Wanting It All: A Naked Men Novel (12 page)

“It’s just another factoid for you to consider.”

Oddly enough, the insult did make him feel better. Even while still stinging. Knox felt he at least deserved to be a contender. Stumped him, too. Because according to several newspaper articles, Knox Davies was the dating hat trick—smart, sexy, and wealthy. If that wasn’t enough to impress Madison, what the hell would?

To make sure there was absolutely no room for drama down the road, Knox had to lay it out one more time. “How about I remind you of a factoid?”

“Bring it.”

Just like on the boat, sparring with her turned him on. Weird how that worked. “I’ve been clear, haven’t I? That I don’t want to yoke myself to a single woman? Ever?”

Madison laughed. “Oh, yes.” She laughed so hard that she put an arm across her stomach for support. She laughed so hard that she dropped into the leather stadium seat. “Clear doesn’t
begin
to describe how you’ve hammered that into my noggin.”

So…he still found her super hot. Interesting. Fun. And despite her death march toward marriage, Madison basically gave him the green light to be with her,
knowing
he had no intention of committing. Talk about having your cake, getting double ice cream on top, and then eating it, too.

“Okay, then.” If they were going to give this dating thing a try, he’d get a jump start on cashing in on one of the perks. Knox leaned down for a kiss.

“Not so fast.” Madison put her sneakers on his knees to keep him away. “I’ve got a deal breaker to throw at you.”

How bad could it be after the last curveball she’d thrown him? “Marriage was the ultimate deal breaker. Anything else’ll be small potatoes.”

But the teasing glint had vanished from her golden brown eyes. She dropped her feet to the concrete and wrapped her hands around her knees. “Can you handle scaling back to one woman at a time?” Madison asked. Her question had none of her usual straightforward bravado.

“Yeah.” Looking at the open and vulnerable pout to her mouth, Knox realized she needed more. Deserved more from him. “Madison Abbott, you are one hell of a challenge. I couldn’t juggle another woman on top of you if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

In a blink, her confidence surged back. Madison gave a sassy head toss that sent her hair tumbling down her chest. Not that he needed the extra incentive to look there. “Then we’re good.”

Knox started to lean in for a kiss again. This time the sound of clapping froze him midbend.

Just behind them, Chloe had her head poked around the doorway. Actually, most of her body stuck through sideways. Griffin kept her upright with a hand in the waistband of her shorts. “I knew you guys would make up.”

“We weren’t fighting.” Knox didn’t know what to call what they’d gone through. He was just glad it was over. And that it was time to move on to the kissing. Maybe even the hot makeup sex she’d promised him, once the Nats cleaned up on the field.

Standing, Madison said, “We were measuring each other’s stubbornness.”

Yeah. That sounded about right.

Chloe came out the rest of the way, dragging Griff with her. “Well, whatever turns you on.”

“Can we all come out now?” Josh hovered in the doorway. “It’s almost time for them to announce the starting lineup. You know the Nats can’t win if I don’t clap for every player.”

Ry shoved him out. “How the hell do you think they win the nights you don’t show up?”

“It’s a mystery, isn’t it?”

You didn’t rise through the ranks of the NTSB without being a stickler for facts and provable science. Boringly insistent on them, in fact. Ry had never seen a rabbit’s foot keychain without lecturing the owner on how they’d been taken in by a con. With his usual lack of patience and outright disdain for anything approaching skullduggery, hocus pocus, or even mild finger-crossing, Riley flipped him a middle finger. “You don’t go through this superstitious shit when we go to D.C. United games.”

“Please.” Josh beat his fists against his chest and proclaimed loudly, “We’re the mighty, miraculous ACSs. When it comes to soccer, our mere presence is enough to bring on a win.”

Shit. He’d used his outdoor voice. Normally okay in a crowded stadium. Not, however, when you were trying to fly under the radar regarding a certain newsworthy episode in their past. Especially when almost all of you were gathered together in a perfect photo op.

Not caring at all if Riley mocked him, Knox crossed his fingers. Hoped that nobody in the seats around them had heard Josh. Or if they had heard, that they didn’t remember the ACSs.

Riley scowled. “Hardwick, you’re an idiot. Why not borrow a megaphone and tell the whole stadium we’re here?”

Pale beneath his tan, Josh realized what he’d done. “God, it just slipped out. I got up at four-thirty this morning to snag some fresh corn and tomatoes for my grilled gazpacho melt special. My brain’s on fumes. Sorry.”

Griffin gave a nod to Josh’s apology. Then looked at Knox. Who looked at Riley.

