Chapter 21 – By Fate I Conquer Cora Reilly Read Online Free
I carefully picked up a piece of clothing, acutely aware of Maddox’s eyes following my every move. From the messy pile, it was hard to tell if the clothes were dirty or clean.
Maddox let out a low laugh as he perched on the windowsill and blew smoke outside. “Everything’s clean. But as you can see, I don’t have a wardrobe, so the chair has to do.”
“Ironing and folding too complicated for you?” I asked after I’d picked up a simple black T-shirt and black boxers. It felt strange touching Maddox’s underwear. The idea of wearing them felt even stranger. My relationship with Giovanni had always been too formal for me to get the chance to run around in his clothes, not to mention that he would have never allowed me anywhere near his underwear.
“Be my guest if you want to stay in your dirty clothes.”
I grabbed the T-shirt and his boxers and disappeared into the bathroom. The room was clean but small. Maddox was right. I’d never been in a bathroom as simple as this. Even my friends came from money and had bigger and more luxurious bathrooms than most people. I washed my underwear in the sink with soap but my pants and blouse were ruined. After a quick shower, I dressed in Maddox’s clothes. His shirt reached my thighs and his boxers hung low on my hips, almost slipping off. It felt strange being this vulnerable around a man like him.
When I left the bathroom, Maddox was gone. I walked toward the window, unsure what to do. Lying down in Maddox’s bed felt like a bad idea. I was dead tired but my suspicion kept me wide awake. After a while the door opened and Maddox came in with a plate stacked with sandwiches. He paused briefly, his eyes tracing from my bare feet over my naked legs all the way up to my face. He didn’t give away anything. Usually men always went slack-jawed but usually I dressed up.
“I have some sandwiches for you.”
“You made them?”
He shook his head with an amused expression as if the mere suggestion was absurd. “I had Cherry make them. She’s a decent cook.”
“The girl you got cozy with a few days ago?”
He nodded, as if it was no big deal. “Didn’t she mind that she had to make dinner for another woman who’d spend the night in your room?”
“We aren’t dating, only f*cking. She’s a pass-around. She doesn’t care. I’m not the only guy she’s got an eye on. If someone else asks her to be his old lady, she’d dump me in the dust in the blink of an eye. All these girls want is a cut that declares them a biker’s property.”
My lips curled. “A pass-around, really? How s*xist can you be?”
“Don’t act so high and mighty. In your circles women are used as bargain. I mean, who still uses arranged marriages?”
“They worked for centuries,” I said haughtily. “And I’m not promised.”
“Anymore. Weren’t you and that sappy guy supposed to marry in two years?”
“We didn’t have a date yet. But for your information, I chose him, not my parents.”
“You chose someone your father allowed near you so you would choose him.”
I had never seen it that way, but it was true that only certain boys had been allowed near me once I hit puberty. All of them well-behaved and respectful, not to mention terrified of my father. “You know nothing of our life. But it’s certainly better than this lawless hillbilly life you lead.”
“I’m free to do as I please. You are bound by your old-fashioned rules.”
Even if he had a point, I couldn’t just let it drop. I motioned at the hellhound tattoo on his upper arm, the sign of his club. “You can’t just leave the club either. That’s not freedom.”
“I live for that club. I’d never leave it. It’s my f*cking life.”
“And my family is my life, so I’m not less free than you.”
“I don’t think you really understand what freedom means.”
I’d often longed for freedom, but not away from my family and the world I grew up in.
Maddox held out the plate again, then set it down on the nightstand. “You can eat in bed if you want, I don’t mind.”
“What about crumbs?” I asked, more to gain time and get rid of my sudden nervousness.
“These sheets have seen worse,” Maddox said with a chuckle, making his way over to the armchair.
My lips curled. “I think I’ll sleep on the floor.”
Maddox gave me a pissed-off look. “I changed them this morning, so don’t get your panties in a bunch. But if you prefer the floor, be my guest. I don’t give a f*ck.”
He removed his cut and draped it over the backrest. It was the first time I saw him without it since the kidnapping. The way he looked at it, the piece of leather seemed to be important to him.
