Sadie friggin’ Leigh.

Of all the girls, he had to screw that one.

If my heart hadn’t shattered into a million pieces so long ago, it would have ripped right down the center at the sight of that rabid witch throwing herself into him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

Damn her! Damn her straight to hell!

I guess it wasn’t enough that she and the rest of her snobby little clique tortured me all through school—she had to go after Hendrix too?

Speaking of Hendrix…

I couldn’t believe he would do this. Not with her.

I know we weren't together anymore, but the betrayal still hurt, and honestly, it made me question everything. Did he ever really love me? I mean, he’d seen first-hand how Sadie—the queen of bitches—had treated me for so many years, and yet he still slept with her?

If I didn’t have a severe head injury—which by the way, was really starting to hurt—I would’ve punched her and smacked him. Heck, I’d barely held Shelby back from going after Sadie. Thinking about it now, I should have let her beat the crap out of the skank. It surely would have been a gratifying thing to see. Then again, I didn’t have the money to bail Shelby out of jail so that wouldn’t have been a smart idea.

“Pretty girl—”

No, no, no...

I shoved my hand in Hendrix's face. "Don't. You. Dare." His eyes widened, and his head jerked back. "I am not your pretty girl. Not anymore.”

It was the wrong thing to say.

Clenching his jaw, Hendrix fisted his hands at his sides. “You will always be my pretty girl, Maddie!”

I shook my head. “Madelyn, not Maddie.”

“Are you shitting me?”

Nope, I wasn’t. I couldn’t be Maddie anymore. I’d let myself slip the past week—for obvious reasons—but I couldn’t let it go any further.

Maddie was gone.

Dead.

Seeing Sadie, the hyena’s scrawny ass limbs wrapped around Hendrix had only reenforced that theory. The happy-go-lucky girl I’d once been was long gone, and in her place stood a broken-hearted fool.

“No, Hendrix, I’m not shitting you. In fact, I’m serious as a heart attack.”

"Yoo-hoo," Shelby called out from the hall, distracting me, "I'm goin' to head out, but I wanted to make sure you were okay before I left. Also, wanted to make sure you didn’t need my help hidin’ a body or cleanin’ up a crime scene.” She stopped at the bedroom door and leaned against the frame.

I snorted, and Hendrix glared. Yeah, screw you, buddy. “I’m fine, Shelby. You can head on back.”

“You sure, sugar?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, well, you know where to find me if ya need me. I’ll make sure I give Lucca an extra kiss from his Aunt Maddie.”

My heart melted a little at the mention of Lucca. “Bring him to see me tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure thing.”

Tired of hearing Shelby and I going back and forth, Hendrix, who had his back turned to Shelby, looked over his shoulder at her, and barked, “Go home Texas. We’re trying to talk.”

Uh oh.

Moving into the room, Shelby cupped her right hand and placed it against her ear. “Did you just call me Texas? ‘Cause I’m mighty sure that ya did.”

Hendrix looked at her like she was crazy. Which she was. “Yeah, I fucking did. Problem?” 

Shelby dropped her hand from her ear and squared her shoulders. "Listen here, shithead, I know we don't know each other, but you're about to learn somethin' real important about me." She paused and tilted her head to the side. "My hate for Texas? It's big, sugar. Like, really big. So, unless you want me to pull out my Smith & Wesson and shoot you in the face, I suggest you not hurl another venomous insult like that at me again. We clear?”

“As crystal, sugar.”

They would end up killing each other; I already knew.

“Good,” Shelby said, smiling. “And just for future reference, I’m a Bama girl through and through. Roll Tide Roll!” She winked before turning and bringing her gaze to meet mine. Raising her hand, she blew me a kiss. “Call me.”

I nodded. “I will.”

“Love you, sugar.”

“Love you too, crazy.”

Waving one last time, she said, “Later y’all,” before turning around and leaving.

As soon as I heard the apartment door shut, I looked back to Hendrix. “Talk.”

He pointed towards the bed. “Sit down.”

I glanced at the bed. “No.” God only knows how many times he, Sadie, and probably a dozen other females had played ‘hide the bone’ on that bed. Not to mention all the other places around the apartment he'd probably screwed multiple girls. Come to think of it, I'd need to spray some Lysol on the sofa before I went to bed tonight. Heavens knows how many naked butts had touched it's leather covered cushions.

Gross.

“No thanks, I’ll stand.”

Hendrix looked like he would argue, but he didn’t. Instead, he bent down, swooped two arms underneath me—one behind my knees and one behind my lower back—and picked me up bridal style. Moving me to the bed, he laid me down in the center of the mattress, and for what felt like the millionth time in the last few days, caged my body in with his.

This was getting ridiculous.

I refused to look at him. Closing my eyes, I turned my head to the side, giving him the non-bruised side of my face. “Let’s hear it.”

“Not until you look at me.” Oh, for Pete’s sake! Opening my eyes, I turned my face back and glared at him. With a sneer, I thinned my lips and asked, “Is that better?”

He worked his jaw before moving his gaze to the right. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“How about you start with Sadie. I’m sure that’ll warm me right up to hear the rest.” I patted him on the shoulder and placed a sarcastic smile on my face.

Looking down at me, he growled. "There isn't anything to tell. I’ve never dated or fucked Sadie.”

Bull-friggin-crap. I patted his shoulder again. "Sure, you haven't, Stud. It's okay though." Pain dripped from my voice, and it took everything in me not to fall apart at the images that flashed in my head.

Hendrix kissing someone else.

Hendrix making love to someone else.

Hendrix telling another girl—not me—that he loved her.

