Chapter 52
Madison recognized the big truck in the driveway at Coleson Castle and groaned.
“Problem?” the woman next to her asked. Somehow, K.J. had ended up recruited to be her taxi for this. Dom’s doing. He’d sent the most junior detective.
Madison wasn’t being stupid. If there was a threat against her, she was going to do whatever she could to be safe. So she’d accepted the ride.
“Dom is here. I’m avoiding him, as much as I can.” When he wasn’t sleeping on her couch, anyway. Last night she’d convinced herself that she’d been dreaming, that he really wasn’t there. Only to find him on her couch again. He’d looked so perfect. Her fingers had started tingling again.
“I can drive away. Head to the hills. But if a scorching hot guy like Dominic Acardi was looking in my direction—I don’t know that I would be running. At least, not away, anyway.”
“It is very, very complicated.”
“No kidding. I bet it is.” K.J. looked behind her and tensed. Then relaxed. “That’s Heather’s sister, right?”
Madison looked at the little economy car that had just pulled in and parked. “Bonnie and Cashlyn. Heather’s sister and niece.”
K.J. killed the engine. Madison opened the door. “Thanks for the ride.”
“I’ll just walk you in and give you over to Acardi. I don’t want him growling at me or anything.”
“Gee, thanks. Girls are supposed to stick together, you know.” Might as well get this over with, and deal with him.
He would find her eventually—probably right there in her living room and everything.
At least this way…she’d get him to buy her dinner somewhere first. The man owed her that much.
Maybe a trip to the Barratt Hotel dining room would be in order… ?
Madison stepped out of her car, just as a teenage girl walked up the sidewalk and stopped. Then the girl just hurried away.
Bonnie met her at the edge of her car. “Madison, hello. Please, come in. Your friend, too.”
“Bonnie Coleson, Cashlyn, this is Detective K.J. Miller. She works with us at the TSP. She got stuck driving me around today because of a bum arm.”
“I believe we’ve met before,” Bonnie said. “Please, come inside. It looks like it is going to storm. No one should be out in it now.”
Madison agreed with that. She followed Bonnie inside, as Cashlyn made small talk with K.J. Then there he was. Her caveman of Major Crimes, sitting at Heather’s table with Hope and Daniel and Miguel like he owned the place.
Bonnie smiled at Dom and said hello, and called him by name and told him what a pleasure it was to see him again.
Apparently that was all it took.
Dominic Vincent Acardi—big tough caveman that he was—turned bright red and actually stuttered. Simply because a beautiful woman had smiled at him.
Madison just…snickered. The man was pitiful.
And she was one hundred percent certain—Dom had a crush.
His cheeks were red right there. And he looked nervous.
In an instant. He turned to her and scowled as Bonnie stepped out of the kitchen and into a nearby family room to say hello to her grandchildren who had realized she was home.
Dom stood and came toward Madison, as Hope followed her mother to ask her questions about Heather—and Miguel followed Hope like a magnet.
K.J. was busy talking to Daniel about what she had learned on whatever she was working on today.
It was almost like she and Dom were alone now. For just one brief moment. Which…good thing they weren’t really alone—the fingers were really tingly now. He looked good in his dark green TSP T-shirt. Real good.
“Careful, she’s going to see you looking at her.” This was hilarious. And she was going to enjoy this. Who would have thought the biggest caveman in the TSP would have a crush on an older woman that left him blushing? “She might find out you like her.”
He just scowled, but…it made him seem human for once. And that it was Hope’s oldest sister was just icing on the cake.
“For what it’s worth, I like the future Mrs. Dom Acardi very much. She’s very nice. You’ll probably be very happy together.”
He growled. He was very…um…sexy…when he growled like that. But she was never going to say that out loud. It would give him ideas. “There won’t be another missus for me. You can count on that. Unless you are offering.”
“I—” Well, that sobered everything right up, didn’t it? Okay, maybe she should take a detour here. Escape out the window. “Dom…I was just teasing.”
“That’s the thing, sweetheart. You tease me just by existing. You know I want you.”
Well…maybe she knew? It had been hard to miss the things he’d said to her over the years. Or the way he watched her. The things other people had said about them. “Dom…I think…total reset here. Fast.”
Before she got in his truck with him and headed back to her itty-bitty apartment with just Missy the Cat as a chaperone.
“Why? You afraid?” He stalked closer.
Only thing she could really do—she held her hands up. In surrender. “I give up. Don’t eat me…”
His eyes darkened again.
Well. Yikes.
Probably not what she should have said. Now that she thought about it. Especially when he let out a wild animal sound under his breath.
Then she was legit off her feet and her back was against the silk-papered wall and he was pressed against her and she could smell the perfect male scent of him. Oh, yikes.
His hands were hot, hard—they were perfect. She wrapped her fingers over his broad, broad shoulders. What else was a girl supposed to do? A wild animal held her. She wasn’t going to escape.
Did she even want to escape?
That was another question she just couldn’t answer.
Dominic Vincent Acardi. Her nemesis. Somehow they were alone in Hope’s kitchen—a mansion where two dozen people lived—and Dom had his hands on her. This was danger. She should run for the hills.
Shelby didn’t live that far from here. Madison could sprint. She used to be able to run fast and everything. That might be her only option.
“Damn it, I am just a man. What in the hell am I supposed to do, be made of stone? Damn my soul to hell for this.”
Well, for him that was a bit on the poetic side, wasn’t it?
Madison couldn’t breathe here. She didn’t think it was because of how tightly they were pressed together, either.
One of her hands had a will of its own—it crept up, tangled in his hair.
Dom used to have militarily short hair—but he hadn’t had it cut in a long time.
She liked it like this. It was soft, softer than she would have expected.
Nothing about Dominic Acardi was soft. That was…evident…in how he felt against her. The man was built like a god. No denying that.
Probably a dark god, actually. One who would cause mayhem everywhere he went. Just to get what he wanted.
Madison was pretty clear here—he wanted her. Kind of hard to deny that.
Then, in a matter of a single breath—he was kissing her. His mouth pressed to hers…and the man just stole her soul or something.
Definitely stole her common sense.
Her will to resist.
Then he just kept kissing her—stealing conscious thought, even.
She had never been kissed like this before.
Finally, finally, after a lifetime, he pulled back. “It’s not Bonnie Coleson I have a crush on, honey. Probably better remember that.”
Remember that? She couldn’t even breathe, let alone think enough to remember anything.
Then…Hope was calling her name from the other room. And Madison was escaping. As fast as she possibly could.