Take a Chance on Me(55)

“Well, Shane wasn’t so lucky with his little sister.” She giggled, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “I threw up in his car as payback.”

“I’m sure he was thrilled,” Mitch said.

She reached over and patted his knee. “Okay, your turn.”

He thought back to that other life with something other than scorn for the first time in three years. “When I was fourteen, I lost my virginity to our housekeeper.”

Her jaw went slack. “Are you serious?”

He nodded, smiling. Lucy had been his first taste with the forbidden, and he’d been hooked ever since. “It wasn’t my fault. She seduced me and I was powerless to stop her.”

Maddie eyed him with deep suspicion. “How old was she?”

“Twenty-one.”

Maddie slapped his thigh. “Yuck! That’s disgusting! You were a child.”

“Princess, when I was fourteen I was over six feet and not done growing. Lucy thought I was man enough.”

“She took advantage of you.”

Mitch chuckled, thinking back on the lovely, talented Lucy. “She did, God bless her. She was from Brazil and very inventive. I couldn’t be anything but grateful.”

Maddie huffed, shaking her head in exasperation. “You know, that really bugs me. It’s just as wrong and perverse as those men who have sex with teenagers. You were a child and she was an adult. She stole your innocence.” Maddie violently waved her hand through the air. “It doesn’t matter if she was a hot Brazilian.”

Mitch crooked a finger, smiling. “Come here.”

Maddie shook her head, a pout puffing out her bottom lip. “I don’t think so.”

He reached out fast, striking with the suddenness of a cobra, to grasp her wrist.

She shrieked and tried to pull away, laughing as she squirmed. He pushed up, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her close. She might weigh next to nothing, but the way she twisted and writhed in her attempt to get free made it hard to get a good hold on her.


Before too long, he had her trapped under him, both her hands manacled as he pinned her to the ground. “Where do you think you’re off to?”

Her pupils contracted as her breath came fast. Her legs splayed open and she tilted her hips in an effort to throw him off.

They both sucked in a breath as she pressed against his erection. He leaned in, lips brushing the lobe of her ear. “Lucy taught me lots of things about pleasing a woman. She was very instructive.”

“With a fourteen-year-old, she’d have to be.” The fine bones in Maddie’s wrists flexed against his palm. “I don’t think I want to hear about it.”

“No?” Mitch asked. He gripped her with one hand, freeing his other to explore her body. He stroked down her bare arm, and she shivered, a soft gasp floating on the night sky. “I could demonstrate.”

“No, thank you,” her voice husky despite her proper words.

“You’re lying,” he whispered, as he ran a thumb along the underside of her breast. “Isn’t that a sin?”

She made a soft sound, somewhere between a moan and a gasp. “At this point I’m just trading sins at any given moment.”

He laughed, wicked and evil. “Let’s go inside. It’s time for bed.” He didn’t trust himself to kiss her for fear he’d lose control and take her right here in the grass. He pressed an open mouth kiss to her neck.

She shuddered, her hips jerking up once again to bump against his straining cock. “With you?”

He gave a fleeting thought to protest. It was too soon, he knew it, but then she wrapped her legs around his thighs and rocked into him and he forgot all about being a knight in shining armor.

“Yes, with me.” He flicked his tongue over her pulse. She tasted delicious and he intended to lick every inch of her.

“Mitch,” she said, in a soft, hesitant tone.

He lifted his head and looked down into her face. Three days ago he hadn’t even known her, and somehow that seemed impossible.

Before Maddie was a lifetime ago.

She blinked up at him, expression unsure. He sighed. Too soon. He let go of her wrists and brushed her hair from her cheek. “To sleep. I don’t want to do anything you’re not ready for.” It might kill him, but he could do it.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. She turned her head and looked at the river. “That’s not it. I need something from you.”

“What? Whatever it is, you’ve got it.”

Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip. “I want you to make me a promise.”

“Whatever you need.” As long as he could feel her against him.

She swallowed. “Promise you won’t take it easy on me.”

His heart almost stalled out. “What exactly do you mean?”

“I don’t want sweet and gentle. I don’t want safe. I don’t want you to treat me with kid gloves because I don’t have a lot of experience.”

He ground his back teeth, fighting raw, depraved images in his head. He swallowed hard and asked, “Do you know what you’re asking?”

She tilted her face to look at him, and even in the moonlight he could see the stain of pink on her cheeks. The blush did nothing to detract from the determination in her eyes.