Chapter 4
Maddie Reynolds chewed on her thumbnail, a look of total concentration on her face, as she flipped the pages of a medical file on one of her five-year-old patients at the clinic. It was seven p.m., way past time for her to get home and try to get some rest, but something about the case was nagging at her. She had to be missing something, something important. Timmy was tired, listless, having occasional vomiting and diarrhea, and it had to be more than a virus. The poor tyke had been that way for weeks.
Sighing, she leaned back in the chair of her office in the clinic, grimacing as she bit a little too hard on her fingernail. She’d need to consult a pediatrician, run more tests. Sending up a silent prayer that Timmy’s mother would show up at her next appointment with her son, Maddie closed the file. The poor kid didn’t have an easy life, and his mother wasn’t exactly consistent.
“Hello, Madeline.”
A husky baritone sounded from the doorway of her office, causing her to leap to her feet, ready to push the alarm button on the side of her desk. The free clinic wasn’t in a good neighborhood and poor Kara had already come close to getting shot here.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
A cold chill ran down Maddie’s spine, but not from fear. She recognized the voice. Eyes narrowing, she focused on the body and face behind that smooth-as-velvet masculine tone and the man standing right in front of her. “How did you get by Simon’s security? And what in the hell are you doing here?”
Sam Hudson shrugged and stepped into the room as though he owned it. Even dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a burgundy cable-knit sweater, the man oozed power and arrogance, carried it on those wide shoulders like an elegant mantle. “They’re my security too, Sunshine. They work for Hudson. Do you think they would do anything other than let me by them with a polite good evening?”
Arrogant bastard. Maddie’s heart raced and her palms grew sweaty. She wiped them over her denim-clad thighs, wishing she hadn’t showered and changed in the tiny shower in the back of the clinic before coming into her office. Maybe it would have been easier to face Sam in her professional attire, her hair confined in a conservative knot. Trying to push a flaming corkscrew spiral behind one ear, she stiffened her spine, trying to make herself appear taller than her five-foot-three height. “What do you want, Sam? This is hardly your neighborhood. And I don’t think you need the services of a hooker?” Her voice was hard, brittle. Damn it. Why couldn’t she act nonchalant? So many years had come and gone since that heart-shattering event with Sam. He was a stranger to her now. Why couldn’t she treat him like one?
Moving closer, he answered darkly, “Would you care, Sunshine? Would it matter to you if I fucked every woman in the city?”
“Ha! Like you haven’t already? And stop calling me by that ridiculous pet name,” Maddie answered sarcastically, but her heart was racing and her breath caught as Sam moved close enough for her to catch a whiff of his enticing scent of musk and man, a spicy aroma that made her slightly dizzy. His scent hadn’t changed, and it was still as tempting as it had been all those years ago.
“Why are you still here? My security alerted me that you were here after dark. You should be home. This neighborhood isn’t safe during the day, much less at night,” he growled softly.
“Simon’s security” Somehow, she couldn’t associate the two men, even if they were brothers. Simon was nice and had a heart of gold underneath his gruff exterior. Sam was the devil himself, Satan disguised as a GQ model, with more money and power than any man had the right to have. Especially a man like Samuel Hudson.
“What if some thug got through security, found you here alone and vulnerable?” He moved closer, so close she could feel his warm breath caressing her temple.
God, he was so tall, so broad and muscular. Sam had worked construction when she had known him years ago, hard physical labor that had given him a sculpted, perfect body. Strangely, it hadn’t changed one single bit. How in the hell did a man maintain that awesome body sitting behind a desk? Backing away from his intimating presence, her ass bumped against the desk, leaving her no space to move away farther.
“A man could take advantage of a woman alone in an empty office,” he continued, his voice low, dangerous.
Maddie pushed against Sam’s chest, trying to get free of her wedged-in position between him and the desk. “Move. Back off, Hudson, before I’m forced to send your balls into your throat.”
His muscular thigh moved over hers, immobilizing the possibility of kneeing him in the groin. “I taught you that move, remember. And never tell your attacker your intensions, Madeline.”
She craned her neck and looked at him, his emerald green eyes watching her carefully. Just as it had years ago, his handsome face took her breath away. He’d always reminded her of some ancient blond god, so damn perfect that his body and features should be carved in marble. However, at the moment, he might be as hard as marble, but he was far from cold. Heat emanated from his body in waves, his eyes just as fiery and molten. “Go fuck yourself, Hudson.”
