Suddenly Sexy (4 page)

Sam stretched out his legs under Pete and Linda's kitchen table, keeping one eye on little Ronan crawling faster than some people can walk towards the cupboards. He pulled at the handle of one but it caught on something and wouldn't open more than half an inch.

"Child locks are the best thing ever invented," Linda said, following Sam's gaze.

Ronan repeated the procedure again and again. Each time the door closed with a bang, making Ronan blink.

Sam watched, fascinated. The little guy was cute, his entire attention devoted to opening the door and watching it shut again. It was as if nothing else existed in his world.

"Doesn't he realize it won't open?" Sam asked.

"Sure he does," Linda said. "He just likes the noise. It's fun."

Ronan giggled at a particularly loud bang and Sam couldn't help smiling. Yeah, real cute.

"So what do you think of my little sister?"

Whoa, thanks for the warning
. Linda certainly didn't like beating around the bush. He should've been prepared. Linda had always been the blunt one at high school, getting the gang in trouble with her brutally honest observations and candid questions. She was the complete opposite to her shy sister. If Maddie had any brutal observations, she kept them firmly to her chest.

He groaned. Do NOT think about Maddie’s chest. He’d barely been able to keep his eyes off it all evening over dinner.

He shrugged. "She seems nice. Different to how I remember."

It was just Linda, Sam and her youngest two children at home. David was at kindergarten and Pete at work. Linda had called Sam and asked him to do her a favor. A cup of coffee and a piece of cake later, he was still waiting to hear the favor. He was in no hurry, but Linda's delaying tactics intrigued him. Her reference to Maddie had finally answered that question.

"Different how?" Linda prompted, steering Ronan away from the cupboard.

Sam shrugged one shoulder. "Older, I suppose."

"Fifteen years will do that to a person."

He gave her a wry look. "I mean more mature, more..." he searched for the right word, "...comfortable with herself."

"Maddie? Really?" Linda blinked back at him.

"You disagree?"

"No! Well, maybe a little. To me she's just my geeky little sister. Although the geekiness has lessened over the years."

It sure had. Sam hadn't seen any of the awkwardness Maddie had possessed as a teenager. Not that he remembered a great deal of her as a kid. They hadn't socialized together much. She'd just sort of been there. Linda's quiet, little sister, always hanging around, much to her big sister's annoyance. Sam had never minded though.

"I guess she's a little uptight still," he conceded, remembering her vehement defence of her work.

Linda snorted. "You said it." She cocked her head to one side, a cheeky grin brightening her attractive features. "Maybe you could help her relax..."

"Me? How?"

Emily entered the kitchen and asked her mother to tie a bow in Barbie's hair. The task completed, she left again. "Oh, I don't know," Linda said. "Take her out maybe. Help her have a good time."

Aha, so
that
was the favor. "Like on a date?"

"No, of course not. Just something casual, like two old friends catching up."

He could do that. They were old friends, sort of. And if Maddie misconstrued it as a real date, so what? It might make the evening more interesting.

A date with Maddie—the idea quickly grew on him.

"But would she go out with me? I mean, as friends? We weren't exactly close."

Linda's attention was momentarily diverted to Ronan as he returned to the cupboard door. "You're beginning to drive me nuts, young man." She picked him up and handed him a teething rusk. "Knock yourself out." She sat back down. "Where were we? Oh yes, taking Maddie out. And yes, she'll go out with you. Trust me."

"I don't know," he hedged. "I'm not really her type."

"Yes you are." She said it a little too vehemently for Sam's liking. "But just in case, I'll send you there on an errand so it doesn't look contrived."

That might work. "Okay," he said, feeling like he’d just been snow-balled.

"So, how's your job?" she said. "Any plans to move back to Melbourne permanently?"

"Actually, I do. I've quit."

"What! But you were earning a fortune!"

He shrugged. "It's only money."

Linda stared open-mouthed at him until Ronan, crawling at top speed across the kitchen floor, banged his head on the table leg and cried. She picked him up and he instantly stopped as if Linda had pressed the OFF switch.

