OhGodOhGodOhGod. The last thing she should be thinking of was him on his back on that bed and her straddling his hips and…
No. Just no. He’s a man, and you already know how men are. How many heartbreaks do you need before you get it? Men don’t want real women. They want obedient daughters and slaves, someone to clean up behind them and do what they’re told. Someone to sit adoringly at their side while they snore their brains out, fart, burp, expect dinner made and read,y and… Where was I going with this?
She paused, her fingertips on the knob that would open her door and put another layer of solid wood between Jameson and her. Wooden doors were good fire protection. She knew that. Every home should be built as safe as this one. But she couldn’t take her eyes off the one at the end of the hall.
Most of her life, she’d been alone, first under the thumb of her self-absorbed father, then with her gambling addict husband. For those few months after she’d kicked Nash Coogan out, the loneliness had been a welcome relief from the merry-go-round of lies, lies, and more lies she’d been living with. That was when this TEAM Protocol Officer job came up. As scared as she’d been the day she’d marched into the interview with Senior Agent Mark Houston, she’d impressed him. He’d said so. He’d also been blunt about how difficult working with former military might be for a civilian who’d never served active duty.
But truth was, everyone on The TEAM, even the man she answered directly to and worked most closely with, Alex Stewart, had gone out of their way to welcome her. Because of his vote of confidence in her, she’d learned the ropes quickly. The TEAM became her one safe place where no one lied to her. Where no one talked behind her back or twisted the truth to suit their agendas, either. She was respected. She’d made friends. Camilla and Beckam even had her over for dinner one night. Alex and his wife included her on the invitation to join them at the hospital for their baby boy’s birth. How unique and great was that? Being part of The TEAM was fun.
Yet here she was, alone again. Wondering. Working with Jameson tonight had built a fire inside she didn’t want to lose. Its roaring flame had died down, but she’d banked those precious embers, hoping for closer contact. The taste of his mouth was still alive on her tongue. No matter what she ate or drank, the heat of his lips still burned, and the sting of his five o’clock shadow had left the nicest abrasions on her chin and around her mouth.
She could still feel his tense, ropey muscles around her when she closed her eyes. He’d left a mark where no one else could see it, where she still felt it. In her soul. Yet it needed fuel to survive, and that precious fuel lay down the hall, so close and yet so darned far away.
He’d called her brave today. And strong. Yet there she stood, trembling with cowardice born of years of being denigrated and scorned. Of never being good enough, smart enough, or, her all-time favorite put-down, pretty enough. But what if…?
Good grief. Her fingers lifted to her lips. What if she took those few steps to Jameson’s door? What if she opened it and…. Was she brave or was she still her dad’s lackey? Did her confidence depend on the man who’d thrown her out of his house before she was old enough to vote, or the man who simply wanted to take her out for coffee? A date. All Jameson asked for was a date.
What if, indeed…
Her heart beat with nervous excitement. Could she do this? Be brave and strong just a little while longer? After all she’d done tonight, could she walk those few steps down the hall and open that man’s door? Go to him? Be with him?
The thought of intentionally defying TEAM rules went against all Maddie was. After what Alex had done for her, she hated to betray him. She wanted to serve, she did. But for once in her life, she also wanted something that was just hers. To take those few steps, she’d have to be wrong to be right. It’d be the biggest, most daring risk of her life to walk between Eric and Harley’s doors, but—
That solid door between them opened, and…
OhGodOhGodOhGod. There he was, his head cocked, but facing her as if he knew right where she was standing and deliberating and chewing her fingernails. He’d changed into running pants, The TEAM logo stamped in bright gold on the cuff of one pant leg. But no shirt. His wet, tousled dark hair gleamed in the dim light from the kitchen behind her, making him look boyishly handsome even as his body declared he was all man.
“Maddie?” he whispered, his face turned in her direction, but his eyes seeing nothing.
Didn’t matter. Her pulse raced at the sight of all that bare, masculine skin. “Jameson?”
He waved her to come to him, and she did. Quickly, without hesitation. Her doubts fled the second she reached his door, and he pulled her inside his room. So did all thought. The door closed noiselessly, and she was lost in the warm steel of his arms. He pressed her back to the wall as his mouth covered hers and swallowed her baseless worries and fears. They were chest to chest, belly to belly, and thigh to thigh. Both breathing hard.
For the first time in her life, Maddie was exactly what and where she wanted to be. Breathless. With every lick of his tongue, he fed the fire she’d kept sequestered for right darned now. Just for him.
Her fingers seemed to adore his body. Of their own volition, they smoothed eagerly over the
