Dangerous Grounds (15 page)

She lost the ability to respond as he pinched her clitoris and began stroking it. Her head started to roll back onto the float, but she caught herself just in time.
Try to appear normal in case the couple on the beach is watching
.

The last thought made another pang of arousal shoot between her legs. Her heart pounded faster. She liked it. The thought of being watched.

She lowered one of her hands under the water and delved into Gabe’s boxers to find his erection.

“You’re so hard.” She encircled his width with her hand, and moved her palm up and down the length of him.

“I don’t need a reminder,
mi vida
.” He groaned and removed his hand from her bikini to push his boxers down to his knees. “I can’t wait anymore.”

“I’m not asking you to.” She clenched her inner muscles around the fingers that were working inside her.

He reached down and untied one side of her bikini bottoms, pushing it aside and leaving open the cleft that he sought. Slowly, with her legs still wrapped around him, he pushed into her.

Madison inhaled sharply at the increasing pressure. This time her head did fall back and she didn’t give a damn.

Gabe moved slow and deliberately, seeming careful not to disturb the water around them too much. When he had embedded himself to the hilt, he began to withdraw and press right back in.

“You’re amazing.” She lifted her head and met his steady gaze.

“So are you,
mi vida
. Not to mention you’re my fantasy come to life.” He rocked his hips just a bit, causing him to wedge near her cervix. Madison clenched her muscles around him and his breath hissed out.

“Keep doing that and I’m not going to last much longer.”

She squeezed again, pleased at the power that she had over him right now. “That’s all right. You’ll just have to go another round tonight then.”

He withdrew again, moving his hips in a way that he hit a spot in her, making her suddenly buck on him.

“Good spot?” He grinned.

“Is that what the G stands for?” She gasped, and he rewarded her again by stroking that sensitive area. This time her body clenched on its own accord and the orgasm that ripped through her body took her by surprise. Pleasure spiraled through her, lights flashed behind her closed eyes.

“I guess so,” he answered and increased the pace of his steady thrusting. She still lay weak when he came a moment later.

Her gaze drifted to the beach with mild guilt. Relief took its place when she saw the couple deep in conversation with each other, oblivious to what was going on. Well, she hoped they were oblivious.

She unwrapped her legs from Gabe’s waist and fumbled to tie her bikini back in place.

“Here, let me.” He disappeared under the water and a moment later she felt him lightly bite her inner thighs.

Before she could even acknowledge it, he stopped and turned all business, tying her back into place. He emerged a second later.

“Want me to help you with yours?” she offered with a grin, but he stopped her before she could submerge beneath the water.

“I already took care of it.”

His tone had cooled considerably, and Madison gave him a closer look. He wouldn’t even meet her gaze.

“We should get out and head back.” He ducked out from the center of the tube. “We have a long hike ahead of us.”

Madison blinked, feeling abandoned as she tread water alone in the center of the tube. “I thought we were going to have a picnic.”

“Right.” He glanced toward the shore. “We can if you want, I just have some things—”

“No, never mind.” She abandoned the tube and swam toward the shore, eager now to get away from him and whatever had soured his mood.

She reached the shore just a few seconds before he did. But soon he’d passed her in his haste to get dressed and pack things up to get ready to go. The other couple waved goodbye as Gabe and Madison headed back onto the trail.

They made the hike back down the beach in silence. Madison made sure to stay at least a couple of feet behind him. She wanted to be as far away from his short fuse as possible.

What happened? She kicked loose rocks into the Sound every now and then as she analyzed the time from arriving at the lake until the point they left. She came up with nothing.

When they reached the bottom of the cliff they needed to climb to get back to the cabin, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“What’s your problem, Gabe?” she blurted. “What the hell happened? Was it something I did?”

He didn’t answer, just began making his way up the rocky incline.

“You don’t think I deserve an answer?” she shouted, hurrying to catch up to him so he couldn’t ignore her. “You’re being a freaking—shit!”

