Stud Finders Incorporated Read online

  When he slipped his hand under the edge of the deep vee in the front of her swimsuit, a moan escaped her. His palm cupped her breast, molded and shaped it. When he rolled the nipple between thumb and forefinger, Madison thought she would pass out. Nothing had ever felt so good. Fire zapped through her body, driving downward to center between her thighs. Her clit felt swollen, super sensitive against the fabric of her suit. Deep inside her core, an ache started, one that only Jake could soothe.

  She twisted in his arms until she faced him. She wanted—no, needed—to feel his lips on hers. Emboldened, she snaked her hands up over his shoulders, tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled.

  Jake didn’t need much urging. His mouth swooped, took possession of her lips in a deep, erotic kiss. Damn, but she tasted great. Strawberry-flavored kisses. He pulled her closer, angled her head for better access. She opened to him and he sent his tongue thrusting, searched out all her secrets.

  His body was a molten mass of feelings, his cock rock-hard. He slid one thigh between her legs, pulling her higher so she was astride him. His hips thrust, the action purely involuntary. He broke off the kiss and groaned as she moved on him, pushing her lithe body closer. When she started to ride his thigh, he applied a bit more pressure, rubbing against her cunt. And when she moaned in sexual abandon, the breathy sound came close to ripping away his control.

  The strap of her swimsuit had slipped off the curve of her shoulder. He nudged it further with his chin, dipped his head and captured one rosy nipple between his lips. Madison arched her back, her body high in the water, her breasts a sweet offering for his hungry mouth.

  Oh, boy, too much, too soon.

  He released her breast, seared her lips with another deep kiss and lowered her back into the water. He stood with her pressed tight against him as he tried to regulate the heavy drumming of his heart. He hadn’t meant to take it this far. All he’d wanted to do was tantalize her. Bait the trap, so to speak.

  Yet here he was, almost on the point of ravishing her. She was so responsive, no way was she frigid. He needed to get out of here before he disgraced himself.

  An unbidden thought hit him with the force of a sledgehammer. He didn’t want Madison to see him as a paid stud. This woman spoke to something deep inside of him. Something he thought he’d lost. That ideological vision of what true love should be. The type of love his parents had shared. Warm fuzzy emotions as well as red-hot passion.

  Shaken, he dropped his arms and stepped back a pace. Hell, he’d only just met the woman. Where the fuck had this come from? He realized something. He liked her. No, he really liked her. More than he should, considering he was, in effect, out to use her for his own ends. Time to bail and rethink this whole thing.

  His voice was husky as he said, “I just remembered I have another appointment. I have to go.” Lame, Jake.

  Madison blinked her eyes and stared at him. It took a moment to gather her scattered wits. “What—” She swallowed hard and tried again. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

  Her body hummed with unrelieved sexual tension. The breath rasped from her throat, her chest rose and fell in time with her rapid heartbeat. Heat swept across her face as she tugged the strap of her suit up over her shoulder. One hand still rested on Jake’s rock-hard chest. Disappointment washed over her as he moved further from her, breaking the contact and backing up toward the steps of the pool.

  “Another appointment. I have to go.”

  An unaccountable shaft of jealousy lodged in Madison’s heart. “Another woman who needs your…special talents, Jake?”

  Illogical to feel jealous when she was paying for his services. Well, she wasn’t, her mother was, but it amounted to the same thing.

  “I’ll ring you tomorrow,” he said when he reached the steps. “I’m sorry, Madison.” He turned and dragged himself out of the pool, grabbed his towel and slung it about his hips. “I’ll ring.” Snatching his car keys off the picnic table, he beat a retreat.

  Madison shook her head and hugged her arms about her body. Despite the humid weather, she shivered. “So what just happened here?”

  She walked to the side of the pool and sat on the steps. “What did I do wrong?”