"I had no idea," she said. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"I told Pete last night."

She frowned at Ronan. "I'll have to have a word to your daddy when he gets home." She looked at Sam again. "But why? You had it all in Sydney."

"No, Linda, I didn't. And does it matter why? I've quit and it's final." She was worse than the Inquisition. Worse than his mother. No, not that bad.

"Okay, I get the picture."

She didn't look like she got it. She looked like someone dying to ask a million questions but not sure if it was appropriate to pry. Maybe it was time he left before she decided to fire away. He didn't want to be lectured by his best friend's wife.

A little blonde head poked around the door. "Mummy, poos."

Yep, definitely time he left.

***

If it wasn't for the doorbell chiming, Maddie might have fallen asleep in the bath. Next time she'd bring an alarm clock into the bathroom with her—drowning wasn't on her list of things to do this year.

If
there was a next time. She rarely took baths because when she did, she never wanted to get out and she couldn't afford to waste time luxuriating when there were things to do, like checking up on her ebay items or reading through her work notes. But tonight was an exception. Pheramour needed to be diluted in water and applied to her entire body, so a bath was the obvious way. True to form, she didn't want to get out. She loved it. Oh well, she could always take the notes into the bath with her next time.

She got out and wrapped a towel around her body. She needed to get moving anyway if she wanted to see Sam tonight. It was already seven o'clock and he might make other plans soon if he hadn't already. She'd decided against calling him because it was easier to back out over the phone. Why make it easier for him?

She dried her feet so she wouldn't drip on the carpet and hurried to the door as the doorbell chimed a second time.

"All right, all right," she muttered, opening it. "Sam!"

Sam leaned against the doorframe, a plastic shopping bag dangling from his fingers. He straightened and his gaze fell to the swell of her breasts above the towel. She hiked it up but that made them jiggle. She dropped her hands to her sides and pretended Sam Hennessy wasn't staring at her breasts. True to form, everything heated, from the tips of her ears to her toes. Crap.

"What are you doing here?"

Finally, slowly, his gaze shifted to her face. "Is that any way to treat a man bearing gifts?" He held up the bag.

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone." She stepped aside. "Come in."

He moved past her, his bare arm grazing hers. The teenager that still lurked inside screamed "Sam Hennessy just touched me!" She caught a whiff of his masculine scent and the combined effect of his presence on the four senses—touch, smell, sight and sound—sent a thrill through her. All she needed now was to taste him. She bet he'd be delicious.

Down girl. He was not chocolate ice cream. He’d taste good smeared in the stuff though.

She followed him into her living room, concentrating on the back of his head and not the back of his jeans. "So what's in the bag?"

"Your sister asked me to give you this. She said it was important you get it and Pete was working back late and she didn’t want to drag the kids out." He handed her the bag.

Maddie peered inside. "It's my pair of sneakers she borrowed last year. I'd forgotten about them." She sniffed the bag and screwed up her nose. "Not sure I even want them back."

"Why the emergency?"

She wasn't fooled by the innocent question. A crooked grin lifted the corners of his mouth and she knew he knew Linda had set them up. God, how embarrassing. Even more embarrassing was the slipping towel. She gripped it at her cleavage and held it firmly in place.

"Guess she figured I need to work off the ice cream from last night."

His hot gaze skimmed down her body, across her breasts, past the towel to her exposed legs. Every inch turned to molten liquid under the intensity and pooled between her thighs.

Her face, however, burned. With anger. What was she, a piece of meat?

"I don't think you need to worry about the ice cream," he murmured. The soft cadence of his voice rippled through her, sending her goose bumps into a frenzy, and several other vital parts of her anatomy.

Okay, he could look at her like that if he kept paying her complements. She appreciated her own hypocrisy, but hey, it was a woman's prerogative to change her mind. Besides, men liked to eat meat.

Now there was a thought to make a girl squirm with pleasure.

"I'd better get dressed." She turned away before the towel completely slipped away. She heard him clear his throat as she closed the bedroom door behind her.

