20. Madeline
Madeline
Getting up off the lounge when I heard the front door open.
“ Vince !?” Bastion slammed the front door. “Yeah, I’m here. I’ll call you back.”
Had he lost his mind? Who comes into someone else’s house, slamming doors and shouting. Picking up a heel, I hurled it at him.
Cursing, he turned, holding the side of his arm.
“ Shush !”
This was the reason Vince didn’t sleep. Every two minutes, one of them needed him. My poor heel. Walking beside him to pick it up. I pointed down to the lounge.
Why was he grinning like that? I shoved his side when he went to speak again.
“Thank fuck. Are you two back together?” Bas asked when I slid the doors closed.
“We were never together.” I rubbed the scratch on the heel. Ruined. Why couldn’t I have thrown something else at him.
“Fine, whatever you two call it. But you’re back, yeah?”
Biting my lip, I sat back down on the couch. “Maybe.”
“Maybe? What do we have to do to get you back to putting up with his bullshit? Seriously Maddy, name it.”
Rolling my eyes, “He is not that bad Bastion. You’re so dramatic.”
He sat across from me. Well, it was his fault my heel was ruined.
“Didn’t you hear I’m engaged?”
His expression fell. “What?”
“Yep.”
His phone started ringing. “Hold on a sec, it's Luca. He’s freaking out over Vince disappearing.” he answered it. “Yeah, he is fine, asleep, I’m guessing. Maddy is here.” He continued to stare at me. “No, they aren’t back together.”
Why did people keep assuming that?
He scoffed, agreeing to something Luca said before ending the call.
“Seriously Maddy, is there anything I can say to change your mind, get you to marry my brother instead?”
The double doors slid open. Vince. He looked sick.
“Great. Are you happy now Bastion? You’ve woken him up.” I know he is all against locking his family out, but he needed to reconsider using the locks.
Bastion actually looked guilty, standing up. “Sorry, Luca was freaking out, that you died and something about oil.”
Vince nodded, seeming to understand, but was staring at me. That distant broken look back in his eyes.
“I’ll, um, leave you two to it.” He whacked Vince's shoulder, walking past. Maybe I could just start locking the front door without him knowing.
“Go back to bed.” Getting off the couch, after hearing the front door close.
He didn’t move. What was going through his head? He looked physically sick.
“I probably need to handle that with Luca.” He muttered, turning, and walking away from me.
Checking the time, not even an hour sleep, and he thought that was acceptable. Sometimes, it was hard to believe he wasn’t doing this on purpose to hurt himself.
Listening to him walk up the stairs.
Fine. If he wants to be difficult.
Grabbing my phone, I walked to his room. Thinking of all the ways I could threaten him. Closing his door, he looked up. Sitting on the edge of the bed.
Oh, the irony. Different bed. Same broken Vince.
“I told you earlier. This new habit is over.” Crossing my arms, leaning against the door.
He didn’t look at me, instead reaching for his shirt. Oh. He knew how to infuriate me.
“When I move in, we’re using the locks.” I snatched the shirt from his hand. “Learn to delegate torturing people.” Throwing the shirt to the ground. “If you don’t start taking better care of yourself, I’ll be a young widow. So, stop being selfish.”
He continued to stare at me. As if questioning if he had heard me right.
“See how exhausted you are? You’re staring at me as if I’m a hallucination.” Shaking my head, “Sleep, then shower. I’m not talking to you until the end of the day, and I swear to God, Vince. You walk out that front door, you’ll regret it.”
I sent a message to my uncle Cole, saying that I wouldn’t be making it to the meeting. Then I went back to painting my toenails.
Movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to look back. Vince was leaning against the doorway, watching me. How long had he been there?
Shirtless, he walked towards me, his hair wet from the shower. Him and his effortless sex appeal.
I had expected him to try to leave at some point today, but he hadn’t. Putting the lid on the nail polish, pretending I didn’t feel him watching me.
“I could get used to this.”
The corner of my lips twitched up. “What, red nail polish on your marble?” I wiggled forward, placing my feet closer to the fire. Perfect.
Squealing as he wrapped his arm around me, lifting me from the ground. “I was joking! I didn’t spill any! I swear.”
Holding me back to his chest with one arm, he dragged the lounge closer to the fire. “Don’t act like I would care.”
“You cared when Bas dropped the paint,”
“No, I cared that he dropped it and got it on you.” He sat down, still holding me to his chest, “And I don’t like it when you lay on the ground.”
How did he know I was about to lie down? “Fine,” I moved off him, getting in the right position again. He held my hair up before I laid back on his leg.
If this was to be the rest of my life, I would be okay with that. Taking his hand, I started to trace his hand tattoo, then over his rings.
Until him, I had only experienced angry silence.
“What happened here?” his finger ran under a bruise on my collarbone.
“Accident at the vacation house.”
He paused, “Vacation? When did you go away?”
“I left that night, after leaving here.” I sighed. “I only got back yesterday. Nothing like a family gathering to test my sanity.” Slowly, I traced the tattoo over his wrist and up his arm. “But I did buy these gorgeous navy stilettos. So, the trip wasn’t a complete waste.”
Silence again. It wasn’t angry silence, but different. I could feel he wanted to say something.
“Vince, can I ask you a question?”
“My love,” his fingers ran through my hair, “when have you ever needed permission to ask me anything?”
Biting my lip, he was right. Focusing on his hand, “Are you sure you want to marry me? I don’t want you doing it out of guilt or something.” Holding his hand, I sat up. “I know I’m not your type, so, are you sure you want to?”
After four years with him, it was clear he wasn’t attracted to me. The list of seductions I had tried on him at twenty was humiliating. And twice, I had directly asked him for sex. Which made his need to touch me just more confusing at the beginning.
He ran his thumb over my cheek before holding the side of my face. “I’m sure.”
I’d never wanted a tattoo, and I had sworn I would never get one. Running my hand down his arm.
“Does it hurt?” Staring at all his tattoos. “Getting tattooed?”
“Depends on the person.”
Climbing off the couch, I stood in front of him. “Can I see your tattoo again?”
He smirked. “Which one?”
“Which one do you think, Vinny? I need to be reminded how big it is again.”
His eyes widened. Did he seriously not know what I meant? Part of the Crows Oath was the tattooing within the ceremony. God. Only he could get me going back on my one rule.
Standing up, he turned. The Crows family emblem. It was bigger than I remembered. Staring at the large gap within the emblem design, across the back of his shoulders. Left intentionally empty.
My name would go there.
Madeline Crow.
Just thinking of my name change sent a wave of nerves through me, let alone seeing it tattooed across his back.
“And you would come with me, right? For the start of it?” I’d have to get the full crest before the wedding.
“I’ll come for every sitting for the crest,” he turned, grabbing my hand. “And when you get my name, I’ll be getting yours right beside you.”
Yeah, and a thousand or more people will be watching us.
I slowly nodded. “Okay,”
I’d made peace with what we had a long time ago. The way he loved me now was more than I ever thought I’d get.
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I’ll marry you.”
The shock on his face, as if there was ever a chance I’d pick his cousin over him.