GOOD LORD.

Rupert choked with surprise. That wasn't the answer he had expected.

"I have to wake up very early tomorrow morning and go to the airport. You could sneak out of my room after I've left."

"I thought you were scared." He'd meant to tease her, but his voice came out too harsh.

"We're not going to see each other for a long time and I don't want to say goodbye... just yet." Then she said, with bravado, "I'm sure someone as experienced as you can control his baser instincts."

Madison stood and started toward the hidden stairs. He followed in her footsteps, his brain numb. He didn't want her to get away.

Once on the square, she took his hand and reversed the roles, hurrying him. They reached High Street and turned on St. Aldate's. They didn't talk, but held hands and moved in the cold night air. He looked sideways at her profile to check if she was changing her mind. He could only read resolve in her.

In front of Christ Church College, Madison checked that the porter wasn't in his lodge. By lucky chance, he had left his post. They rushed through the gate, ran toward her building and climbed the stairs to her studio.

Once they were alone in her room, she stared down at her sneakers covered with flakes of snow.

"I can go, if you want," he offered, but the thought of leaving her behind was more painful than a full term of training with Coach Bartlett on his back ... and Claus Jensen on his boat.

"I'm not used to bringing guys back to my room. I don't do it very often." She hesitated. "I've never done it ... and I'm nearly twenty-two."

He came closer to her and caressed her flushed cheek. "Don't be ashamed, Maddie. As you said, I can control my baser instincts. For you, I will." He had never meant anything as much as this promise to her.

"Rupert Vance behaving like a gentleman. Halleluiah."

As he didn't have anything to say to defend himself, she walked back toward the door. "I just need to go to the bathroom." She left, holding her washbag against her chest.

Once in the silence of her room, he screened her possessions and the tidy order of her life. Nothing seemed out of place, unlike everything in his own existence. Whatever happened tonight, he would have to talk to Harriet asap. He might not be Prince Charming, but there were things even Rupert Vance shouldn't do. Sleeping-even sharing the same bed-with a girl who wasn't your girlfriend was one of them.

Whether or not he opted for full disclosure with Harriet, he would break up with her. He should have done that a long time ago. s.h.i.t, he shouldn't have even started anything with her. He'd talk to her, not on the phone, but face to face, when she'd be back from her Christmas break.

With all his clothes on, minus his shoes and socks, he lay on the duvet of Madison's microscopic bed. A framed picture stood on her bedside table. Three adult women, one of them in her sixties with a darker colored skin, surrounded a young Madison. She couldn't have been more than six or seven, her missing front teeth creating a gap in her smile.

An adult version of the child stepped back into the bedroom, wearing flannel PJs. When he looked up at her, she went purple right to the roots of her hair. He had to smile. Rupert threw open the duvet and shifted to the other side of the single bed. She rushed in next to him and he took her in his arms, the duvet as a chast.i.ty belt between them.

l.u.s.t challenged his good resolutions. He wanted to have s.e.x with her. Badly.

Not aware of his struggle, Madison pulled him against her, kissed him, her hands caressing the nape of his neck. Through the cover their legs intertwined, and the feeling of her underneath him set his body on fire. The layers of material between them itched like crazy.

His lips abandoned the warm temptation of her mouth to trail down her cheek down to her earlobe. He gave a small bite to it. She giggled.

"Girls usually don't giggle when they're in bed with me."

He could have sworn the pout she gave him melted a corner of his heart.

"Sorry, I guess I feel a bit giddy."

"Giddy? That's not an adjective I would use to describe the so very serious Madison LeBon." He kept on grazing on the skin of her neck.

"What adjectives would you use then?"

"Nerdy, stuck-up..." His tongue was now drawing small circles on the top of her breastbone, just above the first b.u.t.ton of her far too respectable PJs. "... hard-on-inducing."

Her chest caved in, then expanded when she released her next breath. "I'm not sure "hard-on-inducing" is in the Oxford's Dictionary."

"I made it up for you."

