by Francis Ray
Nodding, she went back to making the submarine sandwiches. Daniel’s blunt-tipped fingers picked up an olive and popped it into his mouth.
“These will be ready in a minute.” Faster if you’d move.
“No hurry. You’re sure I can’t help? Even I can slice and dice,” he said.
She shook her head, piling on shredded lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and onions. “Matt burns water. Kane is a fantastic cook.”
“How about you?” he asked.
She smiled in spite of the tension. “Somewhere between Kane and Matt. I was in a lot of activities at school, and I just didn’t seem to have the time. You’re lucky I went to the store yesterday. Mama’s care package isn’t due until Friday.”
Picking up the round platter of sandwiches, she placed them on the table. “Is cola all right, or do you want a beer? I mean is beer okay?”
“Alcohol has never been a problem for me, although I seldom drink.” He smiled and Madelyn’s heart did a little flip-flop. “Do your brothers know you drink beer?”
“It belongs to them,” she told him with an answering smile.
“Then cola is fine. Matt probably keeps count.”
She laughed and sat down in the chair he held for her. “You know him well, don’t you?”
“He’s a good friend,” Daniel said, no longer smiling.
Madelyn placed her hands in her lap, her appetite gone. “So I can’t be one, is that it?”
Black eyes bore into hers. “It wouldn’t stop there, and we both know it.”
“We could try,” she offered.
His laughter was rough. “You couldn’t be that naive.”
“I’m not naive or afraid of what I want.”
“You should be.” Rising, he pushed his chair back under the table. “I’ll get something on the way back home. You need to rest.”
She was right behind him as he went to the door. “Stop telling me what I need. I can take care of myself.”
He whirled, his eyes blazing. “Just because you put down that guy tonight doesn’t mean it might not have been a different story if he had been armed or more determined.”
“I’ve taken tae kwon do classes for four years. Any man who touches me better have his life insurance paid up.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s so!” She knew she had challenged the wrong man the instant the words left her mouth.
She expected him to come after her, no holds barred. She knew she wouldn’t be any match for Daniel. Skill might count for a lot, but he outweighed her by a good ninety pounds. Besides, something about the way he carried himself let her know he could walk into the meanest bar in Texas and come out unscathed.
“You like challenges, do you? Let’s see how you like this one.” Abruptly he pulled her into his arms. His head dipped.
She closed her eyes, expecting an assault on her body. She should have known better.
The assault came, but it was against her senses. The tiny, nibbling bites on her lips—the slow, rough glide of his hot tongue against the seam of her lips—stripped her of her defenses and left her hungry.
He was feasting on her lips, and she was starving.
Her hands loosened their hold on his shirt and slid around his neck, pressing closer to his masculine strength and warmth. She wanted more. Her lips parted, trying to join their mouths.
His lips kept moving, always an instant in time ahead of hers. Frustrated, she reached up and grabbed handfuls of thick hair and kept him still. His mouth finally closed fiercely over hers. The fit was perfect, natural. Instead of assuaging the hunger as she thought, the mating of their tongues made the ache spiraling from the middle of her body intensify.
Whimpering, she pressed her body against his, trying to make the ache go away. His hands pulled her hips firmly against his blunt arousal. Air hissed over her teeth at the utterly arousing and erotic contact.
Her knees sagged. Her head fell backward.
Daniel took the opportunity to press kisses against the slim column of her graceful neck, the rapid pulse beating at the base of her throat. Her tempting, full breasts were only a short distance away. His lips skimmed downward on her bare skin.
Locking his arm around her tiny waist, he lifted. Startled, she cried out, then cried out for another reason as his teeth closed around her nipple and tugged.
Abruptly his head lifted. “Did I hurt you?” Daniel asked, his voice hoarse.
Her eyelids blinked open. Her eyes were black with passion. “I—I—”
“Did I hurt you?” he repeated, his face an anguished mask.
Trembling fingers touched the rigid line of his mouth. “N-No. I was just surprised. I never knew. I never knew,” she said, replacing her finger tips with her lips.
“Mad—”
Whatever he had been about to say vanished when her tongue touched his. He drew her to him again. One more kiss, and then he was out the door. He simply meant to teach her that she couldn’t keep on provoking him. One more sweet taste.
He felt Madelyn’s small hands on his bare chest and started to pull away. When had he unbuttoned his shirt?
Warm lips closed gently on his hard brown nipple. He groaned instead. When his shirt had been unbuttoned no longer mattered. He was wildly glad that it was.
Her head lifted, and he found himself torn between regret and salvation, then her tongue licked the nub delicately, before she whirled her tongue around the turgid point.
He shuddered.
By the time she had moved to the next nipple, Daniel was holding on by a mere thread. His entire body was shaking with need. He had been a fool to start this. He had wanted her too badly for too long.
“M-Madelyn, we have to stop this.”
She kept right on driving him out of his mind with her delicate little tongue, seemingly lost in the touch and taste of him. Thinking to stop her, he pulled her up to him and kissed her. She melted against him like honey on a hot day. Her unbridled response snapped the last thread of his control and sealed their fate.
