Maid for Love (22 page)

"Thank you," she managed to say, amazed once again by how well he read her in such a short amount of time together. "For the nightgown. I've never had anything so beautiful."

"Neither have I."

Maddie closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace.

"Are you going to let me see how it looks? I've had all these fantasies…"

Gripping his hand, she led him out of the bedroom and into the softly lit living room. Before she could chicken out, she turned, raised her chin and met his eyes. In them she saw heat and desire and love. So much love. Because of that, she didn't flinch when his eyes took a slow journey from her face to her chest and below before returning to her face.

"The fantasies have nothing on the reality," he said after a long moment during which neither of them took a breath. He brought her in close to him and ran his hands up and down her silk-covered back. "I've never wanted anyone or anything the way I want you, Madeline." His big hands spanned her waist, heating her skin through the silk.

"I don't want to disappoint you. I haven't done this very often."

"Baby, you couldn't possibly disappoint me." He dropped soft, open-mouthed kisses on her collarbone, shoulder and neck. "Remember earlier when you asked what I was thinking and I said I'd tell you after our date?"

Caught up in a flood of sensation, Maddie couldn't seem to form words. "Mmmm."

"I want to tell you now."

He raised his face from her neck and looked her in the eye.

Maddie reached up to comb her fingers through his thick dark hair.

A tremble rippled through him.

"What do you want to tell me, Mac?"

"When you asked me what I was thinking… My exact thought at the second you asked was that I love you so much I ache with it."

Tears sprang to her eyes. She was a regular waterworks tonight. "Mac…"

"I've never said that to anyone before. I had no idea what it meant to be in love until I knocked you off your bike and you knocked me off my feet."

As a fat tear rolled down her cheek, she drew him into a deep, sensual kiss. "Mac, I—"

He stopped her with a kiss. "Don't say anything. Not now. Let me show you."

At that moment, Maddie would've followed him anywhere he chose to take her. She belonged to him, body and soul.

Urging her down to the bed, he dropped his shorts and joined her. They faced each other, touching, kissing, laughing softly when nose bumped nose.

"I wish I wasn't all bruised and scabby for this."

"I love those scabs. Without them, we wouldn't have found each other."

Maddie laughed, drowning in the heady scent of his cologne. "That's crazy logic."

"I'm so glad I stepped off that curb and collided with you. I still hate that you got hurt so badly, but when I think about how you could've ridden right by me… That I might've never known you or Thomas… That we could've come so close to each other but never had this…" His caressing hand found her belly.

Maddie arched into him, wanting him so desperately but not wanting to seem too eager. In the back of her mind, always, were the whispers, the innuendo, the rumors. She tentatively caressed his chest, running her palm over his protruding nipple before coasting down to his taut belly.

Mac gasped and shifted so he was on top of her. He buried one hand in her hair and devoured her mouth with deep sweeping strokes of his tongue that left her weak and trembling. Kissing his way down the front of her, he visited her ear and neck before moving to her chest. Maddie tensed.
Here it comes, the part where he'll want to touch me there.

With his hands braced on her ribs and using only his tongue, he teased her nipples until the silk was damp and clinging to her fevered skin. He drew her left nipple into his warm mouth, but still he didn't touch her with anything other than his mouth. Just when Maddie was certain that he would fill his hands with her breasts, he moved down, kissing her stomach, her hip bones and then her center.

"Mac … please…" She arched her hips, hoping to leave no doubt that she wanted him. Right now.

"I need you to say the words, remember?"

How could she forget? "Make love to me, Mac. Please make love to me."

He moved to her ankles and ran his hands over her legs, raising the nightgown as he went. Any minute now she'd be naked and laid out before him. He'd see what she wanted no one to see. But he only raised the gown to her hips and settled between her legs. When she realized what he intended to do, she tried to sit up, but his arm across her middle held her in place.

"Wait, Mac. Don't."

"Shh," he said, his breath fanning the hair that covered her. "It's okay. Let me love you." His broad shoulders forced her legs farther apart. "Relax, honey. I promise you'll like it."

Maddie wasn't so sure but made an effort to relax the muscles in her thighs. However, when his fingers slid through the dampness between her legs, she tensed again.

"It's okay," he said. "I love you. I want to love you."

When his tongue found the center of her desire at the same moment his fingers slid into her, Maddie's heart surged, her skin heated and tingled, and even as she tried to remain still, her hips lifted in response to his deep caresses.

"That's it, baby. Just let go. I want all of you. I want to kiss you everywhere."

A sob erupted from Maddie's throat as she buried a hand in his hair and lifted her hips in time with his questing tongue and fingers. When he rolled her pulsing flesh between his lips and sucked hard on her, she went totally still and came with a cry of completion and desperate desire. He stayed with her through every wave and then started all over again, driving her up and then leaving her hanging.

She moaned and reached for him.

"Wait a sec, hon." He sat on the side of the bed to roll on a condom. When he was ready, he lowered himself over her and devastated her with slow, deep kisses, as if he had all the patience in the world. The erection pulsing against her leg told a different story. Maddie let her hands roam over his back and down to his tight backside.

He jerked, his face tense as he fought for control.

"Now, Mac. Right now."

"It's been awhile for you, honey. I don't want to hurt you."

Even though he was longer and fuller than Tom, Maddie knew it wouldn't hurt the way it had before. "You won't." Guiding him with her hand, she stroked him gently.