She lost her footing and fell, sliding back down the few feet she’d just climbed. She reached out to halt the unwanted descent and managed to stop herself. Not without the price of tiny rocks cutting into her palm, though.

Tears filled her eyes, more so from the frustration with Gabe than the pain. She made no move to get up, but he was already backtracking to get to her.

“Damn.” He reached down to help her up. “Are you okay?”

“What, like you care all of a sudden?” she snapped, willing the tears in her eyes to go away.

He took her wrists in a gentle grip and turned them over so he could examine her palms.

“You’re bleeding.”

“It’s just a scratch.” She tried to pull her hands back, but he held fast.

“Here, let me rinse the dirt off.” He pulled off his backpack and took a bottle of water out of the side compartment. After unscrewing the cap he doused her minor wounds with the water. “I’m sorry, Maddie.”

Relief that he had apologized made the tension leave her shoulders and she just nodded instead of answering. She watched the dirt rinse away from her hands, leaving only the tiny red cuts.

Gabe screwed the cap back onto the bottle and sat beside her. For a moment neither of them said anything. He turned to look at her and picked up one of her hands.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” she asked softly. “Why you shut down on me?”

Gabe hesitated and then sighed. “We got a little carried away back at the lake. We weren’t thinking.” When she looked at him with no sign of understanding, he spelled it out for her. “We didn’t use protection, Maddie. I realized it when I pulled my boxers back up in the water.”

His words finally registered, and panic surged through her. She always used protection during sex, knew the risks involved. No wonder he’d closed her off, Gabe had probably been in panic mode too. How could they have been so stupid?

She couldn’t look at him, and turned instead to glance out over the water.

“Maddie?”

“I heard you.” Her voice shook. “I don’t really know what to say. Except we screwed up.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “Why don’t we get back to the cabin?”

She nodded and stood.

The rest of the hike was again spent in silence, but this time Madison had no desire to break it.

Chapter Thirteen

Gabe volunteered to cook dinner, not ready to take on another one of Madison’s adventurous meals. She lay down on the couch in the living room, saying she’d wanted to try to get a nap in.

He watched her over the counter in the kitchen as he threw something together for them to eat. She seemed tired and stressed.
And it’s all my damned fault
.

She shouldn’t have to worry about this, too. The unprotected sex slip up. Not with everything else on her mind. Playing out his sexual fantasy on the lake hadn’t been an impulse move. He’d planned the whole thing. He’d even remembered to secure a condom in the waistband of his boxers. Things had just happened so fast, had gotten so hot and so out of control.

Damn. What if she got pregnant? The thought had gone through his head only about two hundred times in the last couple of hours. He knew what he would do, what his aunt would have wanted him to do. So why didn’t the idea horrify him more?

“You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?”

Gabe just about dropped the pot of spaghetti he was in the process of draining and glanced back at her.

“Yeah. Are you?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t sit up, so he couldn’t see her face.

Her voice sounded flat when she went on, “I just want you to know that I’m clean. I was tested about a month ago for everything during a routine physical. You don’t have to worry about that part.”

“Same on my end,” he replied. “But that’s not what’s really worrying me. Are you on birth control?”

“No,” she replied after a moment. “I stopped taking the Pill because Bradley and I stopped having sex.”

The thought of her ex touching her sent a burning stab of jealousy through him. He ignored it.
Focus on the present, Gabe, not her past lovers
.

“So there’s a chance you could get pregnant.” It wasn’t a question.

“A little one. But I doubt it,” she said hesitantly. “I’ve never been all that regular with my periods. I should be okay…”

“But we won’t know until you get it, or you take a test in a few weeks,” he finished for her.

“I guess so.”

“Maybe we should talk about the
what if
factor—”

“We’re blowing this out of proportion, Gabe.” She stood and walked over to him, placing her hand over his. “Let’s wait until we know for sure. There’s no sense in freaking out this soon.”