She was a woman burning in his arms, and he needed her fire to survive.
Stopping was impossible. The need had built inside him, picking up force like an avalanche thundering down the mountainside, mercilessly taking everything in its wake, its power awesome and frightening.
He didn’t know where the bedroom was, and it was pure chance the first door he entered held a bed. They tumbled on top of the covers. Daniel swiftly rolled, bringing her beneath him. Feeling her full length against him was pure ecstasy.
He wanted to taste her, taste all of her … later. Now he ached too much. He rolled again, this time standing as he unzipped her dress. Thankfully she seemed as impatient to undress him.
Sweeping the covers aside, he lay back down, taking her with him. He prepared himself, moved her thighs apart, and thrust into her.
The thin barrier easily gave way. Disbelief tautened his body.
No, she couldn’t be! Wide-eyed he stared down into her strained features. Her lips were tightly pressed together, her eyes shut.
She had been a virgin.
Cursing, he started to withdraw. She arched against him, locking her legs around his hips.
Breath hissed through clenched teeth. His forehead rested on hers. “Please don’t move, Madelyn.”
She heard him. She just wasn’t able to stop trying to find some ease from the feeling of being stretched and filled. It had been so nice before— Maybe if she lifted her hips.
Control slipped beneath the seductive call of her body. Daniel met her halfway. She tried to pull back but he followed, his body plunging deeper, then withdrawing.
Pleasure snuck up on her. Instead of shrinking from the intimacy, she was greedily demanding more.
Their mouths and bodies fused. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her legs locked around his hips, she met him stroke for incredible stroke. Madelyn felt her body spiraling out of control, the feeling frightening. Instinctively, she began to withdraw in mind and body.
“No, come with me.”
The husky entreaty of his voice caused her fear to recede. Her fingernails bit into Daniel’s perspiration-dampened back. Her head arched, her body tightened as she reached toward the spiraling sensation, knowing Daniel was with her.
As soon as the last aftershock left her body, Daniel rolled to one side and held her tightly in his arms. Madelyn snuggled closer. She had never felt so happy, so complete. She had known almost from the first moment he had held her that she would love him.
Feeling shy and bold at once, she ran her hand down his back. The stiffness of his muscles surprised her when she was feeling so mellow. “Daniel, what’s the matter?”
Suddenly he released her and sat up on the side of the bed, his broad back to her. “I’m sorry.”
The tiny ray of fear receded. He was only concerned about her. “You didn’t hurt me,” Madelyn said, sitting up in bed and clutching the sheet to her breasts. She reached out to touch him.
He jerked at the contact, stood, and began dressing. “Yes, I did. In ways you don’t even understand yet.”
“Daniel, what’s the matter?” Fear crept over her, stronger this time. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No. Never think that.” Finally he faced her, his face tortured. “This shouldn’t have happened.”
She flinched, but kept his gaze. “I-Is that all you have to say?”
“What else is there to say?” he questioned, roughly buttoning his shirt.
“How about ‘Madelyn, I’d like to see you again.’ Or ‘Madelyn, this was just a one-night stand.’ ”
His grim expression told her he could say neither of those things. “I tried to warn you in San Antonio I’m not the staying kind.”
“So you did.” Hurt beyond measure, Madelyn glanced away. “I’m sure you can find the front door. You seem to have excellent radar in finding the bedroom.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Goodbye, Daniel.” The words were tight.
“Mad—”
“Just go.”
For endless moments he stared at her, then her huddled form turned away from him. The sight tore at his heart. He was already reaching for her when he realized his mistake. If he touched her, they’d probably end up doing the same thing she was crying about now.
A virgin. He hadn’t expected that. She had been too responsive and somehow knowing in his arms. There hadn’t been any of the awkwardness he’d have expected from an inexperienced woman. She had come to him with fire and passion, making his feeble attempts to deny himself her sweetness impossible.
Even now he still wanted her. Yet more than the wanting of her body, he wanted to see her smile, hear her laugh.
“Mad—” He broke off abruptly. The instant he began speaking, she flinched and curled tighter into a fetal position.
Guilt weighing heavily on his shoulders, he turned to leave and saw the teddy bear he had won for her in San Antonio. The animal’s flat black eyes seemed to stare at Daniel accusingly.
Closing his eyes, Daniel glanced upward. What had he done? How could an innocent like Madelyn deal with something like this? No answer came. Opening his eyes, he left.
Madelyn heard him leave and wondered how she could still breathe with her heart ripped out. The front door opened and—after what seemed a lifetime—closed.
With a whimper of pain, she tucked her chin into her chest.
Chapter 6
Head bowed, Daniel’s hand clamped and unclamped around Madelyn’s front doorknob. He couldn’t leave her like this. Not in misery after she had trusted him.
But what could he say? Do? He valued her gift, the generosity of her sweet body, but he had been the wrong man to give it to. A sound from the direction of the bedroom had him whirling sharply.
Crying. No, crying wasn’t the heart-wrenching sounds he heard. She was sobbing. He’d hurt her. A hurt he didn’t know how to mend or fix or even if it were possible to correct such a wrong.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she probably thought she cared about him. In her inexperience she had confused lust with love. A woman didn’t wait that long and then give herself to a man unless she thought there was some permanency to the relationship.
