you’ll believe what I say. Don’t question my words the way you question everything.”
“I don’t ques—”
“Shh, baby. Listen and accept.”
“Adam?”
“Believe, Madison. Promise.”
“Okay. I promise.”
He took a deep breath. “I lo—”
A loud knock at the door cut him off.
Chapter Nine
Adam closed his eyes and swallowed. “Fuck,” he growled, squeezing his eyelids together as tightly as possible. “I’ve lost my nerve again.”
Usually overflowing with confidence, his inability to say three simple words—or not so simple words—rattled him to the core. True, he’d never said them to anyone in his life, but he knew love was what he felt for Madison. It was more than gratitude for saving his life and his career and his sanity, he loved her. Not for things she’d done for him or the things she continued to do for him, but because she was his heart. He’d been missing that fragile organ for so long that he hadn’t realized it was gone until she’d filled the hole inside his chest. And now whenever she so much as hinted at taking his heart away again, he couldn’t tolerate the pain. It clawed at him, deep within his chest, threatening to leave him the shell of a man he’d been before he’d met her.
So why couldn’t he just say the words? I love you, Madison.
Because maybe she wouldn’t say them back.
A second more vigorous knock rattled the door. “Yo, Adam!” someone called from the hall. “Before you get too naked, I've got your stuff out here.”
Maybe this wasn’t the best time to tell her. So far their night together hadn’t been the romantic rendezvous he’d envisioned. Life kept kicking him in the nuts.
Adam pecked Madison on the lips and climbed from the sofa. He yanked open the door and grabbed his bags from Jordan, who was usually in charge of the beer. Knowing Jordan was one of their more incompetent crew members, Adam glanced down to make sure the bag he’d delivered was the right one. “Thanks.”
Jordan beamed and opened his mouth to speak, but Adam closed the door in his face before the guy could get a word out. Didn’t these people understand that he wanted to be alone with his woman? Fuck, did he have to hang a sign on the door or what? He tossed his bag on the floor and took a step in Madison’s direction, before he realized a sign on the door was exactly what he needed. Clutching the do not disturb sign as if it were a golden ticket, he opened the door and hung it outside. Jordan was still standing there, looking more befuddled than usual. He opened his mouth to speak again, and Adam pointed at the sign before slamming the door in Jordan’s face a second time. Adam locked the deadbolt and turned toward the living area of the room. Madison lay sprawled on the sofa, one booted foot on the floor, one resting on the sofa arm, and her skirt hiked up just high enough to show the juncture between her thighs. Those panties needed to go.
So he couldn’t tell her his feelings, and he couldn’t erase her disappointment in him, but he could give her pleasure. He knew that for certain. He crossed the room and paused at the end of the sofa, admiring her disheveled appearance and committing it to memory.
“What were you going to say before you were interrupted?” she asked.
His heart slammed into his ribcage. “Um, why are you still in your dress?”
And why was he such a coward when it came to this woman? What was the worst she could do if he confessed his feelings? Okay, he didn’t even want to contemplate possibilities.
Madison offered him a sexy grin and rose from the sofa. She slid her mass of dirty-blond hair over one shoulder and presented her back to him. “Unzip me?”
When his fingers brushed the skin along her spine, her soft, pliable flesh warmed beneath his fingertips. At last, she was allowing him to be gentle with her. Heart full to bursting, Adam pressed his lips to the nape of her neck and kissed a trail down the center of her back as he slowly lowered the zipper of her dress. Her throaty moan grabbed him by the balls and made his cock rise inside his jeans. Lower and lower he went—tasting and sucking the sweet skin down the length of her back—until he ran out of zipper and was on his knees behind her.
He released her dress and it dropped, pooling around her feet. She took a step forward. Her luscious ass entered his view, and he couldn’t keep his hands off it. He cupped her bottom in both palms and squeezed. He then leaned forward to brush his lips against the smooth skin just above the elastic of her panties.
When she took another step, he murmured a protest and slid his hands forward over her hips to keep her close. He wanted to devour her ass whole. Those silky, purple panties were in his way. He caught the top of her undergarment in his thumbs and eased the scrap of lavender satin down. He left her panties at the top of her thighs while he kissed and suckled and squeezed the cheeks of her ass. He avoided pleasing her asshole, knowing withholding what she most desired would make her want him. He loved that it took so little to make her beg.
“Adam,” she said breathlessly. “Have you ever gone to one of those sex clubs Owen was talking about?”