He hesitated and then nodded. “You’re right. I’m just usually a lot more careful and it’s pissing me off that I slipped. I’m sorry, Maddie.”

His words reminded Madison of his casualness with women. Before, it had never bothered her, had even made him the perfect man to have rebound sex with. But this time it got to her, made her the slightest bit jealous. Scratch that, a lot jealous.
You have no right to jealousy
.

Gabe went back into the kitchen, but she could tell he still had thoughts about the pregnancy thing.

“Dinner will be ready in a minute.”

“I’m not all that hungry.” And she wasn’t. The thought of food made her stomach twist. “I think I’m going to go take that bath now.”

“You didn’t eat lunch, either,” he pointed out with a frown.

Madison shrugged as she walked toward the bathroom. Trying to placate him, she said, “If you leave me a plate, I’ll heat some up later.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but then nodded. “Let me know if you need anything.”

“I will. Thanks.”

After locking the bathroom door, Madison turned on the faucets and began to fill the tub. Her hands shook as she tested the water temperature.

What if she
were
pregnant?

Madison started stripping off her clothes and sighed. She shook her head and climbed into the tub. God, they’d sure been stupid.

And things had been going so great between them. What had started as a rebound was turning into something more.

She grabbed a wrapped bar of soap on the side of the tub and pulled off the paper.

Denying things had changed between her and Gabe had become useless at this point. Her first clue had been the butterflies in her stomach, a sensation she’d assumed would go away after they had sex the first time. It hadn’t. It’d only seemed to intensify. All he had to do was smile and she got all atwitter.

And with each layer Gabe revealed about himself, the more of him there was to like, from his secret talent as a photographer to his surprisingly good meals. What would she discover next? That he was great with kids?

Kids…babies. Madison ran the soap over her body and groaned in frustration. Yeah, maybe things had been changing between her and Gabe. The key word being had. But there was nothing like a pregnancy scare to screw up a potential relationship.

Gabe woke first the next morning and glanced down at Madison, who still slept. Although they’d slept next to one another that night, he felt like, emotionally, they were miles apart.

Damn. He touched her cheek with regret. If only he could take away the awkwardness that had sprouted up between them. There were dark circles under her eyes, which wasn’t a surprise since she’d tossed and turned all night.

He got out of the bed and reached for his pants. He had to put the condom slip-up out of his mind. Obsessing over it wouldn’t change anything and would only make things more difficult between them.

“What time is it?” Madison asked in a drowsy voice.

He zipped up his jeans and turned to face her. “Almost eight-thirty. You can go back to sleep if you want. Sundays are good for having a lazy morning.”

“Is it only Sunday?” She sat up and yawned. “I feel like the robbery happened a month ago, but it was just on Wednesday.”

He nodded. So much had happened since then. In five days they’d gone from having separate lives to being lovers who were living together.

“I’ll just get up.” Madison climbed out of bed after him. “I can’t sleep.”

Guilt stabbed at his gut again, but he pushed it aside and went with his decision to look forward and not back.

“I was about to head into town and hit the grocery store.” His mouth twitched. “There’s even an espresso stand on the way.”

“Oh! There is a God!” She moaned and ran to her suitcase. “Give me five minutes.”

As they drove into town, Madison stared out the window at the passing scenery. She smiled, a sense of calm overwhelming her. Maybe it was the enchantment of the beauty of it all, trees and untouched land everywhere.

“This island is beautiful. It’s so untainted.”

“Well, somewhat.” Gabe glanced at her. “Once you head up north, you reach the Navy base and every fast food chain imaginable.”

“Ooo.” Her eyes lit up. “You know that sounds pretty good. I could go for a cheeseburger—”

“I’ll make you one,” he promised. “This island is too long to go in search of the nearest McDonalds. Besides, burgers on the barbeque taste ten times better.”

“We’re going to barbeque burgers when we get back?” She clapped her hands. “How fun! We have to get onions and pickles.”

“And breath mints as well, apparently,” he teased.