Between You and I (4 page)

Chapter Seven

Hunter grabbed his gear and followed after Madeline, not even bothering to avert his gaze from her ass, which the tight denim she wore showcased beautifully. The woman was stunning, with a natural raw sexuality she probably didn’t even realize she had. She certainly never acted like she knew how much she turned him on, or at least, if she did, she didn’t point out the obvious. From the first moment he’d laid eyes on her, gravity had pulled him toward her.

She collected her rambunctious pup and off they went walking back to her house, Madeline leading while he followed. She took a path that cut through the large rocks decorating the landscape, through the park gate and into a nice, suburbanized community of two-story homes. Her house was more on the moderate size, painted the popular colors of the desert in a two-tone sand wash. She unlocked the front door then hurried inside to turn off the alarm. The dog bounded inside with a wag of its tail, heading right over to bowls of food and water.

“I have some light fare,” Madeline said. “Apples, cheese, nuts. Some veggies. I thought that might be better after a game. Plus the fact I don’t really like to cook. Do you like tea?”

“Um. Yeah. Sounds great,” he replied. Actually, he didn’t much give a fuck what they ate or drank because all he wanted was to spend time with her. “I’d like to cook for you sometime.”

“You can cook?”

“Of course. My mother made sure I wouldn’t starve to death or become constipated by eating fast food seven nights a week.”

Madeline laughed.

“There’s a game on Saturday,” he continued, striving to not sound over eager. “You could come over, we could watch it, and I could make you my world famous raviolis.”

“World famous?”

He placed his right hand over his heart. “I swear. My grandmother’s secret recipe. Smuggled out of Italy during the war.”

“Hmmm. We’ll see.”

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s a yes,” she said. “You cook, I’ll clean. And I’ll find out if those world famous raviolis from war-torn Italy are everything you’re boasting about.”

Excitement sluiced through him, not only from the overriding goal of being with her after that, but also with knowledge that he would see her in the future. But first things first. Getting her to relax her guard. He felt like he walked through a briar patch every time he was with her, and it seemed impossible to get through the patch without getting pricked by the thorns. Sex was important to him, and it’d been a long while since a woman had enthralled him so much. To the point he woke up in the night with a cock throbbing from the erotic dreams she starred in nightly. And therein lay the thorn because the last thing he wanted to do was seem too eager, or that his invitation seemed insincere.

“Do you want to take a shower while I prepare lunch?” she asked.

He blinked, snapping out of his thoughts. She waited for his answer, her head cocked slightly. Big brown eyes stared at him with a mixture of curiosity and hunger. Her parted lips were an invitation he couldn’t wait to accept.

“Yeah, I better,” he replied.

She pointed up with her index finger. “Top of the stairs to the left. Towels are in the linen cabinet inside.”

He nodded thanks.

The shower helped cool his libido down a fraction, although his hard cock had a mind of its own. Surrounded by Madeline’s smell, he couldn’t help but use her soap as a lubricant to leisurely pump his shaft. Not enough to find release, but enough to keep his senses stimulated.

As he dried off with a fluffy red towel, he couldn’t help but steal a peek into her bedroom. Queen bed with red sheets and a red comforter. Bookshelves stuffed with romance novels. On her nightstand were six, the covers featuring half undressed hunks and beautiful women in various stages of passion. Her desk was in there as well, littered with papers, a computer, and even more books.

As he headed downstairs, he heard her humming and a sense of domesticity smacked him between the eyes. He could get used to this, being surrounded by Madeline. As he caught a glimpse of her through the rail on his descent, his heart sped up. The sunlight glinted through the blinds and touched upon her dark hair, highlighting the hint of mahogany interwoven through the strands.

When she looked up, their gazes met. Locked. His chest constricted and all the blood ebbed from the top of his body to settle in his groin. Jesus, she took his breath away.

“Just in time,” she said, waving at him. “Come. Fix a plate and we can sit in the sun room.”

