18. MADDY

18

MADDY

When we get out of the shower, I throw Raven’s shirt over my naked body while he puts on his boxers.

He is bruised all over, but the most prominent injury is the stab wound on the side of his abdomen.

“Hold still,” I order. “Let me take a look.”

I get down on my knees and inspect the wound.

“It was a lucky stab,” he says as I brush my fingers against the stitches, and he sucks in his taut stomach.

My guy looks like a gangster and smells like a cute baby from the fruity soap we used. Still on my knees, I brush my fingers over his other bruises, trying to disregard the fact that my face is in front of his boxers, his hardness swelling.

I glance at it, rise to my feet, then cup him gently. “Don’t get any ideas,” I murmur and give him a kiss on the lips. “You need to eat first.”

In the kitchen, I set the plate with the sandwich before him, then arrange cutup fruit in a small bowl.

Raven stands behind me, his hands on my waist, his chin resting on my shoulder.

“All those flowers outside, on your porch,” I say, melting at his touch and trying to distract myself and him with a silly conversation. “I didn’t take you for a flower guy.”

“I never was.”

“Then?”

“You once said that if you had a flower for every time we were together, you would’ve had a pretty garden. I asked the gardeners to get on it.”

I turn around in his arms and look at him. He remembered? It’s on my tongue, so I say it without thinking.

“Twenty-eight?”

His expression changes, his lips curling in a smile he keeps captive. “Twenty-nine.”

Did I miscalculate? I kept a mental check. I marked days on the calendar. We were supposed to have two months, and now we are here.

“I was hoping for this one,” he says. “One extra, just in case.”

I can’t keep my grin in check. So, Raven was counting, too. And getting me flowers. My heart just expanded threefold and is beating so hard against my chest it almost hurts.

“Would you add forty-three more for all the nights I spent thinking about you in between?” I tease him.

“Would you like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for all the nights I did?” he asks softly.

According to the legend, a Babylonian king created the gardens for his wife. They became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I don’t need a grand gesture. I just want him.

Raven runs his hand along my loose hair in a slow stroke, and I stare in his eyes, those husky almost transparent blues.

He leans in and presses his lips to my temple in a soft kiss. He doesn’t pull away but rests his cheek against mine.

“I love you,” he says in a whisper.

I press my palm to his chest. He doesn’t know that I made it a habit to keep my palm on his chest so I can feel his heartbeat. He is always so calm on the surface, but there’s a storm inside him. During our deal, he seemed so confident and nonchalant, yet when my palm was against his heart, oh, his heart was raging like thunder, no matter how composed he looked. That was how I knew that it wasn’t just a simple deal. That Raven cared.

And now he is mine.

Mine, mine, mine. I repeat it like the words he’s written so many times on paper. I want to write them in giant letters all over the walls for the world to see. Maybe, one day, I will tell him that earlier at the Center, when he came back and I hugged and kissed him in front of everyone, I felt so freaking proud to be next to him, everyone seeing that I was his. I felt like the luckiest girl alive.

My phone rings, as always grudgingly pulling us out of the moment.

It’s Little. I put him on speaker.

“Did Raven go to sleep?” he asks.

“No,” I say.

“He’s tired?”

“I’m sure.”

“He’s home?”

I glance at Raven, who’s picking up his sandwich. “He is.”

“You home, too?” Little keeps interrogating.

I meet Raven’s smiling gaze as he takes the first bite.

“I’m at Rave’s,” I reply.

“Oh.” Little sounds upset.

Both Raven and I know what this means.

“Raven might go to sleep soon,” I say, “but I can get your bodyguard to bring you here if you want to stay with us.”

“Yes! Can I? Maddy, can I? Please? Ask Raven. Can I? Can I?”

Raven tries not to smile while chewing, but his chest shakes with a chuckle.

And here we are again—Little and I, fighting for Raven’s attention.