Take A Chance On Me (16 page)

“Please don’t protect me. I’m so”—she exhaled hard—“sick of that.”

He stroked the pad of his thumb over the wet, moist flesh. “I wasn’t protecting you. I didn’t want our first time to be because I was angry and trying to shut you up.”

Lashes fluttering, she looked up at him. “Is there going to be a first time?”

He relaxed his hand. “Yes, Maddie, there is.”

Her chest expanded as she sucked in a deep breath. “I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it. I want there to be.”

“Me too.” He lay back down on the blanket, pulling her along with him. He tucked her into the crook of his arm and bit back a moan when she slid her leg over his thighs. He stroked a path down her back.

“When I was fourteen I stole Bobby Miller’s girlfriend.” The statement surprised him. His mind had been filled with thoughts of Maddie in his bed, not his misbegotten youth. “Her name was Britney. She was the head cheerleader and had long, blond hair she wore in a ponytail.”

Maddie’s hand slid over his stomach, and all the muscles there went tight. “She sounds like a head cheerleader.”

“Yeah,” Mitch said, tracing a path down Maddie’s side. “I wanted her, and I knew I could have her. So I took her.”

“I see,” she said, tensing slightly under his palm.

He wanted to shut the hell up, but couldn’t seem to make himself be quiet. “And Sara wasn’t the first married woman I’d slept with.”

Maddie glanced up at him, gaze questioning. “How many others?”

“A few.”

“So you prefer married women?”

“No.” He stroked her back, and when she relaxed against him, he relaxed right along with her. “I think I liked the challenge.”

She was quiet for a good minute, as though working something through in her mind. Without warning, she sat up, swinging around to kneel on the blanket. “I know. Let’s play a game.”

“A game?” Out of all the things he’d been expecting her to say or do, this had been the farthest from his mind. What was she up to?

“Yes,” she said, flashing another one of her killer smiles in his direction. “The ‘I Was So Bad’ game. We’ll trade stories of how horrible we were until a clear winner can be determined.”

All of the tension that had rolled up into a big, black ball in the center of his chest unraveled. “Princess, you’re a nice, Catholic girl with a guilt complex. How in the world do you expect to beat me?”

She shrugged, apparently unconcerned. “I don’t know if I’ll win, but I think I can stay competitive.”

Oh, this was going to be good. He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Okay, what have you got?”

She tilted her head to the side and tapped her chin with an index finger. “Let’s see . . . hmmm . . .”

He laughed. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”

“Ssshhh, I’m thinking.” She pondered, shifting around on the blanket, leaning her head to one side and then the other, and Mitch just took it all in, adoring her more with every passing second that she pretended she didn’t have a story already waiting for him.

She snapped her fingers. “Here’s one. When I was fourteen, I went to my very first high school party. Of course, like any good Catholic girl who’d been given her freedom, I grabbed the first bottle of Boone’s Farm handed to me.”

Mitch shook his head in disgust. “Boone’s Farm, huh?”

“Being from Winnetka you probably don’t know what that is,” she quipped. “Boone’s Farm is what us blue-collar people drink because there’s no hundred-dollar scotch available.”

He reached over and pinched her on the hip. “Little brat. I know perfectly well what Boone’s Farm is.”

She grinned, so wide and lopsided that it should have looked goofy as hell, but it only made her sexier. “Anyway, drunk off my ass, I decided I needed to experiment with other things, so I started making my way around the boys at the party. I’d made out with three boys before someone called Shane and he ruined all my fun.”

Surprised laughter burst from Mitch’s chest. “Well, hell, Maddie, I can’t say I blame the guy.”

She wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms, full of indignation. “Would you have rescued your sister?”

He thought of Cecilia, so cold that ice could have run through her veins instead of blood. Even as a teenager, she’d had utter focus, her direction and plans already mapped out in front of her as she desperately worked to please their father. “I don’t think Cecilia’s ever even been drunk.” Her control was too absolute.

“Well, Shane wasn’t so lucky with his little sister.” She giggled, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “I threw up in his car as payback.”