  All the old insecurities landed, fully formed, on her bent head. Lack of confidence as a woman, as a sexual partner, was uppermost in her mind. She cringed as she thought of her behavior with Jake. She must have turned him off with her wanton response. Given the chance, she’d have eaten him whole. And look where it had left her. A bundle of seething emotions. A pitiful wreck because her paid stud had dumped her.

  Then the anger swept in. Anger at herself for being such a weak-kneed spineless idiot. But most of all, anger at Jake. Heck of a way to end a date, even if you weren’t having fun. He had been as much a party to that little escapade as she had. After all, she had been married; she didn’t need a manual to tell her when a man was aroused. For crying out loud, his cock had been so hard, it was a wonder it hadn’t snapped off when she’d been gyrating against it.

  Just wait until he rang again. He had some explaining to do.

  “How dare he?”

  She flounced up the steps and strutted into the house, heedless of dripping water all over the floor.

  Anger was good. It kept the tidal wave of self-pity from totally swamping her.

  CHAPTER 7

  Jake was hot. Despite the ceiling fan whirring overhead, his satin boxers clung to his damp skin. He flung the sheet off and rolled onto his side. After a few minutes, he twisted back into his original position, punched his pillow into a more desirable shape, closed his eyes and prayed for sleep. It wouldn’t come.

  He was wired, his brain wouldn’t switch off. He didn’t need to be too smart to work out why. His behavior with Madison earlier. What an idiot he was. He knew her confidence was skin-deep; he only had to listen to her talk of her marriage to work that one out. Her ex had made her feel as if all their problems had been her fault.

  Sleep impossible, he struggled from the bed and crossed to the large plate-glass door facing the ocean. He still felt hot as hell. He needed the sea breeze on his face to cool him down. He slid the door open, stepped out onto the patio and made his way over to the low brick wall surrounding the area. Legs up, he perched there, faced the sea and tried to sort out his thoughts.

  He’d done the unforgivable, deserting Madison like that. He should have explained. “How could I do that without giving myself away?” he muttered to the night sky. Did he owe her an apology? Damn right he did. Did he want to see her again? “Oh, yeah.” Then do something about it, you fucking fool.

  His long legs ate up the distance as he strode back into the bedroom and grabbed for the phone.

  “Hello.” Madison propped herself up, blinked her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts. Who on earth would ring her at—she glanced at the digital clock—ten to twelve at night. “Mom, is that you?” What had her parent got up to now?

  “It’s Jake.”

  “Jake? I didn’t expect you to ring me. I thought—”

  “I know what you thought and that’s why I rang you now, instead of in the morning.”

  Madison struggled upright, plumped the pillows behind her back. Her heart rate kicked up a beat. The breath caught in her throat. Her earlier anger disappeared. Well, maybe not completely, but enough that she could respond to the husky tone of his voice. “So why did you ring?”

  “I owe you an apology for leaving you like that. It was crass of me and I’m sorry.”

  “Did I do something wrong?” She twisted the phone cord round and round one finger. “I know I’m not very good with this whole sex thing and—”

  “It wasn’t you. I was running scared.”

  “Huh?” Madison shook her head, at a loss. “Um, I don’t understand.”

  “I know you don’t and that’s why I rang so late. I need to explain.”

  “I scared you? How?” He was right. She didn’t understand.

  “I made a startling d
iscovery today. I realized I wanted to be more than just your paid stud. I wanted to be your friend.”

  There was a moment’s silence and Madison wondered what was coming. A little frisson of excitement swept through her system at Jake’s words.

  “Okay, I want to be your lover, too,” he continued. “I’ve only known you a few days and already you’re under my skin. It scared the hell out of me so I did what most men do when confronted with their emotions. I ran.”

  A crazy smile broke across Madison’s face. Crazy because there was no rhyme or reason for the tumult of feelings racing through her blood. She snuggled down among the pillows, the receiver held to her ear. “So there was no other woman waiting for your stud services?”

