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A grin tugged at the corner of Maddux’s o toe to toe with him The only time he wanted her submissive was in the bedroom, and so far that hadn’t been an issue between the her body and pleasure to him

“Thank you,” he said to his sister, and shifted his gaze to Hunter, wanting and needing his blessing, too

Hunter exhaled a deep breath, his expression filled with sincerity “I know she’s nothing like her father, and if she makes you happy, then that’s all that matters”

“She does,” Maddux said, surprising himself with the spontaneous admission

Te into his eyes, searching for so it “Yes, she does make you happy, and you deserve that, Maddy You both do”

Maddux would have gone after Arabella regardless of his siblings’ feelings, but he was incredibly grateful that he had their support, and that Arabella would be welcomed into their family and treated with respect

He just prayed that his powers of persuasion were strong enough to convince his Bella that she belonged with him

Arabella taped up a box filled with her father’s personal items and added the carton to the stack of others she’d been piling into the living roo in his future, it ht want to keep and put thee unit for now She’d sell all the other unimportant but valuable items in the apartment and donate the rest

It was an arduous, eh his personal effects, but it had to be done because she’dand luxurious apartment she’d shared with her father in the city and would probably downsize to a cozy one-bedrooed to Maddux, and considering what her father still owed him, he’d no doubt want to sell the place to offset the three-million-dollar debt he’d paid off, and she couldn’t blame him for that

After everything that had happened with Gavin and her father’s arrest, Arabella had requested teeks off froet her father’s affairs in order considering the legal battle he was facing—though Arabella harbored no illusions that her dad wasn’t guilty—and have the tiure out the direction of her life and carve out her new norured out yet

She’d spent her days keeping her ht she’d cried a lot of tears For the things her father had done to hurt other people, for the loss of her only parent that now left her feeling alone in the world, and for the fact that she’d fallen in love with a man who held her heart and a piece of her souland she knew he alould

At the thought of Maddux, her heart clenched in her chest, and she sat down on the nearest couch cushion, needing a ain There was no denying that she missed him, so much More than she’d believed possible There were so ht at the hospital that she’d questioned her decision to walk away fro so, when she knew they’d for, inti how quiet it had been, and she hadn’t heard a word froht thing For both of them

But had she? That was the question that haunted her Confused her Tangled up her heart and eiven up ht be able to take everything good about their tiether and build a steady, per happy, fun memories, that helped to ease the dark, painful past

She wanted that for Maddux She wanted it with Maddux She didn’t want theic fairy tale She desperately wanted her happily ever after with him

The doorbell rang, startling her out of her thoughts She wasn’t expecting colanced down at the dusty, faded jeans and plain T-shirt she earing She’d run her fingers through her hair so many times in the past few hours, she kneas probably a tousled mess, and she didn’t have a lick of makeup on