Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [41]
What was there about Stone Westmoreland that had made her throw caution to the wind and do what she’d done? What was there about him that made her eager to do it again?
When moments passed and Stone didn’t return to bed, and she didn’t hear any movement or sound from the opposite side of the bedroom door, she wondered where he had gone and decided to find out. What was he thinking this morning? Did he regret what they’d done? Did he think she assumed that now that they’d made love she expected something from him? She remembered distinctly him saying that he wasn’t the marrying kind. He believed strongly in the institution but also believed that marriage wasn’t for him. He had no plans ever to settle down. He had told her that he liked his life just the way it was. He enjoyed the freedom of coming and going whenever he pleased and not being responsible for anyone but himself. He didn’t want any worries, no bothers and definitely no wife.
She sighed deeply as she slipped out of bed. She glanced around for the clothes she had discarded the night before and decided that, instead of putting them back on, she would slip into Stone’s shirt. It hit her midthigh and she liked the way it looked on her because it symbolized that she was his and he was hers.
She shook her head, wondering where that thought had come from and decided not to think that way again. Stone wasn’t looking for a serious relationship and neither was she. Opening the door she knew she had to pull herself together before seeing him. The last thing she needed was to put more into her relationship with him than was really there.
Madison searched the house and found no sign of Stone. She stepped outside onto the porch. Then she saw him. He was in the distance, shirtless and riding without a saddle. Instead, a blanket covered the animal’s back.
She leaned against the column post and watched him. He had told her that he knew how to handle a horse and she’d seen firsthand how well he did so on their trek up the mountains. He had explained that his uncle had made sure his eleven nephews and one niece learned how to ride and had taken the time to teach each one of them how to handle a horse when they came to visit. She had to admit that those lessons had paid off. It was evident that Stone was a skilled horseman. He even shared with her that he owned a horse that was stabled at Highpoint Manor, a place where he could go and enjoy the Georgia Mountains on horseback. From Atlanta it would take him less than two hours to reach the Blue Ridge Mountains where he would get on the back of his horse for an excursion into the wilderness.
Something made him look her way and her breath caught when he saw her. He trotted the horse over to her, coming to a stop by the porch. “Good morning, Madison.”
“Good morning, Stone.”
Some part of her felt she should be embarrassed after how she’d acted last night and everything they had done together. But she felt no shame. In fact she wasn’t even feeling self-conscious that she was standing before him wearing his shirt without a stitch of clothing underneath. It seemed that all her proper Boston upbringing had gone back up North without her, leaving her doing and thinking all sorts of naughty things.
She tipped her head back to look at him. He was sitting on the horse looking sexier than any man had a right to look. Their gazes locked, held and she felt a quickening in her stomach. She also felt a stirring heat between her legs and as he continued to gaze down at her, she saw the color of his eyes darken as desire flooded their depths.
“Come ride with me,” he said throatily. His voice was so husky it sent a sensuous chill down her spine.
Without asking where they were going or bothering to bring to his attention the fact that she wasn’t appropriately dressed to go riding, she accepted the hand he reached out to her. He leaned over and, with one smooth sweep,