Taken by Storm (Give & Take) - By Kelli Maine Page 0,5
be happy with the call to come haul his ass home, but he didn’t expect her to be this livid.
He turned his head and willed his eyes to focus on her. “Hey, Mads. S’up?” Might as well stoke that fire. He could tell by her tight, drawn-in expression she was already in flames.
She stormed over to him and shoved his shoulder. It was all he could do to keep from falling over in the booth. “Don’t s’up me! You come here, get drunk and start a fight? Who are you?”
Her eyes were bright and wet with unshed tears. Her eyebrows, dark tilted strips making a crease above her nose. That look made him want to crawl under the table. “Don’t act all concerned. You’ve been back all of what? An hour?” He scoffed and shook his head. “Go back to Michigan and stay the fuck away from me.”
He didn’t look at her face, but by the way her shoulders sagged and her fists unclenched and fell to her sides, he’d gotten a punch in on her tonight, too.
Good. She’d beat the hell out of him without ever laying a finger on him. She couldn’t come back and pretend they could be… whatever she wanted from him now. Friends? Not hardly. They couldn’t turn back time.
Shit, all he wanted to do is slide his hands up her bare arms and rest them on her shoulders. Kiss her pouty lips until she smiled. Would she smile if he kissed her? Who the hell knew anymore. She’d probably smack the shit out of him.
Coach cracked him on the back of his head. “Don’t talk to Peach like that. Now, get out of my bar and sober up.” He grabbed MJ by the upper arm and yanked him onto his feet. “Call me tomorrow and let me know you’re alive.”
MJ stumbled toward the door. Maddie followed behind him. “I’m parked on the street.”
“Whatever.”
“Why did I even come? I should’ve just left you here. Don’t you have anyone else to bother at…” she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and glanced at the time, “quarter ’til one in the morning?”
No. He didn’t. Is that what she wanted to hear? That he’d shoved away everyone who might want to get close enough to leave him flattened like road kill, exactly like she had? “Screw you. I’m not the one who called you.”
“Fine!” She shoved past him out the front door. “Call the Old Man to come pick your ass up. I’m out of here.”
She strode across the street, her hips twitching back and forth in tight jeans and that little black tank top… ugh. Damn. It. “Wait!” He jogged to catch up with her at her car.
“What?” She snapped around to face him. “I’m good enough for a ride when the only other option is your grandfather?”
Those dark blue eyes of hers flashed with rage. God, she was hot, and he hated it when she was mad at him.
“Screw you?” she shouted. “That’s how you talk to me now? Well, no. Screw. You. MJ.” She drove home each word with a sharp poke of her index finger to his chest.
He grabbed her finger and wouldn’t let go when she tried to tug it free. He held her eyes, praying to feel her open him up again and climb inside. He needed her there. Needed someone to care as much as she used to. “Don’t leave me, Mads.”
He saw her anger melt away, like a wave that had crashed on the shore and rushed back out into the ocean. She sighed. “Just get in.”
She had her window rolled down, and the whole way home the wind blew her intoxicating scent right in his face. There was no escaping the memories of them together that flooded his senses. The ones he’d buried so deep, he was surprised they could surface so easily.
The feel of her hair twisted in his fingers.
Her soft sighs against his neck.
The salty-sweet taste of her skin.
Jesus. The basketball-sized knot in his stomach twisted and pulled tighter. He had to get out of this car.
MJ rolled his window down and stuck his head out. There. Now he couldn’t smell her spicy-sweet whatever it was.
“What are you doing?” Maddie asked. “You’re not going to puke are you?”
“No. Just getting some air.” He glanced over at her and watched her eyes dart from him to the road and back again.
When she’d first gotten her license, he was only twelve. She’d taken him everywhere with her