“What’s the fucking difference?” he grumbled.
Sidri looked past him, her eyes going distant. “Amber is one of the few subs I’ve met who can tell, at a glance, who is Dominant and who is not. Most can’t necessarily tell the difference, not unless it’s in an environment like a club or a party, where everyone is trying to project who and what they are. Amber, on the other hand, can tell just by looking at someone. She certainly knew who Tatum and I were the moment she laid eyes on us. Same for you.”
Maddox snorted. “Sid, everyone can tell when it comes to you. You’re not a Domme, you’re the Domme. Anyone and everyone can tell what you are, even if they don’t know there’s a title that goes with it. It’s who you are.”
She flashed him an appreciative smile, but didn’t let him change the subject. “Be that as it may, when it comes to Amber, that ability has actually served to hurt instead of help.” Her green eyes flashed. “She was hurt by a Dom in the past, and because of that, she fears them. And she uses her innate ability to sense Doms, so she can steer clear of them. But you and I both know that there are a million different manifestations of being a sexual Dominant, just as there are a million different variations for submissives. What Amber hasn’t come to accept yet is that just because a man is Dominant doesn’t mean he will be out to hurt her. You can help her with that, Maddox.”
“How?” he nearly shouted, his shoulders knotting with tension as he remembered the terror on Amber’s gorgeous face. She was such a little thing, all long legs and big blue eyes, yet her emotions had crashed over him like tidal waves. He’d felt her fear like a punch to the gut, wanted to do nothing but wrap his arms around her and protect her from the rest of the world. But since he was the very thing she feared, he could only protect her by removing himself from the equation—something Sidri, apparently, refused to acknowledge. “How the fuck is her being terrified of me going to help her? You saw how she reacted. She almost had a panic attack, for Christ’s sake!”
“Yes, she did,” Sidri agreed, “but she also calmed once you started speaking to her. She listened to you, wouldn’t take her eyes off yours. She felt safe once you spoke to her. She let you touch her. If she was afraid of you, personally, she never would have allowed you to get so close. Instead, the moment you made her look at you, she calmed herself and let you help her. She already trusts you, Maddox. Even as she fears what you are, she already trusts the man she senses inside you. That and that alone will be more help to her than anything else, right now.”
Maddox squeezed his eyes shut, leaning back against the refrigerator door. God, he hoped Sidri was right. He’d taken one look at Amber Whitman, and everything in him screamed MINE! Every instinct he possessed said this woman belonged to him, body and soul, and it had taken everything he had not to bound up those stairs and claim her, right then and there. He wanted her with everything he was.
Only the sheer terror on her face, the wide blue eyes filled with blood and shadows, stopped him. Yes, he wanted her—and she was absolutely terrified of him.
Groaning, Maddox let his hands fall to his sides and met Sidri’s understanding gaze. “I don’t know if I can do this, Sid,” he said in a pained whisper. “I want her. And she hates me.”
Sidri shook her head slowly. “No, she doesn’t. You just need to show her that being a Dom doesn’t mean you’re going to hurt her.”
“Fuck me running,” he groaned. “And how do you propose I do that?”
Sidri’s eyes flashed like emeralds. “Recruit Riley.”
“Riley? Why Riley?”
She raised an eyebrow. “He’s a sub, Maddox. We both know that for absolute fact, even if he isn’t aware of it. She won’t be frightened of him. Let him introduce himself, convince her that there’s someone here she doesn’t have to fear. She’ll feel more comfortable, especially when she sees the two of you interacting.”
“How will that help?” He was too riled up right now to think clearly. Otherwise, he would have been able to follow her gist on his own.
Sidri cocked her head at him, giving him a sardonic look. “You want him, Maddox.” He winced, looked away. “You want him just as much as you want her. If she sees the two of you together, sees how you treat him, she will see exactly how you treat a submissive. Not only will Amber begin to trust you, you might just convince Riley it’s okay for him to want another man. Two birds.”
