Contracted To The Beast novel Chapter 80

Chapter 80

Chapter 80

CICA

“Maddox!” I yelled out in panic as Trey ran up to him armed with a knife.

Leo was a couple of feet behind us. He sprinted behind him and caught Trey in the nick of time as he got to Maddox.

Leo spotted Trey as soon as possible and kicked his left leg. He tripped and fell flat on his face. Before he could recover and scramble up, Leo disarmed him.

Leo knelt down on his back while holding both hands behind him. He grunted in pain from the way he was held. I felt all the blood drain from my face.

“Nia,” Maddox called gently as I stared in shock. “Nia?”

I turned to face him.

“Are you alright?”

I nodded wordlessly, unable to form a sentence. All the words were just jumbled in my head.

“Take him away, Leo,” Maddox said, grabbing my arm. “I’ll deal with that later.”

Maddox helped me into the car. I took a seat. I felt my heart thumping in my chest like crazy. The driver started the engine, and we moved. I didn’t even know where we were going, but I just needed to be out of here.

That scene kept playing on loop in my mind. Trey runs up to Maddox with a knife and yells “bastard.” He could have killed him because of me.

What if he stabbed Maddox in the gut? He could have died because of me. Or at least been hurt really bad?

“You’re not hurt, right?” I asked him.

“No, I’m not,” he said as the driver pulled over in the driveway of his penthouse.

“Are you alright?” he asked, turning to me.

“Yeah,” I answered without conviction.

“Bullshit.”

He got out of the car, picked me up, and grabbed my purse. He got to the door in a few strides.

It’s funny how I no longer swooned when I was being carried by him. I was almost so used to it now, more than I’ll care to admit.

I grabbed his forearm, and it was a bit damp.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing,” he said quickly, but so quickly that I missed the rip on his sleeve.

“You’re hurt,” I felt a guilt pool at the bottom of my stomach.

“It’s nothing, Nia,” he placed me on his bed and took off my shoes.

“Where’s your first aid box?” I asked, rising to my feet immediately.

“I told you it’s nothing,” he said.

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Chapter 80

1 gave him a stern look and smacked his biceps.

“Fuck,” he cursed, wincing. “What the hell was that for?”

“I thought you said you were good,” I mocked the tone of his voice.

“Bathroom,” he said, scowling.

I walked into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. It was a standard emergency kit.

I walked back to him and took a seat beside him on the bed. I pushed my glasses up my nose.

“Take off your shirt please,” I said, opening the box and putting on gloves.

My eyes trailed up his arms and lingered a bit around his toned arms. No matter how many times I’ve seen him shirtless I can’t ever get used to it. I placed the first aid box beside our phones on the bedside table.

It was a pretty nasty cut, although it was quite shallow. I cleaned the surface of the wound gently by dabbing the alcohol pad.

“What?” I asked Maddox as he stared at me.

“You always have this look on your face,” he said, smiling gently as I finished wrapping his arm.

“What look?” I asked, staring at him as I took off my gloves.

“Your focused look,” he grinned.

I raised my eyebrow. “Focused look?”

“Yeah, you scrunch up your nose in the most adorable way,” he tried to mimic it.

I burst out laughing. “Stop.”

Streaks of red tint travelled from behind my neck to my cheeks.

“You’re so cute, Emily,” he chuckled. “Feeling better now?”

“Yeah.”

He reached out and loosened my hair tie. My hair cascaded in soft waves.

“You have beautiful hair,” he ran his hand through it gently.

“Thank you,” I locked eyes with him. Gone was the cold look I had acclimated to.

“I want to kiss you,” he said, running a finger across my bottom lip. “Can I?”

I nodded, not trusting my voice to work at this point.

“It’s probably not a good idea,” I finally replied, letting logic take over. He didn’t need to know about the wetness pooling between my thighs.

“Okay,” he said, getting up and walking towards the wardrobe, twirling my hair tie between his thumb and index.

I immediately missed the warmth. I didn’t realise how cold he was till he left.

How comfortable have I gotten with being around him?

I stood up and arranged the first aid box. I discarded the used gloves and cotton pads in the trash first, before walking into

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Chapter 80

the bathroom to return the box.

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I opened the door to see a very naked Maddox standing in the shower. The bathroom and toilet were separated by glass, completely see-through.

I stopped in my tracks, eye level with his chest as he turned around. Against my better judgement, I decided to look down. and he was hard, rock solid.

Damn.

“Do you need something, Nia?” he said calmly.

“Uh, uh,” I stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Then I remembered, yes, the box.

“I came to return this.”

I turned and placed the box in his medicine cabinet, before turning to leave.

I turned again to steal a glance at Maddox, who got to me in a few strides.

“What is it, Nia?” he asked quietly, one hand braced against the wall beside my head.

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out.

The bathroom was too warm. Too small.

Water ran somewhere behind him. Steam curled around the glass walls. My eyes betrayed me and dropped again before I could stop them.

God.

His jaw tightened. “Nia.”

“I…” I swallowed hard. “You do this on purpose, don’t you?”

He frowned. “Do what?”

“This.” I gestured vaguely between us. “The touching. The staring, Calling me Emily.”

His expression shifted.

“You kiss my forehead, tell me I have beautiful hair, ask if you can kiss me, then walk away like nothing happened.” My voice came out shakier than I wanted. “And then I walk into your bathroom and…”

I looked away.

“And what?” he asked quietly.

I laughed bitterly. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe this is normal.”

For a second, neither of us spoke.

Then he took a step closer. “What exactly do you think this is?”

I met his eyes.

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Chapter 80

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“I don’t know.” The truth slipped out before I could stop it. “Maybe this is how you flirt with all the women you bring home”

Something dangerous flashed across his face.

“You think that’s what this is?”

“I don’t know what this is!” I snapped. “One minute you’re telling me you want to kiss me, and the next you’re standing in front of me naked, telling me you like me. What exactly am I supposed to think?”

He stared at me for a long moment.

“Jesus Christ, Nia.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “What?”

He dragged a hand through his wet hair and laughed once. Not because he found it funny. The kind of laugh people make when they’re losing their minds.

“You really don’t get it.”

He looked away first.

For the first time since I’d met him, Maddox Kane looked unsure.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Ran a hand through his wet hair.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

The sound of water hitting the tiles filled the silence between us.

I should have left.

I should have apologized.

Instead, I stayed.

“Get what?” I asked quietly.

He looked at me again.

Really looked at me.

And whatever wall he usually kept between himself and the rest of the world wasn’t there anymore.

“I like you.”

My heart stuttered.