Maid for Love by Marie Force Read Free Book Online Page B

hand. "Worked up."
    Her eyes spit fire at him. "I am not worked up. I'm pissed!"
    "So I gathered. Here's the deal—either I can find a place to toss my sleeping bag inside or I'll sleep on the deck so you can tell all these 'people' you're so worried about that I didn't actually stay here. Believe me, I've slept in worse places than under the Gansett stars."
    "I want you to go back to wherever you came from and leave me alone."
    The emphatic statement hurt more than it should have. "As soon as you're able to care for yourself and Thomas, I'll be gone."
    "Are you always this arrogant and pushy?"
    Mac thought about that. "Yeah, I guess so."
    "It might work with other people, but it does nothing for me."
    "Duly noted."
    "Now you're making fun of me."
    "I am not." He glanced at his watch. "We have to go. I don't need another Chester woman screaming at me. One is plenty."
    "Ugh, you're insufferable."
    "So I've been told. You might want to change your shirt. There's blood on it."
    Shooting him a dirty look, she hobbled to the bedroom.
    "Need some help?"
    "No!" The door slammed shut.
    She might've liked kissing him, but she still didn't want him around.
     
    Maddie leaned against the closed bedroom door. Oh my God . Her mind raced at a frantic speed. I had a sexy dream about Mac McCarthy, and then I all but attacked him. If he's heard what people say about me, now he'll believe it .
    Of course he'd believe it. Why wouldn't he? Better yet, why should I care what he believes? It's not like he plans to stick around after I recover. He'll be back to his life in Miami, and I'll still be here working for his parents and living my life. He's nothing to me.
    Except , she thought as she wrestled her way painfully into a clean T-shirt, he seemed to like kissing me . He'd seemed equally affected by the sensual kiss. She hadn't missed the impressive bulge in his shorts or the heated look in his eyes. Running her fingers through her hair, she caught a hint of his cologne and brought her hand to her nose to breathe in the spicy scent that would now forever remind her of him.
    "Stop it," she hissed to her haggard reflection. "The last time you got carried away by a man's empty promises, you ended up a single mother. Don't be a fool again. He'll take what he can get from you and hit the road, just like they all do. Nothing about him is different or special."
    Even as she said the words, however, she knew they weren't entirely true. He had already proven he was different by insisting on helping her as she recovered. As for special? She'd have to wait and see, but she would not— could not —allow herself to expect anything from him.
    She refused to ever again risk her heart for a man, especially one who had the power to crush her while moving on with his own life as if she'd never existed.
    Never again.
     
    Hours later, Mac carried Maddie and the wriggling Thomas back up to their apartment. Despite being peed and puked on, Mac had had done an admirable job—with her verbal assistance—of taking care of four babies ranging from nine to twelve months old. To say he'd never changed a diaper before, he'd caught on fast, and Thomas had taken an instant shine to him.
    Maddie held Thomas with her good arm while Mac navigated the stairs and play-bit the fingers Thomas put in his mouth. Mac had barely made eye contact with her all afternoon. Was it because of the kiss or something else? Had he heard what people said about her?
    Her stomach ached and her palms grew damp. How she longed to be just a regular girl with nothing that made her different, without the suitcase full of troubles she dragged behind her. Sighing, she wished she could somehow lose the suitcase.
    "Why the sigh?" Mac asked as he lowered her and Thomas to the sofa.
    She ventured a glance up at him to find him watching her.
    "Does something hurt?"
    My heart. My stomach. My knee . "No."
    He scooped up Thomas as if he'd been doing it all the boy's life. "What comes first? Dinner or