That Night with You (26 page)

As Madison watched him care for her, a
deep fondness for him began to pervade her heart. She hesitated in
thinking it could be love, but what they had just shared made her
feel closer to him. Somehow more connected, as if she were truly
his.

“
Why did you do
that?”

“
Do what? Handcuff you?” he
inquired, placing her hand against her chest. “You brought the
handcuffs, Madison.”

“
Not the handcuffs. Ask me
to say those things? Why did you need to hear me say that?” She
rolled over to her side. “It was almost as if you weren’t going to
be satisfied until you got what you wanted out of me.”

“
I wasn’t. I didn’t need to
hear you say you wanted me like that, Madison. You needed to say
it.” He rested back against the bed. “You’ve been almost like a
spectator when we have sex. There, but not quite there, emotionally
anyway. Tonight, you were there, and you wanted me.”

“
So handcuffing me to the
bed and torturing me with a vibrator was your way of getting me to
actively participate?” She let out a long sigh. “You have a hell of
a way with women.”

His arms came around her. “Did you
like it?”

“
What does that make me if
I say I did like it?”

“
A woman who knows what she
likes.” He kissed her cheek. “And you don’t need any more
invitations to come over.”

“
Is that what this was
about?” Madison sat up in the bed. “You wanted to show me that I’m
welcome here?”

“
I wanted you to feel
comfortable with me and to open up to me. You’re mine now, remember
that.”

Madison had heard girls talk about
that moment when a man wanted to commit to them; to turn dating
into a relationship and a possible future. Everyone had made it
sound exciting, filled with emotion and words of love. As she
searched his face, Madison saw none of that. She preferred this
declaration to any other. It was honest, and instead of hiding his
true nature behind romance novel-like words, he had given her his
raw desire; she, in turn, had given him her devotion.

She settled in next him. “I guess I’ll
just knock on your door, naked and waving a pair of handcuffs in
the future.”

“
I have a very clear mental
image of that.”

“
So will your
neighbors.”

He began stroking her hair.
“75336.”

“
What’s that?”

“
The code. You can punch it
into the keypads I have set up beside the front door or the rear
door to the garage. Enter the code and the security will turn off.
Then the door will pop open. When you leave, shut the door and type
in the code again. That way the security will turn back on.” His
hand glided up and down her back. “See how simple it
is?”

She sat up on her elbow, eyeing his
face. “Am I supposed to give you a spare key to my
place?”

He pulled her back to him. “I don’t
think we’ll be sleeping at your place. Mrs. Leder might show up
with whips and chains if I stay there.”

“
You never know with Mrs.
Leder.”

Sighing into him, Madison closed her
eyes as an unfamiliar calm came over her. Never before had she felt
so comfortable with a man. She wasn’t second-guessing herself,
wondering what he was thinking, or having that emotional turmoil
clouding her thoughts. There was just peace. She wasn’t sure if it
was the exertion of the day, or the secure feeling of his arms
about her, but within seconds, Madison fell blissfully
asleep.

Chapter 13

The sound of a man’s raised voice woke
Madison from a dream of unicorns and green forests. Brushing aside
the sleep from her eyes, she strained to get a clearer impression
of the voice that she had heard. Sitting up in the king-sized bed,
she listened for anything coming through the open bedroom
door.

“
Dammit, Ellen, I don’t
need this shit from you right now. So what if I have someone here?”
Hayden’s voice was brimming with anger. “You sent that little kiss
ass to my office to keep an eye on me, didn’t you? I told you
before if he pulled anything I would—”

Madison sat up in the bed. Spying
Hayden’s shirt on the floor, she reached for it.

“
Don’t give me that crap,”
his voice was back. “You and I both know that you only want him
to—”

Shrugging into his shirt, Madison
snuck across the bedroom floor to the open door.

“
Bullshit!” Hayden
yelled.

She could hear his voice coming from a
room across the narrow white hallway, where a thick oak door was
partially ajar.

“
I’ll call Marc Collins and
tell him what you’ve been up to. See if that helps your case any,”
Hayden shouted. “You can have the damned house, I told you. I just
want—”

Madison crept out into the hallway,
closer to the half-open door. Hoping not to be seen, she was just
about to peek around the edge of the thick door when his voice rang
out.

“
Go to hell, Ellen, and
don’t call me again. Anything you want to say, send it to Marc.”
Then there was silence.

Madison did not know if she should
forge ahead into the room to offer comfort, or sneak back to bed
and pretend that she hadn’t heard a thing. She was about to opt for
a hasty retreat when his feet came bounding toward her.

The door flew open, and Madison almost
fell backwards; his tall figure was looming over her. Wearing only
his briefs, his bare muscular chest and ripped abdomen appeared
even more imposing than the previous night.

“
What are you doing?”
Hayden snapped, and grabbed her arm.

Terrified of what he was thinking, she
tugged at his hand, wanting to get away. “I heard you shouting. It
woke me up.” Again, she pulled at his grip. “I thought something
was wrong.”

His lips slammed together, and when he
let her go, Madison quickly took a few steps back from him. He held
up his hands, trying to allay her fear.

“
It’s all right.” He
glanced back into the room and ran his hand over his face. “I was
yelling at my ex-wife. It seems one of my neighbors called her and
told her I had a woman over. That set her off.”

Relief pulsed through her. For a
moment, she thought he would be angry with her for spying on him.
Madison rubbed her hand over her right wrist and winced slightly
when she found it tender.

He gently inspected her wrist. “You’re
bruised.” He noted the thin bracelet line of bruising around her
right wrist, and then checked her left one. The same light pattern
of bruising covered that wrist, too.