He didn’t have much of an appetite for food, but he knew he had to keep up his stamina because if he ever got her in bed, he didn’t think he would let her out of his arms for a few days.

She followed him into the sun room, where hot tea rested on the table. Potted plants littered the window sills, desert foliage from the looks of them. Some cacti interspersed throughout the flowers, breaking up the easy beauty with a little harshness. When he sat down, a cup of hot tea steeped in front of him. The teabag string wrapped around the handle. Madeline immediately added some sugar and some milk to it.

“I don’t like milk in my tea,” he said.

She blinked and stared at the cup of tea, then at him, and back at the tea.

“Oh,” she said and scooped up the cup. “I’m sorry. I, ah…”

“It’s okay,” he assured her. “I’ll take some water.”

She nodded and hurried away, walking back to the kitchen. When she came back, she had a glass of ice water and sat it down in front of him. The startled look she had earlier, gone. The self-assurance back in place.

Madeline chatted about inane things as they piled food on their plates, stuff he couldn’t seem to comprehend. It took all his effort not to swipe the dishes off the table and lay her down so he could fuck her fast and hard. Just the thought caused a needful ache to vibrate through his body.

“So,” she said. “Tell me about Hunter.”

He paused, with a crunchy carrot halfway up to his mouth. “Well, Hunter isn’t that exciting. Mom, dad. Sister. Ordinary childhood in an ordinary neighborhood. No scars on my psyche. I work with Jason, John, and Jake at the advertising firm. What about Madeline?”

“Only child. I work as a medical assistant to a general practitioner. My dad died a few years ago, but Mom is living it up as the biggest flirt in the Floridian retirement complex she moved to last April.”

“Must have been rough.”

Madeline shrugged. “Yeah. But he’d been sick for a while. Cancer. It was almost a blessing when he passed.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It was tough at first, but Mom is strong. She wanted to be with me when I had surgery last year, but I told her I was fine. Of course, I thought I had Kevin by my side, but I guess that wasn’t meant to be.”

He frowned, jarred a little by another man’s name. “Kevin?”

“Oh,” she said. She nibbled on her lip before placing her fork down and pushing her plate away. “I was engaged once. During my convalescence, he decided he didn’t want to be engaged anymore so we broke up.”

“Jesus,” Hunter muttered. A mix of emotion rushed through him. Relief that she wasn’t attached, but saddened she’d been subjected to the situation. He wondered how any man could give her up. “What a dick.”

“No, it’s okay,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I understand now. I mean, sure, it hurt at the time, but after thinking about it, I came to realize it was the best decision.”

“For whom? You or him?”

“I’m just glad he was truthful to me before the wedding actually took place.” Madeline took a drink of water, and her voice turned flat. “It could’ve been a lot messier.”

Up went a few protective walls. Instinctively, Hunter knew there was more to the story, but she turned her face away. The gesture was effective at shutting down any further questions. He filed away his curiosity for another day, when she didn’t seem so guarded.

After they’d eaten, she rose to take his plate, but he halted her.

“I’ll do them,” he said. He didn’t add that it would give him a chance to process his thoughts on the information he’d gleaned about her past. “You cooked, so the least I can do is clean up.”

“All right,” she replied. “Just put them in the dishwasher.”

 The entire time he cleaned, he was acutely aware of where she stood. Her presence magnetized his senses to her every movement, and his body responded, as it always did. There was something so raw about what he felt around her, that it pulsed through his libido with a primitive need that shocked him.

Once the dishes were taken care of, he turned and faced her. The glitter in her dark eyes hinted at wicked delights. The flush upon her pale cheeks matched the ruby darkness of her lips where her teeth nibbled the tender skin. Hunter pushed from the sink and stalked toward her, unable to look away from that mouth he wanted to kiss. He’d waited long enough. Hopefully she’d still think him a gentleman in the morning. She stood her ground, the lustful anticipation growing upon her face. He didn’t say a word as he took her in his arms, sank his fingers in her hair to pull her head back, and kissed her as he’d been dying to do all day.

