Madison's Life Lessons (5 page)

“How well did you know him?” Micah asked, resting his elbow on top of the headstone beside her. Too close to touching her hip and she imagined she could feel his body heat radiating from his arm.

Madison shrugged. “I guess you knew him too?”

Why’d she get the feeling he declined voicing his real thoughts just like she did?

“You could say I’m friends with his parents.”

Frowning, she looked at him. “That’s a strange way of putting it, Mr. –” She realized she didn’t know his last name and she refused to let him know she remembered his first.

His arctic blue gaze shifted from the now dirt-rounded gravesite and captivated her. “Call me Micah.”

She didn’t think she should, it felt too personal. Way too intimate.

“I’m his family’s legal counsel.”

A cool breeze snagged strands of her hair into her lipstick and she snatched at the offending locks. Glancing over her shoulder, she spied her mother seated behind the steering wheel of her red two-door S-series Mercedes. Momma stared in the other direction. As Madison turned her attention back to Micah, she slid off the tombstone taking special care to hold her skirt in place so it wouldn’t ride up.

Micah adjusted his arm and placed his hand against his jean clad thigh. No wedding band. Single. She bet he got a lot of female attention.

Relaxed against the headstone, she realized he was as tall as her. Used to staring people straight in the eye, it was a novel idea knowing she’d be forced to gaze up at him.

“You don’t look old enough to be an attorney.” With a face devoid of lines, she couldn’t discern his real age.

“I’m older than I look.” A lopsided grin tilted one corner of his freaking sexy lips and she resisted thinking about them on her mouth, the way Jack had kissed her. “You don’t look old enough to have fallen in love.”

She thought she could fall hard and fast in love with Micah. Or at least worship him like she did her favorite actor, Brad Pitt. Puppy love is what her Daddy would call it.

“I didn’t know Jack well enough to love him,” she admitted. Micah’s eyes glinted in the sunlight. Could he be pleased by her admission? She gave a mental snort. Such fancy served her no purpose. Micah was too old to be interested in her. “Can I tell you a secret no one but my mother knows?”

“Of course, secrets are safe with me. I can’t exactly tell yours if I don’t know your name.” He peered at her while fingering his hair off his forehead. She preferred the messy look before he straightened the strands.

“Jack dropped me off at home an hour before he died.” She shouldn’t be telling him this. It was easier telling a complete stranger her thoughts, and she didn’t have to worry about seeing the blame in the eyes of someone she knew. Momma wouldn’t understand and Daddy would most likely call her the spawn of Satan again. “He was the first boy to ask me to go anywhere with him. I’m having a hard time understanding why God would allow someone at the prime of his life to die.”

Micah’s gaze narrowed, and his eyebrows drew together to create a curious frown. “What makes you think God had anything to do with it?”

“That’s what Daddy said.”

“Ah…” He nodded, as if no further explanation was needed. “God wasn’t involved in his accident. If you think you’re to blame for his early passing, you’re wrong. Very wrong. It was Jack’s bad choices and improper actions that brought about his death.”

Madison stared at Micah. She shivered and not from the cool breeze, but his wintry gaze. His sensuous mouth flattened with displeasure. She never wanted that look turned on her. “That sounds very insensitive.”

“That’s not the way I intended it.” Micah’s attention shifted to Jack’s burial site. “Jack’s father is running for Mayor and Jack left his family in a precarious situation. Not only was Jack hunting illegally, he was trespassing. All matters I’m delegated to settle with as little scandal as possible.”

Madison shook her head, appalled by the idea that Jack’s father worried more about his political career than the loss of his son. Could she expect anything different from her father in a similar situation? Doubtful.

“I see the repugnance in your eyes. Humans are inherently cold natured. It’s cases like this that give me no expectation of humanity’s survival. But when I look into your innocent blue eyes, I see the hope for the world staring back at me.”

She tried to interpret that in a platonic way, but came up with nothing so innocent. Her hands grew sweaty, and she would’ve ripped her gaze off his, but she worried it’d show her disequilibrium to his attention.

