Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Those possibilities never crossed her mind.
She was all in on this man. He was all in on her.
Whatever happened, they would face it together and be stronger on the other side.
“Article?” she asked, gathering the sheet over her body, sensing this conversation wasn’t the kind one had with their boobs showing. “Is it . . . about our performance last night?”
“Oh, it’s definitely mentioned, yes, but that’s not the . . .” Madden stood and paced to the window of her bedroom, hands planted on his hips. “That’s not the subject of the article.”
“You’re being so cryptic—”
Eve’s phone dinged, interrupting her. Then it dinged again. And again.
An object slowly formed in her throat.
“What is it, Mad?”
“They know you’re my kidney donor. It’s out there.” He expelled a breath, slowly coming toward Eve, towering over where she sat cross-legged in a huddle of sheets. “You’ve just gotten the courage to tell me and less than a day later, the whole country knows. I’m sorry, love. I’m sorry they invaded your privacy like that.” He shook his head. “I can’t even figure out how they got that information. I tried for years and was told your identity was sealed up tight unless you chose otherwise.”
Eve stared, scenes from the night coming back to her in flashes. “A reporter asked me last night. With all the media interested, someone must have tipped her off, because she knew enough to ask, right? I was caught off guard and my reaction . . . it might have been enough to confirm. Not to mention, my scar would have been visible when I danced. They just connected the dots.” She looked up at Madden, unable to read his expression. “I should have been more careful. I’m sorry—”
“Eve.” Madden looked stunned as he sat down on the side of the bed and reached for her face, cradling it in his hand. “If it was up to me, I would have told the whole world a long time ago. Jesus, Eve. A sacrifice like yours should be acknowledged.”
Eve sat there for long moments, her face supported in the hand of the man she trusted as much as she trusted herself, a man she loved madly. And she realized there was no way to go back to loving him with reservations or fears. She’d let her love break through the barriers last night and it was too strong to be contained ever again.
“I don’t care who knows,” she whispered. “It’s the best decision I ever made. You’re the best decision I ever made. If I’ve learned anything since marrying you, it’s that people can feel how they want to feel about me—their opinions have nothing to do with us. You were never going to stop showing up for me until I believed that.”
“Damn right,” he rasped. “And by the way, their opinion of you is that you’re a bloody hero, love. That’s exactly what you are. You’re my hero.”
His image blurred in front of her eyes. “You’re mine too.”
Madden leaned down to give her a tender kiss, but when Eve lifted her hands to run her fingers through his hair and the sheet slipped down, the kiss veered toward hot. Hungry. “You know, I wouldn’t mind a shower too,” she said, smiling against his lips.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Madden growled, scooping her off the bed and carrying her toward the bathroom while her laughter filled the room. Once there, he settled her on the sink while he set about turning on the shower and adjusting the temperature. “The day is ours, Eve. We can do whatever you want.”
She closed her eyes as the steam started to build in the small bathroom. “I think . . .” She ignored the little leap of nerves in her fingertips. “I think I want to go to breakfast. In town. Just walk into a restaurant and sit down.”
When she opened her eyes, Madden was standing shirtless in the steam, looking at her with so much tenderness, she almost clutched her chest from the pressure. The love.
“After we shower, though,” she murmured, sliding off the sink and pushing down the waistband of his sweatpants as she went, biting her lip when he stepped out of them, banded her waist with a forearm, and walked her into the shower, pinning her to the wall and demolishing any hint of nerves with a kiss that spoke of forever.
“Aye, love,” he breathed, drawing her thighs up around his hips. “After.”
* * *
Later that morning, Madden held Eve’s hand tightly in his own, trying not to show his apprehension over walking with her into the local diner, smack-dab in the middle of Main Street. Not because he wasn’t proud to be seen with his wife—there was no one prouder on this earth—but because if anyone said a negative word to her, he’d be throwing them headfirst through one of the plateglass windows.