Bring on the Rain (22 page)

She was scared. He realized,
afraid.

“
Maybe I don’t want that
back, Mitch. I don't know if I ever want to feel that much, for
anyone again.”

Mitch sighed heavy and slid down off
the table, walking over to gaze down at her, hands tucked in his
pockets. “Don’t you get tired of playing by those Diamond Back
rules? I got tired of Dovie's real quick. Here we are, all grown up
and can make our own. Let’s screw, Madeline.”

She blinked, her face a little red. “I
think—I must have heard you wrong.”

“
You didn’t.” Mitch stepped
close. To others watching it would appear they were talking.
However, he was holding her shocked gaze with eyes full of meaning
when he murmured, “Let’s get laid.”

“
Ah—”

“
Not right now.” He laughed
at her expression. “—Tonight. In the morning, real soon, the sooner
the better.”

She was speechless.

Mitch let his gaze roam over her.
“When’s the last time for you?”

She glared at him.

Mitch thought on it. “Jesus. You can’t
tell me you’ve been. You ain’t…I mean...”

Madeline snapped, “I’m not having this
conversation.”

Mitch was dumb struck. He could see it
had been since her divorce, maybe even long before. For some reason
though, it made him twice as hungry for her. “Oh baby, Madeline I—
Hell, I know I was your first but—“He grinned. ”It’d be like again,
wouldn’t it? I’d be thinking like I did then, wanting to do
everything right, and do it all wrong.”

Their first time had been nerve racking
for them both…

She laughed. “Nothing would have been
right the first time. I was scared to death. A pretty awful first
time in the front seat of your old truck.”

Mitch smiled tenderly with memories and
said, “So was I.”

They gazed at each other a moment. He
could tell the tension was reaching her too.

The talking about it, his mentioning
and offering, they were both aroused by it. Afterward he said
deeply with hunger gnawing at him, “I would have slept with you
anytime. You could have called me. I’d have been there so fast the
tires would be smoking.”

Still smiling Madeline shook her head
scolding him.

He stepped closer, whispered near her
ear, “What kind of a deal do I have to make, to get some of
you?”

“
Mitch.”

“
I mean it. No strings? Is
that it? If I promise not to tell you I love you again?”

“
You don't. You don't know
me.”

“
Hell I…I... Tell me, what
can I do? I would rather be having sex with you and nothing else,
if’ that's the deal. The way it is, I have to talk up to doing it
on occasion, with someone I don't care a damn for. And I do mean
rare occasion.” He let his best bass voice rumble, “I’d give it to
you, like you want it, anything.”

Madeline tried to laugh, “Jesus,
Mitch…we’re at a funeral here.”

Dryly he reminded her, “Neither one of
us are dead.”

“
This is not a real
conversation we’re having.”

Mitch thought he had gone too far but
said, “You’re leaving now, huh? I’ll walk you to your car and have
this conversation in Jude’s yard, how's that?”

She bit her lip and glanced away and
then back to him…

He could sense a struggle in her.
Madeline was flushing but her violet eyes were glowing, a pulse
racing at her throat.

“
Could I turn you on?” His
tone changed, he was serious now, no joking. “Do you think, if I
was kissing you right now, tasting you? You’d get
aroused?”

She nodded, slowly,
reluctantly.

Intimately he gazed into her eyes, and
intimately he said, “Let me come and pick you up tonight, bring you
here to Copper Creek where you can do what you feel and no one else
has to know but us.”

“
I’ve got Brook-”

“
While she’s at school
tomorrow?”

“
I’ve got to
work.”

Mitch murmured, “Ride up the road with
me, right now. One time, then you can leave, I’ll come back here.
No one the wiser.”

~*~

Madeline was tempted, very tempted. It
had been years for her, and before that, years of long in-betweens,
of bad sex with Bud. So detached she had no real memory of it, no
emotion about it. Madeline said without any real thought, “I’m not
young anymore. I’ve had ch…. A child. I don't even know if I
can—”

Mitch obviously thought Madeline was
teasing. “I’m not a kid either. But hell, you can’t think some
stretch marks and few pounds has anything to do with—" He looked at
her. ”You do? I can see that.” Mitch shook his head as if trying to
find the right words. “I’m a man now. I want a woman, not a
girl.”

That was a good start, but she
admitted, “I’m not vain. I’m scared too. I resent the fact you’re
making me admit this, but I’m probably not comfortable with my
sexuality anymore.” Well shit, she had just told him everything
today, hadn’t she?

His droll tone caught her attention,
“How do you know? You haven’t been laid in years.”

She gaped at him, “If we weren’t here,
I’d hit you for that.”

Mitch grinned knowing Madeline was
close to laughing. “I’ve never picked up a woman at a funeral
before.”

She shook her head, unable to believe
the conversation and then tried to bring some sanity, some reality
back to them. “You’re the oldest, you have to stay here. I'm going
home after I see what Brook’s plans are.”

“
You wanted me though,” he
accused when Madeline was obviously ready to walk away.

She grit her teeth. However, Madeline
could not resist saying, “How would you know? It’s probably because
I haven't been laid in years.” She did walk off, hearing his deep
laughter behind her.

Chapter 13

“
Coy will bring me home.
I’ll see you around nine?” Brook assured her before Madeline left
the farmhouse.

Having finally found her after Coy had
brought Brook in the back door. They met in a spare room, where
some of the family members had left their instruments. “All right.
Be good.” She kissed Brook’s cheek. Madeline spoke to Coy,
reminding him Brook had school the next day.

Why wasn’t she surprised to find Mitch,
standing beside her Bronco?

