by Lori Foster
Well heck! Maddie opened her eyes to look at him. Not only wasn’t he overcome with lust, it appeared he was about to laugh.
MAX’S FIRST thought was that she knew next to nothing about kissing, and his second was how soft she felt. His third thought was that if Cleo woke up, there’d be hell to pay.
Cleo didn’t like other females to touch him.
Of course, the fact that she had gone to sleep in a stranger’s place showed she was somewhat at ease with the newly introduced woman, and that shocked the hell out of Max.
If only Maddie wasn’t against marriage.
Max held still, a little surprised, a little amused, a little turned on. He didn’t kiss Maddie back as she smooshed her mouth against his, but neither did he push her away. He smiled, thinking how determined she seemed.
Around panting breaths, Maddie asked, “What’s wrong?”
The words brushed his lips, heated with excitement, touched with anxiety. It was a potent combination. Max clasped her shoulders and held her back enough that he could breathe. “Oh, did you require my participation?”
“Well…” She looked uncertain. “Yeah.”
He couldn’t stop himself from caressing her, feeling the smallness of her bones, her softness. For such a gutsy, outspoken woman she was amazingly lacking in knowledge. “I take it my sister has been filling your head with her astounding seduction tactics?”
Maddie nodded.
It was almost laughable, only he couldn’t quite seem to get so much as a chuckle past the lump of lust in his throat. It was like the blind leading the blind. “Why, Maddie?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you attacking… I mean seducing me?”
She blinked uncertainly. “Because I want you?”
“You aren’t sure?” Max struggled to ignore the feel of her soft body against his while he tried to figure out what was going on. Even as brazen as she behaved, Maddie didn’t strike him as the type of woman to jump into bed with men she barely knew. Not that he knew her well. But he knew enough. She said she’d been engaged, and he’d already witnessed what a giving, understanding woman she was. She treated Cleo as gently as he did.
Max narrowed his eyes. He was beginning to think he’d been set up from the start.
“I’m positive.” She nodded again for good measure. “I want you.”
He felt compelled to tell her the obvious. “I know women really well, Maddie.”
Her lips parted. “I’m counting on it.”
She looked so damn ready, Max shook her. “I mean, you little schemer, that I know when they’re conspiring. You, Maddie Montgomery, are up to something.”
If a man had written to him in the column with this exact situation, his advice would be to run like hell. But then, Max was only good at giving advice; he’d never been any good at taking it.
Maddie shrugged. “As you said, seduction.”
Max was still skeptical. “And that’s all?”
She took him completely by surprise when she said, “Why else would I have been out on such a miserable day like today? I planned the whole thing. Well, not the whole thing. I hadn’t figured on hitting a closed door and ending up at your feet, or having my clothes play peekaboo. I just thought, what with the rain and all, I’d be stranded and you could offer me a ride home….”
“And we’d end up exactly where we are?”
“Sorta. I had figured on having you naked and in my bed by now.”
Max forced himself to laugh. A nice, hearty male laugh of superiority that hid his surge of lust. “Your plans went a tad awry, didn’t they?”
“I wanted to meet you face to face. After all the wonderful stories Annie’s told me about you, I already felt like I knew you. I definitely knew I wanted you. So I suppose I can’t complain.”
She just kept knocking him off guard, Max thought, disgruntled. “So you didn’t really want the book at all?” He was almost relieved. The thought of any woman reading such a ridiculous text made him shudder.
“Of course I want the book. It sounds fascinating and I’m looking forward to every word.”
Max groaned.
Hearing the sound of his frustration, Maddie leaned forward and touched his shoulder, her eyes earnest. “But I wanted to meet you more than I want the book.”
Max rubbed a hand across his forehead. “So you could seduce me?”
“Yeah.”
Plenty of women had come on to him, but none had thrown themselves against a door, gotten drenched in the rain or cozied up to his dog.
It was the last that was getting to him more than anything else.
It ate him up to see how loving she could be; she was just what Cleo needed—another person to care about her, to make her feel loved. Yet Maddie said she didn’t want marriage. What a situation. A suitable woman was close at hand, begging for sex, loving his dog, and Max felt forced to reject her because she didn’t want a lasting relationship. Talk about the vagaries of fate!
“It occurs to me,” Max pointed out, “that you could have just about any man. You’re attractive—”
“Why thank you.”
“And nicely built.”
She beamed at him.
“So why chase me?”
Maddie took another step closer to him. “Because you’re not just any man, Max. You’re a man of experience, a man with an awesome reputation. I’ve been good all my life and look what it got me. A guy who preferred kinky feathers to me. Now I want to know about feathers! I want to know…everything.”
“I hate to break it to you, but feathers aren’t really all that kinky.”
“You didn’t see where she was tickling him!”
Max coughed, then decided to let that one go. “So, you want to use me to notch your bedpost, huh?”
She bobbed her head, her look endearingly sincere.
The idea should have been appealing to just about any red-blooded male, so why did Max feel so offended?
“All because your idiot fiancé fooled around on you?”
“It was so humiliating. I just didn’t have the experience to deal with it, so I stammered and stuttered and made an idiot of myself.” She shuddered with the memory. “I wish I had just left him tied there.”
