The Sex Solution (4 page)

“You’re the last person I expected to see here. Shouldn’t you be cruising the bingo hall right now?”

Austin turned to see his younger brother grinning back at him, a buxom blonde hanging on his arm.

“It’s for a good cause. Besides, it’s seniors’ night and I’m looking for a woman a few years younger. I’m guessing you’re not taking Miss Marshalyn up on her offer?”

Houston Jericho, Austin’s middle brother and one of the best damned bull riders on the pro rodeo circuit, winked and pulled the blonde closer. “’Fraid not. I’m in no hurry to slow down and rope cows from now till kingdom come. That’s your dream, bro.”

“A man’s got to grow up sometime.”

Miss Marshalyn had made the same proposition to Houston when he’d surprised everybody and driven into town yesterday morning.

He’d been busy hitting every major rodeo in the United States, working his way up to the pro rodeo finals in Las Vegas in a few weeks. No one had expected him to take time off between rides to attend the wedding. But Houston and Jack went way back, as well. The man had been one of the few friends to all three Jericho brothers when they’d been kids.

And so Houston had come home.

But not to settle down, as he’d been quick to point out to Miss Marshalyn. Houston liked his life minus any roots. He was free, going where he wanted, when he wanted, and he intended to stay that way.

“I’ll leave the growing old to you,” he told his brother as he sipped a beer with his free hand.

“That’s growing
up.
”

“Same thing.” Houston winked. “I’ve got more bulls to ride, and at least one woman I haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know better.” He winked at the woman on his arm. “Ain’t that right, sugar?” He gave the blonde a quick kiss. “Besides, I like things just fine the way they are. Moving away from this place was the best thing I ever did.”

“You mean running away, don’t you?”

“I don’t run from anyone or anything,” he drawled, then turned and steered the blonde toward the dance floor. “Later, bro.”

Austin stared after Houston. He was running, all right. From the past. From the legacy that had haunted all three of the Jericho brothers since birth. Dallas, the youngest, had made peace with his past last year when he’d married his childhood sweetheart. He and his wife were expecting their first child, and they were happy. Content.

Austin wanted the same.

That’s what he told himself. But then he heard the soft, sexy,
familiar
voice. He felt a jolt of heat rush through him and suddenly he wanted something altogether different.

“Excuse me.”

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find himself staring into a pair of bright green eyes. The same eyes that had stared at him over an extralarge box of lubricated condoms earlier that day.

For the first time since Austin had vowed to find a wife, he actually wondered if maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t making a big mistake. Because suddenly hot and heavy sex in the here and now seemed a heck of a lot more appealing than peace and contentment somewhere in the far-off future.

E
ASY
, H
OSS
.

Austin took a deep breath and tried to steady himself as one all-important fact registered—this was Maddie Hale. The bookworm who’d spent class time listening rather than writing notes back and forth with her friends.

Actually she’d written one note, but he’d done his damnedest in the past twelve years to forget all about the poetic declaration of love he’d happened upon purely by accident. He’d also tried to forget those few tension-filled moments standing near the concession stand when he’d looked at her, really
looked
at her, for the very first time.

Love note aside, she was still the shy girl who’d blushed at him from the safety of an algebra book and brought him homemade muffins.

The innocent who’d never once ventured behind the bleachers during a football game.

He knew the backside of those bleachers by heart. Hell, he’d carved most of those names himself and hers was not among the bunch. He’d be willing to bet his finest horse that she didn’t even know about the conquest bench. What’s more, he would lay down his entire spread that she’d never set her fine little bottom down and kissed up a Gulf hurricane with one of the locals, either.

Maddie had been too nice and wholesome and respectable for bleacher smooching. And that afternoon at Skeeter’s he’d been wrong to think she was anything but the same sweet girl now.

The proof dangled from Cheryl Louise’s head.

He stared past the top of Maddie’s soft blond hair, that smelled of sweet strawberries and cream, to the group of women sitting nearby.

A drape of white tulle decorated with condom packages sat atop the bride-to-be’s head. Six to be exact. The same brand, same size Maddie had purchased that afternoon. Obviously they hadn’t been meant for her personal use.

A crazy assumption in the first place. Maddie wasn’t the condom type. She was the quiet, mild, I’m-saving-it-all-for-the-man-of-my-dreams kind of girl. Why, she made muffins, for Chrissake! Big, giant, melt-in-your-mouth homemade blueberry muffins. Sure, they couldn’t compete with a bowl of Miss Marshalyn’s candied sweet potatoes, but they came in a close second.

Now that Austin had given up fast times and even faster women, Maddie was exactly his type of woman. On top of that, she was an old friend. The only female, in fact, who’d ever qualified for such a title.

