Just One Room - Chapter 6

In Madi’s bedroom the next night, Rigby dumped his bag on the floor and slapped his hands on his hips. Next door, in what had been his room, another couple was, he presumed, unpacking their bags.

“That…that...”

“Manipulative and interfering?” Madi asked him, sitting on the edge of her double bed. Madi’s mouth twitched with amusement. “Well, she certainly called our bluff, didn’t she?”

“While I expected some interrogation about you and our relationship,” Rigby retorted. “I never expected her to interfere in our living arrangements.”

Madi’s laugh was part gurgle, part snort. “We’ve been hoisted by our own petard! We told her we are together, so she assumed we are sleeping together. That assumption led to her remembering that the apartment has a spare bedroom, so when she heard that a Grantham guest was traveling back and forth to the city because they couldn't find accommodation in the town, she offered them your bedroom.”

“I wasn’t in a position to refuse,” Rigby grumbled. “It was either admit that we lied to her or move in with you.”

“Moving in here was far the better of two bad choices,” Madi agreed. “I’m not sure I could deal with a lecture from Jocelyn about honesty and deceit.”

Jocelyn was both a church minister and a spiritual guru to several Hollywood and British A-listers—she was well known for telling it straight and not pulling her punches.

“I’ve been on the end of her sharp tongue many times before,” Rigby told her. “The lectures are never fun.”

Madi saw him glance at the big bed and knew he was wondering if she expected him to sleep on the floor. But they were adults and that behavior was more suited to Jane Austen's books than modern-day America. She wanted him…

And she was tired of being sensible. Yes, he might be another bad choice, but she was sure he would be worth it.

It was ridiculous how the space between her legs heated when he looked at her with those green eyes, how her heart skipped—it was the only part of her that had skipped since she was ten!—and her nipples ached. She wanted to feel his beard scraping across her sensitive skin, and she couldn’t wait to nibble her way across the fantastically muscled body she’d seen shirtless over the course of the last two days—watching him play beach volleyball was the highlight of her life!

She wasn’t a woman who made a habit of asking men to share her bed but, despite her cold feet last night, she wasn’t scared of doing so either. It was the twenty-first century and women were allowed to express their sexual needs and wants.

“I can hear you thinking,” Rigby said, coming to sit down next to her. He kicked off his flip-flops and shifted back to sit cross-legged on the bed. “So, what do we do now? We can’t share a glass of wine on the balcony—Alison and Harry will hear us and I can see them asking to join our party.”

The couple to whom Jocelyn had offered the room were extremely gregarious and enthusiastic. They reminded Madi of Labrador puppies who thought they could push themselves into any situation, completely sure of their welcome. They were sweet, harmless even, but God, they couldn’t read the room.

Madi turned to face him. “Well, we can always just hang out here.” Hang out? Just say it, Madigan, for God’s sake. “You know…naked.”

It only took him a couple of seconds for his attention to sharpen and his eyes to heat. “Naked?”

He swallowed and Madi wanted to smile at the shock she saw on his face. Right, he hadn’t been expecting that. She rather liked keeping this too-uptight, too-calm man off-balance.

“What, exactly, are you suggesting, Madigan?”

She liked that he was asking for clarification, that he hadn’t pounced. Oh, making him lose control and seeing the emotion on his normally implacable face was going to be fun.

She stood and found the zip at the side of her dress, and Rigby’s feet hit the floor. The material of her dress slipped off her shoulders, revealing her deep violet bra. “I’m suggesting that, as your brand-new, albeit pretend, girlfriend, you should make love to me.”

He straightened and ran his hand over the ball of her shoulder, down her arms to link his fingers in hers. “Are you sure?” he asked, lifting her hand to place his lips on her knuckles. “You weren’t last night.”

Madi felt her dress pool around her legs and lifted her other hand to touch his jaw.

“I needed a little more time but now I am very sure. Make love to me, Rigby. Please.”

His mouth covered her lips in a soul-stealing, devastating kiss and Madi realized she was in danger of losing complete control. After rediscovering her mouth, Rigby started to kiss her jaw, and moved down her neck, his teeth scraping across her exposed collarbone. She wanted his clothes off and needed to lay her hands on his hot, masculine skin, but he was too intent on learning her curves and she was distracted enough to let him. He reached behind her back to release her bra strap and he groaned when he tested the weight of her breasts. He lowered his head to pull an aching-for-him nipple into his mouth.

Rigby’s eyes were hot with need. Having him on his knees in front of her, worshiping her body, was the biggest turn-on of her life. His entire focus was her and her pleasure, and she knew it would take a nuclear threat to get him to stop.

And maybe that wouldn’t even be enough.

Rigby traced the band of her low-cut panties, sliding his finger down its side, where it met the crease of her hips, before cupping her butt. His eyes widened in pleasure as he realized she wore a thong. “You are so utterly beautiful, incredibly sexy.”

She knew she was a beautiful woman. She’d been paid enough money for portraits to snap her face and body, but up until this moment, she’d never really felt beautiful. With Rigby she did. He placed his mouth on her belly button and licked her exposed skin while she tunneled her hands into his hair.

She tugged at the collar of his shirt, but Rigby simply ignored her, choosing instead to run his nose over her mound and nuzzle her between her legs. In an unconscious movement, her legs fell apart and his tongue pushed the fabric of her panties against her feminine lips.

Pulling back, Rigby looked up at her, a small smile on his face. “As pretty as these are, I think it might work better if we take them off.”

Was he expecting a reply to that? She hoped not because she was pretty certain she’d lost her ability to speak. She nodded and watched as he oh so gently, and oh so slowly, pulled her panties down her thighs. She lifted her foot, still encased in her favorite pair of Louboutin heels, and wondered if he’d tackle the tiny buckle on the ankle strap. When he just dragged his finger through her thin, tidy patch of hair, she realized that removing her shoes wasn’t a priority.

Okay, then.

Rigby pushed her knees apart, dropped his head and started to love her. And Madi shook and bit down on her fist to muffle her scream.