Her fingers rummaged through his hair and she dragged his head back to her lips. If he couldn't make love to her, he intended to make love to her mouth. And Madison's mouth wasn't playing hard to get. He brushed her lower lip, nibbling and sucking it, then slid through the tight s.p.a.ce between her teeth. He sucked on her tongue and she gasped, cutting his exploration short.

Not for long.

She was back for more, this time doing the nibbling, biting and suckling herself. His d.i.c.k was going to make the b.u.t.tons of his jeans pop out under the pressure of his erection. He was grateful for the duvet while she moaned and started arching against him.

His control was tested when the duvet started sliding down due to Madison's little kicks. In one last move, it fell on the floor.

Rupert tilted his head back and took support on his elbows to move his weight and introduce some much needed s.p.a.ce between them.

"Maddie, I don't want to lose control. And I will if you get rid of the barriers between us."

"I don't want barriers."

Holy s.h.i.t.

"Having s.e.x now... It would be wrong."

She froze and he read the hurt in her eyes before she turned her head to the side, offering him the view of her totally p.i.s.sed-off profile. "Thanks for telling me I'm wrong."

"Not you, baby." His fingertips brushed the fine line of her nose, her swollen mouth. "You are so right. But not on our first night together... Not when I, technically, still have a girlfriend."

She shut her eyes. He was digging up his own grave, real fast. "I'll break up with her... she'll survive, but I can't do that to you."

"To me? I'm not the one being cheated on." She faced him again.

"I'd be cheating on you if I stole away your first time. You deserve the whole shebang, Mad Hatter. You deserve to be in a real relationship, to be in love with the guy, to know him better than you know me right now."

Rupert had opened up more to Madison tonight than he had... ever.

She shifted underneath him and opened her legs making his over-blown c.o.c.k nestled against the heated flannel between her hips. "Sometimes I'm fed up with over-a.n.a.lyzing everything. I want to let myself go for once. Just this time."

She started undulating and thrusting her groin against him.

"s.h.i.t..." He couldn't come like that. What the h.e.l.l was happening here? A trip down memory lane, back to boarding school and dry-humping with Rebecca Barbers? He had been fourteen then, for G.o.d's sake.

"So, Rupert, are there any other "first times" you could steal from me tonight?" She lifted her chin in an open challenge.

There was no way he would indulge himself tonight. He could take care of the business tomorrow. On his own. But, maybe, there were a few tricks he could play on her. "I can be creative."

"Please be." Her hand came and lay on his b.u.t.t pushing him closer again.

"Only on one condition."

"What?" she moaned while the tip of her tongue started teasing his fingertips.

"You say "no" as soon as it goes too far for you."

She nodded.

"Do you have anything underneath those very boring pajamas of yours?"

"My panties," she answered in a short breath.

"Is that okay if I strip you down to your knickers?"

"Yes, but you need to get rid of this very tight and not boring at all shirt of yours?"

"I think I can do that for you."

He knelt between her opened legs and unb.u.t.toned his shirt in record time. He was much more deliberate when he took care of the top of her pajamas, one b.u.t.ton at a time, his eyes fixed on hers. He slid the sides of her shirt aside revealing her perfect t.i.ts to his hungry stare. They were perky and full. And hard. With his hands on her ribcage, he lowered his head and buried his head in her cleavage. He licked her skin and savored her sweet taste, then moved his mouth over her left nipple. His teeth bit gently on it.

"Oh G.o.d," Madison reacted while lifting her upper-body so that his take on hers widened. He flipped her nipple with his tongue. He pulled it, released it, pulled it, released it. The fingers of his left hand took care of her other nipple, twisting the tip of it slightly.

Madison had started purring. The sound had his free hand flew between his legs to readjust his inflated c.o.c.k inside his jeans. There would be some serious jerking off tomorrow. Or maybe he should use that bathroom of hers for a polar cold shower later.

