URGENT (Book 2 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 32: Nice Guys Are Bad Liars

Adam

When we part ways with Dawes in the new VIP terminal at LAX, my mood improves by degrees. We're out of the airport before 9am Pacific time, and we have an hour before our tour at Palisades Women and Children's Hospital. With traffic, it will take most of that time to arrive.

I wave off the limo driver and open the door for Mac myself. When I climb in and sit next to her, deliberately taking her right hand and playing with the rings on her fingers, the expression on her face is truly comical. She looks—frustrated.

"Aren't you angry with me?" Her light feathery eyebrows are peaked in irritation, but her voice is mild and her hand is perfectly willing in mine.

"Despite your best efforts to piss me off with that Dawes fuckery," I say testily, "Not so much."

Now she looks flat out confused. "Why not?"

I twist the large silver ring on her middle finger, pulling it over the knuckle and then pushing it back into place. "Because I know you are swimming in stress all the way up to your pretty little eyeballs. I know you don't want to do this—tour these hospitals, and think about what comes next. I know you were trying to pick a fight with me on purpose—to channel that shit into something you can cope with."

She doesn't deny it. "What about the other stuff—me not telling you about Leed being the father? Aren't you still upset about that?"

I shrug. "I was annoyed, but I said what I needed to say a week ago—I don't like being lied to. I hope you heard it and took it to heart, because I will never lie to you. So as far as I'm concerned, that's done."

"Then why have you been cold-shouldering me all week?" she huffs.

"We fought, You told me to fuck off. We've both needed some time and space. You've been right where you need and wanted to be—in Leed's suite. Cold shouldering you? No. Every day I've wished you good morning and goodnight, and seen about you all day in between. "

She bites her lip and turns her hand, curling her fingers against my jaw. "You know what I mean. You haven't tried to get inside me all week. You don't want me, right now."

Mac's hazel eyes are pinched in uncertainty and hurt. Christ, does she actually think that? That I don't want her? The only thing I ever want is to be inside her, drenched in her without a single damn thing between us—no pride, no boundaries, no fear. Fucking her renews my lifeblood; making love to her restores my faith.

I put a hand on her cheek, guiding her gaze to mine. "Hear me, okay? We had a fight. The bad mo-jo stuck around for a few days. It's over. I still love you and I still want you. Loving you is the best choice I will ever make and bedding you is a damn religious experience for me. I will never choose to not love you and it's physically fucking impossible for me at this point to not want you," I assure her.

The color drains from her face. I fucking love causing that.

"I'm sorry," she whispers. "You were right..what you said in the limo that first night I told you I loved you. You said I would be raging pissed at you again soon enough. This is the first time I've really been angry with you, since I realized..."

I play with her pretty rainbow hair. "Since you accepted that you love me?" I ask lightly.

She nods. "And I do...love you. I hate the distance." She climbs into my lap sideways. "Adam, I didn't think about what I said to you as a lie. I don't think like that—right or wrong. I think like—what's good for me and my people and what's not. I was thinking of Leed—only Leed—and not about you and me, in that situation."