Chapter Nine
I came here to propose, Eve.
Eve reacted as Madden predicted she would, although it took her a while to catch up. He liked to think their proximity had
something to do with the muddling of her thoughts. When she blinked several times and her posture lost any hint of casualness,
though, Madden braced, knowing he was in for a battle.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me, loud and clear.”
“You came here to propose what?”
“Marriage.”
The pulse at the base of her neck was going a mile a minute. “I’m not that amazing topless.” Eve laughed, obviously still under the impression Madden was joking.
Or hoping so, anyway.
“You bring me to my fucking knees topless, but that’s beside the point.”
His serious tone of voice made her swallow hard. Cornered. She was cornered and didn’t like it, so Madden forced himself to
take a step back that allowed her to scramble off the table to her feet. “Mad, this isn’t funny.”
“Eve, when have you ever known me to joke about you?” She clearly didn’t know how to respond to that—or didn’t want to—so he continued, searching his memory bank for all the bullet points he’d formulated during the four-hour drive.
Thinking wasn’t an easy feat with her so close, however. Close and bewildered and ready to bolt.
More than anything, he wanted marriage to this woman to be real.
Now that they’d cleared up the fact that her best friend’s crush had rendered him off-limits for years, he wanted to take
the time to date her, be her boyfriend, take whatever feelings she had for him and nurture them into love. But with Lark and
Landon dropped into her lap, they didn’t have the luxury of time. If Madden wanted the opportunity to help, he needed to appeal
to Eve’s common sense, instead of her heart.
For now.
Just for now.
He’d find a way in later, once her immediate needs were covered.
“My contract with the Yankees . . .” Madden started. “Look, my salary is on the low end for catchers in the league, seeing
as I’ve only been brought up from the minors and haven’t proven myself, but even so, it’s lucrative. And it comes with health
benefits.” Her face lost a touch of color and he couldn’t decide why. Had she been expecting a more romantic reason for his
proposal, even if that very thing would have spooked her? God, he hated that possibility, but it was too late to turn back
now. “I want to give you access to those benefits. For the kids. For you.”
“Marriage is kind of an extreme solution, wouldn’t you say?”
“No.”
“Well, you’re wr-wrong,” Eve sputtered. “It is.”
“Eve.” He approached her, cautiously, taking note of her white knuckles that held the cardigan tightly to her breasts.
“I’ve made no secret of the fact that I feel more for you than friendship, but at the very least, we have that.
So let me help you as a friend, if nothing else.
You won’t owe me anything. I’m not doling out charity here. ”
“You’re proposing a practical marriage. A marriage of convenience.”
Madden hid his negative reaction to those descriptors. “Yes.”
Eve nodded for several seconds, until it turned into shaking her head. “I appreciate the offer. I appreciate you thinking
of me and the kids, but I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
There was a reason. A heavy one. He could see it swimming in her eyes, but she pressed her lips together tightly and didn’t
let it out.
“Maybe a marriage of convenience is too straightforward for you,” he said slowly, no choice but to let his feet carry him
forward, toward Eve.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’re a little complicated, love.”
A blond eyebrow went up. “Are you expecting an apology?”
Madden clucked his tongue. “Jesus, no. I love your complications. Don’t ever apologize for them. But they exist.” The territory
he was approaching was unfamiliar, but a woman like Eve required bold moves. For so long, he’d stood and allowed her to keep
him at a distance, patiently waiting for her to admit she wanted him. That approach had gotten him nowhere. He’d still have
patience with her. As much as she needed.
But he wouldn’t sit back and observe anymore.
“You said dancing for an empty room isn’t enough for whatever it is you’re feeling. What would be enough?”
“I don’t know.”
Madden eliminated the distance between him and Eve. Stopped in front of her. And when she didn’t back away, he lifted his hands to hold the sides of her face. “I’ll help you find out.”
At once, her eyelids seemed to weigh down, but she fought through that visible response, trying to focus on him. “What do
you mean by that?”
“I mean . . .” He lowered his mouth to her ear, dropping his voice to a whisper. “You’re a bit of an exhibitionist, aren’t
you? You could explore that safely with me.”
Several breathless seconds ticked by. Then, “W-while we’re also married?”
“Like I said, complicated.”
“That’s putting it lightly.” Eve matched his whispering tone. “I’m pretty sure a wife with benefits is just a wife.”
