Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [13]
“Why?” Madison asked curiously. “Are the phone lines down or something?”
“No, but I’ve tried calling Uncle Corey for the past several days to remind him that Stone was coming for a visit and he’s not answering his phone.”
Madison arched a dark brow. “He’s not answering his phone? But—but what if something has happened to them and they can’t get to the phone. What if—”
“They don’t want to be disturbed, Madison?” Stone suggested. He saw her eyes shift from the back of Durango’s head over to him. He could tell from her expression that his comment had conjured up numerous possibilities in her mind, but there was no hope for it. At some point she needed to accept that her mother had decided to extend her vacation by two weeks because she had wanted to, and not because she had been forced to. As far as Stone was concerned, the same held true with Madison’s mother being on that mountain. It didn’t seem that his uncle had forced the woman, so chances were she was just where she wanted to be. Sooner or later Madison would have to realize that.
She didn’t answer his question. Instead she turned back to the car window and looked out at the scenery again. Stone inhaled deeply and turned back around in his seat. At least he had her thinking and for the moment perhaps that was the best thing.
Three
W hat if Mom doesn’t want to be disturbed like Stone suggested?
That thought ran through Madison’s mind as she studied the mountains and the ripened green pastures they passed. She couldn’t help but think of all the things she knew about her mother.
The two of them were close and always had been, but there were some things a mother didn’t share with a daughter and Madison was smart enough to know that. It came as no surprise that she had never thought of her mother as a sensual being. To her, she was simply Mom, although she had always thought her mother was a very beautiful woman.
Stone’s comment was forcing her to see her mother through different eyes. One thing she knew for certain was that, since her father’s death, her mother hadn’t shown any interest in a man, and Madison had never given any thought as to whether that was a good thing or not. Usually, when Abby Winters went to social functions, she attended with Ron Carmichael, a widower who had been her father’s business partner, or she would attend with some other family friend.
Although both Durango and Stone had been too polite to state the obvious, it seemed pretty clear that her mother and their uncle Corey were on his mountain engaging in some sort of an illicit affair. And if that was the case, Madison was determined to find out how Corey Westmoreland had tempted her mother to behave in such a manner.
She also knew that, although neither men had voiced it, they probably thought she had taken things a little too far in coming after her mother, and especially when she’d been told her mother was fine. But a part of her had to see for herself. She had to talk to her mother.
And she had to understand, or at least try to understand. What had possessed her mother to do what she did? She had to believe there had to be a good reason.
She licked her lips as they suddenly felt dry. When Stone had talked about instant attraction, she had known just what he’d meant. From the moment she had opened her eyes on the plane to gaze into the dark depths of his, she had been attracted to him in a way she had never experienced before. And she was still attracted to him. Every time he looked at her, she felt a funny feeling inside that started in her breastbone and quickly moved down her body to settle right smack in the center between her legs. She was drawn to Stone. It was Stone who had her breathing fast just thinking how she had touched him intimately on the plane without knowing it. She felt a sudden tingling in her hand when she thought about just where it had been. And the first time he had spoken to her, she had immediately become mesmerized by the sound of his voice.