Madison's Quest (19 page)

Moment of truth.

He’d rather risk kissing and touching her at the same time
Tyler was than this slow stripping away of a secret he was having a harder and
harder time containing.

Next time she might ask if he’d ever fantasized about doing
it with another guy. Or she might go for the jugular and ask if he’d ever
actually
done it
with another guy.

I need to win. Winning is the only thing that’s going to
save me.

He did, against both Tyler and Madison.

But winning only brought him back to face another moment of
truth.

The question that’d caused Tyler to strip out of the T-shirt
was like a bright, shiny fishing lure.

In the last twenty four hours, what was your favorite
sexual fantasy?

Shane tugged on the nipple ring, sending a spike of heat
straight to his cock.

There were only a couple of good reasons not to answer that
question. The first being, it involved another woman—not fucking likely after
having been with Madison. The second, it involved the three of them, and their
hands, mouths and dicks weren’t limited to action with Madison.

Get it out in the open and the poker game was done.

Get it out in the open, and there was no going back.

Was he ready?

Kiki and Daisy bounded off the couch cushions they’d claimed
and raced to the front door.

Tyler went after them, opening the door to Braden.

“Game over,” Shane said, sweeping all the chips into a single
pile. No fucking way could his brother be allowed in on this kind of action.

He stood, grabbing cushions and jamming them back into place
on the chairs.

Braden sauntered over. “Don’t quit on my account, bro. Fact
is I’d love to kick around with you guys for a while, stay out of trouble
elsewhere.”

Hell, no.

It was immediately followed by the realization that Braden’s
being there delayed the moment of truth. “How about we make it Monopoly?”

“Full value?”

Tyler laughed. “You wish.”

Did it sound as if Tyler felt as if he’d dodged a bullet?

Shane said, “Braden, Madison. Madison, Braden. Now tell us you
got something on Madison’s bio-mom.”

“No can do.”

Braden tugged the seat cushion off the chair and dropped it
to the floor, following it down.

Kiki immediately climbed onto his lap, front paws walking up
his chest, tongue reaching for his face.

Daisy rushed to join in the adoration.

Braden grinned. “Looks like I’ve still got more animal
magnetism going on than you.”

“Yeah, only you attract real dogs,” Shane said, grinning
when Madison laughed.

He plucked a cushion from the chair, plopped it onto the
floor and sat to begin racking the chips.

“A little help here, bro. When you finish the love fest.”

Madison snagged a handful of chips to sort.

Braden shot Tyler a grin. “Talk you out of a beer?”

“The first of many.”

Tyler got the beer and the game, handing the first off then
sitting next to Madison.

“So you didn’t get anywhere on the address Madison’s bio-mom
used for the driver’s license?” Tyler asked Braden.

“Nowhere to get. The lead was a bust. Five months after she
used that address, the place was raided as a stash house, bricks of coke
mostly, but also a fair amount of crack and some heroin. The DEA wrapped up
most of the people involved. Some of them are still doing time. Some are
already out. Some have been out and are back in. According to my sources, Bio-mom’s
name appears in the investigation paperwork but never reached person-of-interest
status. Chances are good she wasn’t involved when she lived there. The house
was seized and sold at auction.”

Tyler put the Monopoly board on the table. “Dead-end, then.”

Braden cracked his knuckles. “There’s always the sealed
juvie record.”

Shane’s eyes met Madison’s. His brows lifted.

She shook her head. “Let’s hold off.”

Braden sighed. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Madison laughed. “Why am I sensing a theme when it comes to
the Maguire brothers?”

Shane grinned. “When you’re good, you’re good.”

Their eyes met and held.

“True,” she said.

The heat in her gaze and voice curled around Shane’s dick.
“That’s my line. I’m going to charge you for using it.”

He caught Braden’s speculative gaze and felt a kick of panic
that come morning, Lyric and his brother would have a betting pool going with
his name and Madison’s and Tyler’s on it.