Maddox looked back at her, eyes narrowed. “You planned this, didn’t you?” he accused. “You had this in mind since the beginning. You knew I’d want her, and you knew I’d have to get Riley involved to help get her to trust me. You planned to force the three of us together, didn’t you?”
Sidri didn’t answer him. Instead, she flashed him a smile, turned on her heels, and stalked out the front door. Maddox watched her go, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Cursing all things female, he yanked his phone out of his pocket and called Riley.
“Hey, man. I need your help.”
* * * *
“You’re sure you’re sure?” Allen pressed again.
Amber rolled her eyes. “Geez. You used to do that when we were little. Yes, big brother. I’m sure. Let it go.”
He regarded her in silence for a moment, clearly wondering if she was lying to him. But he didn’t call her out, just heaved a sigh before giving her a one-armed hug. “All right. We’ll let it go, for now. Let’s get you settled. Oh! I almost forgot!” He fished around in his back pocket, pulled out an iPhone and handed it to her.
She raised an eyebrow. “What’s this?”
He smiled, leading her down the stairs. “Your new phone. If you hadn’t already noticed, I snatched yours last night. I got the memory card out, then smashed the thing, then dropped it in the hot tub for good measure. All of our phone numbers are programmed into this one, so you can call me, Sid, or Tatum any time. Maddox is in there, too, and his foreman, Riley Jones. You’ll want to update your own contacts, but I would advise waiting until we have everything else in place before you do.”
She blinked at him, mouth hanging open. “You smashed my phone?” she asked incredulously. “You killed my phone?”
Allen shrugged, completely unrepentant. “GPS, Amber. If your father could track the car, he could also track the phone. Had to get rid of that, too.”
She groaned. “God help me, I feel like the heroine in a bad romance novel.”
“Yeah, well, if you see Fabio, make sure you get Maddox over here right away.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively before bending down to retrieve a few of her bags. “He just looooooves Fabio.”
Giggling, Amber gathered her own pile of bags, then paused, frowning. “Where did Sidri go?”
Allen gestured toward the door with his chin as he headed back up the stairs. “She followed Maddox out.” He stopped halfway up the steps, his dark eyes full of concern. “Are you really sure you can do this, Amber? Are you sure you want to? We can find somewhere else. I don’t like the thought of you being afraid of the man who is supposed to protect you. If you can’t…”
Amber shook her head, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I’ll be fine, Allen, I promise. I was just…overwhelmed, I guess. Maddox is…” She shivered, licked her lips. “I don’t even know what Maddox is.”
He regarded her steadily, his brown eyes far, far too knowing. “Yes, you do,” he refuted quietly. “You wouldn’t have reacted to him like that if you didn’t know exactly what he is, Amber. But please, trust me about him, okay? Sid and Tatum have known him for years. They would never, ever put you here, with Maddie, if they thought it would be too hard for you. He’s a good guy.” Then he grinned, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “A good guy who happens to have a major crush on his foreman, Riley.”
Amber’s eyes widened, and she let out another giggle. “Seriously? Why just a crush? Why aren’t they dating?” She cocked her head. “Or is Riley straight?”
He shrugged, turning and heading up the stairs, talking over his shoulder. “Sidri says Riley
is just as interested in Maddox as Maddox is in him.” He glanced back at her, one eyebrow raised. “Sid can read people like no one else on earth. She’s practically telepathic. She thinks Maddox knows Riley is into him, but he’s afraid to ask the guy out. Probably doesn’t want to ruin their friendship, not to mention their working relationship, if it doesn’t work out. Ah, star-crossed lovers.”
Amber laughed outright at that as she followed her brother into her new bedroom. Her eyes slid over that monster-sized bed, shoving all those inappropriate fantasies back in the closet where they belonged. One mental breakdown was enough for one day, thank you.
I can do this. I can be here for a few days. Nothing bad will happen here. I know it. I feel it.
Chapter 5
Riley Jones leaned against the railing of the townhouse’s front stoop, watching Maddox pace, and thought, Why the hell am I torturing myself this way?