Sam’s lips turned up, twitching precariously like he was trying not to grin. His hands splayed over her back, pulling her body completely into his as he whispered into her ear, “I’d rather fuck you, Sunshine. Much more satisfying. You’re still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Even more beautiful than you were years ago.”
Liar. He’s such a damn liar. If I had been so desirable he wouldn’t have done what he did. “Let go and get the hell out of my office.” The bastard was playing her, and it was intolerable. She wasn’t beautiful and she was nothing like the twiggy blonde models that he sported on his arm and took to his bed.
“Kiss me first. Prove to me that there isn’t something left unfinished between us,” Sam answered, his dark green eyes lit with sparks of fire, his voice hard and demanding.
“The only thing left unfinished is the fact that you never even said you were sorry for what you did. You didn’t give a damn. You didn’t-”
Maddie never got a chance to finish. Sam’s hot, hard mouth smothered her bitter words, never asking, only demanding her response. His large, agile hands moved down her back, grasping her ass and lifting her to a sitting position on the desk, making it easier for him to devour her mouth.
Sam never just kissed: he branded, he claimed. Maddie moaned into his mouth as his tongue entered and retreated, entered and retreated, until she was breathless. Surrendering, her arms wound around his neck, her hands fisting his silken wavy locks of hair, savoring the fall of softness over her fingertips.
Wrapping her legs around his hips, needing to somehow find an anchor to keep her from drifting away in a tidal wave of lust, she allowed her tongue to duel with his, feeling his arousal against her heated core. Her hips surged against his erection with every hard thrust of his tongue.
Sam groaned, his hands delving under her sweatshirt, his fingertips stroking over the bare skin of her back, making her shiver with longing.
Maddie was drowning, lost in a sea of desire and need, slowly being pulled under the surface by a force stronger than her will.
I have to stop. This has to end before I’m completely lost.
Yanking her head back, her mouth disconnected from Sam’s, leaving her panting for oxygen and completely shaken. Sam pulled her head forward to rest against his heaving chest.
“Shit. Maddie. Maddie,” he choked out, one hand spearing into her curls, stroking her hair reverently.
Oh, God. No. She couldn’t be sucked in by Sam Hudson again. Not in any way. She shoved hard against his chest, twisting away and lowering her legs until her feet hit the floor. “Get off me.”
Fury built to a raging inferno inside her. How dare he use her, play with her because he was bored and she was the only available female in the building? Sam Hudson was a playboy, a man who took women to his bed and discarded them, finding another plaything soon after he was done with the last one. Did the man have a conscience? Did he care about no one but himself?
Maddie wanted to curl up into a little ball to protect herself, shamed by the way she had responded to Sam even though he was a complete dog. What kind of a person did that make her?
She shrugged away from him, turning to sprint for the door.
“Maddie. Wait.” Sam’s voice was husky, pleading, demanding.
He grasped her arm, swinging her to face him before she was able to get to the door. Maddie glared at him, her fury and fear battling for dominance. “Don’t touch me again. Ever. I’m not the stupid, naïve woman you once knew. I trusted you once, and I forgave myself because I was young. I won’t do it again. I don’t have the excuse of youth to even justify being that stupid.”
“You still want me,” Sam answered vehemently, his eyes raking over her body, settling on her face.
Looking him straight in the eye, she answered angrily, “No, I don’t. My body might respond to a gorgeous man, but it’s just physiological, a sexual reaction. You,” she poked a hand to his chest as she spat out, “mean absolutely nothing to me anymore.”
“You want me to fuck you until you scream. I can still make you purr, Kitten,” he told her arrogantly, a satisfied smirk on his face.
She shrugged, trying to force down her violent desire to slap the conceited look from his handsome face. “I wouldn’t know. You’ve never fucked me. And you never will.”
Wrenching her arm from his hold, Maddie vaulted through the office door, scooping her jacket from the hook by the reception desk and bolting through the lobby and out the front door of the clinic. Maddie didn’t look back. She couldn’t. One of Hudson’s security officers escorted her to her car and Maddie drove away like she was a convicted criminal with the law on her tail, wanting nothing more than to get as far away from Sam as she could possibly get.
Maddie drove in a daze, two words playing through her hazy brain like a broken record.
Never again.
Never again.