“I’m sure he was thrilled,” Mitch said.

She reached over and patted his knee. “Okay, your turn.”

He thought back to that other life with something other than scorn for the first time in three years. “When I was fourteen, I lost my virginity to our housekeeper.”

Her jaw went slack. “Are you serious?”

He nodded, smiling. Lucy had been his first taste with the forbidden, and he’d been hooked ever since. “It wasn’t my fault. She seduced me and I was powerless to stop her.”

Maddie eyed him with deep suspicion. “How old was she?”

“Twenty-one.”

Maddie slapped his thigh. “Yuck! That’s disgusting! You were a child.”

“Princess, when I was fourteen I was over six feet and not done growing. Lucy thought I was man enough.”

“She took advantage of you.”

Mitch chuckled, thinking back on the lovely, talented Lucy. “She did, God bless her. She was from Brazil and very inventive. I couldn’t be anything but grateful.”

Maddie huffed, shaking her head in exasperation. “You know, that really bugs me. It’s just as wrong and perverse as those men who have sex with teenagers. You were a child and she was an adult. She stole your innocence.” Maddie violently waved her hand through the air. “It doesn’t matter if she was a hot Brazilian.”

Mitch crooked a finger, smiling. “Come here.”

Maddie shook her head, a pout puffing out her bottom lip. “I don’t think so.”

He reached out fast, striking with the suddenness of a cobra, to grasp her wrist.

She shrieked and tried to pull away, laughing as she squirmed. He pushed up, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her close. She might weigh next to nothing, but the way she twisted and writhed in her attempt to get free made it hard to get a good hold on her.

Before too long, he had her trapped under him, both her hands manacled as he pinned her to the ground. “Where do you think you’re off to?”

Her pupils contracted as her breath came fast. Her legs splayed open and she tilted her hips in an effort to throw him off.

They both sucked in a breath as she pressed against his erection. He leaned in, lips brushing the lobe of her ear. “Lucy taught me lots of things about pleasing a woman. She was very instructive.”

“With a fourteen-year-old, she’d have to be.” The fine bones in Maddie’s wrists flexed against his palm. “I don’t think I want to hear about it.”

“No?” Mitch asked. He gripped her with one hand, freeing his other to explore her body. He stroked down her bare arm, and she shivered, a soft gasp floating on the night sky. “I could demonstrate.”

“No, thank you,” her voice husky despite her proper words.

“You’re lying,” he whispered, as he ran a thumb along the underside of her breast. “Isn’t that a sin?”

She made a soft sound, somewhere between a moan and a gasp. “At this point I’m just trading sins at any given moment.”

He laughed, wicked and evil. “Let’s go inside. It’s time for bed.” He didn’t trust himself to kiss her for fear he’d lose control and take her right here in the grass. He pressed an open mouth kiss to her neck.

She shuddered, her hips jerking up once again to bump against his straining cock. “With you?”

He gave a fleeting thought to protest. It was too soon, he knew it, but then she wrapped her legs around his thighs and rocked into him and he forgot all about being a knight in shining armor.

“Yes, with me.” He flicked his tongue over her pulse. She tasted delicious and he intended to lick every inch of her.

“Mitch,” she said, in a soft, hesitant tone.

He lifted his head and looked down into her face. Three days ago he hadn’t even known her, and somehow that seemed impossible.

Before Maddie was a lifetime ago.

She blinked up at him, expression unsure. He sighed. Too soon. He let go of her wrists and brushed her hair from her cheek. “To sleep. I don’t want to do anything you’re not ready for.” It might kill him, but he could do it.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. She turned her head and looked at the river. “That’s not it. I need something from you.”

“What? Whatever it is, you’ve got it.”

Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip. “I want you to make me a promise.”

“Whatever you need.” As long as he could feel her against him.

She swallowed. “Promise you won’t take it easy on me.”

His heart almost stalled out. “What exactly do you mean?”

“I don’t want sweet and gentle. I don’t want safe. I don’t want you to treat me with kid gloves because I don’t have a lot of experience.”

