Crazy About Curves: 10 Luscious Reads

by Adriana Hunter

  Alex was left with nothing but a feeling of emptiness and the ghost of her sweet perfume.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “You need to calm down and tell me what happened,” Kim said, stroking Maddy’s back as Maddy sat on the hotel bed crying. Her tears stung her eyes and she wasn’t even sure what she was crying about but she couldn’t stop herself.

  “He’s a creep,” she told Kim, even though she felt bad as soon as the words passed between her lips. Was he really a creep? Hadn’t she wanted that kiss just as much as he had?

  “What did he do?”

  “He kissed me.”

  Kim stopped stroking and lifted Maddy’s face to meet her gaze. “That’s what this is all about? Alex Stone kissed you?”

  Maddy nodded and sniffed.

  Kim grinned, her brown eyes wide. “That’s great!”

  “What?”

  “Don’t you see, Honey? You went out with him to get a story but now you are the story. Kiss and tell stories are a big deal.”

  “But nothing really happened.”

  “Yet.”

  “Ever. I told him I won’t see him again.”

  “Oh, you shouldn’t have done that, Honey.” Kim went to the hotel phone and picked it up.

  “What are you doing?” Everything was happening too fast for Maddy. She needed the world to slow down. She should have asked Kim to come over to her room in the morning after she had slept, not now while her emotions were still raw. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight.

  “Alex’s agent called you on this phone so maybe the hotel can give us the number. You can call the guy and set up another meeting.”

  “Put the phone down. Please.”

  Kim replaced the handset. “OK, it’s too soon. We’ll do that in the morning.” She sat on the bed next to Maddy again. “How are you feeling?”

  Maddy shrugged. How was she feeling? She tried to put her emotions into words and said, “Sad.”

  “Because he kissed you?” Kim seemed incredulous.

  “No, not exactly.”

  “Because you won’t see him again?”

  Maddy shrugged. She felt upset because a hidden part of her was breaking the locks on its cage and escaping. How could she tell her friend that? How could she tell Kim that Alex seemed able to unlock that cage and take the passionate Maddy out to play?

  “I don’t know why I’m upset,” she said, feeling bad about lying to Kim but unable to tell her the truth.

  Kim stood in front of Maddy and spoke in a harsher tone. “OK, you listen to me now. Are you going to go through all this misery and have nothing to show for it? Alex Stone has done a number on you somehow and you’re going to just forget it and go back to your job next week as if nothing happened? Screw that! It’s time you did something for yourself. If you’re going to get anywhere in life, you have to go out and grab opportunities, not wait for them to be given to you.

  “You’ve been given this opportunity and now you need to grab it with both hands. Tell Alex Stone you’ll see him again. Do whatever it takes to get a story that’s going to make the journalism world sit up and take notice of Madison Davis. Isn’t that what you want?”

  Maddy nodded. Maybe Kim was right. She couldn’t just sit here on her bed crying for the rest of the week. She would never get another chance at an exclusive story like this. She wiped her eyes and sat up straight. “I’ll do it.”

  “That’s the spirit, Honey. Now let’s get the number of that agent.”

  “There’s no need to do that.” Maddy opened her left hand, revealing the crumpled tear-stained business card she had been holding since Alex had given it to her.

  Kim picked it up and studied it. “This is his personal number.”

  Maddy nodded.

  “So give him a call.”

  “Right now? It’s late. I’ll call him in the morning.”

  Kim handed the card back to Maddy. “OK but in the morning I’m going to make sure you don’t lose your nerve. You get some sleep now, you’ve got a big day ahead. It’s time to hook this fish and reel him in. Goodnight, Honey.” She kissed Maddy’s forehead and left for her own room.

