by Rita Herron
"What scoop?"
Silence descended on the line.
"What scoop, Lance? I've known you guys most of my life. Is there some dark secret about the Summers family I don't know about?"
"Hell, no," Lance bellowed. "I just don't trust the woman, that's all."
"So, no one's forcing you to spend time with her."
"You're damn right they aren't. And they couldn't even if they wanted to."
"I didn't know anyone wanted you to."
"They don't."
"Then what's the problem?"
"The problem is that Maddie is missing."
"Maddie is not missing, Lance, she's simply not home yet. Maybe she went to dinner with a friend or to a movie." Chase shook his head at his friend's exasperated sigh. "Lance, where are you?"
"Sitting in front of Maddie's house."
"Do you think that's a good idea?" Chase closed his eyes and pictured Maddie going ballistic when she saw him, especially after Chase had given her a big-brother lecture today when she'd kissed him. Was her late night somehow his fault? By chastising her about the kiss, had he set the wheels in motion and sent Maddie out on some wild night to prove a point?
Lance whistled between his teeth. "I know. But I was worried about her."
"Look, I understand, man. But if you don't want to get your butt kicked, leave her a note to call you and go home."
After several minutes of arguing, Lance finally agreed and hung up. Chase ran some tap water, washed his hands and face, then filled a glass and drank deeply as he contemplated Lance's odd behavior.
He stalked outside, grabbed the hammer again and went back to pounding the Camaro, irritated that Maddie might be out with another guy—one of those twenty or thirty men she wanted to meet. He could see her at a bar, a dozen men ogling her, a half-dozen getting up the nerve to approach her, one or two crossing the line, becoming overly friendly—
He cursed and slammed the hammer down so hard, a piece of metal broke off and went flying across the yard.
Other images followed, each more tawdry and painful: Maddie kissing another man, a tangle of arms and legs, his hands touching her in places Chase could only dream of touching... He slammed the hammer down again as anger churned through him.
Anger that had nothing to do with being brotherly.
* * *
Exhausted, Maddie crawled into the hotel bed late Friday night, although the party outside remained in full swing. She turned on the bedside lamp and cuddled beneath the covers, feeling satisfied and elated. The shower kicked on and she heard her roomie singing. With a few minutes to herself, Maddie grabbed her new journal, glad that after its recent purchase she had accidentally left it in her car. She had decided to record all of her dates so she could look back and compare them. She especially didn't want to forget this evening with Sophie and Marco and Antonio. Her brothers would have a fit if they knew about her date. It would serve them right if they did find out. Chase Holloway, too. But she didn't want them to worry, so she grabbed her cell phone. Unfortunately her battery was low and the bars showed no service. Resigned, she used the room phone and punched Lance's number to let them know she'd gone away for the weekend. The last thing she needed was for her brothers to come searching for her. Lance didn't answer, so she simply left a message, saying she'd be home on Sunday, that she was sleeping over with a friend, then hung up with a grin. There, the phone call should satisfy her brothers that she was safe. And they'd never know about Marco and Antonio.
Marco's too-wet kiss sprang to mind, and she shivered.
An unbidden memory of Chase's less-than-chaste kiss followed, mind-boggling in comparison. The mere memory sent a tingle through her. Would Chase Holloway still call her a kid if he'd seen her at the nudist colony?
Chapter 7
"I can't believe I let you talk me into coming to this... this nudist resort." Chase shielded his privates with splayed hands and peeked from behind a bush near the party deck, irritated he'd allowed his buddies to persuade him to walk into this place butt naked to search for Maddie. Saturday morning Lance had found the message from Maddie and seen the number on his caller ID. He'd completely freaked out, yelling that he couldn't believe his baby sister had actually gone to the Open Arms Resort, a nudist colony! They'd forced Lance to calm down and he'd waited all day, praying Maddie would come home. When she hadn't, Lance had decided to drive up and drag her little butt home.
Of course, that meant Reid and Chase had to go with him.