A lump formed in my throat, and the sharp sting of misery took root in my chest as the truth repeated on a loop in my head: He isn’t mine anymore. Taking a breath, I mustered all the strength I could and kept going. “It’s not like I thought you’d stay celibate all these years. Just because I never—” I snapped my mouth shut and closed my eyes. I hadn’t meant to go there. I really hadn’t.

 “Eyes open.” My gaze collided with his. “We'll come back to that later.” Not a chance in hell. “But first I need to make something clear to you” he dropped to his elbows bringing his chest closer to mine, “the only woman I’ve ever been inside of, is you, Maddie.”

No friggin’ way…

One look at his face and I knew he was telling the truth.

All the air left my lungs in one quick swoosh.

“Hendrix…”

“Baby listen to me,” he cupped both sides of my face with his hands, “I know you might not believe me but I’m going to say it regardless.” Dropping his right hand, he wrapped his long fingers around my wrist and brought my hand to his chest. Pressing it against his left pec, he took a breath. His heart pounded beneath my palm and tears welled in my eyes. Dipping his face down, he pressed his lips to the shell of my right ear. “I’ve loved you since I was eight years old, Maddie. Loved you since the moment I first saw you in that glittery pink dress with little white ribbons braided through your hair.” His lips touched my skin and my insides heated. “One look at those emerald eyes and cotton candy stained lips and I knew—I fucking knew—that you were the reason for my entire existence." He moved, placing his forehead on mine. "You're all I see, Maddie. You're all I’ve ever seen.”

My control snapped, and a gut-wrenching cry tore from my throat before I could stop it. Feeling my entire body shake beneath his, I screamed, “Then why did you leave me?” Clenching my hands into fists, I slammed them against his rock-hard chest. Over and over I hit him. “Why did you leave me?" My ears rang, and my head pounded. "If you really loved me," I fought for breath, "and if I'm all you've ever seen, then why the hell did you walk away from me?"

“Baby, calm down,” he wrenched my fists from his chest and slammed my arms onto the bed. My hands landed near my head as his calloused palms secured my wrists against the mattress.

Arching my back, I fought against his hold. I wanted away from him, away from this place. Coming here, being near him, begging for an explanation—it had all been a mistake. “Let me go, Hendrix!”

"No," he growled, dropping his body to cover mine. Letting go of my wrists, he cupped my jaw with both hands. "Stop moving your goddamn head, Maddie. You'll hurt yourself, and then I'll spank your ass so hard you won't be able to sit down for a week!”

I kept moving. Kept yelling. Kept fighting.

“Let me go!” I screamed for the second time in under a minute.

Hendrix rested more of his weight on me, and through gritted teeth, growled, “I’ll never let you go, Maddie. Not again!”

I inhaled so harshly my nostrils flared. “Tell me why you left me!”

“Because I didn’t have a goddamn choice!”

His tear-filled eyes met mine, and I froze. For the first time since he’d come bursting back into my life, I saw the truth in his eyes.

That truth: I wasn’t the only one with a broken heart.

At that moment, it was clear as day to me that when he left, Hendrix hadn’t just destroyed me. He’d destroyed himself too. Leaving had broken him the same way that it’d broken me. Even when we were apart, we were together in our misery.

“Hendrix…” My hands twitched with the need to touch him, to comfort him. Just one small touch. I didn’t like seeing him hurt. The man had been hurt enough throughout his lifetime. He didn’t need to suffer anymore.

Lord, please let this be the right thing to do.

Lifting my shaking hands, I pressed them against both sides of his rib cage. He hissed at the contact. "Maddie, baby…" I didn't reply as my fingertips skated across the fabric stretched taught against his strong back. "… what are you doing?”

His voice had changed. It was deeper, rougher than before.

Reaching the hem of his shirt, I slid my hands underneath the fabric and started my ascent. The fabric caught on my wrist and moved with me, baring Hendrix’s back an inch at a time. Feeling my skin heat, I whispered, “Take it off.”

I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know why I felt the way I did. All I knew was that I needed his skin on mine, needed the warmth of him surrounding me, needed his weight pressing into me before he explained.

Being skin on skin would comfort us both.

Without questioning me, Hendrix sat up, fisted his shirt behind his neck and ripped it over his head.

I stopped breathing.

Perfection.

Dropping his shirt to the floor, he looked at me before trailing his eyes down my neck and over my chest. “Maddie,” he said, clenching his hands at his sides, “take yours off. I’m not…” he shook his head, “I swear I won’t do anything. I just want to feel your skin on mine.”

I didn’t hesitate.

Lifting my back off the bed, I ripped my shirt over my head and tossed it to the end of the bed. Hendrix exhaled and moved towards me, but I wasn't done yet. Reaching behind me, I unlatched my bra with a quick flick of my wrist and let it fall into my lap.

I laid back down, pressing my back into the mattress. “Come here.”

He did. Pressing his hard chest into my soft one, he ran his calloused thumbs over my cheeks, down the side of my jaw, and along the soft curve of my neck. “You don't understand how much I’ve missed you, Maddie. I love you so goddamn much.”

I love you too, I mentally whispered.

Wrapping my arms around his big body, I held him as tight as I could. My chin trembled as I worked to speak around the knot in my throat. “I need you to tell me, handsome.” Lifting my legs, I hooked them around his knees and rested my ankles on his calves. “I need to know,” the tears returned, “why you left me.”

Hendrix took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Walking away, hurting you… breaking your heart,” he shook his head and clenched his jaw, “was the only way I could protect you.”

My nails dug into his back, and my legs tightened around his. “I don’t understand. Protect me from what?”

He blew out a long breath before beginning. “It all started with Pop…”