Maid for Love (25 page)

As Mac approached, her eyes narrowed.
Uh oh
.

She swung the bag and smacked him right upside the head.

"Hey! That hurt!"

"Mrs. Gold herself was working the resister. You know what she said to me?" Without taking a breath, Janey launched into Mrs. Gold's nasally New York accent. "'My oh my,
Janey
, Doctor David must be coming for a
good
long visit this weekend.'"

Mac knew it wasn't a good idea, but he laughed anyway.

She pelted him again with the bag. "It's not funny! I have to live in this town!"

He attempted to wipe the smile off his face and withdrew a wad of twenties from his pocket.

Janey snatched the money and thrust the bag at him. "It's going to take
years
of therapy to recover from this."

"You're the best, Janey." Mac gave her a noisy smooch on the cheek.

She pushed him away. "I hate you more than anything."

He poked her ribs. "Do not."

"I'm off to get a brain scrub to erase this unsavory incident from my memory."

"Come by Maddie's this weekend. Let's hang out."

"No way I'm coming near the two of you until the supply is exhausted."

Mac grinned. "We'll be giving thanks to Janey McCarthy
every
time
."

Hands over ears, she shrieked and stalked off.

Mac laughed all the way home.

Even though Maddie wore a conservative one-piece bathing suit, sure enough every guy on the beach checked her out. Mac told himself it didn't matter, but he was lying. He wondered if he'd ever behaved so stupidly around a full-figured woman. Probably. A nearby group of young men were particularly enthralled, and Mac glared at them.

"Lucky man," he heard one of them say with a snicker.

It took every ounce of self-control Mac possessed to keep from going over there to smack the smirk off the guy's face.

"Told you," Maddie said.

"What?"

"That you wouldn't like it."

"They're idiots."

"Men will be men. They can't help themselves." She reached for her T-shirt to cover up.

"Don't," Mac said, resting his hand on her arm. "Don't let them bother us."

"Easy for you to say. They're not gawking at you."

Mac's cell phone rang, and he dug it out of his backpack. He didn't recognize the Gansett number but took the call anyway.

"Hi, Mac," a breathy female voice said. "I hope it's okay that your mother gave me your number."

"I'm sorry, who is this?" he asked, even though he had a sneaking suspicion.

She giggled. "Doro. We met the other night at McCarthy's? Your mother said—"

"Whatever she told you, it was bad information. I'm seeing someone."

"I heard about that. Maddie, right? I don't know her, but then again we don't exactly run in the same circles."

"Lucky for her."

"Excuse me?"

"Listen, Doro. I'm not interested. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, but please don't call me again." Regretting taking the call, he closed the phone before she could reply and stashed it in his bag.

"She doesn't give up, does she?"

"Who? Doro?"

Maddie rolled her eyes at him. "Your mother."

He shrugged, knowing he needed to act fast—again—to minimize the damage with Maddie. "That's her problem, not ours." He scooped up Thomas and reached out to Maddie. "Come on, let's go swimming."

She hesitated for only a second before she took his hand.

At the water's edge, she eyed the waves with trepidation. "He's never been in the water before. I don't know if he'll like it."

"We'll take it nice and slow." As they waded into the surf, Mac dipped the baby's feet into the cool water. Thomas bicycled his legs and let out a happy squeal that made them laugh. "Just like the bathtub, buddy, only bigger." After half an hour of wave jumping, Mac stretched out on the wet sand at the water's edge and dug a small hole for Thomas to sit in. The waves rushed to the beach, making a pool out of the hole. Thomas splashed and shrieked as Mac drizzled wet sand on his chubby legs.

Mac looked up at Maddie, who was taking pictures of them. "I think it's safe to say he likes the beach."

"We'll be washing sand out of his crevices for a month."

Mac laughed and plopped an even bigger pile of wet sand on Thomas. They played until Thomas began to yawn and rub at his eyes with sandy hands. "Whoa, dude," Mac said, grabbing the baby's hands. "Don't do that."

Thomas let out a lusty wail of distress.

Mac took him back in the water to rinse off as much of the sand as he could. Removing Thomas's tiny bathing suit, he cleaned him up and carried him back to Maddie for a diaper.

"You've become an old pro."

"He makes everything fun."

Maddie smiled at him. "So do you."

Mac slid a hand around her neck and brought her in for a tender kiss. "That's nice of you to say." He reached for the baby and lowered himself into a beach chair.

Maddie prepared a bottle. "Want me to feed him?"

"Nope."

Once the bottle was finished, Mac burped him and snuggled him in close. The baby's sweet breath fanned against his neck. "Is he out?"

"Like a light. You can put him down if you want to."

They'd brought an umbrella and set up a spot for Thomas to nap.

"That's okay. I like holding him." He tugged a beach towel up over the baby to protect him from the sun.

"What would your friends in Florida say if they could see you right now?"

"They'd never believe it."

"What will you do about your business there?"

"They'll buy me out and find someone to replace me."

"Will they be mad that you're not coming back?"

"Maybe. The three of us have busted our butts to build up a thriving business."

"It'll be a blow to them to lose you."

Mac sighed. The same thought had been weighing on him since he'd decided to stay. "They've been texting me with all kinds of questions and problems. We've got a lot going on right now. We always do."

"Did you have a girlfriend there?"

Mac glanced at her, not sure where this was heading. "Sort of."