Now they were hiding in the bushes with nothing on but their birthday suits, planning their strategy and becoming dinner for the bugs. And while they were swatting, other guests were partying, having a grand old time. It was almost midnight. Nude people were everywhere, dancing on the deck, strolling in the moonlight, cuddling in the gazebo. Of course, right now, Maddie might be tucked in bed with another naked man and they'd never find her.
Chase's stomach churned at the thought.
A weed clawed at his bare leg and Chase scratched his calf, wishing he could at least have kept his socks and boots! Poor Lance had almost decked the guard when he'd explained that they couldn't enter without taking off their clothes. But Reid had spotted a pretty blonde, shucked his clothes without an argument and followed her onto the party deck. An older man, obviously her husband, had joined her, and Reid had suddenly run for the bushes, claiming he'd simply been asking directions!
Lance plucked a leaf from a nearby bush and placed it strategically over his lower extremities. "I can't believe Maddie let her date bring her here. What was she thinking?"
"She said she wanted to have fun," Chase said. He spotted a grove of trees bordering the trail that led from the party deck and wondered if they could find cover between them.
"She's not old enough to have fun like this," Reid muttered.
"You don't know for sure if Maddie is here." Chase made a run for it and dove behind the red tips just as a group of guests strolled by, laughing and talking as they headed toward the lake.
Reid and Lance trotted behind him, ducking down low. Still, with the three of them being more than six feet, their heads protruded from the tops of the shrubbery like turtles. "Well, if we see her—" Lance whispered, his face turning red, "You'd better keep your eyes on her face, Chase."
Chase glared at him. "I didn't come here to leer."
Reid's gaze followed another buxom blonde who perched herself on a flat rock on the grassy embankment, propped a guitar on her hip and began to strum. "Hey, guys, maybe this place isn't so bad."
"We're here to find our little sister, not enjoy ourselves," Lance snapped.
"Who says we can't do both?" Reid squared his shoulders and stood upright as if to leave the safety of their hiding spot. "I'm not afraid to show myself. I've been working out."
Lance gave him a warning look. "Stay put. We have to find Maddie and get her out of here."
"I doubt Maddie will be too thrilled with your plan," Chase said, scanning the crowd. A middle-aged man with a potbelly, an elderly woman with sagging breasts and wrinkled knees and an overweight couple with dimpled buttocks caught his attention. He shuddered. Now he knew why clothes were invented—some people looked better with them.
"Who cares what Maddie wants," Lance said. "This guy's probably a pervert."
"You don't have to be perverted to enjoy nudity," Reid pointed out.
He obviously hadn't seen the people Chase had spotted.
"We're talking about Maddie," Lance said. "What if he tied her up and forced her to come along—"
"Stop it, Lance. You said she came with Sophie, so she's probably safe."
Quiet voices in the distance drifted to them with the faint breeze. A long trail through the woods loomed ahead. Chase parted the shrubbery enough to peer in the other direction.
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Lance growled. "That woman's the root of all evil. She's going to totally corrupt Maddie. Just look where she brought her!"
Reid pointed to a half
-dozen people of varying ages and sizes, playing volleyball. "Whoa, look at that redhead. She's a natural, too."
Chase gave her a sideways glance, unimpressed. "Do you see Sophie?"
Lance scowled. "No, do you?"
"No." Chase frowned, wondering why Sophie Lane set his friend off so badly.
"I haven't seen Maddie either," Reid said, his face flushing. "Not that I want to see my own sister—"
"This was a bad idea." Chase ducked his head as a young couple walked by, hand in hand. How the heck was he supposed to handle the situation? If Maddie was here, he didn't want to see her—yet, he did. Only he didn't want everyone else seeing her.
Besides what would they do when they found her? The whole situation would be awkward—would they walk up to her in their birthday suits and tell her to leave?
Chase remembered Maddie's reaction to her big brothers' overprotectiveness and to his big-brother routine—and they'd all been dressed. His stomach quivered. "Maddie is going to kill us if we crash her date."
