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Fuck off loser ??. Night mate, speak soon.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Will
I’d heard Maddy leave the house much earlier than usual. When I jumped out of bed, worried I’d overslept, I was surprised to see it wasn’t even eight. Then looking out of the window, I spotted her walking towards a Mini. Just about to lose it at the idea of her getting into a strange car, Zak got out and ran around to open the door for her. They both burst out laughing, and then he dropped a quick kiss to her lips. I bristled, but it was strictly PG, so I let myself relax.
Moving back to the bed, I flopped down on the edge and ran a hand over my head. I’d got to bed earlier than normal the night before, but I couldn’t say I’d got a great night’s sleep. The first hour I’d tossed and turned knowing that Maya was in the room next door, yet she might as well have been a thousand miles away. I heard her walking around and then the duvet rustle as she got into bed. Imaging her in a pair of tiny shorty pyjamas made my dick rock hard, but the idea of knocking one off with her so close didn’t seem right—especially as I would be thinking about her while I did it.
There wasn’t a sound coming from her room, so maybe she was still sleeping. Or maybe she’d already gone.
“Fuck.” I shot back to the bedroom window and craned my neck to look down the driveway. My shoulders sagged in relief when I saw her Kia was still parked behind my Range Rover.
As if someone knew I needed help, noise came from the bedroom. A chuckle rolled up from my throat at how pathetic I’d become, and decided I needed to man up. Pushing off the bed, I was determined that I was going to show Maya how good I could be for her.
“Nice,” Maya said as we pulled up on the bar’s car park. “The Jumping Frog? Where did that name come from?”
I smiled, recalling how the name came about. “Maddy was about ten, and I didn’t know what to call the place, so I asked her, and she yelled out ‘Jumping Frog.’ I quite liked the idea—it was quirky—but then she pointed at this bloody big frog that was jumping around the kitchen. She screamed and ran out of the house, leaving me to catch the bloody thing.”
“And the name stuck?”
“The name stuck.”
Maya smiled on an inhale, her gaze moving back to the outside of the bar, painted in a deep forest green with gold lettering. Funny how it suddenly reminded me of the colours in her eyes. Those deep greens with hints of amber had kept me awake for days.
“Right, let’s get inside, but don’t expect anything spectacular like those posh bars in Leeds.”
“Posh bars! In Leeds!” she cried, incredulous. “If there are any I don’t go into them.”
“I’m sure you’d look at home in there if you did.”
Her brow furrowed as she stared at me. “You didn’t really say that, did you?”
I groaned. “Too cheesy?”
“Err, yeah.”
We both burst out laughing, and I wondered what the hell she’d done to me. I wasn’t cheesy. I was the cool, smart, always-had-a-clever-answer kind of man. Not one who cracked shitty jokes or said lame comments just to try and impress a woman.
“I apologise and swear I will never say anything so puke inducing again.”
She shook her head. “No. Never, ever, again.”
Shit, I had to kiss her. Immediately, my lips were on hers and my hands were threaded into the thick strands of her hair. My tongue urged her to open her mouth so that I could deepen the kiss. She knew what I wanted and flicked out her tongue to dual with mine. My grip on her hair tightened.
Maya’s hands tugged on my jacket, and as she pulled me closer, everything in the world disappeared except for me and her. We weren’t in the small confines of my car; we weren’t sitting outside my bar that no doubt had a whole load of problems the other side of the door. It was just us in a bubble of hope and expectancy for what might be.
My chest clenched at the amount of feelings that I had running through my body—how much desire I had for the woman in my arms. I’d felt love before. For Mrs Powell, for Sam, Louise, Darcy and Liam. It was nothing like that I had for my daughter. That love was on another level. That was a love I couldn’t explain. That was a love that sometimes felt far too big. The swirling in my stomach, the way my heart was catapulting around my chest, the shake in my hands—it made me feel like maybe another big kind of love was on its way. A life defining love. One for a lifetime.
“We need to stop,” I eventually said, dropping my forehead against Maya’s.
Her chest was heaving heavily underneath the thick jumper that she was wearing with thin leggings. It almost came to her knees, hiding her pert arse and slim thighs, but she looked sexy as hell.
“I think maybe we should take a minute, though, before we go inside.” She nodded down at my crotch. There was more than a slight bulge in my jeans.
Her giggle chimed around the inside of the car as we stared at each other, huge grins on both our faces. I knew instantly that we were on the same page as to where we were going, about what we wanted for our future.
“Come on, let’s go.” I took my phone from the centre console and then opened my door. “Oh, and please ignore Marcus’ flirting. He thinks he’s irresistible.”