  “You’re the only woman in my little black book.”

  “And I didn’t do anything wrong out there in the pool?”

  “Hell, no, I get hard just thinking about it. Madison, there is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with you. I touch you and I start to hyperventilate.”

  She giggled. “Are we going to have some more phone sex?”

  Jake’s laughter filtered down the line. “Baby, we haven’t even started with the phone sex yet. But no, not tonight. We both need to get a good night’s sleep. Because tomorrow I’m going to pick you up and take you on a tour. After that, we’ll go out to dinner. And the following day we’ll find something else to do.”

  “Can we make it after lunch?” Madison grimaced as she remembered a previous appointment. “The builder who renovated my cottage will be here in the morning to do a final check. After that I’m free.”

  “Um…ah…yeah, after lunch is okay. In fact, it works out much better for me, too. I’ll pick you up at two. That give you enough time?”

  “Two o’clock is fine.” How weird. For a moment there, with all his stuttering, he almost sounded like he wanted to rescind the invitation. “Oh, and Jake?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Thank you. I was a bit down about what happened.”

  “I’ll make it up to you. Now get some sleep and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Goodnight, Jake,” Madison whispered before she hung up.

  Her arms about her body, she lay there and focused on the sense of euphoria that filled her, like champagne fizzing through her veins. She was going to see Jake again, and maybe, just maybe, their relationship had a future.

  Did she want a permanent relationship? She wasn’t sure at this point. She still had a lot of negatives to deal with after her disaster of a marriage. A grin tilted her lips as a thought crossed her mind.

  She clicked on the bedside light, jumped from the bed, and clad only in her satin nightgown, raced out to the living room. There, on the polished side table, was her makeover plan. She scanned down to the bottom of the page.

  Man needed for sperm only.

  The words stood out in bold type. Madison picked up the pencil from the table and dragged a black line through the sentence. Under it, she wrote a new notation.

  Jake. Possible sperm donor?

  CHAPTER 8

  So much for their plans. Madison scowled as she glanced at her watch again. Disappointment shafted through her at the thought that her time with Jake had to be cut short. It couldn’t be helped, but she did need to contact him in case he had other things he wanted to do today.

  She punched in the cell phone number he’d given her and waited for him to answer. Her heart started to fibrillate the moment she heard him pick up.

  “Hello.”

  She grinned. His voice was a husky, sleep-filled drawl. “I woke you.”

  “Madison?”

  “Yep, it’s me. I’m sorry to ring so early, but—”

  “Hey, you can ring me any time you want. I like to hear your voice. Besides, I was just being lazy, lying around in bed.”

  An imp of mischief took up residence in her head. Did she dare? I’m a vibrant, sexy woman. Her mother’s words, the litany Madison was supposed to live by, jumped into her mind. Why not? This was the new liberated Madison Paxton.

  She lowered her voice to a sexy whisper. “So what do you wear to bed, Jake?”

  There was a moment of silence before he chuckled. “You turning the tables on me, sweet Madison?”

  “Answer the question, super stud.”

  “You really think I’m a stud?”

  Madison frowned. He sounded unsure of himself, as if he needed his ego stroked. That didn’t sound like the Jake she was beginning to know. That man was self-assured, confident, a man who knew the score, and who certainly knew women.

  “Jake, for the last ten years, I believed I was frigid. That I couldn’t respond to a man. You have shown me just how wrong Clifton was. I don’t think you need worry.”

  “Thank you for that vote of confidence. And to answer your question, I’m wearing boxers.”

  She pushed away the thought that Jake was acting out of character and concentrated on the mental image that surfaced in her mind. Jake, all that bronzed skin, in nothing but a pair of boxers. She lowered her voice. “What are they made of?”

  “Satin. Scarlet. The color of passion. Soft and silky against my bare flesh.”

  Madison dragged in a shaky breath. Talk about turning the tables. She’d set out to tease Jake, to flirt with him, but all she’d managed to do was turn herself on.

