Marked for Marriage (19 page)

She was also sexy, brazen and comfortable in her own skin, and he particularly liked that she could stand naked before him without embarrassment. Grinning, he started helping her undress him.

His rush to get naked didn't surprise Maddie, but the devilish little grin on his face did. He was so stunningly handsome that Maddie's head swam. People always said that beauty was only skin deep, and that might be precisely the case with Noah Martin, but it gave Maddie such pleasure to look at him that she really didn't care—not at that particular moment, at any rate. Maybe she'd care in the morning, maybe she'd be sick-to-her-stomach sorry in the morning, but right then, doing her finest to rid him of every garment covering his buff, sexy body, she had neither wish nor will to bring this to a screeching halt.

Noah threw back the covers of her bed. Together they lay down and then Noah pulled the covers over them. They snuggled and cuddled and kissed. Their desire grew with each caress, and Maddie couldn't keep quiet to save her soul. At first her sounds were tiny whimpers, but then they changed to moans that became louder and louder until anyone in the house would have heard her.

But considering the incredible sensations that Noah was
arousing within her with his hand between her legs, she couldn't help herself.

“You…you know everything about…a woman…because you're a doctor,” she gasped.

“I think most men know what pleasures a woman.”

Maddie almost told him that he was wrong about that, but she really didn't want to invite any sort of discussion or even a comment about other men who might have shared her bed. But he
was
wrong. The men in her past—few as they'd been—certainly hadn't known what Dr. Nimble Fingers did about a woman's anatomy. How could a woman not love a man with Noah's expertise?

“Kiss me,” she whispered raggedly. “Kiss me and never stop kissing me.”

Noah obliged her with a long, hot, wet and passionately hungry kiss. She might be very appreciative of his knowledgeable caresses, but her hand encircling his manhood was bringing him to the brink very quickly. This time he was better prepared, and he broke away from her just long enough to reach to the floor and into a pocket of his pants.

Then he took care of business in two seconds flat and moved on top of her. Kissing her breasts, pacing himself as best he could so this would end as it should—he wanted her as satisfied as he knew he would be—he then kissed her mouth again. The sexy moans coming from deep in her throat increased the pressure building in his body. Sliding into her, joining their straining bodies intimately nearly finished him off, and he gritted his teeth and didn't move a muscle to maintain some self-control.

Maddie moved, though. She couldn't lie still with him inside her. He filled her so completely, and her need for fulfillment was bittersweet agony.

“Why did you stop?” she whispered.

“Had to or it would have been over before it began.”

“Oh…I see.”

“I doubt it. Just believe that it's been a while for me and let it go at that, okay?”

“Hmm,” she murmured, extremely curious about Noah's statement. A man like him going without didn't seem possible. Were the women in Whitehorn blind? They didn't used to be. Maddie remembered her growing-up years very well, and Montana gals sure hadn't been shy in those days.

“Maddie, help me out here. Lie still, just for a minute or so,” Noah groaned.

“I can't lie still. It feels so good and I need…I need…well, you know what I need. You need the same thing, don't you?”

“You are driving me crazy! Yes, I need the same thing, but you're not going to get what you need if I don't take a short breather.”

Maddie's response to that observation was to slowly but steadily lift and lower her hips. “Sorry,” she whispered, “but I can't help it.”

Groaning, Noah gave up and began moving with her. “You are hotter than Hades,” he growled in her ear. “Hot and tight. Perfect…so damned perfect.”

“
You're
perfect,” she panted. “Big and hot and perfect. Oh, Noah, I—I've never…felt so much before.”

He covered her chatty little mouth with his own and kissed her senseless. Himself, as well. When they reached the pinnacle and cried out, they each realized it had happened at the same time, something of a miracle for first-time lovers.

In the afterglow of the most spectacular lovemaking of Maddie's life, she lay in Noah's arms. “That was very special for me,” she whispered after pressing a loving kiss to his chest.

