Chapter 5—Madison

What the hell had I been thinking? Was I really going to let Craig and Steven have their way with me tonight? Oh God. Panic set in. I grabbed the sink and tried not to hyperventilate. They were both sitting on my couch, in my living room, waiting for me. The three glasses of wine I’d drunk before they arrived had done nothing to ease my nerves. Pull it together, girl. You wanted this. Go get it. I nodded at my reflection, took a deep breath, and walked out of the bathroom.

“Drink?” Steven said, holding out a glass of wine.

I took it and sipped. My hand shook, and the wine spilled over the side of the glass and down my fingers. Steven took the glass from me and set it on the small table in the hall that held a vase of silk flowers. He took my hand into his and brought my finger to his lips, his tongue circling around my fingertip before taking it fully into his mouth, sucking the wine from my finger.

“Mmm,” he said, keeping his gaze locked with mine.

Holy friggin’ erotic. I let out a deep throaty moan that would make a porn star jealous. If I didn’t sit soon, I was going to collapse. My knees wobbled, and I suddenly felt very dizzy.

“You don’t have to do this, Madison,” he said, his voice low. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

“No, I want to do this.” For being a smart woman, I was being a total idiot. I didn’t want to do this. I mean, I wanted to do this with Steven, but not with Craig here. And definitely not with both of them together. Good God, why had I ever thought this was a good idea? Was I really that desperate to be with Steven that I’d do something so impulsive?

His eyes searched my face, and he threaded his fingers through mine. “Let’s go then.”

I let Steven lead me to my bedroom where Craig was lying on my bed, shirtless and smiling. Craig patted a spot on the bed next to him. Bile rose in my throat. I can do this. I sat on the edge of the bed. Okay, this isn’t so bad. Craig kneeled behind me, his hands caressed my back and shoulders. I tensed when he gathered my hair to the side and kissed the nape of my neck.

“You smell delicious,” Craig said.

“Thank you,” I mumbled, not knowing what the etiquette was for verbal play during a threesome.

Steven kneeled in front of me, his palms on my knees, slowly inching their way up my thighs, his thumbs grazing under the hem of my nightie. His touch was like lava, leaving a blazing trail of destruction in its wake. The closer he got to my panties, the more anxious I became. I put my hands over his, stopping his slow ascent up my legs, and his gaze locked with mine. He cocked a dark brow at me as if to say, “I told you not to do this.”

My cell phone rang, and I jumped up as if someone had shoved a cactus under my ass. “I have to get that,” I said, running from the room. “Hello?” I slipped out the back door and stood on the porch, letting the cool ocean air wash away the ickiness that lingered on my skin.

“Hey, Madison. Vanessa and I were wondering if you wanted to come over and hang out with us. Travis and Connor went to the mainland for a few days,” Jessica said.

Yes! I’d give anything to be there right now. “Sorry, Jess. I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

“What could you be in the middle of that can’t wait?”

I groaned. “Steven and Craig.”

I scrunched up my face at the sound of her high-pitched, “What?”

“Now’s really not a good time.”

“Tomorrow night is girls’ night, Madison. No excuses. And I expect an explanation along with some details,” she said.

“Okay fine,” I said, ending the call before she could say anything else. It took every ounce of willpower and then some to get my feet moving again. At this rate, there wasn’t going to be anything to tell her.

“Everything okay?” Steven asked from where he sat on the foot of the bed. I’d never heard so much concern in his voice before, and it gave me pause.

I nodded. “Where’s Craig?”

“He left.”

“Why?”

“I told him to,” he said, standing.

Silently, I thanked the Lord my self-induced nightmare was over, but I wasn’t going to let Steven know that. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I didn’t want him here, and neither did you.”

So what if that was true? “That wasn’t your decision to make. And if I hadn’t wanted him here, I wouldn’t have invited him.”

“You’re not ready for this,” Steven said, shaking his head with a certainty I couldn’t dispute.

“And how the hell do you know what I’m ready for?” I tried to make my voice firm and angry, but I failed miserably.

He took a few steps toward me, and I froze. Not because I was scared, but because I liked the feel of him so close to me.

“I felt the way you tensed when we both had our hands on you, Madison. You were scared.”

My heart rate spiked, and my breathing became shallow. “I wasn’t scared, Steven. Nervous, yes, but not scared. I think I have the right to be a little nervous. Unlike you, this is my first time doing anything like this.” That was a low blow, and I knew it.

He laughed. “A little nervous? You couldn’t get out of this room fast enough. What would you have done had I kissed you like I was ready to do?”

Ohmigod! Steven was going to kiss me? Not the point right now. “Had you been any good at it, I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed it.” Score one for me.

His already dark eyes darkened even more. “And when Craig slipped the straps of your nightie off your shoulders?”

My throat constricted, making it impossible for me to swallow. He had me on that one. I still wasn’t ready to concede defeat yet. “You had no right to ruin this for me.” He looked down, one hand on his hip, the other pinching his nose, and he blew out a breath. “What do you have to be annoyed about?”

“What?” he said, releasing his nose and meeting my stare.

“You do that when you’re annoyed,” I said, waving my hand up and down in front of him. “I’m the one who should be annoyed. Not you.”

“I’m annoyed because I did you a favor and instead of getting a thank you, you’re giving me grief.”

I laughed. “You did me a favor?”

“Someone had to stop this train wreck from happening. I know damn well Craig had no intentions of stopping it, and God only knows what the hell you were thinking,” he snapped.

There were so many things wrong with what he’d just said, and I didn’t know where to begin. “Train wreck?” I said evenly, refusing to let the hurt ripping me apart show in my voice. “If that’s how you felt about doing this with me, then why did you even bother showing up?”

We stood in silence for several moments. His expression was unreadable. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Had I called him out on the truth? Did he really dislike me that much that he couldn’t bring himself to have one night of meaningless sex with me? I couldn’t take anymore. “I think you should leave,” I said.

Without a word, he walked by me and headed to the door. He grabbed the knob, swung the door open, and then slammed it shut. “No,” he said, turning to face me.

The look in his eyes was feral, beyond intense, a cocktail of emotions that I couldn’t begin to name. “I want you to leave,” I repeated.

“None of this makes any sense to me, Madison. This person you’re pretending to be right now, it’s not you, and we both know it. Kinky sex games aren’t your style.”

“And how would you know what my style is?” Even to me it sounded like a petulant question. But Steven had never bothered to take notice of me, so how he could possibly know that?

“You’ve been working here for almost six months, and you haven’t shown the slightest interest in taking a lover. No one-night stands, no casual sex, nothing.”

I should be freaked out he’d paid that much attention to my lack of a sex life, but I wasn’t because him knowing all that meant he’d cared. “Maybe I’m just a little more discreet about it than you are.” Total lie.

“Maybe, but I doubt it.” His nostrils flared—the telltale sign that he was angry. He popped a piece of candy in his mouth and stood in front of me. He ran the pad of his thumb across my bottom lip, his eyes focused intensely on my mouth. “You would’ve enjoyed the hell out of my kiss.”

“Prove it,” I said, before I had time to stop myself.

His gaze met mine, and I prayed for him to kiss me. Instead, he backed away and reached for the door again. Dammit. I wanted to scream at him and throw a tantrum, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, so I let him walk out of my bungalow without another word.