“
This is why I hate
handcuffs.” He turned her toward the hallway.

“
You’ve used them before?”
she asked, being ushered into the bedroom.

He went to the adjoining bathroom.
“Yes,” he called over his shoulder. “Many times.”

She followed him into the bathroom.
“With who?” came out faster than she could stifle it.

He was standing next to his double
vanity, staring into a medicine cabinet behind the large mirror.
“Are you asking about the women I’ve slept with?” He never took his
eyes away from the cabinet. “Would you like to hear about
them?”

Madison was not sure what to say.
Hearing about his other women would only make her feel more
inexperienced, but her curiosity was winning out against her
reservations. Folding her arms across her chest, she boldly leaned
against the countertop.

“
Okay. Tell me about
them.”

He smiled like a proud teacher with an
apt pupil. “My last lover was named Danielle. She worked as an
investment banker. We met at a party and came back here. She was
too aggressive in bed for me. She liked to bite and scratch a lot.
It only lasted a few nights.”

Madison shifted on her feet, a little
uncomfortable with the topic, but determined to go on. “Before
her?”

“
Lydia. She was a night
clerk at a grocery store. One night when I was shopping, she came
on to me…then she took me into the stock room and gave me a blow
job. The next night I went back, brought her in the stock room, and
fucked her from behind. She was pretty, but very dull. I don’t shop
at that store anymore.”

Madison blushed as a picture of Hayden
and Lydia in a stock room came to mind. “The next one?”

He inched up to her, placing his arm
about her waist. “Before Lydia there was Eve. She was into a lot of
kinky things and very fun. She liked to be tied up and spanked. Eve
got off on practically being raped. Real rough sex.” He dropped his
head into her neck, smelling her skin. “It turned me on at first,
but after a while I discovered there was no challenge in
that.”

“
Challenge?” Madison’s butt
hit the cold countertop.

His arms pinned her to the vanity. “No
control.”

Cocking her head to the side, she
considered his words. “Why do you like being in
control?”

“
It’s the way I’ve always
liked it. When I first started having sex I was sixteen. I always
felt something was lacking. In college, I met Garrett. He belonged
to this fraternity…a fraternity of men who liked being in control.
There I learned a great deal about sexual preferences and
women.”

“
What exactly did you do in
this fraternity?”

He rubbed his hips against hers. “I
can tell you, or I can show you.”

She stared assertively into his eyes,
letting her lips hover in front of his. “Show me.”

He easily lifted her onto the vanity,
and ran his hands along her inner thighs, spreading her legs apart.
“I want you to allow me to take control of your pleasure.” His
fingers tempted her delicate folds. “Only your
pleasure.”

She sucked in a delighted breath. “I
think you’ve already done that.” She opened her legs wider for
him.

“
Not quite, but I’m getting
there.” His hands gripped her hips, pulling her to the edge of the
countertop. He kneeled on the floor and began kissing her inner
right thigh, his lips ascending slowly to the junction between her
legs.

She flushed when his mouth settled
over her sensitive spot, almost crying out loud when he began
sucking mercilessly on her. As she was writhing on the countertop,
he positioned her legs over his shoulders, tilting her backwards.
Her hands combed through his dark brown hair, pulling hard as he
bit her flesh.

“
Yes,” she
cried.

The swirling of his tongue sent her
crashing into the vanity mirror, knocking her head against the
glass, but she didn’t feel anything. Her mind was too overcome by
the roaring of her blood, the burning in between her legs, and the
slow, deliberate ache rising from her gut. She wanted him to hurry,
to make her scream with release, but just as she was about to tip
over that cliff of unrelenting abandon, he pulled away.

The disappointment in her body was
cataclysmic and she almost crashed to the floor when he stood up,
removing his support from her legs.

“
What is it?” she gasped,
gaping into his face.

The smirk on his lips immediately told
her of his intentions. He had meant to leave her aching for him,
wanting her to beg for more. She sat up, feeling utterly
dejected.

“
What do you want,
Hayden?”

He leaned over the counter, trapping
her between his strong arms. His face hovered in front of her. “I
need you to submit to me.”

Shaking her head, Madison sighed. “I
thought I was already doing that.”

“
Submission means giving
yourself to me without question. In order to do that, you must
trust me.” He stood back from the vanity, keeping his sizzling eyes
on her. “Get on the floor.”

At this point Madison wasn’t sure what
to expect, but she also wasn’t afraid, which intrigued her. Last
night she had been apprehensive about his games, today she was just
getting frustrated. Climbing from the vanity, she stood before him.
“Just get on the floor?”

He eased his shirt from around her
body and tossed it to the vanity. “This is going to be a lesson in
trust. Get down on all fours.”

The Madison Barnett she had been
before meeting him would have probably bolted straight for the
front door, but she knew herself a little better now, and figured
no matter what he did, eventually she would enjoy it. With one last
impertinent side-glance, she assumed her position on the cool,
white tiled floor.

He stood over her. “I like that you
didn’t debate with me.”

“
I didn’t see the
point.”

He kneeled behind her. “You’re
beginning to understand.” His fingers rubbed up and down her wet
folds, causing her to arch her back. “To take control of your
pleasure, you must submit to my desire.”

His words registered in her head, but
when his fingers fondled her nub, she forgot all thoughts. The
aching began again in her gut, and the harder he stroked her, the
faster her hips moved against his hand.

“
If I decide to withhold
your pleasure….” He removed his hand. “You will accept
it.”