Tempting the Best Man

chapter Three



“Oh, man, you two are not going to make it to the wedding.” Mitch leaned back in his chair, eyes glittering with amusement. “No way.”

Madison sighed.

“Why?” her mother asked from the end of the table. “They’ll do just fine.”

“They’ll kill each other,” Mitch said with a laugh, and then he sobered. “They might actually kill each other.”

Turning her eyes to the glass ceiling, Madison struggled for patience. “We aren’t going to kill each other.”

“I wouldn’t make that promise,” Chase muttered, speaking for the first time since they’d left the front desk.

God, she was two seconds from jumping on his back like a monkey and strangling him. But then he strode off, glancing over his shoulder at her.

“This train is leaving for the cabin now if you want a ride.”

Trailing after him, she muttered, “Who hasn’t had a ride?”

Chase stopped dead in his tracks. “Excuse me?”

“I said”—she gave him a saucy smirk—“who hasn’t had a ride?”

He levelled her with a pointed look. “I can think of a few people.”

Wow. He went there. She refused to allow herself to blush again. “Bet you could count them on one hand, too.”

“Possibly,” he murmured and started walking again.

The trip to the cabin—all the way toward the edge of the property, near the thick walnut trees at the mouth of the Blue Ridge Mountains—was silent and awkward.

The moment she’d made the crack about his sex life, she’d regretted it. Saying things like that only reinforced his misguided belief that he was just like his father. It was the thing she never got about him. She knew deep down that becoming like his unfaithful father was Chase’s own personal nightmare, but he did nothing but barrel down that path with a different girl every week. She skirted around a thorny rose bush leaning into the path.

He’d been that way since high school—maybe not as bad as Chad, but Chase exemplified the playboy lifestyle.

And the fact that Chase was an equal opportunity bed jumper always stung, because he was open for business for everyone…everyone but her.

Outside the cabin, Chase held the key like it was a snake about to sink its fangs into his hand.

He hadn’t said a word on the way down. He was pissed; she knew it. What red-blooded single male came to a wedding and enjoyed getting stuck with their best friend’s little sister as their roommate? In an old honeymoon cabin on top of that?

Madison couldn’t believe it. She literally had the worst luck when it came to him.

She checked her cell phone and wanted to throw it. No service.

Finally, he opened the door and reached along the wall, flipping on the light. Her jaw dropped, and she slapped a hand over her mouth.

This was a joke. It had to be. “Your brother has to be behind this,” she said.

Chase shook his head slowly. “If he is, I’m going to kill him.”

It was no wonder the clerk had said the room was scheduled for renovation. Clearly, someone had done a rush job cleaning the room. There was a faint smell of Lysol and potpourri that lingered in the spacy cabin, but the carpet…the bed.

Several throw rugs covered the wood flooring. They were every color of the rainbow, but one was a bear rug. An actual bear rug. The walls were painted a vibrant purple and red, and the bed…the bed draped in red velvet and heart-shaped.

Chase strolled into the room, dropping his keys on a white dresser that looked like something her grandmother would have in her house. He glanced over his shoulder, one brow arched.

Madison busted into laughter. She couldn’t help it. “It’s like a seventies love shack.”

A slow smile stretched across his lips. “I think I’ve seen this room in old-school porn videos.”

She giggled as she followed him in. A quick peek in the bathroom revealed a tub the size of a pool, perfect for the frisky newlywed couple.

Looking over her shoulder, Chase shook his head. “You could fit five people in that thing.”

“That might get awkward.”

“Ah, true, but it’s definitely big enough for two.”

“I don’t know,” she said, turning away from the bathroom and strolling past him. Across from the bed were balcony doors that led to a deck and a Jacuzzi. “I never got the whole bathtub-sex thing.”

“Then you’ve been doing it wrong.” His breath was warm against her cheek, and dear God, wouldn’t he know?

Startled by how quietly he had crept up on her, she spun around and swallowed. Images of him wet, naked, and wrapped around her in that bathtub sent a wave of molten lava shooting through her veins and straight to her core.

Her knees went weak. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“Of course not,” he drawled. “You’ve just had the wrong partner.”

Madison wasn’t a prude, and just because no man had ever lived up to Chase in her eyes didn’t mean she hadn’t dated. And maybe he was right and she just had the wrong partners, because she couldn’t imagine not enjoying some bath time with him, but no way in hell would she ever admit as much to him.

Which meant it was time to change the subject and fast. But when she lifted her lashes and found him still staring at her beneath hooded eyes, her breath hitched in her throat.

Standing this close to him, inches away from a bed that would’ve made Austin Powers proud, was too much. The night in his club resurfaced in a rush of slippery emotions and tangled hopes that never really came to fruition.