It had been special for Noah, too, but he couldn't quite bring himself to say so. In truth he wasn't entirely contented, not in
the same way that Maddie was. Oh, he was sexually satisfied, immensely so, in fact, but he didn't want Maddie thinking that what they'd just done together meant more than it did. She was acting all lovey-dovey and would probably swoon if he talked about how incredible it had really been for him.

What he was, he finally realized, was confused, addled. He had absolutely no intentions of falling in love, planning a wedding, et cetera, et cetera—God knew that one turn at bat in
that
ball field was enough for any man—but he would bet anything that Maddie's brain was full of romantic hearts and flowers, and that really concerned him. After all, Maddie was a country girl at heart, however much she'd traveled around because of her work.

In spite of so much concern, he couldn't deny that he'd connected with Maddie in a remarkable way. It would be damned tough to chalk this up to a one-night stand and never touch her again, especially when he already wanted her again. She was a sweet bundle of warm and pliable femininity all wrapped around him real cozy-like, and of course he wanted her again. The alternative was to get out of her bed, her brother's house and Maddie's life. If he stayed where he was, he was going to wear them both out.

No, he thought adamantly, he wasn't. He could never undo what had already occurred, but he was not going to compound one sin with repetition.

Stirring, he untangled himself from Maddy, turned on the bed and sat up with his feet on the floor.

Maddie lay there, wide-eyed and bewildered. She felt Noah's emotional withdrawal in her heart, her soul, and it struck her painfully and without mercy that while their lovemaking had been perfect and beautiful for her, it had disappointed him.
She
had disappointed him. After all, what did she know about pleasing a man?

“I—I'm sorry,” she whispered, misery in every syllable.

“No,
I'm
sorry,” Noah said gruffly, and got off the bed to get dressed. He didn't look at her while he yanked on his clothes and muttered, “I can't believe my own stupidity. What in hell kind of fool have I become?”

Maddie's eyes got even bigger. “You're angry at yourself? Why, for heaven's sake?”

He sent her a brief and granite-hard glance. “I took advantage of you, that's why!”

She sat up with a jerk. “That's crazy!”

“I fully agree.”

“No, you're deliberately misinterpreting what I said! I meant your attitude
now
was crazy, not…not what we did.”

“Not
we,
me.”

“You were crazy but I wasn't? What are you trying to do, make yourself out to be some sort of villain because you made love to a willing woman?”

“I made love to a child!”

“That's ridiculous. I'm twenty-three years old!”

“I didn't mean a child in terms of age.”

Maddie's mouth hung open while she digested the worst insult of her entire life. She wasn't good enough for Noah Martin, not intellectual enough or educated enough or sophisticated enough. Probably not pretty enough, either.

“You jerk,” she croaked hoarsely. “Apparently you'd sleep with any woman. You proved it, so don't look all shocked and victimized because I spelled it out for you. But then, after you've had your kicks, you start judging her, and I didn't measure up, did I? With your nose-in-the-air, better-than-thou attitude, probably no woman measures up, so you're a strictly screw 'em and leave 'em guy!”

Noah felt sick to his stomach. Maddie might have a right to some anger, but she'd totally misinterpreted what
he'd
said, even while accusing him of misconstruing what
she'd
said. Actually he considered her country-girl charm vastly more
desirable than the double-edged sword of sophistication with which women like Felicia skewered friends and enemies alike. But how did a man explain his kinder side to a hopping-mad woman whose blazing green eyes looked as though she'd love to destroy him on the spot?

“Forget it,” he growled. “Just forget the whole damned thing.” Grabbing his socks and boots off the floor he headed for the door.

“Which, I'm sure, you'll have no trouble doing! But some of us humans have a heart, you cold-blooded rat!”

Grim-lipped, Noah turned and looked at her. “Think about this. I could have led you on…and on…and on. Throughout the night without question and probably every damned day that you're in town. But I couldn't do it, not because of me, you ungrateful little witch, but because I didn't want you hurt. Are you capable of understanding that concept? I'd bet a million bucks that you—after making love only once—were up to your eyeballs in dreamy, romantic, candlelit scenarios. Where in hell would you end up after a whole night of lovemaking?”