Maddie threw on jeans and a T-shirt, thanking her lucky stars that Sam had come to her and she didn't have to chase him down. If he hadn't been home, she didn't know who she'd use instead for the experiment. She didn't know too many men. A few ex boyfriends, her work colleagues and Pete made up the total of her male acquaintances. The thought of testing the effects of Pheramour on any of them was creepy.

She checked her appearance in the mirror then fluffed out her hair. Too messy. She pinned it back in a ponytail. A little boring but at least it kept it out of her eyes. No need to encourage Sam too much anyway. Pheramour would do all the work tonight.

The chemist in her was excited by the prospect.

The woman in her was absolutely terrified...and yet thrilled at the same time.

***

Sam glanced around the neat living room. It was comfortable, cozy, and held Maddie's touches everywhere. Colors matched, from the lived-in cream sofa and bright red cushions to the elaborate drapes and floor rug covering polished boards. Books stood erect in a floor-to-ceiling bookcase and several prints and photographs hung on the walls, not a single one lopsided. She had good taste. Classic, clean, simple. He liked it.

He liked
her
. Last night he'd thought her kind of cute, if a little nerdy, like when she'd been in school. Now, seeing the swell of her full breasts above the towel and those smooth thighs and shapely calves, he thought her the sexiest woman he knew. Maddie Clarke had definitely grown up. What he wouldn’t do to get his hands on her now.

But a woman like that could wrap a man around her little finger if she wanted to. The jury was out on whether that was a good thing.

He regretted not touching the soft flesh above her towel as he’d passed her in the hallway. He'd wanted to. Hell, he'd ached to. But that would only have got him a slap across the cheek, going by the glare she'd given him.

Nevermind. There was always later...

"Have you eaten?" he asked when she emerged from her bedroom. She wore her hair up again. When she'd greeted him at the door the damp curls had tumbled around her face unchecked. He preferred it like that—the come-and-grope-me look. Getting her to release her hair so he could play with it would be a challenge.

He loved a challenge.

"Not yet," she said. "I guess I should offer to cook something, but I'm a terrible cook. I've been known to boil pots of water dry."

"Guess we'll go out then."

"Oh." She glanced down at her jeans. "I should change."

"No need. How's pizza sound?"

"Cheap."

He raised a brow. He'd never been called that to his face before.

She bit her lip and shrugged an apology. "I just expected us to go to an expensive restaurant."

"Because I'm the CEO of National Paints?"

"No, because you're a millionaire."

"An unemployed millionaire."

Her jaw dropped. So far everyone had the same reaction—his mother, his colleagues, Pete and Linda. No one seemed to get it. He'd kind of hoped Maddie would, although he had no idea why. It's not like they were old buddies or anything. It’s not like she was the sort of person who did things on a whim. Not like him. Nope, she was a by-the-book, do it the right way kind of girl. Everything in order, nothing out of place.

He wondered what would happen if her perfectly ordered life suddenly threw a curve ball at her. What would happen if
she
quit her job? Would she go into complete meltdown or would she blossom?

It would never happen. Not in a million years.

But there were other ways to lose control. Like in bed. Like having an orgasm that could drive clear thinking right out the window. Maddie would look amazing having one of those orgasms. Her body would flush all over. Her hair would loosen from its knot and fall about her face. Would she scream? Would her body buck? Would she call out his name?

Oh Hell. Now he was thinking about Maddie having an orgasm when he was supposed to be thinking about...what were they talking about again? Jeez, it was hot in the restaurant.

"What happened?" she asked, eyes agog. "Did they fire you?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, no. And why does everyone keep asking me that?"
Focus, Hennessy, don’t scare her off before the mind-blowing orgasm.

She shrugged. "It's just that you got into trouble a lot in high school, so I thought..."

"That I was still that high school kid?" He scoffed. "Give me a little credit. I've changed in the last fifteen years."

He should be annoyed but he liked honesty and it seemed Maddie had it in brutal proportions, just like her sister. He definitely wasn’t the only one to have changed in the last fifteen years.