A Question of Trust (5 page)

Connor forced his attention onto the road in front of him. “What if I really did join your pajama party?”

She whimpered out loud.

Focus on driving. Don’t crash the car because you’re thinking with your dick.
“You, me and Gabe, sweetheart. What do you say?”

Maddie opened her mouth, but no words came out, just a strangled groan.

Think outside the box, Maddie
, he urged in silence.
Open your mind to any possibilities, not just the obvious ones.

Connor pulled up outside Gabe’s building. He turned to her, took her hand in his, and noticed with satisfaction that she did not draw away. “Here’s a new puzzle for you, Maddie. One only you can solve.” Her skin was warm and just a little damp. Nerves? “A man sits down to dinner. He meets a woman who makes his world shift slightly off its axis, who makes him hard as a rock and horny as hell. But the woman has a boyfriend—the man’s best friend. Tell me, Maddie, what happens next?”

Maddie stared at him, her face wild. Her chest rose and fell in uneven ripples, like her choppy breath.

“Ponder that one, sweetheart,” he said and swung open his door.

Maddie sat where she was, looking dumbstruck.

He circled the car and opened her door, waiting chivalrously as she climbed out. They walked up the stairs to Gabe’s apartment in silence, but Connor could sense Maddie’s tension, could hear her knuckles crackling as she clenched and unclenched her fist.

He let them into the flat.

“I know the answer to that one,” Maddie said as Connor put his keys down.

Connor’s heart rate slowed.

Maddie ran her tongue over her lower lip. “The…the woman goes to bed.” She nodded, as though to emphasize her answer. “With the man’s best friend. Just like she did last night and the night before that.” She gave him a tight smile. “Goodnight, Connor, and thank you for the lift.”

Maddie turned towards Gabe’s bedroom.

Before Connor had time to register the crushing disappointment wrought by her departure, she swung back round and their eyes locked. Gone was the contained woman who’d answered with such certainty. In her place stood a vixen with fire in her eyes and lust in her gaze.

His heart slammed into his ribs.

“Fuck you, Connor.” Her whisper was harsh. She took three paces forward and poked her finger into his chest. “Fuck you for putting me in this untenable situation.” Without giving him a chance to defend himself, she raised her head in defiance, swore again and pressed her lips to his.

It was over too soon. She’d messed with his brain and sent a hurricane hurtling through his stomach and it was over. He hadn’t even had a chance to appreciate her actions before she pulled away.

“
No!
” She couldn’t leave. Not now, not like this. He grabbed her arm, halting her retreat. He looked into her eyes, acknowledged the hunger and the confusion and the awkwardness he saw there, and then he kissed her.

Connor had experienced his share of first kisses. Some were nice, some were hugely erotic, some needed practice and one had just been bloody awful. Indescribably bad. Kissing Madeline Jones was like nothing he had ever encountered before.

Never, ever had a kiss stopped his heart beating before kicking it into overdrive. His pulse drummed to an erratic, irregular rhythm, pounding so hard it sent blood roaring through his ears, drowning out sounds.

Her lips parted to his seeking tongue, offering him entry into the warm, wet cavern of her mouth. He tasted wine on her breath, and honey, and a bewitching mix of woman and desire. Lord, a man could become inebriated on her taste alone.

Time lost meaning as her tongue twined with his, as she wrapped herself around him, pulled his chest to her breasts, brought her hips to his groin. Space no longer existed, it was just him and her. Together. He felt himself slipping, dropping and falling into Maddie. Whatever she ultimately did or did not agree to, Connor knew it would never be enough. One kiss was all he needed to know that with Maddie he wanted everything.

And then she groaned, twisted and pulled away. She stared at him in horror for perhaps five seconds, pressing her fingers to her puffy lips. Then she looked at her hand as if not comprehending what it was, before wheeling around and racing down the hall.

When there was nothing left but the soft echo of her footsteps ricocheting through his head, Connor found his voice again. “I’m coming after you, Madeline Jones,” he promised her absent form. “Sooner than you think.”

Chapter Three

Guilt pounded through her chest as she raced down the passage. Oh, sweet heavens, she’d kissed him. Kissed her boyfriend’s best friend, and more than that, she’d liked it.

Hell, who was she kidding? She hadn’t just liked it, she’d lost herself to the exquisite sensation Connor’s mouth brought to life in her.

Shaky knees and breathlessness made her getaway virtually impossible. Each step was a battle against logic. Her head told her escape was essential, her body told her to turn back—
now!
What really rocked her soul though, was the fact that when Connor kissed her, really kissed her, when his lips melded with hers and his tongue took possession of her wits, Maddie felt as if she had finally come home.

Kissing Gabe sent fireworks rocketing into space and darts of lust shooting through her loins. Kissing Connor touched the most private, most intimate of places—her very heart.

Gabe.
Shit, she’d have to tell him what she’d done. She couldn’t betray him like this—no matter what he’d whispered in her ear earlier. She headed for his room, but when she reached it, doubt stopped her short of opening the door.

How could she tell him? How could she not? What would she say? She’d kissed Connor and her life had changed? Gabe would laugh at her, right before he kicked her out of his life for good.

Or maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d smile triumphantly and reward her for taking his advice?

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t tell Gabe the truth. No matter what his reaction might be, she wasn’t prepared for it. The image of her Maddie sandwich was indelibly pasted on her eyelids, the taste of Connor was forever planted in her mouth and shivers from Gabe’s lovemaking were eternally racing down her spine. Thank God Gabe had gone to play pool. Right now she couldn’t be with anyone but herself, and her thoughts and her guilt and her desire. She couldn’t face her own uncertainty and desires, she definitely was not ready to show them to Gabe.

