That Night with You (34 page)

“
Is she the one who told
you I was just out to screw you?”

She shook her head, feeling the wine
sloshing about in her system. “That was Mrs. Leder.”

“
Mrs. Leder. Yes, she would
be the expert on men.” He went to the chair next to her. “What did
she say?”

Madison drooped forward in her seat.
“Does it matter?”

He lifted her chin, raising her eyes
to him. “Mrs. Leder is a silly old woman who I think enjoys putting
her nose into other people’s business. What did she tell
you?”

The way his eyes were burning into
her, Madison figured it would be best to disclose everything. “That
you were out to screw me and then dump me.”

He dropped his hand. “And you believe
that?”

She put her elbows on the table and
then hung her head in her hands. “I don’t know what to
believe.”

“
Come on.” He scooped her
up in his arms. “I’m taking you to bed.”

“
Taking me to bed to have
sex with me, you mean.”

He carried her out of the kitchen.
“I’m taking you to bed because you’re drunk.”

“
I am not
drunk.”

He climbed the back stairs that rose
from the den to the second floor. “You’re drunk, angry, and lashing
out at me. If I don’t put you to bed, we will both say things we’re
going to regret in the morning.”

“
You can’t just put me to
bed like I’m a child, Hayden.”

“
Well, you’re acting like
one.” He turned the corner upstairs, heading down the short hall to
his bedroom.

“
Why, because I’m beginning
to wonder if I’m just your sex toy and not your…girlfriend?” she
replied, raising her voice.

He stopped at the bedroom door and
deposited her on the thick Berber carpet. “Did Mrs. Leder say
that?”

“
No, Charlie. She thinks
you’re using me for sex, too.”

He hesitated for a moment, and when he
wiped his face with his hand, his expression calmed. “Madison, you
need to stop listening to your friends. I know they have good
intentions, but they don’t know mine.”

“
What are your intentions,
Hayden?”

“
Are you sure you want to
discuss this when you’re drunk?”

“
I told you, I’m not
drunk.”

He put his hands on her shoulders and
ushered her into the bedroom. When they came to the edge of his low
platform bed, he pushed her down onto the burgundy comforter.
“Sit.”

She grudgingly sat down and, with his
hands clasped behind him, Hayden began to pace back and forth in
front of her. After a few turns before the bed, he stopped and
stared at her.

“
What do you need to hear
from me to convince you that I’m not just in this for the
sex?”

“
Tell me how you feel about
me.”

“
How I feel?” He sucked in
a pensive breath. “That’s not so easy for me.”

“
Why?”

He came up to the bed and had a seat
next to her. “Look, Madison, I care about you, make no mistake, but
asking me to put all that into words is…well, impossible for me.
I’m not a writer; I’m an architect, and if you ask me to draw up a
plan of where I see us heading, that would be a hell of a lot
easier for me to—”

“
Then tell me of your plan,
Hayden. Describe what you see for us. Put into words the pictures
you see in your head.”

“
Words, huh? It would be a
hell of a lot easier for me to show you how I feel.”

Disgusted, she stood from the bed.
“Show me? I knew it. I am a sex toy to you.”

He held her hand, keeping her from
walking away. “I don’t have to have sex with you to show you what
you mean to me.”

She stopped and peered down at him.
“You don’t?”

“
No. You make it sound like
having sex is something only meant to please me.” He stood up and
traced his fingertips over the outline of her finely carved
cheekbone. “Pleasing you is the goal for me.”

His touch made that
familiar tingle come to life.
Damn
him!
“Well, you sure seem to enjoy it a
hell of a lot.”

He shifted her long brown hair away
from her shoulders. “Then perhaps you should give me the
opportunity to prove to you that my pleasure does not matter…only
yours.”

“
What are you going to do,
give me another lesson?”

He grinned, amused by her comment. “No
more lessons.” Moving behind her, he rolled his hands along her
shoulders. Then his fingers gently nudged down the zipper on the
back of her light blue, tea-length dress.

“
Hayden, this isn’t going
to—”

“
Shh.” He eased the
delicate fabric down her body. “Hand yourself over to me; don’t
resist.”

“
But I—”

He covered her mouth with his fingers.
“Let me show you how I feel, Madison. Just for tonight, let go of
your doubt.”

She figured debating his intentions
would be a waste of time, and in her heart Madison knew where this
was headed. Without further objection, she let him remove the rest
of her clothes.

Setting her on the bed, he flipped her
over on her stomach. “Now relax,” he whispered as his fingertips
stroked her back.

He began pressing his palms into the
muscles along her spine, massaging away her tension. After gently
kneading the sore muscles in the back of her neck, he moved down to
her bottom, lingering over the curve of her butt as his fingers
prodded deep into the tissue.

Madison concluded if a massage was his
way of showing her how he felt, then she wouldn’t argue. For the
most part, his hands were magical, but when they dug a little too
hard into her stiff muscles, Madison would wince and
stiffen.

“
Stop working against me.
Let go, baby,” he urged as he honed in on a big knot in her
neck.

He determinedly reduced the tightness
in her shoulders and lower back. Feeling utterly relaxed, the warm
rush brought on by the wine and massage began to make her nod
off.

He patted her behind. “Turn over for
me.”

Groggily, she lay on her back and
Hayden straddled her hips. His hands worked on her right shoulder
and then her left. He lightly raked his fingernail down her chest,
and Madison found the sensation strangely arousing. When his hands
cupped her breasts, he gently stroked them and scraped his thumbs
over her nipples. Madison’s breath quickened and her skin flushed.
He purposefully concentrated his attention on her breasts for
several minutes, sparking to life her desire. He scooted down her
legs while his hands moved lower, caressing her abdomen and
settling over her hips. Hayden kneaded the flesh along the sides of
her hips, manipulating the thick muscles, and when his hands edged
underneath to her butt, he squeezed her cheeks.

