For a girl who was so sexually provocative she flushed bright red with embarrassment. “I am,” she mumbled.

I frowned. “You’re on the pill?”

She nodded, her eyelashes sweeping downwards.

I looked at her curiously. “Why? If you were not having sex?”

She met my eyes, her face suddenly serious. “I’ve been on the pill for two years. I was waiting for you, Quinn. I wanted to be prepared for the day you’d see me as a woman.”

I stared at her in astonishment. Hot damn. She had been waiting for me for two fucking years. I tried to hide the wave of fierce joy and pleasure racing through my veins.

Her eyes danced with amusement. “I know I chased you, but you can pretend to chase me if you want…if it makes you feel more macho.”

I grinned. What an imp. I could see already I would have my hands full with this one. My pillow still smelled lightly of chlorine. I had been too distracted to have a shower last night, but I needed a bath to get the pool smell off me before it clung to all my clothes.

I slapped her rump and swung my legs out of bed. “Come on, it’s bath time for dirty girls.”

“Oh, yeah?” she asked, a big smile on her face.

I reached down and scooped her up against my chest. And you, little Madison, are a very, very dirty girl.”

She entwined her hands around my neck, planted a chaste kiss on my cheek and murmured, “I think you’ll find some areas are way dirtier than others.”

My cock was throbbing as I carried her through to the bathroom. I had never wanted to carry a woman in my arms before, and I didn’t know at what point my brain had rewired itself, but around Madison I felt like a grunting caveman.

And my primitive brain had decided: all her delicious curves belonged to me. The best place for them was obviously in my arms.

I put her on the counter, and ran the bath. She watched quietly as I hunted around for a bottle of bath oil some woman had given me years ago and poured it into the water. Then I lowered her into the warm silky water. She closed her eyes and let out a moan of pleasure as it lapped up around her body; I slid in behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. She leaned back against me, let her head drop on to my shoulder and closed her eyes.

“This is perfect,” she whispered.

I buried my nose in her hair. To my surprise, I couldn’t think of anything more perfect.

“Mmm…I could just sleep here.”

“Me too,” I agreed, and closed my eyes. She felt so natural between my legs. Yeah, I was turned-on, who wouldn’t be, but I was also strangely content to sit there in the warm water and just enjoy the sensation of her luscious body resting on mine. I ran my hands along her thighs and she opened them for me. A little satisfied sound came out of my mouth. She half-turned her head and smiled, and I felt my cock jerked hard. Well, so much for an innocent bath together.

“I thought you said you were going to wash my dirty bits,” she reminded cheekily, grinding her ass back sinuously against my erection.

I reached over to the jug sitting on the side of the bath, and wet her hair. It darkened to a dark blonde. I ran my fingers through the length reverently. I had fought so hard to keep myself from touching her, and now that I finally got my hands on her, I couldn’t stop touching her. I grabbed the shampoo.

“It smells like you,” she remarked, as I massaged it into her scalp and worked up a rich lather. She sighed with satisfaction as I worked my fingers though her hair. I never would have imagined there would be so much pleasure in such a simple task enjoying the feel of her so close to me. I washed it out, running my fingers over the sensitive points where her scalp met her neck, enjoying the little shivers that seemed to skitter involuntarily over her body at my touch.

“You missed your calling as a hairdresser.”

“Let me give you a cut and we’ll see,” I teased.

She grabbed for her sopping wet hair, jerked away, and glared at me. “You come anywhere near my hair with a pair of scissors and I’ll snip your balls off in your sleep.”

I tried not to laugh at her expression. She looked so cute. “So that’s a hard line then.”

“You better believe it, buster.”

I held my hands up, palms facing her, and laughed.

She grinned suddenly and splashed water in my face. I grabbed her slippery body. She was like a fucking eel. Suddenly she landed on top of me.

“You’re bad, you know,” she whispered, her eyes dark with passion

Fuck. Just like that, any tenderness lingering between us vanished. I carried her out of the bath, threw her on the bed, and fucked her until she screamed. By the time we were done, both of us were sweatier than when we’d started, and ravenous to boot.

“You want some breakfast?” I asked, and she nodded, face pressed into the pillow and eyes half-dazed. She looked as though she still hadn’t quite gotten over the three orgasms she’d shuddered through in the past half-hour, and I had to admit it was a deeply satisfying sight.

“I’ll order us some coffee and bagels,” I said, getting to my feet and grabbing my phone.

A coffee shop in Highland Avenue did great food and they were always happy to deliver. I called up, ordered us a selection of pastries and other good stuff, and yanked on some clothes. They are quick off the mark at that bakery. I glanced over at Madison to find her watching me appreciatively from the bed.

“What are you looking at?” I asked playfully, and she held her hands up defensively.

“Am I not allowed to look?” She flashed me a grin.

“Look away,” I said and pulled on a soft, old T-shirt over my head.

She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you out of a suit before. Very sexy. Obviously not as sexy as you look without clothes.”

“You’re sweet, but when it comes to sexy you take the cake, in and out of…uh, clothes.”

She stretched deeply and the sheet slipped, revealing one rosy nipple. Like a man in a daze I made my way across the room toward her. I bent down to suck it. She smelled of sex and I wanted her all over again.

She batted her eyelashes, and jerked me suddenly toward her. I fell on top of her and before I knew it we were rolling around on the bed, arms wrapped around each other, and giggling like a couple of teenagers. Well, I supposed she wasn’t that far away from…no. No. No. Hang on. She wasn’t a kid anymore. She was a woman. Out of nowhere a thought popped into my head.

My woman. She was my woman.

The doorbell rang. The food had arrived.