Something of her greenness must have shown, because he said, “My apologies for my forwardness.”

He lifted his hand to swipe his hair off his forehead and she caught his wrist. Shocked by her impulsiveness, she stared at her fingers wrapped around his wrist, suspended mid-air between them. The touch of his skin against hers smoldered along her pulse points and moved low into her belly. Their eyes met, she snatched her hand away and she whispered, “Leave it.”

Micah’s glacial eyes grew a shade darker and blazed with satisfaction. With one spontaneous act, she’d expressed her awareness of him and she could kick herself for it.

“Are you ever going to tell me your name?” he asked, his voice having grown whiskey-rough. Such a sensual sound that made her knees wobble and her hands shake.

“I don’t think I should.” She flattened her palms against her thighs so he wouldn’t notice them shaking and cast a quick glance in Momma’s direction. Momma primped at her reflection in the car’s rearview mirror. She turned back to Micah and executed a one-shoulder shrug. “It sorta feels like if I tell you my name, it’ll somehow invite power over me.” A crazy notion, she knew, but true nonetheless.

A wide grin showed off his perfect straight teeth and Madison almost lost all thought. His full-blown smile inspired giddiness, like she’d located the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or as giddy as the schoolgirl she was with a handsome older man turning all his charm on her. Sheesh, he could be lethal to her untutored passions. Madison was unsure how to handle her awkward emotions, and was equally unsure if she read Micah’s behavior wrong.

“There
is
power in a name. Certain names hold more power than others.” Micah pushed off the tombstone and she tilted her head back to maintain eye contact. What a novel experience to look up at someone. Made her feel small and in need of protecting. Micah captured a lock of her hair, and caressed it between his fingers before tucking it behind an ear. Madison shivered. “Until you privilege me with your name, I’ll give you a nickname…how does kitten sound?”

That sounded more like an endearment than a nickname. “I don’t think that’s very appropriate.”

She
knew
it wasn’t! If Daddy found out—

He winked. “You’re fault.” That’s what Daddy would say too. “You won’t trust me with your name and I have to call you something.”

They didn’t run in the same circles so the plausibility of them bumping into each other again was slim.

“Are you flirting with me?” Madison almost swallowed her tongue for asking such a bold question.

Micah stuffed a hand into a jean pocket and stared at her a long time. Sheesh, with his penetrating stare, she felt like he could read every want she tucked away deep in her soul. “You’re a pretty girl, why wouldn’t I flirt with you?”

Until recently, no one seemed interested in her. Suddenly, everyone gawked at her. Micah gazed at her with emotions she couldn’t identify, but they melted her wariness. She felt safe and significant in his regard, a heady experience when she received nothing but ridicule from her father and disdain—until today—from her mother. She’d felt the same weird notion from him on Christmas morning and it made no more sense now than it did then.

“You’re too old to flirt with me and I don’t need my ego fed, Mr.—” She sent him a pointed stare.

“Dominus. Micah Dominus.” He chucked her chin and her pulse spiked. She took a step back, away from his too potent demeanor, as he said, “You know my name. The polite thing is for you to give me yours.”

Her lips twitched and she bit back the grin. “I don’t think so, Mr. Dominus. My daddy warned me about talking to strangers and you’re a stranger.”

Micah didn’t object. Instead, he procured a business card from his back pocket and held his hand out, offering it to her. “If you wish to alter my ‘stranger’ status, call or email me anytime. No romantic pressure, just friends.” His concentrated gaze said they’d be ‘just friends’ so long as she desired their relationship to remain platonic. When she didn’t take the card, he cocked a questioning eyebrow at her. “I don’t bite, kitten.”

The familiarity of his endearment buzzed across her skin and warmed the base of her spine. Madison licked her lips. Indecision warred with good sense. Instinct warned her to walk away now without accepting his offer. Impulse screamed at her to take the card and live on the wild side.