  Maddy sat looking at the card in her hand. She felt like she wasn’t so much hooking a fish and reeling him in as hooking a fish and letting him pull her into the sea before she had chance to let go of the line.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “I’m glad you called me,” Alex said as he hit the button on the console that dropped the Swan’s anchor. He slid down the ladder to the deck. The day was hot and sunny and he was sweating despite wearing only shorts and a loose cotton shirt.

  Maddy was more conservatively dressed in a loose gray linen top and cream-colored linen pants. She wore sunglasses, which Alex found sexy but the trade off was that they hid her pretty blue eyes. Her blonde hair was loose and blew around her neck and shoulders in the hot summer breeze.

  She had called him two days ago, saying she would like to see him again if he was still interested. Hell, he was more than interested. Since the moment she had stepped out of his car he had barely thought of anything else but her. He didn’t know why she affected him this way but he was willing to try and find out. Part of it was her sexiness but she was sexy in a very different way to the thin models he dated.

  Looking at Maddy’s curvy figure sent a primal message whispering into Alex’s brain... a single word that encapsulated desire, pleasure and need. That word was “woman”.

  The women in his past - except for Bonny - spent most of their waking hours obsessing about their weight, putting themselves on extreme diets, taking pills and exercising to the point of exhaustion. If that wasn’t enough they had surgery. Now that Alex looked back on their actions and compared them to Maddy, he wondered if he had always preferred bigger girls.

  When he met the models, he calculated their desirability by comparing them to the media images that other men said were the most desirable. Thin arms. Flat stomachs. Pinched features. He never considered how desirable they were to him. He wondered if that was why the relationships always failed before they even started; deep down he did not find these women to be desirable females. They didn’t do it for him.

  Maddy was different. His body reacted to her presence. He could hardly stop thinking about her. Unlike the dieters and pill-poppers and surgery patients, Maddy was feminine and sexual. Big breasts. Wide hips. Softer womanly features.

  Alex had to admit she turned him on more than any other woman ever had. He didn’t judge her appearance based on some media-inspired ideal; he acknowledged how attractive she was to him. Nobody else’s opinion mattered.

  It wasn’t just her plus-size figure that attracted him to Maddy. She seemed complex, real. He wanted to know more about her. Her personality intrigued him. For the first time, he felt like breaking his usual pattern of charming a woman into bed then dumping her. He wanted more than that with this woman.

  She smiled and looked out across the shimmering, still sea. “I see you’ve brought us to Stone Island.” The rocky island sat off their stern

  He liked that she called the island by the name he and Tony had given it. “I thought you’d like to see that cave. I anchored us a little closer so it’ll be easier to swim.”

  She looked over at the island and nodded. She seemed nervous. Probably because the last time she had tried to swim to the island she had lost her nerve.

  “I’ll go get changed,” he said, pushing through the door into the living area. In the Master Cabin, he stripped out of his shorts and shirt and put on swim trunks.

  By the time he got back out on deck, Maddy was already in the water and swimming a few yards away from the diving platform. She had left her linen top and pants folded neatly on the aft deck seat.

  Alex jumped off the boat and into the sea. As he surfaced and shook the salt water out of his hair, Maddy was already making for Stone Island. “Hey, wait for me,” he shouted.

  She looked over her shoulder and increased her spee
d, laughing.

  Alex took off after her but held back a little. He wanted to let her win this impromptu race. She was having fun and he wasn’t about to ruin it with macho antics. As she got to the rocks that marked the edge of the island, though, she didn’t climb out of the water. She waited for him.

  He caught up with her and saw that look of nervousness in her eyes again. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. You go first since it’s your island.”

  “OK but you’re coming too, right?”

  She nodded. “Yes but give me a minute.”

  He swam to the rocks and climbed out. The heat of the day warmed him as he found a flat area to sit while Maddy decided whether to get out of the water or not. He had no idea why she was suddenly nervous and hesitant. “You coming?” he asked.

  She nodded and waded through the sea until she reached the rocks and climbed out.

  Alex’s mouth dropped open.

  Oh my Goddess.

