“He’s not a reasonable man, Madison. He is completely driven by emotion and desire. I honestly don’t get what you see in him. He’s your exact opposite.”
Madison sighed. “That’s what I love most about him, that we’re so different. He brings things out in me I didn’t know I held inside. You know?” Of course Kennedy didn’t know. She only ever dated Mr. Safe and Dr. Secure. “I need that, Kennedy. I need him in my life. And he needs me in his.”
“Dr. Fairbanks”—Madison heard Kennedy’s receptionist—“your one o’clock appointment is here.”
“Thanks, Cyndi. Just give me a minute,” Kennedy answered her. “I’ll be home when you arrive, honey, and we can discuss this like rational adults,” she said to Madison.
Like a psychiatrist and a counselor, she meant. Kennedy still didn’t know that Madison had been fired. They didn’t have time to add that bit of crazy to the discussion now. Kennedy disliked Adam enough as it was; she’d flip out when she learned that he was responsible—at least in part—for Madison losing her job.
“Okay,” Madison said. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Love you, sis.”
“Love you too.”
When the call disconnected, Madison felt that a lifeline had been yanked from her hand. She always felt a bit disconnected when she didn’t see her twin for a couple of days, but the sudden feeling of panic was extra strong. And ridiculous. She’d never quite understood what her patients who suffered from anxiety attacks went through. She completely understood now and was sorry she hadn’t been more sympathetic to their need for Valium.
Madison took several calming breaths and tucked her phone into her purse.
“Passenger Madison Fairbanks, please report to the counter at Gate C10. Passenger Madison Fairbanks.”
Madison hesitated at hearing the announcement, but she wasn’t sure why. She needed to go home where she felt safe and secure so she could determine her next move. Adam said he would wait. But for how long? He’s said it himself. He wasn’t a patient man. The faster she figured out why her head and her heart were at odds, the faster she could return to him. Because she was pretty sure the heart was going to win this particular battle. She rose from her uncomfortable airport chair and headed to the counter.
“I’m Madison Fairbanks,” she told the attendant.
“There’s a seat available on the next flight to Dallas.”
The woman glanced up from her monitor when Madison didn’t say anything.
“If you changed your mind, there’s another passenger—”
“I’ll take it,” she said, not sure why her stomach sank as the words left her mouth. If Adam had just talked to her when she needed to talk and acted as her sounding board for a change, then she wouldn’t have had to leave. Or maybe if she wasn’t such a coward when it came to huge life decisions . . . But she should be allowed to think such things through, shouldn’t she? Just because he was impulsive and reckless and bold didn’t mean she had to be, did it?
She scrubbed her face with both hands. Kennedy would help her sort through her jumble of thoughts. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to be home.
“Photo ID please.”
“Huh?” Madison said, hearing what the woman was saying, but not comprehending her words.
“Driver’s license? Passport?”
“Oh, sorry,” Madison said. “I’m a little distracted.”
She showed her ID and was handed a boarding pass. She wandered toward the enormous windows, where she watched handlers fling bags on the conveyor belt that carried luggage to the cargo hold beneath the plane. She didn’t know if her own pink bag would actually make it on the same plane. They’d checked it when she’d inquired about a standby, but she wasn’t sure how they would know which plane to put it on. The airline seemed to know how to handle her situation, so she supposed she’d worry about it when she arrived in Dallas.
It wouldn’t be long before they boarded. And the weekend she’d been so looking forward to would be over. A complete disaster. Could her life get any worse? Staring at the plane that would soon carry her tens of thousands of feet into the sky, she decided she shouldn’t tempt fate.
A presence close behind her made her body stiffen.
“So we meet again,” a vaguely familiar voice said close to her ear. “Meeting once would be chance, twice coincidence, three times a miracle, but four times? It has to be destiny.”
She’d heard the voice before—a knight asking quite plainly to please his queen’s ass.
She jerked her head around, and her stomach sank. She knew the face as well. The guy who’d sat beside her on the plane on the way to New Orleans and tailed her through the airport to baggage claim. He’d been the one who’d started her down a path to no return at the club? Well, that fucking figured.
Destiny, my ass, she thought. He had to be following her. But why?
“You’re not too good for me now, are you, little queen?” he said. He caught his bottom lip between his teeth as he gave her the twice-over. Again. Yet it wasn’t as if he had to imagine her naked. He’d seen her at her most vulnerable.
Or perhaps she’d been at her most powerful in those moments of utter abandon.
“I’m sorry,” she said, playing dumb. “Do I know you?”
“Your ass is well acquainted with my lips. My fingers. My cock.”
She lifted an eyebrow at him and shook her head. “I’m afraid you have me confused with someone else.”
“I could tell by the look on your lover’s face that he’d never made you come as hard as I did when I fucked your ass.”
“You don’t know anything about how hard my lover makes me come. And as I recall, he was inside me at the time.”
Chris chuckled. “And not for much longer. As I recall, as soon as you came, his dick went soft and he left the room. And where is he now? For someone you claim to be your boyfriend, he sure leaves you alone a lot.”
Her heart twisted. Adam would really be leaving her alone a lot now. “My relationship with my lover is none of your business. Now go away. We aren’t supposed to talk about the club beyond its walls. Remember?”
“I remember well.” He ran a finger down her cheek, and she slapped his hand away. “Every time you came that night, it was my dick in your ass. You couldn’t get enough. You aren’t as sweet and innocent as you pretend to be.”