“I have acquired a taste for sweet tea, yes.” He smiled again, and Madison thought that if she hadn’t already been far gone on Thomas, she’d be attracted to this man. He was Greek, she thought, like his friend Demitri.
She led the way into the house, shutting the heavy front door behind them. Damned if she’d let Keith and his camera take pictures through the screen.
Alexi followed her to the back of the house to the sunny kitchen, which was Madison’s favorite room. As a child, she’d spent days perched on a stool watching Myrtle, her grandmother’s Creole cook, create miracles with food. The room was large, with a counter dividing it from the breakfast room, which was a glassed-in back porch. French windows led from it to a shaded courtyard behind the house.
Madison took the pitcher of tea from the refrigerator, filled up two tall glasses, added ice, and sliced a lime to garnish.
Alexi accepted the tea with thanks and took a long swallow. He wore his black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and he looked like nothing more than a handsome-faced, athletic male model.
“I didn’t realize that Leon was in a ménage,” Madison said. “You probably shouldn’t have told me.”
Alexi took another drink of tea, set the glass carefully on the counter, and draped his coat over the back of a chair. “Neither Demitri nor I see shame in such things.”
“Maybe you don’t, but the town of Fontaine would have a fit. Don’t go spreading that around.”
“I have told no one but you. The man Thomas Dupree is interested in you. Thomas is the brother of Leon, who is the lover of my friend Demitri. Therefore, I can tell the secrets to you.”
Madison lost track of his reasoning and took a hearty swig of tea. “I do appreciate you chasing off Keith.” She knew it was only a temporary respite. Keith would either make good on his threat or return to coerce her further. Her heart sank, but at the same time, she was so angry she wanted to scream.
“I saw him showing you pictures,” Alexi said. “What were they?”
Madison hesitated. Alexi might think she was one he could tell secrets to, but Madison was unsure of who she could trust. “Nothing important.”
Alexi came to her and turned her to face him. He brushed one finger under her chin and looked into her eyes. “Tell me your pain.”
Madison’s tongue loosened, though she wasn’t certain why. “He saw me with Thomas. Keith, damn him, took pictures.”
“Of you giving Thomas Dupree fellatio?”
Madison jerked away. “Shit, don’t tell me you took pictures, too. I’m surrounded by creeps and perverts.”
“I saw.” Alexi’s eyes darkened. “It was beautiful, what you and Thomas did. I loved watching it. But I would never harm you with this knowledge.”
“I don’t believe this. Where were you, outside the living room? While Keith was outside the hallway? Did the two of you plan it?”
“I was unaware of Keith Girard’s presence, or I would have put a stop to it. I stood on your upstairs landing, looking down over the railings.”
Fear and anger clawed at her at the same time. “You were in the house? Son of a bitch.” She swung around, reaching for the phone, ready to call the cops and get this guy out of here.
She found Alexi between her and her phone, when she swore he’d been on the other side of the room a second ago. He took her hand between his warm ones.
“I’m sorry I frightened you, Madison. I know that humans can regard such things as a violation, but I meant you no harm. I want to help you and Thomas Dupree.”
“Help us? By spying on us?”
“By making sure one such as this Keith person can’t hurt you. Did you destroy the photos he brought?”
“I tore them up, but that doesn’t matter. He has the originals saved on his computer.”
“Have no fear about that. I wiped all the data from the machine in his shoulder bag.”
“You did? When?”
“When we stood on the porch. Do you believe in magic, Madison Rainey?”
No. “My grandmother did.”
“She was skilled at it. I am much more skilled, but then, I am the son of a god. I can go where I like when I like, which is how I got into your house Saturday without you knowing. I watched over this house while you slept alone that night, when you cried out in your sleep in longing. And I wiped the data from Keith Girard’s laptop computer.”
Madison wasn’t certain she could or would believe that. “It doesn’t matter about his laptop. He’s got the pictures on a network, on a server, which means he stored them somewhere remote and can access them from anywhere he wants to as long as he has the password.”