Her grumbling tone made Max smile. “What did you do?”
She snorted. “I’m ashamed to say I just stood there, staring. I couldn’t think of a single word to say, and then the woman screeched and grabbed her coat and ran off.”
“Just like that?”
Maddie nodded. “She left the feather behind. Troy was, as I’m sure you’ll understand, in a rather awkward position.”
Now that was a picture Max could enjoy. It was no less than the dishonorable blockhead deserved. “How long did you make him suffer?”
Maddie blushed.
“Maddie?” Max bent to see her averted face. True, he hadn’t known her long. But he had a gut feeling that despite her declaimed lack of experience with such situations, Maddie would have found a way of getting even. “C’mon. Give.”
She cleared her throat. “I went out to dinner.”
Max grinned, pleased by her creativity.
“And a movie,” she added with a wince.
Laughing, Max asked, “What’d you see?”
“I don’t remember. I barely paid any attention. I was just trying to decide how to get Troy out of my apartment.” She peeked up at him, all big blue eyes and innocence. “I thought about calling a friend to untie him, but then I didn’t think Guy would appreciate it if I asked Annie to get that close—”
“No! That would have been a bad idea.”
“I know. You’re protective of your sister. I think that’s nice.” She patted his chest absently in approval, then said, “I finally just decided that I had to be adult enough to deal with it. So I went back. Troy started cursing me and threatening me the second I walked in, so I went to the kitchen and got a big butcher knife.”
“You didn’t…?” Max saw her wicked smi
le and relaxed.
“Scare him to death? Sure. It was no more than he deserved. He went from cursing to pleading. But then when I cut his right hand free and he realized he was safe enough, he went right back to being obnoxious.”
Max saw something in her eyes, something wounded. Of course her vanity had been crushed. Gently, he touched her chin. “What did he say to you?”
“Typical drivel coming from a man who’s had to hold his bladder for four and a half hours. He blamed me for everything.” She shrugged. “Not woman enough, not sexy enough, too naive, too prim, blah, blah, blah.”
Max flexed his fists, wishing he could get alone with the jerk for just a few minutes. It was no wonder Maddie was out to prove her sexuality. “I hope you didn’t give his words a second thought.”
She shook her head. “He was scum and I told him so. It took a lot of nerve for him to try to fob the guilt off on me.” Her face red, Maddie started to raise her voice, and Cleo yawned. She cast an affectionate glance at the dog and began whispering again. “I decided to look at the nasty scene—and the nasty man—as an omen.”
Max was touched by her feminine strength. No doubt about it, Maddie Montgomery was one helluva woman. “An omen, huh? How so?”
“Troy’s faux pas was nature’s way of telling me that I need to expand my horizons before I think about settling down. Without experience, it’s no wonder I made such a bad mate choice. I mean, it takes practice to figure out what you really want. And with more experience, I’ll be better able to empathize on the job with the women I talk to, and better equipped to handle the men I might see in the future.”
“I see.” He didn’t see at all, and he didn’t like the idea of her with other men. “You want to start practicing with me?”
Looking pleased that he understood, Maddie smiled. “Yes! You’ll be the first of my wild oats!”
A thought occurred to Max. “Will you tell your fiancé what you’re doing?”
“No, why?” She appeared puzzled by the question. “And Troy’s not my fiancé anymore. He’s an ex. What I do or don’t do isn’t any of his business.”
“Are you sure you aren’t planning to make him jealous?” Not that he’d blame her, Max thought, but he hoped she was well and truly over the fool.
“Well, I’d certainly accomplish that! I mean, look at you.” Her gaze drifted over Max from sternum to knees, like a sensuous lick. She took a deep breath that mirrored his own. “You’d sure make any guy jealous.”
“Uh, thank you.”
Maddie shook herself. “But that’s not what I’m going to do. Why should I? I’m not an idiot. Troy can indulge in all the feather tickling he wants, so long as he does it away from me. He’s of no concern to me at all any more.”
Max accepted her sincerity.
“But,” she added, “if you’re worried about getting into a hostile confrontation with him, you don’t need to be. I would never let him bother you, I promise.”
Max immediately rebelled. “I wasn’t worried about a confrontation and I certainly don’t need you to protect me.” He probably weighed a hundred pounds more than Maddie, and he sure as hell wasn’t concerned about some idiot who indulged a feather fetish.
Maddie patted his chest again, then caressed him, then sighed. “I understand. You’re a lover, not a fighter.” Her patting hand was now stroking, driving him to distraction. “But that’s all I want you for anyway, so it’s not a problem.”
That was all she wanted him for? How insulting! He was good for more than just sex, dammit. Feeling more like his dog by the second, Max growled, “I am not afraid of a fight.”
“Shh.” She attempted to soothe him, her small hands gliding over his chest, lower…
Max caught her wrists. He was breathing hard, his muscles aching. She stirred him, aroused him and annoyed him. “Dammit, Maddie.” How the hell did she affect him so easily?
There was no easy way to break it to her, except to be brutally honest. The sooner the better, before he lost his thin hold on control. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but the simple fact of the matter is, I’m not interested.”