Grabbing the handle with a certain measure of desperation, she flung the door open and slammed it shut behind her, sinking back against it for support. With her eyes shut, she rested her head against the solid oak and wished to God she knew what the hell had just happened to her life.

Alone. Thank God. No Connor, No Gabe. No one to see her confusion. Just her.

“Maddie.”

Gabe’s simple acknowledgement nearly sent her into heart failure.

She grabbed her chest. “God. Gabe. Jesus. You scared the hell out of me.” He wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be at the pub. Instead he lay sprawled out on the bed, looking for all the world like a demigod. He’d shed his clothes, and wore nothing but his underpants. Underpants that highlighted the heavy bulge beneath them. “I thought you were playing pool.”

He gave her an indolent smile. “I changed my mind. After your kiss at the restaurant I decided not to play after all. At least not pool.”

Her chest heaved. Moisture flooded between her legs. Holy crap. Confused, uncertain, shocked, guilty and horny to boot. One look at Gabe and she turned into a puddle of wanton need.

He slipped off his undies.

She licked her lips.

His eyelids drooped sexily over his eyes. “Did you do it?”

She gawked at him. God, he was asking? He actually wanted to know?

“Did you do it, baby?” Gabe coaxed and Maddie began to shake. From guilt and from lust and from the simple task of watching Gabe. “Did you kiss Connor?”

“I…” Could she do it? Could she tell him the truth? “I… Yes. I kissed him.”

Gabe grew harder under her perplexed stare. “And?” His voice was a low growl.

“And wh…what?” He wasn’t angry? He had honestly expected her to go through with it?

“And are you?”

Her heart hammered. “Am I what?”

“You know what?”

She hung her head. In shame? In embarrassment? “Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

Sweet Lord, he was making her say it. Heat crept into her cheeks. “Yes, I’m wet.”

He growled. “Wetter than you get when I kiss you?”

She couldn’t answer that one directly. Wouldn’t. “I’m wet, Gabe. Very wet.”

“C’mon here, baby,” he demanded. “Let me see.”

With legs heavy as lead and with anticipation thrumming through her, she put one foot in front of the other.

“Wait.”

This was it. The anger was coming. The resentment. He’d stopped her. Now he would make her leave. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t stand to see the rejection in his eyes.

“Take off your clothes.”

Startled, she snuck a peak at him. Gabe’s eyes were smoky, his lips parted. His hand rested in his lap, his fingers wrapped around his cock. She’d kissed Connor, told Gabe about it—and Gabe was turned on.

Maddie took a breath, the first one to reach her lungs since Gabe had spoken. He liked the idea of her kissing Connor.

“Remove your shirt first.”

She obeyed, undoing each button one by one before letting the blouse drop to the floor. Loathe as she was to admit it, she liked the idea of kissing Connor too.

“Now your bra.”

She reached behind her back and unhooked the straps. The bra slipped off and her breasts swung free, heavier than usual, more needy.

Gabe watched each move, nodding. His gaze took in her breasts, her belly and dropped lower.

“More,” he said and she stripped off her jeans.

Where the hell had her inhibitions gone? What had happened to the Maddie who was shy to show her body to men? Who could only picture the too-large breasts and the too-round butt? The soft, fleshy belly and the ample thighs? Where was she and who was this new woman? This woman who found even the cover of her panties too conservative? Who was the Maddie who could kiss her lover’s best friend and then return to her lover dripping with desire for another man?

Who was she?

“All of it,” Gabe rasped and Maddie ditched the panties.

He tugged at his cock. “Now, come here and let me see what Regan did to you. Let me see if he has the power to make your pussy weep as much as I do.”

Her stomach clenched with desire. Maddie closed the space between them, climbed on the bed and knelt before her lover. The old Maddie was gone. The woman she presented to Gabe was sensual and hot and uninhibited. The woman she presented to him was wet. Dripping. With lust for her lover—and for her lover’s best pal.

Gabe reached out and ran his hand between her legs, ran his fingers between her drenched folds. She bucked at the glorious sensation.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “You are wet.” He slipped his finger inside her, and pumped his cock a little faster. “Did Regan do this to you, baby? Did he get you this excited?”

She’d come too far to lie to him now. “Yes. Connor did this to me. His kiss…it made me hot.” She lowered her eyes, then lifted them again. “He had an erection, Gabe. He was hard as a rock.”

“Did you make him hard?” Gabe’s voice sounded scratchy.

“Yes.”

“Did he make you wet?”

She whimpered. Lord, thoughts of Connor’s mouth, of his hard dick pressed against her belly, were still making her wet. And frustrated. She needed relief, needed something to take the ache and the want and the hunger away. “Very. Very, very wet.”

His kiss had made her more than wet. It had made her, quite unexpectedly, yearn for something permanent, something long lasting. Something more than just sex.

Gabe slipped another finger in, reminding her that, for now, sex would do just fine, thank you very much. Her slick entry offered no resistance and she rocked on his hand, desperate to get him deeper, to feel him move inside her.

“It’s not just Connor, Gabe. I’m this wet because of you too, because you turn me on, you make me hot.” Oh crap, did he ever make her hot. There might not be visions of wedding dresses and white picket fences with Gabe, but there sure were images of frenzied sex and wild orgasms. “Because I know you are about to fuck me, and I cannot wait. Not one more minute.”

Gabe pulled his fingers out and plunged them back inside her. At the same time, he rubbed her clit with his thumb. He kept up the sensual assault as he got to his knees. “Be honest, baby. Be very honest now. Is it me you want to fuck—or Connor?”

Maddie was past even questioning her need to tell him the truth. Gabe’s fingers had her so far beyond the point of sanity she was seconds away from coming. She answered without thinking. “Both of you, Gabe. I want you both to fuck me.”

Gabe added pressure to his thumb. “Tell me more.”

“Together. I want you to fuck me at the same time,” she cried.