Tease Me

  “Oh, sorry,” Madison said. “I’m a little distracted.”

  She showed her ID and was handed a boarding pass. She wandered toward the enormous windows, where she watched handlers fling bags on the conveyor belt that carried luggage to the cargo hold beneath the plane. She didn’t know if her own pink bag would actually make it on the same plane. They’d checked it when she’d inquired about a standby, but she wasn’t sure how they would know which plane to put it on. The airline seemed to know how to handle her situation, so she supposed she’d worry about it when she arrived in Dallas.

  It wouldn’t be long before they boarded. And the weekend she’d been so looking forward to would be over. A complete disaster. Could her life get any worse? Staring at the plane that would soon carry her tens of thousands of feet into the sky, she decided she shouldn’t tempt fate.

  A presence close behind her made her body stiffen.

  “So we meet again,” a vaguely familiar voice said close to her ear. “Meeting once would be chance, twice coincidence, three times a miracle, but four times? It has to be destiny.”

  She’d heard the voice before—a knight asking quite plainly to please his queen’s ass.

  She jerked her head around, and her stomach sank. She knew the face as well. The guy who’d sat beside her on the plane on the way to New Orleans and tailed her through the airport to baggage claim. He’d been the one who’d started her down a path to no return at the club? Well, that fucking figured.

  Destiny, my ass, she thought. He had to be following her. But why?

  “You’re not too good for me now, are you, little queen?” he said. He caught his bottom lip between his teeth as he gave her the twice-over. Again. Yet it wasn’t as if he had to imagine her naked. He’d seen her at her most vulnerable.

  Or perhaps she’d been at her most powerful in those moments of utter abandon.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, playing dumb. “Do I know you?”

  “Your ass is well acquainted with my lips. My fingers. My cock.”

  She lifted an eyebrow at him and shook her head. “I’m afraid you have me confused with someone else.”

  “I could tell by the look on your lover’s face that he’d never made you come as hard as I did when I fucked your ass.”

  “You don’t know anything about how hard my lover makes me come. And as I recall, he was inside me at the time.”

  Chris chuckled. “And not for much longer. As I recall, as soon as you came, his dick went soft and he left the room. And where is he now? For someone you claim to be your boyfriend, he sure leaves you alone a lot.”

  Her heart twisted. Adam would really be leaving her alone a lot now. “My relationship with my lover is none of your business. Now go away. We aren’t supposed to talk about the club beyond its walls. Remember?”

  “I remember well.” He ran a finger down her cheek, and she slapped his hand away. “Every time you came that night, it was my dick in your ass. You couldn’t get enough. You aren’t as sweet and innocent as you pretend to be.”

  She snorted. “You’re right, I’m not. I like it rough and dirty. Being fucked up the ass gets me off like nothing else. But that doesn’t mean you’re free to talk to me outside the club. Go away.”

  His face fell. “You can’t dismiss me.”

  “I think I just did.”

  Chris scowled at her. “All you bitches are alike.”

  “Yeah, none of us want you.”

  Chris stepped back, and Madison clung to the window ledge behind her—standing her ground even though she wanted to run. When it came to the fight or flight reaction, she typically ran, but she wasn’t going to run this time. She wasn’t a meek little kitten. She was a tigress—a lion—and she would no longer repress her roar. A new-found strength had blossomed within her. She wasn’t sure when or even why, but she was no longer afraid to say what she wanted. And what she wanted at the current moment was for this jackass to get lost. Was she afraid that he might physically harm her? Hell yes, she was. Was she creeped the fuck out that they kept running into each other? Of course. But she was finished being a doormat. From now on she was going to stand up for herself and go after whatever she wanted. Now if she could only figure out exactly what she wanted.

  “Fuck you,” Chris said.

  “You already have. And believe me, I’ve had better.” She made a shooing motion with her hand.

  He offered her one last look of disgust—his lip curled and brows drawn together in a harsh scowl—before he turned and stalked away.

  “And if I see you again, I’m calling the cops!” she yelled after him.

  She wasn’t sure if he’d heard her threat. He kept right on walking.

  When he was out of sight, Madison sucked in a deep breath, her entire body trembling from the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She rubbed both hands over her face and then sank into a nearby chair.

  She felt less like a lion and more like a disgruntled house cat as she regained her breath. Why did she keep running into that guy? It was as if he was following her. And how had he gotten into the club? She knew the place was invitation only. Had he gotten in to be with her, or was it a coincidence? Both options seemed far-fetched. And running into him again here at the airport? That was just too bizarre. She wondered if she had a reason to worry about his reappearance or if telling him off had gotten rid of him for good. It had felt great to tell him off. She was tired of compromising, of folding. She probably had Adam to blame for her dissatisfaction with taking the high road, turning the other cheek, and all other means of conceding defeat.