He palmed her s.e.x next to his b.u.mpy groin. Kneeling again, he pulled her trousers down and threw them on the floor where they landed on top of the duvet. She wasn't wearing a G-string or anything s.e.xy, just off-white cotton knickers. He liked them and swore to himself they would stay on.

"You're the s.e.xiest kitten I've ever lay my eyes on... and I've never been so hard. For anybody."

The corner of Madison's mouth lifted. "I stole a "first" from you then?"

"You totally did, baby."

While she reveled in her victory, he plunged his head between her legs and started licking her through the material of her underwear.

"Oh G.o.d," she cried out.

"You're repeating yourself, Mad Hatter."

She didn't answer but buried instead her fingers through his hair increasing the pressure of his mouth on her.

"I'd no idea it could feel so good."

He kept his fingers on her inner-thighs. He wanted them inside her, pumping her, but gave up on that invasion. She wasn't ready for that much. He'd have to make her come with his tongue through her underwear.

The challenge appealed to him but he didn't have time to test his abilities. Her hold on the back of his head tightened and she pulled him away.

"Can I get on top of you?" she asked.

Startled, he nodded and shifted his body to her side. By the time he was on her back, Madison, shirtless, straddled him, pressing herself against his middle. Her small hand started kneading him.

"f.u.c.k." He had to shut his eyes. He couldn't look at her any longer, her t.i.ts hard, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s so obviously swollen, half covered by wisps of her dark hair. "What are you doing?"

"I need to feel you."

Then without warning her hips started rocking, her lips encasing his c.o.c.k through the fabric of her underwear and the denim of his jeans. His whole body gave in to an uncontrollable shaking. The pleasure shooting through him was so deep, so new, he had to see if she was feeling the same.

He opened his eyes again and drowned in the sight of her. Her head was tilted backwards, her mouth slightly open, her t.i.ts bouncing while her hips slid over him. Back and forth. Back and forth.

She had never looked so beautiful.

He was lost. Totally, entirely lost to her. And that scared the s.h.i.t out of him.

Fear jumped inside him and his hands encircled her waist, lifting her up to break the contact between him and her crotch.

"Stop or I'll come inside my jeans."

As if he had pulled her from her slumber, she stared down at him through her low-lidded eyes. "Don't you want to?"

"It isn't about me tonight. Just you."

She shook her head. "No, tonight, it's about us. Just us."

She landed back on him and the rocking started again.

His trembling hands moved from her waist to her bottom and pressed her harder against his length.

"Come for me. I'll wait for you," he promised.

She nodded and closed her eyes. A low sound, a humming, a chanting, escaped from her lips. Rupert knew she was on the edge of the cliff when her muscles tightened. Her thighs, her lower back, her flat stomach, they all clenched hard.

There was no noise when she fell apart above him, her beautiful face so pure and so s.e.xy at once.

When he knew she had reached her climax, he gave a long thrust against her and burst at the increased pressure.

When he exploded inside his jeans, he could only hear her name echoing like thunder around him. The name he was crying out loud.

SHE WAS HOME.

As soon as her Chautauqua Airlines flight landed in good ol' Baton Rouge, Madison's life back in Europe morphed into an alternate reality. Everything here was familiar.

Soon she'd be in the cozy cabin she'd shared with her mother and grandmother, next to the bayou. The prospect of a warm shower and a snug bed kept Madison going. Until then, she would ignore the filth of twelve hours of baby wipe cleaning and the weird angle her neck had frozen into.

Being thousands of miles away from the very posh and very English Rupert St. John Vance was the obvious downside to her relocation. His absence, and the sensation of emptiness, left a shallow ache in her stomach.

On the airport bus to Pierre Part, her mind flew back to the City of Dreaming Spires, and she relived her last night there. She didn't want to forget a single moment of their words, their gestures, or laughs, or even his phone call when she had been about to get on her plane.

"Good morning, Mademoiselle LeBon." His voice was still sleepy, and she could almost hear the shuffling of the duvet-her own duvet-around him. "I'm normally the one deserting a lady before she wakes up."