by Lori Foster
Maddie’s heart again performed that strange little softening for this man and his beast. “She’s not much good at protecting you.”
Max gave her a solemn nod. “I’d rather protect her anyway.”
He was such an incredible man. And she wanted him so much.
She was also falling in love with him. Damn. Double damn.
It had just about killed her when Max claimed he’d be traveling again. She wanted to travel, too, and see the whole world. But she’d gladly have stayed in Ohio the rest of her life with Max. At first that idea hadn’t appealed at all. When he’d said he’d given up traveling, she’d wanted to bemoan his decision. She didn’t understand how anyone could not want to see the world, especially a man known for his wanderlust. Now she hated it that he’d leave her.
Maybe his life wasn’t as settled as he’d claimed.
Soon he wouldn’t have time for her anymore.
Maddie held close to the waistband of his slacks and followed him down the darkened hallway. She was here with him now, and the night was still young. Rather than regret the coming future, she should take advantage of the moment to get the most out of every second she could.
Max’s house was beautiful on the outside. A mixture of Mediterranean tiles and stucco and lush landscaping. It wasn’t enormous, but it was isolated, on a cul-de-sac, apart from the other houses and far more private.
The inside was too dark to distinguish precise colors, but the rooms were open, flowing into one another. The furnishings were sparse and everything appeared to be spotless. Max pulled her into his bedroom and softly closed the door.
Maddie thought of what she wanted to do to him, and how he’d react. Her stomach knotted with excitement and she licked her lips.
In the very next instant, she found herself pinned to a wall being kissed silly.
Max closed both hands over her breasts, moaned sharply, then parted her legs with his knee. He was hard, pulsing against her belly. Maddie tore her mouth away. “Max!”
Ruthlessly, he recaptured her lips. “I need you, Maddie. Right now.”
She dodged him again. “I have plans!”
He groaned and pressed his face into her neck. “Your plans are what have me coming apart. Maddie, I don’t know if I could bear it.”
Smoothing his back, smiling quietly to herself, Maddie said, “Now Max. You’re a stud, remember? Surely there’s nothing I can do to you that you can’t handle.”
He bit her shoulder, making her yelp, then he straightened. “All right. If you’re going to challenge me then I suppose I have to prove myself.” He stepped away from her for a second to flip on a bedside lamp. The light was gentle, soft, just barely touching a king-size bed that was unmade and looked very comfortable.
She met Max’s gaze and said, “Oh good. Now I can see you better.”
His eyes nearly crossed. He took a deep breath, flexed his fingers, and then said, “Okay I think I’m ready.” But as she reached for his belt he said, “No wait! It’d be better if you got undressed first.”
Maddie blinked at him. “Why?”
Voice dropping an octave to where the guttural sounds stroked up and down her nerve endings, Max said, “I’ll be distracted by your gorgeous bod and might be able to control myself better.”
Might be able to control himself? Did that mean he was losing his control? Maddie smiled. She really liked the idea that she could push his buttons. “All right.”
With Max watching her closely, his gaze a hot caress, she stripped off her clothes. She loved how he looked at her, how his muscles tensed and his high cheekbones colored with arousal.
She’d never experienced a man looking at her with so much intensity. Her fiancé never had, and she was very glad that she’d found out about him before she’d foolishly gotten married. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here with Max now, and just the thought of that left her empty.
When she was completely naked she slowly stepped up to Max and undid his belt buckle. “You promise you’re going to behave now, right?”
“Yes.” Then he groaned as her hand slipped inside his open fly. “I’m such a liar,” he gasped.
“Hell no, I’m not going to behave. You’re naked. You’re talking about doing lecherous things to my body!”
“I’m not just talking Max. I’m going to do them.”
He nodded, resigned and anxious. “Right now, I’m just concentrating on my legs.”
Maddie slowly stroked him through his briefs. He was hard, throbbing and impossibly large. “Your legs?”
“Yes,” he croaked. “I have to remember that I have them so I don’t fall down.”
Maddie chuckled. “Let’s get rid of your shirt.”
