A Moment of Bliss (11 page)

Roark kissed his way down to her collarbone, covering her breast with one hand, teasing it to a peak that had her arching against him, before making his way back up. He angled himself over her. Capturing her mouth once more, he licked his way inside, a low rumbling of want in his throat, and she had to hold back a whimper.

Madison tucked into him, brushing her thigh along his until he was cradled against her. His body heat was like a furnace on full blast, and she wanted more.

He broke the kiss long enough to inhale with a hiss, his chest pressing into hers. She clutched at his back, dragging him closer, needing the weight of him, the heat, the feel of him covering her.

God, she was hungrier for him than ever, with no logical explanation why. Maybe because she could do this to him, have the same effect he had on her. The buttoned-up, well-behaved business owner, rolling around on the ground, needy and desperate, looking as wild as he insisted she did.

She put her hands under his shirt, tracing over the plane of his stomach, the dip of his hip, before dragging her fingers down his back. Tilting her hips, she rubbed against him.

He ground against her until he was muttering curses, his kiss rougher than before. “I . . . I don't have—”

“Touch me.” She managed to get out the words.

He nodded, his mussed-up hair brushing against her chin. He cupped a hand over her breast again, teasing her nipple before sliding his hand down and putting his mouth in the vacated spot.

His mouth was hot and damp, a clamp she felt on her flesh, even through her shirt and sports bra. He sucked before gently nipping at her with his teeth.

“Mmm.” She made a noise of approval, touching his hair, the back of his head, before threading her fingers through the longer strands and holding him in place.

His big, warm hand pressed between her legs, through her running pants. She moved against him, encouraging, and he cupped his hand against her, possessive. Sliding his hand up and down, he taunted her until she was pressing back, a hairsbreadth from begging. Or demanding, more like.

“Touch
me
.” Her grip on his shoulders turned into digging her fingers into his flesh.

Roark knew exactly what he was doing though. He gave her a lazy grin as he dragged his hand up and toyed with the hem of her shirt.

A wash of cool air brushed her stomach as he lifted her shirt and reached for the waistband of her running capris.

“Yes.” She arched again.

He looked up, dark and hungry, the intent clear in his clenched jaw and the steel resolve in his gaze, enough to make her want to come right then. He held her gaze, never wavering, daring her to look away when he slid his hand down, inside her pants, beneath the fine woven cotton of her panties, to brush teasingly at her clit.

She couldn't look away. Something told her she should. Like looking into his stormy-sky eyes would only make things more complicated. With that expression on his face, the vision of him would be forever burned onto her brain, and was it worth the pain? Was he worth the pain?

But no matter how beautiful their surroundings, she only wanted to see one thing.

“There?” Roark asked, his gaze on hers, looking deep within, to places she didn't want anyone to see.

She jerked her chin in some semblance of a nod.

His touch was first a tender caress over her skin, seeking, teasing. With two fingers, he slid his hand lower, over her lips, to the cleft of her sex. He rubbed gently against her, back and forth, before he dipped a finger in and out, until they were both slick. With the lightest of touches, he brushed against her, in a quest, until he found the bundle of nerves, and her hips jerked, body as tight as a bowstring.

He lowered himself, a long, slow kiss on her lips, as he continued to touch her. A gentle pass over her clit, the slightest pressure upon return, he circled and coaxed, until she gave up and moved beneath him in counterpoint.

Roark leaned up, watching her, as if soaking up her every reaction. A flick of his fingers, almost a pinch, heated her body, her muscles tightening.

He murmured something, an encouragement, a compliment, she wasn't even sure, but the meaning reached her. He was there with her, in this moment, swallowed up by the insanity. Two people who didn't do this type of thing, doing exactly this thing in the middle of the forest.

Roark increased the pressure, moving his thumb over the tender nub and using two of his fingers to slide inside her.

“Oh—” Madison half cried out before clamping her mouth shut. She tilted her hips, moving with him, helping him find the right rhythm.

“Yeah. That's it. Damn, you're . . . you're beautiful like this.” His words came out on a breathy exhale.

Farther in the trees, crickets chirped, a bird screeched. She was in the middle of nowhere, with Roark, and what grew inside her was wilder than the woods surrounding them. This wasn't what she did. Letting go, no control of the world around her.

“Yes.” She tossed her head back. “Faster. I'm . . .”