She snorted. “Yeah right. Annie says you’re always interested.”
He would strangle Annie when next he saw her. “Maybe a month ago I would have been. But things have changed.”
Maddie’s face fell. “You don’t want me.”
He cupped her cheek, let his thumb brush the soft fullness of her lower lip. “Oh, I want you all right. You can be sure of that.” Max felt her uncertainty all the way to his bones. Here he was, shaking with lust, and she doubted her allure.
She stared at him, not comprehending for a long moment, and then suddenly she smacked her head. “I understand now!”
He almost hated to ask. Her assumptions had been so far off the mark all along, he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her newest revelation concerning his character. Resigned, he asked, “What is it you think you understand this time?”
“When we were discussing the book! You were totally confused about the whole thing.”
“I was not.”
“Don’t look so indignant.” She gave him a pitying look. “I know how reputations can get blown all out of proportion. I should have realized that no man could be so awesomely adept. It’s almost absurd.”
Max was ready to defend his awesome adeptness, but Maddie wasn’t done explaining things to him.
“You don’t have to worry about my expectations, Max. If you don’t know everything, that’s okay. It’s not like I’m going to keep a scorecard. Heck, I don’t know much, either, so I doubt I’d even notice if you screw up.”
For the first time in years, embarrassed heat ran up the back of his neck. “Why, you little—”
She waved away his umbrage. “I’m sure we’ll muddle through.” Then, as if getting a brainstorm, she added, “The book could probably help! Besides, I just want to experiment and you’re gorgeous and there must be at least a little truth to your reputation, right? So I know I’ll be inspired.”
Max saw her through a red haze. He squeezed the words out of his tight throat. “You expect us to…muddle through?”
“If need be, you can just lie there. I won’t expect you to perform.”
Max stared at the ceiling while he counted to ten. And then to twenty. Oh, it was so damn tempting to show her everything he knew, methods of seduction he’d learned in foreign countries and at home, all the different ways he could make her body sing.
And all the ways he could make her beg.
Men who read his column wrote to him for advice, and got the very best. Then women sent him letters of gratitude.
And this woman expected him to muddle through?
He met her gaze again, outwardly calm while inside he seethed. “You’re not even close, honey.”
“Uh-huh.”
His temper cracked, then crumbled. “Stop sounding so damn skeptical!”
She pursed her lips in a wasted attempt at obedience. Max wasn’t sure if he wanted to kiss her or throttle her. Both choices seemed equally appealing. “I have valid reasons,” he managed to say with a semblance of calm, “for not wanting to get into another purely sexual relationship, and not one of them has to do with lack of expertise or fear of a physical confrontation.”
“Is that right?”
“Damn right.”
“And those reasons are?”
Max opened his mouth twice, but nothing came out. What could he possibly tell her? That he wanted to settle down for his dog? That one mangy beat-up mutt—a mutt now snuffling and snoring loudly on the couch—had accomplished what no woman could?
Even to his own mind, it sounded ludicrous.
He stalled for time until his brain started functioning again, then said with laudable nonchalance, “I don’t travel anymore.”
That took the wind out of her sails. “Why ever not?”
“I’ve been just about everywhere, seen just about everything.”
She looked fascinated, a sentim
ent that reflected his own when it came to exploring the world. “Annie says you sometimes stayed gone for months. How did you support yourself?”
Such a personal question, although he appreciated her candor, her honest interest. “I worked.”
“In foreign countries?”
“And in the States.” He shrugged as he explained, “There’s always something to be done, new building efforts in war-torn or natural disaster areas, odd jobs here and there. I’ve signed on to fishing vessels and cargo ships and done excursions for tourist kayaking in Alaska. And I’ve been an interpreter at the Olympic Games in Japan.”
Her eyes were so huge, so impressed, Max felt himself puffing up. The only thing he’d ever missed in all his traveling was someone to share it with. He wondered if Maddie knew how much money he’d saved over the years, that he thrived on traveling without luxuries, living off the land instead. It was a cheap way to go, and because of that, he had quite a healthy savings account.
“Recently I decided it was time to settle down. And,” Max said, expounding on his explanation though he wasn’t certain why, “I have new responsibilities that keep me closer to home.”
Her mouth formed an O. “Annie said something about Guy needing you to take your rightful place in the family company, but she didn’t think you ever would. I’m glad she was wrong. She said it really hurt your father that you didn’t want any part of the business.”
Poleaxed, Max went speechless. It was true that Guy had asked him to come to work in the company, but he’d repeatedly refused. What could he contribute that his father and Guy hadn’t already given? Max would only be another warm body, and there were plenty of those to go around. He had nothing unique, nothing special that the company needed from him. In fact, he’d never felt needed there, and he refused to feel needed now just because Guy was marrying.
“Actually,” he said, slightly annoyed, “it’s not that I have no interest in the company. It’s just that I already have a job.”
“Doing what?”
Max ignored her. His column was personal, and anonymous. And it took up very little of his time, so it wouldn’t be a good example anyway. “With each new development comes another. I’m no longer traveling, and I’m no longer looking for meaningless relationships.”