He ground his back teeth, fighting raw, depraved images in his head. He swallowed hard and asked, “Do you know what you’re asking?”

She tilted her face to look at him, and even in the moonlight he could see the stain of pink on her cheeks. The blush did nothing to detract from the determination in her eyes.

“I want it all.” She smiled, and if he’d been standing it would have knocked him to his knees. “I’m committing a mortal sin for you. So you’d better be worth it.”

Chapter Fifteen

Mitch’s bedroom door clicked shut. The sound echoed in Maddie’s head as her pulse lurched. Her nerves, which had been a mere rumble when she’d been outside by the river and trapped under Mitch’s hard body, had built to a crescendo on the walk back to the house.

All her inadequacies and worry pushed to the surface, dulling her determination to take what she wanted. She stared at Mitch’s big king-sized bed, the massive intricate headboard both beautiful and daunting.

She could do this. She wanted to do this.

Mitch’s warm palms covered her bare shoulders, sending a jolt of electricity through her blood and making her jump. His body pressed close to hers, hitching her breath.

“Second thoughts?” he whispered, stirring the fine hairs along the shell of her ear.

Maddie licked her bottom lip, transfixed by the bed before her. “I’m nervous.”

He slid his hands down her arms, leaving a trail of goose bumps in his wake. “Princess, we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

With her heart pounding against her ribs, she squeaked, “It’s . . . just . . . I don’t know. . . .” The chocolate-colored suede comforter looked as lush and inviting as it had last night, but she couldn’t take a step toward it. She was frozen to the spot, suspended by indecision.

“What don’t you know?” His low voice snaked through her fear.

“It’s not what I pictured,” she blurted, once again wringing her hands.

He reached around her waist, taking her nervous, quaking fingers in his and stilling them. “What did you picture?”

She took a deep breath. “I guess I thought I’d be overwhelmed by passion and wouldn’t have to think too much about it.” God, did that sound terrible? Like she didn’t want him?

He chuckled, and the slow sinful sound wound her more tightly until she thought she might break. “Would it have been easier if I took you out on the grass?”

She nodded, unable to speak. Why was she like this? Why couldn’t she take control of the situation like a grown woman?

He released her, stepping away and taking all his warmth and strength with him. He walked around until he stood in front of her. He stroked a finger down her jaw and cupped her chin. “Do you trust me?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “I don’t know. I want to.”

“Fair enough,” he said, a small smile lifting the corner of his lips. “Tell me your worries.”

A million scenarios, all of them terrible, filled her head. She couldn’t tell him. It would ruin the moment even more than it had been ruined. Anxious, she gazed up at him and, unable to help herself, said, “What if it’s a disaster?”

“Then we’ll try again.”

She frowned, her brows pulling tight. “You’re not going to reassure me how fabulous it will be?”

His grip slipped down to her throat. “No.”

“Why?”

He smiled. “Because that would be taking it easy on you.”

With a quick, surprised laugh, she pushed at his chest. “That’s not what I meant!”

His fingers tightened, and she could feel her pulse pounding against his thumb. “Think about it. Do you really want some smooth line about how I’m so good you’ll come for me like you never have before?”

She pushed away all her mental noise to concentrate on his question. He was right. It would sound like a line and make her uneasy. He was giving her honesty. He didn’t know any more than she did.

She studied his face. Those golden eyes were bright with understanding and steady with certainty, his expression relaxed. “But you’re not worried, are you?”

He stroked her neck. “No, I’m not.”

“Why?”

He slid over the cords of her neck, and despite her nerves, a shiver ran through her. “That’s why.”

“Sure, that’s now, but what if in the moment, I freeze?”

“Then you freeze and we slow down. There’s no rush, Maddie.”

The first layer of her nerves calmed. “And if it’s a horrible disaster?”

His lips quirked. “Then it’s a disaster.”

Another knot of tension unfurled. “It could be all awkward and fumbling.”

“True.” He released his hold on her throat and cupped her shoulders, shifting them both to the left. “Maybe we can come up with some teenage fantasies to accompany the awkwardness.”