Before she could reach for it, Max had already whisked it over his head. It went sailing across the room to a darkened corner. Without her instruction, he kicked his shoes off and they thumped somewhere behind her.
Knowing she’d make him crazier, Maddie went to her knees in front of him. She removed his socks, teasing him by taking her time. Lastly, her hands curled around the waistband of his khaki slacks. She pulled both his pants and his underwear down, then ordered, “Step out.”
He did, and Maddie looked up the tall, hard length of his body. Her nipples pulled tight and her belly tingled. He was so gorgeous, all male, rigid and strong and his scent…she leaned forward and kissed his abdomen, then drew his smell deeply inside her lungs.
Max’s fingers settled into her hair, gently cradling her head. “Maddie.” His voice was hoarse with strain.
Her fingers could barely circle him, holding him close at the base of his erection. She could feel his heartbeat there, matching her own. With her other hand she explored his firm backside, the iron hard muscles of his thighs, the soft tender weight below his shaft.
Max shook, his breath a gasping sound in the otherwise quiet room.
She kissed his right thigh, the smooth taut skin of his hipbone. His fingers tightened, inexorably guiding her to where he wanted to feel her mouth.
Suddenly overwhelmed with a need to please him and herself, Maddie obliged and without warning, without so much as a single peck to warn of her intent, she drew him deep. As deep as she could.
His taste was incredible, hot and salty and alive. She swirled her tongue around him, amazed at how seducing him was seducing her as well.
Max jerked hard, his head back, his fingers now tight, holding her close. He moved, once, twice, then cursed low. “I can’t, Maddie.”
She withdrew a bit, licked the very tip of him, and said, “Yes, you can.”
He howled, sounding much like a wounded wolf. “You don’t get it, baby.” She could barely understand him, his words were so raw. “I’m about to—”
Thrilled with her success, Maddie said, “Please do,” and enclosed him in her mouth once again.
A heavy beat of stillness enveloped them, not a sound, not a heartbeat. And then Max broke. Maddie nearly cried out with the excitement of it. She hadn’t known a man could be so untamed in his pleasure, so hot and free.
Maddie continued tantalizing him until his legs went limp and he dropped to his knees in front of her. He sat back, still panting, then met her anxious gaze and gave her a breathy laugh.
“You’re dangerous,” he whispered, and pulled her close. There on the floor he held her, giving her all the cuddling she’d wanted, until the trembling had left his body and he could breathe again.
And then he got even.
MAX WATCHED Maddie sleeping the next day. It was early afternoon, but she showed no signs of waking. Her blond hair was twisted onto his pillow, and her bottom was beautifully bare. He smiled. He wanted to touch her, but more than that he knew he needed to let her sleep. After the stunt she’d pulled last night, he’d kept her awake till well past dawn.
And even then he hadn’t been appeased.
Maddie was simply different. Better. More. Deeper and sweeter and more consuming. He’d never tire of her. He knew that now.
What to do? Having her around would provide the perfect home life for Cleo. And for him. He needed her to commit to him, but she claimed to be against marriage.
All night long, she’d reveled in their intimacy, but not once had she hinted at an emotional connection.
Quietly, Max slipped from the bed and went to the kitchen to get juice. He’d wake her, they’d talk, and hopefully he could find some chink in her armor, some way to make her stop distrusting marriage, and to give him a chance to bind her to him.
MADDIE AWOKE to the shifting of the bed and warm breath drifting over her bare hip. She smiled even before she got her eyes open. “Mmm,” she mumbled with a languid stretch that found plenty of sore muscles from the newest night of debauchery. Max was just so damn good at debauching. A master.
“Not again, Max,” she moaned, knowing she needed a warm shower before she could even think of going another round.
She twisted to face him, then jumped a foot when Cleo met her with a loud bark. She was naked in front of the dog!
Dreadfully embarrassed, Maddie jerked the sheet up off the floor to cover herself. The bed was destroyed, the sheets pulled loose, the spread totally gone. Both pillows were in the middle of the bed and Maddie blushed when she remembered why. Max had propped her up like a pagan offering, then made her feel pagan with the carnal way he’d enjoyed her body.