“I will discover where he’s put them and erase those, too.”
“You’re nice to want to help me, Alexi.” Madison didn’t believe for a moment that the man was firing on all cylinders, but she preferred his sultry smile to Keith’s obvious leers.
“I help you to help myself. It’s entirely self-serving.” He held Madison’s gaze. “Then there is the matter of your wish at the fountain.”
Madison froze. “How do you know about that?”
“I happened to be in the garden when you voiced your wishes.”
Her face went hot. “Oh, hell.”
“The Jaillissement de Plaisir. Do you know the legend of the fountain?”
“There’s a legend? I made a wish, because that’s what you do at fountains. Plus it had an inscription about wishing.”
“It’s the fountain of luck in pleasure. If you make a wish to it, you find your wishes for the greatest pleasure coming true. In other words, it helps you release your inhibitions and find the joy that has been eluding you.”
“Oh.” Madison’s embarrassment flared. She wasn’t certain she believed in magic like Alexi seemed to, but maybe wishing at the fountain had created a self-fulfilling prophecy. She’d made a wish for something she’d wanted deep in her heart, and in giving voice to the wish, she found herself more able to take steps to grant it. “In other words, that’s why I ...”
“Invited Thomas Dupree to your house and gave him fellatio. It’s something you’ve always wanted to do.”
Oh, yeah. Gorgeous, hard-bodied Thomas. He’d looked so good with his tux half falling off him, his eyes closing as he felt what she did to him. His eyes could suck her in, remind her that she wasn’t just crazy Maddie in her rambling, falling-down house, make her feel beautiful. Thomas had always been able to melt her heart.
“You want more with him,” Alexi said.
“Of course I do. But it’s not that simple. I haven’t seen him in years. We’re different people now.”
Alexi touched her cheek. “That is what your head tells your heart, to keep the heart from hurting. You convince yourself that nothing can grow between you because it is not logical. But love isn’t logical. The heart makes its choice, and the head must catch up to it.”
His words didn’t make things any easier. “I’ve always had a thing for Thomas,” Madison said. “But he has a life, which doesn’t include the madwoman who won’t sell her tumbledown house because it’s special to her.”
“There is also magic in this place,” Alexi said. He looked around at the high ceiling, the polished dark beams against whitewashed walls. “This house has stood for two hundred years, through war and hardship, disaster and pain. And yet it’s still a haven for those within it. I can feel the magic in its bones.”
“Can you also feel the corroded plumbing? How about the woodworm?”
He smiled. “That, too. But place your trust in me. I will help you find your heart’s desire, and when you have that, all your troubles will float away.”
Madison laughed, suddenly liking him. “Sure. What kind of magic are you going to conjure up?”
“The simplest kind.” Alexi leaned against the counter and lifted his tea to his lips, once more looking like the best gigolo ever born. “Call Thomas Dupree and invite him over here Saturday evening. Give him dinner—men like to be fed. Leave the
rest to me.”
“That easy, is it?”
Madison’s skin tingled pleasantly at the thought of seeing Thomas again. He wouldn’t be wearing a tux, of course, but he was equally hot in a casual business suit or in jeans and a plain shirt. She remembered the warm taste of him in her mouth, and the tingle grew into a spike of erotic pleasure. She’d comb through the recipes Myrtle had left and cook her heart out if dinner could lead to more of that. If she couldn’t have Thomas in her life, maybe she could at least have him once in her bed. She’d cook all day for that.
Alexi was watching her, his dark blue shirt enhancing his brown skin and black eyes. “Exactly, sweetheart. You call him, and I’ll take care of everything else.”
Madison’s voice poured over Thomas like water into a thirsty man’s mouth. He held his cell phone to his ear and sank into his office chair to enjoy it.
“What’s up, Maddie?” How he managed to sound so casual, he had no idea.
Thomas tried to ignore Marc’s smirk and bathed in Madison’s cool tones as she spoke. That is, until she told him about Keith Girard and his dirty photos of them.
