by Lori Wilde
“You’re right. I should just let this go. We’ll forget all about it. Yes. It’s forgotten.”
Apparently so. David was already snoring.
Great. He was cattywampus in the bed, crowding her out. Fine, she’d just go blow dry her hair and wash out her lingerie. Let him sleep. He needed the rest.
In the meantime, however, what was she supposed to do with the throbbing ache he’d created between her legs?
He couldn’t forget all about it.
David listened to Maddie puttering around in the bathroom while he pretended to be asleep. The drugs were wearing off and his numerous pains were returning to needle him.
She was humming softly under her breath and he caught himself straining to recognize the tune and finally identified it as a song by Faith Hill about the rapture of a mind-blowing kiss.
He smiled at the ceiling. He had gotten to her whether she would admit it or not.
Trouble was, she’d gotten to him too.
In a way nobody had in a very long time. Maybe even never. He thought about Keeley, about how he’d felt when he was around her and he had to confess his feelings then were nowhere near as intense as these strange and inexplicable emotions he was having for Maddie now.
The delicious smell of her remained in his nostrils, a tantalizing ghost scent. The honeyed flavor of her lips lingered on his tongue, rich, full, promising. He shook his head, remembering how quickly he’d grown hard when she’d barely touched him.
He couldn’t keep lying to himself. He wanted Maddie more desperately than he had ever wanted any woman. Keeley included. He found her, quite simply, irresistible.
Some men might think she was too muscular or that her chin was a little too pointed. But he appreciated the contrast of that determined chin in juxtaposition to her soft, bow-shaped mouth. He admired the richness of shadow in her cheekbones, the clarity of light in her emerald eyes. He loved studying the geometry of her form. Her lines and curves, the angles and circles that made up her womanly body.
But his feelings for her went far beyond her physical attractiveness.
He respected how she was warm, supportive and compassionate with those she loved. He admired her work ethic and her steady reliability. She enchanted him utterly and he had never expected to be so smitten, but here it was.
He loved her loyalty, her no-bullshit outlook on life and how she fought the good fight. He enjoyed being around her. She sparked his interest with her clever sense of humor and her pragmatic approach to problem solving.
He even found her worrywart tendencies endearing. It showed she truly cared. And while he sometimes found her cautiousness a challenge, she challenged him in a good way. After what she’d told him about her family, he understood why she had trouble trusting other people to be there for her the way she was there for them.
Which was kind of weird when you thought about it, because he’d never been big on offering his trust indiscriminately. But if he ever got Maddie to put aside her doubts and trust him completely—what a precious gift that would be.
Did he dare hope for such rewards? Was he expecting too much?
He also knew it was no coincidence she’d been the one to find him after he’d been beaten up by Blanco. Even though David wasn’t a big proponent of destiny, he believed something had placed her on that road at just the right time. She had an instinct for being there whenever you needed her. He probably owed her his life.
And to think he’d ditched her at the Prado.
He felt guilty and misguided and ashamed of himself for not having more faith in her. He should have told her about his suspicions that Blanco had kidnapped Cassie away from Shriver. He should have told her what Isabella had told him about Cassie’s plan. He should tell her now.
She would want to know.
Yes. Maddie was a tell-it-like-it-is kind of woman. She didn’t play games and she liked being informed about what was going on around her. She didn’t stick her head in the sand and ignore reality.
And man, how he wanted her.
David swung his legs off the bed, grabbed his discarded shirt and headed for the door. He was going after condoms and he wasn’t coming back until he found them.
He returned twenty minutes later with a box of square foil packets in one hand and a grin on his achy face. He dry swallowed a pain pill to help him see this seduction through. He was going to make love to her tonight, broken wrist, blackened eye and all.
“Where have you been?” Maddie demanded, hands on her hips, worry pulling her brows into a frown. “When I came out of the bathroom and found you gone, I almost had a heart attack.”
He held up the box of condoms.
“You didn’t?” Her frown dissolved into a shy Mona Lisa smile.
“I did.”
“David . . . I . . .”
“Getting cold feet?” He stalked across the room and wrapped his good arm around her waist.
“I’ve just been thinking . . .”
“Stop thinking, babe, and just feel,” he murmured.
The thing was, he’d been thinking too. He had the notion they were standing on the verge of something truly monumental but he had no idea how to articulate his feelings, so he would just show her.
With fingers full of hungry, aching need, he peeled off her robe until Maddie stood completely naked before him.
He forgot to inhale. God, but she was gorgeous. He’d never seen anything sexier. He gazed into her eyes and his chest knotted. This was his Maddie, looking at him as if he’d created the sun and the moon and the stars.
Her nipples beaded taut and her disheveled hair curled provocatively about her slender shoulders. She was completely exposed to him, vulnerable, all her protection gone, but she did not shy away. She did not shrink back.
She was so brave to trust him.
David drank her in. Every dazzling inch of her. From the hollow of her throat, to her rounded breasts, to the flat smoothness of her belly to the sweet blond V at the juncture of her thighs.