He slanted me a warning look. “Don’t touch my cut while I take a shower.”
“Don’t worry.”
He turned in the doorway to the bathroom. “And don’t try anything or I’ll dump your perky ass in the kennel again.” He closed the door.
“Asshole,” I muttered, but I was almost thankful. If he really did this to protect me, then it was a nice gesture. However, I couldn’t believe it was only because of that.
I’d inherited my father’s distrustful nature and it was rearing its head now. When water began running, I headed for the door and pushed the handle down but it was locked. Male voices and boisterous laughter sounded downstairs, so the locked door was probably for the best anyway.
Glancing at the stack of sandwiches and hearing my stomach’s angry rumble, I finally took one with cheese and ham. I usually didn’t eat carbs or dairy. One made you fat and the other gave you pimples, but I really couldn’t bring myself to care. I stuffed one-third of the sandwich into my mouth and bit off, chewing eagerly. After living in a stinking cage for days and being at the mercy of those bikers, most of my previous worries seemed awfully irrelevant. Briefly my mind touched on the video, wondering who had seen it, but I shoved the thought aside. It wasn’t useful at the moment. The past was the past. I needed to figure out a way to improve my future.
Sooner than expected, Maddox came out of the bathroom and I almost had a heart attack. He wore nothing but boxers, revealing a muscular upper body covered in tattoos. Now the pull-up bar hanging from the ceiling by the window made sense. That body required work. I had to force my eyes away from him. His body screamed bad boy. I’d grown up around bad men, but Maddox carried his very own forbidden, bad boy aura.
Maddox looked at me as if I were an intruder in his space, as if I’d asked to be here, as if any of this had been my choice. He walked over to the small table and grabbed the cigarette package that lay there. “Did you touch my cut?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s a piece of leather.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“No, I didn’t touch it.”
He nodded, obviously satisfied. He picked up the packet of cigarettes from the windowsill.
“You’re smoking in your bedroom?”
He put the cigarette into his mouth, lit it and took a deep drag before he finally deemed me with a reply. “Got a problem with that?”
I shrugged. “It’s unhygienic and disgusting. Not to mention dangerous, considering how many people fall asleep with a burning cigarette and set themselves aflame. It’s your health. But I’d prefer if you’d choose something that kills you quicker than nicotine.”
Maddox’s expression twisted with anger and he stalked toward me. I forced myself to stay put and not back away from his fury. “I’m the only thing that stands between you and a bunch of horny bikers who want to get a taste of mafia p*ssy.”
Why did this enrage him so much? He’d been particularly tense since we arrived in his bedroom. I stiffened. “Why do you even care? Why don’t you let them have a go at me if you hate my family so much?”
“I hate your father. You only annoy the f*ck out of me because you don’t even realize how privileged you are.”
Due to his outburst, he’d come very close to me so the scent of his brisk, minty shower gel flooded my nose. His hair was still wet and messily hung down his forehead. My eyes were drawn to the tattoos all over his upper body and arms. Images of hellhounds, knives, skulls and bikes.
“Stop playing the victim here,” I said eventually.
Maddox glared at me but something in his eyes made me feel hot. “I was a victim a long time ago, I’m not now.”
My eyes flickered from the piercing in his tongue to the bar in his nipple.
“I have more,” he said and took another drag.
“Where?” I asked.
His gaze moved down to his boxers. “Two more.”
My mouth fell open, trying to imagine where exactly he had them. My cheeks became hot. “You’re toying with me.” I narrowed my eyes. “You just want to make me nervous.”
“Why would two piercings in my dick make you nervous?” he asked, but his voice had a new, deeper timbre.
I shrugged. “They don’t.”
He smirked, seeing right through me. Everything about Maddox made me nervous. “Go to bed, princess.”
He always succeeded in making the word sound like the worst insult imaginable.
Not wanting to appear scared, I sat on the very edge of the bed, my toes on the floor. The bed linen smelled fresh and not like smoke or sweat. Maybe he normally only smoked with the window open and just didn’t to annoy me.
By Fate I Conquer Cora Reilly Read Online PDF Free Download Bookmark this site “www.NovelKoo.Com” for Daily Updates.