Cleo came the rest of the way into the bed, a little hesitant, keeping her head low, her tail well hidden, and Maddie felt emotions rise to choke her.
Scooting so that she was more or less sitting in the bed with the sheet around her sarong-style, she opened her arms to Cleo and the dog lumbered onto her lap.
It was the first time Cleo had come to her so openly, and it broke Maddie’s heart. Maddie squeezed the dog tight as tears seeped from her eyes. She loved the ugly beast as much as she loved the magnificent master.
She wanted them both. She wanted them forever.
Yet she’d argued with Max, insisting on no more than a notch on the bedpost.
“Oh Cleo,” Maddie wailed softly, “what am I going to do?” Last night had been the stuff dreams were made of, and Max thought it was all a lark, a way for her to gain sexual experience.
She certainly didn’t disdain what she was learning sexually. No way. Max was a remarkable lover, natural and intense and so clever. Very clever.
But she cared about more than their physical relationship. She cared about all of him, his humor and his honor and the way he loved. He gave Cleo his whole heart, and he hadn’t hesitated at all to befriend Carmilla, Bea and Mavis.
He was so easy to love, darn it.
More tears trickled down her cheeks, and Cleo whined. She licked Maddie’s face, then began to wail.
The dog had the worst morning breath Maddie had ever smelled, but it didn’t matter. They comforted each other, and it broke Maddie’s heart to admit she had played a dumb game and lost. She’d thought she could cavort in sexual frivolity with Max and just walk away more experienced. She should have known after seeing Max with Cleo that he wasn’t a man who could be played with.
And he wasn’t a man who women willingly walked away from.
Maddie rocked the dog, holding her pudgy body tight. Cleo shifted around anxiously, throwing her head back and really getting into the maudlin mood of it. The more Cleo whimpered, the more tears ran down Maddie’s face to mat in the dog’s scruffy fur. The more Maddie hugged and cuddled the dog, the more Cleo moaned and yowled.
Max came running into the room. He carried a tray with two glasses of orange juice on it and a look of befuddlement on his face. He stopped in the doorway and glared when he saw the two females huddled on the bed making enough racket to wake the entire street.
“What the hell is going on?”
MAX LOOKED AT Maddie’s tear-streaked face with alarm. Good God, she didn’t cry well. Her nose was red and swollen, her eyes puffy. Her cheeks were blotchy.
He wanted to hold her in his lap and beg her not to cry. First she’d curled his toes, and now she was ripping his guts out.
More softly, he asked, “What’s all the caterwauling about?” He set the tray down on the nightstand. “Maddie? Are you hurt?”
She hid her face in the dog’s fur. When he started to touch her, Cleo issued a low growl of warning, then snuffled her nose into Maddie’s neck.
“Well, I’ll be.” His damn dog had switched loyalties. Max shook his head. Good thing he loved Maddie, too. Love. What a tricky thing to happen to a guy.
From now on, when he wrote his column, he’d be a lot more understanding with the poor saps who got themselves tangled up in the emotion. It was damn hard to deal with, setting his heart on fire and turning his brain to mush. Everything he’d always thought he knew about women now seemed insignificant, all because he hadn’t yet known Maddie. Which meant he hadn’t known much at all.
Oh sure, he could make little Maddie scream with pleasure, but could he make her say, “I do”? He hadn’t believed in love at first sight. He hadn’t been all that sure that love existed at all, at least not the type of love that had stolen his father from him, the type of love that had turned his sedate older brother into a caveman and their friend, Guy, into a ball of distraction.
Max had honestly believed that if love existed, it needed time to grow, to stew and ferment and get real sticky. But hell, almost from the second he’d seen Maddie, his heart had known she was different. He tried to claim it was just his body talking—because she was one sexy little number—but no. It had been his heart attempting to warn his head, and now he had a wailing woman in bed with his dog and a bad case of uncertainty.
When Maddie lifted her face again, Max stared in horror. She had dog hairs stuck to the tear tracks on her cheeks. She looked to be in the throes of a transition from woman to werewolf.