He rubbed faster, turning his fingers inside of her to just the right—

“God . . . oh god. . . .” Madison's hips bucked up once, twice, of their own volition. Current after current of consuming sensation shot from her core, where he touched her, through her, her hips flexing, legs tight. She grabbed onto Roark's arm, burying her face into his shoulder, anchoring him there through her orgasm.

She imagined he kissed her temple at some point, or maybe he really did.

“Holy . . . hell,” she finally said, collapsing back onto the soft moss.

Roark leaned down to one elbow, propping his head up, looking very content for the one who hadn't climaxed.

A dopey grin split her face, turning into a pop of laughter as she looked up into his satisfied gaze. “I'd just planned on going for a run.”

He grinned, rolling forward. “Me too.”

“You're a troublemaker.”

“
I
am not the troublemaker here.” Roark's laugh was a warm breath against her skin.

He reached across her to hold her hip, rubbing his thumb back and forth over the sensitive skin above the waist of her pants. “I should probably feel bad about the location and timing. Not ideal . . . or very gentlemanly.”

The thing was, she didn't want gentlemanly when it came to what they'd done. “I'm pretty sure I jumped you, so the timing is on me.”

“Okay. I'll let you take the blame.” Roark rolled away to stretch, grimacing as he did so.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just . . . need a second.”

It took her a moment to catch on. “Oh.”

He nodded.

“Or . . .” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “I have another idea.”

His grin remained, color rising to his cheeks the same way it had when she'd caught him eating the cookies. How could a man be so off-the-charts sexy, and yet so adorable at the same time?

Madison pushed against his shoulder to make him lie back, just as she was attacked from behind by about a hundred pounds of hair and a slobbery tongue.

“B
eau! Beau!” Roark tried corralling the overexcited dog with both arms.

Beside him, Madison was of no help. She shook with laughter, trying and failing to get up off the ground.

“Dammit.” Roark took a tongue, straight to the face. He rolled over to climb to his feet, Beau bouncing happily beside him. “Where the hell did you come from?”

Madison got up, swaying on her feet. “Did he get out of the inn and run away?”

Realization hit him all at once as he got up and made a grab for Beau with one hand, brushing himself off with the other. “His morning walk. I guaran-damn-tee you, Dev is on dog duty today. He's the only one who lets Beau off his leash to run ahead.”

Madison's eyes went wide as she looked toward the path. “You mean, your brother . . . ?”

He nodded, shaking off the back of his T-shirt.

“Terrific. On a scale of one to ten, how much do we look like we just had a quickie?”

“Fifteen. You have twigs and moss in your hair.” Roark reached over, plucking at her destroyed ponytail.

“Faster.” She shook her hair. “We should get back on the road. Pretty suspicious if we come wandering out of the woods.” Madison feigned a voice of innocence. “Oh us? We were just . . . picking blackberries. At daybreak.”

Roark snorted with laughter.

“Don't laugh. That's not helping.”

“Come on. Beau will follow if we go to the road.”

They hurried onto the worn path and toward the gate, making it back onto the road.

“Do I look okay?” Madison walked ahead of him.

She looked more than okay; she was extraordinary. Hair a mess, clothes rumpled, skin glowing from exercise and sex, but he was pretty sure that's not what she meant. “You still have some stuff in your hair. Bits of... nature.”

“Well, get it. Get the nature. I can't see it.”

He laughed, picking at her ponytail, putting it in a worse state than before. “Hold still, I'm trying to get it all.”

“Hang on.” Madison reached for her hair tie, letting her hair down and shaking it out.

“Talk about not helping. Now all I want is to go back and get more nature on you.”

She peered up at him. “Stop,” she reprimanded, but she was smiling.

Roark held her head still. “Wait. I think I see a baby spider.”

She poked him in the side. “If I was actually scared of spiders, I'd kick your ass.”

He finished picking the bits of leaf and grass out of her hair and threaded his fingers through the strands before pulling away. “Sorry. Just, your hair looks good down.”

“Very good. I agree.”

They startled at the sound of another male voice.

Devlin stood a few feet away, dressed in worn jogging pants and a hoodie. Beau ran around him, elated that now there were three humans on his walk.

Beau bounded toward Madison, making her take a step back.

“Don't worry,” Dev said. “He won't jump. Just being friendly. Though, not as friendly as my brother.”