Madison tugged at his arm. “What’s going on?”

“Maybe nothing.” But below, heads were turning. Hands were waving. And then the chanting started. Started out low. Just a couple dozen people saying, “ACS, ACS, ACS.” More people joined in. Who knew if it was just lemming mentality or people who remembered? Either way, it was on both sides of their box now.

Then the Jumbotron picture changed from the visiting team dugout to a close-up of all of them. Josh, cap in hand, looking chagrined. Griff in front of Chloe, blocking her. Ry with a beer halfway to his mouth. And there Knox stood, not looking at himself but at the confused blonde on his arm.

“Madison, I need to tell you a story.”

People were waving. Chanting. Not at the players, who weren’t even on the field yet, but at her new friends. Madison didn’t understand it. Because
nobody
looked happy. Knox—he who stripped down in the middle of a national park—certainly wasn’t shy. She’d seen all of their faces on a bus stop on the way here, promoting the
Naked Men
podcast. Not just faces, come to think of it. They’d all worn button-down shirts spread wide by their hands to show off four of the best chests she’d ever seen. So clearly his friends weren’t shy either.

The chanting picked up. Madison had no idea what
ACS
meant. The letters sure stunned all of them into a giant lack of action, though. Oh, for God’s sake. Clearly the crowd wouldn’t stop until they got something. She grabbed Knox by the collar. Nope, that wouldn’t be big enough. Madison put one foot on the seat to give her a hopping-off point to latch her legs around Knox’s waist. He caught her with an audible
oomph.
Quickly followed by a mumbled “
What the hell
?”

And then she basically sucked his tonsils out, she kissed him so deeply. Finesse wasn’t the name of the game. The whole point was to put on a show. She kept her eyes open to catch the other guys fading back into the suite. That was part one.

Madison changed her angle of attack so that she could see the Jumbotron. Yup, they were still on it. So she threw herself more into it. Circled her hips against his. Tossed her head back to push her boobs right up in Knox’s face. Not to mention his hands clamped on her ass, holding her in place.

That did it. With their display being far from family-friendly, the giant image shifted to another part of the stadium. The chanting died down. Then Knox took control of the kiss. The over-the-top passion she’d been trying to project turned real as all get out. It turned into a
Sorry we fought
kiss. A
Why haven’t I tasted you in so long
kiss. It was still fast and hard and wild, as though making up for the time they’d missed. It was fabulous.

When she opened her eyes again, they were back inside the suite. Madison hadn’t even noticed Knox walking. She’d been consumed by the long licks of his tongue inside her mouth. The kneading of his hands through her shorts. The rock-hard erection, impossible to miss, pressed right between her legs.

He set her on her feet. Immediately untucked his Nats jersey to cover up the evidence of their passion. Madison wiped around her mouth, ’cause he’d more than kissed off all her lipstick. Rubbed off the smudge of it at the corner of his lips, too. And when the room was still as silent as a night on the Wrangell Volcanic Field, where nothing moved or lived, she jumped in with both feet again.

“Somebody want to tell me what the holy hell just happened?”

Knox grimaced. “The thing is, I’m famous.”

“Well, sure. Nobody makes as much money as you do in secret. Not unless they’re a mad genius inventor pulling a Dr. Frankenstein in the basement.”

At his level of wealth, there were probably magazine spreads of his house, not just articles about his brilliance. Plus, he’d already alluded to the local news calling him D.C.’s most eligible bachelor. Not that she’d disagree…

“You nailed it.” Josh handed beers to Knox and Madison before sitting on the leather couch. “When he’s on a brainstorm bender, his hair gets all wild and crazy.”

Knox glared at his friend. “Not helping. And I don’t just mean me, Madison. We’re all famous.”

“No kidding. I’ve never dated a guy with a face on a bus stop before.” Which had tickled her enough to snap a photo and text it to her mom, along with the message
Guess which one I’m dating.
“The closest I’ve ever come was a one-night stand with Lew Caulfield. He put his face on the door of his truck to advertise his big game–hunting company. I told him he’d get better results strapping moose antlers to his hood. Regardless, it’s obvious your podcast has gotten you attention.”

“We were famous before the podcast.”

Madison walked over to the food. Ran a cup through the popcorn like a trowel. “If you’re going to make me play twenty questions, I’m loading up a plate.”

“I’ll do that for you,” offered Chloe.

Strange. They were all acting very, very strange.

Riley ducked his head. “Sorry. We don’t talk about this much. Not anymore.”

“Well, somebody needs to start. Now.”

