Wedding Favors (18 page)

Madison
held her breath as she waited for Thomas’s answer. Alexi had instructed her not to tell Thomas he’d be there, and Madison had humored him.

She didn’t miss the look of disappointment in Thomas’s eyes. He shrugged as he put the wine bottle on the counter and reached for the glasses, but his body was tight. “Sure, whatever.”

“He says he wants to talk to us.”

Thomas shrugged again, every line of him rigid with anger.

Alexi got out of his chair and came to the counter. “I’m not here to stand in your way, Thomas Dupree. I’m here to assist you. First, to tell you that the photos Keith Girard took of you and Madison have been destroyed. From his computer, from his server, from his camera.”

Thomas already knew this, because that week he’d gotten in touch with the most talented computer hacker in the eastern half of the United States, a young man he and Marc used for jobs every so often. It had taken said hacker all of five minutes to get past the firewalls in Keith Girard’s network and sift through his files. The photographs hadn’t been there, though the hacker had turned up evidence that they
had
been there, but had been erased. Maybe this Alexi was just as good at hacking.

“Thank you for that,” Thomas said.

“He says he did it with magic.” The skeptical amusement in Madison’s voice was evident.

“As long as it’s done, I don’t care how,” Thomas answered. He poured the bloodred Merlot into the three glasses and handed them out.

Alexi raised his in toast. “To a magic-filled weekend.”

The man did have magic in him, Thomas could feel that, but he wasn’t certain what kind. Resigned, Thomas saluted Alexi and Madison with his glass.

“To a magic-filled weekend.”

“Weekend?” Madison asked. Her lips hovered at the rim of her glass, and Thomas realized he was holding his breath, waiting to watch her drink.

Alexi nodded. “By the end of the weekend, you two will know each other very, very well. Intimately. I am here to see that this happens.”

Madison cocked a brow at him. “If you mean Thomas and me going to bed together, we can make that decision on our own. And it’s more likely to happen without you here.”

Alexi set down his wineglass and leaned on the counter, stretching his hands out along the countertop. “It is true that you could end up in bed together without my help. That is not what I meant by
intimate.
You wish to have sex with each other, yes, but you are both too inhibited to give in to what you truly desire.”

“Inhibited?” Thomas drawled. Thomas Dupree, inhibited? The man was getting irritating.

“Thomas is a Dom,” Madison said, grinning as though she found that funny. “That’s what it’s called, isn’t it? At some kind of club.”

“I am not referring to his sexual experience. I mean that Thomas is afraid to show you his innermost desires, what he most wants to do with you and your body. He fears frightening you away from his need and his true self. You, Madison, are interested in exploring the physical side of what Thomas wants, but you fear risking your heart and being hurt. You will try to keep physical intimacy from being tied to emotional intimacy, and you will hold back.” Alexi gave them a dark smile. “I am here to make certain that neither of you holds back.”

Thomas exchanged a look with Madison. She made a little shrug, as if to say,
I have no idea what he’s talking about.

“Dinner smells good, Maddie,” Thomas said, pretending to ignore Alexi. “What did you make?”

Madison broke the tension by describing the fish chowder, chicken with peppers, and the cornbread. She flipped on the lights of the glassed-in porch to reveal a table set with old-fashioned china and silverware. She’d thought that the small kitchen table would be more, ah, intimate.

Three place settings, Thomas noticed. Alexi had been invited all along. Thomas hid his disappointment and murmured something about the food sounding good.

Dinner was fairly silent. Madison proved to be a damn good cook, and Thomas had been raised by a mother who could turn the most ordinary meal of rice and beans into a song. Madison credited her grandmother’s cook, now retired, for the recipe, but Thomas gave Madison credit for the skill in preparing it. Some people, himself included, could follow a terrific recipe and end up with a mess.

Their conversation was stilted, Madison asking about his week, Thomas only able to tell her bits and pieces. Likewise, Madison made light of her day-to-day tasks. Alexi never spoke, only watched them.

