“I’d like to see you again,” he said softly.
They were facing each other, the fingers of their hands locked together. Once again, Madison’s faced felt flushed as she looked up into warm brown eyes. “When are you leaving town?”
“In a few days. Can I see you tonight?”
The urgency in his voice mirrored the feeling that had come over her. She struggled to recapture the common sense that had seemed to escape her mind from the moment she’d met Stevenson Elliott, but it was no use. She was under a spell and breaking it simply was not in her power at this point.
“Tonight?” She echoed his words as she stalled for time to get her mouth to say what the nagging voice in the back of her mind was telling her to say.
“Yes, tonight. You call the shots. Anytime you say. Anywhere you say. I just want to see you again,” Steve said forcefully.
The earnestness in his voice caused her resolve to melt instantly and the voice of doubt was bound, gagged and shoved in the back of a closet.
“Eight o’clock?” she asked.
“Eight o’clock. I’ll be here to pick you up.”
Steve seemed relieved as he accepted her concession to his request. He searched her face, as if wanting to memorize every inch of it in case he never had the opportunity to see her again.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Madison said, reassuring him.
Steve leaned forward, grazing his lips ever so lightly across Madison’s left cheek, and walked away. Her hand rose, her fingers landing on the spot he’d kissed, which was warm and tingling.
Chapter 4
Madison tossed an olive-colored blouse across the bed, changing her mind for the eighth time in the past hour. After spending all night with Steve, Madison had come back to her apartment, showered and lain across her bed. Unable to sleep, however, she’d gotten up after an hour, donned her workout gear and walked the three blocks to the gym where she worked out daily and taught yoga classes. All through the vigorous workout she undertook, her mind replayed the previous night. She could not believe that one chance meeting had upset the balance of her life so much. Steve Elliott had left an indelible mark on her, which was not an easy feat.
She decided to stop thinking about what had happened and pondering the implications of it. After spending hours contemplating the impact that this man had had on her, she concluded that all she needed to do was to live in the moment and enjoy herself. It was not exactly as if this was a foreign concept for her, for Madison had lived her entire adult life following this approach. However, in the months since she’d relocated to New York City, she’d purposely shed her former attitude and now allowed reason and consideration of all angles to guide her. She didn’t want to be known as the fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants woman she’d been known as. Yet she also knew that unlike many of her past escapades, passing some time with Steve would not prove detrimental to her. Steve was a good guy with whom she’d crossed paths and shared a connection unlike any other she’d ever experienced. Why not take pleasure in it for as long as it lasted?
With that thought in mind, she settled on an orange miniskirt and an ivory halter top patterned with thin pink and orange stripes. After a hot bath, she freshened up a three-day-old pedicure and curled up on the sofa with a magazine. She turned page after page, unable to focus on the fashions before her because of a severe case of distraction. Steve’s face kept flashing before her eyes, his sexy smile and seductive voice running freely through her imagination. She chided herself for allowing her mind to run away with her senses over a guy she’d just met, but there was something so alluringly different about Steve that she could not help herself. She dozed and found that visions of him ran through her dreams. By the time he arrived to pick her up for their date, she was filled with a heady excitement that carried her on air down the stairs.
“What would you like to do tonight?” Steve asked as he held open the passenger door of a rented Mercedes.
“I don’t know. It’s such a beautiful night…let’s do something outdoors. Oh, I know. We can drive down to the South Street Seaport. There’s always something going on down there,” Madison answered excitedly.
“South Street Seaport it is. You’re going to have to direct me though.”
Madison settled into the soft leather seat and they meandered through city traffic. Their conversation and laughter flowed like syrup over a stack of hot pancakes, their words sticking in all the right places. Steve parked on the corner of Fulton Street and they walked slowly toward Pier Seventeen on South Street, the cool breeze, coming from the direction of the water, caressing their faces.
“So, Madison Daniels, you’ve never told me what a country girl such as yourself is doing here in the big city, all alone and on your own. Don’t tell me it’s that same sad cliché?”
“Which one is that?”
“The one about the girl who came here chasing some guy, found out he was a cross-dresser and it didn’t work out,” Steve laughed.
Madison dipped a celery stick into the bowl of blue cheese dressing that had come with her order of buffalo wings. They were seated at Uno’s, one of the cafes located on the upstairs outer deck of the food court, a view of the water and small dinner boats to their left. The lights of the shops and boats along the water sparkled more brilliantly tonight, it seemed, although the real illumination that engulfed them had nothing to do with the scenery.
“Ha!” Madison exploded. “Do you honestly think that I’d ever chase a guy somewhere? Hmph, I guess you’ve got a lot to learn about me, Mr. Elliott.”
“Nah, I was just teasing. I know that you are the pursuee, not the pursuer. You enjoy having men crumble at your feet while you look down upon them, laugh and then grind your stilettos into their tortured hearts.”
Steve leaned forward and wiped a spot of blue cheese from the corner of Madison’s mouth. His touch was so gentle that for a moment she lost all train of thought.
“I think you watch too many movies. I’m not at all the femme fatale you’re making me out to be. But to answer your question, no, I didn’t come to New York chasing anyone. I guess you could say I was looking for someone.”
“Who?”
Madison studied the lights shimmering on the water for a moment before returning her gaze to Steve’s face. She didn’t know why she was talking so much to someone that twenty-four hours ago she hadn’t even known existed. She was not a talker, not by a long shot, but maybe she had been waiting all of her life for the right person to talk to.
“Me,” she said at last.
Steve nodded his head slowly, understanding registering on his handsome face as if he, too, had been waiting for the right person to talk to about the things that were going on inside him. At that moment the connection between the two of them was undeniable and, furthermore, neither of them wanted to even try to pretend that something unexpected yet amazing had not occurred in their meeting.
Steve reached out and stayed the hand that Madison was using to feed another piece of celery into her mouth. He leaned forward and when his lips found hers, her breath caught in her throat. Soft pliable lips pressed against hers with a tenderness that was so marked that it was more passionate than even the most ardent and lustful kiss she’d ever shared with anyone. He withdrew slowly, his smile that of a bashful adolescent. From that moment on, they both knew that they had innocently stumbled upon a situation that neither would be able to walk away from unchanged.
Chapter 5
“Stevenson, what do you mean you are not ready to go home? You know your father has a lot on his plate right now with the expansion. He’s already spent more time in the States than he could afford to take, just