“Dev.” Roark knew he was using the voice his brother hated. But if he hated it so much, why did he insist on doing and saying things to bring it out?

“Roark,” Devlin said, in perfect mimicry of his tone.

Madison quickly pulled her hair back and into a ponytail again. “Guess Beau needed to get out early today.”

Dev hummed an affirmative, his gaze darting over both of them as Beau trotted over to sniff at a tree on the side of the road. “It's not that early anymore. Roark wasn't back, so I figured I'd better take him.”

“You're perfectly capable of walking the dog too, you know.” Roark knew he sounded childish, but he didn't have to be responsible for everything, all the time.

Dev's biggest gripe in the world was that Roark was overbearing and treated him like a delinquent instead of an equal. If he wanted to be treated like a grown man, he should act like one. Not some of the time or when it benefited him, but all of the time.

Plus, could a guy not even have a roll in the hay—almost literally—without somebody needing him to do something or interrupting him?

“And you shouldn't let Beau run off alone,” Roark added, exercising his right to be sullen.

“He wasn't alone. You guys were here.” Dev flashed his crooked grin, the one that won women and angered boyfriends countywide.

“You didn't
know
we were here.”

“What can I say? I lucked out.” Devlin clapped for Beau, drawing him back over from the fallen tree limb he'd been inspecting.

Madison eyed the both of them, shifting her weight on her feet. “I should . . .” She thumbed over her shoulder, up the road.

“You don't have to go.” Devlin stopped her. “My brother is just ill because I interrupted the two of you.”

Hell yeah he was, but he'd be damned if he was going to admit that Dev had interrupted anything.

“No, I'm ill because while Trevor is in Portugal, Beau is
our
responsibility, yet you always try to put it on me, same as always.”

Devlin rolled his eyes. “Same as always, like you hate being in charge so much? And Trev isn't in Portugal. He's in Peru.”

“Wherever. He took off and Beau is with us now, which means we all have to take care of him.”

“Some of us don't mind taking care of him.” Devlin reached down to scratch the dog's ears.

“Don't try to make it out like I'm the bad guy and you're a saint. Last week you were bellyaching and stuck me with taking him out in the rain.”

Dev's gaze snapped up, eyes cold. “You like to run in the rain. I figured you might want to take him for a jog. Excuse the hell out of me for problem solving.”

Madison shifted on her feet, arms crossed. “You run in the rain?”

“Sometimes.” He glanced over, aware she was grasping at anything to change the subject and stop their bickering.

“Well, speaking of running. I'm going—” She nodded to the road again.

“No, it's fine, Madison.” Devlin broke the stare-off with Roark. “I think we're about done anyway. You done?”

“Yes,” Roark ground out.

“Roark stays pissed at me three times out of four, likewise for me. You'll get used to it.”

Roark held in the growl of frustration that clawed to get out. No one in the world could push his buttons like Dev, and he damn well knew it.

As if the dog knew too, Beau lurched toward him, head-butting Roark's thigh in a demand for some attention.

Roark scratched at Beau's neck. “Hey, buddy.”

Dev flung the unused leash onto his shoulder. “So what are you two up to?”

“Running,” they replied in unison.

“Really? Because it kind of looked like you were playing with Madison's hair.”

Madison cleared her throat and studied the ground at her feet.

“Don't be rude.” Roark patted Beau's head.

Devlin laughed. “What? I'm just saying.” He was the picture of false virtue, blue eyes wide with a big, sweet smile.

Dev knew what they were up to out here, and if not, he'd figure it out.

“Roark was picking leaves out of my hair.” Madison went straight for the truth, making both of them turn to look at her. “You were. Can we head back now?”

“Um . . . sure.”

Madison nodded a goodbye to Dev, but he stepped forward. “Before you go, Wright worked up the menus you guys talked about. I made a few suggestions and, anyway, if you want, you could try them tonight.”

She lit up, uncrossing her arms. “Tonight is perfect. I hope to finish up in town before dinner.”

“It will have to be later, after the restaurant is finished with the dinner crowd.”

“I eat late anyway.”

Devlin snapped his fingers for Beau again. “Good. Then show up hungry. We have a lot to choose from.” He gave them both a wave goodbye. He and Beau were almost out of earshot when he yelled, “We'll go ahead and set an extra place for Roark too.”

Roark sighed, shaking his head. “My brother. Never making my life easy.”