This was
not
what Thomas had had in mind when he’d accepted her invitation. He’d pictured himself and Madison making a toast with the wine, him sitting next to her while they ate, maybe feeding her bits from his fork. Conversation would turn warm, involving a walk down memory lane, which would lead to kisses. Kisses would lead to more touching, and Thomas would then take her upstairs to her bedroom.

Those plans crumbled into nothing before Alexi’s intense stare. Conversation faltered, and the three of them were reduced to the sound of silverware clicking on plates.

Once dinner was finished and the wineglasses nearly empty, Thomas pushed back his chair. “I’ll help you clean up. Then Alexi and I will go and leave you alone.”

Madison looked relieved, and that relief stung.

Alexi put a hand on Thomas’s arm. “No, Thomas. You are not going anywhere, and neither is Madison. You will stay in this house this weekend and explore your need for one another.” He gave them each a long look. “Put yourself into my hands, and I will see that all is well. Give me your trust.”

“I’m supposed to be the one saying that.” Thomas said. “To Madison.” His body was tense, both in uneasiness at Alexi’s high-handedness and his raging desire to explore what he truly wanted with Madison. But Alexi was right—Thomas didn’t want to hurt her.

“And you will say it,” Alexi said. “Stay and tell her so.”

“Only if Madison wants me to stay.” Thomas rubbed the stem of his wineglass, his pulse throbbing in his fingertips. “It’s her choice.”

“No it isn’t,” Alexi said. “I’ve locked the doors. You both will stay in this house, with me, until you find what it is you seek.”

Now Thomas’s protective instincts raged, batting aside his lust. He shoved back his chair and went to the French door that led to the courtyard. He undid the locks and tried to open it, but the door wouldn’t budge. He swung around, noting that Madison watched, worried, and made his way through the house to the front door. Same problem. He tried the nearest window and found that it, too, wouldn’t open.

He strode back into the kitchen. “What the hell did you do?”

Alexi’s dark eyes were relaxed, his arm resting on the back of his chair, an almost insolent posture. “By the end of the weekend, you two will be one. Trust me.”

“Sorry, I don’t.”

Madison sat rigidly, her eyes wide. “This wasn’t my idea, Thomas.”

“I didn’t think it was.”

Thomas sat down again. Madison was worried, and Thomas wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her everything would be all right.

“That’s not all you want,” Alexi said as though he’d read Thomas’s mind. “Tell her what you do want. What is the one thing you want her to do most right now? Right this minute?”

Thomas squeezed Madison’s hand where it lay on the table between them. The training he’d given himself for nine years, training for this moment, rose in him.

Madison wasn’t a sub; she didn’t understand that lifestyle. But he knew he could make her understand the beauty of the trust, of putting herself and her pleasure wholly into his hands.

Thomas gave her fingers a harder squeeze, withdrew, and sat back.

“I want Madison to strip out of her panties and give them to me,” he said.

 

 

The
panties in question grew wet. Madison squirmed as she met the warm and wicked gleam in Thomas’s eyes. This was what he truly wanted, no games.

Madison had never understood why a woman would want to rush to a BDSM club and beg to be pleasured by the best master. There lay a world beyond her imagining. But now, picturing Thomas standing around in black leather in one of these clubs, waiting to discipline her—all right, maybe she could go for that.

Here in her kitchen, with Alexi watching, was a different story. She wet her lips.

“Why?” she asked Thomas.

Thomas leaned forward, never letting her look away. “So I can access you anytime I want, anytime I think you need me to.”

Access her?
Madison’s pulse did a little jump, a hot point burning in her belly. “What exactly do you mean by ‘access’?”

“I mean I want you open to my hands, my mouth, my cock, or anything else I might have brought with me to put inside you, any time I think you need it.”

She hid her excitement by toying with her wineglass. “And how would you know if I needed it?”

Thomas’s smile was Thomas’s, but it also hinted of the dominant man beneath. “I’m letting you ask these questions for now, because I know you don’t understand. You have to trust me to know. I
will
know.”

“I think she shouldn’t be allowed to put the panties back on until Monday morning,” Alexi suggested.

“I agree,” Thomas said.