What? How could she be thinking about what Owen had said in the limo at a time like this? He paused, wondering what he should do next to excite her. Making out with her ass obviously wasn’t doing what he’d intended. “Do you want me to lie?”
“No, don’t lie. No need to spare my feelings. I know you sleep around. I just wondered if going to them is fun.”
He could tell that she still didn’t trust him. How could he prove that he wasn’t interested in anyone but her? “I’m not going to sleep around anymore, Madison.”
“I know. I didn’t mean now. I meant before. Have you been to a lot of sex clubs? How do you even find one? They’re not in the phone book, are they?”
Adam’s heart kicked in his chest. He’d been to plenty of sex clubs, and they weren’t the kind of places his sweet Madison should explore on her own. “You aren't thinking of going to one, are you?”
She shrugged. “I’m just curious. What do you do there?”
“Depends.” He pressed a hand against her back and urged her to bend forward. He drew his tongue through her juicy lips, glad to know she was turned on, even though she insisted on talking. He wondered how she’d respond to being gagged.
“What’s your favorite thing to do at them?” she asked.
She obviously wasn’t going to let this rest. “Perform.”
“Perform?” She went utterly still. “What do you mean?”
He sat back on his heels and sighed. “If I explain it, it’s going to make me want to go to one. Are you prepared to come with me?”
“I always come with you,” she teased. “Usually more than once.”
Grinning, he landed a playful swat on her butt. “I’ll tell you,” he said, “but only after you tell me your dirtiest fantasy.” If they were going to talk during sex, it had to be dirty talk. When his cock was hard, his brain didn’t function well enough for more sophisticated conversation.
“Never mind,” she said, her face suddenly beet red. Her head swiveled to face away from him.
He grinned. Now he had the challenge of wringing a dirty fantasy from her reluctant lips. He did enjoy a challenge. Kneeling on the floor behind her, he reached up and rubbed her back opening with two fingers. “I’ll bet it involves this insatiable hole.”
Her ass tightened, and she groaned. “Yes.”
“What am I doing to it, Madison? Am I licking it? You liked that, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but that’s not my fantasy.”
“Tell me what it is, and I’ll make it a reality.”
“I’ll tell you, but don’t be mad,” she pleaded.
“Why would I be mad? I love to give you pleasure.”
“I . . . ” She swallowed and covered both eyes with her hands. “I fantasize about having two cocks fucking me at once.”
Two cocks? But he didn’t have two cocks. How was he supposed to . . .
He stared at her ass in
astonishment, trying to come to terms with the fact that his woman wanted to be fucked by two men. After a moment, she lowered her hands and peered over her shoulder at him.
“Um, let me explain,” she said in a tremulous voice. “When you're fucking my ass, I want you in my pussy. And when you're in my pussy, I want you pounding my ass.”
He didn’t blink or meet her eyes. His woman wanted to be fucked by two men. To be double penetrated.
She pressed on. “So I thought maybe if I had both holes filled at once . . . ” She shuddered and creamed instantly, so turned on by thoughts of someone else fucking her that cum flowed from her sex and wet the insides of her thighs.
He couldn’t believe that he wasn’t enough.
“Forget I said that,” she said.
He took a deep gasping breath. “Are you serious?” he sputtered, still struggling to wrap his head around the idea. And there was no way in hell he’d ever let another man touch her, even if that fantasy did make her pussy swell and seep cum as if he’d been sucking on her clit for an hour.
“Forget I said that,” she repeated.
“I’m glad you told me, but sweetheart, if another man touched you, I'd have to break his face. And his nuts. Both arms. All of his fingers. His fucking neck.”
Her brow twisted with confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“I want to make your fantasies a reality, baby. But I'm not sure I can handle giving you that one. Let me think about it. Maybe Owen would . . . ”
“Owen? Wait.” Her eyes widened and her hands flew up to cover her gaping mouth. “You didn’t think I wanted two real cocks at once, did you?”
Isn’t that what she had said?
“Oh God, no. Adam, I can’t even think about being with another man.”
Adam almost dissolved into a puddle of relief on the floor.
“I wondered if you’d . . . ” She covered her mouth with one hand so that he barely heard her request. “ . . . wear a strap-on for me.”
Fuck, he’d wear three strap-ons if it turned her on.
She shook her head as if horrified by her own words. “Forget I said that,” she said. “Maybe a butt plug will be enough.”
He laughed—not at her, but in relief—and stood from his kneeling position. He drew her body against his length. “You've become so much more open since we first met. I doubt you even knew what a butt plug was and now you're talking about using them. And a strap-on? Where did that come from, Madi?”