Tyler handed off stacks of money—crisp, new-smelling bills
straight from the bank. When he gave Madison hers, he said, “In case you’re wondering,
you’re responsible for kicking in your portion of whatever cash is in play when
you go out. Which is why I always negotiate the conversion rate. And tonight, I
say the rate is five cents on the dollar.”

Shane and Braden both groaned.

Braden said, “Let’s at least make it ten cents on the
dollar.”

Madison did the math. Fifteen hundred in cash from the bank
to start the game translated in to a seventy-five dollar entry free at five
cents on the dollar and one-fifty at ten. But where things could get expensive
fast was in passing Go and collecting two hundred. Every time that happened,
she’d be kicking in either another two dollars and fifty cents or another five
as her share.

The question was, how confident did she feel?

She studied Braden. He slouched and pouted, projecting the
image of a kid who’d end up bored and not paying attention a quarter of the way
into the game.

She laughed. “Not buying what you’re selling.”

“Worth a try.” He straightened and took a long swallow of
beer.

Shane said, “How about it, Mad, ten cents on the dollar?”

The nickname softened her up. And as if sensing it, his
lashes dipped, his lips took on a pout, but it was purely sensual, not the
little-boy look Braden had projected.

“Ten cents on the dollar. Pretty please?”

“No. I’m with Tyler. Five cents on the dollar, take it or
leave it.”

They took it.

And hours later, Madison was glad Braden had shown up.

She’d wanted the attraction between Tyler and Shane out in
the open, she’d wanted the three of them to make love, but…this was good too.

Her heart felt like a dry sponge soaking in stories about
Shane and Tyler, about the antics of the Maguires and Montgomerys at the poker
table, while working cases, as they’d grown up together. And she couldn’t help
but long to be part of their world.

At midnight Tyler landed on Shane’s Boardwalk and handed
over what little cash he had left and what few mortgaged properties he still
owned.

They stopped and counted the money on the table. There was
ten thousand, four-hundred and one dollars in play.

Tyler took a small pad of paper from the box and wrote the
number down. Then beneath it, his name and debt. A hundred and thirty dollars.

The game resumed, with Tyler on the couch, his yellow sketch
pad on his thighs and a charcoal pencil in hand.

An hour later he closed his eyes, tilted his head back and
said, “I’m done for the day.”

It took him ten minutes beyond that to open his eyes again
and get off the couch.

His gaze met hers. He leaned down.

“See you in the morning,” he said, the quick touch of his
lips tasting of vulnerability and reaching her heart.

Braden’s pantomimed show of surprise as Tyler walked away
brought a deeper understanding of why Tyler had never acted on his attraction
to Shane. And again, she was glad Braden had shown up.

The stories, learning earlier in the day that Tyler had been
in and out of foster care for most of his life, Shane’s saying that Tyler would
tell her the first day of his new life had started the day he met Lyric… It was
more than not wanting to risk losing a friend if things went bad, it was fear
of losing a family.

It made her ache for him. Surely he had to know that whatever
happened with Shane, he’d never be on the outside looking in when it came to
the Maguires and Montgomerys. She might have only met a few of them, but she
was absolutely positive they’d never exclude Tyler.

“Your turn,” Braden said, drawing her back into the game.

She rolled, moving the cat forward to land on a railway she
already owned.

Braden picked up the dice. He shook his hand, clacking them
together and continuing until she lifted her eyebrows to send an
are you
going to play or what
message.

He grinned. “No quitting early.”

“As if,” she said, but couldn’t shake the feeling he was
talking about more than the Monopoly game.

She landed on Braden’s yellow Atlantic Avenue a couple of
hard-fought hours later.

He rubbed his hands together. “Give me. Give me.”

She pushed everything she owned to his side of the table.

A count of the money, factoring in Tyler’s earlier exit, and
her game debt was two hundred and seven dollars.

She stood. “As much as I’d like to stay awake and watch what
is sure to be an epic battle, that’s not going to happen. I’m going to bed.”

Shane cut a look at his brother. Muttered, “What the fuck,”
and stood, coming around to her side of the table.