Knox took her hand and led her to the couch. As if answering an unheard signal, Griffin and Riley cleared to the opposite end of the room and started filling plates. Josh just scooted over a few inches to give her room. Knox sat on the edge of the coffee table, letting his forearms hang off of his knees.

“I’m going to make this short and sweet. I don’t want to bring all the guys down and ruin the game.”

“Okay.” Now Madison was equal parts annoyed and worried.

He exchanged an unreadable look with Josh. Took a deep breath. “When we were in high school, our soccer team got invited to a big international tournament. We made it all the way to the finals. On our free day, the team split up to sightsee. Griff, Ry, Josh, Logan, and I commandeered a bus and a driver and went up into the Alps for some skiing. We couldn’t find Logan the next morning. Our driver made us leave without him so the rest of us wouldn’t get in trouble. Except trouble found us.”

Trying to lighten the oddly tense pall hanging over the room, Madison joked, “That sounds like it should have foreboding music after it.”

“Our bus went off the cliff, rolled, and slid hundreds of feet. We barely made it out before it burst into flames. The driver died. We were all hurt. Bad. Marooned, in the middle of nowhere. In a March snowstorm. No food, no water. Phones burned up with the bus. The only coat we got out was used for bandages.”

“Oh my God. Oh, Knox.” Her heart lodged in her throat. The enormity of what he described was almost too much to bear. Even though she knew they were all fine now? Madison’s heart broke for what they must have suffered, both physically and emotionally. “I didn’t mean to make light of it. I’m so sorry.”

“S’okay.” He pointed at the television with a harsh laugh. “Not really a story you expect to hear while giant heads of Jefferson and Washington run the bases.”

That sounded funny, but Madison couldn’t tear her gaze away from the starkly haunted expression on Knox’s face. “You must’ve been so frightened.”

“Yeah.” He flipped the back of his hand against Josh’s feet, propped up on the table. “Josh was scared he’d die of starvation.”

Josh tossed a handful of popcorn at him “Not true. I was scared I’d never eat a hot dog from Ben’s Chili Bowl again. Get your facts straight, Davies.”

Instead of joking back, Knox gritted his teeth, causing the vein along his temple to pulse noticeably. “There isn’t a single fucking moment of those three days that isn’t burned crystal clear in my brain, Hardwick.”

Interesting. Knox, who more or less had a third major in glibness, was as serious as she’d ever seen him. Madison wanted to know more. She leaned forward. Reached out to take his hand. “What were you scared of, Knox?”

He gave a shrug, as if to shake her off. But his fingers stayed curled around her palm. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Sure it does. Tell me.”

Riley slid into the chair opposite. “He was scared he’d die a virgin.”

Biting back the urge to giggle—because omigod, this was too impactful a story to allow a snicker to break free—Madison said, “Makes sense to me. That would be a big deal to a teenage boy.” Obviously not dying a virgin had been every bit as important to Knox as not dying at all. Fear was a very personal thing. You might not fully understand someone else’s fear, but it had to be respected. More than that, it had to be reckoned with.

Knox’s eyes, burning with a fire that surprised her a bit, met hers. His grip tightened. “It was. It was a huge-ass deal. Thanks for spilling, Ry.”

“No point glossing over the details. If you’re telling her, tell her everything. Here, I’ll balance the scales.” He slammed his plate down on the table hard enough to make the popcorn dance across the plate. “I was scared that I didn’t know enough to keep us alive. Griffin was scared he wouldn’t be able to get us all out of there.”

“Which translates to me ultimately being scared that Knox would die a virgin, too,” Griffin said dryly as he sat in the recliner.

“Oh, very funny. Hey, if my virginity was motivation enough for you to pull your head out of your ass and lead us to safety, then we should probably raise a toast to my untried dick of those days.”

Madison got that they all shared a gallows humor about the event. But she could also tell that, even after all this time, it was still an open wound for Knox. Wow. It certainly explained his approach to women as an all-you-can-take buffet. Talk about making up for lost time. Knox had evidently devoted his life, consciously or not, to proving to himself, the world, or both that he’d darned well die as far from being a virgin as possible.

That was an obvious and severe detriment to his husband potential. Sure, she’d known about his affliction before this. But learning that it was rooted in trauma made it far more difficult to combat.

Right this minute, though, Knox needed positivity. Affirmation. So she raised her beer high. “I’d far rather toast to the spectacular work it does now. It sure takes me to a safe and happy place.”

“Well said,” murmured Chloe. “You’ll forgive me for not joining in the toast to another man’s penis right in front of my boyfriend.” She placed a plate near Madison and settled on Griffin’s lap.