She had picked the wrong man. Marriage was out for him. Even when two people loved each other, it wasn’t enough. Madelyn was looking at her brothers and her parents as examples. Unfortunately he had his parents as examples.
Love hadn’t kept them together. They couldn’t live together and couldn’t live apart. They’d tried dozens of times to make it work, until a couple of years ago. The final break had been physically and mentally hard on both of them … and on him and his sister, Dominique, who hurt for them both.
No wonder neither his nor his sister’s plans included marriage—although Dominique had had to learn her lesson the hard way.
The wrenching sounds from the bedroom gave no indication of lessening. Daniel’s hand rubbed the back of his neck. Jewelry, flowers, or a designer original wouldn’t fix this. She’d probably try to stuff it down his throat if he tried.
All he had was the truth and the hope that she’d understand. Slow steps took him to the bedroom. His knuckles rapped softly on the wall by the door.
“Madelyn?” The sobs stopped abruptly. “Can I come in?”
“Go away.”
“Madelyn, please.”
“You don’t want me. What could be plainer?”
He stepped into the doorway. The sight of her sitting with her back pressed against the headboard, her knees drawn up, frantically wiping tears with the corner of her sheet, tore the words from his throat. “I wanted you. I still want you.”
Her head jerked up. Hope flashed in her teary brown eyes. He clamped down hard on the need not to hurt her anymore and let her believe for just a little while. “But I don’t love you.”
She seemed to shrink and retreat before his eyes. He locked his legs and forced himself not to go any closer. “I made up my mind a long time ago that love and marriage weren’t for me. I grew up watching the misery and heartache my parents put each other through—and I promised myself, I wasn’t going to fall into that trap.”
Finally Madelyn lifted her head. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“You’re so naive and innocent, I should have seen it before. Love doesn’t always survive.”
“It can if the people love each other enough.”
“Don’t confuse lust with love. I wanted you, and love had nothing to do with it.” She flinched again, but he was determined to get through this. “I was as cocky as that creep you took down tonight in thinking I could control the situation, that I was actually teaching you a lesson. Instead I took something from you that can never be replaced.
“The only reason I got farther was that you trusted me. I broke that trust. I know you can’t stand the sight of me. You probably hate me, and you have every right. What I did was unforgivable. I ask you only one thing: Don’t blame yourself. You expect everyone to be as open and as honest as you are. Some of us aren’t.”
Madelyn didn’t know what to say. No matter how he phrased it, he didn’t love her. Worse, he wouldn’t even try. She was in love with a man who couldn’t love her back. Her head fell forward.
“Are you all right?”
She heard the concern in his voice, saw it in his coal-black eyes when she lifted her head: concern, not love. She had given him all she was going to. Somehow she managed to speak with only a minor quiver in her voice, “No, but I will be.”
His hands clamped. “I’ll call tomorrow.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“I’ll call.”
* * *
The first call came a little after nine Sunday morning. Madelyn lay in bed listening to Daniel’s voice and vacillated between anger at herself and at him. She’d known his reputation, and she had let herself get caught up in the moment anyway.
She had never known a kiss could
render you mindless, make your body crave for so much more. Once his lips touched hers, thinking became impossible. All her senses took over. Daniel dominated every one.
The touch, the taste, the scent of him wrapped around her—and all she wanted was for the sensation to continue. His voice had dropped to a deep, velvet whisper that sent shivers through her. At the sight of him, his hair hanging down his back, his eyes dangerously alive, she had wanted time to stand still.
The answering machine clicked. She sent the machine a hard glare, then rolled to her side to stare out the sliding glass door leading to her small patio. The large teddy bear Daniel had won for her stared reproachfully back at her from the other side of the glass.
“You’re not getting back in here any more than he is,” she told the stuffed animal, then tucked her head into the crook of her folded arms. Unlike last time, there wasn’t a whiff of Daniel’s cologne to send her stumbling out of bed. She hadn’t stopped until she had laundered the sheets and the pillowcases. She wanted nothing to remind her of her stupidity.
Of all the guys who had tried to talk her into bed in high school or college, she hadn’t been tempted, not once. Daniel didn’t even have to ask. In the bright light of day, that galled and angered Madelyn more than anything. She had let her feelings for him overshadow every other consideration.
He wouldn’t get another chance. She had learned her lesson. But she had paid a high price.
The phone rang. Somehow she knew who the call was from. Her father’s cheerful voice came through loud and clear.
“Hi, Kitten. When are you coming home? Seems like a year instead of a month. I guess you’re at Sunday school. Today’s the pastor’s anniversary, and your mother went early to help out.” He chuckled. “Probably doing a lot of bragging on how well our baby girl is doing. I better go before I’m late. You know how she hates that. Don’t know what time well be home, so we’ll call back. Bye, Kitten.”
The answering machine clicked.
“Oh, Daddy. Your baby girl messed up, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
* * *
“Madelyn, since you won’t answer the phone, I’m coming over. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”