He released a hiss and bit down on his lip. "If you do that, this'll be over before it starts."

Maddie raised her hips to guide him. Now he would probably want the nightgown off, but when she started to remove it, he stopped her.

"Leave it," he said through gritted teeth as he entered her with a powerful thrust that took her breath away.

"Oh," she said. "Oh,
God
."

He froze. "Does it hurt?"

"No, no. Don't stop. Just don't stop."

Mac chuckled at her enthusiastic response and gave her what she wanted.

Her legs hugged his hips as her hands gripped his backside.

With his fingers between them, he once again found the core of her desire and stroked her to another shattering climax. This time, he went with her, surging into her over and over again before his arms seemed to collapse. Breathing hard, he rested on top of her without crushing her, even as he continued to throb inside her.

Maddie combed her fingers through his hair, soothing him with soft kisses to his damp forehead.

"That was amazing," he finally said.

"Beyond amazing." With the nightgown bunched between them, Maddie finally understood what he had done—he'd taken her breasts out of the equation, allowing her to focus only on the pleasure, only on him. Never in her wildest dreams or fantasies had she ever expected to find a man who not only loved her, but who understood her the way he did.

"I love you, too, Mac," she whispered. "So much I ache with it."

He released a long deep breath that sounded a lot like relief. "You've made me so happy."

Somehow he'd managed to conquer her every fear, every worry, every doubt. In six days' time, he'd done what no one else before him ever had. He'd loved her, protected her, fought for her and cared for her. She tightened her arms around him, intending to never let him go.

"We might have one small problem."

"Oh? What's that?"

"I only have four condoms. Well, three now."

"Why didn't you get more today?"

"You wouldn't have found that a tad presumptuous?"

She couldn't deny that he had her there. "What'll we do? Neither of us can buy them in this town. It'll be all over the island before we're even out of the store."

"Don't worry, honey. I'll think of something."

"You do that." She tugged on his hair to bring him close enough to kiss. "And get the big box while you're at it. The biggest box they have. Maybe two of them."

Mac laughed as he finally withdrew from her. "You got it."

"And you'll take care of this tomorrow?"

"First thing," he said, still chuckling.

"Good because we'll need some for tomorrow night."

"I knew it," he said with a deep, dramatic sigh. "You're really going to kill me, aren't you?"

She could tell she astounded him when she pushed him onto his back. Her lips hovering above his, she said, "Or die trying."

Mac held her tight against him as she slept. After what they'd shared, he should have been exhausted, depleted, drained. Instead, he was exhilarated and making plans that he couldn't wait to share with her.

They would be married as soon as possible. He'd adopt Thomas and give him his name. Thomas McCarthy had a nice ring to it. Next, he would build them a house—a great big house with a huge bedroom, a brand new bed and a view of the water. He'd take over his father's business and make a life right here on the island with his new family. They'd even find a way to send Maddie to college. Maybe if she spent two days a week on the mainland, she could chip away at a degree over the next few years. He wanted her to have everything she'd missed out on before now. After waiting forever for her, he'd do anything he could to ensure her unending happiness.

She stirred, murmured in her sleep, and pressed her lips to his chest.

Mac smoothed a hand over her hair.

"What're you doing awake?" she muttered.

"Thinking about you."

"What about me?"

"About the life we're going to have together."

"Tell me about it." She caressed his chest, focusing on his nipple, which reawakened another part of him. "I want to know all about it."

He went through the whole plan, from marriage to college.

Maddie propped herself up so her chin rested on his chest. She stayed like that for a long time, studying him with those caramel eyes that made him melt.

"What? You don't like the plan?"

"I love the plan."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. No one can be this perfect."

"Maybe I'm just perfect for you. Did that ever occur to you?"

"Oh, many times." She shifted so she was on top of him and began to pepper his chest with soft kisses that made his blood boil. No one had ever fired him up the way she did. Her tongue circled his nipple, and he sucked in a sharp deep breath. "Babe, don't forget. We're out of condoms."

"I know." She moved to give his other nipple the same attention.

By now, Mac was hard as stone and pulsating against her belly.

Maddie shocked him when she sat up, reached for the hem of the silk nightgown and lifted it over her head, exposing her breasts to him for the first time. Nothing she could've done would have told him more about how much she'd come to love and trust him.

"You're so beautiful," he said, his voice hoarse. "Like a fantasy come to life."

"Touch me, Mac."

His hands coasted over her ribs to cup her breasts. "I know you hate them, but I think they're magnificent."

Maddie laughed. "I thought you were an ass-and-leg man."

"
All
men are breast men."

She rolled her eyes. "Tell me something I don't know."

Mac drew a nipple deep into his mouth and swirled his tongue back and forth.

"Mmm, that's good."

He held back the overwhelming urge to squeeze and lick and bite, not wanting her to think he was fixated on the part of her she hated most. That was fine, because she seemed to have other plans anyway.

Wiggling out of his grip, she dragged her breasts over his chest and kissed her way to his belly. Under the sheet, her soft hand found him hard and ready, as if he hadn't already had her four times. "Maddie," he gasped.

"Hmm?" This she said against the head of his penis, the vibration nearly undoing him.

"God," he uttered.

Her soft laughter was accompanied by sweeping strokes of her tongue.