A muscle ticked in Lance's jaw. "I don't call a night at a nudist resort a date. I call it a-a—"
"A crime," Reid supplied. "She's barely old enough to drive, let alone spend the night with a man in a place like this."
"She's twenty-six," Chase pointed out. And you'd call it a lucky night, if it were you.
But it wasn't one of them—they were talking about Maddie. Maddie with the pigtails and braces and knobby knees who used to ride piggyback on his shoulders...
Who the hell was he kidding? Maddie no longer fit that description at all. She was... gorgeous and desirable, and she'd been coming apart in his arms. Only he'd turned her away, right into the arms of another man. Just the thought of seeing her here nude with some lust-struck Romeo made his blood boil. "Shit."
"What? Do you see her?" Lance yanked off a chunk of leaves as he pivoted to search the area behind them.
"No." He hadn't realized he'd spoken out loud. Suddenly Chase felt a tap on the back. He whirled around, hoping to see Maddie and hoping not to.
Instead the security guard stood glaring at them, his arms folded across his chest. "I think you guys had better leave. We don't like Peeping Toms around here." He gestured toward the clump of leaves in Lance's hand. "And we don't appreciate folks destroying private property."
Chase's stomach did a U-turn against his ribs. How dare the man call them Peeping Toms.
Lance opened his mouth to explain, but the guard pointed over his shoulder to the entrance. "Out, now."
Reid lowered himself to hide behind a tree. Chase thought he saw a head of wild, curly russet hair coming near and panicked. Maddie! What if she saw them getting thrown out?
He lunged forward, trying to shield himself in the overgrown bushes. Maybe he should make a run for it. But a tree branch flew up and smacked him in the eye, and he fell on a pine cone. "Oww!" He grabbed his face with one hand and covered his crotch with the other as the guard yanked him up and pushed them toward the exit.
"But what about our clothes?" Lance asked, reaching for another leaf.
The guard slapped his hand away from the bush. "Maybe it'll teach you guys a lesson if you have to go home without them."
* * *
Maddie steered the convertible into Sophie's apartment complex Sunday evening and turned off the engine. "Thanks for forcing me to go out Friday night."
"It was fun, wasn't it?"
"It did me a world of good."
Sophie gathered her purse. "Are you going to see Marco again?"
Maddie sighed. All weekend she'd compared him to Chase. "I doubt it."
"I don't know about Antonio either." Sophie opened the car door. "Hey, did you hear about those guys in the woods Saturday night?"
"No, what guys?"
"The security guard caught three men lurking in the bushes at the nudist colony. They were just hiding out, gawking at the guests." Sophie laughed. "Can you believe it? They didn't join in any of the festivities, they only wanted to leer at the ladies."
"Perverts." Maddie frowned, a sudden suspicion gnawing at her. No, her brothers wouldn't be caught dead in a place like the Open Arms. "What happened to them?"
Sophie laughed. "The guard threw them out—without their clothes."
Maddie doubled over with laughter. "I wish I could have seen that."
"Me, too." Sophie laughed so hard tears dribbled down her cheeks. "I heard one of the guys stole some of the leaves to cover himself."
"I hope the creep gets poison ivy." Maddie shook her head.
"And one of the others tried to run away but a tree branch hit him in the eye. Gave him a real shiner."
"Serves them right." Maddie laughed. "One thing is for sure, you'd never catch my brothers there."
"Too bad," Sophie said. "I wouldn't mind seeing Lance naked."
Maddie patted her friend's back. "Maybe one day he'll come to his senses."
Sophie climbed out. "Thanks for driving, Mad."
"No problem." Maddie stretched her arms above her head. "This has been the nicest weekend I've had in a long time. And the best part is that my nosy brothers don't know where I've been."
Chapter 8
It was the worst weekend The Terrible Three had ever had. Saturday night they'd driven home butt naked, praying the whole way they wouldn't get stopped by the cops, seen by a group of nuns or accused of being flashers when they'd had to wait at a red light and an old woman had spotted them and started screaming. Even worse, Lance had developed a rash from the leaves he'd used to cover himself. And Chase's eye had swollen and gotten infected so he'd had to visit the emergency room, and now he was wearing a patch. The doctor had said the tree branch must have scratched his cornea.