  She stood before him in the tiny black bikini she had been wearing on the day he saved her life. It barely contained her full, heavy breasts. The bottoms were stretched tightly across the curves of Maddy’s hips, below the swell of her belly.

  She still wore the sunglasses so he couldn’t see her eyes but he knew she was looking at him and judging his reaction.

  She was the sexiest woman he had ever seen.

  He opened his mouth to speak but his brain seemed to not be connected to his mouth anymore. “I... wow.”

  A faint glimmer of a smile played on her lips. The nervousness seemed to be fading slowly. She walked along the rocks toward him. Her womanly assets moved in ways that made Alex’s mouth go dry. His body responded to the sight before him and his swim trunks suddenly seemed inadequate to hold him in. They were tight. He was hard. Very hard.

  She stood with her hands on the curve of her hips. “Are you going to show me this cave or what?”

  He wanted to answer, “What”. He had better ideas about ways they could spend their time together. But he stood up and said, “Yeah, follow me.”

  They clambered over the rocks until they reached a fissure that marked the mouth of the cave.

  “In there?” Maddy asked. “It looks a little small.”

  “It’s much bigger inside. You coming?” He went through the opening and walked between the thin rock walls until the cave opened out and he stood in the chamber where the pool was situated. It was cooler in here, despite the sunlight coming in through gaps in the ceiling.

  Alex sat on the smooth rock floor and waited for Maddy to appear. He wasn’t sure how to handle her overflowing sexuality. If it was anyone else in that bikini, he would be all over them by now and he had the same urge to be all over Maddy but something stopped him acting like his usual self.

  He didn’t want his old pattern of behavior rearing its ugly head.

  Maddy came through the tunnel and into the chamber. She looked around at the smooth rocky walls and the small pool in the center of the cave.

  As she stood there in the sunlight, Alex checked her out again. He imagined spending a night exploring that bountiful body. He suppressed a groan and tried to think of something else.

  “It’s beautiful,” Maddy said. She sat on the rock next to Alex. He was aware of her closeness, of her arm touching his. He wondered what had caused such a change in her. This was not the girl who had stormed out of his car the other night.

  Did she realize the effect she was having on him?

  * * *

  Maddy’s emotions were in turmoil. She had worn the bikini beneath her linen top and pants at Kim’s insistence. Kim had told her that this would get Alex’s attention like nothing else. Maddy had spent the entire boat ride out here psyching herself up to let him see her in it.

  But as they had approached the island, her nervousness had faded slightly. She didn’t just want to wear the bikini to get Alex’s attention anymore, she wanted to wear it for herself. She was a sexual being, an attractive woman. She wanted to express that.

  The nerves returned when it came time to step out of the sea and let Alex see her but after she saw his reaction she relaxed a little.

  Now she was sitting here in the cave beside him she felt the two sides of her nature warring within her. She felt sexual and needful and at the same time she didn’t trust herself. Part of her wanted to rip Alex’s swim trunks off and throw them across the cave along with her bikini. She wanted to see him lying on the rocks beneath her while she straddled him and writhed in pleasure on his hardness.

  Yet another part of her warned her not to even think of such things. She had already gone too far just by wearing the bikini.

  She already acknowledged to herself that this was not about a career in journalism. Alex affected her in ways that brought out this wanton side of her. Her actions weren’t about getting a story anymore; they were about letting Alex see the effect he had on her, letting him know the Maddy she had become.

  She turned to face him and saw a reflection of her own need in his gray eyes. He moved to kiss her and she met him halfway, her lips parting as his tongue explored her. She put her hand on his strong, flat stomach, her fingers tracing the outline of his muscles there.

  Alex’s kiss became more urgent as Maddy trailed her fingers down over the front of his swim trunks, feeling the hardness beneath the wet fabric. She used her thumb and forefinger to trace the outline of his manhood from tip to base.