Finally, she accepted his offer and shivered when her fingertips brushed his. Micah invited no other contact, his expression unreadable as they stared at one another. Madison swallowed hard, wagged his business card at him and said, “I make no promises.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Dominus.”

“I’ll see you later, kitten.”

The idea of seeing him again left her all sorts of nervous. She attempted an eloquent turn, wobbled a little on her high heels, and walked across the cemetery toward her mother’s Mercedes. Senses tingling, she thought he watched her leave. She resisted the compulsion to glance over her shoulder and determine if he did.

Madison controlled her pace as she walked toward Momma’s car, squelching the urge to bolt. Micah watched her. She felt his stare. Crazy, yeah, but his gaze was that intense. Kind of hypnotic, she wanted to stare into his blue eyes until she either became lost in them or found salvation. More crazy from a normally level-headed girl.

The business card against her palm prickled her skin, totally opposite of the way the man affected her. He left her all ooey-gooey inside. With Jack she’d been comfortable and at ease. His one-time kiss hadn’t been exciting and she hadn’t been eager to repeat the embrace. But Micah…
Dear God
just thinking his name left her jittery and unsure. And definitely wondering how his kiss would feel.

Would she grow breathless like one of the many romance books described? The ones she kept hidden from her daddy under her mattress. Or she might forget herself and go too far, like a bunch of those heroines in those romance books. That wasn’t an option. She had plans to vacate her daddy’s control as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Getting involved with a man wasn’t part of the plan.

She shook her head and hastily stuffed the card into her black purse. She’d have to find some way to evict
Mr. Dominus
from her mind because he was way too old for her. To that end she should think of him only as Mr. Dominus and not Micah.

As Madison rounded the front of the Mercedes, she chanced a peek in his direction. He stood facing her, feet braced slightly apart, with one hand shoved in a pocket. Their eyes connected. A slight smile curved his sensuous mouth and he lifted his hand in a manly gesture of a wave. She pulled the door handle and executed a quick wave back. Before she slid into the passenger seat, he lifted his hand to his ear and mouthed, “Call me.”

Silent, Momma tapped her fingers against the steering wheel, as Madison settled inside and latched her seatbelt. “Do you know him, Momma?”

Her mother turned to look out her window. “Yes,” she said and cranked the vehicle. “Micah Dominus, he’s the new hotshot attorney in town. He’s set the city ablaze with his talent in the courtroom. From what I hear, he hasn’t lost a case yet. Why do you ask?”

Madison shrugged. “No reason. He said he worked for the Moore family and that Jack’s dad was running for Mayor.”

“Micah Dominus
is
too cute for his own good, isn’t he?” Momma stared at the man in question.

How gross! Momma was old and married. She shouldn’t have an opinion about other men. “I guess.”

Momma chuckled. “He’s got half the town sniffing after him, married and unmarried alike, and you just
guess
he’s cute?”

“Momma, I’m fifteen, he’s old, like thirty probably.”

“I hear he’s fresh out of college. That’s what makes him such a hot commodity. Young, successful, a real brainiac, finished school early. He’s somewhere just shy of mid-twenties.” Momma put the car in drive and waved to
Mr. Dominus
. “A much more manageable age than ancient thirty, don’t you think?”

“It’s not like he wants to date me.” Madison rolled her eyes and resisted looking at Micah—
Mr. Dominus
!—over her shoulder. In his presence, she felt special. Out of his company and in Momma’s, she’d gone back to plain ole’ Madison Wescott.

“You never know what a man’s thinking.”

Madison wasn’t sure how to interpret that statement or why she would even want to know what a man was thinking. On second thought, it sure would help to know what Mr. Dominus thought about her.

Silence descended as Momma navigated the vehicle. Why’d she feel so dang different in Micah Dominus’s presence? What about him was so special? Not that his specialness or her curiosity mattered. Her daddy would never allow her to date. Anyone. And especially not an older man, even if he wasn’t thirty yet. Only a man spewing scriptures, with a bible in his hand, would ever be allowed to date her.