She sniffed loudly. And wetly. “I’m sorry, Max.”
Feeling his way, Max ventured, “For what exactly?”
“For—” She sniffed again and Cleo whined in sympathy “—for carrying on so.”
Max sat on the edge of the bed and ignored Cleo’s protective bluster to scratch her ear. “Care to tell me what you’re carrying on about?”
Maddie nodded, but then said, “You’ll hate me.”
“Oh, hon.” He picked off a few of the dog hairs clinging to her cheeks. “I could never hate you.”
“I love you.”
Max drew back, nonplussed. “What?”
“See! It’s awful!” Her face went back into Cleo’s fur and Cleo glared at him.
Max got his mouth to close while wondering if he’d heard right. He felt mired in confusion. Cleo continued to give him dirty looks.
Max needed to take this slowly. If Maddie really was confessing to what he thought she might be confessing to, she sure as hell wasn’t happy about it.
“Here, sweetheart. Drink a little juice.” A totally inane thing to suggest, but at the moment nothing more brilliant came to him.
Maddie wrinkled her red nose up and turned away. “I can’t drink cold in the morning. I need coffee. Hot black coffee.”
“Oh.” Max frowned at her. “The caffeine is bad for you.”
Maddie blinked spiked wet lashes and then her face crumbled again. “What does it matter,” she wailed. “Everything is ruined now anyway and I love Cleo so much.”
So now she loved Cleo, too? Max looked around his room for inspiration. There was none to be found.
Making a sudden decision, he said to Cleo, “You gotta go out, girl?”
The dog abandoned Maddie’s secure hold in the blink of an eye and began anxiously circling Max’s feet. Max threw the sheet off the bed, lifted Maddie in his arms, and started out of the room.
“Max! What are you doing?”
He didn’t slow down. Cleo danced along beside him, her tubby body jiggling as he headed for the back door. “You look like hell in the morning, Maddie, did you know that?”
She pressed her face into his shoulder, sharing
some of the tear-soaked dog hairs. “Yes. But it doesn’t matter.”
“Caffeine doesn’t matter, how you look doesn’t matter. What does matter, sweetheart?”
She started to answer, then gasped loudly as he slid the patio doors open and stepped outside. Cool April air washed over their naked bodies. Cleo shot past, running into the yard beyond the privacy fence and barking with the sheer joy of going outside. She found her deflated plastic ball in the yard and trotted it back to Max.
“Just a second, girl. I have my hands full.”
Maddie clutched at him. Her red-rimmed eyes were huge and her face was pale. “What are you doing?”
She sounded squeaky, all aghast at being outside in the buff.
“I promised you the hot tub. But then you distracted me with that incredible mouth of yours.” Color rushed back into her cheeks, making Max smile. “The water’s warm, so prepare yourself.”
Maddie tried to keep a death grip on his neck, but Max lowered her into the frothing water of the hot tub. She looked around, and when she realized they were hidden completely by tall trees and the fence, she relaxed. Her gaze was still anxious as she watched him throw the ball for Cleo.
Max climbed into the tub and joined her. “I forgot about this,” he said as he lifted her into his lap and positioned her to recline back against his chest. “And didn’t you forget about something, too?”
Maybe if he could distract her from her tears, Maddie would tell him she loved him again. More calmly this time, so that he could believe it.
Maddie held still as Max cupped her breasts beneath the churning water. She caught his wrists and pressed his hands closer still. “What did I forget?”
“You said you had a surprise for me,” Max reminded her.
“Oh!” She twisted around to face him. “I forgot after…well, after you did what you did.”
“What I did?” Max teased, glad to see she’d stopped crying for the moment. “What about what you did.”
Her ravaged face softened. “I loved what I did. You taste so good, Max, and it was so extraordinary to watch you—”
Max clapped his hand over her mouth. “Shh,” he warned. “I always wake up horny, and having you here makes it especially bad because I’ve been wanting you since before I even opened my eyes. Don’t torture me now, okay?”