I took it from the delivery guy and brought it back to the bedroom. She had the covers tucked around her in the most perfect way. I handed her a coffee and a bagel. Dumping the other paper bags on the bed, I grabbed a croissant for myself.

“Uh, this is so good,” she mumbled around a mouthful of bagel. “I'll have to move over here just for the food.”

We looked at each other, and the mood suddenly changed. Kevin would be back soon and she lived across the ocean. I blinked. I didn’t want to let her go. Damn, I couldn’t let her go.

She reached over and squeezed my hand. “We have until the end of the week. And we can…we can take it from there,” she said softly. Suddenly she felt all grown-up and responsible. I felt like the unreasonable child in the equation. I scowled and took a bite of my croissant. I didn’t want to give her up.

Before I could even swallow the mouthful, my cell buzzed. I think some part of me knew the outside world come to destroy what I had built. I tried to ignore it, but it was insistent.

Madison looked at me. “Maybe you should take it.”

I reached over, dropping crumbs on the bed. It was worse than I thought. It was Kevin.

I brought the phone to my ear as Madison looked at me, her eyebrows raised in a silent question. “Hey,” I said.

“Where the fuck are you? I tried to call you last night for hours,” Kevin said.

I could hear the buzz of a crowd in the background. “I took Madison out to dinner, remember?” I said slowly.

“Oh, yeah. How did it go?”

My eyes rose up and locked with Madison’s. She was staring at me curiously. “It went well.”

“That’s great. Now congratulate me. I did it. I got them to sign on the dotted line.”

“Fantastic,” I mumbled.

“Anyway, good news. I’m back in town. You’re relieved from your babysitting duties.”

I felt like I was choking to death. “Great.”

“I tried calling Madison but she didn’t answer her phone either. Where is she?”

“Probably still in bed,” I said. It was not a lie. She was still in bed. Mine.

“Can you let her know that I’ll be over later today to pick her up?”

My heart lurched. “Sure thing,”

“Thanks man,” Kevin said, and hung up. I stared at the dead phone in my hand.

“Was that my dad?” Madison asked, her voice uncharacteristically timid.

“Yeah.” I nodded and looked up at her. “He’s back early. He’s coming around to pick you up later today.”

“What?” she exclaimed, her face draining of all color. “Are you kidding me?”

I wished I was. “No.” I shook my head. I felt as if I had lost all the breath in my lungs. I couldn’t give her back to Kevin. The whole thing was such a clusterfuck. I had no clue what to do next, but I wasn’t giving her up for anything.

“I should call him.” She dumped her bagel on the bedside table and stood.

My jaw was clenched tight, but I let her leave my room. I needed to think. To figure out what the fuck had just happened to my life. Not just with the phone call, but the last twelve hours. I had gone from convincing myself I was doing nothing more than a favor to Madison’s father, to taking her on a date, to fucking her, and now to not wanting to give her up.

The feelings I had done so well to ignore slammed into me. There was no sense of decency left in me. I couldn’t believe I’d let this happen, and at the same time, I couldn’t believe it had taken me so damn long to give in to the feelings that seemed so obvious to me now.

I heard Madison on the phone in the next room, and a few moments later she returned with her cell hanging limply from her hand.

“He has to meet someone later and can’t come around, so he’s sending a car over to pick me up now,” she said, her voice hollow.

I stared at her. I swear, I felt as if I had lost my damn mind.

“I can’t believe this. Just when the two of us-”

“I don’t want you to go,” the words tore out of my mouth.

“I don’t want to go either,” she cried desperately. “But we can’t tell him, Quinn. Not yet. I know how he’ll react. He’d freak out and put me on the next plane back to England.”

I stood, knocking all our breakfast to the ground. “No one’s fucking sending you anywhere,” I snarled.

She stared at me in astonishment.

I ran my hand through my hair. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you. I just need a moment.”

She wrapped her arms around her waist. “But the car will be here any minute, and I need to be in it.”

I scowled. “All right, go pack. I’ll sort it out.”

“No,” she blurted out. “Let me sort my father out. No matter how angry he gets with me, he won’t dream of cutting me off, or hurting me. At least he never has.”

I stared at her in shock. If he dared lay a fucking finger on her…

“Let me talk to him first, okay? Please? I swear this is the best way.”

I nodded slowly. Maybe she was right. Maybe it should come from her. She didn’t come to me or try to touch. She just took a deep shuddering breath and turned around back to her bedroom. Fuck I was even thinking of it as her bedroom now.

For a few seconds, I just stood there like an idiot, then I followed her. Standing helplessly in the doorway, I watched her silently put away her things. Her movements were robotic and sometimes her lower lip trembled. My mind whirled. All I wanted to do was grab her and take her one last time, and remind her why she wanted me in the first place. She had to go, and there was nothing I could do to keep her with me. Well, there were things I could do, but kidnap was still illegal in California. I had to respect her wishes She wanted to tell her father herself. And I wasn’t going to be the one to break the news to him without her permission.

The car arrived and I walked her out. It felt odd, being out in the real world with her. Everything felt different. Could what I was feeling be wrong. Was I just a dirty old man perving over a pretty young thing old enough to be my daughter. The idea irked me. I gave her bags to the driver who stuffed them into the trunk.

Madison turned and looked at me, her eyes wide and glossy as if she was about to cry. “Bye, Quinn.”

The blood roared in my ears. I wanted to grab her, kiss her, and tell her everything was going to be all right, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to let her go if I put my arms around her. I clenched my fists. “Bye.” My voice sounded harsh and angry.

She paused for a moment, as though waiting for me to touch her, then she shook her head, and stepped away. I closed the door shut after she entered the vehicle. I had forced myself to stand still and not call out to the moving car, but in a few seconds, she was gone.

I was left standing alone on my driveway.