It was late Sunday, and they still hadn't heard from Maddie. If she didn't call or come home soon, Chase was going to have to commit Lance and Reid to the psychiatric ward.
"When she comes back and I know she's safe, I'm going to kill her," Lance mumbled.
Reid paced the front porch. "And if that guy's with her, I'm going to pulverize him."
Chase stared broodingly at Maddie's empty parking spot, wondering where she was and why she hadn't at least called. Had she stayed at that nudist resort all night, all weekend? Slept with a strange guy after kissing Chase? Had the guy taken advantage of her?
Or had Maddie been willing, hot and passionate, the way she'd been with him?
No, he wouldn't allow himself to think about Maddie and passion... especially with another man. Not that it mattered—he couldn't have her. "Shit."
"What?" Lance asked.
He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud again. "Nothing. I was just thinking that Sophie and Maddie couldn't have gotten into too much trouble together. "Although they were both beautiful women—beautiful, single, desirable women in a town, a resort, filled with testosterone-driven, sexually depraved naked men like... like themselves.
Lance scratched at his crotch. "I have to convince Maddie to stay away from that damned Sophie woman. She's totally corrupting her."
Worry knotted Chase's stomach. Something was bothering his best friend, something more than his rash and his anxiety over Maddie not coming home. Lance really despised Sophie Lane. And Chase couldn't figure out why—Sophie was exactly the kind of woman his friend usually drooled over. He wished he'd confide in him but Lance seemed determined to remain tight-lipped.
The sound of an engine jerked up his head. Red flashed in front of his eyes, the sporty new convertible Maddie had bought sliding into her parking spot.
"Thank God," Reid said.
Lance clawed himself one last time. "Remember, not a word about us going up there."
As if they'd actually brag about their visit. Chase and Reid nodded. The brothers raced off the porch, practically catapulting themselves at Maddie as she strolled up the sidewalk. Her windswept auburn hair curled wildly about her flushed face, her rosy mouth widening at the sight of her brothers converging on her.
"Where the hell have you bee
n?" Lance bellowed, wriggling his hips as another itching attack began.
"Why didn't you return my calls, Maddie? We've been worried sick," Reid said.
"That's why you left fifty-seven messages," Maddie said with a condemning look.
"We almost phoned the police—"
Maddie silenced her brothers with a wave of her hand, narrowing her eyes at Lance when he couldn't resist and scratched himself. "You two, on the porch now." Chase caught a hint of anger in her voice and saw fire flash in her eyes when she spotted him sitting on the porch swing, then a surprised look as she zeroed in on the black eye patch.
"What happened to you?"
"Just a little accident," he said, squirming. Lance stiffened, and Chase hoped he didn't give them away.
Her eyebrows shot up. "Playing in the woods?"
She couldn't know, could she?
"Uh, no."
"Gives you a pirate image, Chase. Maybe you should keep it."
The image of him dressed in a pirate costume dragging her aboard a ship to make love filled his mind. His stomach twisted again, only this time because he was aroused. And he was so glad to see that she was safe, he didn't give a rat's ass where she'd been. She looked so damn sexy.... On the wheels of that image, another set in. Her date rubbing suntan lotion all over her naked body. On parts no man should touch but... him.
No, he couldn't touch her there either.
And why should it bother him if another man rubbed lotion on her body? He'd never had a steady girlfriend or been jealous of a woman in his life. He stood, ready to leave.
Maddie pointed to the rocking chairs. "Sit, all three of you."
Maddie glared at him, and he took the swing again. Did she know they'd been up to the resort—had she seen them get thrown out in such an undignified manner?
"Maddie, we—"
Maddie snapped her fingers, cutting him off mid-sentence.
Chase pushed the swing back and forth, watching in amazement as Lance and Reid did as she said. But he knew his buds well; they folded their arms defensively, their tempers barely in check.
