couldn’t take that away from her.”
I reach across the table and take both his hands in mine, squeezing them tight, assuring him I’m here for the long haul. I’m fucking here… forever.
“I’m so goddamn sorry, baby.” He refuses to lift his head, so I squeeze his hands a little harder. “Madd, this doesn’t change anything for me. It doesn’t change how I see you, or what you mean to me.”
When he finally raises his head, his eyes are narrowed, and his face is pinched into a grimace. He yanks his hands away as though I burned him.
“How the fuck can you say that? I’m fucking filthy, Jax. Tainted. Nothing but trash.”
“NO!” At the bar, a glass shatters and I realize I need to lower my voice, but fuck, he needs to hear this. “You were the victim of a depraved and sick human being. That doesn’t make you filthy, Maddox,” I growl, furious that he’s been living with this belief since he was twelve-goddamn-years old.
“No?” he challenges. “What if you knew I—I came every single time he touched me? Am I filthy enough for you now? What about the fact that despite what he did I still…” His throat bobs and his mouth moves but no sound comes out.
“Maddox.” I shake my head. Fuck. Everything is starting to make sense. “Baby, do you think something is wrong with you because even though you were… raped by a man you still turned out gay?”
My broken Angel’s eyes go shuttered and a single tear runs down his cheek.
My eyes close as the devastation of his silent answer courses through me. With practiced ease, I push myself out of the booth and seat myself next to him. My arm curves around him and he comes to me willingly. His eyes dart a quick glance around the room, and I tense, wondering if he’s going to pull away.
We’ve never been so public with our affection. No more. I’m done tiptoeing around as if everyone else’s feelings and opinions are more important than my happiness… than his happiness.
Audience be damned, I lift my arm not wrapped around him and cup the nape of his neck, pulling his attention from the faceless crowd to me. I drop my forehead against his, my senses overloaded as I get my first touch and smell of him in weeks.
“It all makes sense now,” I murmur. “The reason you keep me at arm’s length, pulling away when things start to get a little too real. I hate that you have to question if this is a part of who you really are or if it’s something he left behind. Regardless, you can’t change who you are, Maddox. It’s a part of you.” I draw him closer to me. “I’m a part of you.”
Maddox growls low in this chest, and my nipples harden when the vibrations travel through his body to my own. “You’re goddamn right you are.” With that, he slants his mouth over mine and claims me.
His tongue slips through my lips and strokes my own, coaxing it out of my mouth and into his. I groan when the hair on his chin scratches against my smooth face and I push my mouth against his harder, relishing the burn it leaves on my skin. He retreats, but only to suck my bottom lip between his teeth and nibble—lightly at first before he increases the pressure until I’m at the brink of pleasure and pain. Before he crosses the mark, he releases my abused lip and licks away the traces of his teeth.
Across the bar someone whistles and I close my eyes because I know it was meant for us. Reluctantly, I pull away from him and meet his heated gaze. I only have his attention for a split second before it’s drawn over my shoulder. My position gives me a front row seat as his heated gaze transforms from hungry to ravenous.
I glance over my shoulder, my hackles already rising, but I’m stunned motionless when I find a woman standing not two feet from our table.
Oakley.
Her long silky-straight black hair covers most of her face, but it doesn’t hide her pink cheeks or glazed over eyes. Her chest rises and falls with her quickened breaths that pull my attention to her breasts that are straining against her black V-neck.
“Hey, Oakley,” Maddox calls.
His voice seems to pull her from her stupor, and she jumps as if she’d been touched with a live wire. The movement causes the dark tresses of