Maddie laughed. "How can you 'sort of' have a girlfriend?"

"I dated my assistant for a while—and yes, I know that's a terrible cliché—but we didn't see much of each other outside of work, which irritated her. But that was over before I came home."

"What's her name?"

"Rosanne."

"Is she beautiful?"

"You're beautiful."

"Nice try. What does she look like?"

"Short with buck teeth and a wart on her nose. Nothing at all to look at."

Maddie dissolved into laughter. "You're so full of it. She probably looks like a super model."

Mac linked his fingers with hers. "She can't hold a candle to you. The second I saw you, every other woman faded to the background. You're the only one who matters now—the only one who's ever mattered."

"Mac… You're so sweet." She brought their joined hands to her lips. "Now tell me, what does she really look like?"

He laughed at her persistence. "Well, she has six toes on her left foot."

"Mac!"

After they finished the shift at the daycare, Mac told Maddie he had an errand to run and would be back shortly. He sat on the sofa to tie his running shoes.

"So you're literally going to run?" Maddie asked.

"Yep."

She eyed the bag from Gold's on the counter. "Do you think maybe you could hurry up?"

Mac stood and wrapped his arms tight around her. "I'll be so fast you won't even know I'm gone."

She ran the tip of her tongue over his neck. "I'll get Thomas fed and put down while you're gone."

Mac shuddered. "Hold that thought."

"Hurry."

He had never moved faster as he jogged over to pick up the black SUV he'd spotted for sale earlier in the day. After completing the transaction, he enjoyed the smooth ride and the easy way it handled. Mac went next to the grocery store and bought a rotisserie chicken and salad for dinner and was back at Maddie's forty-five minutes after he left. He walked in to soft music and candlelight. The blinds were drawn, and the bed had been pulled out.

She came out of the bathroom wearing the white nightgown. Crossing her arms, she leaned against the wall and looked at him with hungry eyes. "What took so long?"

Stemming the urge to drool, Mac stashed the grocery bags in the refrigerator. "I need a shower," he said.

Maddie put her hand on his chest and directed him to the bed. "No, you don't."

"But I'm all sweaty—" With her hands in his hair, she dragged him down to her and kissed the life out of him.

The back of his knees connected with the bed, and he tumbled backward, bringing her with him.

"Did this seem like a
really
long day to you?" she asked between torrid kisses.

"Mmm, the longest day ever." He tried to roll them over, but she stopped him.

"Can we do it like this?" she asked, her cheeks flaming with color.

"Baby, we can do it any way you want, as long as we do it very, very soon."

She bit her bottom lip and smiled down at him, causing his heart to skip a beat.

He reached up to bury his fingers in her hair and brought her back to him. "Have you done it this way before?"

She shook her head.

"You'll like it."

"Will you?"

Mac laughed. "Absolutely." He ran his hands over the silky gown, gathering it up as he went. "Can we lose this or do you want to leave it on?"

"It can go."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Hurry!"

Moving quickly, they got rid of the rest of their clothes and broke open one of the new boxes of condoms.

"Let me," Maddie said, taking the foil package from him.

Mac exhaled a long deep breath and counted backward from one hundred as she used her teeth to tear open the package, keeping her eyes fixed on his as she rolled it slowly over him.

"You're so hard," she whispered, shifting her eyes from his face to his groin. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"No," he said with a groan. "But if you don't move a little faster, we'll miss the best part."

When he was finally sheathed, Maddie straddled him, and Mac decided he'd truly died and gone to heaven as she slowly took him in and began to ride him with tremendous enthusiasm—as if she'd been waiting forever to give this a whirl. Her heavy breasts swayed in time with the movements of her hips. With his arms around her, Mac brought her with him when he sat up against the back of the sofa, putting him at face-level with her breasts. He filled his hands and then his mouth.

Maddie threw her head back, lost in sensation.

Since he was watching her so closely, he saw the change come over her as she reached the first peak and then came back down to discover he wasn't finished with her. "Do it again," he whispered.

"I can't," she said, spent.

"Yes, you can." He leaned her back against his raised knees and used his hips to lift her up and down.

She gasped as he went deeper than before.

"Hurt?" he asked.

Apparently unable to speak, she shook her head.

Mac took advantage of her preoccupation to skim his hands over her toned legs and belly, causing her to quiver under his touch. As he stepped up the rhythm of his hips, his fingers focused on the pulsating bundle of nerves between her legs, drawing a long, keening moan from her. Once again, her thighs tightened around him, and her body stiffened with fulfillment.

Mac kept a tight hold on her hips as he went with her, his face buried between her breasts.

Sagging into him, Maddie wrapped her arms around him and held on tight as he continued to pulse inside her.

He combed his fingers through her hair. "Like it?"

"Oh yeah," she said breathlessly.

Mac's soft laugh was interrupted when she raised her head to kiss him.

"How soon until we can do it again?"

"I've turned you into a regular sex fiend."

She bit his neck. "How soon?"

Mac flinched as a zap of pure lust raced through him. He smoothed his hands down her back to cup her soft buttocks. "How does right now sound?"

"Perfect," she said with a sigh of contentment.

"Where did you go before?" she asked after they ate a picnic dinner in bed.

Mac yawned and ran a hand through his hair. "I bought Thomas a car."

Maddie sat right up.
"What?"