Austin Jericho had never kept company with girls he’d had no sexual interest in. He’d always wanted something from them and they’d wanted something from him—namely a good round of red-hot, breath-stealing sex. Or several rounds.

Not Maddie.

The only thing she’d wanted from him had been his daily homework assignment and his full attention when she was explaining the newest algebra equation.

There’d been no sly glances, no fluttering eyelashes or wandering hands or heaving cleavage. Hell, he’d never even known she had cleavage, thanks to the sacklike flower-print dresses she’d always worn.

Except for that Friday night at the football game. She’d worn a red sweater and blue jeans and he’d actually realized she had a figure. Nice, round hips. Large breasts. But while shapely, the clothes hadn’t been revealing.

Not like what she wore now.

His attention shifted back to her and the enticing display of creamy flesh fully visible above the neckline of her black leather tank top. His gut hollowed for a long moment and his mouth went dry.

Easy,
he told himself.

So what if she had visible cleavage? That didn’t mean she’d checked her morals at the door and turned into a bona fide, red-hot, give-it-to-me-now wild woman.

This was Maddie, he reminded himself, drawing a long pull on his beer.

The only girl he’d actually been able to talk to about stuff, like his love of horses and his desperation to do something other than perpetuate his family’s no-good reputation. He hadn’t worried about impressing her or sweeping her off her feet. He’d never even thought about her like
that.

Okay, maybe that once, when he’d opened her love letter. But when he’d asked her about it at the football game, she’d sworn that it hadn’t been meant for him. He’d let things go at that, and he’d let her go. He’d walked off with Barbara Mayfield for a wild ride on his Harley and an even wilder ride in the back of her daddy’s old pickup.

His attention snagged on her lips. Soft, full, kissable lips. His heart bucked and his blood rushed and a certain part of his anatomy, a certain
hard
part, throbbed just thinking about what she would taste like.

“What do you say?” she asked, her sweet voice pushing past the pounding of his heart. “Are you up for a little two-stepping?”

He was up, all right. But his throbbing erection had little to do with dancing and everything to do with Maddie.

It’s Madeline. No one really calls me Maddie anymore.

He could see why. She looked too sophisticated, too sexy, too…
hot.

So?

Even if the package looked a little different, this was still Maddie.
Nice, wholesome, respectable Maddie.

He smiled, set his beer on the bar and reached for her hand. “Lead the way, darlin’.”

T
HERE WAS NOTHING NICE
, wholesome or respectable about the sexy woman in his arms.

The thought struck him the moment they moved onto the dance floor and she stepped into his arms.

The two-step had faded into a slow, sweet, cryin’ tune that required a little more contact than he’d anticipated. Her arms slid around his neck. Her full breasts pressed against his chest. Her pelvis cradled his, moving against him with a soft, subtle sway that sent a bolt of electricity straight from his hard-on to his brain.

The jolt scrambled his sanity, and instead of pushing her away and running for safety, he pulled her even closer and closed his eyes.

Her hair tickled the underside of his jaw. Her strawberries-and-cream scent filled his head. Her luscious curves pressed against his hard body. Her warmth seeped inside and made his blood rush faster.

His hand slid an inch lower, easing from the small of her back to the swell of her sweet little ass molded by the tight miniskirt. His other hand slid up her back, under the spill of hair to cup the back of her neck. His fingers pressed into her flesh and his thumb drew lazy circles against the tender spot just below her ear. If he hadn’t known better, he would have sworn he heard her sigh—a soft, breathy sound that meant she liked his touch.

That it turned her on. That she wanted more. Right here. Right now.

For a split second, he inched toward her nipple puckered beneath the slick material of her halter top. He wanted desperately to slide his fingers beneath the plunging neckline and tease the ripe tip…

Slow down.

She was not the sort of girl to get busy on the dance floor in front of half the damned town. She was a good girl. Tame rather than wild. He had to slow down and behave himself.

His eyes popped open. He eased his hold and drew back to a respectable distance.

“What’s wrong?” She stared up at him, her green eyes glittering beneath the swirl of colored dance-hall lights. Her forehead wrinkled and he had the sudden urge to reach up and smooth the lines away with his fingertip. “Austin?” Surprise turned to concern. “Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah. I just think we need to slow things down a little.”

Instead of smiling because he was being a proper gentleman, she frowned. “I think things were going just fine.”

“We were moving too fast. Way too fast. I don’t like fast.”

“Since when?” She eyed him. “You were always racing around on your motorcycle, burning rubber down Main Street, and burning up the sheets with some lucky girl afterward.”

“How do you know I burned up the sheets?”

She stared up at him, a knowing look in her wide green eyes. Not a plain old grass green at all, but a deep, vibrant shade of jade that glittered and teased and dared him when she smiled.

Like now.

“Word gets around. You definitely liked fast.”

