He pulled off her tennis shoes and let them drop to the floor, deciding she could sleep in her scrubs. They were obviously clean and probably comfortable.
He stripped, watching her sleep while he discarded his clothing, disrobing until he stood only in his boxer briefs. Walking around the bed, he slipped between the sheets on the other side, flipping off the light beside his bed, his body tense. It was a big bed, but it wasn’t big enough. Was he completely insane? How the f**k was he supposed to sleep with Maddie in his bed? This moment was surreal, an event he had dreamed about forever and fantasized about often.
Go to sleep, ass**le. You’re watching over her. If you don’t stay with her she’ll probably sneak out before you can catch her.
Oh, hell no. There was no way she was working tomorrow. That bullshit needed to stop.
Punching his pillow, he rolled to his side, facing Maddie. God, she was beautiful. Everything about her was absolutely perfect. Unable to stop himself, he reached out his hand, scooting closer to her, as though drawn by a magnet. He fingered her curls, and then ran the back of his hand down her delicate face. The room was lit only by moonlight, but it was bright enough to see her features. As he ran his hand down her arm, she stirred, her eyelids fluttering. Her body moving restlessly, she inched toward him until she was rubbing against him, her body plastered against his entire front. Her arms circled his neck, nestling against his body like she belonged there.
“She does,” he whispered fiercely. “There’s no way she could feel this f**king good unless she belongs here with me.”
“Sam?” she murmured in a confused voice.
His heart thundering, he answered, “Yeah?”
“I hate you. Why are you here?” She snuggled against him, belying her words as she clung to his fiery body like a heat-seeking missile.
“I know you do, Sunshine. Just sleep,” he answered gravely.
He wrapped his arms around her. She might hate him, but she needed him right now. And he was determined to be there for her.
Like I should have been all along. I didn’t f**king know she had never gotten married. Unless she got married and didn’t change her name; but what sort of guy would let his woman work the way she does? I thought she’d have half a dozen kids by now.
Sam figured she must at least have a man in her life and he shuddered at the thought.
Mine. She f**king belongs here with me.
Closing his eyes, he let his senses absorb her fragrance, the feel of her body pressed against him.
It was agony and ecstasy all at once.
He lay there, listening to Maddie’s steady, even breathing, indicating that she’d finally settled and was deeply asleep.
Strangely enough, Sam followed her into slumber moments later, his body relaxing, and his mind, for the first in years, completely content.
Chapter 3
Maddie woke the next morning confused, her head pounding like she had the mother of all hangovers- except for the fact that she rarely drank more than a glass of wine.
What in the hell happened? Where am I?
Pushing the hair back from her face, she blinked as she opened her eyes, her whole head foggy.
Hearing a masculine groan beneath her, she pushed to sit up, her fingers greeted by hot skin and tight muscle as she pushed against an enormous male chest.
What the hell?!
Maddie’s eyes grew wide, coming totally awake in seconds as she looked at the body beneath hers. “Hudson,” she hissed, noticing that she was straddling him, torso to torso, her head having previously rested on his shoulder. “Take your hands off my ass.”
His eyes were wide open, shooting her a hot, intense look that nearly incinerated her. Her heart thundered as his sizzling green eyes devoured her.
“You called me Sam last night, Sunshine,” he told her in a low, sultry voice. “And if you’re going to spread that luscious body out on top of me, you should expect to have this delicious ass groped. I’m not exactly a saint.”
Maddie shivered as he cupped her ass in his hands, bringing her core flush with his raging erection. Last night? Last night? What exactly had happened? Thinking furiously, she tried to remember if she and Sam had been…intimate. The last thing she remembered was putting her head on her desk at the clinic, just thinking she needed to rest her burning eyes for a moment. And then…nothing. “I can’t remember last night. Did we-” She stopped abruptly, unable to ask Sam Hudson that mortifying question.
“Did we f**k?” he asked her casually. He released a beleaguered masculine sigh as he continued, “Sadly…no we didn’t. But if we had, you would have remembered it.”
Thank God!
Swinging her leg over his body, she scrambled away from him, moving to the other side of the bed. Swiping the irritating curls from her face, she gave him an annoyed glance. She was still dressed in the clean scrubs she had donned after her shower at the clinic. He, however, was naked; at least from the waist up. She tried not to notice that sculpted chest, covered in a light dusting of blond hair, and the enticing trail that went down his navel to his…
Shit!
Pulling her eyes away from him, completely disgusted with herself for drooling over his ripped body, she asked abruptly, “What happened? Why am I here?” She assumed that this was his home, since she was in the same bed as him. A bed, that she had to admit, had damn nice sheets, in a bedroom with lovely furnishings.
Sam sat up, and Maddie held her breath as the sheet slipped lower, her eyes drawn unerringly back to his abdomen. Then, she noticed the elastic band that sat low on his hips, proof that he wasn’t completely naked. She released her breath, hating herself for being disappointed.
“I’d love to tell you that I came to your clinic and you were so overcome with lust that you begged me to take you home and f**k you,” he replied, his hot green eyes raking her face and body. “But you weren’t and I didn’t. I went to your office and you were fast asleep on your desk. I tried to wake you but you were so exhausted that I had to carry you here and put you to bed.”
Sliding from the bed, she asked, “Why? I would have woken up eventually.” She put her hands on her hips, annoyed that he had invaded her clinic. Again.
Flipping back the covers, he stood, shooting her a dangerous look. “Are you f**king kidding me? You were out for the count. What in the hell are you trying to do, Maddie? Kill yourself with exhaustion? Nobody crashes that hard unless they’ve been drinking or are entirely sleep deprived. It’s bullshit,” he growled, walking across the room to retrieve a gray silk robe from a chair.