He eased off her legs and pulled her
knees apart, causing Madison’s eyes to fly open. She raised her
head to look up at him.

“
What are you
doing?”

He never uttered a word while his
fingers rubbed slowly up and down, fondling her folds and making
Madison rock her head back against the bed. His fingers were
methodical and relentless, and when his thumb started drawing
circles over her sensitive nub, she reached out and balled the
comforter up in her hands.

It did not take long for her orgasm to
come barreling upward. Gasping, she arched her back when the fire
exploded in her. A long moan escaped her lips as the trembling
began, and by the time she slammed back on the bed, she felt
spent.

Instead of stopping, Hayden slid his
fingers inside of her, massaging her slowly and
rhythmically.

“
Hayden, please,” she
begged, running her hand over her face.

He ignored her protests and kept
moving his fingers in and out. A damp sweat broke out on her brow
and her muscles twitched when the second climax rose up her spine.
She clawed at the comforter, gathering it about her body. As the
white surge of electricity bounded upward, she rolled her head back
and bit down on her lip, suppressing her cry.

Again she fell against the bed, but
Hayden never stopped. His fingers probed deeper. The sensation was
overpowering as his fingers stimulated the deepest parts of her.
The third orgasm was even more intense and came faster than the
other two. This time she did not hold back and cried out with wild
abandon as her body shook.

Hayden’s lips began their assault on
her inner thigh; his teeth nipping at her skin. When his mouth
settled over her very sensitive flesh, she gasped as the rush of
heat overwhelmed her.

“
Oh my God.”

He kept sucking on her, tantalizing
her with his tongue until she was drenched in sweat. Madison
crashed into the bed—shrieking so loud, she was sure that someone
would hear—but just as she was catching her breath, his mouth
attacked her all over again.

“
I can’t.” Madison grabbed
at his hair. “No more.”

Her begging only seemed to spur him
onward. Realizing what he had in mind, Madison was helpless to stop
him. She was his willing captive, wanting him to stop, but also
desperately wanting him to continue. Closing her eyes, she reached
her arms up to the bedpost above her head and held on. When the
next orgasm took hold, she was shattered. Weak and unable to move,
she wanted to shout with thanks when his mouth moved away from her
throbbing folds and up her stomach.

Hayden bit down hard on her right
nipple, and as his lips worked their way up her neck, he mumbled,
“I’m just getting warmed up, baby. I’ve got hundreds of ways to
show you how I feel. I’m going to make you understand how much you
mean to me.”

When he slinked back down her chest
and over her hips, Madison willed the strength to object, but as
his mouth clamped down again on her tender nub, she surrendered to
him. The last thing she remembered was the scream coming from her
as his tongue began to mercilessly tease her back to that limitless
cavern of bliss.

***

When Madison awoke, every muscle in
her body ached. She was sprawled on her stomach, her thick brown
hair half in her face, blocking her vision. In the background, she
heard the sound of running water and wasn’t sure if she was still
dreaming. When a hand ran up her spine and settled behind her neck,
her eyes flew open.

“
Time to get up,
baby.”

She groaned. “No, God no. I can’t
move.”

He brushed her hair away from her
face. “I’ve got a hot shower waiting for you.”

She sat up, wincing slightly as she
felt an ache between her legs. “What did you do to me last
night?”

“
Showed you what you mean
to me. Wasn’t that the point?”

She pulled her legs up beneath her,
sitting up. “Yeah but…ten times?”

He scooped her up in his arms, lifting
her from the bed. “I think there might have been one or two extra
in there.” He carried her into the bathroom. “I’ll do it all over
again tonight when we get home from the wedding.”

“
The wedding. That’s today,
isn’t it?”

“
That’s right.” He placed
her next to the shower. The steam from the hot water inside was
collecting on the clear door, blocking the view into the wide
stall. “You have exactly one hour before you have to join the
bride.” He opened the shower door. “Get in and I’ll start the
coffee.”

Before she turned to the shower, she
gazed over his wrinkled jeans and bare chest. “I guess you showed
me last night, didn’t you?”

“
I’m glad you’re
convinced.”

She stared into his small gray eyes
and tried to fathom the depth of emotion she saw there. “You are
coming to the wedding, right? I think you need to prove to Mrs.
Leder and Charlie that you’re serious about me.”

“
I’ll be there. And I’ll
even dance with Mrs. Leder at the reception to show what a
forgiving guy I am.”

“
I think Mrs. Leder will
enjoy that.”

Slipping under the shower, Madison let
the pulsating water work away her stiffness. Wiping the water from
her face, she glimpsed the closed shower door. Hayden may have
tried to convince her of his feelings, but she believed he was the
one who actually needed convincing. It was almost as if he were
going through the motions with her; acting like the attentive
lover, but somewhere the emotional commitment fell far short of the
physical one. Why was there such a disparity with him? As the hot
water massaged away her aches, she pondered why he was the way he
was. Perhaps that was his appeal for her. The mystery of what
Hayden Parr was thinking was becoming her most perplexing
dilemma.

Chapter 18

“
Christ, I’m sweating like
a pig,” Charlie complained as she tugged at the bosom of her
wedding gown. “I didn’t think it would be this hot.”

Waiting in a small room by the
entrance to the Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Madison was
fanning Charlie with her bouquet of blue hydrangea and chocolate
sunflowers intermixed with white baby’s breath.