Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [28]
Stone nodded, taking in everything she’d said. “Didn’t you say that your father has been dead for ten years?”
“Yes, he died when I was fifteen.”
“And during that time, since his death, your mother has never been romantically involved with anyone?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think that’s odd?”
She heaved a sigh. “I never thought about it before. I always assumed she just wanted to bury herself in her work after my father’s death. I never assumed she was lonely and in need of companionship.”
“Well, that might be the reason she took off with Uncle Corey. There are some things a man or woman can’t control at times. Passion. Especially if they haven’t shared it with anyone in a while. Hormones are known to get the best of you if you aren’t careful.”
Madison wondered if he was speaking from experience? She hadn’t slept with anyone since Cedric and she definitely didn’t feel like she was missing out on anything. He had been her first lover and she really didn’t care if he was her last.
But then, standing so close to Stone with the feel of his warm breath on her cheek, she knew she had to rethink that declaration. Any time he had held her in his arms against his broad chest, her temperature had had a tendency to go up a notch. And whenever she had leaned into his aroused body while they kissed, it always amazed her that he had wanted her. And she would have to admit she had spent the last couple of nights in bed wondering how it would feel if he were to make love to her; for him to climb on top of her and—
“Are you cold, Madison?”
She was jerked out of her racy thoughts. She cleared her throat. “No, why do you ask?”
“Because you were shivering a few moments ago.”
“Oh.” She met his gaze when he looked down at her. She hoped he didn’t have a clue as to why she had been trembling.
“What about you and your fiancé?” Stone asked, pulling her closer so that her cheek rested on his shoulder.
“What about us?”
“I know you said the two of you weren’t intimate often, but did you do a lot of touching?”
She sighed deeply. There was an inner urgency within her to share with Stone how things had been with her and Cedric. She’d already told him that they had slept together only a couple of times but now he needed to hear the rest.
“Cedric and I didn’t do a whole lot of anything, Stone. I mentioned earlier today that we were intimate two times, but even then it wasn’t for enjoyment. It was done only to make sure we were compatible.”
Stone shook his head, not sure he’d heard her right. They’d been intimate a couple of times not for enjoyment but just to make sure they were compatible? Now he had heard it all. How in the world could you be compatible without enjoyment? “What about passion?”
She shrugged. “What about it?”
Nothing, if you have to ask, he thought. But then he decided that he needed to appease his curiosity anyway. “Weren’t there ever times when the two of you lost control?”
She chuckled as if the thought of his question was ridiculous. “No, and to be quite honest, I never experienced real physical attraction until I met you.”
Damn, Stone thought. He wished she hadn’t told him that mainly because it was the same way with him. He, too, had never experienced real physical attraction until he had met her. Oh, sure, he’d felt lust for a woman before but for some reason the attraction with Madison was totally different. He thought about her during some of the oddest times and, whenever he did, unexplainable warmth would flood his insides. He never, ever remembered actually hungering for a woman until he had met her. And now she was a constant craving and that didn’t bode well.
After a few moments, he said, “I guess we’re going to have to come up with some ground rules once we leave here and head up into the mountains.”
It took Madison a moment to realize what he meant. But she decided to pretend otherwise and ask just to make sure. “Ground rules?”
“Yes, about us, Madison. About this attraction we can both honestly admit that we have for each other. About