All Madeline wore was a blush and panties. She was breathtaking. I fervently wished I could see her in this outfit every fucking day. A new kind of casual Friday, maybe.

“What are you leering at, sir?”

“You, baby. I could eye fuck you all. Day. Long.” I kneeled on the bed beside her. “And remember, I’m not your boss here.”

“Could have fooled me,” she muttered.

“Ahem. I think I demonstrated my willingness to give up control earlier in my office, don’t you think?”

She flushed scarlet. “I said I was sorry—”

I bent down, my knee on the bed, and placed my hand over her mouth. “Stop. It was amazing. Well, almost amazing. I should return the favor.”

Her eyes widened in alarm at the thought of me withholding her orgasm now. “But I won’t,” I reassured her. “There will be no stopping us now. No games, no baby steps, no slacking. I am all in, and I want you to give me everything you’ve got.”

Her eyes fluttered shut, making me remove my hand so she could speak—but she didn’t. When she opened her eyes, they were nearly black with want. “I’ll try,” she promised hoarsely.

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

The laughter erupting from her chest made her body wobble in miraculous, wonderful ways. “You’re such a geek.”

This wasn’t news to me, nor should it be to her after I showed her my playroom. I shrugged. “I’ve been accused of worse.” At the back of my bedside table, I found a small strip of condoms, which I tossed on the bed silently.

She wriggled back on the bed as I approached her. I couldn’t tell if she was nervous or excited, or possibly both. Madeline Jones made my head spin—spontaneous one moment, shy the next.

Shy Madeline let me peel her damp panties down her legs, but spontaneous Madeline announced I was still overdressed, before proceeding to remedy that fact.

Shy Madeline burrowed her face into my neck when I teased her to the edge of orgasm, but spontaneous Madeline sucked my fingers clean.

Shy Madeline left the condom to me, but spontaneous Madeline rolled me over and straddled me.

“What do you want to do to me?” she asked.

I smirked at her. “I love multiple choice tests.” My hands roamed over her, from the curves of her tits and ass to the sinuous line of her back and shoulders. Her breath came quick and sharp as I outlined the possibilities with my fingertips.

“No kinky stuff tonight, okay?”

My hands froze near the perfection of her bellybutton. “Did I hurt you before?” Oh shit. My need for control and commitment had already fucked this up.

“No. God, no!” She bent to kiss me then looked me straight in the eye. “I just need a good, old-fashioned fucking,” she told me.

“Old-fashioned, huh? I thought you said no kink,” I teased her.

I was divining at her entrance as she hovered above me. Her arms and thighs were shaking a little, but I doubted it was from fatigue. I gripped her hips—not to pull her down on me, but to reassure her.

“I just want to be with you,” she said. But she still looked a little nervous.

“We can stop if you want, Madeline.” God knew I didn’t want to, but I would. It was easier to live with blue balls than with bad decisions.

She shook her head, biting her lip before she bent over to kiss me. With her mouth, she committed to me. Her lips parted and her breath mixed with mine. The taste of her, cinnamon and coffee and caramel, punched through all my neural receptors. I grew harder, aching to penetrate her blistering heat. We were both at the top of the tower and ready to jump together.

Raising her head, she looked behind me. “Next time I’m going to tie you to that, sir.”

Oh fuck.

“Next time I’ll let you. But I don’t think we need the rope to keep us together tonight.

Then she lowered herself on to me, taking every inch of me inside her until I felt as though we couldn’t be any closer. Holy Jesus, she felt amazing. She was so excruciatingly snug and hot that I had to close my eyes to regain some control.

“Maddie, don’t move.”

I was embarrassingly close to blowing my load, just at the feel and knowledge of being embedded within her. Her whimper forced my eyes open.

“Gage, I need to move.” Her voice was tight, her mouth stretched a little at the corners.

Ironically, her urgency stopped me dead, a panicky feeling rushing through me. “Am I hurting you?”

“God, no. I’m so full, I feel like, ungh.” My eyes nearly crossed as she squeezed me. “Your tab is too big for my slot,” she complained.

My cock swelled further at her words, which made her groan again. “Sorry.” I grinned, not really sorry at all. My hands still clamped onto her hips, I encouraged her to move, relatively certain now that I could hold out.

She moaned with relief as she rose up a little and started weaving back and forth. “That feels better.”

“Yeah?” I gritted out, realizing that I might have been prematurely convinced of my self-control.

Her hair fell around her shoulders as she rode me, a flush crawling across her chest. Automatically my palms went up to meet her breasts, making her move a little faster.

“Jesus, Gage, I’m too close,” she panted.

