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I lifted my hand and wiped the tears from her eyes. She turned her head and kissed my palm, and all of my control went out the window. I lowered my head and kissed her lips. Every time I kissed her was better than the last. I was about to pull away when she sat up and straddled me. She ran her fingers through my hair and deepened the kiss, slipping her tongue into my mouth.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. If I could crawl inside of her, I would. I gripped her hips. I knew she could feel how hard I was. I lifted my hips and she jumped up off the couch.

FUCK! I’m such a stupid idiot! I pushed her too far. I looked up and expected to see anger in her eyes, but what I saw was fear. Why is she scared? I had a feeling this has something to do with Chris. That motherfucker is hurting her.

“Maddy, I’m so sorry! I got carried away. I just-”

“I’m not one of your whores, Carter!”

What was she talking about? I hadn’t been with anyone since I met her in September. I’d tried to go home with girls after she told me we couldn’t hang out anymore, but I could never go through with it. Before then, I definitely had my fair share of girls, but I never treated them like whores. I just never had a relationship.

“What do you mean, Maddy? I know you’re not a whore! I don’t know who’s telling you things about me, but it’s not true! I haven’t been with anyone since the first day I met you. I haven’t wanted anyone else!” I got up and made my way over to her. I kissed her. She needed to feel how I felt about her.

She pushed me away. “Carter, I can’t do this.” Her eyes betrayed her. She wanted me just as much as I wanted her.

“Why not?”

“I just can’t right now.” Shit, she was crying. I picked her up and walked her over to the couch.

“I’m sorry I pushed you. I’ll back off, I promise.”

She let me hold her for a few minutes, then got up. “I’m going to go to bed now. I’ll see you in the morning.”

God, I hope I didn’t just blow it.

Chapter Twelve

Madison

I wake up in the morning to the smell of bacon. I walk out of the bedroom and see Carter in the kitchen...cooking. I don’t remember the last time someone made me breakfast. It must have been before my mom died.

I am just watching him move around the kitchen, enjoying the view since he hasn’t noticed me yet. He is so amazing. I don’t know what I did to have someone like him care about me. I close the bedroom door and he turns around to look at me.

“I hope you like bacon and eggs. I made some coffee too.”

“Carter, that is so nice of you, thank you.” I don’t think he understands how much everything he does means to me. I walk over to him and give him a hug. He tenses for a minute and I second-guess myself, but then he wraps his arms around my waist.

He is probably scared to touch me after last night. I don’t know what had come over me, but I heard Chris yelling in my head that he only wanted me to be his whore. “You know, I don’t think anyone has ever cooked for me, at least not that I can remember.”

I see a look of sadness cross his face. “Well, that’s a damn shame. If you were mine, I’d cook for you all the time.” He has no idea how much I want to be his. “It would be a very limited menu, and you’d have to sign a waiver agreeing that if you got sick you couldn’t blame me. However, if you were willing to take the risk, I’d do it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. He is so adorable. I want to cook for him too; I want to make him happy. Maybe I could help with dinner tomorrow. “You’re too good to me. I’ll have to make it up to you one night.” I just realized how bad that sounded. I hope he didn’t take it that way. I was really falling for Carter, but there is no way I am ready to do that with him.

He put the food down on the table and then walked back over to the counter where I was still standing. “You don’t have to make anything up to me. I do things for you because I want to, not because I want something in return.” He kisses me on the forehead, before leading me over to the table. It takes me a second to remember how to walk. I’ve never had a relationship where someone didn’t want something in return. I sit down next to him and start to eat. “This is really good.”

He looks up at me and smiles. “So, how about you? Can you cook?”

I take a deep breath. “Yeah, I actually can. When I was growing up, if I didn’t cook, I didn’t eat.” I don’t know why I am always so honest with him. I trust Carter, which is scary because I haven’t trusted anyone in a really long time. “Does your dad cook?”

“No, not unless you count frozen meals.” He starts laughing and so do I. This feels so right and so normal. “Hey, I have an idea. We usually just do take out for Thanksgiving, but since you’re coming home with me, would you want to cook? I could be your assistant.”

He wants me to cook? With him? At his house for Thanksgiving dinner? I guess it would be a nice way to say thank you to his dad. “Sure, that sounds fun.”

His smile is huge, as he goes to get his cell phone. “Hey, Dad…we’re leaving in about an hour, but we’re going to stop at the grocery store first…Maddy and I are going to make dinner tomorrow...okay, great.” He hangs up the phone and looks over at me. “I think he fell in love with you already.”

After breakfast, we clean up and then get in the car. I brought a notebook and a pen with me so I could use his phone to look up recipes and make a shopping list. The drive to Carter’s house is about three hours. Halfway through the ride, I have the menu all figured out. I am surprisingly excited for all this. He reaches over and grabs my hand, so I look over at him.

“Thank you for coming home with me, and for agreeing to cook dinner. I don’t think we’ve cooked for a holiday since my mom died.” He doesn’t know that I am just as happy about this as he is.

We go to the grocery store and get everything we need. Carter seems to always find a way to touch me, and I kind of love it. When we pull up to his house, my nerves start to kick in.

Here goes nothing.

Chapter Thirteen

Carter

I’m not nervous for Maddy to meet my family. As soon as we park, Anthony comes out of the house. He looks over at Maddy and then back at me.

“Who’s the hottie?”

Maddy and I start to laugh. “Ant, this is Maddy, a friend of mine from school. Maddy, this is my brother, Anthony.” She smiles at him. Anthony is a little shorter than me, but he plays football for the high school so all the girls love him. He has a buzz cut and blue eyes like me so he is used to getting attention, but he isn’t going to get any from Maddy.

“Why is she just your friend? Do you not have eyes?”

I laugh again. I’m pretty sure when Anthony was made, they forgot to put in the filter that the rest of us have. “Is Holly home?”

He looks at me and laughs. “Who the hell knows where that girl is.”

“Come on. Why don’t you help me get the groceries inside?”

We all go in and my dad is sitting in the living room reading the paper. He stands up when he sees me and gives me a hug. I really miss being home with my family. My dad is about my height, with light brown hair that he refuses to accept is going gray. I pull away and grab Maddy’s hand, pulling her next to me. “Dad, this is Madison Stevens. Maddy, this is my father, Michael James.”

She gives my dad one of those doe eyed smiles, and he is a goner. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mr. James. Thank you so much for inviting me this weekend. It really means a lot.”

My dad is a hugger so he wraps his arms around her. When he lets go, he looks at me and gives me a look that says he knows I want to be more than just friends. I’ve never brought a girl home to meet him before, so as much as I played it off, it’s a big deal. “It’s very nice to meet you, too. Don’t think twice about making yourself at home here.” He sits down and goes back to reading his paper.