She finally found her voice. “It…has nothing to do with my partners.”

Chase cocked his head to the side, his intense blue eyes narrowing. “Partners as in plural?”

Feigning indifference, she rolled her eyes when her heart was racing. “I’m twenty-five, not sixteen.”

“You don’t have to remind me of how old you are,” he all but growled.

“Then why do you seem shocked by the fact that I’ve had sex?”

He took a step forward, and she took one back. “With more than one person?”

Surely this wasn’t breaking news. “How many people have you had sex with? Five hundred?” she threw back. “Hell, how many in one month?”

A clear warning formed in those sapphire-gem eyes. “We’re not talking about me.”

“And we’re not talking about me.” One more step and her back hit the wall. There was nowhere to go. “So, let’s just stop…”

“Stop what?” He leaned in, his breath tantalizingly warm against her cheek, and he planted his large hands against the wall on either side of her head.

Madison’s gaze dropped to his lips, and she hadn’t the foggiest idea what they’d been talking about. Something about sex, and God, talking about sex with Chase was not a good idea. Because now she wanted sex. With Chase. She wanted to feel him inside her, only him, always him.

She wanted so much.

A liquid fire had spread through her veins, licking at her. Lust rose so quickly, pulsing through her limbs, hitting her fast and hard, leaving her senses spinning. A small part of her brain that still functioned fired off warnings left and right. It was insanity to even entertain the idea of anything going down between her and Chase, but as her gaze moved up, colliding with his, her heart stopped.

“Tell me,” he ordered, voice low and gravely. “How many boys have you let touch you?”

Part of her bristled at his demand, but the other incredibly stupid part was thrilled that he cared. “I’ve never been with boys, Chase.”

Anger and something far more potent flared in his blue eyes. “Oh, so that’s how it is.”

“Whatever it is, it’s none of your business.”

He chuckled deeply. The movement brought his lips close to her cheek. “It’s my business.”

“Explain that faulty logic to me,” she said.

Chase smiled. “You’re my best friend’s little sister. That makes it my business—all my business.”

And that was the wrong thing to say. Fire of a different kind now pulsed through her. “Get away.” She started to push off the wall, but Chase leaned in, his chest flush with hers. Her body went haywire. Anger. Lust. Hope. Love. Fear. All her emotions tangled together. “Chase…”

He said nothing, and all she could now concentrate on was the feel of his rock-hard chest pressed against her breasts. The thin cotton of his shirt and her blouse were no match for the heat that rolled off him or the heat building inside her. Her nipples hardened to aching, wanton pearls, and she dragged in a deep breath, biting back a moan.

His lips parted.

There was no hiding her reaction, not from a man like Chase who knew every flavor of woman. And she wanted to be his flavor—his favorite. A tight coil wound deep inside her.

She was panting now, and he hadn’t even really touched her. She tried to disconnect from her out-of-control hormones, going as far as thinking about the DC Metro, and still, her body was turning on her.

His breath hitched and then he scowled at her, even as he pressed his forehead against hers. Her lashes fluttered shut and she grew very still, barely daring to breathe as his breath danced over her brow, down her temple, and across her cheeks.

His lips hovered over hers.

“No,” he snarled.

Madison wasn’t sure to whom he was talking, but then his mouth was crushing hers, and her world became him—the touch and feel of his lips pressing down, forcing hers to respond. It wasn’t a gentle kiss or a sweet exploration. It was angry and raw, breathtaking and soul burning. Right now, she didn’t want gentle. She wanted hard and fast, him and her, on the floor, even the bear rug, both of them naked and sweating.

His tongue was a moist, hot demand inside her mouth, parrying with hers until he took complete control and flicked the tip of his tongue over the roof of her mouth. There was a delicious possessiveness in the way he kissed her, as if he were staking his claim at the same time he was burning away the memories of anyone else for her. And he did. In an instant, there was nobody but him.

One hand came off the wall and his palm splayed flat against her cheek, glided down the arch of her neck. He held her there, so gently and at odds with the fierceness of his kiss. This was how she always wanted Chase, how she always dreamed it would be, and how she had once had such a brief, divine taste. She moaned, melting into him. Between her thighs, she ached for him. Her body—

Chase jerked back, and her eyes snapped open, her chest rising and falling raggedly. He stared at her…stared at her like she had done something terribly wrong. And he…he had kissed her.

Walking backward, Chase shook his head, his hands clenching at his sides. “That…that didn’t happen.”

She blinked over the wrenching pull in her chest. “But…it did.”

His striking face went impassively indifferent, and it felt like Madison had been punched in the gut. “No. No,” he said. “It didn’t.”