  Alex groaned. She felt his hands on her breast, the fingers searching for a way past the bikini. He found it and she felt a finger on her hard, sensitive nipple. She gasped and kissed him with more fervor as she felt her desire grow inside her like a liquid heat.

  She needed Alex more than she had ever needed anyone.

  But he pulled away from her suddenly.

  He removed his hand from her breast and shuffled back on the rock so she was no longer touching him. “Maddy, we can’t,” he said.

  She was confused, breathing hard. “What do you mean? I thought this was what you wanted.”

  “It is. That’s why we can’t do it.”

  She frowned. “If you think I don’t want it as well, you’re wrong. I want it. I want you, Alex.”

  He swallowed and nodded. “I know. But I always get what I want and maybe I shouldn’t.”

  “I don’t understand.” Was he trying to tell her he didn’t find her attractive? Of course that was it. He spent his life bedding women who were perfect 10’s. She wasn’t even in the same league. She felt so foolish. So stupid.

  “Whatever you’re thinking right now, it’s wrong,” he said. “I find you so attractive I can’t even tell you. It isn’t about that.”

  “What then?” She felt despair creep in and blanket her desire. This didn’t make sense. Alex Stone, famous for his womanizing, wouldn’t have her even when she was offering herself to him. It could only mean he found her repulsive. His reaction to the bikini earlier was just an act. That was how he made his living after all. He had certainly fooled her.

  “If I slept with you now, I’d just be doing what I’ve done for years with a string of women... women who meant nothing to me. You’re more than that to me, Maddy. You make me want to be better than I have been in the past.”

  He reached out to touch her shoulder but she shrugged him off. “I want to go home,” she said. She felt drained suddenly, dead inside. Better not to think about how stupid she had been. Just go back to shore and forget this ridiculous trip ever happened.

  Alex looked at her and said, “Maddy, I didn’t mean...”

  “Take me home,” she said.

  He nodded, got up, and went through the rock tunnel that led to the sea.

  Maddy followed.

  The war inside her was over.

  The old Maddy had won.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The beach was hot, crowded and noisy. Maddy sat on a sun lounger wearing a large straw hat, sunglasses and her linen outfit. Beneath the top and pants she wore sensible underwear. The b
ikini had been relegated to the bottom of her suitcase and when she got back to London, she intended to burn it.

  On the stage at the far end of the beach, a DJ played pop tunes for the crowds of young people dancing on the sand. At this end of the beach, families swam and played in the sea under the watchful eyes of the lifeguards. Maddy avoided looking at the lifeguard hut and tried to read a Nora Roberts paperback she had brought with her but the words she read on the page didn’t make any sense in her mind. Her thoughts were too scattered.

  Kim seemed unable to settle. She started the day sunbathing next to Maddy but then wandered off to the stage before returning and trying to sunbathe again. After a while, she went for a dip in the sea before coming back to again lay out on her towel.

  “What’s wrong?” Maddy asked her.

  “What do you mean?” Kim’s eyes were unreadable behind a large pair of sunglasses.

  “You seem agitated.”

  “I’m not agitated, Honey.”

  “So what’s up?”

  “I just wish you hadn’t let your feelings get in the way of this great story you could have had.”

  “Some story,” Maddy said, lowering her voice to a whisper, “The only woman Alex Stone ever rejected tells all. How embarrassing.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t you who put a stop to it? The way you described what happened in that cave doesn’t sound like you, Honey.”

  “I didn’t put a stop to it. I had my hand on his... I was touching his... I did not put a stop to it!”

  “Well if you were doing that to get the story I misjudged you. I apologize.”

  “I wasn’t doing it for any story. I was doing it because I... wanted to.” She remembered just how much she had wanted Alex. The memory made her feel hot all over.

  “See, I told you he was a hunk. You couldn’t resist his charms.”

  “But he could resist mine,” Maddy said, sighing. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Eric dumping her by text had hurt her confidence but this was going to destroy it forever.