She repressed the smile at the images that evoked. Good images. Fun. Better, but her mind still whirled. “What if I decide I want to stop?”

Another step around. “Then we’ll stop.”

“No questions asked?”

“No questions asked.” He pressed closer, forcing her to step with him.

The anxious jump in her stomach quelled. “What if I don’t like what you’re doing?”

“Tell me you don’t like it.”

“You won’t be offended?”

Something dark flashed in his gaze. “No. I won’t be offended. In fact, I insist you tell me if you don’t like something.”

“And you’ll stop?”

He shrugged, his face holding none of the turmoil whirling inside her. “That’ll depend.”

“On what?” She twisted her hands once again.

He leaned in close enough for her to see the spikes of brown in his eyes. “On if you really don’t like it, or if it just makes you nervous.”

Her hands stilled. “How can you tell the difference?”

“That’s easy,” he said, his thumb brushing over her bottom lip. “The body rarely lies.”

She frowned. Was that true? Her body lied to her all the time.

Or did it?

She caught him watching her intently. “Am I frustrating you?”

“Nope.” Simple. Matter-of-fact. True.

“Why not? I’m frustrating me.”

“I want you to be sure.” He tucked a lock of wayward hair behind her ear. “Besides, it’s kind of cute.”

She scowled, some of her temper kicking in. “I don’t want to be cute!”

“Too bad,” he said, brushing a quick kiss along her jaw. “You are.”

“If I’m cute, it can’t possibly be the way I want it to be.”

“And how do you want it to be?” His expression was so keen with interest that a flush warmed her cheeks.

Now she’d done it. She shrugged.

“Tell me.”

“You know, all hot and passionate,” she mumbled, embarrassed.

“You can’t be both?”

His expression was so filled with smug, male amusement that she couldn’t help answering with a totally female pout.

“This isn’t helping. I’m not feeling very sophisticated right now.”

“Maddie,” he said, his voice warm and rich like melted chocolate. “I’ve had enough cool, sophisticated women to last me a lifetime.”

Surprised, she blinked and said stupidly, “Oh.”

He looped one finger on her shorts and tugged. “And the truth is, I haven’t ever wanted anyone as badly as I want you.”

Throat dry, she swallowed. “You want me?”

“Since the second you walked into my bar.”

She nibbled on the inside of her cheek, still fretting over one concern she couldn’t possibly say out loud.

“What?” Another hard tug on her waistband shifted her to the left.

“What if I can’t . . .” Heat stained her cheeks and she waved a hand in the air. “You know.”

“Come?” A full smile stretched his mouth.

She nodded, the movement sharp and jerky.

“Then I’ll have to try harder next time, won’t I?” His tone was bemused.

“You won’t be upset?”

He laughed, the sound low, wicked, and completely sinful, and her belly leapt in desire instead of fear. “Nope, I’ll probably pass out before my ego can get too worked up about it.”

Laughter burst from her lips. “You jerk.”

He flashed the crooked grin from the night she’d met him, and her heart melted. “That’s what you get for asking a trick question.”

She shook her head, raising her gaze to the heavens, drawing her next question only to find her mind blank. The anxious, worried tension vibrating in her body was gone, her internal chatter finally quiet. “Okay, then.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.” The word was more squeaky than intelligible.

He stepped closer, pushing her shoulders. Her calves hit the back of the bed. She straightened. “Hey! How’d that happen?”

“I’m tricky that way,” he said. His tone was amused, but his eyes were hot and hungry.

“How did you know I wasn’t going to say no?”

“Princess, if you were going to say no, you’d have said it a long time ago.” He lifted her and tossed her on the mattress, where she landed in an unceremonious heap.

She scrambled back and he climbed onto the bed, looking like a predator slinking through the brush.

“You’re very mean.” She was breathless now with anticipation.

He grabbed her ankles. “And don’t you forget it.”

Oh God. Her nipples beaded and she tried to squirm away, but he straddled her before she could move, trapping her beneath him. His eyes dipped to her breasts. “See, the body doesn’t lie.”

The hard buds tightened further, and she gulped.