He wrapped her in his arms, chest to chest, stomach to stomach. On a sigh, her mouth opened and the tips of their tongues slid together. The kiss deepened, their hands exploring. Then, she broke their embrace, placing her hands on his chest to gently push back. 

“This is different from that first night in the car,” she murmured. “That was a good night kiss. This kiss is about something more. Something down and dirty and very pleasurable.”

“Yes,” he agreed. He really didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, but he was willing to agree to pretty much anything if it meant getting her naked under him.

She backed away and looked at him square in the eyes. “Three hundred seventy-five days.”

Confused, he tried to drag his brain back from the sexual haze engulfing it. “What?”

“It’s been three hundred seventy-five days since I last had sex,” she said in a soft voice. “And that day wasn’t great at all. I want you, Hunter, and I’m trying my damnedest to not jump your bones and rip your clothes to shreds.”

His cock jumped at her words, aching to bury inside her body.

She reached up and pulled her t-shirt over her head. He stared at her white lace bra cupping her beautiful breasts. Madeline let the material fall out of her hands to land at her side in a puddle.

“I want you to fuck me,” she continued in her sing-song voice, which was now laced with desire. “Hard. Fast. Deep. And when it’s over, I want you to fuck me again. Until we pass out from exhaustion.”

“I…” He cleared his throat. “I can do that.”

He trailed his fingers down her body to slide under the waist band of her jeans and yanked her close to him. They stared at one another for a moment and then she scraped her nails under his shirt, across his abdomen, lifting his t-shirt inch by inch. When her hands were stretched high, he took over, divesting himself of it and letting it fall next to hers on the floor.

For a moment neither moved as they stared at one another. Hunter licked his lips as his gaze traced over her curves, wishing he could use his tongue over her bountiful breasts displayed so temptingly. Her chest heaved a little as she took short shallow breaths, and when he stared into her eyes, he saw her pupils dilate with lust.

His control snapped, and he backed her up until she hit the wall. Then he fell to his knees in front of her and tugged on the zipper of her jeans. She let out a little moan and helped him. Together they pulled her pants down until she stood before him in nothing but her bra and panties. Her womanly scent wafted toward him and he leaned in to the juncture of her thighs and laid his nose right against the little cotton lining of her panties.

“Oh, Hunter,” she said, a bit breathlessly.

“Baby, you smell so fucking good,” he murmured.

He rubbed a finger over her pussy lips through the panties. She jerked and squirmed a little. Hunter took that as a sign she wanted more. He hooked her panties with this thumb and yanked them down, until they rested on top of her shucked jeans. Quickly, he helped her step from the restrictive clothing before he lifted one shapely thigh and set it on his shoulder.

Hunter had to fight the caveman urge to dominate her, to drag her to the floor and sink his cock inside her softness. This was not a woman to simply fuck, but one to savor, and the battle left a sheen of sweat rising on his skin. He tasted her, licking the ambrosia that made her clit glisten like a pearl.

“Hunter!” she moaned.

He didn’t let up, addicted to her scent. Her flavor. The way she quickly lost control. Mewling sounds of pleasure poured from her mouth as she did her damnedest to wrap herself around him. Her fingers sank in his hair as she pressed closer, smashing his face into her cunt until all he breathed was
her
. Still, he continued licking and sucking, wanting her to come all over him, like an addict needing a fix. The next moment, she squealed with a high-pitched cry as her pussy walls clamped down on his tongue. A wild spasm rocketed through her.

“Holy fuck!”

Her words were somewhat garbled, but he shared the sentiment. Hunter pulled back and stood, claiming her lips in a deep kiss, knowing she had to taste herself upon his lips. Madeline didn’t seem to mind as she clung to him and matched his fervor.