And with that, he spun around and stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind him.

Madison blinked slowly. Oh, hell to the no, he did not just storm out of there like a drama queen. She was going to find him and then castrate him.

She winced.

Okay, maybe not that extreme, but she’d be damned if she let him kiss her like that and then run.

…



Madison was well on her way to getting drunk.

Not fall-on-your-face or strip-off-your-clothes drunk, although without all the family around that might have sounded fun, but there was definitely a wine-induced headache in her near future.

Sitting on a bench along the sprawling deck outside the main lodge, she inhaled the scent of mountain air and grapes. Members of her family and Lissa’s chattered around her. The low hum of conversation would’ve normally been soothing as she was a lover of all sorts of background noise, but right now, she wanted to slide through the narrow spaces in the wooden rail around the deck and fade into the night. Taking another long sip, she gazed out over the lawn. Paper lanterns hung from the poles spaced along the pebbled pathway, casting a faint light across the grounds.

She glanced down at her third glass of Petit and bit back a strangled giggle. Such a lightweight, but the heady thrum in her veins helped ease the mixture of shame and unquenched lust that burned in her stomach. An all-too-familiar feeling after a rather idiotic run-in with Chase.

He had kissed her.

And then, in the ultimate heart crusher, he’d wanted her to forget it. Been there, done that, and she definitely had the wounded heart to prove it.

Why had he kissed her if he was so obviously disgusted by the idea? Who knew. Maybe the answer was in the depths of her dark purplish wine?

Her father’s boisterous laughter brought a faint smile to her face, and she twisted around on the bench. He stood with her brother and two of the three Gamble men. Chase was hiding somewhere else, most likely from her.

After he’d kissed her—and she felt the need to keep reminding herself that it had been he who’d kissed her—she hadn’t seen him. Like the child he treated her as, she’d conveniently hid away in the bathroom while he deposited their luggage in the gaudiest cabin ever. Not her proudest moment.

Madison just couldn’t make sense of any of it, and it wasn’t fair. The last thing she wanted to be dealing with during her brother’s wedding was this. It was a time to celebrate and laugh, not a time to add another notch on the humiliation belt.

But of course, here she was, grateful that it was dark enough to hide the flush that hadn’t faded yet. Worse still, that kiss had sent her spiraling backward in time to the one night she never wanted to remember, but also didn’t want to forget. Except now she couldn’t stop the onslaught of little vignettes replaying from that evening.

It had been her junior year in college, and as usual, she was in between boyfriends, still madly infatuated with her childhood crush, and the happy owner of one sexy little black dress that months of her part-time research gig at the university had paid for.

The opening night of Chase’s nightclub, Komodo, had changed everything. All these years and it seemed like yesterday. The drinks. The dancing. Everyone had been there—her brother, Lissa, Chase’s brothers, her friends. It had been a great night, one for celebrating. The evening had been a raving success, and Madison had been unbelievably proud. So many people had doubted him, but she never had.

It had been past closing time. Her brother and most of her friends had already gone home when she found Chase in his penthouse office on the third floor, staring at the landscape of the city. The straight line of his spine, the perfectly tailored cut of his suit across his broad shoulders had stolen her breath. She’d stood there for what seemed like hours but was probably the barest of seconds before Chase had turned to her and smiled…smiled just for her.

Madison had ventured into his office, complimented him eagerly on the success of the club, and listened to his plans to open two more: one in Bethesda and another in Baltimore. She’d felt special that he had included her in such knowledge. It was like she belonged next to him for the first time and that thrilled her.

Both of them had been drinking, but neither of them had been three sheets to the wind. Alcohol may’ve been the proverbial courage in the bottle, but it couldn’t be blamed for what happened next.

She’d moved toward him, only to give him a hug good-bye, but when his arms had returned the gesture and she’d tipped her head back, something amazing and crazy happened.

Chase had kissed her—gently, carefully, and so sweetly that in a heady heartbeat, she had really thought all of her dreams had been coming true. Before she’d known it, he’d settled onto one of the supple leather couches in his office pulled her onto his lap, and the kisses… Oh, God, the kisses then had been blatantly carnal and claiming, erotically promising. His fingers were quick and deft, moving the zipper of her dress down, revealing her to his heated stare. His hands had been everywhere, skimming over her breasts, sneaking under the dress, discovering for the first time one of Madison’s oddities: She hated wearing panties. And he had gone crazy then, easing her onto her back, his fingers finding her most hidden places and thrusting as his body and tongue mimicked the movements.

When she had cried out his name, he’d gone incredibly still, his breathing ragged a second before he tore himself away from her and ended up pacing clear across the room like a jungle cat.