He gripped her wrists, pulling them above her head and into the pillow. “I think you like it a little mean.”

Her breath stalled in her chest.
How could he possibly know?
She shook her head, unable to admit to something so depraved.

“Oh yes,” he said, the words ringing with something primitive and untamed.

And then he kissed her, putting all her worries to rest with one single press of his lips.

 

 

Maddie’s mouth opened under his in an instant, and Mitch took full advantage, taking her in a hard, brutal kiss, holding none of his pent-up desire back.

The muscles in her wrist flexed as she clenched her hands.

His tongue stroked into her mouth, coaxing her into a response, into greedy need.

She twisted under him, driving him half out of his mind as he devoured her with all the possessiveness he’d been repressing for days, pushing them both into the lustful, mindless oblivion she’d been craving.

He clasped her hands together, wrapping his fingers around her small wrists, leaving him free to explore. He stroked down her body, noticing every catch of her breath and strain of her muscles as he brushed over the tendons in her neck.

He tore his mouth away, moving down her throat to find the pounding beat of her pulse with his tongue. He sucked, gently at first, and then harder when she gasped.

He’d known it would be like this. Unlike her, he hadn’t had a doubt in his mind.

He bit her neck and she wrenched beneath him. She was sensitive and he took full advantage, feasting on her like a vampire until she squirmed under him, moaning. She pulled at her wrists, trying to get free, but he gripped her more tightly, locking his thighs around hers and immobilizing her.

She arched and struggled.

Her soft whimper tugged at his cock as though she’d touched him.

He stroked down her body, covering her breast with his palm and whispering in her ear, “I’m going to lick you until you scream and then I’m going to fuck you so you’ll feel me for days.”

She gasped and shook her head. “I . . . I can’t . . .”

Just like he’d told her, her body betrayed her. She arched, her nipple tightening under his hand as her breath became more ragged.

“Yes,” he said, and covered the mouth that had driven him crazy since she’d sat down at his bar.

Despite her protests, she held nothing back.

The surrender vibrated through her as she shuddered. The heat of her mouth made him dizzy as he peeled down the strap of her tank top to reveal one perfect bare breast. He learned her body, circling the hard peak over and over until she strained to get free. He rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, squeezing and pinching until she cried out, letting him know without words that he’d caught the sweet spot between pleasure and pain.

“Mitch.” His name on her lips, a need-soaked whisper.

Jesus Christ. He was so damn hard that his zipper bit into his erection. He’d die to get into her, do anything to sink into the depths of her body and ride her hard and furiously. But he couldn’t, not yet: first, he had work to do.

He intended to put every single one of her worries to rest.

 

 

What was he doing?

Maddie twisted under Mitch as he wrenched another keening jolt of pleasure from her. It felt so good, so impossibly right, that it made her head spin. With his intoxicating kiss, he delivered all of the overwhelming passion she’d craved. She gasped with surprise as he squeezed her nipple to the point of discomfort. Instead of the pain she would have expected, it sent aching, burning desire to her core.

She needed to do something other than lie here, with nothing to distract her from the hot, consuming sensations racing through her. She yanked at her manacled wrists, and he tightened his hold, refusing to release her.

She wanted to touch him, wrap her legs around his waist, force him to move quicker, get inside faster because, God help her, she was desperate.

As though reading her mind, her hands were suddenly free, but before she could get her bearings, he pulled her up, stripping off her tank top. She flopped down on the mattress.

High above her, Mitch loomed large, impossibly gorgeous. Impossibly dangerous. Excitement raced through her blood.

He ripped his T-shirt from his body with a flash of golden skin and hard muscles that she itched to touch. She reached out, but he grabbed her hands, pressing her wrists into the mattress, covering her. A protest rose to her lips, but his mouth claimed hers and her thoughts fragmented, blocking out everything but the feel of his chest rubbing against her breasts.

She’d worried for nothing. All of her concerns were forgotten as he drove her nearly mad with fevered lust.

He broke the kiss, moving lower and skimming his hot mouth along her jaw. Lower still, he licked the mysterious erogenous zone on her throat, right over her pounding pulse.