“If you go by the classic definition.”
“You’re trying to appeal to the side of me that rebels against the status quo.”
“Am I, Eve?” He rubbed his open mouth against her ear, gratified when her breath caught. “I must have been paying very close
attention to you all these years.”
“Seems so,” she said, tilting her head just slightly. An invitation.
Madden wasted no time suctioning his mouth down the side of her neck, grinding his teeth together when she shivered violently
and pulled away, her gait unsteady as she took several steps, putting a table back between them.
“Madden, I can’t marry you. I can’t do that.”
Holding in the hurt was not an easy feat.
Still, he kept his voice steady. Weighted with patience he didn’t feel.
“I don’t suppose you want to tell me why.
” When she only looked down at the surface of the table, a groove between her brows, he suspected he’d gotten as far as he could for one night.
“Right. Just promise me you’ll think about it. ”
Eve’s eyes closed. “I can’t.”
She wouldn’t even give him the slightest consideration?
His Irish temper was a rare thing. When it bubbled to the surface out of sheer frustration, he knew it was time to take a
step back.
“Are you finished here for the night?”
“Yes.”
“Grand. I’ll make sure you get to your car.”
Eve nodded. Hesitated. Then set about turning off all the lights and collecting her purse from the office backstage. Madden
waited by the door, exiting behind her when she breezed past. Watching her lock the front entrance with a quick twist of her
wrist, he noticed that, at some point during the last few minutes, she’d attempted to button her cardigan, but she’d hastily
married the buttons to the wrong holes, making the ends of her sweater uneven.
Madden didn’t mention the mistake as they walked side by side to the driver’s side of her car, but once they arrived and she
opened the door, tossing her purse across the console into the passenger side, Madden’s mouth moved all on its own.
“Your buttons are uneven.”
Eve looked down and winced. “I did it on the fly.”
“Come here and I’ll fix it for you.”
There was a single lamppost in the parking lot of the Gilded Garden and it stood at a distance, shining enough light to show
that her cheeks had turned pink. A war waged itself in her eyes and he counted himself lucky for that. Maybe Eve didn’t want
to be in a romantic relationship with him, but she couldn’t completely hide the attraction. The emotion she carried for him.
Eve nodded once. Sniffed.
Heavy throbs worked their way through Madden’s cock as he stepped forward, looking Eve in the eye while he pulled her away
from the car. “What . . .”
He turned her around to face the empty parking lot and the tree line that created its perimeter, the lamplight spilling across
her cheek, her neck . . . and when he flicked open the buttons one by one from behind, opened both panels of the cardigan
and exposed her breasts to the night air, the soft illumination spread across her shoulders too. The sliver of her collarbone
that he could see when he tilted his head.
“What are you doing?” she asked, haltingly, making no move to cover herself.
“Feeling my way in the dark with you, love.” He slung the cardigan over his right shoulder, the way he would a towel in the
locker room, before sliding his fingers into her hair at the back of her head, tugging downward in a way that forced Eve to
arch her back, whimpering over the fact that she was now offering her breasts to the stars. The moon had turned her hair to
silver, nearly. “Do you like that?”
A few ticks of silence passed, but eventually she nodded. “I . . . yes.”
With his free left hand, Madden reached around to the front of Eve and gripped the hem of her skirt, lifting it several inches
in his grip, up, up, until her panties were visible to the empty parking lot. “Do you like that too?”
Eve was breathing too hard to respond, her body sagging back against him.
Trembling.
Lord, if he was the kind of man who took advantage of another person’s weak moments, he’d walk her around to the hood of the car, bend her forward, and rip her panties down to her ankles.
But he wasn’t that kind of man. And he especially wasn’t that kind of man when it came to Eve, the girl he’d loved for fucking years.
No, hunger and temper were not a good combination, so Madden reluctantly drew the hem of her skirt back down, breathing in
and out the scent of her hair while he buttoned her back into the cardigan, his fingers itching to massage her tits. Pet her
nipples.
Not now. Not yet.
“Text me when you get home. I’ll be staying at my aunt’s tonight, if you need me,” he said directly against the crown of her
head, instead, his tone like sandpaper. “Okay?”
“Okay,” she said quickly, and thank god she needed another three seconds to pull away, her struggle giving Madden hope as
he watched her drive out of the parking lot.