“Why are you trying to humiliate me?” she asked in a choked voice.
His rapid breathing paused. He looked so beautiful standing there with his jeans shucked down around his knees, exposing his long, muscular thighs, his sated cock still stretching the latex of the condom.
His chest moved again as he inhaled slowly.
“It’s not humiliating to admit the obvious, Madeline.”
Anger clutched at her throat. “You had your chance, Walker. You walked away.”
A muscle in his rigid cheek twitched. “I was twenty-two years old. And I came back.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to me.”
Her heart caught in her breast when he reached out and touched her cheek. It amazed her . . . frightened her a little, even, to see the raw emotion in his handsome face.
“Nature gave me that right, Madeline.” He seemed a little heart sore with his answer, but it was his certainty that left her breathless.
Her mouth opened, closed and then opened again. She looked wildly around the tiny room, feeling as if she’d never seen it until that moment.
She lunged toward the door, pulling up short when he grasped her hand.
“I told you I’d make it up to you, but you have to give me a chance. I’m going to be installing some equipment down by the lake perimeter tonight, but we’ll be finished by eleven or so. I want you to meet me at midnight down by the gazebo in the gardens. I want to talk to you, Madeline,” he added when she dared to glance back at him.
She thought he’d try and stop her when she fled, but he didn’t. The hallway was shadowed and silent. When she neared the grand staircase, she heard the sound of Tony’s and Hal’s voices emanating from the terrace. Something about their casual banter made her suspect they hadn’t heard Walker’s and her wild coupling. She raced up the stairs toward her private suite like the devil was snapping his teeth at her high heels.
Four
She told Tony she wasn’t feeling well when he tapped on her suite door at around eleven thirty that night. She’d showered and put on a sapphire blue low-cut nightgown. When Tony entered, she greeted him while lying in bed reading a book, the sheet pulled up to her chest. She suspected he’d drunk his fill with the Margraves after she’d excused herself earlier. His tread was steady enough, but there was a telling glassiness to his brown eyes. He’d been drinking more lately—ever since he’d become involved in this business of convincing the senate that U.S. banks were at high risk—and it concerned Madeline.
“I’m sorry you’re not feeling well,” he consoled as he sat at the edge of her bed.
“I just have a headache from spending so much time in the sun today.”
“I think you’re angry with me, for asking Walker and his crew to the lodge.”
She sighed when she saw his downcast eyes. “I’m not angry, Tony. I just think it’s an inconvenience and a waste of time.”
“But I need Walker,” Tony exclaimed. “Above and beyond his help in protecting you until we figure out the identity of this shooter. He’s going to make the Aspen Lodge impenetrable, and he’ll do the same to my house in Half Moon Bay. He’s the best, Maddie. I won’t have you harmed. I’d die if something happened to you because of something I—”
“You have nothing to do with this!” Madeline exclaimed.
He winced. “You don’t know that. I’ve had nutcases threaten me before. It’s inevitable, owning a company like Hallas Technologies. Walker can keep you safe. I know he can.”
Madeline interrupted him before he started to once again list Walker’s list of honors, accomplishments and commendations, one of them awarded by a former president. She’d heard the list already four or five times today.
“I resent being trapped here at the lodge,” she said.
“It’s only until the police and Walker investigate the shooting a little more. Abigail would shoot me herself if I let you go after what happened,” Tony said earnestly, referring to Madeline’s mother. While he talked, he idly grabbed the edge of her sheet and drew it down to her waist. Madeline pulled back on the fabric, but he held firm.
“Let me look at you, at least, since you won’t let me touch,” he muttered as his eyes roved over her bare shoulders and chest. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Tony, you’re drunk,” she said in exasperation.
“It’s true,” he said simply. He looked sad as he met her gaze. “I wish I’d had the sense to realize it when you were in my bed.”
She smiled and shook her head when she saw his expression. “But you didn’t believe it when I was in your bed, Tony. That’s the whole point. There was always something just a little more beautiful, a little more desirable in the corner of your eye.”
“I was a fool. There was no one more beautiful, Maddie, just more willing. It was childish of me, to think I wanted a woman to submit to my every whim. You always kept me in line.”