The Billionaire and His Castaway(20)

He holds the glass up in an offer, and I shake my head. I don’t want liquor on my breath when I go to talk to Madeline, which will be happening. I’m in the same house as her. I don’t know what is keeping me rooted to the spot and not ripping through the house looking for her.

Oh yeah, the grim fucking look on Mark's face and the fact that he’d let me in without so much as a fight.

“She hasn’t left the house since we got back,” he finally says.

“I know.” If I didn’t have someone watching the house, then I was watching it. Just waiting for her to step out. People had come and gone, all of whom I’d had checked out, but they all linked back to Mark.

He sets the glass down on the bar and runs his hands through his hair.

“She hasn’t been herself. I think I fucked up.” He leans back against the wall. “I lied to her.”

That has my stomach clenching and taking a step forward. I know Madeline has a reason to be mad at me. Hell, I fucking manipulated things to get her to me, but I’d hoped that she’d see why. That once she got to know me, she’d see I wasn’t who she thought I was. That we fit together. I needed her. The thought of her not needing me makes every part of me ache.

At first I thought I’d give her a few weeks, but she never left her home, and it seemed like it was worse than I thought.

“When we got back to the hotel she was different. Hell, in the cabin she snapped at me. That’s not Maddie. She’s sweet and soft. That just wasn’t her. Then, like I was saying, when we got back to the hotel she didn’t seem too interested in leaving. I could see the inner battle she was fighting, so…”

“So…” I push, needed to know what he’d said to her.

“I told her that you’re cold and how you tend to work.” He pauses, but I say nothing. What is there to say to that? I’m great at my job, and sometimes I have to be a bastard to get things done. Yeah, I was cold sometimes, but not with my Madeline. She melted any cold that I had. Has from the moment I’d laid eyes on her. Set it all on fire.

“Then she asked me about you and other women. If you’d ever done what you’d done with her to them.”

All the breath in my lungs freezes. I knew this was one of the reasons she held back from me in the beginning, believing some fake playboy image that wasn’t me.

“I said yes,” he finishes.

Before I know what I’m doing I punch Mark right in the jaw, that all-too-familiar sting shooting through my hand. He doesn’t fight me, just takes the punch. The wall behind him keeps him from falling, but I turn away from him as I try to get myself under control.

“I think she’s in love with you, and I broke her heart.” I can hear the remorse in his voice.

“Then why didn’t you speak up earlier?” I growl.

“Thought she’d get over it but…” I turn to look back at him as he wipes blood from his lip. “She isn’t.”

“So you’re not going to fight me on this?” I eye him. I don’t get why he’s finally giving in.

“I didn’t want her with you because I thought you were cold and could never love her like she deserves to be loved. She’s soft, not like the rest of us.” He walks over to the sofa and sits down. “She’s the heart of this family. Even more so with Mom gone. And I didn’t want to see that broken, but it is. I think I only made things worse.”

I can see why he thinks I might be cold with her, but he has no fucking idea. There was nothing like that with Madeline, but it’s not him I have to convince of that. She’d seen it herself already, until he’d made it all a lie for her.

“Where is she?”

“Don’t hurt her.”

“I will do everything in my power to never hurt that woman.”

“Upstairs, second door on the left.” I’m halfway out the door before he can finish. I bolt up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and fling open her door.

She lets out a squeal and shouts. “Could you knock?” She turns, trying to cover her very naked body but freezes when she sees me. Her eyes go big. Her lush lips part.

I step into the room, shutting the door behind me and flipping the lock. The sound echoes in the room. She grabs a towel from the bed and tries to cover up her perfection. But it’s too late. I’ve already seen it. Even the small little bump on her belly that makes a whole new set of feelings rush through me.

“How did you get in here?” She takes a step back, and it makes my heart feel like it’s being ripped from my chest.

“Mark let me in.”

Her eyes go even wider at that.