  Adam.

  He hadn’t changed her. He’d just helped her discover who she was.

  She had to find a way to make it work with him. Her first instinct was to leave the airport immediately, do anything and everything to win him back. But she had a lot of thinking to do—that hadn’t changed. She needed to know exactly what she wanted before she could go after him.

  Shit. She hoped her heart and soul and head came to a consensus soon, because this indecisiveness was driving her crazy. She could only imagine how her over-analysis of every situation, made Adam feel.

  But she was willing, had always been willing, to be patient with his needs. Shouldn’t he at least try to understand hers?

  Hours later Madison dropped her bag—it had made it onto the plane just fine and was actually the first unloaded—inside the back door of the creaky old farmhouse she shared with her sister. The flight had done little to help her sort through her jumble of feelings. She was just glad that Chris had not been on her plane. That guy was gone for good, thank God. She didn’t need the added stress. She mentally high-fived herself for standing up to him when he’d approached her in the terminal. She was sure she’d never see him again even if she would be reminded of him for a few more days—her ass was still tender from his lack of skill. After the events at the club, she was now pretty sure the reason she loved anal sex was because Adam was so good at it. She hadn’t realized how lucky she’d been in that regard.

  The heavenly scents of cinnamon and vanilla and baking yeast drew her through the mudroom and into the kitchen. She paused in the doorway to inhale deeply as she watched Kennedy drizzle icing over the tops of the steaming cinnamon rolls she’d just pulled from the oven.

  “I love you,” Madison said wearily. She couldn’t remember the last time Kennedy had made cinnamon rolls. Her sister had been so busy with medical school and her psychiatric residency that the poor woman scarcely had time to eat, much less bake.

  Kennedy turned to smile at her. A smudge of flour was smeared across one suntanned cheek, and for a moment Madison was transported back in time to when their grandma was standing at that same stove with flour on her cheek, smiling as she watched her twin granddaughters giggle while they kneaded dough for the same recipe Kennedy had just used. God, how Madison missed that marvelous woman. But at least she still had the house and the memories. And most importantly at the moment, her delicious cinnamon roll reci
pe.

  “You love me or you love my baking?” Kennedy teased.

  “Both.” Madison settled onto a stool at the center island and hooked her heels into the rung beneath her.

  “I figured you could use a little sweet-tooth therapy.”

  “Smart lady,” Madison said.

  Kennedy shoveled a gooey, sticky roll onto a dessert plate and slid it across the counter to Madison before serving herself and perching on the stool beside her.

  “How was your flight?” Kennedy asked as Madison pulled off the outermost ring of her roll and stuffed it into her mouth. It wasn’t lost on her that Kennedy had given her the prized center roll, the softest and gooiest of them all. The two of them usually fought over who was privileged enough to eat it.

  “Okay,” Madison said, licking icing from her fingers. “I was a little worried about my bag, but it made it onto the flight and was waiting for me when I arrived at DFW.”

  “Talk,” Kennedy said. “Or do you need the prying questions?”

  She didn’t, not with Kennedy. She could tell Kennedy anything. So she did. She started with the leather shop and how Adam had asked her to wait outside while he argued with Phaedra.

  “He’s always hiding things from you,” Kennedy said.

  “I don’t think he trusts that anyone could love all of him.”

  Kennedy shook her head. “He’s so not ready for marriage.”

  Madison hadn’t looked at it that way, not consciously. But maybe that’s why she’d hesitated. Not because she wasn’t ready to settle down and marry Adam, but because she knew that he wasn’t ready for that step.

  “I think you might be right,” Madison said.

  “You know I always am.”

  “I love you.”

  “You love me or my psychiatric evaluation?”

  Madison chuckled. “Both.”

  Next Madison told her about their early dinner with Shade and Owen.

  At the mention of Owen, Kennedy perked up. “I still want to ask that guy why he got his junk pierced.”

  Madison shook her head. “One. Track. Mind.”

  “You could ask him for me,” Kennedy said.

  “He has other things to worry about,” Madison said.

  When she told Kennedy about Lindsey’s pregnancy, her sister’s jaw dropped.

  “Oh God, you’re all going to end up on the Maury Povich show, aren’t you?”

  “Shut up. We are not.”

  “And did you meet this chick? Is she the biggest slut you’ve ever seen?”

  “Yeah, I met her. And she’s just a normal girl. Very pretty. Completely fixated on Owen.”

  “How can a woman not know who the father of her baby is? I mean, come on, Madison, how could any woman enjoy getting screwed by a bunch of strangers? That’s pretty fucked up by anyone’s standards.”

  Madison’s face went hot, and she concentrated on her cinnamon roll, as if trying to move it with the power of her mind.

  “You’re not telling me something,” Kennedy said. She elbowed her in the ribs when Madison continued to stare at her plate. “Madison?”

