A Love Like Ours

Chapter 40

I smiled at my phone as her name flashed on the screen.

"Good afternoon," I said, watching Manhattan pass me by in a blur from the window in the backseat.

"Where are you?" She didn't sound panicked. Just annoyed. And beneath that annoyance—hurt.

I'd left her in bed this morning. Well... this afternoon. We'd slept in a lot longer than I'd anticipated, and knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to wake her anyway, I let her sleep in. Though I couldn't lie, I was disappointed. I'd been looking forward to waking up and spending some time with her and her mum before having to leave.

But last night's activities were certainly worth the loss.

"I have that meeting at the label today. I told you about that."

She was quiet for a few moments—yawning. "I forgot."

I smiled. "Did you just wake up?"

"Mhmm," she said, and her voice quivered with pleasure—like she was stretching. "And imagine my disappointment when I reached out to find that you weren't next to me."

There was a tantalizing quality to her words that told me she was feeling much more than disappointment, and it made me regret having left her all the more.

"I'm sorry, my girl," I said. "But I figured you needed the rest after last night."

She giggled, and even that noise sounded tempting. "And you didn't?"

Speaking about last night, of course, only made me think about last night. Madelyn on top of me, riding me, her hands in my hair, my mouth on her throat, her body wracked with tremors as she came...

We'd both passed out cold not long afterwards.

"I won't lie, I could've used several more hours." I ran a hand over my eyes. "Between the traveling and your mum's marching orders, I'm still exhausted."

Mads giggled again.

"But speaking of your mum," I started to say.

"Nooo," Mads whined. "I liked where this conversation was going before."

I glanced up at Jim, whose focus seemed to be entirely on the road ahead of us, bless him. I couldn't very well talk her through my absence and give poor Jim a show he didn't ask for or want.

But I knew exactly how to put her off that track anyway.

"You probably should've gone back into your room last night," I said in a low voice, hoping to spare Jim.

I imagined her eyes widening and her jaw dropping open in the silence that resounded over the line, and smirked.

Mads gasped. "No."

"She wasn't angry," I said quickly, then rethought it. "Exactly."

"Oh my God."

"It was fine, Mads, you don't—"

"No, no, no, no, no, Oh my God. I'm sorry, Harry. So sorry."

I was only smiling now because I was picturing her cheeks, her entire chest going red. "It's fine."

"It's not fine, Jesus, what did she say? Was it terrible? Was she nasty about it?" she asked, so embarrassed now, I wondered what other parts of her might be turning red. "Shit, I should've been up. I should've dealt with her. I knew I should've gone back to my room last night, but... Fuck. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, you shouldn't have had to—"