Where Tyler’s kiss had been a small step out into the open,
Shane’s was a bold declaration.

His arms wrapped around her. His mouth slammed down on hers.
His tongue rubbed and twined and heated, filling her mind with images of the
two of them finally naked on a bed, finally touching skin to skin, his body on
hers, in hers.

She was aware of Braden, but it didn’t cause explosive
blasts of need the way having Tyler there would have.

Shane’s hands glided along her back. Hers, trapped against
his chest, sought his nipples.

He moaned, lifted his mouth from hers. “Making it hard to
concentrate, babe.”

“You’ll get the big head back into the game.”

Braden snickered. “You know him too well.”

She kissed Shane one last time then stepped out of his arms.
“Now I’m going to bed. Beat him for me.”

“Hey!” Braden said, laughter in his voice. “Where’s the love?”

She shot him a look. “Get a wife.”

He slapped his hand against his chest. “Kill me now.”

She turned away smiling, though amusement gave way to ache
at the sight of Tyler’s closed bedroom door.

The temptation to go in, to crawl into bed with him was strong.

His
see you in the morning
stopped her.

She couldn’t be sure whether that’d been a vote of
confidence, that she’d hold her own against Shane and Braden and be up all
night, or if he’d meant it as a way of slowing things down, as a way of
shielding himself against loss and pain.

The ache in her chest deepened at understanding it wasn’t
only about the Maguires and Montgomerys, it was about her—because instead of
saying she intended to stay when he’d suggested that she look for a band, she’d
dodged. She’d avoided rather than recognize their relationship—and then set out
to bring his feelings for Shane, their bisexuality, out into the open.

Coward
. She hadn’t called herself that since she was
a teen, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day recovering from Elijah’s
death and finding the desire and will to live.

She showered and got into bed, drifted off to sleep to the
sound of dice hitting the board.

Morning came after a nightmare-free night.

Madison tugged on a tank and jeans then left the bedroom.

Warmth expanded her chest at seeing Tyler sitting in a
chair, a sketchpad on his lap, a charcoal pencil in hand and Daisy wedged
between his thigh and the chair arm.

He looked up.

Their eyes met, held.

His smile was an invitation she had no intention of refusing.

She spotted Shane stretched out on the sofa, as sensuous in
sleep as he was awake, and his presence along with Tyler’s was like the pour of
sunshine into her soul.

Braden lay on the floor, an arm thrown over his face to
protect it from the black dachshund intent on making him rise and shine.

He groaned and rolled, burying his face in a pillow,
muttering, “Give me a break, Kiki. Go bug Shane.”

“Great to have all the animal magnetism,” she said.

He mumbled something.

Tyler closed the tablet, stuffed it and the pencil in the
crevice between the cushion and chair then stood, meeting her steps away from
the couch.

His hair was damp from a shower. His light blue shirt was
open, exposing a line of tanned flesh and smooth muscle.

“Nice,” she murmured, hands settling on his warm skin.

“Morning,” he said, arms going around her, their mouths
meeting, clinging. Their tongues sliding against each other as their bodies
pressed and molded, attempting to make up for a night of separation.

Her fingertips rubbed over his nipples.

His hips jerked.

She swallowed his soft moan. Her pelvis ground against his,
her swollen wetness matched to his hardness.

“Get a room will you,” Braden groused, making them both
startle with the reminder he was there.

They moved into the kitchen. Resumed the kiss. One became
four, five, a stream of them.

They separated.

“I was tempted to crawl into bed with you last night.”

He took a deep breath. Exhaled. “You should have.”

“I wasn’t sure you wanted me to.”

His forehead touched hers.

“Be sure,” he said, but she didn’t think they were still
talking about last night.

A fist tightened around her heart.

He moved away, started the coffee then returned, pulling her
into his arms, her back to his chest.

Her heart eased.

He nibbled along her neck. “I swung by the grocery store
before hooking up with you and Shane yesterday.”

She laughed. “I’ll take that as a hint I should volunteer to
cook breakfast.”