  “Adam took me to this club,” she said, “And, well . . .” She shrugged.

  “The sex club? I thought you were just going to observe.”

  Madison bit her lip. “Well, that’s what I had planned to do, but I kind of got caught up in the moment. Anyway, I can totally identify with getting off with a bunch of strangers. I can’t really judge Lindsey for it, now can I?”

  Madison peeked at her sister, who appeared to be trying to catch flies with her gaping mouth.

  When Kennedy finally decided to inhale, she blurted out, “I can’t believe Adam would force y—”

  “He didn’t force me. Actually, he was very disturbed by my behavior.”

  “If he hadn’t taken you there—”

  “Stop trying to blame him for everything, Kennedy. He’s not a villain.”

  “You’re not the same person since you met him.”

  “You’re right, I’m not. I’m much more true to myself. Much less afraid of being who I was meant to be. I don’t even know why I came home,” Madison said, slipping from her stool. “I have to go back and make it right.”

  “What? Tonight?” Kennedy hopped from her stool and wrapped Madison in a bear hug. “You are not going to talk to him until you sleep on this. Besides, you don’t have time to drop everything and chase after him again. You have to work on Monday.”

  Madison stopped trying to force her way to the door and went limp.

  “About that . . .”

  And just that quickly it was all too much. She couldn’t hold it together any longer. Her life had completely come apart over the last forty-eight hours, and the enormity of it all crashed down on her like a landslide. A strangled sob escaped her, and her vision blurred with tears.

  Kennedy took her by both arms and gave her a shake. “What is it, Madison?”

  “I got f-f-fired.”

  “What? How the hell did you get fired?”

  “Somehow Joanna found out about my relationship with Adam and—”

  “Oh God,” Kennedy said, covering her mouth with a trembling hand. “Oh God. Oh God. I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry.” She hugged a very bewildered Madison tightly. “You have no idea how sorry I am. Oh God.”

  Madison let Kennedy hug her and stroke her hair and cry with her until her brain started to ponder why Kennedy was so freaking sorry.

  “You told her!” Madison accused, pushing her comforting sister away.

  Kennedy didn’t have to validate Madison’s suspicions; her look of guilt was unmistakable.

  “I didn’t know,” Kennedy said, avoiding Madison’s accusatory glare.

  “You didn’t know? You didn’t know what, Kennedy? That sleeping with one of my clients is unethical?”

  “Well, yeah, of course I knew that,” she said. “I didn’t know she’d fire you over it. I hoped she’d just talk to you about getting that poison out of your life.”

  “Poison? Do you really think of Adam that way?”

  “You know I do, Madi. I’ve told you so many times that he isn’t right for you, but my words go in one ear and out the other. I thought maybe if reason came from someone you respect, it might stick somewhere in that gray matter between your deaf-to-reason ears.”

  “I can’t believe you would get my boss involved. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “You know I only want what’s best for you.”

  “What’s best for me! How is this what’s best for me? I’ve lost my job and maybe the love of my life. Why would you risk something like this? Just to prove you’re right? Don’t you want me to be happy?”

  Her own sister had gotten her fired. Madison was so stunned she couldn’t wrap her head around the betrayal. Madison knew that Kennedy didn’t like Adam—even though she’d never actually met him—but to get her fired over the relationship? Why would she do something so damaging to Madison’s career? The longer she thought about her sister’s treachery, the angrier she became. And beneath the anger was plenty of hurt.

  Kennedy cupped Madison’s face between her hands and tried to get her to look at her. “Of course I want you to be happy. That’s why I intervened. It just didn’t go the way I’d planned. That man operates as blinders in your life, Madi. All you see is him.”

  Madison’s angry glare burned from her aching heart and seared into her sister’s troubled gaze. “That’s because I love him!”

  And now with the puppy dog eyes. “I said I was sorry, Madi—”

  “And that’s supposed to make it all better? Ugh! I can’t even look at you, at your treasonous, backstabbing, cruel, selfish jerk face.” Heat rushed through Madison and she shouted, “Stop touching me!” She shoved Kennedy out of the way and fled toward the back porch, the only direction open to her with her betraying, sorry-excuse-for-a-sister blocking her path to the rest of the house.

  How could Kennedy have done this? Did she really hate Madiso
n’s relationship with Adam that much? Her sister was usually an intelligent person. A caring sister. This was undoubtedly the stupidest and cruelest thing she’d ever done. And Madison didn’t care how many times Kennedy apologized, she was not going to forgive her easily for this.

  The screen door banged shut behind Madison as she marched down the creaky porch steps. She crossed the yard, the carpet of grass drought-brittle beneath her boots. She paused beneath the large oak tree where a long-abandoned tire swing still hung and leaned a hand