“Certainly.”

The guys looked at Madison like she’d lost her mind. All except Knox, who toasted her in return. He looked a tiny bit less grim, too. “How did you survive?”

“We stayed in a cave for a day and a night. Griff popped Ry’s dislocated shoulder back into place. Cats in heat screech less than Ry did.”

“I only screamed once. Then I blacked out.”

Josh snickered. “Fainting doesn’t make you come off as any less of a girl.”

Knox pushed up to start pacing the length of the luxury suite. “Josh kept passing out from his head injury. That was…disconcerting. Let’s just say our situation obviously wasn’t going to improve. So Griff herded us down the mountain. We walked for another day and night until, on day three, stuck on this narrow pass, Logan swooped in with a rescue squad.”

They were all so brave for not giving up. For ignoring the facts and the odds and persevering. The fact that Griffin had kept that will to live so strong in all of them, had forced and inspired them to not give up, swamped Madison with admiration. “You kept them going.”

“We kept one another going,” he corrected.

Geez. Couldn’t he just take the compliment? Was there something in the hero rulebook that forbade them from taking a victory lap? “Modesty is pointless, Lieutenant.”

“It’s not modesty. I wouldn’t have found the strength within myself if not for these men. My brothers.” Then he jammed his wrist across the crook of his other arm, in the centuries-old European manner of flipping the bird. “And the desire to kick Logan’s ass for not being there to suffer along with us.”

Oh, right. They’d glossed over that part. Madison swiveled back to face Knox. “Where was he?”

It was Griffin who shook his head in answer. “That’s another story. His story.”

Which made it all the more mysterious and intriguing. And why wasn’t he here now? Clearly she’d have to try and worm it out of her boyfriend. Mmm. Classifying the tall, dark, and delicious Knox as her boyfriend sent a possessive thrill through Madison. One that she’d keep entirely to herself, so as not to send him running. He had no trouble acting the part. But, boy oh boy, would that label ever throw him for a loop!

Knox came back to sit on the arm of the sofa, his leg touching Madison’s. With its proximity, she couldn’t resist curving her fingers around his knee to whisk over the crisp, dark hairs. “The point is that once we got off that mountain, the press swarmed us. We were already a big deal over there for knocking the European and South American teams out of the tournament. They branded us the
Americani Calcio Sopravvissuti,
or the ACSs. American Soccer Survivors.”

The initials sounded pretty hot chanted by a whole stadium, but the actual name? The headline writers clearly had an off day with that one. “Not the greatest nickname ever,” she intoned slowly.

“Not by a long shot. It loses just about everything in translation. Makes it sound like we survived a rampage by a rabid soccer ball that came to life and terrorized the team.”

“But it stuck.” Josh’s blond eyebrows drew together into a single thunderous line. “Like the fucking press did. They hounded us back across the Atlantic, all through our heroes’ welcome at home, and the months of our recovery. We couldn’t shake ’em. Still can’t.”

Riley leaned forward with his eyes narrowed to angry slits. “Just when we’re sure that nobody else in the world could possibly give a damn, they pop up. The press, and/or people who recognize and remember us. At things like graduations. When Knox was on the cover of
Time
magazine in their inventors issue.”

“Don’t lay this at my feet. Remember who brought the press running just a few months ago?” Knox scooped up the popcorn from Madison’s plate and tossed it at Griffin. “A certain rescue that got filmed and went viral?”

“If it hadn’t gone viral, Griff wouldn’t have been grounded.” Chloe pursed her lips. Shook her head. “Sorry, boys, but you’ll have to suck up that press hit. It brought Griffin and me together. You can’t be mad at him when it ended in true love.”

That brought a round of kissy noises from the men. Madison brought her hands to her heart and beamed at Chloe. Clearly she’d found a kindred spirit. But she did wonder why they weren’t engaged yet.

Knox pointed down the sofa. “Okay, if Chloe’s forcing us to give Griff a pass, then we’ll be mad at Josh for opening his big mouth and causing today’s ruckus.”

“I didn’t think.” Josh put his hands up in a mea culpa. “Honest mistake. And it was over fast, thanks to Madison being on the ball.”

“Oh, I was happy to help. I didn’t exactly martyr myself kissing this one, you know.” Without even realizing it, her fingers had traced the hem of his shorts and were sliding underneath it. Sheesh. Had it really been only five days since they were together? She yanked her hand down to her lap. Except that wouldn’t combat the irresistible lure of Knox’s skin. So Madison picked up her plate. Picked up her beer. And vowed not to put either down until he moved out of reach.