Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [52]
Madison sighed with disappointment as she sat at the kitchen table and looked out. It seemed that she and Stone wouldn’t have the ranch to themselves today after all. Corey had announced at breakfast that he and Abby had changed their minds and would visit the Monroes another time. She had glanced across the table and seen the same disappointment in Stone’s eyes that she knew had been in hers.
“It’s a beautiful day for a picnic, don’t you think?”
She glanced around and met her mother’s smiling face, then shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose so.”
“Then why don’t you find Stone and suggest that the two of you go to Cedar Canyon? You can take the SUV and not worry about traveling by horseback. It’s simply beautiful and there’s a lake so you may want to take your bathing suit with you.”
Madison perked up. The picnic sounded nice, but…“I don’t have a bathing suit.”
Abby chuckled. “You can certainly borrow one of mine. That’s one of the first things Corey made sure I had when I came here. With so many hot springs and lakes around, it would be a waste not to have one.”
Madison glanced back out of the window. She saw Stone in the distance standing next to the corral gate as he watched his uncle rope a calf. “Stone may be too busy to want to take off like that.”
Abby chuckled again. “Oh, I don’t know. Something tells me that he’ll like the idea.”
Stone definitely liked the idea and when Madison suggested it he didn’t waste any time going into the house to shower and change. He was dying to be alone with her away from the ranch. And the way he was driving the truck indicated that he was in a rush to get to their destination.
“We will get there in one piece won’t we, Stone?”
He glanced over at Madison and even though she was smiling, she was hinting that he slow down. He had made a couple of sharp turns around several curves. “Sorry. I guess I’m kind of eager to get there.”
She gave him an innocent look. “Why? Are you hungry? Is what’s in that picnic basket tempting you?”
He met her gaze and decided to be completely honest. “Yes, I’m hungry but my hunger has nothing to do with what’s in that damn basket. You’re what’s tempting me. Aren’t you?” He watched the smile that spread across her lips; lips he was dying to kiss. He had noticed each and every time she had inched her skirt up her legs, although he should have been keeping his eyes on the road.
“Yes. I just wanted to make sure you wanted me,” she said grinning.
He brought the car to a screeching stop. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face her. “I want you, Madison, don’t doubt that. I want you so bad that I ache. I want you so bad that if I don’t get inside of you real soon, I might embarrass myself.”
She glanced down at his midsection and nodded when she saw what he meant. “Then I guess we’d better be on our way again, because I wouldn’t want that to happen.”
“No.”
She lifted a brow. “No?”
“No, I don’t think I can wait now.”
Her brow lifted when she saw he was unbuttoning his shirt. He removed it and tossed it in the back seat of the SUV. She swallowed hard. She had seen him shirtless numerous times but still her midsection filled with heat each and every time she saw him that way. And she didn’t want to think about how turned on she got whenever she saw him naked.
“Uhh, would you like to tell me what’s going on here?” she said in a low voice. Desire was making it almost impossible for her to speak.
His smile widened into a grin. It was a smile so