Her cheeks flushed rosy at his perusal. Her eyes sparkled, reflecting his expanding excitement. She wet her lips and never took her gaze from his face.
He clenched his fists to keep himself from grabbing her and taking her right there on the floor. He wanted their first time to be nice and slow and easy. He wanted it to last. He wanted to please her beyond her wildest expectations.
His cock throbbed and his throat tightened as she reached out to unbutton his shirt for the second time that night. Her touch was soft, yet stimulating. It was incredible.
He was without a doubt the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth. To have this warm, strong, supple woman caressing him as if he were pure gold, when she was the find, the treasure, the glistening diamond. He was just an old chunk of coal.
Doubts suddenly flooded his mind. What did he have to offer a woman like her? The FBI was his life. He craved excitement, the thrill of the chase. It was the reason Keeley had left him. Secretly, he feared the quiet stability of a loving relationship. Feared it because he just knew he’d eventually screw it up. He had no idea how to be the kind of solid, rock-steady man someone like Maddie needed.
She leaned into him and softly brushed her lips against his. “Stop thinking,” she whispered. “You’re thinking too much. Enjoy the moment.”
Here she was, turning the tables on him. Just when he thought he had her figured out she did the unexpected.
He kissed her, putting all his long-dormant emotions into it.
Several minutes later, she pulled back to take a breath.
“Wow,” she said. “Wow.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he teased.
Eagerly, she peeled the shirt off his shoulders, over his cast and then let it drop to the floor. Her fingers went to his zipper and he hissed in his breath. He wrapped his hand around hers.
“Let me.”
David shucked his pants in record time, almost tripping as he kicked them into the corner. Maddie turned, displaying the
creamy curve of her delectable fanny and walked toward the bed.
He followed.
Chapter
EIGHTEEN
THE PRESSURE BUILDING inside Maddie’s body was low, deep, and hot. It was a heavy liquid flame, denser than mercury, more flammable than gasoline.
She wanted him inside her, filling her up, easing this intense, throbbing ache. She wanted to fly into a million pieces and lay breathless forever. Her need was as desperate as a wild animal, thrashing to get free from its cage.
“I need you,” she said. “I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“Oh babe,” he groaned.
He pulled back the covers and eased her down onto the cool sheets. He hugged her close and she could hear the steady thumping of his heart.
“Close your eyes.”
She did and he kissed her eyelids. First one, then the other and back again. No one had ever kissed her eyelids before and it felt amazingly erotic.
He ran his good hand through her hair and that was an erotic sensation too. He kneaded her scalp. Back and forth, soft and slow.
Then he planted kisses down the length of her nose until he got to her lips. He paused.
“Don’t stop, you wicked man.” She opened her eyes and found him staring at her.
“You ready for this?”
“I’ve been ready since the moment I first saw your naked chest in that motel room in Grand Cayman.”
“No kidding?”
“Don’t get egotistical on me now.”
“I thought you didn’t like me.”
“I didn’t like the feelings you stirred in me.”
“You were turned-on that day?”
“You couldn’t tell?”
“No.”
She nudged him in the ribs. “I’m turned-on now. Or at least I was. Get to it, man.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and claimed her mouth.
He tasted wonderful.
Maddie moaned as his wicked tongue flicked across her palate, the sound of her pleasure humming against his mouth. She felt weak and dizzy, strong and steady all at the same time. A carousel of sensation, spinning her around and around.
He tightened his grip, his masculine hands reassuring her that she wasn’t making a mistake. His excited touch sent a thousand minuscule infernos fanning out down her abdomen, scorching her, rousing her higher and higher until her body was nothing more than a trembling, molten core.
His mouth left hers, and he tracked his sinful tongue over her eager flesh, forging a channel of ripe heat to her throat where he sketched erotic triangles along the length of her collarbone.
He seemed to know her body more intimately than she knew it herself. With unerring accuracy, he found her every erogenous zone and used his discoveries to full advantage. Massaging the underside of her jaw, stroking the smooth area between her elbow and her armpit, nibbling the back of her knees, blowing lightly on the spot just below her navel after he’d licked it.
When he blew warm air gently into her ear, she giggled at the tickly sensation and felt younger than she had in years. She felt lighthearted. He made her want to play.
He used his tongue to maximize her pleasure, dispatching shuddering waves of chilly thrills throughout her body and when he stroked her inner ear with his tongue, she literally quaked.
His touch was magic, making her forget everything but this moment. She breathed him in, inhaling his masculinity, savoring the uniqueness of their joining.
Ah, the power of his fingertips. The mystery of his tongue.
He stretched his body over hers, lying atop her but propping his weight on his elbows. She worried about his broken wrist but it didn’t seem to bother him. His erection throbbed hot and hard against her belly. He stroked her cheek with a hand and gazed into her eyes.
She hiccupped against the intensity of emotion written on his face. She telegraphed her own feelings to him, staring deeply into his soul.
You’re special.
