Rise Like The Sun

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

She still sees the rage rippling across his face sometimes, the sheer crippling strength within his entire build. Nick is always such a goof that she forgets just how physically strong and capable he actually is. She'd never seen him so angry before, never heard that inhuman snarl ground out of his throat before. It had scared her, but somehow, Madison knew that Nick would never turn that strength against her.

"Yeah, they're fine," he tells her, before a goofy grin forms against his face and just like that, the atmosphere turns to something normal between them again. Madison wants to breathe a sigh of relief. "So, are you ready for me to show you up on the dance floor?"

"You're so painfully unfunny it hurts," Madison says, but she's already laughing lightly.

She enters the ballroom with Nick, her cheeks flushed with pleasure.

Usually, Mother's parties, while decadent and perfect, have a tendency to bore her, with their idle talk of business and the like. She feels a bit traitorous even thinking something like that, but Madison can't bring herself to care too much. Now that Nick's beside her, Madison finds herself thinking, she might actually have some fun.

Nick's eyes widen on something, and he gasps.

"Free food!" he says excitedly and promptly makes a dash for the banquet table.

*

NICK

"Does your stomach have no end?" Madison scowls at him.

Nick looks down at her and can't stop himself from chuckling over his plate of grilled shrimp. His gaze turns to where she is staring at her mother and then he straightens, covering Mrs Sutton's line of view of Madison.

"You want some?" Nick says.

Madison's gaze lingers on where her mother is, before she promptly ducks into the cover that his large build gives and dives for the plate of shrimp.

Nick is cracking up as Madison eats hungrily. He can always read her, even if they're a little bit awkward with each other now. Clearly, she hasn't eaten for the whole day, with her mother breathing down her neck, he realises as he piles more food on her plate.

God, he thinks, dazed, she looks beautiful it hurts.

And Nick hates that he can't tell her.

Because Madison doesn't feel that way for him.

Nick reaches for more food, his gaze on Madison. He hadn't been able to sleep the whole night, tossing and turning over whether he ought to duck back into Madison's bedroom or stay away from her. At first, he'd regretted questioning anything, but now, Nick knows how she actually feels about. Which is, nothing.

If she had felt anything for him, then she wouldn't have told them they'd be better off as acquaintances.

Even now, Nick shivers at the word.

He doesn't want to be acquaintances with Madison, which is something he never thought he'd be saying, Nick admits to himself. If he had known how much she would come to mean to him, Nick thinks, he'd still do everything all over again. He's greedy, he knows. He wants more. He wants Madison's laughter and her anger and to stare at the way her face brightens when she eats his food - God, he just wants her.

He can't ever do anything about it, though.

He's got to respect what she wants, which isn't him.

It's almost painful, the way his heart aches against his chest, as Nick stares hopelessly at Madison.

"Hey," he begins, as Madison's head lifts to meet his gaze. "Madison, I -,"