And it only got better, got deeper and wetter. Not quite so gentle, but all the more exciting. She eased her fingers up into his hair and closed the tiny distance between their bodies, pressing herself all along the length of him, loving the feel of him, lean and hard where she was soft.
But too soon, he was lifting that beautiful mouth away. “Pick one.”
What was he talking about now? “One what?”
“A Bravo. Any Bravo.”
“How many ways can I say it? I’m not ready yet.” She trailed a finger along the sculpted line of his jaw, enjoying the silky prickle of his beard scruff. “Want to spend the night?”
He seemed bemused. “You are too tempting.”
She looked at him sideways then. “That’s no answer.”
“It’s a fact. Iamtempted.”
“So then, what you mean is no.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you’re thinking it. Because I’m a virgin and that makes it awkward and probably messy and who needs that?”
“Madison.” He said her name so sternly. A muscle in his jaw twitched with tension. “We hardly know each other.”
“So?” She stepped back. Now they were facing off. The air seemed to crackle in the empty space between them. “People have sex all the time without knowing each other.”
“Youdon’t.”
For a moment, she could almost regret telling him that she’d never had sex with anyone—but no. If she ever did have sex with a man, at the very least it would be a man she could say anything to. “What about you?” she challenged. “Ever had sex with a stranger?”
He actually smiled at that. “Okay. Yeah. I’ve had my share of casual hookups.”
She took a guess. “But not anymore?”
He kind of nodded and shrugged simultaneously. “I got to that point most people reach, I think. That point where I wanted more. I wantedthe one. I really thought I’d found her. We were together for two years, but it didn’t work out.”
“You still miss her.” Oh, why did that make her stomach clench and her heart feel suddenly shrunken and sad?
“No.” He said it too strongly. “I don’t miss her. Not anymore.”
“You’re bitter, then?”
“Not bitter, just...” He seemed at a loss for the right word. She waited him out. And finally, he finished with, “I’m cautious. Once burned and all that.”
“And you haven’t been with anyone, not since whoever-she-was?”
“No. I haven’t.”
“And you don’twantto be with anyone?” she dared to ask.
The silence was deafening.
Okay, he didn’t want to spend the night. He didn’t want to answer questions. And he didn’t want to talk about whoever-she-was. Fair enough.
Madison took the two steps to the door. “In case you’ve been wondering, yes, I did break the chain in the toilet to get you to come over here.”
“Madison.” He shook his head, but he was grinning again. Like she was just so cute and amusing.
Frankly, he was pissing her off. “People pretty much assume that when I’m not pretending to be someone else for way more money than such foolishness could possibly be worth, I lie around on a velvet couch waiting for someone to peel me a grape. And those people are not entirely wrong. I do have a great job, overall. I also make a lot of money and my people take care of me. But when I was a little girl, I lived on ranches all over the West. My dad—and I don’t care that it’s turned out he was no blood relation to me. He was my dad.” Out of nowhere, her throat clutched and her eyes blurred with unwelcome tears.