“I saw one in the catalog when I ordered my eight-inch dildo.” Her face reddened to a deeper shade. “Oh God. I can’t believe I told you that.”
Damn, if she kept looking all sweet and flustered while she said such naughty things, he was going to bust the zipper right out of his pants.
“Have you tried it on yourself when you masturbate?” he asked. “One toy up your pussy and another up your ass?”
She shook her head and, unable to meet his eyes, talked to the loop of chain at the base of his neck. “I’ve thought about doing it, but . . . I like trying things for the first time with you.”
He crushed her against his chest and kissed her forehead. “Baby, I wish I had something with me to give you what you want, but I don’t.”
“That’s okay. I shouldn’t have—”
He squeezed her tighter. “Yes, you should have. I’m glad you can tell me your fantasies.” And as far as fantasies went, that one wasn’t too extreme. He could give her that one. Letting another man touch her? Not happening.
“You've made me naughty, Adam Taylor.”
He chuckled, his heart warming in his chest. “You're going to blame this on me?”
She nodded. “It’s your fault I’m so horny all the time.”
He had no problem taking the blame for that.
“You should take responsibility for making me like this.”
“Hmm.” He glanced reflectively at the ceiling. “I thought we’d already established that I’m irresponsible.”
“You have to start somewhere.”
“You’re right. Okay, I take complete responsibility for your horniness and your naughtiness.”
She snuggled into his chest. “And what are you going to do about it?”
“When we see each other next week, I’ll bring you a surprise,” he said. “You’re going to find out what being fucked with two cocks feels like.”
She tugged away, her eyes lighting up with excitement. She gave him a quick squeeze. “Oh, I love you.” Her breath caught and she covered her mouth in horror. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
His heart, which had been about to burst with happiness half a second before, twisted in his chest. “You didn’t?”
She shook her head. But he had hope. Because she hadn’t said she didn’t mean those three amazing words. Just that she hadn’t meant to say them.
“That’s too bad,” he said. “I’ve been trying to say that to you all night.”
She stared at him—eyes wide, mouth agape. “W-what?”
“Madison.” He cupped her face with one hand and stared down into her wide, blue eyes. Say it, asshole. Just say it. He swallowed. “Madison?” His voice cracked. He took a deep shaky breath. “Madison, I love you.”
Tears flooded her eyes, and she squeezed them shut. What? What did that mean? Oh God, if she dumped him after he’d found the balls to tell her he loved her, it would kill him.
Chapter Ten
This much happiness couldn’t be right. Joy flowed through Madison from head to toe. “Oh, Adam, I love you so much!”
She reached for him, seeking his mouth to seal their declarations. She kissed him once on the lips. Once on the chin. Repeatedly at the base of his neck between his collarbones. “I’ve loved you for so long.”
He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” he asked breathlessly.
“Because . . . Because I didn’t think you wanted anything serious.”
“There you go thinking again. Have I ever done anything that made you feel I didn’t adore you?”
She looked up at him, and she could see it—adoration—in his eyes.
“Kennedy said—”
“I’m not Kennedy.”
“But Owen told me—”
He lifted an eyebrow at her.
She lowered her gaze. “I know you’ve been with other women.”
“I can’t deny that.”
Her heart squeezed up into her throat until she thought it would suffocate her.
“But that was before I realized I love you,” he said. “I couldn’t figure out why I was losing interest in sex. Not with you.” He tucked her hair behind one ear and gently stroked her cheek. “When you’re around, all I can think about is sex. But any other woman I was with didn’t do for much me. My performance has been—how do I say this—subpar.”
She frowned up at him, confused.
He flushed and stared over the top of her head. “Not every time, but um, limp noodle?”
“You mean you couldn’t get a boner?” She’d thought erect and ready was pretty much a permanent condition for him.
He laughed. “Hey, easy on the ego, babe. The past few months I haven’t slept around much at all. I was always wishing whoever I was with was you and when it wasn’t . . . ” He cringed. “I guess the little head figured it out before the big head did.”
That made her feel marginally better. “I can’t even think of being with anyone but you. I’ve felt that way since the first time you made love to me on my desk.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “I didn’t realize you had such strong feelings for me, Madison. It’s a good thing that you waited to tell me until I understood what I was feeling, or I probably would’ve been an idiot and dumped you for pressuring me.”
“I was afraid of that.” Her heart thudded, because she needed