“So, let me see if I understand this,” Riley said slowly, watching the tall, ripped, fucking gorgeous man stalk across the front yard of his townhouse like a panther on the prowl. “You want this woman.”
Maddox shot him a disgusted look. “Seriously? That’s what you got out of this whole conversation? I tell you she’s here hiding out from her father and her former fiancé, that she was raped and needs protecting, and all you get from that is I want her?”
Riley shot the taller man a smirk. “Yep. And I’m right, too. Don’t even try to deny it.”
Maddox stopped, ran both hands over his face and through his hair, and heaved a sigh. “Yes, damn it. You’re right. And that’s a big problem, because this girl is absolutely terrified of me. Of all men. And with good reason. How the hell can I be standing here, thinking about how hot she is, when she’s just been to hell and back? What the hell kind of pervert does that make me?”
Riley winced. “Don’t ever say things like that, Maddox. I’m teasing you, okay? Don’t pay attention to me.”
Maddox turned, pinned him in place with those beautiful quicksilver eyes. “I always pay attention to you, Riley,” he said softly, sincerely. “Always.”
Riley stared at him for a moment, mouth hanging open in shock. Then he wrenched his eyes away and shoved both hands in his jeans pockets, hoping to hide his sudden hard-on. God, he hated it when Maddox said things like that. It gave his fucked-up libido way too many ideas.
He studied Maddox’s profile as he continued pacing. Riley had been fighting unwanted desire for his boss for a while now. Never in his life had he been attracted to another man before. He didn’t know what to do, how to handle it. He’d always considered himself as straight as they came. It had taken him weeks, months even, to figure out that the twisty feeling in his lower belly, the feeling that made him have to talk down an erection every time he got close to his boss, of all people, was actually desire for another man. The thought of being with another man never even occurred to him.
Until he met Maddox.
Maddox was pure sex on two legs. Tall, dark, and handsome, with a killer body and so much innate charisma it radiated off him like heat waves. With that dark-brown hair and those gorgeous gray eyes that seemed to turn silver every time he looked at Riley, the man was a walking wet dream. And Riley started having dreams about the man almost immediately, filled with dark, forbidden pleasures he’d never even realized he could want.
But he did. God, he did. And it was getting harder and harder to hide his attraction.
No way was a guy like Maddox into fucking other guys. He was too much of a man’s man, the very definition of the word male. Which meant he had no choice but to hide his growing attraction to the guy. If Riley gave himself away, if Maddox found out that Riley wanted him, he’d be so disgusted he’d kick his ass from here to Timbuktu. And Riley wouldn’t blame him.
What the hell am I, anyway? He’d been wondering that ever since he realized he wanted another man. After carefully assessing every other male friend he had, he knew that the attraction was only for Maddox—Riley wanted him, not men in general. So what the fuck did that make him? How the hell could he be attracted to one guy and one guy only, and the rest of the time only want women? He didn’t understand it, couldn’t fathom what the hell was going on in his own head.
The only thing he knew with absolute certainty was he hadn’t been able to bring himself to sleep with anyone since meeting Maddox almost a year ago. And that was a big fat problem, because he for fuck sure wasn’t meant to live like a monk. The longer his dry spell lasted, the hornier he got, which in turn made it that much harder to hide how much he wanted Maddox.
He needed to get laid. Fast. Only problem was, he didn’t want anyone else. He could go out to bars all he wanted, chat up all the hot chicks in the joint, and still not get it up. Not even close. So all that pent-up sexual frustration was boiling away, just beneath the surface, and he had no idea what to do with it.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Riley winced, wrapped a hand behind his neck and regarded his friend sheepishly. “Sorry, man. I spaced out for a second. What were you saying?”
Maddox snorted, but otherwise didn’t comment. “I said I need you to go over there. Amber can’t stand to be around me, but she needs someone she can trust if she’s in trouble. She’s so afraid of me, she might decide to take off on her own, rather than come to me for help. I think if you go over there and introduce yourself, she might be more comfortable with you. And if she knows she can go to someone besides me, she might be willing to stay.”