“The only thing fast in my life now is my cutting horse. Speaking of which—” he checked his watch “—I have to be up early and it’s getting late.” He pinned her with a stare. “Way past your bedtime if memory serves me.” She’d always been bright eyed in the morning. Always well rested from a full night’s sleep while he’d been barely able to keep his eyes open in class.

“That was before I realized what I was missing.” She gestured toward the table of women, their drinks raised in a toast. She waved. “The party’s just getting started.”

“I never figured you for a party girl.”

“Oh, I love parties!”

“Since when?”

“Since I left this hole-in-the-wall town and realized what I was missing.”

“A vicious hangover the morning after?”

“Hours of fun the night before.” Her eyes sparkled with meaning and his body throbbed. “Don’t be such a fuddy-duddy. At least finish the dance before you call it a night.” She stepped up against him and twined her arms around his neck again.

He drew a deep breath and resisted the urge to pull her close and show her what she could do with her
fuddy-duddy.
Instead, he anchored his hands on her waist and did his damnedest to ignore the heat seeping into his fingertips and the sweet scent teasing his nostrils.

“So how are the libraries in Dallas?” he blurted, eager to prove that she was still the girl he remembered.

She’d loved the library. She’d spent every afternoon sitting in the corner with her nose buried in a book, a muffin beside her, while life at Cadillac High had passed her by. “Huge, I bet. Fully stocked with everything from
Madame Bovary
to
The Life and Times of Marie Curie.
” He recited two of the books he’d seen her with way back when.

“Actually, I’ve never been to a library in Dallas. I’m too busy.”

“You probably spend all your time in your lab. You were always holed up in the chemistry room when you weren’t in the library.”

“I do spend a lot of time at work, but not just in the lab. I’ve got marketing meetings and product demonstrations, and I do try to take time off to have fun.”

He remembered the so-called social activities she and her geeky friends had engaged in on Friday and Saturday nights when everyone else had been at football games or out cruising in their cars. Only sexy Sarah who’d had a reputation almost as bad as Austin’s had been the exception. “Poetry readings and baking?”

“Bungee jumping and rock concerts.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Rock concerts?”

“Creed. I’ve seen them twice. My first time, I marked the occasion with this.” She moved the veil of blond hair hanging over one shoulder and turned so he could see the back of one delectable shoulder. A small red devil smiled back at him.

A she-devil. As in hot, as in wild, as in
give it to me now.

While his mind tried to register the fact that sweet, demure Maddie Hale had a tattoo, his body simply reacted. His mouth went dry. His heart jumped. The hard-on stretching his jeans tight throbbed in anticipation.

“It was my first concert and I went a little crazy.”

He swallowed and searched for his voice. “Damn straight you did,” he finally croaked.

“I was going to get something a little more tame, like a heart or Tweety Bird or something
cute.
But then I saw this and thought, what the hell? I can be as wild as the next woman.”

Hardly. She was sweet. Wholesome. Respectable. She
couldn’t
have changed that much, and Austin intended to prove it.

“You still eat blueberry muffins every afternoon?” He zeroed in on the memory of her sitting in the library, munching away as she waited for him. “One jumbo muffin every day at four.”

“Sure do.”

He drew in a deep breath.
See? She hasn’t changed that much.

“English muffins. No butter.” At his outraged look, she added, “A girl’s got to watch her figure.”

Okay, so she’d climbed the thermometer a few degrees since high school. She was counting calories, worrying about keeping her curvaceous body in shape so that she could show it off with revealing clothes rather than flower-print dresses.

So what?

A great figure and revealing clothes and a party life
and
a tattoo didn’t mean she truly had morphed into the exact type of woman he’d sworn off when he’d made up his mind to settle down.

“But you loved blueberry muffins, and people shouldn’t give up things they love because society tells them to.” He recited the words she’d told him every time she’d seen one of the “in” girls scarfing carrot sticks. She’d wrinkled her nose and given him a lecture about society’s oppression of women, and how he should open his mind to all sorts of beauty. And he’d enjoyed every minute. Very few people had ever cared enough about his opinion to try to change it.

Except Maddie.

“Muffins are way too fattening.”

“You always wore a bike helmet when you pedaled around town on that three-speed of yours.” He was grasping, but a guy had to do what a guy had to do.

“Yeah, but now I like to feel the breeze blow through my hair. I even graduated to a ten-speed.” Her eyes lit. “It’s really fast.”

“You always carried an umbrella even when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.”

She shrugged. “It’s fun getting caught in the rain.”

“The girl I remember wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a leather halter top in a place like this.”

“And the boy I remember wouldn’t be wasting time talking with a woman wearing a leather halter top in a place like this when he could be doing other, more important, things.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She eyed him, licked her lips and murmured, “Kiss me.”