There hadn’t been much time for her to be confused. Chase had freaked, ushering her out of his office, and the very next day, he’d called her, apologized for his drunken behavior, and promised that it would never happen again.

And it hadn’t…until several hours ago.

At least now, he couldn’t blame alcohol. He had no excuse, but he had broken her heart back then, shattered it into a million useless little pieces. As sad as it was, she hadn’t fully recovered from his obvious regret. It stung, left an aching pierce that hit her in the chest when she least expected it.

Obviously, he hadn’t been as attracted to her as she to him. Sure, there had to have been something there between the two of them, but it was unequal. She wanted more. And he had wanted just a taste, got it, and decided he didn’t want any more, which was usually his MO. And earlier today? Perhaps he’d just been bored. Or maybe he wanted to see if she still wanted him and when he did, he’d discarded her like he had that night.

Madison sucked in a sharp breath. He wasn’t a bad guy, though; she knew that. He just wasn’t the guy for her.

Stupid tears burned her eyes, and she blinked them away. Crying over Chase had been an almost nightly occurrence in college, especially when he began dating every woman in the city after the night at his club and the subsequent apology. So many girls that she never bothered to keep them straight. Didn’t help they all looked alike: insanely tall, long-legged, blond, and big chested.

The exact opposite of Madison.

Snorting, she took another drink of her wine. Served her right, she supposed. Chase was and always would be a no-Madison-land. The kiss had been a fluke, a breach in sanity.

“Madison?” Lissa’s soft voice interrupted her thoughts.

She looked up and smiled. “Hey there.”

“You’re awfully quiet tonight.” The bride-to-be sat down beside her, glowing in her white sundress. “Are you worried about your car? Mitch said the tow truck brought it by a few hours ago.”

“Oh, no, the car is fine. Dad is going to get a tire for me tomorrow. I’m…I’m just letting it all soak in.” Madison’s gaze flitted over the guests. “It’s really beautiful here.”

“Isn’t it?” Lissa sighed. “Mitch and I visited two summers ago, during one of the festivals that offered a hot air balloon ride. With the aerial view, we sort of fell in love with the place.”

“I can see the appeal.” Though Madison was much more likely to be married with a baby on the way this time next year than her rosy-red ass getting into a hot air balloon. “You must be so excited.”

“I am!” Her smile increased in wattage, and Madison couldn’t help but return the expression over the rim of her wineglass. Lissa’s smiles were always infectious. “Your brother is a wonderful man, and I couldn’t be happier or luckier.”

“I’m sure he’s thinking the same thing.”

Her eyes misted over. “Yes, I believe so. That’s sort of perfect, isn’t it?”

A lump suddenly formed in Madison’s throat, so she washed it down with the rest of her wine. “Yes.”

Lissa’s gaze slid to her. “You look really nice tonight.”

“Really?” She plucked at the sleeveless, gauzy blue dress that ended just below her thighs. It was a dark cobalt blue, but it had nothing on… She shook her head. So not going there. “Thank you.”

A loud manly roar rose from where her father stood. Madison turned and her breath got stuck in her throat. Chase had arrived.

Madison glanced down at her empty glass and groaned under her breath.

Lissa nudged her. “He’s something else, isn’t he?”

She raised an eyebrow and muttered, “Something, all right.”

Mistaking her comment as pleasant, Lissa went on. “Mitch told me how the three of you were the closest out of the Gamble brothers. I can’t believe any of them are single. Each of them is so successful and handsome.” Her smile turned sly. “Your mother said you had a crush on Chase growing up.”

“Did she?” Madison desperately started searching for the waiter she’d seen earlier carrying a tray full of wineglasses.

Lissa nodded. “As soon as he heard your car was broken down, he raced off to rescue you.” She giggled, and Madison wanted to punch something. “He hadn’t even been here for five minutes. It was all very sweet.”

Like before, she refused to read too much into his motivations. Then she spied the crisp white shirt of the server. Bingo!

“Have you ever considered…?”

Madison turned hot and then cold. “Considered what?”

“You know, being more than friends with Chase? I know you two have known each other since forever, but some of the best loves are those that start as friends. Take Mitch and me, for example. We were friends in the beginning.”

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Madison started waving her arm at the waiter like a madwoman.

“Thirsty?” Lissa asked, grinning.

“Very.” She snatched a glass off the tray with a quick thank-you and a smile, and then considered grabbing two if this conversation was heading where it seemed to be.

Lissa’s eyes twinkled. “And since you two are staying together here, there’ll never be a better time to explore other possibilities than in such a romantic place.”

Aw, what the hell. Madison grabbed another glass before the waiter escaped. She was going to need it.