“Whoa, wait a minute. If she’s afraid of you, what makes you think she won’t be afraid of me, huh? What if she freaks out because now she’s got two big dudes breathing down her neck? I might make her run if I go over there.”
Maddox shook his head, expression adamant. “She won’t, Riley. I know she won’t be afraid of you. You have to go over there. This is really important, okay?” He heaved a sigh, running his fingers through his hair, giving it a ridiculously sexy, just-been-fucked look. Riley had to swallow, hard, and ball his fists in his pockets to prevent himself from reaching up to run his own hands through Maddox’s dark-brown hair.
“This is Allen’s little sister,” Maddox continued, completely oblivious to the effect he had on Riley. As always. “Do you have any idea what Sidri and Tatum would do to me if something happened to Allen’s little sister? Do you have any idea how pissed off they’d be? They own Konstruction Kings, for crying out loud. They own the company we both work for. You seriously think they will let us slide if something happens to Amber on our watch? If Allen gets the least bit upset because we let something happen to his baby sister, Sidri and Tatum will rip us to pieces. Literally. Amber matters to Allen, and that means she matters to the two of them, too. And they’ve decided to trust us with her safety, God knows why. We have to make this work, Riley.”
He met Riley’s blue eyes, expression earnest. “We have to convince her she’s safe here. She’s too afraid of me to trust me. You have to go over there, introduce yourself, and convince her she’s safe with you. Please.”
“All right, all right. You convinced me. I’ll go over.”
“Thank you,” Maddox said quietly. His quicksilver eyes were haunted. “Convince her, Riley. For all out sakes, convince her she’s safe here. Tell her we’ll both be looking out for her, and tell her you’ll be around if she needs you. Make sure she understands that she won’t have to see me if she doesn’t want to.”
Riley bit his lip. “Why is she so afraid of you? You’re, like, God’s gift to women, bro. Why is this chick so scared of you? You don’t know each other, do you?”
Maddox shook his head, pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, we’d never met before today.”
“Then why is she afraid of you? She doesn’t have any reason to be.”
To his surprise, Maddox winced and looked away. “Yeah, she does. It’s complicated, okay? Just trust me. She’s afraid of me, and there’s nothing I can do about it except stay away from her.”
Riley f
rowned. “Fine. Keep your secrets. I’ll go over and say hi, then we can get back to work on the windows. Be right back.” And he strode off, leaving Maddox standing there with his mouth hanging open like a landed trout.
Served him right, if he was going to try and be all mysterious. Complicated? What could be so complicated? And why wouldn’t he explain it to Riley? None of this made sense. This chick had no reason to be afraid of Maddox. Maddox had no reason—well, except maybe fear of Sidri and Tatum—to be trying so hard to make her comfortable. Yet everybody was bending over backward for this chick, and all because she was related to Allen. On the surface, it made about as much sense as Rollerblades made out of Swiss cheese. There was something going on here, something much, much deeper than Riley was aware of.
Then again, Riley mused, there’s always been a shit ton of stuff I don’t understand around here. It had been like that since he started working with Maddox.
Like Sidri and Tatum’s businesses, for one thing. From what he’d been able to glean, the two of them were hugely successful advertising gurus, with a multi-million-dollar company under their belt. But if they were so into advertising, why the hell did they own a construction company? And why did they own so many properties? Since he started with Konstruction Kings, they’d worked on about thirty different properties, everything from uber-expensive mansions to low-class apartment buildings, and every single one of those properties had belonged to Sidri and Tatum.
He’d asked Maddox, only to be told that the two of them bought properties, renovated them, and then turned around and sold them for pennies on the dollar or donated them to various charities. They weren’t trying to make money with their acquisitions—they were turning them into low-cost housing for poor families in need of a little help. Or, in the case of the mansions they bought, they donated them to certain charities, who in turn auctioned the properties at their fundraiser events. He’d never heard of anyone who willingly bought real estate with the intent of losing money on it. Granted, they were doing it for a good cause, but that didn’t mean it was sane.
Angel Without Page 7