  “Although,” he continued, “most of the time I don’t wear anything to bed. Now if you were here with me, we would both be gloriously naked. Flesh to flesh. Your breasts crushed against my chest. And I’d run my hands—”

  “Stop.” She squirmed on the seat, trying to control the delicious shivers trickling down her body. “I give in. You’re better at this than I am.”

  “Only with you,” he said, serious undertones to his words despite the laughter running through his voice. “You have no idea how hot you make me.”

  Her ego received a major boost with his comment. She hugged his words to her. For the first time in her life, she actually felt like a sexy, vibrant woman. There was hope for her yet. “Phone sex at eight in the morning.” She laughed. “I’m going up in the world.”

  “This is just the appetizer. Hold on until we get to the main course.”

  She couldn’t wait. Amid the rapid beat of her pulse, she fought for a degree of sanity. “What I rang for was to tell you my builder contacted me to say he couldn’t make it this morning. He wants to come over this afternoon. But we can still go out, it’s only a final inspection.”

  “Ah, no, I couldn’t… I shouldn’t be there at all. He might need your input and I’d just be in the way. How about I pick you up at seven and we go out for dinner?”

  Disappointment washed over Madison again. She really wanted to spend time with Jake, as much time as she could get. But perhaps he was right. Bart didn’t like to enter a house unless the owner was there. He was a stickler for protocol. “I guess I should be here. Sorry, Jake.”

  “Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re going to have lots of time to get to know each other. Now, dress up tonight. We’re going up-market.”

  “Okay, see you at seven.”

  Madison hung up the phone and wandered into the kitchen. She’d had breakfast earlier. The dishes were washed and the house tidy, in preparation for Bart’s visit. She tapped on the breakfast bar with the tip of her fingernail. How was she going to fill in the day?

  It had never been a problem to keep occupied before she’d met Jake. Now, she was impatient for the hours to pass so she could see him again. Shit, she was acting like a teenager with her first crush, but she couldn’t help herself. Her body felt on fire just thinking about him.

  Get a grip, Madison. This was ridiculous. She’d go and do some studying. After all, the new semester started in another week and she needed to get her reading up to date.

  After her marriage had broken up, she’d decided to go back and finish the fashion design course she’d been doing when she’d married Clifton. She had enough money from the divorce settlement that she di
dn’t need to work to support herself while she studied. Obtaining her degree was like a vindication for the ten wasted years she’d spent with Clifton.

  With a stern word to herself to get her mind off Jake and onto her studies, she wandered into the small spare bedroom she’d turned into a study. The heavy textbooks sitting on the desk beckoned to her. She sat down, opened the top one and started to read.

  “Color and texture…” The image of Jake in red satin boxers took over. The words blurred on the page. “Oh…rats,” she muttered. “This is not going to work.” She slammed the book shut, stood up and pushed the chair in under the desk. “I have to find something constructive to do or I’ll go crazy. Maybe I’ll hang those paintings. “

  She marched into the laundry where she kept the few tools she owned and grabbed a hammer and the picture hanging kit she’d bought last week. Funny, now she thought of it. She vaguely remembered Bart saying something about coming by to hang the paintings. He must have forgotten. “Probably caught up with Mom.” She grinned. “If I know my mother she’s kept him too busy to think of anything else at all.”

  Knuckles clenched, she tapped along the bare wall of the living room, listening for the change in sound that would tell her there was a solid beam under the wallboard. When she thought she had the right spot, she marked it with a pencil before she took the little hook from the kit, held it against the wall and tapped gently on the end to start a hole.

  That done, she screwed it in the rest of the way. Positioning the painting of an old English manor over the hook, she fiddled with it until it was straight before standing back to examine it. With a satisfied nod, she moved onto the next wall to repeat the process.

  The whole time, images of Jake and the coming date infiltrated her mind.