Maddie forced herself to laugh, because it was either laugh or cry, for her. “You have an ego problem, Dr. Ain't-I-Just-the-Cat's-Meow-in-Bed. I hope you're not laboring under the misconception that you were the best lover I've had, 'cause, Doc, it's just not true. Oh, you were pretty good, but the best? No way. So, my advice is to get over yourself and stop thinking that you could have had me throughout the night.” Maddie forced another laugh. “Frankly, I was starting to get bored…and quite sleepy. You saved me the trouble of kicking you out of my bed without hurting your sensitive little feelings. Oh, sorry, I forgot. You don't have any.”

Lying down again, Maddie turned to her side with her back to Noah. “Please turn off the light before you go,” she said. It was her final shot because she was tightly scrunching her eyes to keep them from spilling tears, and she didn't know
how much longer she could fool Noah into thinking that she was tough and hard and as worthy an opponent as he'd ever run into. She was an independent soul, and she'd learned long ago how to take care of herself, but trading insults with a man she'd fallen pretty hard for—proving it to herself if not to him only minutes ago—hurt like the very devil.

The lights went off, relieving some of Maddie's anxiety, and then the room was completely silent, so Noah had apparently left quietly. She let the dam break then, and her tears drenched her pillow.

Noah sat in the living room with his boots next to his chair. He hurt all over. Maddie had been cruel, and he might have deserved some of the things she'd said but not all of them. She didn't know his past and she didn't know that he hadn't taken one woman to bed since moving to Whitehorn. To the contrary, she believed that he was a womanizer and would sleep with anything in skirts. Worse than that, she believed that he judged his bed partners. She was positive that he'd judged her and found her lacking!

He sighed heavily, despondently. He might not have been jumping-up-and-down happy before meeting Maddie Kincaid, but he'd carved himself out a routine in Whitehorn that had seemed reasonably satisfying. Now he knew the truth. He hadn't been contented or satisfied at all, and his celibate lifestyle had been a mistake—a very big mistake.

Well, it seemed pretty clear that Maddie preferred he not be there in the morning, so he might as well go home and leave her be. She didn't respect his efforts to help her, anyhow, so why was he bothering? Look how she'd blown off that appointment with Dr. Herrera.

And she really had stolen his SUV, Noah reminded himself. She had more bloody gall than anyone he'd ever known, and why should he spend one second worrying about a person who
not only didn't appreciate anything he did for her but actually resented it?

With another long sigh, Noah reached for his boots and pulled them on. It took a few minutes to gather his things and to put on his warm, outside clothing, but the moment finally came when he was ready to go.

This time he would not leave a note. After switching off the lights he'd turned on earlier while waiting for Maddie to get back with his car—he'd come very close to finding a cop or deputy sheriff and demanding she be arrested, but he'd chickened out on that for Mark's sake—he finally left. Fuming between house and driveway, he asked himself if Maddie had appreciated his generosity in not bringing the law down on her treacherous head and answered out loud, “Not one damn bit.” It irritated him still that she'd come waltzing into the house as though she hadn't done a thing wrong.

But he was worse than Maddie when it came right down to it. He was a sap and a sucker. When she got back he should have run, not walked but run, to his car and driven away as fast as he could under the icy conditions. Instead he'd hung around just aching to tell her off, and then when he had the chance to really give her hell he'd stupidly made a pass!

Reaching his vehicle, he suddenly realized something. It was no longer snowing, and a warm wind was blowing. It's a Chinook, he thought and lifted his face to the pleasant warmth on his skin. Chinooks were warm, dry winds that descended the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Sometimes they could be dangerously powerful and knocked down trees and anything else in their paths, but normally they were like this one was, a delight that warmed winter-burned skin and melted mountains of snow and ice in record time.

Of course, if a Chinook was too warm it melted the snow too fast and caused flooding. This one felt just about right to Noah, warm but not dangerous. The snow would be about half-
gone by morning, and if the Chinook continued throughout tomorrow, Whitehorn would be pretty much snow free and back to normal. No one would be sorry about that, Noah thought as he climbed into his SUV.