AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This was what she meant to him?
He didn’t love her, but he did want her.
And just like that, she’d realized something. She thought she’d given up on the idea of love and forever, of family and hearth, of a handsome stranger riding in on a horse to save her, to be her everything and her all, but deep down, that was still Maddie’s biggest dream in life. She wanted to love and be loved.
And when Rocco had come to the marquee and started talking to her, she’d hoped against hope that he was going to give her something. Something more meaningful than still wanting her in his bed. Something more meaningful than sex. Not a declaration of love, exactly, but maybe something…close?
She’d reduced what they were doing to sex, hoping like hell he’d contradict her. That he’d tell her the sex was just a part of what he liked about Maddie. She’d even hinted at how precarious this was for her—she’d been honest and told him that sleeping together would lead to her loving him. He didn’t share those concerns—he didn’t see any risk to himself. He just wanted to keep the physical side of their relationship going.
And like everything in his life, Rocco was willing to pay for what he wanted—because that was how things worked in his world. Everything was transactional. He wanted her, she wanted Jack’s house and the street to stay the same as always, and so he had offered her that one thing, in exchange for this one thing.
Win, win, right?
Except it wasn’t a win for Maddie, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be a win for Rocco.
If he honestly thought she’d go through with a deal that was as debasing as this, he had another thing coming.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
IMPATIENCE WAS A SWIRLING TORRENT in his gut, as he stared at his watch for the tenth time in less than two minutes. Time seemed to have stopped moving.
Maddie was late.
Twenty minutes late, to be precise. And having not seen her since that fateful conversation in the floristry marquee in Italy, almost a week ago, he was at his wit’s end with need.
A need that had only intensified in the face of his certainty that soon she would be his again. Soon he would be making love to her, making her his, for the first of five nights.
Pleasure hardened his body, but shame ate into his gut, because as much as he wanted that—and her—he still couldn’t believe he’d stooped to this level to make it happen. But what choice had he had? She’d been about to walk away from him, so he’d found a way to give them both what they wanted. It wasn’t just about Honeybee Lane for her. He knew that. She wanted him, too, but the only way she was prepared to admit that was with a time limit in place, a ‘get out’ clause enshrined in the minutiae of their relationship, so she didn’t need to worry about the future. About trusting him. She didn’t need to worry he might hurt her one day.
Not when he’d got all the hurt out into this part of their relationship.
He swallowed a groan as he faced the reality of that. Yes, he’d hurt her. He’d dug a knife into her, in fact, with the surprisingly cold nature of his suggestion. Worse, he hadn’t explained to her how spur of the moment it had been. He’d simply let the words hang there, and not retracted them. He hadn’t dared. Not if it meant she might change her mind and walk away from him after all.
So, what now?
He began to pace the living room, eyes darting with regularity to his watch, until he took the damned thing off and placed it on an occasional table.
His only choice was to let the next few weeks play out and see where things stood at the end of them. Who knew what she’d want then? Or what he’d want?
Her fingers shook as she swiped the key—left for her at reception—and began to ascend in the elevator to his floor. Everything shook, in fact. Anxiety was her constant companion, as it had been since leaving Italy on a commercial flight early the next morning, after the wedding.
She hadn’t been able to stand the thought of returning with him. She’d needed space, and time to think, to know how she felt and what she wanted.
Unfortunately for Maddie, the longer she went without seeing Rocco, the more some very specific things clarified for her.
Like how much she wanted from him—and would never be able to have. She wanted him to love her because she’d fallen in love with him. She didn’t know how it happened, or when. Particularly when she’d sworn she’d always hate him, for his role in the housing project. Had it been in Italy? Or before? When had she stopped hating and resenting him and started to yearn for him in a way that took her breath away?
In theory, this conditional arrangement should have been a godsend, then. Because, while it was far from everything she wanted, it was at least a chance to be with him more. Longer. It was a way to keep him in her life for another guaranteed month, before letting him go. And she knew she had to let him go. No matter how she felt about him, Maddie was still too scarred by her experiences to think anyone was worth the risk of being in a relationship with.
Rocco had summed it up perfectly when he’d said he couldn’t make her any promises.
He’d also claimed that she knew him, and yet this proposition had almost felled her with its crudeness and cruelty. He’d really been able to distill their experiences together down to this. A fling he was happy to see ended in four weeks. A fling he could easily put a price on—albeit a terrifyingly high one.
The doors opened directly into his hotel room, and she saw the way he was striding with purpose toward the kitchen, and his appearance hit her between the eyes like a punch might.
She stopped walking and stood perfectly still, looking across at him with all the intensity of her emotions.
He spun around, dark cheekbones slashed with colour. “You’re late.”