Madison frowned, matching his brisk pace. “Are things really so bad? I mean, he is your brother.”

He jerked his chin toward her. She sounded bothered by it and so serious. “What? No! I mean . . . we argue, we bicker, but like he said, it's what we do. It's not
bad
bad. We just . . .”

She glanced at him, her steps steady as she waited.

He and Dev were so different, yet shared so much. They both bore the brunt of their parents' issues, more so than their younger siblings, and for better or worse, it'd made them who they were today.

“I don't know. I try not to overthink it because it's never made things better, but our bickering is about more than—”

“Walking a dog?”

“Yeah.” The word came out with a self-deprecating laugh. “A good bit of my moodiness may have also been sexual frustration, but I wasn't about to tell him that.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

“I know Dev and I pick at each other like we're ten sometimes. I'm not proud of that, but I can't ever stop myself once we get going. He's so . . .” Roark growled and imagined himself shaking the shit out of his brother, because that was the only way he knew to explain it. “He's my brother and I love him, I do. But dammit, I want to boot him sometimes. I'm several years older than him, always more responsible, and now that I'm majority owner of Honeywilde, and kind of his boss, our relationship is . . . I don't really know. It bothers him, same way with Trev, but that's how my parents divided up the place when they left. We just don't talk about it.”

“I doubt I'll ever meet Trevor, since he's in Peru, but I'll be sure to avoid the topic around Devlin.”

She meant it as a reassurance, but Madison's words only reminded him how temporary her time at Honeywilde really was. Trevor would return like he always did, but chances were, she'd be long gone. This was not Madison's home, and their arrangement, regardless of how it may have changed at this point, was not long-term.

The back of his neck tingled and he glanced over to catch her staring at him. “What?”

“Do you think Dev will tell your sister about running into us? He's at least suspicious.”

“I'm sure he knows what we were doing, or some version of it anyway, and he'll absolutely tell Sophie everything.”

“Gee, I'm so reassured. Thanks.”

“Welcome to life around a big family. Good luck keeping a secret. Dev tells Sophie everything. And Wright is his best friend, so I'm sure he'll bring it up to him too, but that's it. Dev doesn't confide in anyone outside of the family.”

She ran her hands over her hair. “Your sister is going to give us that look as soon as she knows.”

“
Thank you!
She swears I'm making it up when I say she does that.”

“The look that's both suspicious yet encouraging?”

“Yes!”

Madison shook her head. “You're not making it up. She wields that look.”

“She's the queen of looks and then trying to act innocent about it.”

“If she's up front when we get back, we'll get all kinds of looks.”

“We have five miles. Between now and then we can appear more respectable.”

“We're walking the whole way, right? Because I can't run right now.”

“Definitely a walk.”

They kept up the pace on the dirt road, but remained at a walk. Every time he snuck a peak at Madison, she was looking at him.

Smiling, she waved her hand in the air. “What we did back there . . .”

“Was great.” He grinned, veering over to walk closer to her.

She bumped her arm against his. “But I said we'd wait.”

“We waited two days.”

Her laugh cracked through the woods.

“We did,” he insisted.

“We're the epitome of restraint.”

“I don't know about you, but forty-eight hours took a hell of a lot of restraint on my part.”

Madison stopped walking. “Oh thank god, me too. I know I shouldn't have jumped you like that—”

He stopped and turned toward her. “You hear me complaining?”

“No, but I meant to be better—”

“You get
better
?”

She swatted at his arm, smiling. “Stop interrupting me. I'm trying to say that the plan was to get through the wedding
first
. Take care of business before, you know, pleasure. I intended to stick to the plan.”

“Do you think we can?”

Madison looked up at him, her green eyes still soft, skin radiant. Her gaze lingered on him for a moment before she groaned. “It's looking pretty doubtful.”

“I mean, we can try.” He had no intention of trying. Madison, wild and greedy with need, was the most spectacular sight he'd ever seen, and that included Honeywilde's sunsets. He wanted to see that look again, wanted to feel her in his arms, her fingers digging into his back, watch her face pinch tight before smoothing out in bliss. His plans included ruining her plans to wait until later. They could do later, but he also wanted them to have now. Over and over and over, for as long as they could.

“I don't regret what we just did,” she said.

“Me either.”

“But . . . moments like that, with your brother, could happen again and . . . I'm here in a professional role. Even though I know your family might not be judgmental, it's still . . .”