Thank god I wasn’t the only one poised on the edge here. There would be time for finesse later. I would make time. She’d said she wanted an old-fashioned fucking, and this would be over soon enough judging by the tightening in my balls.

I slid my right hand down over her belly to where we were fused together, my thumb unerringly sliding over her clit.

“Fuck!” She tossed her head from side to side. The lower lip she’d been chewing on earlier fell, her mouth open and breathing harshly. “I’m sorry! Oh god, I’m coming already!”

As I felt her spasm around me, the knife of my own climax severed my control. “Fuck, Maddie!”

I reached up for her and dragged her down to me, swallowing her gasps while stars exploded behind my eyes. And in my balls. And in my ass.

There was a whole goddamn planetarium laser lightshow happening in my body.

Her skin was hot as it pressed against mine, but my roving hands felt tiny bumps rising on her arms. She shivered, tumbling off me gracelessly onto the pillowy bed.

“One sec.” I got up to remove the condom, and when I got back she was splayed out on her stomach and she’d put her head under a pillow.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“Need the cool side of the pillow,” she replied, her voice muffled a little.

I pulled up one side, exposing her flushed face. “Is it working?”

“Not really. I’m still hot. But then again, your junk is in my face,” she pointed out.

I stood beside the bed, naked, and laughed. Hell, I had nothing to be ashamed of. She burrowed her head back under the pillow. Shy and spontaneous, that was Madeline.

“Are you going to fall asleep on me?”

The pillow flew off the bed as she pushed herself up on her hands and knees like a frightened cat. She looked stricken. “No! No, I’m sorry, I won’t fall asleep.” Her gaze flitted around the room. “In fact, I should get going.”

“What? No, that’s not what I meant.” I picked up the pillow and threw it back on the bed. “Go ahead, fall asleep if you want. You had a hard day.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Really? That’s terrible, Gage.”

“I’m not going to kick you out of bed for eating crackers.”

She smiled then clutched her midsection as her stomach audibly gurgled.

“Shit, I forgot to feed you!” I looked at the clock; it was close to nine. I’d lost all sense of time with her. Now I knew how my mother and sister felt every day, and it was unnerving to say the least.

I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and headed down to the kitchen. While I was rooting through the fridge for a makeshift dinner, she sauntered in wearing the shirt I’d discarded earlier—and only the shirt.

“Madeline,” I groaned. She was going to kill me. It was a well-known fact that wearing his rumpled button-down shirt was Kryptonite for any man—even a paper billionaire.

“What?” The little vixen tried to blink innocently. In one hand she was holding my phone. “Your pants were vibrating.”

“That’s what she said.”

She rolled her eyes as she passed me the phone. Seven missed calls? The screen was full of text messages from Aaron.

Where are you? Call me asap!

“Somefing wong?” She’d somehow found an actual box of crackers in a cupboard and was munching happily on them.

“Aaron’s blowing up my phone.” I frowned, already annoyed. “I asked him to do some mock-ups this weekend but he said he was taking the weekend off. Really, who takes the weekends off? I expect people to commit to their jobs. It’s not a fucking internship.”

When I looked up, her eyes had narrowed into critical slits and she slammed the cracker box on the marble-topped island. The crumbs on the hardwood floor underneath her made me wince. My fingers itched to get the broom.

“Present company excluded, of course.” It was a poor attempt to cover my ass, and I knew it, which made me grumpier.

A man should not feel grumpy ten minutes after an orgasm, but somehow I’d managed to achieve it. Goddammit.

Without even bothering to listen to the voice mails—there were four of them—I called Aaron.

“Hey, wha—”

“Dude, where have you been?”

I straightened immediately at the panic in Aaron’s voice, my gaze snapping to Madeline. She must have heard his scream, because she too went on alert and moved closer to me.

“I’m home now—”

“Fuck, man, you gotta get here fast. There’s blood everywhere, and I don’t know what’s going on. They won’t tell me because I’m not family, and I can’t reach your mom.”

“Blood?” Mine ran cold at Aaron’s words. “Where are you? What are you talking about?”

I grabbed Madeline’s hand. She looked up at me with alarm. “What blood?”

“I brought Bobbie to the ER. There was so much blood and she passed out. But they won’t let me go back with her and they won’t tell me anything.”

My friend sounded like he was losing it. And god only knew what was wrong with my sister. I felt clammy and spacy, flashing on memories of losing our father. I fucking hated hospitals.

Madeline squeezed my hand then let go to fly up the stairs like a pale ghost. I followed behind her as she gathered her clothes. Partly in shock myself and with a hell of a lot more questions, I tried to focus on what needed to be done in that moment. Lists flew through my head, shuffling into mental files and put in order.

“Okay, calm down. We’re coming. What hospital?”