiful.”

Warmth flooded my cheeks at his greeting. “Good morning.”

“Feel okay?”

“I’m fine. Why?”

“I was afraid you might be a little hung-over.”

Cringing, I replied, “Oh, um, no. I think my whole embarrassing puking escapade took care of that.”

He chuckled. “I’m glad to hear something good came out of it.”

We fell into an awkward silence then—both of us just staring at the other, taking in every facet of what had transpired between us. The fact we had had sex again was huge, but then there was the even more epic and phenomenal matter of professing our love. But now in the morning light, I was terribly afraid that it had all been part of some dream—one that had been warped by what we were going through with the treasure.

I dropped my gaze from Maddox and toyed with a frayed thread on the sheet. “What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Nothing really.”

“Lane, you stink at lying, remember?”

After a few moments, I sighed. “I guess I’m just worried about what happens now.”