Before he could detain her, tempt her,
however, Madeline got in and closed the door.

He leaned in, very close. “Kiss me.
Come here.”

Madeline found her head cupped by his
hand nudging her forward, and in seconds, their mouths collided. It
was not a soft peck. Open mouths and balmy tongues, that’s how it
happened. He slanted his head, held hers, and made the most of the
opportunity by laving all the inside he could stroke. He did it
graphically, and sexually. He had always been a good
kisser.

Madeline kissed him back, how could she
not? He tasted good, minty, and warm. Her body tingled all over. It
flared red-hot before it seemed to turn into one throbbing mass of
need.

His thumb got close to the corner of
her mouth, and he employed it into the play.

Madeline moaned. Her tongue brushed his
thumb. Her hands gripping the wheel hard.

Mitch pulled back, raking her lips and
sucking at the bottom one. He took her mouth. That’s how it felt,
like the sex he’d offered to her body. Mitch drew it from her and
with his lips, sliding them down her tongue, giving her his,
stroked over the top of the pink velvet muscle in the secret warmth
of their mouths.

Mitch did erotic things in that little
pocket of lips on lips until Madeline was panting through her nose,
shaking and likely glassy-eyed when he pulled back. Their mouths
were wet, a bit swollen. His pupils were dilated, lashes low and
breathing choppy.

Mitch licked the flavor of her slowly
from his mouth. Madeline knew it. He knew it.

Eventually he husked, “You’ll have to
sit here and talk to me a moment, I can’t move yet.” He muttered
smiling, “I go over there with this hard on— Eula Mae Short will
need more than a new pace maker.”

“
Mitch.” Madeline closed her
eyes a moment leaning her back and smiling helplessly. “Damn, Oh,
damn.” She could feel herself wet and ready. There was a
contracting need there that ached. Everything they had done with
their mouths was telling.

Mitch chuckled, except it was part
groan. “I’m about five seconds from crawling in there and
begging.”

Madeline raised her head and opened her
eyes. She was close to giving in too. She watched him look around
and try to relax. Watched his breathing decelerate, and his eyes
turn from glittering baby blue to calm.

Her hands were trembling, her nipples
aching. For the first time in forever, Madeline felt alive. She
might not admit it yet, but ever since he’d started flirting she’d
felt more aware of herself, more a woman than she had in years.
With her sexuality dormant, she’d felt old sometimes before her
time. She just felt…excited right now.

“
Okay." He stepped back.
“Drive careful. I’ll see you soon.”

Madeline nodded, turned the key, and
was putting the car in gear with a trembling hand. She scarcely
recalled the drive home. She was in a daze half way
there.

~*~

At home, Madeline changed out of her
suit and into shorts and T-shirt. She decided to call Gee Gee and
tell her about Dovie, about the legacy. She needed help, because
she was dangerously close to having an affair, and she wouldn’t be
able, if she did, to make a calm decision. Aunt Gee Gee would help
her think clearly.

Madeline sat in the living room and
punched in the number, feet curled upon the sofa as she looked out
the window to the wooded lot.

“
Hello?”

“
Hi, Aunt Gee
Gee.”

“
Madeline, you’ve never
called me this often. What’s wrong?”

“
Same stuff. Can you talk or
are you busy?”

“
I can talk. I got
everything at the office packed up today, and have been sitting
here debating between a cruise and a month in Paris.”

“
Jeez, decisions
decisions.”

Gee Gee laughed. “Yes it’s tough. Max
brought us brochures and has agreed to check on the house. I am
leaning toward Paris. I figured if I could get your uncle there,
Kentucky might end up being a vacation spot.”

“
You love it there.
“

“
I do, but I want to see the
world before I’m too old to enjoy the adventure.”

“
I agree, why don't you do a
slow tour of Europe, instead of a cruise? Maybe by train or car,
think of all the little inns and cottages and lovely
villas.”

“
We think alike, you, and
I.”

Madeline sighed. “I hope so, because I
need your help.”

“
Absolutely
anything.”

She told her about Dovie’s, the legacy,
about the whole deal with Mitch. How Jude set off the events by
coming to see her.

Gee Gee listened without comment at
first, and then admitted, “I’ve always wanted to tell Max. Simply
because he should know the people who birthed him. He should know
how difficult it was for you to let us adopt him. He is southern,
fascinated by his roots. I think part of it is seeking in him,
wondering, trying to connect. It’s only natural.”

“
I know, but who do I tell
first? Brook? Jason? Mitch? Everyone is not going to throw a big
party over it. It’s not the kind of secret people take well.
Honestly, I am petrified. Max might hate me, think I was slut, or I
deprived him of something—”

“
He’s a surprisingly mature
young man, always has been. He’s gone to the finest schools and has
loads of friends, he’s traveled and had the best, though Max, as I
say, is a Kentucky boy at heart, he’s not judgmental.”

“
I’m scared of
him.”

“
You mean, your heart is,
right?”

“
Yes.” Boy, was it. She was
terrified he’d hate her…

“
Madeline, in his apartment
upstairs, he blew up a bunch of pictures last year, taken at your
house and around there. I was up there looking, at this complicated
computer thing he bought and I saw them. One is of you barefoot, in
denim shorts and an old ragged T-shirt and do you know what you
were doing?”

No, she could hardly recall him taking
pictures. She was too excited he was here at all.

Gee Gee reminded her, “We’d been out on
the porch having coffee, and Max was sitting on the banister
watching Brook rifle though his car, trying to get her to drive it.
You went down the steps like a shot. Ran out to the road because
one of the neighborhood boys got in a bee’s nest and was crying.
You completely forgot us, and the cake in the oven.