Thomas sat up straight. “I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him.”
Marc was alert now, eyes on Thomas.
“Alexi said he took care of the pictures,” Madison said. “I’m not sure if I believe him.”
“Alexi? Who’s Alexi?”
“Demitri’s friend. Remember? You met him at the wedding. Anyway, he said not to worry about the pictures, but I’m still worried. Can we talk?”
Thomas’s head spun. He now remembered meeting the Alexi guy before the wedding and then seeing him again in the bar, right before Thomas took Madison home.
Shit. Were two guys stalking her?
“Talk,” he said. “Yes. I want to.”
“How about Saturday night? I’ll make you dinner. I can cook.” She laughed, and Thomas’s libido tore through his anger.
“Saturday?” It was only Monday—how the hell was he going to get through the rest of the week? “Sounds great.”
“Good. Be here at seven. Thanks, Thomas.”
She hung up. Thomas sat staring at his cell phone, wondering if he’d just dreamed that Madison Rainey had asked him on a date.
In spite of his rage at Girard, he was suffused with excitement, like a teenager with a crush. But damn it, when hadn’t he been crazed as far as Madison was concerned? Hell, he’d been living his entire life for her.
Madison was different from any woman he’d ever known. Elegant, beautiful, old-world, untouchable. And she’d happily gone down on him in her hallway this weekend.
Keith Girard had taken pictures of that beautiful moment.
“He’s going down,” Thomas said. “Girard threatened Madison, and he’ll live to regret it.” He told Marc what Madison had told him, and Marc gave a grim nod. Keith Girard was toast.
On Saturday night, after a week of pure hell, Thomas showed up on Madison’s doorstep with a bottle of wine in one hand and flowers in the other.
Thomas’s heart turned over when Madison gave him a big smile and took the flowers. “Thank you. You’re so sweet,” she said. “Come with me to the kitchen, and you can pour that.”
She walked away from him, her lithe form swaying in her light blue sleeveless sheath dress and high-heeled sandals. Classic elegance, that was Madison.
Thomas’s breath caught as his gaze roved from her trim ankles up her sexy legs and then over her round backside, nipped waist, and soft shoulders. Her hair was in the French braid again, baring her neck for his love bites. She was no sub, but Thomas couldn’t help picturing her in a tiny leather skirt, her breasts free, with her hands bound behind her. His already hard cock flared. He’d kill himself thinking things like that.
He realized as he watched her how much in love he was with this woman. He always had been. Thomas had honed himself into a pleasure master so that if he’d ever had another chance with Madison Rainey, he wouldn’t screw it up. He understood the nuances now, how to fulfill a woman’s innermost desires.
Thomas knew he’d learned those lessons because he wanted to fulfill Madison’s desires. The women who came to the club weren’t looking for love—they were looking to sate their bodily and emotional needs with someone like Thomas who could make it good for them. But Thomas, in his turn, was thinking of only one woman.
He entered the kitchen to watch Madison reach into a high cupboard and pull down a vase, then run water into it from the sink. She put the vase on the counter and started arranging the red roses and baby’s breath, glancing at him over her shoulder.
“Glasses are in that cupboard. Corkscrew in the drawer under it.”
Forget the wine. Thomas came to Madison, turned her around, and pulled her into his arms. He cradled her with the hand that held the wine bottle and opened her lips for a kiss.
She made a little noise in her throat before melting to him in sweet surrender. Madison’s arms went around his neck, as Thomas met her tongue with his, sliding through her mouth, tasting her, licking her. He pulled back, kissed the corners of her mouth, and gently suckled her lower lip.
Madison’s body flowed against his, pressing the length of his erection. He knew she felt his hard-on-how could she miss it? She held him tighter, and Thomas deepened the kiss, wanting more and more of her.
He became aware of someone else in the room—whether he heard a faint noise or simply sensed a presence, he didn’t know. He broke the kiss and looked past Madison to the glassed-in porch.
