Dead Right (Stillwater Trilogy #3)(79)
Author: Brenda Novak

But she was so emotionally vulnerable right now. And he was so far from being able to offer her a committed relationship. Maybe he could protect her from an intruder—but who was going to protect her from him?

“No,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been worse.”

Tell her that it’ll look better in the morning. Send her back to her own room, his conscience demanded. The picture of Maria he kept on his cell phone was on the nightstand right next to him, reminding him that he had no business wanting Madeline.

But he couldn’t say the words. He longed to kiss her, to reassure her that everything would be all right.

He’d be careful, wouldn’t let it escalate, he told himself. But he was only wearing boxer briefs. And the memory of yesterday, of how eager they’d been to touch and taste and feel each other—how eager they still were—told him that they wouldn’t be able to stop.

He hesitated. But when she took his lack of response as rejection and started to leave, he knew he couldn’t let her go.

Reaching over, he put his cell phone in the drawer where he wouldn’t be able to see it anymore. “Come here,” he told her and as he lifted the covers, she slipped in beside him.

The warmth that suddenly enveloped her felt like a cocoon—a cocoon from which she didn’t want to emerge. Especially when Hunter’s arms went around her and drew her up against his muscular chest.

“You’re freezing,” he murmured.

“Not anymore.” Every place he touched felt like it was on fire.

“You’re going to be fine, Maddy,” he whispered. She didn’t believe him for a minute. Because it wasn’t only her body that was on fire. Her whole world seemed to be burning in one massive conflagration.

“Don’t talk about tomorrow,” she said.

His hands slid under the fabric of her shirt, massaging her back, then climbed up to her shoulder blades, drawing her closer. “Are you sure you want this?”

She was sure. It was the only thing powerful enough to block the pain. But she didn’t say so. She pressed her mouth to his in answer, then parted her lips and licked him in invitation.

With a groan, he rolled her beneath him, pinning her hands above her head as he kissed her deeply, occasionally using his teeth to nip at her bottom lip before meeting her tongue again. Madeline didn’t think she’d ever been so thoroughly kissed. The way he used his teeth made her lips tingle and her stomach muscles tighten with anticipation.

“That’s good,” she said with a sigh. She couldn’t wait to tear away the clothing that separated them, to feel him push inside her—filling her, stretching her tight—like he had behind the tree. But he wouldn’t let her hurry him.

“Not this time,” he murmured. “I want to draw it out, Maddy. Every whimper and moan. Every shudder.”

He leaned back and slid her shirt up over her br**sts. “Look at you,” he whispered. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

He didn’t immediately touch her. His eyes swept over her, taking her in. Then, lightly, his fingers caressed the skin of her stomach before cupping the fullness of one breast. He held it, studying it for a moment in the silver moonlight, then lowered his head to take it in his mouth.

Madeline gasped as his tongue moved over her. Pleasure pooled hot and low in her belly. Closing her eyes, she buried her face in his neck, luxuriating in the masculine scent of his skin and hair. Then he lifted his head to watch her as he slipped his hand beneath the elastic waistband of her boxers.

She jumped when he touched her, and she saw him smile in satisfaction before he kissed her neck, her ear. “Tell me you’ve got birth control,” he said into her hair, his voice ragged.

She could hardly talk for what he was doing with his hands. “In my room,” she said between panting breaths.

He peeled off the rest of her clothes and gazed at her for a moment. Then he carried her across the hall.

Madeline had never made love four times in one night. But there was an urgency between her and Hunter that hadn’t existed between her and Kirk. It was as if they had to take it all in this one night. Just in case there wouldn’t be another chance.

Now or never…

“You hungry?” she murmured shortly after one o’clock.

“Hungry for you,” he said, sounding half-asleep.

“What?” She laughed. “You’re exhausted.”

“Give me fifteen minutes.”

“Sleep,” she said, threading her fingers through his hair, which felt so foreign on her bare shoulder. “We’re out of condoms, anyway.”

“I’ll go to the store.”

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’d have to drive for an hour.”

She felt the rasp of his whiskers against her skin as he spoke. “The piggy iggy or whatever isn’t open?”

“That’s Piggly Wiggly. And the answer is no.”

“Then I’ll make the drive.”

“It might be raining.”

“Mmm, you’re worth it.”

Smiling, she raised herself onto her elbows. “You’re insatiable!”

He grinned but didn’t open his eyes. “I guess I’m making up for lost time,” he muttered sleepily.

“What lost time?” she said. “We made love practically the first day we met!”

“But then we wasted last night and this morning. That was stupid.”

Or this was. Madeline wasn’t willing to gauge which was worse. Reality would descend soon enough.

She glanced at the clock on her nightstand, dreading the next morning.

“You should call your mom tomorrow,” he said.

“I will.”

He noticed the lack of commitment in her voice right away. “That sounds more like a maybe.”

“It was,” she admitted. She already knew that her mother would plead with her to send Hunter back to California. And she couldn’t do that. Earlier she hadn’t known who to trust.

Now she knew she trusted him.

It felt as if she’d barely closed her eyes when the telephone rang.

Madeline lifted her head from Hunter’s shoulder to squint at the clock and realized she hadn’t been asleep long. No more than thirty minutes. Who could be calling her at one-fifteen in the morning?

“I’d offer to get it,” Hunter muttered, “but I’m sure you don’t want me answering your phone this late at night. Especially when I sound so satisfied.”