Madison gave them a wild look. “Who died and gave you two authority over my underwear?”

“Do you want me to leave, Maddie?” Thomas caught and held her gaze again. “I’ll make him unlock the doors, whether he likes it or not. I’ll go, if you truly don’t want this. It has to be your choice. I’d never force it on you.”

A moment ago, Madison thought that Alexi controlled the room, locking the doors on them and telling Thomas what to do. But at this moment, she understood who truly controlled things. Thomas had decided to take over, and she had little doubt that he could force Alexi to do his bidding if he chose.

Thomas was asking her to trust him, to give herself into his protection.

Would she, or wouldn’t she? Madison lifted her wineglass, finishing its contents in one long swallow. She thunked the glass back on the table, her mouth dry despite having just drunk.

“What the hell?” she said. “I don’t have anywhere to be until ten o’clock Monday morning.”

“Time enough,” Alexi said softly.

Thomas held out his hand. “Panties.”

Suppressing a shiver, Madison slid up her skirt without standing, inched off her panties, and drew them over her ankles. She’d been wearing a tiny black lace bikini, now nearly soaked from hot anticipation.

She held the underwear out to Thomas.

Thomas took the panties, briefly touched them to his nose, and tucked them into his pocket. Alexi’s eyes darkened, and Madison shivered again. For some reason it no longer bothered her that the second man watched, desire in his eyes.

“Let’s finish the meal,” Thomas said. “You’ll need your strength.”

Madison’s hands shook as she set her silverware across her plate. She’d made pecan pie for dessert, a nice sugary one, and Alexi had brought cognac for a finish.

It felt strange to walk to the kitchen to serve the pie sans underwear. She’d gone braless plenty of times, when the top or dress called for it, but never bottomless. It was just not something Madison Rainey would think to do. And anyway, who would she do it for?

She had to admit that the feel of her linen dress teasing the curls between her thighs and brushing over her buttocks was erotic. She wanted to stop and rub herself against the corner of the counter.

“Don’t hold back,” Thomas said, watching her. “Anything you want to do, it’s all right to do.”

Could he read her mind? Unnerving thought. Madison carried two plates to the table, sidestepping Alexi, who’d risen to bring the third plate and the bottle of cognac.

“I can smell your pheromones,” Thomas said. “You had a desire over there, and you walked away without fulfilling it.”

Smell her pheromones? She’d never heard of anyone being able to do that, but then, she hadn’t really believed in magic before tonight, either.

“It’s silly,” she said.

Thomas held her gaze, mastering her. “Nothing that brings you pleasure is silly. Do it.”

Madison flushed. She’d never been shy about sex, but under Thomas’s stare, she found herself nervous. At the same time, she wanted to be sexy for him. She was tired of being an oddity and wanted to be a woman.

She walked to the corner of the kitchen counter and placed her hands on the countertop. “I wanted to do this.”

Madison parted her legs and rubbed her aching clit against the corner of the counter. It tingled and felt good. The hard corner put just enough pressure on her to stimulate her, and the absence of panties enhanced the feeling.

“Um,” she murmured.

She heard a chair scrape. Madison closed her eyes as Thomas’s large, hard body covered her back, his strong arms coming around her waist. One hand slid beneath her breasts.

“Keep rubbing,” he said in her ear.

His voice trickled heat down her skin. He rocked his hips, pressing the ridge of his erection between her buttocks, and helped move her clit against the corner—not so hard so that the pleasure would evaporate to pain, but just enough to make her hum with contentment.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Alexi leaning on the counter from the other side. His eyes were so black they were like voids of midnight. He reached out and touched her face, his fingertip blunt against her cheekbone.

Two men were watching her get off against a counter, and Madison didn’t mind at all.

“Do you like it, Maddie?” Thomas whispered. “Do you feel good?”

“Yes.” The word was a moan. If she’d done this all alone, she might have allowed herself one embarrassed swipe then rushed to turn on the TV and make herself forget her crazy whim. But with Thomas’s warm weight behind her, Alexi caressing her face, her legs parted, her core hot and relaxed, she loved it.