A man sat in the shadows there, under the dark windows, where the lights weren’t on. He was a big man with dark hair and eyes, the one called Alexi.
“What the hell is he doing here?”
Madison backed out of Thomas’s embrace. “Sorry, I should have said. Alexi is joining us for dinner. I hope that’s okay.”
Chapter 6
Madison held her breath as she waited for Thomas’s answer. Alexi had instructed her not to tell Thomas he’d be there, and Madison had humored him.
She didn’t miss the look of disappointment in Thomas’s eyes. He shrugged as he put the wine bottle on the counter and reached for the glasses, but his body was tight. “Sure, whatever.”
“He says he wants to talk to us.”
Thomas shrugged again, every line of him rigid with anger.
Alexi got out of his chair and came to the counter. “I’m not here to stand in your way, Thomas Dupree. I’m here to assist you. First, to tell you that the photos Keith Girard took of you and Madison have been destroyed. From his computer, from his server, from his camera.”
Thomas already knew this, because that week he’d gotten in touch with the most talented computer hacker in the eastern half of the United States, a young man he and Marc used for jobs every so often. It had taken said hacker all of five minutes to get past the firewalls in Keith Girard’s network and sift through his files. The photographs hadn’t been there, though the hacker had turned up evidence that they had been there, but had been erased. Maybe this Alexi was just as good at hacking.
“Thank you for that,” Thomas said.
“He says he did it with magic.” The skeptical amusement in Madison’s voice was evident.
“As long as it’s done, I don’t care how,” Thomas answered. He poured the bloodred Merlot into the three glasses and handed them out.
Alexi raised his in toast. “To a magic-filled weekend.”
The man did have magic in him, Thomas could feel that, but he wasn’t certain what kind. Resigned, Thomas saluted Alexi and Madison with his glass.
“To a magic-filled weekend.”
“Weekend?” Madison asked. Her lips hovered at the rim of her glass, and Thomas realized he was holding his breath, waiting to watch her drink.
Alexi nodded. “By the end of the weekend, you two will know each other very, very well. Intimately. I am here to see that this happens.”
Madison cocked a brow at him. “If you mean Thomas and me going to bed to
gether, we can make that decision on our own. And it’s more likely to happen without you here.”
Alexi set down his wineglass and leaned on the counter, stretching his hands out along the countertop. “It is true that you could end up in bed together without my help. That is not what I meant by intimate. You wish to have sex with each other, yes, but you are both too inhibited to give in to what you truly desire.”
“Inhibited?” Thomas drawled. Thomas Dupree, inhibited? The man was getting irritating.
“Thomas is a Dom,” Madison said, grinning as though she found that funny. “That’s what it’s called, isn’t it? At some kind of club.”
“I am not referring to his sexual experience. I mean that Thomas is afraid to show you his innermost desires, what he most wants to do with you and your body. He fears frightening you away from his need and his true self. You, Madison, are interested in exploring the physical side of what Thomas wants, but you fear risking your heart and being hurt. You will try to keep physical intimacy from being tied to emotional intimacy, and you will hold back.” Alexi gave them a dark smile. “I am here to make certain that neither of you holds back.”
Thomas exchanged a look with Madison. She made a little shrug, as if to say, I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“Dinner smells good, Maddie,” Thomas said, pretending to ignore Alexi. “What did you make?”
Madison broke the tension by describing the fish chowder, chicken with peppers, and the cornbread. She flipped on the lights of the glassed-in porch to reveal a table set with old-fashioned china and silverware. She’d thought that the small kitchen table would be more, ah, intimate.
Three place settings, Thomas noticed. Alexi had been invited all along. Thomas hid his disappointment and murmured something about the food sounding good.
Dinner was fairly silent. Madison proved to be a damn good cook, and Thomas had been raised by a mother who could turn the most ordinary meal of rice and beans into a song. Madison credited her grandmother’s cook, now retired, for the recipe, but Thomas gave Madison credit for the skill in preparing it. Some people, himself included, could follow a terrific recipe and end up with a mess.
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