She knew him. The way she’d never known another. Not even the connection she had with her twin could rival this bond, this link, this nexus of meaning so intense there was no need to speak. In fact, words would have lessened the impact of what they were both feeling.
He dipped his head, breaking the visual bridge between them, but where his gaze left off, his lips took over. Gently, he sucked one of her pebble hard nipples into his red hot mouth.
Maddie hissed in her breath. Chills peppered her body like buckshot, searing the root of every single nerve ending she possessed.
Her breasts swelled and ached against his mouth and she whimpered. “Please, please.”
“Please what?”
She was swept away by this mounting hurts-so-good pressure, she couldn’t even speak.
“Do you want me to stop?” He pulled back leaving her damp nipple bereft.
“No, no, don’t stop.”
“You want more?”
She nodded.
“More of this?” He lightly flicked her nipple. “Or would you rather have some of this?” He made his penis bounce against her belly.
“I’m greedy,” she admitted. “I want it all.”
“And you deserve it all,” he said.
He shifted, positioning himself with one hip pressed into the mattress.
And then he began to explore, trailing his fingers from her breastbone downward on a treasure hunt that soon had her quivering from her feet to her head.
“Wait,” she said, fighting off the deliciousness of it all. “I have to tell you something.”
“This isn’t the part where you tell me you used to be a man?” he teased. “Because babe, I don’t believe it for a minute.”
“Don’t be silly, I’m serious.”
He propped himself on an elbow. “All right, Serious. I’m listening. So what’s the big secret?”
“It’s not that it’s a secret, it’s just something you don’t tell a guy until things advance to a certain point.”
“I take it we’ve reached that point.”
“Passed it actually.”
“I’m listening. You can tell me anything,” he assured her. “I don’t want any secrets between us.”
“You really mean that?”
“Absolutely.” He nodded, grinning impishly. “If you really did used to be a guy I’ll just learn how to deal with it.”
“David, stop teasing.”
He forced away his frown and cleared his throat. “Do I look serious enough?”
“Oh you.” She shook her head.
“Okay, I’ll settle down.” He took her hand and gazed into her eyes again. “What do you have to tell me?”
“I’ve never . . . um . . . I’m not sure how to say this.”
He blinked at her. “Maddie, are you trying to tell me you’re a virgin?”
“No, I’m sorry, I’m not a virgin. Are you terribly disappointed?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re twenty-seven years old and damned attractive. I’m glad you haven’t been waiting just for me to show up. The pressure would be intimidating.”
“Oh.”
“That didn’t come out right.” He pressed a palm to his forehead. “What I mean to say is, I’m certainly not a virgin. How could I expect you to be one?”
“Whew,” she giggled. “That’s a relief. And here I was worrying I’d have to teach you all about making love.”
“I’m not saying I don’t have a lot to learn. I want to memorize every inch of your body. Just tell me what feels good to you, babe.”
“You’ve been doing a great job so far.”
“We’ve gotten sidetracked. Let’s go back to whatever it is you wanted to tell me.” He rubbed his thumb against her palm.
“Well, it’s along those lines. Of knowing my body I mean.”
“Yes.”
“I’m . . . I’ve never . . .”
He arched an eyebrow. “Had an orgasm?”
“Not with a partner.”
“All right.”
“I’m just telling you so you won’t be disappointed or upset if I can’t come with you inside me.”
David touched her cheek. Maybe you’ve just been with the wrong partner, he thought but what he said was, “That’s okay. Thanks for telling me.”
“I’m so glad you understand.”
“I’ll tell you what,” he said, rolling over onto his back. Now that she’d told him she’d never had an orgasm with a partner, he was more determined than ever to make sure she did. “From here on out you’re in control.”
“Really?”
He thrust his hands over his head. “I’m tied up. Can’t move unless you tell me I can. I’m yours for the taking, do with me what you will.”
And please don’t make me come before you do.
She straddled his waist and leaned over him, her breasts rubbing provocatively against his chest. She kissed him with a passion that filched his breath and left him at her mercy.
Her tongue plunged deeply into his mouth. She saucily bit his lower lip. With a feral, pressing need, her hands clasped his body. His breath was coarse and jagged in his throat as he clutched her hips to his.
“No hands,” she admonished and reluctantly, he raised his arms over his head again.
She sat up and he gloried in the sight of her above him, in the diffuse light from the bathroom, coupled with the moonlight shining through the bedroom window.
Damn! She was a goddess.
Her knees were flush against his flanks, her bottom pressed against the top of his penis. She was so close. His body cried for her to take him inside her warm moistness, but at the same time he wanted to wait.
“Show me,” he said. “How you like it. How you pleasure yourself.”
Maddie hesitated a moment, then she reached for his left hand. Totally mesmerized by her sensual movements, he gave her his hand and waited, trancelike for her to make good use of it.
She moved his hand downward, and placed his fingers against her velvet opening.
Oh yeah. Gently, he began to stroke her with his index finger.
“That’s right,” she cooed.