***
Sam Hudson walked slowly through the reception area of the clinic, lost in his own thoughts. What the hell had just happened? He’d stopped to see if Maddie was okay, concerned that she was still at the clinic so late, a quick stop to make sure all was okay. Damn. Could he ever see the woman and not want to possess her, make her want him as much as he wanted her.
You’ve never gotten over her. You probably never will. She’s haunted you for years. She got under your skin like a sliver of wood that’s always a little bit raw and irritated, never working its way out again.
Stepping outside, Sam closed the outside door behind him. He glanced at one of his security officers. “Can you lock up?”
The man nodded. “Yes sir. Hope your meeting with Dr. Reynolds went okay.”
Sam barked a humorless, self-mocking laugh. “Yeah. It was very informative.” He lifted a hand to the other guards as he departed, making his way to his vehicle.
Yep. That meeting had gone really well, he thought darkly as he stepped into his Bugatti and started the engine.
You never even said you were sorry.
Her words tormented him, would probably always torture him now. “Fuck!” Sam slammed his fist against the steering wheel in frustration. Nope. He hadn’t ever said he was sorry. Then again, Maddie had never given him the chance. Still, he should have said it, found a way to apologize. He hadn’t had a chance back then, and he had just blown his second chance a few minutes ago.
What was it about Maddie that made him lose his reason?
You’re acting like an asshole because she doesn’t really care about you anymore and it’s eating you alive. You might be able to have her body if you seduce her…but never her heart. Never again.
Once, years ago, Maddie had looked at him with eyes that sparkled with admiration, adoration. One stupid action, one idiotic incident, and he had washed that look from her beautiful eyes forever.
Leaning his forehead against the steering wheel, he closed his eyes, still able to picture the Maddie who had looked at him with respect and affection even when he hadn’t had two pennies to rub together. It was ironic: now that he was one of the wealthiest men in the world, that she eyed him like a bug that needed to be squashed, a rodent that needed to be exterminated.
You’ll see her again. She’ll be forced to talk to you for Simon and Kara’s wedding. The wedding was being held in his home, so Maddie wouldn’t have a choice. He was the best man and she was the maid of honor. Maddie would have to at least be civil, and Sam knew she would. She was considerate and loyal to anyone she considered a friend. Her own feelings would take a back seat to making sure Kara had a happy wedding, one with no hassles or ugliness.
And no matter how Maddie treats me, no matter how she looks at me, I won’t be a dick to her.
Sam sat back in his seat with a heavy sigh and put his car in gear, wondering if that were even possible anymore. Truth was, the years had changed him, made him into a man that he wasn’t at all certain he liked anymore.
Find a woman, someone to take your mind off Maddie.
Snapping his seatbelt on as he backed out of the parking space, Sam took a deep breath and ran through a mental list of willing females…until he caught a tantalizing smell, an elusive scent that clung tenaciously to his sweater. Her fragrance. A reminder of what had just occurred in her office.
“Fuck! I can’t do it. I can’t be with another woman. Not now,” he whispered to himself, pissed off that he had kissed her, felt her lush curves against his body. Now, thinking about spending the night in the bed of any other woman but Maddie left him cold.
Sam braked his vehicle at the exit of the parking lot, glancing quickly at his watch, grinning as he turned left instead of right, headed toward Simon’s condo.
It was time.
Simon had called him earlier, informing Sam that he was going to be an uncle, and asking for a favor, which was a complete rarity for Simon. Honestly, there was nothing Sam wouldn’t do for his little brother. He had failed to protect Simon once, and it wasn’t happening ever again. Whatever Simon needed, he’d be there for him.
Thank God Simon had found Kara. Sam adored his brother’s fiancée, wanting to kiss the ground she walked on because she loved his little brother unconditionally, made Simon happier than Sam had ever seen him. And Simon deserved that happiness, that kind of devotion from a woman. Unfortunately, watching Simon and Kara together made Sam realize just how empty his own life was, how desolate and superficial his existence had become.
Kissing Maddie, holding her again after all those years, had made things even worse. It was like something was awakening deep inside him, a sensation that was familiar, yet not. Certainly, it wasn’t comfortable.
Forget her. Forget what it felt like to lose yourself in Maddie’s softness, her scent, the feel of her lush curves and deliciously eager mouth.
Sam cursed, knowing he’d be sleeping alone tonight, taking himself in hand as he fantasized about Maddie. And this time, those memories would be much more vivid, newer, more real than ever before.
Fuck! He was so completely screwed…and definitely not in a good way.