“Tell me,” he ordered, voice low and gravely. “How many boys have you let touch you?”
Part of her bristled at his demand, but the other incredibly stupid part was thrilled that he cared. “I’ve never been with boys, Chase.”
Anger and something far more potent flared in his blue eyes. “Oh, so that’s how it is.”
“Whatever it is, it’s none of your business.”
He chuckled deeply. The movement brought his lips close to her cheek. “It’s my business.”
“Explain that faulty logic to me,” she said.
Chase smiled. “You’re my best friend’s little sister. That makes it my business—all my business.”
And that was the wrong thing to say. Fire of a different kind now pulsed through her. “Get away.” She started to push off the wall, but Chase leaned in, his chest flush with hers. Her body went haywire. Anger. Lust. Hope. Love. Fear. All her emotions tangled together. “Chase…”
He said nothing, and all she could now concentrate on was the feel of his rock-hard chest pressed against her breasts. The thin cotton of his shirt and her blouse were no match for the heat that rolled off him or the heat building inside her. Her nipples hardened to aching, wanton pearls, and she dragged in a deep breath, biting back a moan.
His lips parted.
There was no hiding her reaction, not from a man like Chase who knew every flavor of woman. And she wanted to be his flavor—his favorite. A tight coil wound deep inside her.
She was panting now, and he hadn’t even really touched her. She tried to disconnect from her out-of-control hormones, going as far as thinking about the DC Metro, and still, her body was turning on her.
His breath hitched and then he scowled at her, even as he pressed his forehead against hers. Her lashes fluttered shut and she grew very still, barely daring to breathe as his breath danced over her brow, down her temple, and across her cheeks.
His lips hovered over hers.
“No,” he snarled.
Madison wasn’t sure to whom he was talking, but then his mouth was crushing hers, and her world became him—the touch and feel of his lips pressing down, forcing hers to respond. It wasn’t a gentle kiss or a sweet exploration. It was angry and raw, breathtaking and soul burning. Right now, she didn’t want gentle. She wanted hard and fast, him and her, on the floor, even the bear rug, both of them naked and sweating.
His tongue was a moist, hot demand inside her mouth, parrying with hers until he took complete control and flicked the tip of his tongue over the roof of her mouth. There was a delicious possessiveness in the way he kissed her, as if he were staking his claim at the same time he was burning away the memories of anyone else for her. And he did. In an instant, there was nobody but him.
One hand came off the wall and his palm splayed flat against her cheek, glided down the arch of her neck. He held her there, so gently and at odds with the fierceness of his kiss. This was how she always wanted Chase, how she always dreamed it would be, and how she had once had such a brief, divine taste. She moaned, melting into him. Between her thighs, she ached for him. Her body—
Chase jerked back, and her eyes snapped open, her chest rising and falling raggedly. He stared at her…stared at her like she had done something terribly wrong. And he…he had kissed her.
Walking backward, Chase shook his head, his hands clenching at his sides. “That…that didn’t happen.”
She blinked over the wrenching pull in her chest. “But…it did.”
His striking face went impassively indifferent, and it felt like Madison had been punched in the gut. “No. No,” he said. “It didn’t.”
And with that, he spun around and stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind him.
Madison blinked slowly. Oh, hell to the no, he did not just storm out of there like a drama queen. She was going to find him and then castrate him.
She winced.
Okay, maybe not that extreme, but she’d be damned if she let him kiss her like that and then run.
…
Madison was well on her way to getting drunk.
Not fall-on-your-face or strip-off-your-clothes drunk, although without all the family around that might have sounded fun, but there was definitely a wine-induced headache in her near future.
Sitting on a bench along the sprawling deck outside the main lodge, she inhaled the scent of mountain air and grapes. Members of her family and Lissa’s chattered around her. The low hum of conversation would’ve normally been soothing as she was a lover of all sorts of background noise, but right now, she wanted to slide through the narrow spaces in the wooden rail around the deck and fade into the night. Taking another long sip, she gazed out over the lawn. Paper lanterns hung from the poles spaced along the pebbled pathway, casting a faint light across the grounds.